2 space rocks hours apart point up the danger

FILE - In this 1953 file photo, trees lie strewn across the Siberian countryside 45 years after a meteorite struck the Earth near Tunguska, Russia. The 1908 explosion is generally estimated to have been about 10 megatons; it leveled some 80 million trees for miles near the impact site. The meteor that streaked across the Russian sky Friday, Feb. 15, 2013, is estimated to be about 10 tons. It exploded with the power of an atomic bomb over the Ural Mountains, about 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) west of Tunguska. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this 1953 file photo, trees lie strewn across the Siberian countryside 45 years after a meteorite struck the Earth near Tunguska, Russia. The 1908 explosion is generally estimated to have been about 10 megatons; it leveled some 80 million trees for miles near the impact site. The meteor that streaked across the Russian sky Friday, Feb. 15, 2013, is estimated to be about 10 tons. It exploded with the power of an atomic bomb over the Ural Mountains, about 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) west of Tunguska. (AP Photo, File)

In this photo provided by Chelyabinsk.ru a meteorite contrail is seen over Chelyabinsk on Friday, Feb. 15, 2013. A meteor streaked across the sky of Russia?s Ural Mountains on Friday morning, causing sharp explosions and reportedly injuring around 100 people, including many hurt by broken glass. (AP Photo/Chelyabinsk.ru)

This image provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech shows a simulation of asteroid 2012 DA14 approaching from the south as it passes through the Earth-moon system on Friday, Feb. 15, 2013. The 150-foot object will pass within 17,000 miles of the Earth. NASA scientists insist there is absolutely no chance of a collision as it passes. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) ? A space rock even bigger than the meteor that exploded like an atom bomb over Russia could drop out of the sky unannounced at any time and wreak havoc on a city. And Hollywood to the contrary, there isn't much the world's scientists and generals can do about it.

But some former astronauts want to give the world a fighting chance.

They're hopeful Friday's cosmic coincidence ? Earth's close brush with a 150-foot asteroid, hours after the 49-foot meteor struck in Russia ? will draw attention to the dangers lurking in outer space and lead to action, such as better detection and tracking of asteroids.

"After today, a lot of people will be paying attention," said Rusty Schweickart, who flew on Apollo 9 in 1969, helped establish the planet-protecting B612 Foundation and has been warning NASA for years to put more muscle and money into a heightened asteroid alert.

Earth is menaced all the time by meteors, which are chunks of asteroids or comets that enter Earth's atmosphere. But many if not most of them are simply too small to detect from afar with the tools now available to astronomers.

The meteor that shattered over the Ural Mountains was estimated to be 20 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II. It blew out thousands of windows and left more than 1,000 people injured in Chelyabinsk, a city of 1 million. And yet no one saw it coming; it was about the size of a bus.

"This is a tiny asteroid," said astronomer Paul Chodas, who works in NASA's Near-Earth Object program in Pasadena, Calif. "It would be very faint and difficult to detect ? not impossible, but difficult."

As for the three-times-longer asteroid that hurtled by Earth later in the day Friday, passing closer to the planet than some communications satellites, astronomers in Spain did not even discover it until a year ago. That would have been too late for pre-emptive action ? such as the launch of a deflecting spacecraft ? if it had been on a collision course with Earth.

Asteroid 2012 DA14, as it is known, passed harmlessly within 17,150 miles of Earth, zooming by at 17,400 mph, or 5 miles per second.

Scientists believe there are anywhere from 500,000 to 1 million "near-Earth" asteroids comparable in size to DA14 or bigger out there. But less than 1 percent have actually been spotted. Astronomers have catalogued only 9,600 of them, of which nearly 1,300 are bigger than 0.6 miles.

Earth's atmosphere gets hit with 100 tons of junk every day, most of it the size of sand, and most of it burning up before it reaches the ground, according to NASA.

"These fireballs happen about once a day or so, but we just don't see them because many of them fall over the ocean or in remote areas. This one was an exception," NASA's Jim Green, director of planetary science, said of the meteor in Russia.

A 100- to 130-foot asteroid exploded over Siberia in 1908 and flattened 825 square miles of forest, while the rock that is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was a monster 6 miles across.

The chances of Earth getting hit without warning by one of the big ones are "extremely low, so low that it's ridiculous. But the smaller ones are quite different," Schweickart said. He warned: "If we get hit by one of them, it's most likely we wouldn't have known anything about it before it hit."

Chodas said the meteor strike in Russia is "like Mother Nature is showing us what a small one ? a tiny one, really ? can do."

All this points up the need for more money for tracking of near-Earth objects, according to Schweickart and the former space shuttle and station astronaut who now heads up the B612 Foundation, Ed Lu.

A few years ago, Schweickart and others recommended NASA launch a $250 million-a-year program to survey asteroids and work up a deflection plan. After 10 years of cataloging, the annual price tag could drop to $75 million, they said.

"Unfortunately, NASA never acted on any of our recommendations," he lamented. "So the result of it is that instead of having $250 million a year and working on this actively, NASA now has $20 million. ... It's peanuts."

Congress immediately weighed in on Friday.

"Today's events are a stark reminder of the need to invest in space science," said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House science, space and technology committee. He called for a hearing in the coming weeks.

Bill Cooke, head of the Meteoroid Environments Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., said the space agency takes asteroid threats seriously and has poured money into looking for ways to better spot them. Annual spending on asteroid-detection at NASA has gone from $4 million a few years ago to $20 million now.

"NASA has recognized that asteroids and meteoroids and orbital debris pose a bigger problem than anybody anticipated decades ago," Cooke said.

Schweickart's B612 Foundation ? named after the asteroid in Antoine de Saint-Exupery's "Le Petit Prince" ? has been unwilling to wait on the sidelines and is putting together a privately funded mission to launch an infrared telescope that would orbit the sun to hunt and track asteroids.

Its need cannot be underestimated, Schweickart warned. Real life is unlike movies such as "Armageddon" and "Deep Impact." Scientists will need to know 15, 20 or 30 years in advance of a killer rock's approach to undertake an effective asteroid-deflection campaign, he said, because it would take a long time for the spacecraft to reach the asteroid for a good nudge.

"That's why we want to find them now," he said.

As Chodas observed Friday, "It's like a shooting gallery here."

___

Associated Press writer Alicia Chang in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

___

Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/asteroidflyby.html

B612 Foundation: http://b612foundation.org

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-15-Meteor%20Menace/id-856bfdcf1ffe455dacebfabae0f174c5

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Burned remains found in California cabin ID'd as fugitive ex-cop Dorner

BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. -- Officials said Thursday that the burned remains found in a California mountain cabin have been positively identified as fugitive former police officer Christopher Dorner.

Jodi Miller, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County sheriff-coroner, said the identification was made through Dorner's dental records.

Miller did not give a cause of death.

The search for Dorner began last week after authorities said he had launched a deadly revenge campaign against the Los Angeles Police Department for his firing, warning that he would bring "warfare" to LAPD officers and their families.

The manhunt brought police to Big Bear Lake, 80 miles east of Los Angeles, where they found Dorner's burned-out pickup truck abandoned. His footprints disappeared on frozen soil and hundreds of officers who searched the area and checked out each building failed to find him.

Five days later, but just a stone's throw from a command post authorities had set up in the massive manhunt, Karen and Jim Reynolds said they came face to face with Dorner inside their cabin-style condo.

The couple said Dorner bound them and put pillowcases on their heads. At one point, he explained that he had been there for days.

"He said `I don't have a problem with you, so I'm not going to hurt you,"' Jim Reynolds said. "I didn't believe him; I thought he was going to kill us."

Police have not commented on the Reynolds' account, but it renews questions about the thoroughness of a search for a man who authorities declared was armed and extremely dangerous as they hunted him across the Southwest and Mexico.

"They said they went door-to-door but then he's right there under their noses. Makes you wonder if the police even knew what they were doing," resident Shannon Schroepfer said. "He was probably sitting there laughing at them the whole time."

The notion of him holed up just across the street from the command post was shocking to many, but not totally surprising to some experts familiar with the complications of such a manhunt.

"Chilling. That's the only word I could use for that," said Ed Tatosian, a retired SWAT commander for the Sacramento Police Department. "It's not an unfathomable oversight. We're human. It happens. It's chilling (that) it does happen."

Law enforcement officers, who had gathered outside daily for briefings, were stunned by the revelation. One official later looking on Google Earth exclaimed that he'd parked right across the street from the Reynolds' cabin each day.

The Reynolds said Dorner was upstairs in the rental unit Tuesday when they arrived to ready it for vacationers. Dorner, who at the time was being sought for three killings, confronted the Reynolds with a drawn gun, "jumped out and hollered `stay calm,"' Jim Reynolds said during a Wednesday night news conference.

His wife screamed and ran downstairs but Dorner caught her, Reynolds said. The couple said they were taken to a bedroom where he ordered them to lie on a bed and then on the floor. Dorner bound their arms and legs with plastic ties, gagged them with towels and covered their heads with pillowcases.

"I really thought it could be the end," Karen Reynolds said.

The couple believes Dorner had been staying in the cabin at least since Feb. 8, the day after his burned truck was found nearby. Dorner told them he had been watching them by day from inside the cabin as they did work outside. The couple, who live nearby, only entered the unit Tuesday. "He said we are very hard workers," Karen Reynolds said.

After he fled in their purple Nissan Rogue, she managed to call 911 from a cellphone on the coffee table. Police said Dorner later killed a fourth person, a sheriff's deputy, during a standoff, and died inside the burning cabin where he took cover during a blazing shootout.

While authorities have not corroborated the couple's account, it matched early reports from law enforcement officials that a couple had been tied up and their car stolen by a man resembling Dorner. Property records showed the Reynolds as the condo's owners.

The San Bernardino County sheriff has refused to answer questions about how one of the largest manhunts in years could have missed him.

During the search, heavily armed deputies went door to door to search roughly 600 cabins for forced entry. Many of the cabins were boarded-up summer homes.

Authorities said officers looked for signs that someone had forcibly entered the buildings, or that heat was on inside in a cabin that otherwise looked uninhabited.

Helicopters had landed SWAT officers in a lot near the Reynolds' condo, and through the weekend they stood in plain view from the cabin, gearing up in helmets, bulletproof vests, with assault weapons at the ready.

According to the Reynolds, the cabin had cable TV, and a second-story view that would have allowed him to see choppers flying in and out.

Timothy Clemente, a retired FBI SWAT team leader who was part of the search for Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph, said searchers had to work methodically. When there's a hot pursuit, they can run after a suspect into a building. But in a manhunt, the search has to slow down. "You can't just kick in every door," he said. Police have to have a reason to enter a building.

Officers would have been approaching each cabin, rock and tree with the prospect that Dorner was behind and waiting with a weapon that could penetrate bulletproof vests. In his manifesto posted online, Dorner, a former Navy reservist, said he had no fear of losing his life and would wage "unconventional and asymmetrical warfare" and warned officers "you will now live the life of the prey."

Even peering through windows can be difficult because officers have to remove a hand from their weapons to shade their eyes. Experts said it is likely officers may have used binoculars to help examine homes from a distance, especially when dealing with a man who had already killed three people, including a police officer.

In many cases, officers didn't even knock on the doors, according to searchers and residents.

"If Chris Dorner's on the other side of the door, what would the response be?" Clemente said. "A .50 caliber round or .223 round straight through that door."

Source: http://www.khou.com/news/Burned-remains-IDd-as-fugitive-ex-cop-Dorner--191314801.html

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Anti-abortion activists harness states' health policies

Abortion opponents have found a new way to restrict access to abortion ? by using the authority states have over the new health insurance exchanges, which will be up and running in a year.

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At least 21 states have legislation in place or in the works that will stop health insurance companies from paying for abortions for women. Arkansas governor Mike Beebe signed the latest piece on Monday.

The 2010 Affordable Care Act requires states to set up health insurance marketplaces called exchanges by October of this year. Through exchanges, people who don?t have health insurance through the government or an employer can buy health insurance.

States that set up their own exchanges can set the rules for insurers who take part. States that decline to set up exchanges will rely on the federal government to run them.

?Since the health care law was passed, because there is language in the law that says specifically that states can do this, states have taken it up,? says Gretchen Borchelt, who heads state reproductive health policy at the National Women?s Law Center.

The law was a reminder, Borchelt says. ?They said, ?hey we can do this???

Elizabeth Nash of the Guttmacher Institute, which conducts research into reproductive issues, agreed. ?It really spotlighted the issue for the states,? she said.

Three states ? Kansas, Nebraska and Utah ? passed their own legislation almost as soon as the health reform law was signed in 2010. Their laws ban any insurance company that takes part in the health insurance exchanges from paying for abortion. Other states that have since passed similar bans, meaning no woman can get her abortion covered by health insurance, include: Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Kentucky has had a law limiting insurance companies from paying for abortions on the books since 1984; Missouri since 1983, North Dakota since 1979.

?Bans like this will take coverage away from women. Women are going to lose benefits they currently have,? Borchelt said. ?We are very, very concerned that women are losing access to these benefits and concerned that politicians are stepping in and interfering with a woman?s ability to make her own health care decisions."

No federal funds
Most of the states allow insurance to pay for abortions with certain exceptions, such as when the mother?s life is at risk, and some in the case of rape or incest.

Federal law already forbids the use of federal funds to pay for abortions. Federal money will be used to subsidize coverage for millions of people expected to sign up on the health insurance exchanges, and so it could not be used to pay for abortions.

?The law maintains current Hyde Amendment restrictions that govern abortion policy, which prohibit federal funds from being used for abortion services (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered), and extends those restrictions to the newly created health insurance exchanges,? the National Conference of State Legislatures says in a statement on its website.

?The new health reform law also maintains federal ?conscience? protections for health care providers who object to performing abortion or sterilization procedures that conflict with their beliefs.?

Arkansas state senator Cecile Bledsoe, who helped usher through her state?s legislation, has said the states need to provide some structure.

?Without this law, those who are responsible for setting up our health care exchanges will be left without clear guidance from the legislature about how to deal with abortion as they deal with the recently passed federal health care law," Bledsoe told the Associated Press as saying. She did not immediately return requests for comment from NBC News.

Dana Singiser, vice president for public policy at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the moves to block coverage on the exchanges were part of a larger anti-abortion strategy that relies on state law. ?Our opponents have not seen much success at the federal level and they are turning to the state legislatures as an alternative strategy,? Singiser said in a telephone interview.

Borchelt said groups like hers that support access to abortion are lobbying in the states that don?t have laws on the books. ?We are certainly working very hard in states that are considering these bans to try and stop them from moving forward,? she said.

Georgia and New Jersey are among states considering measures.

Costs going up
The laws, along with measures that make it more difficult for abortion clinics to operate, requiring multiple visits to providers before a woman may get an abortion or mandating extra examinations such as ultrasounds, are all making it harder for women to get abortions, Borchelt said.

?Sometimes because a woman has to have a waiting period or has to get informed consent, which requires several trips, the procedure is getting pushed back later and later and so the cost of an abortion is going up,? Borchelt said.

Nash said a simple early-term abortion costs about $450, but this cost goes up greatly for a later-term abortion. Women who discover late in pregnancy that a fetus is malformed or whose own lives or health are at stake may have to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket for an abortion in states that ban all insurance coverage, she said.

But many women already pay out of their own pockets for abortions, even if they have insurance coverage, Nash added. ?They are afraid their employers may find out they had abortions. They are afraid their spouse will find out they had an abortion,? she said.

Abortion rates have been falling in recent years.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 784,507 legal induced abortions were reported in 2009 from 48 reporting areas. About 22 percent of pregnancies ended in deliberate abortion.

An NBC/Wall Street Journalpollreleased last month found that 70 percent of Americans oppose efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that made abortions legal in the United States.

Related:

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50802838/ns/health-health_care/

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Olympian Pistorius charged with murder

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) ? Paralympic superstar Oscar Pistorius was charged Thursday with the murder of his girlfriend who was shot inside his home in South Africa, a stunning development in the life of a national hero known as the Blade Runner for his high-tech artificial legs.

Reeva Steenkamp, a model who spoke out on Twitter against rape and abuse of women, was shot four times in the predawn hours in the house, in a gated community in the capital, Pretoria, police said.

Hours later after undergoing police questioning, Pistorius left a police station accompanied by officers. He looked down as photographers snapped pictures, the hood on his gray workout jacket pulled up, covering most of his face. His court hearing was originally scheduled for Thursday afternoon but has been postponed until Friday to give forensic investigators time to carry out their work, said Medupe Simasiku, a spokesman for the prosecution.

South Africans were shocked at the killing. But while Pistorius captured the nation's attention with his Olympic dreams, police said there was a history of problems involving him.

There have "previously been incidents at the home of Mr. Oscar Pistorius," said police spokeswoman Brigadier Denise Beukes. Police in South Africa do not name suspects in crimes until they have appeared in court but Beukes said that the 26-year-old Pistorius was at his home at the time of the death of Steenkamp and "there is no other suspect involved."

"Yes, there are witnesses and there have also been interviews this morning," Beukes told reporters outside the gated complex where Pistorius lived. "We are talking about neighbors and people that heard things that happened earlier in the evening and when the shooting took place."

Pistorius' father, Henke, declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press, only saying "we all pray for guidance and strength for Oscar and the lady's parents."

Neither Pistorius' agent Peet van Zyl nor coach Ampie Louw could be reached while Pistorius' own cellphone went straight to an answerphone service.

Pistorius' former coach, Andrea Giannini, said he hopes it was "just a tragic accident." Gianni said he believed that Pistorius had been dating Steenkamp for "a few months."

"No matter how bad the situation was, Oscar always stayed calm and positive," Giannini told the AP in Italy. "Whenever he was tired or nervous he was still extremely nice to people. I never saw him violent."

Pistorius owned guns and tweeted a photo of himself at a shooting range in November 2011, bragging about his score.

"Had a 96% headshot over 300m from 50shots! Bam!" he tweeted.

Police said that earlier reports that Steenkamp may have been mistaken for a burglar by Pistorius did not come from the police. Several local media outlets had initially reported that the shooting may have been accidental.

Beukes said there had been previous incidents and "allegations of a domestic nature" at the home of the Olympic star and double-amputee runner, who is one of South Africa's and the world's most famous sportsmen and made history at the London Games last year by being the first double-amputee runner to compete at the Olympics.

"I'm not going to elaborate on it but there have been incidents (at Pistorius' home)," Beukes said.

Capacity Relations, a talent management firm, earlier named model Steenkamp as the victim of the shooting. Police spokeswoman Lt. Col. Katlego Mogale told the AP that officers received a call around 3 a.m. after the shooting.

A 9 mm pistol was recovered and a murder case opened against Pistorius.

Pistorius enjoyed target shooting with his pistol and an online advertisement featuring him for Nike read: "I am a bullet in the chamber." An article in January 2012 in The New York Times Magazine described him talking about how he pulled a pistol to search his home when his alarm went off the night before an interview. At Pistorius' suggestion, he and the journalist went to a nearby target range where they fired at targets with a 9 mm pistol. At one point, Pistorius told the writer: "If you practiced, I think you could be pretty deadly."

Asked how often he went target shooting, Pistorius replied: "Just sometimes when I can't sleep."

On Thursday, Mogale said when police arrived at Pistorius' house they found paramedics trying to revive a 30-year-old woman, who had been shot four times. Mogale, who was speaking to the AP from the scene, said the woman died at the house.

Police have still not released the name of the woman, but the publicist for Steenkamp confirmed in a statement that the model was dead.

"We can confirm that Reeva Steenkamp has passed away," Steenkamp's publicist Sarit Tomlinson said. "We are in communication with people on the scene, please wait for official statements, as there is too much speculation at this moment in time. We will provide further information as soon as we are able to provide accurate information as to what transpired.

"Our thoughts and prayers go to the Steenkamp family, who have asked to have their privacy respected during this difficult time, everyone is simply devastated. She was the kindest, sweetest human being; an angel on earth and will be sorely missed."

Tomlinson said Steenkamp, known simply as Reeva, was one of FHM's (formerly For Him Magazine) 100 Sexiest Women in the World for two years running, appeared in countless international and national advertisements and was one of the celebrity contestants on Tropika Island of Treasure, filmed in Jamaica.

On Twitter, she tweeted messages urging women to stand up against rape alongside her excitement about Valentine's Day. "What do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow?" she tweeted. "It should be a day of love for everyone."

Mogale and Beukes said the victim's family had not yet identified the body.

Pistorius made history in London last year when he became the first double-amputee track athlete to compete in the Olympic Games, propelling him to the status of an athletics superstar.

Having had both his legs amputated below the knee before his first birthday because of a congenital condition, he campaigned for years to be allowed to compete against able-bodied athletes. Having initially been banned because of his carbon fiber blades ? which critics said gave him an unfair advantage ? he was cleared by sport's highest court in 2008 and allowed to run at the top events.

He competed in the 400 meters and on South Africa's 4x400 relay team at the London Games, making history after having his selection confirmed on South Africa's team at the very last minute. He also retained his Paralympic title in the 400 meters in London.

South Africa's Sports Confederation and Olympic committee released a statement on Thursday saying they had been "inundated" with requests for comment but were not in a position to give out any details of the shooting.

"SASCOC, like the rest of the public, knows no more than what is in the public domain, which is there has been an alleged fatal shooting on the basis of a mistaken identity and an apparent assumption of a burglary," the South African Olympic committee said. "The organization is in no position to comment on the incident other than to say our deepest sympathy and condolences have been expressed to the families of all concerned."

The International Paralympic Committee also said it wouldn't comment in detail apart from offering its condolences to the victim's family.

"This is a police matter, with a formal investigation currently underway," the IPC said. "Therefore it would be inappropriate for the IPC to comment on this incident until the official police process has concluded. The IPC would like to offer its deepest sympathy and condolences to all families involved in this case."

South Africa has some of the world's highest murder rates, with nearly 50 people killed each day in the nation of 50 million. It also has high rates of rape, other assaults, robbery and carjackings.

U.N. statistics show South Africa has the second highest rate of shooting deaths in the world, second only to Colombia.

___

Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa. Associated Press writer Michelle Faul contributed to this report from Johannesburg.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/olympian-pistorius-charged-murder-121034220--oly.html

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Ten Afghan "civilians" killed in NATO airstrike

KUNAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A NATO airstrike killed 10 Afghan civilians, including five children, in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, local officials said, a toll that if confirmed is likely to raise tension between President Hamid Karzai's government and U.S.-led NATO forces.

The strike, in the Shigal district of Kunar province, was confirmed by NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), though a spokesman said it could not confirm civilian casualties.

"Foreign forces carried out the attack by themselves without informing us," Kunar Governor Fazlullah Wahidi told Reuters.

Four Taliban fighters were also killed in the strike and five civilians wounded, he said.

The strike occurred in the village of Chawgam and the 10 dead civilians were from two local families, Wahidi said.

A spokesman for ISAF, Major Adam Wojack, said he was aware of an incident which "matched" the report from Kunar, but he could not confirm casualty numbers.

"We take all allegations of civilian casualties seriously and we are currently assessing the incident to determine more facts," Wojack said.

ISAF regularly states that it has reduced civilian casualties in recent years, and that the insurgents are now responsible for 84 per cent of all such deaths and injuries.

The airstrike came within hours of U.S. President Barack Obama's declaration that he would be withdrawing half the U.S. troops in Afghanistan - 34,000 - by the end of this year.

That would be followed by further troop withdrawals next year which would lead to the end of the U.S. war in Afghanistan, he said.

(Reporting by Mohammad Anwar; Writing by Mirwais Harooni, Dylan Welch; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ten-afghan-civilians-killed-nato-airstrike-074923151.html

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Team creates MRI for the nanoscale: Level comparable to an atomic force microscope

Feb. 13, 2013 ? Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reveals details of living tissues, diseased organs and tumors inside the body without x-rays or surgery. What if the same technology could peer down to the level of atoms? Doctors could make visual diagnoses of a person's molecules -- examining damage on a strand of DNA, watching molecules misfold, or identifying a cancer cell by the proteins on its surface.

Now Dr. Carlos Meriles, associate professor of physics at The City College of New York, and an international team of researchers at the University of Stuttgart and elsewhere have opened the door for nanoscale MRI. They used tiny defects in diamonds to sense the magnetic resonance of molecules. They reported their results in the Feb. 1 issue of Science.

"It is bringing MRI to a level comparable to an atomic force microscope," said Professor Meriles, referring to the device that traces the contours of atoms or tugs on a molecule to measure its strength. A nanoscale MRI could display how a molecule moves without touching it.

"Standard MRI typically gets to a resolution of 100 microns," about the width of a human hair, said Professor Meriles. "With extraordinary effort," he said, "it can get down to about 10 microns" -- the width of a couple of blood cells. Nanoscale MRI would have a resolution 1,000 to 10,000 times better.

To try to pick up magnetic resonance on such a small scale, the team took advantage of the spin of protons in an atom, a property usually used to investigate quantum computing. In particular, they used minute imperfections in diamonds.

Diamonds are crystals made up almost entirely of carbon atoms. When a nitrogen atom lodges next to a spot where a carbon atom is missing, however, it creates a defect known as a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center.

"These imperfections turn out to have a spin -- like a little compass -- and have some remarkable properties," noted Professor Meriles. In the last few years, researchers realized that these NV centers could serve as very sensitive sensors. They can pick up the magnetic resonance of nearby atoms in a cell, for example. But unlike the atoms in a cell, the NVs shine when a light is directed at them, signaling what their spin is. If you illuminate it with green light it flashes red back.

"It is a form of what is called optically detected magnetic resonance," he said. Like a hiker flashing Morse code on a hillside, the sensor "sends back flashes to say it is alive and well."

"The NV can also be thought of as an atomic magnet. You can manipulate the spin of that atomic magnet just like you do with MRI by applying a radio frequency or radio pulses," Professor Meriles explained. The NV responds. Shine a green light at it when the spin is pointing up and it will respond with brighter red light. A down spin gives a dimmer red light.

Professor Mireles has written on the theoretical underpinnings of the work and proposed the the project to the team, led by Professor J?rg Wrachtrup -- a physicist at the University of Stuttgart in Germany -- with the assistance of postdoctoral researcher Friedemann Reinhard and collaborators from the University of Bochum and the University of Science and Technology of China. Professor Wrachtrup heads a leading group studying such defects.

In the lab, graduate student Tobias Staudacher -- the first author in this work -- used NVs that had been created just below the diamond's surface by bombarding it with nitrogen atoms. The team detected magnetic resonance within a film of organic material applied to the surface, just as one might examine a thin film of cells or tissue.

"Ultimately," said Professor Meriles, "One will use a nitrogen-vacancy mounted on the tip of an atomic force microscope -- or an array of NVs distributed on the diamond surface -- to allow a scanning view of a cell, for example, to probe nuclear spins with a resolution down to a nanometer or perhaps better."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by City College of New York.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. T. Staudacher, F. Shi, S. Pezzagna, J. Meijer, J. Du, C. A. Meriles, F. Reinhard, J. Wrachtrup. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy on a (5-Nanometer)3 Sample Volume. Science, 2013; 339 (6119): 561 DOI: 10.1126/science.1231675

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/VCHKd9baaSo/130213165725.htm

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Marco Rubio's water swigs divert public's attention from GOP response to Obama

WASHINGTON -- Republicans dismissed President Barack Obama's State of the Union address as nothing more than big government spending and more tax increases. But a brief sip of water may have gotten more immediate attention than any policy ideas.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's mid-speech swig from a small Poland Spring water bottle during his GOP response generated instant reaction in social media circles and on cable television, even as Republicans offered fresh appeals on the economy and promises to rein in federal spending.

Rubio appeared to wipe away sweat during his rebuttal from the Speaker's conference room in the U.S. Capitol. At one point he stretched out his left hand, grabbed a small plastic water bottle and took a brief swig of water. As the water break gained notice online, Rubio sent a photo of the bottle from his Twitter account.

On ABC's "Good Morning America" Wednesday, Rubio explained: "I needed water. What are you going to do? God has a funny way of reminding us we're human."

In his GOP address, Rubio urged Obama to "abandon his obsession with raising taxes" and said the president had shifted the nation away from free-market economic principles that had helped middle-class families achieve prosperity.

"Presidents in both parties -- from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan -- have known that our free-enterprise economy is the source of our middle-class prosperity. But President Obama? He believes it's the cause of our problems," Rubio said.

Kentucky

Sen. Rand Paul, in a separate tea party response, said both parties had failed voters by driving up trillion-dollar deficits. "Washington acts in a way that your family never could -- they spend money they do not have, they borrow from future generations, and then they blame each other for never fixing the problem," Paul said.

Republicans sought to characterize Obama as overly reliant on government, even as the president made his case to the nation that he could generate new jobs without raising the federal deficit. Defending his policies against GOP critics, Obama said the nation needed a "smarter government" instead of a bigger one and pledged to boost the minimum wage and increase federal spending to fix roads and bridges.

Both Obama's address to Congress and the Republican responses around the Capitol sought to position each party as the champion of average Americans in a nation still grappling with high unemployment and a slow economic recovery. Republicans noted that the nation's jobless rate ticked up to 7.9 percent in January and the economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.1 percent in the final months of 2012.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Obama offered the American people "little more than more of the same 'stimulus' policies that have failed to fix our economy and put Americans back to work. We cannot grow the middle class and foster job creation by growing government and raising taxes."

Ohio Sen. Rob Portman accused Obama of promoting "the same big-government policies that have failed to get our economy up and running again."

Paul, a tea party favorite, said both parties had been guilty of "protecting their sacred cows" and engaging in "backroom deals in which everyone up here wins but every taxpayer loses." He said he would propose to balance the budget in five years and urged lawmakers to return to their duty of passing budgets. If not, Paul said, voters should "sweep the place clean. Limit their terms and send them home."

Rubio, a rising star in the Republican party and a potential 2016 presidential contender, pointed to his Miami roots to address Obama's frequent portrayal of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney -- and his party -- as only caring about the wealthiest Americans. Rubio said he still lived in the "same working-class neighborhood I grew up in" and his neighbors "aren't millionaires" but retirees, workers and immigrants.

"His favorite attack of all is that those who don't agree with him -- that we only care about rich people," Rubio said.

Rubio pre-recorded his speech in Spanish for Spanish-language networks, a nod to Republicans who have said that they must do more to address their deficit with Hispanic voters. Obama won 71 percent of Hispanics last year against Romney, prompting concerns about the party's ability to compete with Democrats in future elections.

Source: http://www.twincities.com/politics/ci_22580700/marco-rubios-water-break-dilutes-republican-response-obama?source=rss_viewed

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The issue with Windows Phone 7.8 Live Tiles could be more problematic than first assumed

We've previously looked at a?Live Tile issue on Windows Phone 7.8, but it seems as though the issue with the feature could be worse than we originally thought. Owners have complained that tiles are not updating correctly or are "bugging out" with massive amounts of data being utilised with consequences on the battery charge. This isn't good, especially when the Live Tiles are a major selling point of the OS.

According to Heathcliff, a well-known name in the Windows Phone homebrew community, the cause is on an OS level, not by resident developers. Three methods are available for apps to update Live Tiles, but two of the three options have been found to be bug-ridden or broken. Shell Tile Update was the only process found to be working correctly.

The first faulty method is known as a Shell Tile Scheduler, which is when an app retrieves an URL and displays the images on the tile. The second method is known as HTTP Notification Channel. This follows a similar path as the scheduler, but goes through Microsoft's notification servers.

Heathcliff notes that the second method listed is completely useless and is even shocked to learn it even passed quality assurance testing. We'll be looking at developers to take bug reports from users seriously when it comes to issues such as faulty Live Tiles. There's another problem with these rogue tiles - not all apps using the above methods will break, making it difficult to locate affected apps.

Heathcliff recommends consumers to be aware of any Live Tiles that may 'flicker' when pinned to the start screen, stating that it's a symptom of the app repeatedly attempting to updated and refresh the tile itself. Should an app be experiencing such behaviour, the best course of action is to un-pin it to prevent high data usage and battery drain.?

Results from our recent poll

We've noticed (along with other developers) that there's something wrong with Live Tiles on Windows Phone 7.8. Here's hoping that Microsoft follows these reports closely and takes a good look at issues highlighted by Heathcliff.

Have you experienced glitching Live Tiles and high data usage?

Source: WP7 Root Tools; via: Windows Phone Daily

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wmexperts/~3/CzkOcyXoC7Y/story01.htm

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Is It Possible to Defend Comic Sans?

It's nearly impossible to use Comic Sans on the Internet and not get tarred and feathered. It's an Internet sin of the highest level. A crime against human decency and people's eyeballs. A parody of a joke of a fool. Universally hated. So... is it possible to defend the font? Is Comic Sans wrongfully reviled? Maybe! More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/VdIsdrZjT4s/is-it-possible-to-defend-comic-sans

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Sunnyvale SEO and Online Marketing Firm Online Advantages.net ...

?

(EMAILWIRE.COM, February 12, 2013 )
Sunnyvale, CA -- For Sunnyvale SEO and online marketing expert Matt Maglodi, 2013 is already revealing client successes in bottom-line growth and online brand recognition through his firm?s comprehensive Internet Marketing strategies. Maglodi is owner of Online Advantages.net LLC, which provides full-service Internet marketing services including organic SEO services, website and WordPress design/management and hosting, social media optimization, online video production/placement, and much more.

Growing targeted traffic and conversions over a blog site or other website is vital for anyone creating wealth from the Internet. Today, many struggling small business owners find that getting first-class online marketing expertise can be financially out of reach. For Online Advantages Owner Matt Maglodi, spending the majority of 2012 providing his online marketing services to these struggling clients was about giving back to the community. Now, as 2013 gets underway, Online Advantages.net LLC is bringing their honed expertise to small and large business clients with an increasing track record of ROI success for clients.

?When I launched Online Advantages.net, my goal was to focus on bringing all the advantages of Internet marketing directly to my clients in one complete service,? said Maglodi. ?I believe that small and large businesses need a partner with the expertise to handle all aspects of online marketing to survive and thrive, and I?m already seeing great results for my clients in the New Year.?

Online Advantages.net is an online marketing company that assists clients in harnessing the power of the Internet for their business needs. The firm specializes in everything from organic SEO services that increase conversions and comprehensive website designs that define brands to social Media optimization and online video production/marketing. With these and a host of other services, Online Advantages.net LLC is able to bring it all together in one package for businesses.

The company creates strategic marketing plans that bring true ROI via Internet marketing. Their SEO services include link building, keyword research and forum submissions. In addition, the firm assists with SEO content copy writing, Facebook fanbase building and other social media outreach. Online Advantages also specializes in Pay Per Click Campaign creation, high-end corporate blog management solutions as well as providing comprehensive reporting on search engine rankings and ROI statistics.

Online Advantages offers web and graphic design services that deliver highly navigable, sleek and modern website designs that work for site visitors and the business. From initial SEO friendly design, WordPress CMS design and management to site navigation & control, flow optimization and reporting, they are truly a one-stop shop. The firm works with the top web designers in the industry to create mobile-compatible site structures.

Online Advantages also offers HD web video and DVD production services to create a highly polished end-product video. They then make it available online via the client?s website, Google Places, YouTube, Facebook and everywhere that potential customers visit online. Hourly and Flat rate billing is available on their varied services. For more information please visit http://onlineadvantages.net/

About Online Advantages.net LLC:

Online Advantages provides full-service online marketing services to small and large businesses. The firm delivers organic SEO services, website/WordPress design and hosting, email marketing, social media optimization, online video production/placement and much more. The Sunnyvale, CA-based firm is strategically located near Google and Apple where they keep abreast of the latest SEO and online developments for their clients.

###

Source: http://www.emailwire.com/release/113842-Sunnyvale-SEO-and-Online-Marketing-Firm-Online-Advantagesnet-Sees-Client-Growth-in-2013.html

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Editorial: iWatch app speculation is filler, not killer

Innovation is problem-solving. Radical innovation is seeing normalcy as problematic, and solving it. That level of invention, which solves a generally unrecognized problem to create a new product category, or user experience, can be difficult to recognize in the conceptual stage. A far-reaching idea can seem trivial if it solves routineness. Sometimes it takes the product itself, the manifested experience, to demonstrate how to rise above the customary. Email solved postal mail, which died another incremental death last week by announcing a proposal to end Saturday letter deliveries. Cell phones solved the disconnect between phones and the walking-around life. Mobile apps solved the gap between computers and cell phones. Perhaps HTML5 will solve apps.

So forgive me if I'm being small-minded, but Bruce Tognazzini's speculative manifesto about an Apple iWatch fails to make a convincing futurist case for the imagined device -- despite whipping up a whirlwind of attention. What is the future of wearable computing?

Filed under: Apple

Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/9Lhthkdxu5k/

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Ohio school cancels prom over water balloon fight

CINCINNATI (AP) ? An Ohio high school has canceled its prom to punish students for a prank: a massive water balloon fight at lunch.

The Cincinnati Enquirer (http://cin.ci/Xszo65 ) reports the principal of Withrow High School in Cincinnati says students used social media last month to plan the prank.

Principal Sharon Johnson says staff found out and tried to prevent it. She made announcements the day of the planned prank, warning students the prom would be canceled if they had the balloon fight. School officials were concerned over safety.

But about 150 to 175 students went ahead with it. Johnson says there was water everywhere and some students were upset and slipping and falling.

Johnson says she had received only a few phone calls from upset parents.

___

Information from: The Cincinnati Enquirer, http://www.enquirer.com

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2013-02-08-US-Prom-Canceled-Prank/id-174167e07e424c1192c80057a2d92451

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Syria rebels seize dam, blast on Turkish border

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rebels have captured Syria's biggest hydro-electric dam and battled army tank units near the center of Damascus, activists said as the opposition renewed an offer on Monday to negotiate the departure of President Bashar al-Assad.

On the Turkish border, nine people were killed when a car arriving from rebel-held territory in northwestern Syria blew up at the Reyhanli frontier crossing; Turkish officials said it was unclear whether the blast was a suicide attack or an accident.

The rebel seizure of the Taqba dam, a prestige project on the Euphrates river completed by Assad's father in the 1970s, may have only limited impact on already patchy power supplies but along with the fighting in the capital it provided more evidence that the president is ever more beleaguered, if still tenacious.

Moaz Alkhatib, exile leader of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, said he had had no response to his offer to discuss a handover of power with the Assad government but said the invitation still stood, despite the passing of an initial deadline for a response on Sunday.

The president has given no sign of wanting to negotiate his own departure, despite military reverses over the past two years that have put half the country in rebel hands and left many in his Alawite minority fearing for the worst if the mainly Sunni Muslim revolt overturns their four decades of pre-eminence.

On Monday, after Alkhatib's latest remarks on talks, Syria's state news agency quoted Assad as saying: "Syria will not give up on its principles however great the pressure and the conspiracies, which do not target Syria alone but all Arabs."

While Assad, an ally of Shi'ite, non-Arab Iran, has accused Sunni Arab states including Saudi Arabia and Qatar of fomenting the rebellion, he has also blamed Western powers and Israel of conspiring to overthrow him.

DAM TAKEN

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other opposition activists said Islamist fighters seized army positions on Sunday around the Taqba dam, near the town of Thawra, some 150 km (90 miles) southeast of Aleppo. It was unclear how far the electricity plant was still operating.

"The dam was protected by an artillery battery and many intelligence units. The rebels moved on them in a lightning offensive yesterday, overrunning their positions and capturing scores of personnel," said Abu Ziad Teif, an opposition activist in contact with rebels in the area.

Rami Abdulrahman of the Observatory called it one of Assad's biggest setbacks. However, the dam's generating capacity has long fallen short of early hopes and, with power already scarce in Aleppo, Syria's biggest city, it was unclear whether the change of control at Taqba would have a major technical impact.

The loss of the neighboring town, which Internet video showed included the burning of a statue of Assad's father Hafez was nonetheless symbolic. The large body of water formed by the dam on the Euphrates was named by the late leader Al-Assad Lake.

In Damascus, Assad's forces brought up tanks to defend an area just east of the city center on Monday, residents said.

Jobar, a Sunni district adjacent to the landmark Abbasid Square, has seen fighting in recent days. However, activists said Assad's forces remained well dug in in the city center.

"The main battle is taking place in Jobar," an opposition activist in Damascus named Amer said. "The rebels appear to be advancing in the eastern sector.

"But the center of Damascus is crisscrossed with concrete barriers and security is deployed everywhere; we cannot say that they (the rebels) have a real active presence in the center."

A woman who lives in the western neighborhood of Mezze added that residents there were also beginning to feel the war getting near: "The situation is getting very tough," she said. "For the first time we've been hearing mortars fall so close."

BORDER BLAST

In the north, on the Turkish border, officials said 33 people had been wounded as well as the seven killed near the town of Reyhanli: "We don't know whether this was a suicide bomb or whether a car that was smuggling petrol across the border blew up," one Turkish official told Reuters.

Images from the scene showed severe damage to cars at the border checkpoint, where a gate was blown open and part of the roof collapsed. "There was an explosion in the no-man's zone. It was not a mortar attack. It was very strong," foreign ministry spokesman Levent Gumrukcu said.

Refugees cross back and forth and Turkish trucks also deliver goods across into the no-man's land between the checkpoints of the two countries. Rebels control the Syrian side and receive help from Turkey, a fierce critic of Assad.

In Cairo, the opposition Coalition's Alkhatib met the head of the Arab League and said Assad's government had not responded to his initiative to discuss a transition of power.

"The regime has not given a clear answer so far, clearly, frankly, that it accepts leaving to spare destruction and blood," he told reporters. "No meetings have been arranged, and no formal contact with any party has happened so far."

Pressed to say whether his offer was still open despite the Sunday deadline passing, he added: "We are still waiting for the government response and then we are going to study that."

Also in Cairo, Assad's former prime minister Riad Hijab met the Egyptian foreign minister. Quoted by Egyptian news agency MENA, Hijab, the most senior government defector from Damascus, said: "There is no solution to the Syrian crisis except by the departure of Bashar al-Assad."

Hijab also told reporters the coalition was seeking Syria's national seat at the Arab League. A League source said the group would consult its other members on the request.

(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh, Tom Perry, Alexander Dziadosz and Paul Taylor in Cairo, Jonathon Burch, Ozge Ozbilgin, Daren Butler and Nick Tattersall in Ankara; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-rebels-seize-dam-blast-turkish-border-151412067.html

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Taylor Swift kicks off Grammys, Adele wins best pop solo award

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Country-pop singer Taylor Swift brought the circus to the Grammy stage on Sunday, kicking off the annual awards with a lively performance and British singer Adele picked up the show's first award.

The Black Keys, Skrillex and Gotye started the night strong, each picking up multiple awards prior to the televised ceremony.

The 55th Grammy Awards will hand out their gramophone-shaped trophies in more than 80 categories, but only a handful of winners are announced during the three-hour live telecast airing on CBS. More than 60 categories were announced prior to the televised show.

The top categories are dominated this year by male artists, with British folk band Mumford & Sons, indie-pop trio FUN. and R&B singer Frank Ocean going into the show with six nominations each, including Album of the Year.

Swift kicked off the live telecast dressed as a ringmaster with a circus-themed performance of her infectious chart-topping hit "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," backed by dancers in jester and acrobat costumes.

The 23-year-old singer picked up an early Grammy for her collaboration with T-Bone Burnett and The Civil Wars on the song "Safe and Sound" from "The Hunger Games" movie soundtrack.

Britain's Adele, 24, who swept the Grammys with six major awards last year, landed another this year for Best Pop Solo Performance for her live rendition of "Set Fire to The Rain."

The singer recognized the other female nominees in the audience, saying, "We work so hard, we make it look so easy."

Presenting the award, rapper Pitbull joked that Jennifer Lopez, who joined him onstage in an asymmetric dress with a daring slit up to the top of her thigh, "inspired the memo," referring to an advisory issued by CBS asking all performers and presenters to keep their breasts, buttocks and genitals covered.

VETERANS AND NEWCOMERS

The Grammys have a reputation for pairing up old-timers and newcomers, and this year had several collaborations.

Veteran Elton John took the stage with rising British star Ed Sheeran, 21, to sing a stripped down duet of "The A Team," Sheeran's song for which he's nominated in the Song of the Year category.

One of the night's leading nominees, New York indie-pop trio FUN., lived up to their name with a performance of "Carry On," while rain fell on stage, soaking the band as they played.

The band, which received six nominations, was the only act to be nominated in the top four categories of Album, Song and Record of the Year and Best New Artist.

Rockers The Black Keys, formed by Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, started the night strong, picking up two Grammys - Best Rock Album for "El Camino" and Best Rock Song for "Lonely Boy." Auerbach was also named the Producer of the Year in the non-classical category.

The band went into the night with five nominations, including top categories Album of the Year and Record of the Year.

British folk band Mumford & Sons went into Sunday's awards with a leading six nominations. They picked up one win for Best Long Form Music Video for "Big Easy Express," a collaboration with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and Old Crow Medicine Show.

Australian singer Gotye, 32, picked up two Grammys for Best Alternative Album for "Making Mirrors" and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for "Somebody That I Used To Know" featuring Kimbra.

DJ Skrillex, 25, who won three Grammy awards last year, picked up three more, including Best Dance/Electronica Album for "Bangarang."

Jay-Z and Kanye West picked up two awards, Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song for their collaboration "N****s in Paris." Jay-Z's wife, Beyonce, won Best Traditional R&B Performance for "Love on Top."

(Additional reporting by Nichola Groom and Sue Zeidler; Editing by Jill Serjeant, Peter Cooney and Stacey Joyce)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/taylor-swift-skrillex-beyonce-win-early-grammy-awards-000047280--finance.html

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Experts find remains of England's King Richard III

Jo Appleby, a lecturer in Human Bioarchaeology, at University of Leicester, School of Archaeology and Ancient History, who led the exhumation of the remains found during a dig at a Leicester car park, speaks at the university Monday Feb. 4, 2013. Tests have established that a skeleton found , including this skull, are "beyond reasonable doubt" the long lost remains of England's King Richard III, missing for 500 years.(AP Photo/Rui Vieira, PA) UNITED KINGDOM OUT - NO SALES - NO ARCHIVES

Jo Appleby, a lecturer in Human Bioarchaeology, at University of Leicester, School of Archaeology and Ancient History, who led the exhumation of the remains found during a dig at a Leicester car park, speaks at the university Monday Feb. 4, 2013. Tests have established that a skeleton found , including this skull, are "beyond reasonable doubt" the long lost remains of England's King Richard III, missing for 500 years.(AP Photo/Rui Vieira, PA) UNITED KINGDOM OUT - NO SALES - NO ARCHIVES

Jo Appleby, a lecturer in Human Bioarchaeology, at University of Leicester, School of Archaeology and Ancient History, who led the exhumation of the remains found during a dig at a Leicester car park, speaks at the university Monday Feb. 4, 2013. Tests have established that a skeleton found , including this skull, are "beyond reasonable doubt" the long lost remains of England's King Richard III, missing for 500 years.(AP Photo/Rui Vieira, PA) UNITED KINGDOM OUT - NO SALES - NO ARCHIVES

Undated photo made available by the University of Leicester, England, Monday Feb. 4, 2013 of the earliest surviving portrait of Richard III in Leicester Cathedral, ahead of an announcement about the identity of the skeleton found underneath a car park last September. Richard was immortalized in a play by Shakespeare as a hunchbacked usurper who left a trail of bodies ? including those of his two young nephews, murdered in the Tower of London ? on his way to the throne. (AP Photo/ University of Leicester)

Undated photo made available by the University of Leicester, England, Monday Feb. 4 2013 of the skull found at the Grey Friars excavation in Leicester, potentially the long lost remains of England's King Richard III, ahead of an announcement about the identity of the skeleton found underneath a car park last September. Richard was immortalized in a play by Shakespeare as a hunchbacked usurper who left a trail of bodies ? including those of his two young nephews, murdered in the Tower of London ? on his way to the throne. (AP Photo/ University of Leicester)

Michael Ibsen, a descendant of England's King Richard III, from whom DNA samples were taken, listens during a press conference Monday Feb. 4, 2013 at the University of Leicester Council Chamber building, regarding the exhumation of the remains found during a dig at a Leicester car park. Tests have established that a skeleton found are "beyond reasonable doubt" the long lost remains of King Richard III, missing for 500 years.(AP Photo/Rui Vieira, PA) UNITED KINGDOM OUT - NO SALES - NO ARCHIVES

LEICESTER, England (AP) ? He wore the English crown, but he ended up defeated, humiliated and reviled.

Now things are looking up for King Richard III. Scientists announced Monday that they had found the monarch's 500-year-old remains under a parking lot in the city of Leicester ? a discovery Richard's fans say will rewrite the history books.

University of Leicester researchers say tests on a battle-scarred skeleton unearthed last year prove "beyond reasonable doubt" that it is the king, who died at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, and whose remains have been missing for centuries.

"Richard III, the last Plantaganet King of England, has been found," said the university's deputy registrar, Richard Taylor.

Bone specialist Jo Appleby said study of the bones provided "a highly convincing case for identification of Richard III."

And DNA from the skeleton matched a sample taken from a distant living relative of Richard's sister. Geneticist Turi King said Michael Ibsen, a Canadian carpenter living in London, share with the skeleton a rare strain of mitochondrial DNA. She said combined with the archaeological evidence, that left little doubt the skeleton belonged to Richard.

Ibsen said he was "stunned" to discover he was related to the king ? he is a 17th great-grand-nephew of Richard's older sister.

"It's difficult to digest" he said.

Richard III ruled England between 1483 and 1485, during the decades-long tussle over the throne known as the Wars of the Roses. His brief reign saw liberal reforms, including introduction of the right to bail and the lifting of restrictions on books and printing presses.

His rule was challenged, and he was defeated and killed by the army of Henry Tudor, who took the throne as King Henry VII.

The last English monarch to die in battle, Richard was depicted in a play by William Shakespeare as a hunchbacked usurper who left a trail of bodies ? including those of his two princely nephews, murdered in the Tower of London ? on his way to the throne.

Many historians say that image is unfair, and argue Richard's reputation was smeared by his Tudor successors. That's an argument taken up by the Richard III Society, set up to re-evaluate the reputation of a reviled monarch.

The society's Philippa Langley, who helped launch the search for the king, said she could scarcely believe her quest had paid off.

"Everyone thought that I was mad," she said. "It's not the easiest pitch in the world, to look for a king under a council car park."

Now, she said, "a wind of change is blowing, one that will seek out the truth about the real Richard III."

For centuries, the location of Richard's body has been unknown. Records say he was buried by the Franciscan monks of Grey Friars at their church in Leicester, 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of London. The church was closed and dismantled after King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1538, and its location eventually was forgotten.

Then, last September, archaeologists searching for Richard dug up the skeleton of an adult male who appeared to have died in battle.

Appleby said the 10 injuries to the body were inflicted by weapons like swords, daggers and halberds and were consistent with accounts of Richard being struck down in battle ? his helmet knocked from his head ? before his body was stripped naked and flung over the back of a horse in disgrace.

She said some scars, including a knife wound to the buttock, bore the hallmarks of "humiliation injuries" inflicted after death.

The remains also displayed signs of scoliosis, which is a form of spinal curvature, consistent with contemporary accounts of Richard's appearance, though not with Shakespeare's description of him as "deform'd, unfinished," hunchback.

Researchers conducted a battery of scientific tests, including radiocarbon dating to determine the skeleton's age. They found the skeleton belonged to a man aged between his late 20s and late 30s who died between 1455 and 1540. Richard was 32 when he died in 1485.

The discovery is a boon for the city of Leicester, which has bought a building next to the parking lot to serve as a visitor center and museum.

The mayor, Peter Soulsby, said the monarch would be interred in the city's cathedral and a memorial service would be held.

Asked if the late king would get a state funeral, Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesman Jean-Christophe Gray said it was a matter for the university.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-04-Britain-Richard%20III/id-90a45dd5310f4aa18f79b00907815226

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AT&T U-Verse Live TV changes names, improves video quality over LTE

AT&T is rebranding its U-Verse Live TV service today to a much less confusing "Mobile TV" name, and including several improvements to the app at the same time. Branding aside, video quality on Mobile TV will now improve when you're watching on LTE, which seems like a natural progression. The package will also now be a flat $9.99 per month charge regardless of platform, and customers can bill the service straight to their monthly AT&T phone bill rather than a separate account.

Mobile TV will also start offering three add-on packages -- Urban Zone, Playground TV and Paquete en español móvil -- for and additional $4.99 each. The rest of the improvements can be found immediately in its Android app, which can be found at the Play Store link above.

Source: AT&T

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/-0atBqDT3RA/story01.htm

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Power outage electrifies CBS Super Bowl broadcast

NEW YORK (AP) ? When the lights went out at the Super Bowl, CBS' telecast got a jolt.

The power outage in the Super Dome in New Orleans sent the network scrambling and silenced its announcers for about half an hour. The remarkable scene ? probably the most-watched "we're having technical difficulties" moment in television history ? also made CBS' broadcast compelling at a time when the game was looking like a blow-out.

Early in the game's second half, a portion of the Superdome lost power, including CBS' broadcasting booth where Jim Nantz and Phil Simms were calling the game. It led to an awkward, ambient few moments of darkness and quiet in a broadcast that's otherwise nonstop noise. A highly orchestrated media event was suddenly forced to improvise.

It took several minutes and numerous commercial breaks for CBS to find its footing and inform viewers of the situation. Social media went wild with a stream of joke conspiracy theories.

Eventually, CBS sideline reporter Steve Tasker ? the MVP on the night, regardless of the play on the gridiron ? announced the problem of a "click of the lights" to viewers. Later, the halftime crew anchored by host James Brown returned to fill time with football analysis. Brown said a power surge caused the outage.

That left the CBS NFL Today crew of Brown, Dan Marino, Bill Cowher and Shannon Sharpe to improvise by talking football. With little awareness of the power outage, the group bantered about the game to pad for time, even though viewers at that point had little interest in football strategy. Marino claimed halftime performer Beyonce knocked the lights out.

Calm and collected, Nantz and Simms finally returned from their unexpected exile as the lights came back on. Simms said he momentarily thought they were going to have to call the rest of the game from the sidelines.

"Hey, the next time you decide to plug in your phone charger, give us a warning, will you?" said Nantz.

"I was doing some of my best work during that blackout," replied Simms.

CBS issued a statement later in the game, saying that "we lost numerous cameras and some audio powered by sources in the Super Dome." The network said it used backup power and that "all commercial commitments during the broadcast are being honored."

The power outage may have had the ironic effect of keeping viewers glued to their TVs, amazed at seeing the biggest TV event of the year momentarily shut down. At the time of the outage, the game was becoming a rout, with the Baltimore Ravens beating the San Francisco 49ers 28-6.

But afterward, momentum shifted and the 49ers rallied, making it a close game that went down to the wire before the Ravens edged out a 34-31 victory. Close contests are essential for retaining a big Super Bowl audience, so the shift that followed the outage held major ratings implications for CBS. The last three years, the game has successively set viewership records. Last year's Super Bowl drew 111.3 million average viewers for NBC.

But ratings are a mere point of pride for CBS, with the ads sold-out well in advance, (some at more than $4 million a pop). The game was also streamed live on both CBSSports.com and NFL.com.

The chaos of the power failure outshined all other aspects of CBS' broadcast, which had seemed certain to focus on a handful of storylines: the head coaching brothers John and Jim Harbaugh (CBS scored their parents on the pregame); the threat to player safety by head injuries (a pregame segment took an optimistic view); and Ray Lewis' final game and fraught legacy.

Nantz reminded viewers during the game of the 2000 double murder case in which Lewis testified against two men and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice. But Sharpe, Lewis' former teammate, let him completely evade the subject in a pregame interview.

Nantz also smartly predicted the Ravens possibly taking a safety willingly at the end of the game for the sake of time and field position. Simms initially dismissed the idea, but it was what the Ravens elected to do and it was successful.

CBS didn't overplay the Harbowl angle (if anything, it felt more like the Beyonce Bowl), and didn't flash to the parents in the crowd until the second quarter. Director Mike Arnold did land the money shot of the game: The two coaches embracing at midfield after the game. (Its cameras and microphones also caught Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco celebrating with profanity.)

But this year's Super Bowl broadcast will be remembered for the blackout ? how CBS handled and benefited from an awkward situation. Nantz put the fitting final word on the Ravens' win: "The adversity they faced tonight was to somehow rekindle the energy after it had been taken ? literally ? out of the building."

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jake_coyle

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/power-outage-electrifies-cbs-super-bowl-broadcast-034858903--spt.html

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