Canon's new point-and-shoot gets improved Wi-Fi, zoom

1 hr.

Devin Coldewey , NBC News

Canon's new mid-range point-and-shoot, the ELPH 330 HS, lets you upload your images almost ? but not quite ? as easily as you would if you'd taken them with your phone. Though a nice zoom and decent low light performance?should make the Canon's pictures be a bit better.

The 330 HS has a 12-megapixel CMOS sensor that will capture images at up to 6400 ISO, which should make difficult lighting situations easy enough to handle. That's 4 fewer megapixels than the previous version, but still more than enough, and the sensitivity is better.?The 3-inch rear LCD isn't particularly high-resolution at 480x320, but it'll suffice.

Its lens is a nice long 10x zoom (better than its predecessor's 5x), with its maximum aperture?going from a decent F/3 at the wide end to a rather slow (but standard for point-and-shoots) F/6.9 at the zoomed end.

Wi-Fi is built in (as it was last year; now it is "advanced" in an unspecified way), but you can't quite upload directly to Facebook or Instagram yet. You pair it with a special Canon app on your phone if you're on the go, or with your PC at home. Take a dozen shots and pick a couple to upload, then on your phone or PC, pick where you want to send them.

Not quite as easy as just opening the camera app and snapping a shot, but that zoom and improved low-light capability may balance things out. The camera should be available in March for $230.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBCNews Digital. His personal website is?coldewey.cc.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/canons-new-point-shoot-gets-improved-wi-fi-zoom-1C8151490

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Judge OKs $4B BP oil spill criminal settlement

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? A federal judge on Tuesday approved an agreement for BP PLC to plead guilty to manslaughter and other charges and pay a record $4 billion in criminal penalties for the company's role in the 2010 oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Before she ruled, U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance heard testimony from relatives of 11 workers who died when BP's blown-out Macondo well triggered an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and started the spill.

BP agreed in November to plead guilty to charges involving the workers' deaths and for lying to Congress about the size of the spill from its broken well, which spewed more than 200 million gallons of oil. Much of it ended up in the Gulf and soiled the shorelines of several states. The company could have withdrawn from the agreement if Vance had rejected it.

Neither the Justice Department nor BP presented arguments to the judge before her decision in New Orleans.

Vance said the plea deal was "just punishment" considering the risks of litigation for BP and the alternatives to the settlement. She told victims' relatives who were in court that she read their "truly gut-wrenching" written statements and factored their words into her decision.

"I've heard and I truly understand your feelings and the losses you suffered," she said.

She said she also believes BP executives should have personally apologized to family members.

"I think BP should have done that out of basic humanity," she said.

The deal doesn't resolve the federal government's civil claims against BP. The company could pay billions more in penalties for environmental damage.

BP separately agreed to a settlement with lawyers for Gulf Coast residents and businesses who claim the spill cost them money. BP estimates the deal with private attorneys will cost the company roughly $7.8 billion.

For the criminal settlement, BP agreed to pay nearly $1.3 billion in fines. The largest previous corporate criminal penalty assessed by the Justice Department was a $1.2 billion fine against drug maker Pfizer in 2009.

The criminal settlement also includes payments of nearly $2.4 billion to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and $350 million to the National Academy of Sciences.

In a court filing before the hearing, attorneys for BP and the Justice Department argued that the plea agreement imposes "severe corporate punishment" and will deter BP and other deep-water drilling companies from allowing another disaster to occur.

The Justice Department has reached a separate settlement with rig owner Transocean Ltd. that resolves the government's civil and criminal claims over the Swiss-based company's role in the disaster.

Transocean agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of violating the Clean Water Act and pay $1.4 billion in civil and criminal penalties. U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo has scheduled a Feb. 14 hearing to decide whether to accept that criminal settlement. A different judge will decide whether to accept Transocean's civil settlement.

Many relatives of rig workers who died in the blast submitted written statements that were critical of BP's deal. Twenty-eight-year-old Gordon Jones' family members said BP's sentence should include a personal, face-to-face apology to his widow and children by BP executives. A brother of Jones also had urged Vance to consider stiffer penalties that prohibit or limit the company's ability to operate in U.S. waters.

Vance, however, said she couldn't get involved in plea negotiations and only could impose a sentence that adheres to the agreed-upon terms if she accepted it.

Also killed were Jason Anderson, 35, of Midfield, Texas; Aaron Dale "Bubba" Burkeen, 37, of Philadelphia, Miss.; Donald Clark, 49, of Newellton, La.; Stephen Ray Curtis, 40, of Georgetown, La.; Roy Wyatt Kemp, 27, Jonesville, La.; Karl Kleppinger Jr., 38, of Natchez, Miss.; Keith Blair Manuel, 56, of Gonzales, La.; Dewey A. Revette, 48, of State Line, Miss.; Shane M. Roshto, 22, of Liberty, Miss.; and Adam Weise, 24, Yorktown, Texas.

Four current or former BP employees have been indicted on separate criminal charges. BP rig supervisors Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine are charged with manslaughter, accused of repeatedly disregarding abnormal high-pressure readings that should have been glaring indications of trouble just before the blowout.

David Rainey, BP's former vice president of exploration for the Gulf of Mexico, was charged with withholding information from Congress about the amount of oil that was gushing from the well.

Former BP engineer Kurt Mix was charged with deleting text messages about the company's spill response.

A series of government investigations have blamed the April 20, 2010, blowout on time-saving, cost-cutting decisions by BP and its partners on the drilling project.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-29-Gulf%20Oil%20Spill-Settlement/id-146b5221e8624a49973ede75fe63a821

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Obama's About to Make Immigration Reform a New Front in the Gay Rights Battle

The gay community gasped in unison on Monday afternoon, when the Senate revealed an immigration plan that did not include same sex couples. Don't worry gay community. Barack Obama's got you covered. At least according to several of BuzzFeed's sources, he does.

RELATED: Pundits Agree: It's The Wrong Time for Immigration Reform

On Monday night, BuzzFeed's Chris Geidner and Zeke Miller reported that Obama would indeed include same sex couples in his immigration reform package. In their own words: "A Democratic source said, 'Same-sex couples will be part of his proposal.' A second source confirmed that, unlike the Senate framework released Monday, same-sex bi-national couples -- those with one American and one foreign partner -- will be included in the White House principles." This means that, if Obama does make the change and if the proposal makes it through Congress, same-sex couples would have equal rights as heterosexual couples on crucial issues like green cards.

RELATED: Governor Martinez: Illegal Immigration Okay for Me, Not for You

This would be a very presidential move for the president -- decisive, direct and somewhat demanding. After all, the folks on Capitol Hill have so far been super ambivalent about the issue. It was not included in the final proposal, but lawmakers had discussed including same sex couples in the new set of laws. However, when asked why the initial proposal lacked LGBT provision. Sen. John McCain, one of four Republicans working on the proposal simply said, "We'll be working out those details."?Rep. Jerrold Nadler was a little more opinionated about the issue, calling it "madness" that same sex couples were left out, a "major omission."

RELATED: North Carolina (Quietly) Moves to Ban Gay Marriage Forever

No matter what happens from here on out, it's becoming apparent that the gay rights movement is about to latch on to the push for immigration reform. And why shouldn't they? The point of reform is to fix things that are broken, and as the country moves towards greater equality for people of all sexual orientations, why should same sex couples be left out? Well, it could get tricky. If the conversation turns too sharply in the direction of gay rights, the larger immigration reform process could get bogged down or even stuck in the mud completely. Let's leave the ifs alone for now, though, and see what the president actually does.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obamas-immigration-reform-front-gay-rights-battle-041633557.html

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On Lance Armstrong, Barry Bonds, and My Raging Hypocrisy - The ...

I think Bonds and Clemens should be in the Hall of Fame and don't harbor much ill will toward them for their use of performance enhancing drugs. On the other hand, I am furious with Lance Armstrong and want him to be remembered as the worst of the worst. Am I a raging hypocrite?

In the midst of all of our hand-wringing over Delmon Young's happy cakes and Ruben Amaro's infatuation with acquiring negative fWAR players, I've got a bigger fish to fry - my own blatant hypocrisy.

Let me explain. If you read what I wrote earlier this month about baseball writers being sanctimonious blowhards, you know how I feel about players such as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens being kept out of the Hall of Fame. I was pretty harsh in that piece, arguing that the writers who voted against known steroid users (as well as against those who played in the same era as them) had an overinflated sense of their jobs (they are not our nation's moralizers-in-chief; they are baseball writers) and of the institutions they are a part of (the Hall of Fame is not some sanctified monument; it's just a building in Cooperstown that collects the best performers in a sport).

Along with my calling out baseball writers, I was quite clear that I don't harbor much animosity toward Bonds, Clemens, and their ilk. I watch baseball for entertainment, and for decades they entertained me in ways that most other players did not. For that, I think they should be in the Hall of Fame, along with other players who have excelled in their eras.

I wrote that piece on January 10, and then something funny happened just a few days later: Lance Armstrong confessed to using all sorts of performance enhancing substances throughout his career as a cyclist. And I became a raging hypocrite.

Unlike my complete lack of concern for Bonds' and Clemens' use of whatever they used, I am livid about Armstrong. I want him banned from the sport for life. I want his name forever remembered as the worst of sports cheaters. I want all his money to go to cancer victims as well as those who he trampled on throughout his career and for him to be left penniless. I want him to go on national prime-time network TV and apologize to Betsy Andreu in the most self-flagellating way possible.

In other words, even though everything I wrote in the third paragraph of this story about "Bonds, Clemens, and their ilk" applies to Armstrong, I feel precisely the opposite about him as I do about Bonds and Clemens.

Is there any reasonable explanation for this? Can I claim any shred of consistency in how I feel? Or am I exactly what I accused the baseball writers of being - a sanctimonious blowhard of my own? I truly don't know the answer to these questions, so in an effort to answer them, here are a few thoughts on how there might be differences:

The Sport: Are the sports so different that there is a reason to blame cheaters in one and not in the other? In ways that most non-cyclists don't appreciate, cycling is a team sport, but it still is mostly an individual sport. The winners are individuals. Baseball, however, is much more a team sport. Teams win championships, not individuals. But, the records we know Bonds and Clemens for are their individual performances. That's not much different than Armstrong's records.

Their Crimes: What Bonds and Clemens did to enhance their performance was not clearly prohibited by Major League Baseball. In fact, in many ways, MLB was complicit in their crimes. What Armstrong did was flatly prohibited by cycling, and he did everything he could to evade detection. But there's no doubt that Bonds and Clemens knew they were doing something wrong, and they worked to evade detection as well. All of them were cheating among a culture of their sport filled with other cheaters. I just don't see much difference here either.

Their History: Bonds and Clemens dominated their sport from their first days playing, when we have less evidence that they were using anything. Armstrong was a good cyclist early on, but nothing too special until after his cancer fight. In fact, it appears he used performance enhancers both before and after his illness. Thus, there's less of a sense that he was a natural elite talent who got even better with performance enhancers as opposed to a very determined and effective cheater throughout his career. I guess there's a difference there, but I don't feel that it accounts for how I feel. In fact, it could cut the other way -- that Bonds and Clemens were stupid for taking actions that weren't necessary given their natural talent, and that Armstrong was just trying to catch up to others who may or may not have also been doping.

Suspicion: Suspicion has swirled around all three for most of their careers. In fact, it was pretty much accepted for most of Bonds' career after the first few years that something funny was going on. Clemens may have escaped the same level of questioning early on, but by the end of his (never-ending) career, his performance was in doubt. With Armstrong, ever since his first Tour win, lots of people asked about whether he took anything to enhance his performance, so much so that he filmed this now-absurdly-ironic-and-sad commercial in response. But as the sport became dirtier and dirtier and more and more of Armstrong's associates admitted to doping, the suspicion around Armstrong became more believable. Thus, when he refused to dispute formal charges against him last summer and then admitted to everything two weeks ago, it really didn't come as much of a surprise. In other words, for none of these athletes was there a sudden shock revelation.

Their Story: Bonds and Clemens have always been amazing baseball players . . . who had nothing else attractive about them. In fact, from everything I've ever known about the two of them, there's not much redeeming about them off the field. Armstrong, on the other hand, traded not only on his cycling performance but also on his story. He was the cancer survivor who became the elite athlete unlike anyone who has ever played his sport. But there was more: based on this story, he raised almost half a billion dollars for sick children and other cancer victims. His story was like no other. Yet now we know that it's complete bullshit. Yes, he beat cancer and raised the money, and you can't deny that, but the rest was a lie. Moreover, all the times I excused Armstrong for his being a complete asshole (and there were many) because a) he was such an amazing cyclist and b) he overcame so much, I was making excuses for someone who deserved no one's support. In other words, I feel completely duped, as I bought his lie hook, line, and sinker. I have no similar feelings with Bonds, Clemens, or any baseball player of the steroid era.

My Connection: I am an avid baseball fan, and I played through high school. But I have long been and remain a diehard road cyclist. I have never biked competitively, but I have trained with those who do and have ridden big-time non-competitive events. I now bike much less than I did in the past, but I still bike regularly for recreation, and it is my chief form of transportation to and from work. I know from my long experience in the sport what is required to excel, which made me that much more in awe of Armstrong and what he accomplished. I followed his wins with my cycling buddies while we were stretching ourselves as much as we could but feeling humbled by the knowledge of what Armstrong was doing. In other words, not only was I 100% duped by his story, but I was also personally in awe of what he had done, because I knew from my own experience it was so spectacular. I just don't have the same connection to actually playing baseball.

So maybe these last two things explain it? The Armstrong story along with my particular connection to the sport of cycling. Do they adequately explain why I feel so differently? Am I just angry that I was thoroughly duped about a sport I am personally involved in?

But there's one more thing to factor in:

Cancer: He raised almost half a billion dollars to fight cancer. Sure, some of that money would have gone to other cancer charities, but I bet a lot of it was newly donated money for the cause. With a disease so evil and pernicious, shouldn't we have a "by any means necessary" attitude? In other words, so what if I feel a little duped. Unlike Betsy Andreu, some of Armstrong's teammates, and a few others he took down along the way, I didn't suffer personally from his actions. In fact, I and millions of others were entertained by them for almost a decade and so inspired by them that we donated money, lots of money, gobs of money, to fight a killer. Lots of people were entertained, a handful were hurt, and half a billion dollars were raised to fight cancer. Isn't that something very few professional athletes can say and an equation with an obvious moral balance?

In which case, shouldn't the discussion be about why, in the grand scheme of things, do we care one iota what Armstrong put in his blood, and why aren't we just continuing to talk about what a great man he is for doing everything he could to help the world?

Which would ultimately mean that Armstrong, Bonds, and Clemens are not at all cut from the same cloth and that, at the very least, I should feel the same about all three. But I don't. So am I really just a raging hypocrite?

I welcome your thoughts in the comments.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Source: http://www.thegoodphight.com/2013/1/28/3919846/on-lance-armstrong-barry-bonds-and-my-raging-hypocrisy

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Iran launches monkey into space, showing missile progress

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran said on Monday it had launched a live monkey into space, seeking to show off missile systems that have alarmed the West because the technology could potentially be used to deliver a nuclear warhead.

The Defense Ministry announced the launch as world powers sought to agree a date and venue with Iran for resuming talks to resolve a standoff with the West over Tehran's contested nuclear program before it degenerates into a new Middle East war.

Efforts to nail down a new meeting have failed repeatedly and the powers fear Iran is exploiting the diplomatic vacuum to hone the means to produce nuclear weapons.

The Islamic Republic denies seeking weapons capability and says it seeks only electricity from its uranium enrichment so it can export more of its considerable oil wealth.

The powers have proposed new talks in February, a spokesman for the European Union's foreign policy chief said on Monday, hours after Russia urged all concerned to "stop behaving like children" and commit to a meeting.

Iran earlier in the day denied media reports of a major explosion at one of its most sensitive, underground enrichment plants, describing them as Western propaganda designed to influence the nuclear talks.

The Defense Ministry said the space launch of the monkey coincided "with the days of" the Prophet Mohammad's birthday, which was last week, but gave no date, according to a statement carried by the official news agency IRNA.

The launch was "another giant step" in space technology and biological research "which is the monopoly of a few countries", the statement said.

The small grey monkey was pictured strapped into a padded seat and being loaded into the Kavoshgar rocket dubbed "Pishgam" (Pioneer) which state media said reached a height of more than 120 km (75 miles).

"This shipment returned safely to Earth with the anticipated speed along with the live organism," Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi told the semi-official Fars news agency. "The launch of Kavoshgar and its retrieval is the first step towards sending humans into space in the next phase."

There was no independent confirmation of the launch.

SIGNIFICANT FEAT

The West worries that long-range ballistic technology used to propel Iranian satellites into orbit could be put to use dispatching nuclear warheads to a target.

Bruno Gruselle of France's Foundation for Strategic Research said that if the monkey launch report were true it would suggest a "quite significant" engineering feat by Iran.

"If you can show that you are able to protect a vehicle of this sort from re-entry, then you can probably protect a military warhead and make it survive the high temperatures and high pressures of re-entering," Gruselle said.

The monkey launch would be similar to sending up a satellite weighing some 2,000 kg (4,400 pounds), he said. Success would suggest a capacity to deploy a surface-to-surface missile with a range of a few thousand kilometers (miles).

Michael Elleman, a missile expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies think-tank, said Iran had demonstrated "no new military or strategic capability" with the launch.

"Nonetheless, Iran has an ambitious space exploration program that includes the goal of placing a human in space in the next five or so years and a human-inhabited orbital capsule by the end of the decade," Elleman said. "Today's achievement is one step toward the goal, albeit a small one."

The Islamic Republic announced plans in 2011 to send a monkey into space, but that attempt was reported to have failed.

Nuclear-weapons capability requires three components - enough fissile material such as highly enriched uranium, a reliable weapons device miniaturized to fit into a missile cone, and an effective delivery system, such as a ballistic missile that can grow out of a space launch program.

Iran's efforts to develop and test ballistic missiles and build a space launch capability have contributed to Israeli calls for pre-emptive strikes on Iranian nuclear sites and billions of dollars of U.S. ballistic missile defense spending.

MANOEUVRING OVER NEXT TALKS

A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the powers had offered a February meeting to Iran, after a proposal to meet at the end of January was refused.

"Iran did not accept our offer to go to Istanbul on January 28 and 29 and so we have offered new dates in February. We have continued to offer dates since December. We are disappointed the Iranians have not yet agreed," Michael Mann reporters.

He said Iranian negotiators had imposed new conditions for resuming talks and that EU powers were concerned this might be a stalling tactic. The last in a sporadic series of fruitless talks was held last June.

Iranian officials deny blame for the delays and say Western countries squandered opportunities for meetings by waiting until after the U.S. presidential election in November.

"We have always said that we are ready to negotiate until a result is reached and we have never broken off discussions," IRNA quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi as saying.

Salehi has suggested holding the next round in Cairo but said the powers wanted another venue. He also said that Sweden, Kazakhstan and Switzerland had offered to host the talks.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference: "We are ready to meet at any location as soon as possible. We believe the essence of our talks is far more important (than the site), and we hope that common sense will prevail and we will stop behaving like little children."

Ashton is overseeing diplomatic contacts on behalf of the powers hoping to persuade Tehran to stop higher-grade uranium enrichment and accept stricter U.N. inspections in return for civilian nuclear cooperation and relief from U.N. sanctions.

IRAN DENIES FORDOW BLAST

Reuters has been unable to verify reports since Friday of an explosion early last week at the underground Fordow bunker that some Israeli and Western media said wrought heavy damage.

"The false news of an explosion at Fordow is Western propaganda ahead of nuclear negotiations to influence their process and outcome," IRNA quoted deputy Iranian nuclear energy agency chief Saeed Shamseddin Bar Broudi as saying.

In late 2011 the plant at Fordow began producing uranium enriched to 20 percent fissile purity, well above the 3.5 percent level normally needed for nuclear power stations.

While such higher-grade enrichment remains nominally far below the 90 percent level required for an atomic bomb, nuclear proliferation experts say the 20 percent threshold represents the bulk of the time and effort involved in yielding weapons-grade material - if that were Iran's goal.

Tehran says its enhanced enrichment is to make fuel for a research reactor that produces isotopes for medical care.

Diplomats in Vienna, where the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency is based, said on Monday they had no knowledge of any incident at Fordow but were looking into the reports.

"I have heard and seen various reports but am unable to authenticate them," a senior diplomat in Vienna told Reuters.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which regularly inspects declared Iranian nuclear sites including Fordow, had no immediate comment on the issue.

Iran has accused Israel and the United States of trying to sabotage its nuclear program with cyber attacks and assassinations of its nuclear scientists. Washington has denied any role in the killings while Israel has declined to comment.

(Additional reporting by William Maclean and Marcus George in Dubai, Justyna Pawlak in Brussels, Fredrik Dahl in Vienna; Writing by Mark Heinrich; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Jon Hemming)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/six-world-powers-hope-meet-iran-atom-talks-120752016.html

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Why are there redheads? Birds might hold the clues

Jan. 28, 2013 ? Red coloration -- historically seen as costly in vertebrates -- might represent some physiological benefit after all, according to research published in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology.

Pheomelanin, which is responsible for red hair and freckles in humans and orange and chestnut coloration in other animals, is known to increase the damage to skin cells and melanoma risk when present in large amounts. Furthermore, its creation involves the consumption of glutathione, a beneficial antioxidant.

In an attempt to unearth the factors favoring the evolution of pheomelanin in spite of its costs, Ismael Galv?n and Anders P. M?ller of the University of Paris-Sud examined the survival from one breeding season to the next of a wild European population of barn swallows, as well as the annual survival rates of 58 species of American birds.

A recent hypothesis claims that the consumption of cysteine (a component of glutathione) that occurs when pheomelanin is produced can be beneficial under conditions of low stress. Cysteine, which is mainly acquired through diet, can be toxic at high levels, so the production of pheomelanin may help to sequester excess quantities of this amino acid.

Galv?n and M?ller measured birds' blood levels of uric acid and analyzed the coloration of their chestnut throat feathers (an indication of pheomelanin content). When they compared birds that had similar uric acid levels (and therefore similar capacities to excrete excess amino acids), they found that both the European barn swallows and the American birds with larger amounts of pheomelanin in their feathers survived better.

This study is the first to propose that the costs/benefits of pheomelanin may depend on prevailing environmental conditions, and its results suggest that the production of this pigment may even be beneficial in some circumstances. Given that all higher vertebrates, including humans, present pheomelanin in skin, pelage, and plumage, Galv?n and M?ller's findings increase the scant current knowledge on the physiological consequences of pheomelanin and open new avenues for research that will help us understand the evolution of pigmentation.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Chicago Press Journals.

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Journal Reference:

1. Ismael Galv?n, Anders P. M?ller. Pheomelanin-Based Plumage Coloration Predicts Survival Rates in Birds. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, 2013; : 000 DOI: 10.1086/668871

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/~3/O3RD1GRHQyY/130128151930.htm

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Hey Everybody

Okay, well, hi there. I'm usernamesareadrag, but, if you'd rather not type all of that out, I'd be just fine with you calling me Sempai. It's just a nickname from an old roleplaying sight that stuck, I suppose. I've been roleplaying for, oh man, eight years now? Well, eight years off and on, so don't expect anything glorious, on this one website. But it was too restrictive, wouldn't even let me say the word blood, and a friend recommended this site, so here I am.
I like all sorts of role-plays, so I'm willing to try just about anything if it sounds interesting and I can come up with a good character for it. So, I'm really looking forward to this site and having a ton of fun.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/eVIE-2doeUU/viewtopic.php

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Egyptian youths, police clash in fourth day of violence

CAIRO (Reuters) - Police fired tear gas at dozens of stone-throwing protesters in Cairo on Sunday in a fourth day of street violence that has killed at least 41 people and compounded the political challenges facing President Mohamed Mursi.

The most deadly clashes flared up in Port Said where 32 people were killed on Saturday alone. That violence was provoked by a court verdict sentencing 21 people, mostly from the city, to death for their role in a deadly stadium disaster last year.

But protests have been going in cities across Egypt since Thursday led by opponents of Mursi and his Islamist allies. Demonstrations were initially timed to mark Friday's second anniversary of the uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak.

Opponents say Mursi has betrayed the goals of the revolt.

The army, Egypt's interim rulers until Mursi's election June, were sent back onto the streets to restore order in Port Said and Suez, another port city on the Suez Canal where at least eight people have been killed in clashes with police.

Although scuffles continued on Sunday morning in Cairo, there was no immediate sign of the kind of deadly escalation of previous days in the capital or elsewhere.

The spasm of violence adds to the daunting task facing Mursi as he tries to fix a beleaguered economy and cool tempers before a parliamentary election expected in the next few months which is supposed to cement Egypt's transition to democracy.

It has also exposed a deep rift in the nation. Liberals and other opponents accuse Mursi of failing to deliver on economic promises and say he has not lived up to pledges to represent all Egyptians. His backers say the opposition is seeking to topple Egypt's first freely elected leader by undemocratic means.

"Till now, none of the revolution's goals have been realized," said Mohamed Sami, a protester in Tahrir Square. "Prices are going up. The blood of Egyptians is being spilt in the streets because of neglect and corruption and because the Muslim Brotherhood is ruling Egypt for their own interests."

On a bridge close to Tahrir Square, youths were hurling stones at police in riot gear who fired tear gas to push them back towards the square which was the cauldron of the uprising that erupted on January 25, 2011 and toppled Mubarak 18 days later.

The U.S. embassy in Cairo, which is near Tahrir Square, said it was suspending public services on Sunday "due to the security situation in the vicinity" of the mission.

Many Egyptians are frustrated by the regular escalations that have hurt the economy and their livelihoods.

"They are not revolutionaries protesting," said taxi driver Kamal Hassan, 30. "They are thugs destroying the country."

CALL FOR DIALOGUE

The National Defense Council, headed by Mursi and including top army and other officials, has called for a national dialogue to discuss political differences.

That offer has been cautiously welcomed by the opposition National Salvation Front. But the organization has demanded a clear agenda and guarantees that any agreements will be implemented.

The Front, formed late last year when Mursi provoked protests and violence by expanding his powers and driving through an Islamist-tinged constitution, has threatened to boycott the parliamentary poll and to call for more protests if a list of demands is not met, including having an early presidential vote.

Egypt's transition has been blighted from the outset by political rows and street violence that have driven investors out and kept many tourists away, starving the economy of vital sources of hard currency.

Clashes in Port Said erupted after a judge sentenced 21 men to die for involvement in the deaths at a soccer match on February 1, 2012 between Cairo's Al Ahly club and the local al-Masri team. Many of the victims were fans of the visiting team.

There were 73 defendants in the case. Those not sentenced on Saturday will face a verdict on March 9, the judge said.

Al Ahly fans cheered the verdict after threatening action if the death penalty was not meted out. But Port Said residents were furious that people from their city were held responsible, triggering wild rampages through the streets.

A security source in Port Said said 32 people were killed, many from gunshot wounds. More than 300 were injured in one of the most deadly eruptions of violence during the past two years.

Clashes have also flared in Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said. Eight people died in Suez on Friday and police clashed with protesters again on Saturday.

Officers fired teargas when protesters angry at Friday's deaths hurled petrol bombs and stormed a police post and other government buildings. Around 18 prisoners escaped from police stations and stole some weapons, a security source said.

Reflecting international concern, British Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East Alistair Burt said: "This cannot help the process of dialogue which we encourage as vital for Egypt today, and we must condemn the violence in the strongest terms."

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged the Egyptian authorities to restore calm and order and called on all sides to show restraint, her spokesperson said.

(Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/riots-over-egyptian-death-sentences-kill-least-32-005245042.html

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Are Commercial Properties the Most Viable Option in the Property ...

It is a place that demands the exploration of business potential and the expansion of its limits to accomplish and include newer boundaries within its regions. The work space has come to be seen as the standpoint of any economic growth for any kind of business, be a newly started venture or an already accomplished one. They are also the manifestation of the power of the real estate?s current position. These work spaces somehow manage to combine the best of the world of industrialization that is chirped with technological utility. (For example, the upcoming arrays of commercial offices in Mumbai, in the growing business nation of India, depict just the very ideas aforementioned).

Investing in the property business of the world today somehow then, comes as one of the wisest choices available on the testing platter. While every leading business or brand wants worldwide success, its start point is always its workplace. Therefore, it?doesn't?come as a surprise when some of the leading businesses in the world decide to have work zones that match their current work ethics.?

Source: http://www.50plusfinance.com/2013/01/are-commercial-properties-most-viable.html

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Happy Birthday, You Bastard

Some Slate pieces are so great, they demand a second reading. Today we revisit John Swansburg?s timeless 2008 masterpiece.

Illustration by Alex Eben Meyer.

What has become of the birthday party? I used to love a good birthday get-together. Some other kid's parents are picking up the tab for an afternoon of bumper bowling? There might be a Cookie Puss from Carvel? Fire up the Datsun, Mom, we're going to be late!

I'm told that when you're a legitimate grown-up?with a spouse and kids of your own?birthday parties are once again events you look forward to. You leave the munchkins with a sitter and go to the Johnsons' for an evening of cocktails and casserole. Maybe an animated game of Taboo breaks out. Sounds delightful. But in the moment between earning your college degree and signing your first mortgage, the birthday party transmogrifies into something else. It becomes the birthday dinner.

For me, it happened in my late 20s. As my friends moved from graduate programs and entry-level positions into decent-paying jobs, a birthday meet-up at a dive bar to pound SoCo-and-lime shots started to feel a shade d?class?. Yet everyone was still living in small studio or one-bedroom apartments?no place for a proper cocktail party. The compromise: People started celebrating their birthdays by inviting friends out to dinner, typically at a moderately fancy restaurant. The kind of place that frowns on bringing your own candles and Cookie Puss but isn't averse to sticking a sparkler in a cr?me br?l?e.

Seems like a nice idea, the birthday dinner. It is not. It is a tedious, wretched affair. It is also an extravagantly expensive one. In these wintry economic times, we need to scale back. I hereby propose that the birthday dinner go the way of the $4 cup of coffee, the liar's mortgage, and the midsize banking institution.

Consider, for example, the birthday dinner I attended not long ago in honor of my friend Simon. In the past, Simon's birthday parties have been rollicking good times. His 25^th, celebrated at a Manhattan club, ended memorably, if abruptly, when Simon was ejected from his own party by a bouncer who'd discovered him taking an indiscreet catnap on the bar. For his 30^th, Simon, now a brain surgeon, organized a more civilized affair: dinner for 10 of his closest friends at an upscale Tribeca steakhouse.

Everything that can go wrong at such a dinner did. A maitre d'?led us to a giant oval table, where I was seated a country mile from the man of the hour. Could I have hit him with a strenuous toss of a French roll? Yes. But polite conversation was out of the question.

Instead, I found myself wedged between Simon's high-school friends and his college friends. Feeling more of a ken for the high-school side of the table, I tried to orient myself in that direction, but the effort required a socially and anatomically awkward craning of the neck. I was left in a no man's land?on the fringe of two conversations, an active player in neither. Had we been at a bar, I could have maneuvered my way out of such a quagmire by excusing myself to order another round of sweet, sweet SoCo and lime. Thus escaping, I could have muscled my way over to the guest of honor and given him a good birthday noogie. But mired in the middle of this dinner table, the only way I was going to get Simon's attention was by faking an aneurysm, and I just wasn't feeling up to it.???

I busied myself by studying the menu, looking up in time to catch a nefarious glint in the eye of our white-smocked waiter. I understand from friends who've waited tables that serving a large party can have its annoyances: It's hard to get anyone's attention; you've got to extol the virtues of the soup du jour four times over. But a seasoned server knows how to work the situation to his advantage, and this guy proved to be positively au poivre.

Given the built-in gratuity for a party of our size, our waiter clearly realized there was nothing to lose by making the hard sell. He was getting 18 percent of whatever he could push on us, so he might as well give it a healthy shove. For an appetizer, he vigorously recommended the frutti di mare platter?an item accompanied on the menu by the dreaded "market price" designation. Working each flyleaf of the table separately, he managed to sell us three of these massive, adjustable-rate heaps of shrimp and lobster tail. One would have sufficed.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=b1589024a7b841fe7f2488ac5872fb23

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Mass human sacrifice? Ancient skulls piled up

Archaeologists have unearthed a trove of skulls in Mexico that may have once belonged to human sacrifice victims. The skulls, which date between the year 600 and 850, may also shatter existing notions about the ancient culture of the area.

The find, described in the January issue of the journal Latin American Antiquity, was located in an otherwise empty field that once held a vast lake, but was miles from the nearest major city of the day, said study co-author Christopher Morehart, an archaeologist at Georgia State University.

"It's absolutely remarkable to think about this little nothing on the landscape having potentially evidence of the largest mass human sacrifice in ancient Mesoamerica," Morehart said.

Middle of nowhere
Morehart and his colleagues were using satellite imagery to map ancient canals, irrigation channels and lakes that used to surround the kingdom of Teotihuacan (home to the Pyramid of the Sun), about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Mexico City. The vast ancient kingdom flourished from around the year 200 to 650, though who built it remains a mystery. [In Photos: Amazing Ruins of the Ancient World]

In a now-drained lake called Lake Xaltocan, around which was essentially rural farmland at the time, Morehart stumbled upon a site with evidence of looting.

When the team investigated, they discovered lines of human skulls with just one or two vertebra attached. To date, more than 150 skulls have been discovered there. The site also contained a shrine with incense burners, water-deity figurines and agricultural pottery, such as corncob depictions, suggesting a ritual purpose tied to local farming. [See images from the grisly excavation]

Carbon dating suggested that the skulls were at least 1,100 years old, and the few dozen analyzed so far are mostly from men, Morehart told LiveScience. The researchers did not release photos of the skulls because the sacrifice victims may have historic ties to modern-day indigenous cultures.

The findings shake up existing notions of the culture of the day, because the site is not associated with Teotihuacan or other regional powers, said Destiny Crider, an archaeologist at Luther College in Iowa, who was not involved in the study.

Big event in a little place
Human sacrifice was practiced throughout the region, both at Teotihuacan and in the later Aztec Empire, but most of those rituals happened at great pyramids within cities and were tied to state powers.

By contrast, "this one is a big event in a little place," Crider said.

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The shrines and the fact that sacrifice victims were mostly male suggest that they were carefully chosen, not simply the result of indiscriminate slaughter of a whole village, Crider told LiveScience.

Many researchers believe that massive drought caused the fall of Teotihuacan and ushered in a period of warfare and political infighting as smaller regional powers sprang up, Morehart said. Crider said those tumultuous times could have spurred innovative ? and bloody ? practices.

"Maybe they needed to intensify their activities because everything was changing," she said. "When things are uncertain, you try new strategies."

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

? 2012 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50599143/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Pentagon slashing thousands of jobs over budget fears

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon has begun laying off many of its 46,000 temporary and contract employees and cutting maintenance on ships and aircraft in an effort to slow spending due to fears of new defense budget cuts, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said on Friday.

Carter said he had asked the military services to produce detailed plans by February 1 to say what they are doing to reduce short-term spending before roughly $45 billion in new cuts are due to go into effect on March 1.

He asked for detailed long-term planning by February 8 on how the services will handle the $45 billion in across-the-board cuts, which will go into effect on March 1 unless Congress agrees on an alternative package of spending reductions.

The Pentagon currently is absorbing $487 billion in cuts to projected defense spending over 10 years that were agreed in the Budget Control Act of 2011. That law also required the additional across-the-board cuts by January 1, 2013, unless Congress agreed to an alternative.

Lawmakers failed to reach a new deal but did agree to postpone the across-the-board cuts until March 1 to give themselves more time. But March 1 is five months into the fiscal year, giving the Pentagon less time to absorb them.

Defense officials had long resisted taking action in response to the threat of a new round of automatic budget cuts, saying they were put in place to try to force Congress to reach alternative spending reductions.

But Carter said the debate surrounding U.S. financial issues in late December had been "sobering," with little attention paid to the effects of the new cuts on the Pentagon or its mission. And the decision to postpone the cuts for another two months also reduced the time the department would have to respond.

"When we were marching up to January 1 we had more runway, more time to absorb cuts if we had to absorb cuts," Carter said. "Now we're running out of time and so for those two reasons, our risk calculus has to change at this point and we need to begin acting."

BUDGET MESS

The Pentagon's budget mess has been further complicated by the congressional failure to allocate funding for the Pentagon's budget for the 2013 fiscal year, which began October 1. The department is currently operating on a continuing resolution that maintains funding at 2012 levels.

"The problem is that the money is in the wrong pots," Carter told reporters. He said the Pentagon had planned to spend considerably more for operations and maintenance in 2013 than it did in 2012.

"We don't have enough money to operate the forces in the way we thought we were going to," Carter said. "That's the problem. And that's a more than $10 billion problem. And we're running out of time to eat that $10 billion and that's the reason that we need to act now."

To slow the rate of spending, the department has put a freeze on civilian hiring, he said. Usually the department hires 1,000 to 2,000 civilians a week, about 46 percent of them military veterans and 86 percent of them living and working across the country, not in Washington.

The department's 46,000 temporary and contract employees are "all now subject to release," Carter said, meaning they will either be let go now or will not have their contracts extended. The only exception would be if they are performing jobs critical to the war or the department's basic mission.

The department also is cutting back on base and equipment maintenance, which costs about $15 billion per year. He said the Navy would cancel maintenance on 30 ships that had been planned for the third and fourth quarters this year.

"They're not going to sign those contracts with the shipyards that do that work," Carter said.

He said the Air Force would only enter into short-term contracts for supplies.

(Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Vicki Allen)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pentagon-cutting-jobs-maintenance-due-budget-fears-official-170708494--business.html

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Syrian jets bomb rebel-held areas near Damascus

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian warplanes bombed rebel-held areas near Damascus on Thursday as President Bashar Assad's troops battled opposition fighters for control of a strategic road that links the capital with the main airport.

The fighting around Damascus was part of the government offensive to dislodge rebels from towns and villages ringing the Syrian capital ? areas that have been opposition strongholds since the uprising against Assad's rule began nearly two years ago.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighter jets carried out eight airstrikes on Daraya, a strategic suburb close to a key military air base southwest of Damascus. The group, which relies on reports from activists on the ground, also said heavy fighting was reported near Damascus International Airport and that the regime was shelling the town of Aqraba along the airport road.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

According to the United Nations, more than 60,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict, which began when opposition supporters took up arms to fight a brutal government crackdown on dissent.

Because of its strategic location near a military base, Syrian troops have been pounding rebel positions in Daraya for weeks. Earlier this month, the government claimed its troops had regained control over much of the district from where the rebels have been threatening Damascus, the seat of Assad's power.

Activists posted a video of the Daraya fighting online that shows artillery shells slamming into concrete buildings, sending plumes of thick, white and gray smoke into the sky.

Daraya is flanked by the key districts of Mazzeh, which is home to the military air, and Kfar Sousseh, where the government headquarters, the General Security intelligence agency's head office and the Interior Ministry are located.

State-run news agency SANA said troops have been battling rebels in the oil-rich province of al-Hasaka in the country's northeast, killing and wounding several "terrorists" ? the term the government and state media use to refer to rebels.

Also in the north, SANA said terrorists shot and killed a math teacher, Nabih Jamil al-Saad, on Wednesday near his home in the town of Hmaida in Raqqa province. A day earlier, rebels killed Mamdouh Abudllah Bin Abd Dibeh, a cardiologist, in front of his clinic in Sheik Mheddin area of Damascus, SANA said.

It was not clear if either the teacher or the doctor had ties to the regime. Rebels have targeted government officials, civil workers and prominent personalities, such as actors, who are known Assad supporters.

In a separate report, SANA said many residents of the central town of Salamiya in Hama province took part in a funeral procession for those killed in a car bomb explosion at a headquarters of a pro-government militia late Monday. The Observatory said earlier that at least 42 people were killed in the car bombing, but SANA did not say how many died.

In photographs published by the official news wire, dozens of men are seen standing in front of 11 caskets, wrapped into Syrian flags. Another photograph by SANA shows hundreds of men rallying at what the official news wire said was a funeral procession at Salamiya's al-Huriyeh square.

Also on Thursday, in what Syrian state TV said was a live broadcast, Assad was seen sitting cross-legged on the floor of the al-Afram mosque in Damascus during prayers marking Prophet's Muhammad's birthday.

___

Associated Press writer Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-jets-bomb-rebel-held-areas-near-damascus-102326071.html

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'The Wolverine' Preview: The Claws Are Out

Director James Mangold leads MTV News through Hugh Jackman's return to Logan.
By Kara Warner

Hugh Jackman in "The Wolverine"
Photo: 20th Century Fox

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1700710/the-wolverine-preview.jhtml

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Nevada Gaming Commission green lights $1 million fine on Palms ...

Kirby Garlitos
January 25, 2013
No Comments

Quite a busy time for the Nevada Gaming Commission these days. On a day when the commission approved the licenses of two more interactive gaming licenses, they also went and green lighted the $1 million fine slapped on the Palms Casino stemming from accusations that the establishment?s nightclub employees offered drugs and prostitutes to undercover officers. Pretty eventful day, wasn?t it?

The fine wasn?t met with any objection by the casino, which, incidentally, already agreed to pay the amount when news first broke about it two weeks ago. When you?re admitting to it even before the final decision maker ? the NGC ? decides on the matter, then there?s a pretty clear lack of institutional control that you?re owning up to. That doesn?t speak too highly of your casino, does it?

After the NGC approved the $1 million fine, the Palms didn?t even wait for an eyelash to blink to issue a statement, basically fessing up on the matter and ensuring that nothing of that sort ever happens again inside the Palms. The statement, which was released by casino officials said: ?We are grateful to the Nevada Gaming Commission for approving the proposed settlement of the complaint ? and for the efforts of the Gaming Control Board and Attorney General?s office throughout this process. This is a very serious matter, and we are committed to preventing this from happening on our property again.?

The Nevada Gaming Commission?s decision actually served as mere formality on a settlement that had already been reached the day the state field a 17-count complaint against the casino for? the shoddy transactions employees of its nightclubs were engaged in with regards to accepting payments from customers to supply them with prostitutes and plethora of drugs, including ecstacy, cocaine and pain killers.

With the fine now officially imposed, the Palms has been given four months to pay the entire $1 million fine, as well as tack in another $78,000 in investigation fees.

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Source: http://calvinayre.com/2013/01/25/casino/nevada-gaming-commission-green-lights-1-million-fine-on-palms-casino-ready-to-pay-and-move-on/

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Council mulls possibility of a tax hike to offset state cuts, avoid ...

Sheffield Lake

By John Edwards

Sheffield Lake City Council?s Jan. 15 meetings were dominated by financial discussions, some aimed at increasing city revenues in the future and others aimed at devising ways to cope with current losses of revenue, in the form of some sort of tax increase. Possibilities included 1-mill property tax levies, an income tax increase or a decrease to the current 0.5-percent income tax credit provided to city residents who work outside the city.

In the Finance and Audit Committee meeting before council?s work session, finance Director Tammy Smith spelled out the drastic need for some new revenue to offset a total of $280,000 in revenue loss from the state of Ohio (including cuts to local government and library assistance that helped to balance the state?s budget, and the phased-out business personal property tax), which will be aggravated by reduced real estate tax revenue in the wake of last year?s lowering of property values by the Lorain County Auditor?s office.

Smith opined that the city?s smaller than normal budget appropriations could suffice ??if there were no need to pay any overtime wages to anyone and if the city could go an entire year without incurring the kind of expenses demanded to deal with such things as water main breaks, etc. In addition to that unlikely scenario, Smith said, was an immediate need to acquire three new police cruisers and at least one new ambulance, a new generator and other new equipment for the fire station.

?We could put 1-mill equipment levies for the safety departments on the ballot, but that could pose a hardship on our senior residents on fixed incomes,? Smith said. ?Or we could ask for a one-quarter of 1 percent income tax increase, or for a one-quarter of 1 percent reduction to our one-half of 1 percent income tax credit and reduce that to a quarter of 1 percent. We had 1-mill safety equipment levies in the past, but dropped them in 2003 when we asked the voters to raise the income tax a quarter-percent to help finance our street maintenance and improvement program. Either of those income tax changes could raise about $280,000. That would replace the state cuts ??and get us back to our 2009 level.?

Future revenue-raising possibilities discussed included the creation and implementation of a Community Investment Corporation (CIC) to attract new business to the city. Law Director David Graves said a CIC would have powers not available to the city itself. Like a port authority, a CIC would have the power to borrow or lend money to jump-start a new business and could even enter into contracts without advertising for bids. Westlake?s Crocker Park development, Graves added as an example, was financed with a loan from the Toledo Port Authority.

Graves said that council discussions of creating a CIC to attract investors to the Shoreway Shopping Center began in the summer of 2009, but it was never implemented. Graves said the structure of a CIC would include (in addition to the mayor and two other administration members) a five-member board of directors to be appointed from among city residents. The CIC was never implemented, mainly for the reason (as several members of council pointed out) that it could prove very difficult to find five qualified residents willing to volunteer their time and expertise.

Planning Commission member Edward Rinderknecht asked council to consider creating an ordinance to address the appearance of new commercial buildings proposed on Zone B-1 or B-2 commercial lots that are surrounded on three sides by R-1 residential zones.

?I know it would be too late to have any effect on the Dollar General project at Lake and Harris, but we need to consider future development,? Rinderknecht said as he distributed copies of a Lakewood ordinance that influenced the appearance of the Marathon gas station on Lake Road in Lakewood. ?That station now blends in beautifully with the residential neighborhood,? Rinderknecht said.

Council President Rick Rosso asked members to mull the possible tax issues and decide which way to go in time to put it into ordinance form before a Feb. 6 filing deadline, which must be met in order for the Lorain County Board of Elections to put a tax issue on the May primary ballot.
?If we?re going to do this, we?re going to have to put an ordinance together and approve it at our Jan. 23 regular meeting to meet the filing deadline,? Rosso said.

Tags: Sheffield Lake

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Source: http://2presspapers.northcoastnow.com/council-mulls-possibility-of-a-tax-hike-to-offset-set-state-cuts-avoid-layoffs/

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Morning Markets January 24 - Business Insider

UPDATE:

What's interesting is that markets have mostly recovered from earlier, when things were in the red.

Apple will be a big drag on the NASDAQ today, and the S&P to some extent.

But markets are mostly ho-hom at this point, and Europe has gone from red to slightly positive.

EARLIER: The big story today, obviously, will be the Apple earnings debacle, which caused the stock to fall more than 10% after hours last night.

NASDAQ futures are going to get hammered, as the stock has such a big weighting in that index.

The question is whether Apple spreads elsewhere.

There may not be much of a reason to worry, as Apple went from $700 to $500, while the overall market made new high after new high.

Europe is down modestly across the board. Italy, for example, is down 0.35%.

Asia had a big night after China's Flash PMI hit a 24-month high.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/morning-markets-january-24-2013-1

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Space instrument adds big piece to solar corona puzzle

Jan. 23, 2013 ? The Sun's visible surface, or photosphere, is 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. As you move outward from it, you pass through a tenuous layer of hot, ionized gas or plasma called the corona. The corona is familiar to anyone who has seen a total solar eclipse, since it glimmers ghostly white around the hidden Sun.

But how can the solar atmosphere get hotter, rather than colder, the farther you go from the Sun's surface? This mystery has puzzled solar astronomers for decades. A suborbital rocket mission that launched in July 2012 has just provided a major piece of the puzzle.

The High-resolution Coronal Imager, or Hi-C, revealed one of the mechanisms that pumps energy into the corona, heating it to temperatures up to 7 million degrees F. The secret is a complex process known as magnetic reconnection.

"This is the first time we've had images at high enough resolution to directly observe magnetic reconnection," explained Smithsonian astronomer Leon Golub (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics). "We can see details in the corona five times finer than any other instrument."

"Our team developed an exceptional instrument capable of revolutionary image resolution of the solar atmosphere. Due to the level of activity, we were able to clearly focus on an active sunspot, thereby obtaining some remarkable images," said heliophysicist Jonathan Cirtain (Marshall Space Flight Center).

Magnetic braids and loops

The Sun's activity, including solar flares and plasma eruptions, is powered by magnetic fields. Most people are familiar with the simple bar magnet, and how you can sprinkle iron filings around one to see its field looping from one end to the other. The Sun is much more complicated.

The Sun's surface is like a collection of thousand-mile-long magnets scattered around after bubbling up from inside the Sun. Magnetic fields poke out of one spot and loop around to another spot. Plasma flows along those fields, outlining them with glowing threads.

The images from Hi-C showed interweaved magnetic fields that were braided just like hair. When those braids relax and straighten, they release energy. Hi-C witnessed one such event during its flight.

It also detected an area where magnetic field lines crossed in an X, then straightened out as the fields reconnected. Minutes later, that spot erupted with a mini solar flare.

Hi-C showed that the Sun is dynamic, with magnetic fields constantly warping, twisting, and colliding in bursts of energy. Added together, those energy bursts can boost the temperature of the corona to 7 million degrees F when the Sun is particularly active.

Selecting the target

The telescope aboard Hi-C provided a resolution of 0.2 arcseconds -- about the size of a dime seen from 10 miles away. That allowed astronomers to tease out details just 100 miles in size. (For comparison, the Sun is 865,000 miles in diameter.)

Hi-C photographed the Sun in ultraviolet light at a wavelength of 19.3 nanometers -- 25 times shorter than wavelengths of visible light. That wavelength is blocked by Earth's atmosphere, so to observe it astronomers had to get above the atmosphere. The rocket's suborbital flight allowed Hi-C to collect data for just over 5 minutes before returning to Earth.

Hi-C could only view a portion of the Sun, so the team had to point it carefully. And since the Sun changes hourly, they had to select their target at the last minute -- the day of the launch. They chose a region that promised to be particularly active.

"We looked at one of the largest and most complicated active regions I've ever seen on the Sun," said Golub. "We hoped that we would see something really new, and we weren't disappointed."

Next steps

Golub said that data from Hi-C continues to be analyzed for more insights. Researchers are hunting areas where other energy release processes were occurring.

In the future, the scientists hope to launch a satellite that could observe the Sun continuously at the same level of sharp detail.

"We learned so much in just five minutes. Imagine what we could learn by watching the Sun 24/7 with this telescope," said Golub.

This research is being published in the journal Nature in a paper co-authored by Cirtain, Golub, A. Winebarger (Marshall), B. De Pontieu (Lockheed Martin), K. Kobayashi (University of Alabama -- Huntsville), R. Moore (Marshall), R. Walsh (University of Central Lancashire), K. Korreck, M. Weber and P. McCauley (CfA), A. Title (Lockheed Martin), S. Kuzin (Lebedev Physical Institute), and C. DeForest (Southwest Research Institute).

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. J. W. Cirtain, L. Golub, A. R. Winebarger, B. De Pontieu, K. Kobayashi, R. L. Moore, R. W. Walsh, K. E. Korreck, M. Weber, P. McCauley, A. Title, S. Kuzin, C. E. DeForest. Energy release in the solar corona from spatially resolved magnetic braids. Nature, 2013; 493 (7433): 501 DOI: 10.1038/nature11772

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/~3/LWNsF_HJvy4/130123144226.htm

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Dakota Fanning Looks All Grown Up At Sundance 2013 (PHOTOS)

www.popsugar.com:

Elizabeth Olsen and Dakota Fanning attended the Very Good Girls premiere party in Park City.

Read the whole story at www.popsugar.com

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/23/dakota-fanning-sundance-photos_n_2536374.html

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Coach shares plunge on tough holiday quarter

NEW YORK (AP) ? Shares of Coach Inc. plunged in premarket trading Wednesday after the luxury handbag seller said a challenging economy and heavy price-cutting by competitors weighed on its fiscal second-quarter results.

The muted holiday results offer more evidence that the shopping season was tough as shoppers grappled with the economic uncertainty brought on by the European recession and the U.S. "fiscal cliff" negotiations.

The quarter is also evidence of growing competition from rivals like Michael Kors, whose trendy designs are attracting loyal followers.

The New York-based company says its net income was $352.7 million, or $1.23 per share, in the quarter ended Dec. 29. That compares with $347.5 million, or $1.18 per share, a year ago.

Net sales rose 4 percent to $1.50 billion.

The results were short of expectations for earnings of $1.28 per share on revenue of $1.6 billion.

Shares of Coach fell nearly 17 percent to $50.55 in premarket trading. That's near their 52-week low of $48.24.

"During the holiday quarter, we drove modest growth and continued to gain overall traction on our key strategies," Chairman and CEO Lew Frankfort said in a statement. He noted that while the company posted strong international results, helped by a strong men's business, the company was disappointed by its performance in North America, where the holiday season proved "challenging."

"Most broadly, the consumer was impacted by a muted macroeconomic environment, while in the women's handbag category competition intensified and promotional activity increased," he added. He noted that despite a heavy promotional environment, Coach didn't succumb to the pressure and stuck with its pricing strategy to protect the brand.

Total North America sales rose 1 percent to $1.08 billion from $1.07 billion in the year-ago period. North American direct sales rose 2 percent for the quarter. Revenue at stores opened at least a year fell 2 percent. The measure is considered a key indicator of a retailer's health.

International sales rose 12 percent to $411 million from $368 million a year ago. China results remained strong, with total sales rising 40 percent and revenue at stores opened at least a year rising at a double-digit rate. In Japan, sales declined 2 percent on a constant currency basis.

Frankfort said China was on course to generate at least $400 million in sales this year. He also said that the company's men's business is on track to generate sales of more than $600 million globally for the current year, up 50 percent from a year ago.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/coach-shares-plunge-tough-holiday-quarter-134934851--finance.html

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High court to decide group's right to sue JobsOhio

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Ohio's high court agreed Wednesday to determine whether opponents of the new private economic development entity created by Republican Gov. John Kasich have the standing to sue.

So far, lower courts have rejected a legal challenge to JobsOhio brought by a liberal policy group and two Democratic state lawmakers.

They've stopped short of ruling on the constitutionality of the nonprofit job-creation board, instead saying the parties can't show harm and so don't have standing. Opponents argue the law created an impossibly small window in which they had to both experience harm and file their legal challenge.

In taking the case, the Ohio Supreme Court signaled it will hear arguments and decide the question.

ProgressOhio executive director Brian Rothenberg, whose group is spearheading the legal challenge, said he hopes justices will find his group has the right to sue so legal arguments over JobsOhio's constitutionality can proceed.

"We've said all along we believe that somebody should have the right to bring this case," he said. "No court has actually ruled on the constitutionality of JobsOhio yet. The state, instead, has played legal games challenging whether any Ohioan had the right to sue."

Earning standing would allow JobsOhio opponents to get to the essence of their legal gripe with Kasich's job-creation entity: Does Ohio's Constitution allow the state to hand over taxpayer money ? in the form of proceeds from Ohio's liquor business ? to a private entity?

Opponents say no; the state says yes. That question would go back to the lower court if standing is granted.

Kasich spokeswoman Connie Wehrkamp said the governor's office remains confident the Supreme Court will eventually rule against the standing of ProgressOhio and Democrats Mike Skindell and Dennis Murray ? as lower courts have.

"Additionally, it continues to be beyond our understanding why anyone would fight against job creation when it's so important to Ohio and our continued economic recovery," she said.

In the meantime, JobsOhio has announced it will go forward with the sale of $1.5 billion in bonds backed by future liquor profits.

Wednesday had been relayed to rating agencies as a target date for the sale. A JobsOhio spokeswoman said a firm date has not been set. The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board indicated in an email to The Associated Press that a filing to announce the offering is expected by Friday.

In a joint statement Wednesday, plaintiffs called on the administration to hold off on the sale until the court rules.

"Proceeding with the sale before the case is resolved would be reckless," they said. "If Kasich chooses to plow ahead, bond buyers beware."

The fight over the standing issue has drawn attention across the political spectrum.

The libertarian 1851 Center for Constitutional Law backs ProgressOhio, a sometime political adversary, in its legal effort. The law center's Maurice Thompson says laws denying taxpayers the standing to sue government are dangerous and increasingly common.

The center decided to get involved for that reason in July after the 10th District Court of Appeals in Columbus upheld a judge's decision to dismiss the JobsOhio challenge citing plaintiffs' lack of standing.

The outcome of the JobsOhio case is also of interest to the Ohio Roundtable, a conservative anti-gambling group that's fighting for standing to legally challenge Kasich's decision authorizing slots-like video lottery terminals at Ohio's seven horse tracks.

The Roundtable and individual plaintiffs argue Kasich's decision to go forward with racinos is unconstitutional because expansions of the state lottery must be approved by voters.

A three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit heard arguments last week over whether the group should be granted standing in that case and is deliberating.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/high-court-decide-groups-sue-202936681.html

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