tuhimera631: June 2013

Thursday, June 27, 2013

News Summary: Pope names Vatican bank commission

TAKING ACTION: Pope Francis took a key step Wednesday toward reforming the troubled Vatican bank, naming a five-person commission of inquiry to look into its activities amid a new money-laundering probe and continued questions about the very nature of the secretive financial institution.

WHAT ELSE: Last year there were revelations in leaked documents that told of dysfunction, petty turf wars and allegations of corruption in the Holy See's governance.

CHANGE AT THE TOP: Francis, who has made clear he has no patience for corruption and wants a "poor" church, has already named a separate commission of cardinals to advise him on the broader question of reforming the Vatican bureaucracy.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/news-summary-pope-names-vatican-180120267.html

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Climate change: Why does President Obama's plan skirt Congress?

When President Obama lays out his agenda to fight climate change at Georgetown University on Tuesday, there won?t be a grand push for sweeping climate legislation.

And that?s mostly because energy, once one of the most bipartisan issues on Capitol Hill, now divides the two parties nearly as starkly as taxes.

Republicans on Capitol Hill are inimically opposed to not only most measures that come stamped ?President Obama Approved? but climate initiatives in particular, making anything more than the smallest legislative tweak a near impossibility for GOP lawmakers. It's also a high risk issue for energy state Democrats, especially those facing voters in coal country.

RECOMMENDED: Think you know the odd effects of global climate change? Take our quiz.

Where liberals see the devastating impact of climate change looming on the horizon, Republicans see overly burdensome rules and regulations from the ?Employment Prevention Agency.?

A spokesman for Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky called the president?s planned announcement ?a pivot away from jobs,? questioned why Democrats didn?t bring the president?s wanted environmental actions to the floor of the Senate, and claimed the president?s policies would hike utility bills and hurt employment.

Asked about the president?s climate initiative last week, House Speaker John Boehner (R) of Ohio was also unyielding.

Want your top political issues explained? Get customized DC Decoder updates.

?I think this is absolutely crazy,? Speaker Boehner told reporters. ?Why would you want to increase the cost of energy and kill more American jobs at a time when the American people are still asking the question, 'Where are the jobs?' ?

That ?Where are the jobs?? refrain is a throwback to the speaker?s daily criticism of the president during the 2012 election campaign.

Then, GOP contender Mitt Romney?s only concrete jobs proposal was to vastly expand fossil fuel production, and two of the right?s most well-worn talking points were the Obama administration?s ?war on coal? and the bankruptcy of solar panel manufacturer Solyndra (a clear example of Obama?s ?crony capitalism? at work).

On energy, the election did little to budge the two sides on Capitol Hill. Then as now, congressional Republicans faced a president who far outstrips them in public approval polls and has a particular edge when voters are asked who cares about them more. In that context, Republicans see energy as a way of connecting with ordinary Americans on pocketbook issues like jobs and utility costs.

In the symbolically important assignment of enumerating House legislative initiatives, the lower the number, the more significant the priority.

Boehner reserved House Resolution (H.R.) 1 for a future tax reform effort, a bedrock Republican belief. The House?s 45th resolution, H.R. 45, was its full repeal of Obamacare.

But the highest bill the House has enacted so far this year is H.R. 3, Rep. Lee Terry (R) of Nebraska?s ?Northern Route Approval Act,? which approved the Keystone XL Pipeline. That vote saw all but one of the House GOP vote in favor of the bill and 19 Democrats join the conservative cause.

Keystone, whose approval has lingered on for years, is a rallying cry for Republicans far from states who would benefit from its construction, because it?s the most public symbol of how the GOP sees Obama?s climate and energy initiatives.

They think the president talks a good game (an ?all of the above? energy strategy, for example) but always sides with his environmental allies when the chips are down, needlessly delaying not only Keystone but drilling on a host of federal lands near GOP congressional turf from the eastern shore of Virginia to the Gulf Coast.

The Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee criticized seven Democrats, four sitting senators and three candidates or potential candidates for Senate seats, on Monday for supporting the president?s ?radical climate change? agenda, even before Obama laid out his plans.

While Republicans are chiefly responsible for zeroing out the president?s chances of moving climate legislation on Capitol Hill, Democrats are wary, too. Twice in the last 20 years (in 1994 and 2009), House Democrats have passed a version of a tax on carbon only to see two things happen.

First, that politically painful vote did not sway their colleagues in the Senate to pass the measure. Second, Democrats in energy-producing states were massacred at the polls for their trouble.

The beatings were so resounding that the votes birthed a new verb, ?BTUed,? for getting one?s political clock cleaned after taking a tough vote on a policy going nowhere. (A British thermal unit, or BTU, is a way of measuring energy.)

The left-right divide on climate issues is evident even in some of the Capitol?s most bipartisan places.

When Sen. Max Baucus (D) of Montana was asked whether he and Rep. Dave Camp (R) of Michigan might consider a carbon tax as part of their bipartisan tax reform efforts at a recent Christian Science Monitor Breakfast, Senator Baucus described Democratic support as ?creeping up a little bit.?

?Everything?s on the table,? Senator Baucus said, repeating the holy mantra for tax reformers that they?re willing to look at any and all proposals.

?We?ll look at that as well some other alternative measures? for raising revenue, he said, ?but I want to take the temperature of the committee.?

But Baucus?s partner in crime was having none of it.

?I try not to make many declarative statements about tax reform,? Representative Camp said, ?but I don?t support a carbon tax.?

RECOMMENDED: Think you know the odd effects of global climate change? Take our quiz.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Report: Gandolfini's body en route to US

ROME (AP) ? The Italian news agency ANSA says the body of actor James Gandolfini has departed Rome and is en route to the United States.

ANSA did not cite any sources, but published a photo showing airport workers loading a coffin identified as that of the "Sopranos" star on to a plane.

The agency says the private plane took off at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) Sunday. Its exact U.S. destination was unclear.

Family spokesman Michael Kobold earlier told reporters the "provisional plan" was to repatriate Gandolfini's body Monday.

Gandolfini, 51, died Wednesday in Rome. Kobold has said an autopsy revealed the cause was a heart attack. Authorities have not released the report.

The actor had been headed to Sicily to appear at the Taormina Film Festival, which paid tribute to him Saturday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/report-gandolfinis-body-en-route-us-190541669.html

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Families skeptical of Pratt cancer study findings

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- For jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney, a long-simmering dispute over worker illnesses was settled by a massive 11-year study that found no elevated risk of brain cancer at its plants. But for dead workers' relatives who first raised concerns years ago, the matter is far from closed.

Their next step hasn't been decided, and the choices are limited. Matt Shafner, a New London lawyer who represents families, said more than 90 workers' compensation claims have been filed. But he won't move forward until an independent review of the study is completed, he said.

"It's not over," said Carol Shea, whose husband, John Shea, worked at Pratt & Whitney's North Haven plant for 35 years and died of brain cancer in 2000 at age 56.

Some relatives of workers who died of brain cancer a decade or more ago are dissatisfied with the study, saying it failed to prove that the deaths of their loved ones were part of a broader problem.

Todd Atcherson, whose father, Charles Atcherson, died in 1998 after working at Pratt & Whitney for about 25 years, said the enormous scope of the study ? health and work records of more than 200,000 employees were reviewed ? fail to explain the deaths of his father and a small group of other workers at the North Haven plant.

"They skewed out the numbers so far, they lost focus of five people who worked in the same site and all died," he said.

Shea said she believes the researchers are "way off."

"I couldn't believe they couldn't come up with anything," she said.

The study, released last month, was launched "in response to the perception of an unusual occurrence" of glioblastoma, a common and aggressive malignant brain tumor, at the North Haven plant. It found the incidence rates of glioblastoma at the site weren't related to workplace exposures.

The environment at the plant featured a blue haze, a product of aerosol generated from metalworking fluids during fast, hot grinding.

The study, which examined seven other Pratt & Whitney plants in Connecticut, found no statistically significant elevations in the rate of cancer among workers. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and University of Illinois at Chicago said they identified 723 workers diagnosed with tumors between 1976 and 2004 at the subsidiary of United Technologies Corp.

The tumors were malignant, benign or unspecified and included 277 cases of brain cancer. Of those, 167 were at Pratt & Whitney's East Hartford site and 57 at North Haven, though North Haven workers were at greater risk of having brain cancer, the study said.

But following a study of the North Haven plant, researchers said they couldn't conclude that the environment or exposures were related to the overall elevations in brain cancer.

Gary Marsh, the University of Pittsburgh researcher who led the study, said that he understands family members' frustrations but that the study is conclusive and definitive.

"Let's face it: Brain cancer is a terrible disease and anyone who suffers from it or had a loved one suffer from it wants to know why they got that disease," he said. "We looked at everything conceivable as a possible cause of brain cancer."

Ray Hernandez, a spokesman for Pratt & Whitney, said the company is satisfied with the study's conclusions and considers the matter closed.

"Since we are confident in the scientific rigor of this comprehensive study, we think it provides the best possible information about this issue," he said in an emailed statement.

The study found no connection between brain cancer and the workplace and researchers found no patterns or trends of other causes of death "suggestive of a workplace relationship," Hernandez said.

In Connecticut, Pratt & Whitney over the years has shut down all but its Middletown and East Hartford plants. Manufacturing processes from decades ago have been transformed and haven't recently raised safety issues.

A few family members said they are wary of the study because it was commissioned by Pratt & Whitney at a cost of $12 million. The university researchers worked independently of Pratt & Whitney and the state Department of Public Health established an advisory group to review the progress, methods and other aspects of the study and address concerns about the study's independence.

John DeLeone, a grinding machine operator at the North Haven plant from 1984 until it closed in 2002, said workers suspected that chemicals specific to that plant were lethal. He criticized the study, which was launched in 2002 in response to concerns about employee deaths at North Haven, for being overly broad rather than focusing on that plant.

"It seemed that only people who got sick were those who transferred from North Haven," he said.

Marsh said the study adds to the body of knowledge of occupational health, used by researchers and relevant to other jet engine manufacturers, such as General Electric Co. and Rolls Royce, he said.

"We concluded there is no evidence of elevated health risks of this population. That's a good thing to know," he said.

But Debra Belancik, the Machinists' union's safety and health representative, said the study "doesn't bring any closure at all."

"All this work we did, all the high rates, all the funerals and wakes I went to, it kind of bothered me a little bit," she said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/families-skeptical-pratt-cancer-study-180254208.html

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PST: Fire continue turnaround by topping Crew

Two weeks ago I told you the Fire?s season looked promising going forward, and they didn?t disappoint.

After Columbus took the lead through a Federico Higuain penalty, Dilly Duka and Mike McGee quickfired consecutive scores in the second half to complete a shocking comeback as Chicago stunned the Crew 2-1.

The win gives the Fire 12 points in their last 5 fixtures, and completely muddies the waters in the Eastern Conference.

With all three points, Chicago is now just three points back of fifth position, and two behind Columbus in sixth.

The turnaround exactly coincides with Mike Magee?s debut with the Fire, having come over in exchange for the rights to Robby Rogers.? The winger now has 9 goals in 13 MLS matches this season, and he?s got a goal in all 4 matches with the Fire since the transfer ? 3 wins and a draw.? Saturday night?s ? a header into the top corner on a cross from Lindpere ? is also Magee?s 6th goal in his last 6 matches between both clubs.

Also instrumental in Chicago?s turnaround is Bakary Soumare, the Malian central defender who joined in May from Philadelphia and made an immediate impact.

Since joining the squad, Soumare has been instrumental at the back.? The fire have given up just 4 goals in 4 matches since Soumare?s return, picking up points in each one.? In fact, in the two matches for Philadelphia against Chicago prior to his transfer, Soumare and the Union held the Fire to a goose egg on both occasions.

The Fire, with their new found form, have two massive opportunities coming up.? They have a wonderful chance for points against San Jose at home and Sporting KC at home in a match with major playoff implications.

Source: http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2013/06/22/chicago-continues-furious-turnaround-with-win-over-columbus/related/

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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Blackhawks 1 win away from Stanley Cup title

Chicago Blackhawks right wing Patrick Kane (88) celebrates with center Jonathan Toews (19) and defenseman Duncan Keith (2) after scoring a goal against the Boston Bruins in the second period during Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals, Saturday, June 22, 2013, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Boston Bruins right wing Jaromir Jagr (68) reacts after a goal by the Chicago Blackhawks in the second period during Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals, Saturday, June 22, 2013, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Chicago Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford (50) is congratulated by teammates after the Blackhawks won 3-1 over the Boston Bruins during Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals, Saturday, June 22, 2013, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Bruce Bennett, Pool)

Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara (33) collides with Chicago Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews (19) in the second period during Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals, Saturday, June 22, 2013, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Boston Bruins center Tyler Seguin (19) collides with Chicago Blackhawks center Marcus Kruger (16) in the third period during Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals, Saturday, June 22, 2013, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Bruce Bennett, Pool)

CHICAGO (AP) ? Patrick Kane was right there again. Slicing through the middle of the ice, setting up his teammates for prime opportunities. Using his skills to beat another hot goaltender.

When it comes to the Stanley Cup finals, the talented forward just loves to put on a show.

Kane scored two goals, Corey Crawford made 24 saves and the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Boston Bruins 3-1 on Saturday night to move within one victory of their second championship in four years.

"This is what you work for all year, all summer, when you're training throughout the year, at training camp, whatever it may be," Kane said. "This is what you work for, this opportunity. We've got to seize the moment and take advantage of it."

Kane had a terrific postseason when Blackhawks won it all in 2010, including the winning score in a 4-3 overtime victory in Philadelphia that secured Chicago's first title in 49 years. Now he's picking up steam with the Blackhawks set to play for another Stanley Cup on Monday night in Boston, collecting seven goals in the last seven games.

Dave Bolland added an empty-net score, Toews had two assists and Bryan Bickell was credited with a team-high six hits and an assist. Toews also won nine of his 12 faceoffs before leaving with an upper-body injury.

"We're hopeful he'll be ready next game," said coach Joel Quenneville, providing the usual vague description of injuries that's so common in the NHL playoffs.

The Bruins also lost one of their key players when Patrice Bergeron was hurt in the second. It was unclear what happened to the star center, but the team said he was taken to a hospital for observation.

"As far as we're concerned, he's just getting evaluated right now," coach Claude Julien said. "Not much I can say on his situation."

Zdeno Chara scored in the third period for the Bruins, who lost consecutive games for the first time since the first round against Toronto. Tuukka Rask made 29 saves, keeping the Bruins close while they scrambled to generate quality chances.

"We just ran out of time," Rask said.

Chara got a nice pass from David Krejci from behind the net and beat Crawford on the glove side to make it 2-1 at 3:40 in the third period. The whistling slap shot by the big defenseman came after he was on the ice for five of Chicago's goals in the Blackhawks' 6-5 overtime victory Wednesday night.

The location of Chara's third postseason goal brought to mind the glove-side difficulties for Crawford in Game 4. But he held up just fine coming off the worst postseason game of his career.

"I think it was a big effort by everyone to come back, play defensively, block shots, sacrifice our bodies to block those pucks and quickly get on to offense," he said.

Crawford gloved Daniel Paille's slap shot early in the third, and the Blackhawks helped their embattled goaltender by turning up the pressure on Rask after the Bruins cut it to one. Kane forced Rask to make a couple of nice stops, and Michael Frolik also made a run to the net.

The Blackhawks survived one last push by the Bruins after they pulled Rask, and the crowd of 22,274 roared when the overhead videoboard showed the No. 1 and the Stanley Cup on the screen, signifying the team is one victory away from its fifth title.

"We understand the situation and what's at stake, but our mindset is going in there and trying to have the best game possible," defenseman Duncan Keith said. "It's no different from tonight's game."

Not so for Boston.

"It's do or die," Julien said. "We've been there before, and we've done well in that situation."

Boston and Chicago returned to the ice three days after they played the highest-scoring game in this year's NHL playoffs.

It was a marked departure from the first three games of the finals, and raised questions about what the play would be like in the last part of the series. The answer, at least in Game 5, was a return to the strong team defense and disciplined play. It meant little room to maneuver in both offensive zones, especially for the series' biggest stars ? except Kane.

"Guys that have that kind of innate skill of scoring and being a top player, they anticipate like the rest of us would like to," Quenneville said.

With 2? minutes left in the first, Johnny Oduya's long slap shot broke the stick of Boston defenseman Dennis Seidenberg and trickled to the left side of the net where Kane poked it in for eighth playoff goal.

The line of Kane, Toews and Bickell, which Quenneville put back together before Game 4, struck again in the second. Bickell was stopped by Rask on a rush along the left side, but skated behind the net and threw it back in front.

The puck went off the right side of the goal as Rask got his blocker to the post. Kane then deftly backhanded the bouncing puck into the top of the net to make it 2-0 at 5:13.

"You're not going to get those chances often, so it was good to bury them," he said.

That proved to be enough for Crawford, who has allowed one goal or less in nine games this postseason. But this one had to be particularly satisfying after facing a barrage of questions about his glove over the past two days.

"I have a job to do," said Crawford, who watched from the stands when the Blackhawks won it all in 2010. "Whatever is being said doesn't really affect what I'm going to do on the ice."

Since the NHL went to a best-of-seven format for the Stanley Cup in 1939, the winner of Game 5 in a deadlocked series has gone on to win the title 15 times in 22 occasions.

Those numbers likely don't scare Boston very much. The Bruins faced the same situation against Vancouver in 2011 and came back to win the championship.

"We're going to fight," center David Krejci said. "We're going to fight with everything we have and force Game 7."

NOTES: Bruins rookie Carl Soderberg made his first career playoff appearance when Julien decided to scratch Kaspars Daugavins. The 27-year-old Soderberg played a little more than 14 minutes in his first game since April 28. ... Former Blackhawks G Ed Belfour received a loud ovation and chants of "Ed-die! Ed-die!" when he was shown on the videoboard in the second period. ... Actress Michelle Pfeiffer and her husband David Kelley, a TV writer and producer, attended the game. ... The Bruins had no power plays.

___

Jay Cohen can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jcohenap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-23-Stanley%20Cup/id-90d38551c1de4688ad3add53dc58c353

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Windows 8 Music update brings in-app searching, login-free trial streaming

Believe it or not, the Music app in Windows 8 hasn't let users easily search for music from within the app itself -- they've had to search using OS-level tools. Microsoft is mending that gap in logic with the June update to its built-in jukebox software. The media play now lets you search for songs on both your PC and Xbox Music through an in-app button. And if you don't have any local tunes, you won't have to sign in to start listening -- Music now lets you stream 15 tracks through Xbox Music's ad-supported free tier without using an account. While there aren't other big upgrades to the app, what's here is enough to justify a trip to the Windows Store for the new version.

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

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Source: Windows Experience Blog

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/WDtYv0qHso8/

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Hillary Clinton says she wants America to have a woman president. Surprised?

'I really do hope that we have a woman president in my lifetime,'?Hillary Rodham Clinton?said this week.?Was that a hint about her own possible candidacy?

By Mark Trumbull,?Staff writer / June 22, 2013

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting in Chicago last week. Her speech was a broad-brush address heralding the power of women and talking education and opportunity.

Scott Eisen/AP

Enlarge

She didn?t say she?s going to run for the White House in 2016. But, to many listeners, the latest words of Hillary Rodham Clinton certainly hint that it?s a strong possibility.

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?Let me say this, hypothetically speaking,? she said, ?I really do hope that we have a woman president in my lifetime.?

Members of the audience, at a women?s lecture series in Toronto, cheered.

To get beyond the ?hypothetical," a quick follow-up question: Isn?t it possible that, when voters get the opportunity to see a woman on the presidential ballot as a major contender, the initials of that nominee might be H.R.C.?

Answer: Yes, it looks very possible.

Mrs. Clinton currently gets a ?favorable? rating from 6 in 10 Americans, is widely known, and has been making moves you might expect of someone positioning themselves for a presidential run.

After being Secretary of State, she?s bowed out of public service for President Obama?s second term. She?s showing her interest in domestic affairs by engaging in an initiative for early childhood education. Having been a strong contender for the Democratic nomination back in 2008, she knows a lot about campaigning.

Some other major democracies have had female chief executives, including people like Margaret Thatcher in Britain and, currently, Angela Merkel in Germany. For more than two centuries, America hasn?t broken that gender barrier.

?I think it would send exactly the right historic signal to girls and women, as well as boys and men,? Clinton told the Thursday crowd in Toronto. Video?footage of the comments, captured by an audience member, was posted on YouTube.com by the Associated Press Friday.

?It really depends on women stepping up and subjecting themselves to the political process,? Clinton added.

Quoting another former First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, Clinton said women need Rhinoceros-thick skins to be in politics.

She also said electing a woman would require a ?leap of faith? for US voters.

Some polls have found Americans saying they have no problem with the idea of a woman as president. A?Gallup poll?in 2006, for example, found 6 in 10 saying Americans are ?ready? for that.

Will Clinton herself ?step up? for the 2016 contest? We?ll see. Her popularity has ebbed and flowed over the years, but since early 2008 a majority of Americans have given her a favorable rating in Gallup polls.

She has lots of fans. But as she departed from her role as Secretary of State, Clinton?s aura of success in that job was tarnished by?controversy?over the State Department?s handling of events in Benghazi, Libya, in which Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in a terrorist attack.

And she has long been a magnet for conservative criticism. On Thursday, the Republican group America Rising launched a?StopHillary2016.org?website to raise funds in opposition to her potential candidacy.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/hHOOcfqaqcA/Hillary-Clinton-says-she-wants-America-to-have-a-woman-president.-Surprised

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NASA moon probe celebrates 4th birthday on Supermoon Sunday

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Artist's rendering of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.

By Mike Wall, Space.com

A sharp-eyed NASA spacecraft celebrates four years of circling the moon this Sunday (June 23), just in time for the "supermoon."

Since arriving in orbit on June 23, 2009, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has given scientists a much deeper understanding of Earth's nearest neighbor, mission team members said.

"Not only has LRO delivered all the information that is needed for future human and robotic explorers, but it has also revealed that the moon is a more complex and dynamic world than we had ever expected," Rich Vondrak, LRO deputy project scientist at NASA?s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement. [ Celebrating LRO's Fourth Anniversary (Video) ]

Appropriately enough, LRO marks its fourth anniversary on the same day that the biggest and brightest full moon of 2013 ? the so-called " supermoon " ? lights up Earth's night sky.?

The moon's path around Earth is slightly elliptical; distances between the two bodies vary from 225,622 miles (363,104 kilometers) at the closest lunar approach, known as perigee, to 252,088 miles (405,696 km) at apogee. Supermoons result when the full moon and perigee coincide.?

The $504 million LRO spacecraft is about the size of a Mini Cooper car and sports seven different science instruments. It zips around the moon at an altitude of 31 miles (50 km).

LRO launched on June 18, 2009, along with a piggyback probe called the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite. In October 2009, LRO watched from orbit as LCROSS and the duo's Centaur booster rocket slammed deliberately into a shadowed crater at the moon's south pole, blasting out surprisingly large amounts of water ice.

LRO initally worked as a scout, studying the moon to help NASA plan for future lunar exploration missions. It wrapped up this work in September 2010, then switched over to more of a pure science mode.

The spacecraft has been incredibly prolific, beaming home about 434 terabytes of data thus far. That's more than all other NASA planetary missions combined, space agency officials have said.

LRO's accomplishments are many and varied, reflecting the diversity of its instruments and mission profiles.

At the lunar poles, for example, LRO's Diviner instrument measured the coldest temperatures ever recorded on a solar system body (minus 397 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 238 degrees Celsius). Other LRO gear has helped scientists realize that the polar regions likely harbor immense amounts of water ice.

Further, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera has mapped all of NASA's Apollo landing sites in high resolution and returned images that show the moon is still contracting, researchers said.

Data from the probe's laser altimeter helped mission scientists build the best map of lunar surface altitude variations ever constructed, and LRO's Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation instrument (CRaTER) measured the radiation environment around the moon.

"In its four years in orbit, LRO has revealed a new moon with discoveries that address the moon's history and by extension the Earth's history as well," John Keller, LRO project scientist at NASA Goddard, said in a statement.

"The innovative measurements by LRO have answered many questions asked by planetary scientists, but have also uncovered new questions as well," Keller added. "I'm looking forward to future work on these new questions as LRO continues to study the moon."

To date, LRO has completed nearly 18,000 orbits, traveling about 125 million miles (200 million km) around the moon in the process, researchers said. It's slated to continue operating until October 2014, though a two-year mission extension is a possibility.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter?@michaeldwall?and?Google+.?Follow us@Spacedotcom,Facebook?orGoogle+. Originally published on?SPACE.com.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2da7054b/l/0Lscience0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A60C220C190A920A130Enasa0Emoon0Eprobe0Ecelebrates0E4th0Ebirthday0Eon0Esupermoon0Esunday0Dlite/story01.htm

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Friday, June 21, 2013

Facebook announces Cinema stabilization for Video on Instagram: iOS version only (update: more details)

If you somehow haven't heard, today's big Facebook announcement was Video on Instagram, and to accompany that news the team unveiled Cinema stabilization, meant to improve the quality (read: decrease the wobbliness) of your 15-second clips. Android users, take note: the feature is only available on the iPhone 5 and 4S, though ~~we imagine it could~~ it is slated to appear on Google's mobile OS later down the line. For now, it's iOS only due to the difficulties of dealing with Android device fragmentation

Instagram founder Kevin Systrom explained that the technology was created with input from "cinematic experts," and we definitely noticed the difference in the before-and-after demo on stage. In scenarios such as filming a kid riding a bike, the stabilization seemed to tamper the jerkiness that inevitably comes with moving shots. The feature is enabled by default, but pressing the camera icon (seen above) will turn it off. iOS users can try out the new functionality by clicking through to the App Store below.

Update: We just got done chatting with some of the Instagram engineers and got to learn a bit more about Cinema. Turns out, it took the work of four or five engineers to make the image stabilization feature a reality. According to CEO Kevin Systrom, Instagram already has one patent for the technology powering Cinema and there may be more IP to come out of the feature. Not surprisingly, that's why we couldn't get any more information about Cinema, but we were told that more will be revealed as the technology's legal protections are solidified. So, keep an eye out folks, as Cinema's secrets will eventually, some day, be revealed (we hope).

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Source: Instagram, App Store

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/20/cinema-stabilization-for-video-on-instagram/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Thursday, June 20, 2013

[NFL: New York Giants] - Watch: Jennings inducted into Ring of Honor

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Source: http://sportspyder.com/teams/new-york-giants/articles/9409661

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'Anchorman: The Legend Continues' Trailer Breaks Down Racial Barriers

The latest trailer for "Anchorman: The Legend Continues" finally gives us a look at footage from the sequel, and just about all we can say is "Super duper!" We're also getting our first taste of the continuing story of the Channel 4 News Teams. Ron, Brick, Champ, and Brian are getting back together to form [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/06/19/anchorman-the-legend-continues-trailer-3/

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Investigators Hint Real Cause Of The TWA 800 Air Disaster Covered Up

Easily one of the most notorious disasters of the 1990s was the crash of TWA Flight 800 in July 1996, which killed 230 people on their way from New York's JFK Airport to Paris. The probable cause of the crash was determined to be an accidental fuel tank explosion, but a new documentary is challenging that theory.

But what makes this film more intriguing than your average conspiracy theory documentary are the people involved with it: former members of the official investigation into the crash who are stepping up to refute the National Transportation Safety Board's explanation of things.

They're saying that new evidence indicates the plane was taken down by an outside source, a theory that has been discounted several times over the years. Critics have theorized a missile either came from a U.S. Navy vessel or terrorists in a small boat.

Here's an ABC News report on the new film, called simply TWA 800:

"We didn't find any part of the airplane that indicated a mechanical failure," one of the whistleblowers says in a trailer for the film. The former officials allege the explosion came from outside the plane, though they don't speculate any further on the original source.

Another of the whistleblowers, former senior accident investigator with the NTSB Hank Hughes, said in a preview of the documentary that FBI agents were spotted on surveillance cameras going through the hanger where the crash evidence was kept "in the wee hours of the morning... for purposes unknown."

The AP reports that several of these investigators are now seeking a new probe into the crash, and have filed a petition with the NTSB asking for one. From their story:

The former investigators calling for a new probe say new evidence that a missile may have taken down the jet includes analysis of radar of the jetliner.

Speculation of a missile strike began almost immediately after the crash. Theories that an errant missile may have been fired from a U.S. military vessel were widely refuted, but conjecture about a shoulder-fired missile launched by terrorists in a small boat has never completely gone away.

The petitioners contend that the testimony of more than 200 witnesses who reported seeing streaks of light headed toward the plane should be reconsidered. The NTSB said after the first investigation that it found no evidence of a missile strike. It explained that what witnesses likely saw was the jetliner pitching upward in the first few moments after the explosion, but some witnesses still maintain that the streak of light they saw emanated from the waterline and zoomed upward toward the plane.

NTSB officials today stood by the facts of their investigation, saying it remains one of the most thorough ever conducted. The "missile theory" surfaced early on in the investigation, and law enforcement officials initially believed a criminal act took the plane down, but they later backed away from that possibility.

The documentary airs on the EPIX premium television channel in July.

Photo credit AP

Source: http://jalopnik.com/investigators-hint-real-cause-of-the-twa-800-air-disast-514325080

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Scientists identify emotions based on brain activity

June 19, 2013 ? For the first time, scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have identified which emotion a person is experiencing based on brain activity.

The study, published in the June 19 issue of PLOS ONE, combines functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and machine learning to measure brain signals to accurately read emotions in individuals. Led by researchers in CMU's Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the findings illustrate how the brain categorizes feelings, giving researchers the first reliable process to analyze emotions. Until now, research on emotions has been long stymied by the lack of reliable methods to evaluate them, mostly because people are often reluctant to honestly report their feelings. Further complicating matters is that many emotional responses may not be consciously experienced.

Identifying emotions based on neural activity builds on previous discoveries by CMU's Marcel Just and Tom M. Mitchell, which used similar techniques to create a computational model that identifies individuals' thoughts of concrete objects, often dubbed "mind reading."

"This research introduces a new method with potential to identify emotions without relying on people's ability to self-report," said Karim Kassam, assistant professor of social and decision sciences and lead author of the study. "It could be used to assess an individual's emotional response to almost any kind of stimulus, for example, a flag, a brand name or a political candidate."

One challenge for the research team was find a way to repeatedly and reliably evoke different emotional states from the participants. Traditional approaches, such as showing subjects emotion-inducing film clips, would likely have been unsuccessful because the impact of film clips diminishes with repeated display. The researchers solved the problem by recruiting actors from CMU's School of Drama.

"Our big breakthrough was my colleague Karim Kassam's idea of testing actors, who are experienced at cycling through emotional states. We were fortunate, in that respect, that CMU has a superb drama school," said George Loewenstein, the Herbert A. Simon University Professor of Economics and Psychology.

For the study, 10 actors were scanned at CMU's Scientific Imaging & Brain Research Center while viewing the words of nine emotions: anger, disgust, envy, fear, happiness, lust, pride, sadness and shame. While inside the fMRI scanner, the actors were instructed to enter each of these emotional states multiple times, in random order.

Another challenge was to ensure that the technique was measuring emotions per se, and not the act of trying to induce an emotion in oneself. To meet this challenge, a second phase of the study presented participants with pictures of neutral and disgusting photos that they had not seen before. The computer model, constructed from using statistical information to analyze the fMRI activation patterns gathered for 18 emotional words, had learned the emotion patterns from self-induced emotions. It was able to correctly identify the emotional content of photos being viewed using the brain activity of the viewers.

To identify emotions within the brain, the researchers first used the participants' neural activation patterns in early scans to identify the emotions experienced by the same participants in later scans. The computer model achieved a rank accuracy of 0.84. Rank accuracy refers to the percentile rank of the correct emotion in an ordered list of the computer model guesses; random guessing would result in a rank accuracy of 0.50.

Next, the team took the machine learning analysis of the self-induced emotions to guess which emotion the subjects were experiencing when they were exposed to the disgusting photographs. The computer model achieved a rank accuracy of 0.91. With nine emotions to choose from, the model listed disgust as the most likely emotion 60 percent of the time and as one of its top two guesses 80 percent of the time.

Finally, they applied machine learning analysis of neural activation patterns from all but one of the participants to predict the emotions experienced by the hold-out participant. This answers an important question: If we took a new individual, put them in the scanner and exposed them to an emotional stimulus, how accurately could we identify their emotional reaction? Here, the model achieved a rank accuracy of 0.71, once again well above the chance guessing level of 0.50.

"Despite manifest differences between people's psychology, different people tend to neurally encode emotions in remarkably similar ways," noted Amanda Markey, a graduate student in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences.

A surprising finding from the research was that almost equivalent accuracy levels could be achieved even when the computer model made use of activation patterns in only one of a number of different subsections of the human brain.

"This suggests that emotion signatures aren't limited to specific brain regions, such as the amygdala, but produce characteristic patterns throughout a number of brain regions," said Vladimir Cherkassky, senior research programmer in the Psychology Department.

The research team also found that while on average the model ranked the correct emotion highest among its guesses, it was best at identifying happiness and least accurate in identifying envy. It rarely confused positive and negative emotions, suggesting that these have distinct neural signatures. And, it was least likely to misidentify lust as any other emotion, suggesting that lust produces a pattern of neural activity that is distinct from all other emotional experiences.

Just, the D.O. Hebb University Professor of Psychology, director of the university's Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging and leading neuroscientist, explained, "We found that three main organizing factors underpinned the emotion neural signatures, namely the positive or negative valence of the emotion, its intensity -- mild or strong, and its sociality -- involvement or non-involvement of another person. This is how emotions are organized in the brain."

In the future, the researchers plan to apply this new identification method to a number of challenging problems in emotion research, including identifying emotions that individuals are actively attempting to suppress and multiple emotions experienced simultaneously, such as the combination of joy and envy one might experience upon hearing about a friend's good fortune.

Groundbreaking discoveries such as identifying emotions based on neural activation patterns have helped to establish Carnegie Mellon as a world leader in brain and behavioral sciences. To build on its foundation of research excellence in psychology, neuroscience and computational science, CMU recently launched a Brain, Mind and Learning initiative to enhance the university's ability to innovate in the laboratory and continue to solve real-world problems.

The National Institute of Mental Health funded this research.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/oqToq4S_IUI/130619195137.htm

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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Military plans would put women in most combat jobs

FILE - In this Sept. 18, 2012 file photo, female soldiers from 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division train on a firing range while testing new body armor in Fort Campbell, Ky., in preparation for their deployment to Afghanistan. Women may be able to begin training as Army Rangers by mid-2015, and as Navy SEALs a year later under broad plans Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is approving that would slowly bring women into thousands of combat jobs, including those in the country?s elite special operations forces, according to details of the plans submitted to Hagel that were obtained by The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

FILE ? In this May 17, 2013 file photo Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, left, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey take turns talking to media during a news conference at the Pentagon. Women may be able to begin training as Army Rangers by mid-2015, and as Navy SEALs a year later under broad plans Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is approving that would slowly bring women into thousands of combat jobs, including those in the country?s elite special operations forces, according to details of the plans submitted to Hagel that were obtained by The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Military leaders are ready to begin tearing down the remaining walls that have prevented women from holding thousands of combat and special operations jobs near the front lines.

Under details of the plans obtained by The Associated Press, women could start training as Army Rangers by mid-2015 and as Navy SEALs a year later.

The military services have mapped out a schedule that also will include reviewing and possibly changing the physical and mental standards that men and women will have to meet in order to quality for certain infantry, armor, commando and other front-line positions across the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Under the plans to be introduced Tuesday, there would be one common standard for men and women for each job.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel reviewed the plans and has ordered the services to move ahead.

The move follows revelations of a startling number of sexual assaults in the armed forces. Earlier this year, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said the sexual assaults might be linked to the longstanding ban on women serving in combat because the disparity between the roles of men and women creates separate classes of personnel ? male "warriors" versus the rest of the force.

While the sexual assault problem is more complicated than that, he said, the disparity has created a psychology that lends itself to disrespect for women.

Under the schedules military leaders delivered to Hagel, the Army will develop standards by July 2015 to allow women to train and potentially serve as Rangers, and qualified women could begin training as Navy SEALs by March 2016 if senior leaders agree. Military leaders have suggested bringing senior women from the officer and enlisted ranks into special forces units first to ensure that younger, lower-ranking women have a support system to help them get through the transition.

The Navy intends to open up its Riverine force and begin training women next month, with the goal of assigning women to the units by October. While not part of the special operations forces, the coastal Riverine squadrons do close combat and security operations in small boats. The Navy plans to have studies finished by July 2014 on allowing women to serve as SEALs, and has set October 2015 as the date when women could begin Navy boot camp with the expressed intention of becoming SEALs eventually.

U.S. Special Operations Command is coordinating the matter of what commando jobs could be opened to women, what exceptions might be requested and when the transition would take place.

The proposals leave the door open for continued exclusion of women from some jobs if research and testing find that women could not be successful in sufficient numbers. But the services would have to defend such decisions to top Pentagon leaders.

Army officials plan to complete gender-neutral standards for the Ranger course by July 2015. Army Rangers are one of the service's special operations units, but many soldiers who go through Ranger training and wear the coveted tab on their shoulders never actually serve in the 75th Ranger Regiment. To be considered a true Ranger, soldiers must serve in the regiment.

In January, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Dempsey signed an order that wiped away generations of limits on where and how women could fight for their country. At the time, they asked the services to develop plans to set the change in motion.

The decision reflects a reality driven home by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where battle lines were blurred and women were propelled into jobs as medics, military police and intelligence officers who were sometimes attached, but not formally assigned, to battalions. So even though a woman could not serve officially as a battalion infantryman going out on patrol, she could fly a helicopter supporting the unit or be part of a team supplying medical aid if troops were injured.

Of the more than 6,700 U.S. service members who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, about 150 have been women.

The order Panetta and Dempsey signed prohibits physical standards from being lowered simply to allow women to qualify for jobs closer to the battlefront. But the services are methodically reviewing and revising the standards for many jobs, including strength and stamina, in order to set minimum requirements for troops to meet regardless of their sex.

The military services are also working to determine the cost of opening certain jobs to women, particularly aboard a variety of Navy ships, including certain submarines, frigates, mine warfare and other smaller warships. Dozens of ships do not have adequate berthing or facilities for women to meet privacy needs, and would require design and construction changes.

Under a 1994 Pentagon policy, women were prohibited from being assigned to ground combat units below the brigade level. A brigade is roughly 3,500 troops split into several battalions of about 800 soldiers each. Historically, brigades were based farther from the front lines, and they often included top command and support staff.

Last year the military opened up about 14,500 combat positions to women, most of them in the Army, by allowing them to serve in many jobs at the battalion level. The January order lifted the last barrier to women serving in combat, but allows the services to argue to keep some jobs closed.

The bulk of the nearly 240,000 jobs currently closed to women are in the Army, including those in infantry, armor, combat engineer and artillery units that are often close to the battlefront. Similar jobs in the Marine Corps are also closed.

Army officials have laid out a rolling schedule of dates in 2015 to develop gender-neutral standards for specific jobs, beginning with July for engineers, followed by field artillery in March and the infantry and armor jobs no later than September.

Women make up about 14 percent of the 1.4 million active U.S. military personnel. More than 280,000 women have been sent to Iraq, Afghanistan or neighboring nations in support of the wars.