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Thursday, August 1, 2013
Analysis: Manning damage has fallen well short of worst U.S. fears
By Warren Strobel
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Accused of the nation's biggest-ever security leak, U.S. soldier Bradley Manning was vilified by the government for causing irreparable damage to American national interests. In retrospect, the harm he caused seems to have been overplayed.
A U.S. military judge cleared Manning on Tuesday of the most serious charge against him - aiding the enemy - in a verdict that indicated the soldier's secrecy violations, while criminal, were not as dire as prosecutors had alleged.
Manning's revelations to WikiLeaks, including hundreds of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables and raw intelligence reports from the Iraqi and Afghan battlefields, violated his military oath and "put real lives and real careers at risk," said former State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley.
But the strategic damage to the United States - to its reputation and its ability to work with allies and conduct diplomacy - "was transitory," said Crowley, who resigned in 2011 after publicly criticizing the Pentagon's treatment of Manning in a military prison.
As reams of classified State Department cables - some containing unflattering portraits of foreign leaders or detailing U.S. envoys' contacts with human rights groups - leaked to the public, some saw catastrophe for U.S. diplomacy.
Yet, despite what Crowley called a few "isolated cases" in which foreign counterparts were less candid than in the past, fearing their words might leak, the State Department was able to mitigate the damage.
In just one of dozens of examples, U.S. ties with Indonesia wobbled after the release of cables showing the U.S. Embassy suspected collusion between Jakarta's security forces and the extremist Islamic Defenders Front, accused of attacks on religious minorities.
The leaks "were quite unpleasant," said Teuku Faizasyah, Indonesia's presidential spokesman for foreign affairs. But he said, "Our relations with the U.S. have continued normally since. The lesson is that we have to be more careful with the flow of such intelligence."
The military judge, Colonel Denise Lind, found Manning guilty on 19 counts, including five espionage charges. Manning could face a sentence of 136 years in prison. Military prosecutors had pushed for a harsher judgment. They called him a "traitor" and said his actions had helped the al Qaeda network.
'SUBTLE RATHER THAN CATASTROPHIC'
"The official damage assessments concerning Manning/WikiLeaks have not been publicly released, but my sense is that the bulk of the damage is subtle rather than catastrophic," said Steven Aftergood, an expert on government secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, a private group.
"But it is nonetheless real," Aftergood said. "Because of the broad scope and overwhelming volume of the WikiLeaks cables, their disclosure cast doubt on the ability of the U.S. government to guarantee confidentiality of any kind - whether in diplomacy, military operations or intelligence. That's not a small thing."
In Australia, a crucial U.S. ally in the Asia-Pacific region, the revelations have affected the way Western diplomats operate and report on political developments, and have curtailed events such as social dinner party chats where diplomats often gain insights on what is happening in a country.
"The diplomats have told me this has affected their reporting of events in Australia, or events anywhere in the world," said government lawmaker Michael Danby, who until June was head of Australia's powerful joint intelligence committee which oversees intelligence matters.
"It has restricted political reporting and mingling for open Western societies (among diplomats and politicians)."
In late 2010, Wikileaks cables outed then Australian sports minister Mark Arbib as a regular source of information for U.S. diplomats. Danby's name was also mentioned. One cable also described current Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, then the foreign minister, as a "mistake-prone control freak".
It remains to be seen whether the Manning verdict - rendered in a military rather than civilian court - will impact future prosecutions, most notably against former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked documents exposing previously secret U.S. telephone and internet surveillance programs. Snowden, who faces U.S. criminal charges, has taken refuge in a Moscow airport.
Aftergood, while cautioning that military courts are quite different from civilian leak trials, said, "Every Espionage Act case can alter the legal landscape for cases that come after it."
President Barack Obama has been more aggressive than any of his predecessors in searching out and punishing those responsible for national security leaks.
"There could also be some 'psychological' effect on how the government deals with leak cases as a result of the Manning trial, but this is harder to predict," Aftergood said.
"Prosecutors might say, 'Aha, we won - now let's go do it again.' Or they might say, 'OK, we made our point - now we can step back a little bit.'"
In the wake of the WikiLeaks disclosure, Obama ordered new steps to protect classified material stored on government computers and, in November 2012, issued a "National Insider Threat Policy" aimed at stopping future leaks like those by Manning.
Among the new steps were automated monitoring of classified government networks, aimed at detecting unusually large downloads of data. But that did not deter Snowden from allegedly making away with numerous highly classified NSA documents.
(Additional reporting by Kanupriya Kapoor in Jakarta and James Grubel in Canberra; Editing by Will Dunham, Stuart Grudgings and Neil Fullick)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-manning-damage-fallen-well-short-worst-u-001024179.html
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Escaped chimps cause zoo closure
1 August 2013
Last updated at 08:19 ET
Josie, Tojo and Jomar were three of the chimps which got into the secure area of their enclosure
A Leicestershire zoo had to close when eight chimpanzees found their way into service corridors in their enclosure.
At 09:35 BST, the chimps at Twycross Zoo escaped into an area they were not meant to be, leading to safety concerns.
A police spokesperson later said "everything was now in order".
Twycross Zoo, which reopened two hours later, said the animals were encouraged back into their enclosure with ice cream and fizzy drinks.
'Cupboard fun'A zoo spokeswoman said: "At no time were the public at risk, and no people or chimps were harmed during the incident, however it is part of our safety procedures that we close the zoo whilst such events are resolved.
Continue reading the main storyGreat apes
- Chimpanzees are found in the forests of central Africa
- The primates share 98% of human genes and are our closest living relative
- They demonstrate learned behaviours and use tools
"All of the chimps are fine, if not a little excited about having ice cream for breakfast. They are all on view to the public as normal."
Sharon Redrobe, the zoo's director, told BBC Radio Leicester: "Eight adventurous chimps got into the service corridors, but still within the main building, so it was still reasonably safe.
"They had a fun time running up and down, opening and closing cupboards. It took about an hour to get them into their day place.
"We apologise for closing but it was for a very good reason."
An internal investigation will now take place to discover how the animals escaped.
Leicestershire Police said the problem occurred during the moving of eight chimps and officers were called as a precaution.
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Video: Tonight: Manning cleared of aiding the enemy, Gulf of Mexico "dead zone," preserving TV history
Unusual fishing tournament lets sharks off the hook
Shark fishing tournaments have been popular off the coast of New York's Long Island for decades, and they've always ended with dead sharks on the dock. This year, 64 sharks were reeled in during a tournament off the coast of Montauk, and for the first time, they were all released back into the water. Chip Reid reports.
Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsVideo/~3/LBfT21Jup6A/
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Federal Court: Cell Phone Tracking Without a Warrant is A-OK
A Federal Appeals court has ruled that search warrants are not required by law enforcement agencies if they wish to seize cellphone records.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/federal-court-cell-phone-tracking-without-a-warrant-is-972962256
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Ultrasound patch heals venous ulcers in human trial
[unable to retrieve full-text content]In a small clinical study, researchers administered a new method for treating chronic wounds using a novel ultrasound applicator that can be worn like a band-aid. The applicator delivers low-frequency, low-intensity ultrasound directly to wounds, and was found to significantly accelerate healing in five patients with venous ulcers.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/Cxn5M4r_Tmk/130801095410.htm
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Angry Twitter spat leads'Fez' creator to leave game industry
fez 
20 hours ago
Polytron
"Fez" creator Phil Fish abruptly cancelled production of a sequel and retired from the game industry this weekend after a bucolic fight on Twitter.
When it comes to the caustic and chaotic world of online forums and social media, the video game industry often stands out from other areas of tech and entertainment for just how quickly a seemingly innocuous Twitter rant or indignant message can escalate into a real-world corporate dilemma. That's what forced game developer BioWare to buckle under the pressure of legions of angry "Mass Effect" fans demanding that it change the game's ending, after all. And it's the same pressure that vindicated many opponents of digital rights management who implored both Sony and Microsoft to revise their respective policies for the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.
Most gamers would herald all these different cases as triumphs of social media or online discourse helping individual consumers advocate on behalf of themselves and their community. This past weekend, however, a similarly minded Twitter spat resulted in a highly anticipated sequel to a beloved independent video game being cancelled by its own creator.
Phil Fish, an indie developer who in 2012 achieved a rare kind of celebrity (for game developers, that is) after appearing as one of the main characters in the documentary "Indie Game: The Movie" in January and finally releasing his game "Fez" to widespread critical acclaim later that year, abruptly announced Saturday that he was canceling production of "Fez II" ? little more than a month after the game was first announced.
Details about what, exactly, provoked Fish's decision (or even if the famously quirky developer is actually sincere in his promise to axe "Fez II") are still murky. But many gaming outlets are pinning the sudden death of the game to a heated exchange between Fish and Marcus Beer, a gaming critic who goes by the moniker "Annoyed Gamer." The argument began last week when Beer criticized Fish and fellow indie game developer Jonathan Blow for not commenting on recent stories about Microsoft's prospective independent game development policies for the Xbox One during a rant on his GameTrailers video show. It escalated to Fish telling Beer on Twitter to "compare your life to mine and then kill yourself."
Fish's Twitter account has since been made private, but "Fez" developer Polytron issued a statement shortly after the initial Twitter showdown in which Fish reiterated that he had had enough of dealing with video games and all their assorted cultural baggage.
"i am done," he wrote. "i take the money and i run. this is as much as i can stomach. ... this is isn?t the result of any one thing, but the end of a long, bloody campaign. you win."
Many gaming journalists have since weighed in to share their own experiences dealing with the reprehensible side of gamer culture on the Internet. Cliff Bleszinski, the creator of the popular third-person shooter series "Gears of War," penned a lengthy, heartfelt letter on his personal Tumblr telling Fish "the industry needs people like you."
Thing is, Fish was already on something of a recent Twitter-rage tear by the time he erupted this past weekend. Just last week, he spent the good part of a day lambasting the video game website Polygon for quoting fellow game industry figure Kevin Dent in a story about the Xbox One's new indie publishing policies ? that coming the two traded blows on Twitter earlier this year over problems with the original "Fez's" performance. Fish may have reached the amount of Internet bile he was able to "stomach," but it was also a world that he willingly, even eagerly, participated in for part of his career.
Of course, there's also the possibility that by hanging "Fez II's" fate in the balance, Fish is deliberately courting this kind of controversy in the hopes of marshaling like-minded developers and fans (like Bleszinski) or simply to help sell more copies of the game if it ever does see the light of day.
Either way, many in the gaming press are doubtful that this is truly the last we've seen of Fish or "Fez." As Patrick Klepek put it in a recent piece on Giant Bomb: "I suspect we will, at some point, see (and play) the sequel to Fez, but this weekend?s events provide an opportunity for Fish to leave the spotlight and protect his sanity from the world and, well, himself."
"Fish speaks too passionately about games to leave them behind," he added.
Yannick LeJacq is a contributing writer for NBC News who has also covered technology and games for Kill Screen, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic. You can follow him on Twitter at @YannickLeJacq and reach him by email at: Yannick.LeJacq@nbcuni.com.
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Gold-diamond duo takes temperature of single cell
TALK about bling. Miniature diamonds more usually found in quantum computers, combined with fragments of gold, can be used to measure the temperature of individual cells. That could lead to a more accurate way to kill cancers while sparing healthy tissue ? and a new way to explore cell behaviour.
There are already ways to take a cell's temperature, using glowing proteins or carbon nanotubes. However, these lack sensitivity and accuracy because their components can react with substances inside the cell.
So Mikhail Lukin at Harvard University and colleagues turned to nanodiamonds, which have defects in their structure that mean they sometimes contain extra electrons. The tendency of these electrons to exist in many states at once, a superposition, makes nanodiamonds promising as the bits, or qubits, of a quantum computer, where superposition enables multiple calculations in parallel. However, these states vary with temperature, which is troublesome for computing.
Lukin's team wondered if this temperature dependence could instead be exploited to build a thermometer, particularly as diamonds are inert, so wouldn't interfere with a cell's chemistry.
The team used nanowires to insert diamonds about 100 nanometres across, along with gold nanoparticles, into a human cell in a dish. Shining a laser onto the cell heats it and the gold particles. The diamond, in turn, changes shape, squeezing the defect electrons and rearranging their energy levels.
Shining a different type of laser on the cell causes the electrons to absorb and then emit light with a brightness that depends on the new energy-level arrangement. The team used this light to deduce the cell's temperature.
They found they could detect temperature differences of just o.oo18 ?C inside the cell, a sensitivity record. And when they placed two diamonds in the cell, they could detect temperature variations between them, caused by their varying closeness to the gold. This should be possible even when the diamonds are just 200 nanometres apart.
The team also used the set-up to heat a cell enough to kill it, and recorded a temperature upon death. Lukin presented the work on 22 July at the Second International Conference on Quantum Technologies in Moscow, Russia, and this week in Nature (DOI: 10.1038/nature12373).
If such thermometers can be used in the body, they might improve cancer therapy, says Lukin's colleague Norman Yao. The temperatures of cancerous cells and their healthy neighbours could be monitored, and just enough heat applied to kill the cancer but not the healthy cells.
"In certain cases, particularly near critical structures such as great vessels, arteries or nerve bundles, an accurate read-out of local cellular temperature would be advantageous in the sparing of those structures," says Glenn Goodrich of Nanospectra Biosciences in Houston, Texas, a company carrying out human trials of cancer therapy based on gold nanoparticles.
Diamond thermometers could also explore cellular mysteries. "If a cell is unhappy, if it's in contact with a virus, a chemical reaction starts and it locally starts producing heat," says Lukin. "How this occurs no one understands in detail. Perhaps we can answer this question."
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CBS 2Q beats Street as dispute goes on
FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2007 file photo, a CBS Corp. logo is silhouetted in Las Vegas. CBS reports its quarterly earnings on Wednesday, July 31, 2013. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2007 file photo, a CBS Corp. logo is silhouetted in Las Vegas. CBS reports its quarterly earnings on Wednesday, July 31, 2013. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? CBS Corp. said Wednesday that net income rose 11 percent in the latest quarter, beating the expectations of analysts as the company continues to benefit from the types of fees that are at the center of a dispute with one of its key cable TV distributors.
Second-quarter net income grew to $472 million, or 76 cents per share. That's up from $427 million, or 65 cents per share, a year ago.
Revenue rose 11 percent to $3.7 billion.
Analysts polled by FactSet had expected 72 cents per share of earnings on revenue of $3.51 billion.
Shares increased 66 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $53.50 in after-hours trading.
The broadcaster benefited from licensing its shows to online streaming providers such as Netflix Inc. and from increasing the money it receives from cable and satellite TV distributors to retransmit CBS programming on customers' lineups. Analysts see such retransmission fees as key to CBS posting revenue and profit growth in the future. But such fees come at the expense of distributors, which are increasingly resisting.
A fight between CBS and one such distributor, Time Warner Cable Inc., continued Wednesday after a brief blackout of CBS stations to some cable customers after midnight on Monday. The companies have set a Friday deadline to reach a deal after a previous deal expired as the second quarter ended on June 30.
CBS CEO Leslie Moonves told investors on a conference call that the company remained resolute in its negotiations with Time Warner Cable. Time Warner Cable has resisted, saying CBS's demands would push up customer's monthly bills. But Moonves said he was confident a new deal would result in more money than it was receiving previously.
"Every deal we've made in the last two years has been an improvement from the one before," he said. "Our job is to continue to produce the content we're doing and getting paid for it."
Revenue from licensing deals is key to ensuring stability for CBS because advertising revenue ebbs and flows with the economy. The company said revenue from non-advertising sources grew to 43 percent of the total compared to less than 30 percent a few years ago.
Advertising revenue grew 5 percent in the quarter.
The company also highlighted the success of the TV show "Under the Dome," an unusual summer release that was made possible because it sold exclusive online rights to Amazon.com Inc.'s streaming video service. Episodes are available on Amazon four days after they broadcast on CBS.
Moonves said the show, based on the novel by Stephen King, cost more than $3 million per episode, but it was profitable even before it aired because of Amazon's participation and international sales.
Advertising sales based on the more than 10 million viewers each week are "gravy" that will bring in profits in the third quarter, Moonves said.
Moonves said other networks would likely try to copy the model. He said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos "actually spoke to me personally about how pleased they were that they experimented with this."
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The ghosts of ovarian cancer
Writer Donna Trussell and Dr. Steve Buie at her 10-year checkup in 2011, a decade after her ovarian cancer diagnosis.
A lot has happened in the 12 years since my diagnosis. Now I know more about ovarian cancer, and the information is not exactly comforting.
In these dozen years I?ve buried new friends, which wasn?t surprising, since they had cancer too. I?ve also buried old friends, which was shocking. ?You beat me to hospice,? I said to one. ?How?d that happen??
I have not forgotten those left behind. I once heard Tim O?Brien read a short story about a dead sister. Her ?ghost? was sad and lonely. She said she felt like a book on a library shelf that no one ever checks out. But I always remember my friends who died. I don?t know when I?ll be joining them.
Before leaving for my most recent annual check-up, I stacked books to read ? essays on outcasts and writers, a children?s story, a book on grizzly bear attacks. But when it was time to leave for the clinic, I settled on ?Doo Wop Motels: Architectural Treasures of the Wildwoods.? That ought to distract me.
I couldn?t help but notice that my doctor looked older. But then, that was the plan ? for us to grow old together. He?s been my doctor for 25 years. He found my cancer. He saved my life.
My exam started with good news, which continued the next day, when blood test results rolled in. Even the dreaded CA-125 blood test (a marker for ovarian cancer) came back normal. I was in the clear.
But a day later, another test came back. There was blood, a red flag for cancer.
I?ve had a good, long remission, which should make me more secure, but it doesn?t. There?s nothing magic about five years of survival, or even 10. I knew my ovarian cancer could still recur. I knew the toxic treatments I got could cause a brand new cancer. So could the genetic predisposition that led to my first cancer.
An acquaintance once asked me how I felt about cancer, now that it?s ?all over,? now that I know I was destined to survive. Aren?t I glad it happened? Didn?t I learn something? Didn?t good things come out of cancer?
Let?s see?scars, missing body parts, permanent damage to nerves, lowered cognitive ability, fear that never really goes away. So, no.
How did a debilitating, life-threatening disease become a journey, an adventure, a mystical calling? I suggest we demote cancer to what it really is: proof of our human frailty. Survivors go on with their lives despite cancer, not because of it.
My followup test to my followup test is scheduled now. My doctor specified it should happen ?as soon as possible.? Naturally, after cancer every phrase and gesture gets parsed for secret meaning.
Twelve years ago I was diagnosed with stage III ovarian cancer. My chance of surviving five years was 30 percent, or even less due to my unusually aggressive cell type. Unlike cervical and breast cancer, ovarian cancer has no screening test. My only symptoms were gas, bloating and a low-grade fever.
Amid all the public hoopla about other cancers, this year ovarian cancer will quietly kill about 14,000 American women and 22,000 will be diagnosed. Do the math.
I tell myself that just because I beat the formidable odds against me 12 years ago does not mean that the odds are now in cancer?s favor. Many benign conditions can cause bleeding.
?Let?s think positive,? the nurse said. ?Oh yes,? I said, ?because that works so well.? My sarcasm made us both laugh.
When I go in for more tests on Wednesday, I will take with me the spirits of both the living and the dead.
I feel like a fighter pilot who?s ordered back to the sky. Like I?ve survived many missions, somehow returning to base, and remembering the pilots who did not. My luck can?t hold forever. If a fighter pilot survived, the war ended and the pilot went home. But with cancer, you never really go home.
Donna Trussell is a Texas-born writer living in Kansas City.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/07/30/the-ghosts-of-ovarian-cancer/
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Wednesday, July 31, 2013
City of Secrets Re Done
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This is a re start to a game I started awhile ago before I lost my information
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This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?City of Secrets Re Done?. Anything posted here will also show up there.Topic Tags:
Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.First post: ? 2 posts ? Page 1 of 1
I'm not positive if I must ask, but may I have Ruby? Kindly reply and I'll post my character sheet.
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7 Steps to Writing Song Melodies That Start By Speaking Your Lyric ...
[unable to retrieve full-text content]When you speak lyrics melodramatically, important melodic shapes start to occur. ?The Essential Secrets of Songwriting? 6-eBook Bundle cleans up your songwriting technique. Become a top-level songwriter, starting today!
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The curious thing about lightning strikes and men
Men are more than five times more likely to be killed by lightning strikes in the United States than women, according to new data released by the Centers for Disease Control.
A total of 3,389 Americans were killed by lightning from 1968 through 2010, according to the CDC. Of them, 85 percent were male, the CDC said. A similar report, released in 1998, found that 85 percent of those killed by lightning from 1980 through 1995 were male. (The CDC excluded deaths indirectly caused by lightning, including fires and fallen trees, from the total.)
The center did not offer a reason for the disproportionate number of lightning deaths for men, saying only that the number of deaths for both males and females from lightning is declining.
From 1968 to 2010, deaths from lightning in the United States decreased 78.6 percent among males and 70.6 percent among females, according to data culled from the National Vital Statistics System. During the 43-year period, an average of 79 lightning deaths per year was recorded, with the most coming in 1969, when 131 people were struck and killed.
The CDC did not publish data on the number of lightning strike survivors, like Michael McQuilken, who in 1975 was struck along with his brother and several other hikers in Sequoia National Park.
McQuilken wrote about his experience earlier this year:
My brothers Sean and Jeff, my sister Mary and her friend Margie, and I were on our way to the top of Moro Rock, a rounded exfoliation dome and one of the favorite attractions in the park. The sky was overcast with patches of dark clouds, and there was light, intermittent rain. Shortly after we reached the top and were enjoying the view with about six other visitors, someone noticed that our hair was standing on end. At the time, we thought this was humorous. I took a photo of Mary, and then Mary took a photo of Sean and me. I raised my right hand into the air and the ring I had on began to buzz so loudly that everyone could hear it. Everyone was in a jovial mood, even laughing, at the site of our hair sticking up. No one realized what was happening and that we were all in great danger of a lightning strike. All of a sudden I felt a strong drop in the temperature. At one moment it was 65 to 70 degrees, and the next moment it felt like it was below freezing. There was no wind, but it immediately started to hail. We decided to get down off of the rock, not for fear of lightning, but to avoid the pelting hail.
About halfway down, Moro Rock and a smaller granite prominence converge, producing a narrow saddle. When Sean reached this point, I was about 10 feet behind him, with Mary, Margie and Jeff behind me. Suddenly, I was immersed in the brightest light I have ever seen. I moved my head from side to side and all I could see was bright white light, similar in appearance to arc welding light. This next part is strange. I distinctly remember feeling weightless, and that my feet were no longer touching the ground. For some reason, it felt like a number of seconds transpired, even though I realize that lightning strikes are instantaneous. A deafening explosion followed, and I found myself on the ground with the others. Sean was collapsed and huddled on his knees. Smoke was pouring from his back. I rushed over to him and checked his pulse and breathing. He was still alive. I put out the embers on his back and elbows and carried him down the path towards the parking lot, with the rest of the group following.
We had almost reached the parking lot when we found a woman beating furiously on her husband?s chest. His skin was blue and there was a small burn mark near his heart. Mary and the others took Sean down to the parking lot and I stayed and helped with CPR until the paramedics arrived. Unfortunately, the man, Lawrence Brady, died.Another man who was struck by lightning survived, "but the camera he was holding was blown into quarter-inch fragments, and his clothing had disintegrated ? leaving only the seams of his jacket and pants. All of the hair on his body was completely burned off."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/men-five-times-more-likely-to-be-killed-by-lightning-than-women-190325577.html
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Former Sen. Harry Byrd Jr. of Virginia dies
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) ? Former Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr., the Democrat-turned-independent who began his career as a staunch segregationist and preached fiscal restraint in Washington long before it became fashionable, has died. He was 98.
Byrd's son, Tom Byrd, is president and publisher of The Winchester Star, which first reported the death. Tom Byrd's office confirmed that the former senator died Tuesday.
Byrd served 17 years in the U.S. Senate, replacing his powerful father, Harry Flood Byrd, a U.S. senator from 1933 until failing health forced him to retire in late 1965. Gov. Albertis Harrison appointed the younger Byrd, a longtime state senator who, like his father, supported segregation.
In 1966, Byrd won a special election for the remaining years of his father's term. Switching from Democrat to independent, Byrd won re-election in 1970 and 1976.
Even as an independent, Byrd got more votes than the Democratic and Republican candidates combined. It was only the second time an independent won a U.S. Senate seat.
"It's a hard way to run, but if you can win that way it's the best way to win," Byrd later said. "You're totally free of obligations to anybody. ... You don't have to follow a party line."
He made a career of preaching the value of fiscal restraint. He claimed Congress could balance the budget if it could just hold annual spending increases to the 3 percent to 5 percent range and even criticized President Reagan military buildup as "giving the Pentagon the impression it has a blank check."
When he retired in 1982, Byrd said he was leaving public service with his convictions and integrity intact, but with regret that "Congress refuses to obey its own law which mandates a balanced budget."
Both Byrds supported Virginia's stand against desegregation, including the decision to push "massive resistance" ? even school closings ? to fight the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education. In 1956, he had called the ruling an "unwarranted usurpation of power" by the court.
He told The Washington Post in 1982 that he had "personally hated" to see schools close, but even those many years later he didn't disavow massive resistance and suggested it helped the state avoid racial violence.
"It is one thing to sit here in 1982 and say what was done in 1954 was a mistake," he said. "It may or may not have been, because you have to look at it in the context of the times. When you have to make a very dramatic change, sometimes, most times, that needs to be done maybe over a period of time and not abruptly."
Byrd often indicated that switching from the Democratic Party to become the Senate's only independent was a philosophical move. He insisted he had not suffered for it, retaining his ranking positions on various key committees and subcommittees.
Larry Sabato, a government professor at the University of Virginia, has said Byrd's move had both national and state implications.
"It was a harbinger of the decline of partisan identification that took place in the 1970s and 1980s all across the country," Sabato said. "In Virginia, it helped bring conservatives from the Democratic Party into the Republican Party. Byrd first helped them stop voting Democrat. It was a half-step."
Byrd said he left the party after state Democrats required all candidates to sign a loyalty oath supporting all Democratic candidates, including the nominee for president two years later, George McGovern. Byrd said their political philosophies were too far apart to support McGovern.
Byrd said he already was becoming disillusioned with the liberal direction the party was taking. Republicans tried to woo him, but his mind was made up.
"I always felt in my political life, a person needs to be consistent and do what he says he's going to do and not shift around too much," Byrd said.
In the book "The Byrds of Virginia," Alden Hatch wrote that the younger Byrd ? who strongly resembled his father ? was stymied rather than helped by his father's fame.
The book quoted the Danville Register as saying upon Byrd's appointment: "All familiar with Virginia public affairs ... have been aware that Harry F. Byrd Jr. worked under rather heavy wraps. He was restrained from seeking statewide office, for which he has been mentioned often over the past dozen years, by his own sensibilities."
Byrd was born in Winchester on Dec. 20, 1914. His first memory of politics was at age 10 during his father's campaign for governor.
"He would use me as a sounding board, thinking out loud," Byrd said. "I didn't always know what he was talking about, but it got me interested in politics."
Byrd graduated from Virginia Military Institute and the University of Virginia and served as a lieutenant commander in the Navy during World War II.
At a testimonial dinner for Byrd after the senator announced his retirement, then-Vice President George H.W. Bush declared: "Harry Byrd has hammered out a compact and solid and shining piece of work a first-rate career of service to his state and nation."
Bush said Byrd had clout on the Senate floor.
"When he has seen a wayward spending proposal or a needless extension of federal power take flight, he has brought it down as if he were at a pheasant shoot," Bush said at the 1982 dinner.
The Virginia Byrds were not related to the former longtime Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who died in 2010.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-sen-harry-byrd-jr-virginia-dies-143721513.html
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Mexico keeps constant eye on Popocatepetl volcano
MEXICO CITY (AP) ? In a clean, hushed room in the south of Mexico City, cameras, computer screens and scrawling needles track the symptoms of a special patient, as they have every second of every day for the past two decades. The monitors indicate that ?Don Goyo? is breathing normally, even as he spews hot rock, steam and ash.
That kind of activity isn?t unusual for the 15,000-foot (4,500-meter) volcano, Mexico?s second-highest, whose formal name is Popocatepetl, or ?Smoking Mountain? in the Aztec language Nahuatl. But this volcano, personified first as a warrior in Aztec legend and now as an old man grumbling with discontent, is in the middle of two metro areas, where his every spurt can put 20 million people on edge.
Mexico?s National Disaster Prevention Center laboratory keeps a round-the-clock watch on Popocatepetl, with anywhere from six to 15 technicians analyzing data for signs of a full-scale eruption, which they can never fully anticipate.
Though lava or glowing rock would only travel so far, an explosion could be deadly for 11,000 people in three farming villages within 10 miles (16 kilometers) of the base because of landslides and hot gas. A spectacular plume of ash could also wreak havoc on one of the world?s largest metro areas, much as it did in 2003, when the sky over Mexico City more than 40 miles (65 kilometers) away nearly went dark in the middle of the afternoon. The neighboring city of Puebla on the other side of the volcano from the capital would also be clouded over.
?The volcano is like a patient, and we observe the different aspects,? said the center?s technical director Gilberto Castelan. ?Here we receive over 60 indicators in real time.?
The 20-by-30-foot (6-by-9-meter) laboratory resembles those that once housed old giant supercomputers, everything plain white with a server at one end and screens all around. Five remote-controlled cameras positioned on the side of the mountain emit real-time images, while sensors feed data to the constantly scrolling seismographs as the crew and volcanologists analyze the concentration of gases and changes in the shape of the mountain. The loudest laboratory sound is a regular ping that alerts technicians to every seismic shift, at least a half dozen an hour.
The data helps set the ?volcano stoplight,? a three-color system in which green means little activity, yellow means warning and red starts the evacuation process ? something that has occurred only twice since 1994, when the volcano awoke again after sitting dormant for seven decades.
?It?s one of the most advanced laboratories of its kind in the world, and the scientists in charge are using the best methods,? said Michael Sheridan, a volcanologist at the University of Buffalo in New York who has studied Popocatepetl. ?It is very difficult to predict the behavior of a volcano that has not had an eruption in recent history.?
Earlier this month, Popocatepetl released ash that grounded plane flights and dusted cars, but it quieted down enough last week for the warning to drop from yellow-3 to yellow-2. The Mexican government has designated evacuation routes and shelter locations in the case of a bigger explosion.
Popocatepetl, nicknamed Popo or Don Goyo, is a stratovolcano, a steep conical formation built from layers of thick, slow-moving lava and ash ? the same type as Mount St. Helens in Washington state, scene of a 1980 eruption that was the most deadly in the U.S., killing 57 people.
Mexico?s disaster prevention center says Popo has been active for at least 500,000 years and has had at least three eruptions as large as Mount St. Helens, the most recent 23,000 years ago. Unlike Hawaiian volcanos and their rivers of lava, the biggest dangers for those nearby are mudslides and swift-moving clouds of gas. For those farther away, it?s the ash, which can ruin motors, stall airplanes, cover roofs with material heavy enough to make buildings collapse and cause respiratory diseases.
?Considering the number of people who would be affected, it could be considered among the most dangerous volcanos in the world,? said Ramon Espinasa, director of geological hazards for the disaster prevention center.
According to Mexican legend, Popocatepetl was a warrior who sought the hand of Iztaccihuatl, a fair maiden whose reluctant father told her that her suitor had died in battle. The ?Romeo and Juliet?-style tale ends with the lovers turning into twin mountains east of Mexico City. The dormant peak of Iztaccihuatl has since become part of a national park, while access to Popocatepetl is closed off.
Don Goyo, meanwhile, is the nickname for Gregory, a character who supposedly was the spirit of the volcano and would come to warn the locals of eruptions or to assure them that the mountain, despite plumes of smoke, was calm.
Today that?s Castelan?s job. He and his crew of technicians don?t have much to say about the myths or legends, preferring to stick to the hard data in their laboratory, which opened right after Popo?s reawakening two decades ago. At the time, Mexico was about to plunge into one of its worst economic crises. Since then, Mexicans say the eruptions are just Don Goyo showing his discontent with the course of his country, including blowing off smoke and ash a year ago, just before the presidential election.
Castelan prefers to look to the sensors to read Don Goyo?s thoughts. The trick is monitoring the crater, where it?s too hot for instruments, and that?s where the seismographs offer clues.
Some tremors indicate an internal buildup of magma, while others result from expulsions of rock and ash. At times the only way to really see what?s going on inside is to fly over the crater, something Mexican officials do regularly, feeding the laboratory more data.
The technicians are especially watchful of lava domes that can form inside the crater in hours, days or weeks, creating a pressurized cap.
The domes usually grow and then collapse. But they could also harden into a sort of bottle-stopper, allowing pressure to build until the volcano violently dislodges the cap in an explosion. What seems to be happening with Popo is lava settling inside, bringing the crater floor closer and closer to the rim, Castelan said.
?The volcano becomes more dangerous as the crater fills with lava, and the domes that form are closer in elevation to the crater rim,? Sheridan told The Associated Press in an email. ?Explosions can more easily throw red hot lava fragments over the rim and onto the volcano flanks.?
In 2000, Popo?s floor was 150 yards (meters) below the rim of the crater, compared to 50 yards (meters) today, he said. In the case of Mount St. Helens, the summit slid away and a new crater was formed, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Mount St. Helens? huge eruption came just 15 to 20 seconds after a 5.1 magnitude quake.
Castelan, a 42-year-old father of three, has worked in the laboratory since 1997 and steadily moved up to technical director. The job has meant days without going home, or tending to equipment failures on nights and weekends.
Sometimes he thinks, ?Not again,? when he?s called while off duty. But he said he does the work gladly because he knows how important it is that the people in the shadows of Popo stay alerted and safe.
?It?s a very important relationship that we?ve established,? he said. ?We take care of this volcano.?
Source: http://www.salon.com/2013/07/31/mexico_keeps_constant_eye_on_popocatepetl_volcano/
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Hillary Clinton to get documentary treatment
FILE - This July 16, 2013 file photo shows former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addressing the 51st Delta Sigma Theta National Convention in Washington. NBC announced Saturday, July 27, that actress Diane Lane will star as the former first lady and secretary of state in a four-hour miniseries, "Hillary." (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
FILE - This July 16, 2013 file photo shows former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addressing the 51st Delta Sigma Theta National Convention in Washington. NBC announced Saturday, July 27, that actress Diane Lane will star as the former first lady and secretary of state in a four-hour miniseries, "Hillary." (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) ? Hillary Rodham Clinton's life is getting the documentary treatment.
CNN Films said Monday that it plans a feature-length film on the former first lady and secretary of state to premiere next year. It will look at Clinton's professional and personal lives.
The film from Oscar-winning director and producer Charles Ferguson will have a theatrical run before airing on CNN.
Last weekend, NBC announced the four-hour miniseries "Hillary" starring Diane Lane. No air date was announced, but it is timed to precede the 2016 presidential election.
Clinton hasn't said whether she'll make another run for the Democratic nomination for president.
NBC says the miniseries will track Clinton's life and career from 1998 to the present.
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Oil slips below $104 ahead of Fed, jobs data
The Associated Press
LONDON (AP) -- The price of oil fell below $104 a barrel on Tuesday as traders awaited comments from central banks as well as data releases later in the week, including U.S. jobs figures.
Benchmark oil for September delivery was down 64 cents to $103.91 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 15 cents to close at $104.55 on Tuesday. Brent crude, the benchmark for international crudes, fell 19 cents to $107.26 on the ICE Futures exchange in London.
Losses were kept in check as traders waited for the Federal Reserve to give its latest appraisal of the U.S. economy and whether a change to the central bank's stimulus strategy is warranted. Fed officials are meeting Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington.
The Fed has been buying $85 billion of financial assets a month in an attempt to keep long-term borrowing rates low and help shore up the U.S. economic recovery. However, the Fed is widely expected to wind down the program later this year if the economy improves.
Oil prices have gotten a boost from the low interest rates, which have made commodities like oil more attractive as investments.
On Friday, the release of employment data for July will be examined for hints about future energy demand in the world's No. 1 economy.
"We'll look to position ourselves for Friday's number and get a better gauge on how fast demand is growing and going," Carl Larry of Oil Outlooks and Opinions said in a commentary. "I think that demand is definitely more correlated to the number of people working, which in turn leads to a lot more drivers."
Traders are also looking to see whether the Energy Department will report another draw in oil supplies after a surprisingly large drop of 30 million barrels over the past month.
Oil supplies remain high compared with the five-year average, even after the monthlong reduction, so most traders say it is more likely that oil prices will soon fall than rise.
In other trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange:
-- Wholesale gasoline rose 0.2 cents to $2.9797 a gallon.
-- Heating oil fell 0.4 cent to $3.0125 a gallon.
-- Natural gas fell 3 cents to $3.4420 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A Good Wife
"The Good Wife" star has compassion for Weiner's spouse.
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Nature lovers can watch baby turtles up close. (Photos)
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Miley Cyrus says acting crazy is a normal part of growing up.
Source: http://www.wtop.com/628/3404294/Oil-slips-below-104-ahead-of-Fed-jobs-data
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Inhalable gene therapy may help pulmonary arterial hypertension patients
[unable to retrieve full-text content]The deadly condition known as pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), which afflicts up to 150,000 Americans each year, may be reversible by using an inhalable gene therapy, report medical researchers.
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Specialized University of Alberta arthritis clinic set to close
EDMONTON - A specialized clinic treating about 1,000 arthritis patients at the University of Alberta Hospital will be closed shortly as a cost-saving measure by Alberta Health Services.
Patients will be able to get the physiotherapy they need at other clinics in the community, said AHS spokesman Kerry Williamson. AHS will ensure that they all have proper care before the clinic is closed, he added.
It?s unclear how much will be saved by the closure, but under tight finances, ?that is the reality we face,? said Williams.
But experts connected to the clinic say the closure will result in a loss of expertise in the unique team approach developed over many years at the clinic, and that patient care could suffer.
?We?re disappointed within the rheumatology community,? said Dr. Joanne Homik, director for rheumatology at the U of A medical school.
?This clinic has done some great teamwork and developed the expertise that is unique to our patient community.?
Physical and occupational therapists worked with doctors and pharmacists to treat symptoms and educate patients on how to manage inflammatory arthritis, a chronic disease.
While there are a lot of good physiotherapists in the region, the question is whether they will use the different approach required for successful treatment of arthritis patients, said Homik. He added that the U of A clinic takes a ?total-body approach,? as opposed to treating a single injury.
Homik said she?s still looking at other options to keep some of the team work alive, especially the patient education aspects that help people manage their disease.
?It may be possible to transfer some of the programs to another centre, such as the Glenrose,? she said.
?I really hope we can find a way to keep some of this together. We are being given time to explore some options.?
About nine people ? some part time ? will be laid off, but they will all be offered jobs within the health-care system, said Williams.
?We are confident there won?t be any job losses.?
AHS did hear concerns about the loss of expertise from the arthritis community, said Williamson. But treatment options are available in the community so there is no need to keep the specialized clinic in operation.
The move seems a step backward, said Bernadette Martin, a U of A professor who oversees curriculum for physiotherapy students.
The clinic is a leader in developing ways to help patients manage their chronic disease and in modelling the team approach to medicine that is so successful with chronic disease, she said.
?They?ve been a high-functioning team ? they offered education and self-management for those with chronic disease,? said Martin.
?How much was this care keeping people out of emergency wards, that?s the question,?
It was also a great place to send student interns to learn best practices, she added.
spratt@edmontonjournal.com
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FBI raids rescue 105 kids forced into prostitution
Ron Hosko, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division, speaks during a news conference at FBI headquarters in Washington, Monday, July 29, 2013, about "Operation Cross Country." The FBI says the operation rescued 105 children who were forced into prostitution in the US and arrested 150 people it described as pimps and others in a series of raids in 76 American cities. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Ron Hosko, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division, speaks during a news conference at FBI headquarters in Washington, Monday, July 29, 2013, about "Operation Cross Country." The FBI says the operation rescued 105 children who were forced into prostitution in the US and arrested 150 people it described as pimps and others in a series of raids in 76 American cities. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Ron Hosko, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division, speaks during a news conference at FBI headquarters in Washington, Monday, July 29, 2013, about "Operation Cross Country." The FBI says the operation rescued 105 children who were forced into prostitution in the US and arrested 150 people it described as pimps and others in a series of raids in 76 American cities. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Authorities rescued 105 children who were forced into prostitution and arrested 150 pimps and others in a three-day law enforcement sweep in 76 American cities, the FBI said Monday. The victims, almost all girls, range in age from 13 to 17.
The largest numbers of children rescued were in San Francisco, Detroit, Milwaukee, Denver and New Orleans. The campaign, known as Operation Cross Country, was conducted under the FBI's Innocence Lost initiative.
"Child prostitution remains a persistent threat to children across the country," Ron Hosko, assistant director of the bureau's criminal investigative division, told a press conference.
The FBI said the campaign has resulted in rescuing 2,700 children since 2003.
The investigations and convictions of 1,350 have led to life imprisonment for 10 pimps and the seizure of more than $3.1 million in assets.
For the past decade, the FBI has been attacking the problem in partnership with a non-profit group, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
John Ryan, the head of the center, called the problem "an escalating threat against America's children."
The Justice Department has estimated that nearly 450,000 children run away from home each year and that one-third of teens living on the street will be lured toward prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home.
Congress has introduced legislation that would require state law enforcement, foster care and child welfare programs to identify children lured into sex trafficking as victims of abuse and neglect eligible for the appropriate protections and services.
"In much of the country today if a girl is found in the custody of a so-called pimp she is not considered to be a victim of abuse, and that's just wrong and defies common sense," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said during a Senate Finance Committee hearing last month. Wyden co-sponsored the bill with Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
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Growth of Global Solar and Wind Energy Continues to Outpace ...
Solar and wind continue to dominate investment in new renewable capacity. Global use of solar and wind energy grew significantly in 2012. Solar power consumption increased by?58 percent, to 93 terrawatt-hours (TWh), while wind power increased by 18.1 percent, to 521.3 TWh.
Global investment in solar energy in 2012 was?$140.4 billion, an 11 percent decline from 2011, and wind investment was down 10.1 percent, to $80.3 billion. Due to lower costs for both technologies, however, total installed capacities still grew sharply.
Solar photovoltaic (PV) installed capacity grew?by 41 percent in 2012, reaching 100 gigawatts (GW). Installed PV capacity has grown by 900 percent since 2007. The countries with the most installed PV capacity today are Germany (32.4 GW), Italy (16.4 GW), the United States (7.2 GW), and China (7.0 GW). Concentrating solar thermal power (CSP) capacity reached 2.55 GW, with 970 megawatts (MW) alone added in 2012.
Europe remains dominant in solar, accounting for 76 percent of global solar power use in 2012. Germany alone accounted for 30 percent of the world?s solar power consumption, and Italy added the third most capacity of any country in 2012 (3.4 GW). Spain added the most CSP capacity (950 MW) in 2012 as well.?However, Italy reached the subsidy cap for its feed-in tariff (FIT) program in June 2013, while Spain recently made a retroactive change in its FIT policies, meaning that growth in solar energy will likely slow in these countries in the near future.
The Asia-Pacific region now accounts for 17 percent of global solar use, leaving it behind only Europe. Solar consumption grew by 69.5 percent in the region in 2012, and Japan (6.7 percent of the world total) and China (4.9 percent) are now among the?top five global solar energy consumers.
Due to slowing global economic growth, easing demand, and oversupply, there were significant net losses in the Chinese PV industry, which supplies more than half of the world market. The net losses have been exacerbated by growing trade wars between China and both the European Union (EU) and the United States after they accused Chinese companies of dumping solar panels on their markets. Overall, the United States added 3.3 GW of solar to reach a total installed capacity of 8.04 GW in 2012.
Total installed wind capacity edged up in?2012 by 45 GW to a total of 284 GW. In keeping with recent years, the majority of new installed capacity was concentrated in China and the United States, which reached total installed capacities of 75.3 GW and 60 GW, respectively.
The United States was the world?s top wind market in 2012, adding 13.1 GW. Increased domestic manufacturing of wind turbine parts, improved technological efficiency, and lower costs helped spur this increase, but the greatest catalyst was the threat of expiration of the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC)?which provides tax credits for kilowatt-hours produced by wind turbines?at the end of 2012.
The EU remained the dominant region for wind power, surpassing the 100 GW milestone and reaching a?total installed capacity of 106 GW in 2012?37.5 percent of the world?s market. Germany and Spain remained Europe?s largest wind markets, increasing their total installed capacity to 31.3 GW and 22.8 GW, respectively, and wind now accounts?for 11.4 percent of the EU?s total installed generation capacity.
Asia?s 15.5 GW of new installed wind capacity, the highest of any region in 2012, ensured that it remains on the heels of the EU with a total installed capacity of 97.6 GW. And while China?s?20.8 percent increase maintains the country?s regional dominance, India showed respectable gains by adding 2.3 GW to bring its total installed capacity to 18.4 GW.
Latin America also saw significant growth in installed wind capacity, with Brazil growing from 2.3 GW to 3.5 GW. Political instability continued to slow growth in Africa and the Middle East, but installed capacity grew by 9.3 percent to 1,135 MW in 2012. Sub-Saharan Africa looks poised to lead the way in 2013 as South Africa continues making progress on over 500 MW of new wind power capacity.
While policy uncertainties and changes will likely challenge the growth of solar and wind in the future, these technologies are well poised to grow. Declining solar technology prices, while challenging for current manufacturers, are helping solar to reach near grid-parity in many markets with renewed interests in the CSP sector as well. With the decreasing cost of constructing and maintaining wind farms, wind power is already cost competitive with conventional power energy sources in many markets.
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