Snowden seeks world's help against US charges

Opposition Greens lawmaker Hans-Christian Stroebele, shows a letter to the media, he claims he received from Edward Snowden, prior to a press conference in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Nov. 1, 2013. Stroebele said he met Edward Snowden in Moscow on Thursday, and that the National Security Agency leaker is prepared to help Germany investigate allegations of surveillance by U.S. intelligence. Snowden was granted asylum in Russia in August after being stuck at a Moscow airport for more than a month following his arrival there from Hong Kong. The 30-year-old faces espionage charges in the U.S. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

Opposition Greens lawmaker Hans-Christian Stroebele, shows a letter to the media, he claims he received from Edward Snowden, prior to a press conference in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Nov. 1, 2013. Stroebele said he met Edward Snowden in Moscow on Thursday, and that the National Security Agency leaker is prepared to help Germany investigate allegations of surveillance by U.S. intelligence. Snowden was granted asylum in Russia in August after being stuck at a Moscow airport for more than a month following his arrival there from Hong Kong. The 30-year-old faces espionage charges in the U.S. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

Opposition Greens lawmaker Hans-Christian Stroebele, shows a copy of a a letter to the media, he claims he received from Edward Snowden, prior to a press conference in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Nov. 1, 2013. Stroebele said he met Edward Snowden in Moscow on Thursday, and that the National Security Agency leaker is prepared to help Germany investigate allegations of surveillance by U.S. intelligence. Snowden was granted asylum in Russia in August after being stuck at a Moscow airport for more than a month following his arrival there from Hong Kong. The 30-year-old faces espionage charges in the U.S. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

FILE - In this March 13, 2013 file picture, German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich briefs the media in Berlin. Friedrich says he will try to organize a meeting between German investigators and Edward Snowden if he’s willing to give details about the National Security Agency’s alleged monitoring of Chancellor Angela Merkel's communications. Friedrich was quoted by Die Zeit newspaper Friday Nov. 1, 2013 saying that “we will find a way, if Mr. Snowden is willing to talk.” His spokesman Jens Teschke confirmed the comments, saying “we want clarification and we want further information.” He said he assumed such a meeting would be in Russia. Opposition Greens lawmaker Hans-Christian Stroebele said he met with Snowden in Moscow on Thursday and that he was prepared to travel to Germany to testify. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

BERLIN (AP) — NSA leaker Edward Snowden is calling for international help to persuade the U.S. to drop the charges against him, according to a letter that a German lawmaker released Friday after meeting the American in Moscow.

Snowden said he would like to testify before the U.S. Congress about National Security Agency surveillance, and may be willing to help German officials investigate alleged U.S. spying in Germany too, Hans-Christian Stroebele, a lawmaker with Germany's opposition Greens, told a press conference.

But Snowden indicated in the letter that neither would happen unless the U.S. dropped the charges against him.

Earlier Friday, Germany's top security official said he would like to arrange for German authorities to talk to Snowden about allegations that the NSA monitored the cellphones of Chancellor Angela Merkel and other U.S. surveillance operations.

In the one-page typed letter, written in English and bearing signatures that Stroebele said were his own and Snowden's, Snowden complained that the U.S. government "continues to treat dissent as defection, and seeks to criminalize political speech with felony charges that provide no defense."

Snowden faces espionage charges in the U.S.

"I am confident that with the support of the international community, the government of the United States will abandon this harmful behavior," Snowden wrote.

But he indicated he wouldn't talk in Germany or elsewhere until "the situation is resolved."

Stroebele said Snowden appeared healthy and cheerful during their meeting Thursday at an undisclosed location in Moscow.

"(He) said that he would like most to lay the facts on the table before a committee of the U.S. Congress and explain them," Stroebele said. The lawmaker, a prominent critic of the NSA's alleged activities, said the 30-year-old "did not present himself to me as anti-American or anything like that — quite the contrary."

Stroebele said it wasn't clear whether anyone else has received the same letter. He said he sent it Friday to Merkel's staff, German federal prosecutors and the speaker of Germany's Parliament.

Germany is seeking answers from U.S. authorities to allegations that Merkel's cellphone was monitored, which prompted the German chancellor to complain to Obama last week. German officials held talks on the spying issue Wednesday in Washington.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, meanwhile, is conceding that some of the NSA's spying has reached too far and will be stopped.

Kerry said Thursday in a video link to an open government conference in London that because of modern technology, some of the NSA activities have been happening on "automatic pilot" without the knowledge of Obama administration officials.

Kerry said ongoing reviews of U.S. surveillance will ensure that technology is not being abused.

"The president and I have learned of some things that have been happening in many ways on an automatic pilot, because the technology is there," Kerry said. "In some cases, some of these actions have reached too far and we are going to try to make sure it doesn't happen in the future," he said.

Earlier Friday, Germany's interior minister said if Snowden were willing, he would try to arrange a meeting with German officials.

"If the message is that Mr. Snowden wants to give us information, then we will be glad to accept that," Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said, according to the Die Zeit newspaper. His spokesman confirmed the comments.

Snowden was granted asylum in Russia in August after being stuck at a Moscow airport for more than a month following his arrival there from Hong Kong. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Snowden got asylum on condition that he wouldn't harm U.S. interests.

Snowden's Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told the Interfax news agency that Snowden would not violate the conditions of his asylum if he talked to the Germans in the wiretapping case.

But Stroebele said Snowden had "significant reservations" about that idea, fearing that speaking to foreign officials on Russian soil could cause him problems.

Germany, along with many other nations, rejected an asylum request from Snowden earlier this year. In July, the Germans received a U.S. request for Snowden's arrest should he be found in the country.

German federal prosecutors are looking into whether there are grounds to investigate the allegations regarding Merkel's cellphone. Germany's parliament is expected to discuss the NSA's alleged spying on Nov. 18.

Stroebele was tightlipped about where he was taken to meet Snowden in Russia. He said he had "no contact with Russian authorities" other than a passport control officer and none with the German Embassy in Moscow.

_____

AP correspondents Vladimir Isachenkov and Jim Heintz in Moscow and David Rising in Berlin contributed to this report.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-11-01-EU-NSA-Surveillance-Snowden/id-eeb638c34ce94f95853c4b42d18d1e9c
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Home visits lessen emergency care for infants

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

1-Nov-2013

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Contact: Alison Jones
Alison.jones@duke.edu
919-681-8504
Duke University

Nurse home visits lead to dramatic savings in emergency care

DURHAM, N.C. -- Home visits from a nurse are a proven, but expensive, way to help newborns get a good start in life.

New research from Duke University suggests that less costly home visiting programs can reach more families and still produce significant health care improvements. Infants in the study had 50 percent fewer emergency care episodes than other babies in the first year of life.

"For a relatively small investment, the reward is significant," said lead author Kenneth A. Dodge, the William McDougall Professor of Public Policy and director of Duke's Center for Child and Family Policy.

The study, which appears Nov. 1 in a special issue of Pediatrics devoted to home visiting, looks at Durham Connects, a program that provides home visits for newborns and their parents in Durham, N.C. Authors Dodge and Benjamin Goodman, a Duke research scientist, found that participating families visited the emergency room less often than control group families and had fewer overnight hospital stays. The results held true a year after birth, well after the nurse's contact with the family had ended.

The findings have significant cost implications because the price of hospital emergency room visits and overnight stays often ranges into the thousands of dollars. By contrast, the Durham Connects program costs an average of $700 per family.

The Affordable Care Act includes funding for home visiting programs. In September, the federal Department of Health and Human Services announced $69.7 million in grants to expand home visiting services in 13 states.

But home visiting encompasses a wide array of approaches. Many programs are intensive, multiyear efforts targeted to poor families that can cost $4,000 per family or more. By contrast, Durham Connects costs less because it is relatively brief and makes extensive use of referrals.

The program was developed by Duke University in partnership with the Durham County Health Department and the Center for Child and Family Health. A nurse visits new parents soon after their newborn comes home from the hospital, checks the mother's and baby's health, and offers the parents tips on topics such as breastfeeding and child care. Nurses also screen for potential problems such as maternal depression.

But the nurses are not primarily caseworkers. Instead, they serve to link families who need help with appropriate community services over a series of one to three home visits.

To gauge the program's effects, the Duke research team designed a study that divided into two groups all of the 4,777 babies born in Durham County between July 1, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2010. Those born on even dates were offered the program, while those born on odd dates were not. The authors then analyzed medical records for a random subsample of those families.

In addition to an overall reduction in emergency care episodes, the authors found that all the subgroups studied saw a decrease in use of emergency care. While some groups benefited more than others, the pattern held true for both single- and two-parent families, for families receiving Medicaid and for privately insured families.

"High-risk families were not the only ones who benefited," Goodman said. "All families benefitted. It was great to have this kind of finding almost a full year after the program was implemented."

###

Funding was provided by the Duke Endowment and the Pew Center on the States. The research was also supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) (KO5DA15226 and P30DA023026).

CITATION: "Randomized Controlled Trial of Universal Postnatal Nurse Home-Visiting: Impact on Emergency Care," Kenneth A. Dodge, W. Benjamin Goodman, Robert A. Murphy, Karen O'Donnell and Jeannine Sato. Pediatrics, November 1, 2013. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2013-1021M

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

1-Nov-2013

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Contact: Alison Jones
Alison.jones@duke.edu
919-681-8504
Duke University

Nurse home visits lead to dramatic savings in emergency care

DURHAM, N.C. -- Home visits from a nurse are a proven, but expensive, way to help newborns get a good start in life.

New research from Duke University suggests that less costly home visiting programs can reach more families and still produce significant health care improvements. Infants in the study had 50 percent fewer emergency care episodes than other babies in the first year of life.

"For a relatively small investment, the reward is significant," said lead author Kenneth A. Dodge, the William McDougall Professor of Public Policy and director of Duke's Center for Child and Family Policy.

The study, which appears Nov. 1 in a special issue of Pediatrics devoted to home visiting, looks at Durham Connects, a program that provides home visits for newborns and their parents in Durham, N.C. Authors Dodge and Benjamin Goodman, a Duke research scientist, found that participating families visited the emergency room less often than control group families and had fewer overnight hospital stays. The results held true a year after birth, well after the nurse's contact with the family had ended.

The findings have significant cost implications because the price of hospital emergency room visits and overnight stays often ranges into the thousands of dollars. By contrast, the Durham Connects program costs an average of $700 per family.

The Affordable Care Act includes funding for home visiting programs. In September, the federal Department of Health and Human Services announced $69.7 million in grants to expand home visiting services in 13 states.

But home visiting encompasses a wide array of approaches. Many programs are intensive, multiyear efforts targeted to poor families that can cost $4,000 per family or more. By contrast, Durham Connects costs less because it is relatively brief and makes extensive use of referrals.

The program was developed by Duke University in partnership with the Durham County Health Department and the Center for Child and Family Health. A nurse visits new parents soon after their newborn comes home from the hospital, checks the mother's and baby's health, and offers the parents tips on topics such as breastfeeding and child care. Nurses also screen for potential problems such as maternal depression.

But the nurses are not primarily caseworkers. Instead, they serve to link families who need help with appropriate community services over a series of one to three home visits.

To gauge the program's effects, the Duke research team designed a study that divided into two groups all of the 4,777 babies born in Durham County between July 1, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2010. Those born on even dates were offered the program, while those born on odd dates were not. The authors then analyzed medical records for a random subsample of those families.

In addition to an overall reduction in emergency care episodes, the authors found that all the subgroups studied saw a decrease in use of emergency care. While some groups benefited more than others, the pattern held true for both single- and two-parent families, for families receiving Medicaid and for privately insured families.

"High-risk families were not the only ones who benefited," Goodman said. "All families benefitted. It was great to have this kind of finding almost a full year after the program was implemented."

###

Funding was provided by the Duke Endowment and the Pew Center on the States. The research was also supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) (KO5DA15226 and P30DA023026).

CITATION: "Randomized Controlled Trial of Universal Postnatal Nurse Home-Visiting: Impact on Emergency Care," Kenneth A. Dodge, W. Benjamin Goodman, Robert A. Murphy, Karen O'Donnell and Jeannine Sato. Pediatrics, November 1, 2013. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2013-1021M

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-11/du-hvl103113.php
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Driver expects to fight Google Glass ticket

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California woman cited for wearing Internet-connected eyeglasses while driving plans to contest the citation.

Cecilia Abadie was pulled over for speeding Tuesday evening in San Diego, when a California Highway Patrol officer noticed she was wearing Google Glass and tacked on a citation usually given to drivers who may be distracted by a video or TV screen.

The lightweight eyeglasses, which are not yet widely available to the public, feature a hidden computer and a thumbnail-size transparent display screen above the right eye. Users can scan maps for directions — as well as receive web search results, read email and engage in video chats — without reaching for a smartphone.

Abadie, a software developer, said in an interview that she was not using her Google Glass when she was pulled over for allegedly going about 80 mph in a 65 mph zone on the drive home to Temecula after visiting a friend.

"The Glass was on, but I wasn't actively using it" to conserve the battery, she said.

Abadie expressed surprise that wearing the glasses while driving would be illegal and said she's "pretty sure" she will fight the ticket. First, she said, she needs to seek legal counsel. In the flurry of online commentary her traffic stop has generated, several people saying they are attorneys offered their services.

"The law is not clear, the laws are very outdated," Abadie said, suggesting that navigating with the device could be less distracting than with a GPS unit or phone.

"Maybe Glass is more a solution to the cellphone problem than a problem," she said.

It's unclear whether a citation for Google Glass has been issued before. The CHP said it is not sure whether an officer within its own ranks has written one, and an agency spokesman pointed out hundreds of law enforcement agencies in California alone can write traffic tickets.

Legislators in at least two states, Delaware and West Virginia, have introduced bills that would specifically ban driving with Google Glass. Authorities in the United Kingdom are mulling a similar ban.

About 10,000 units have been distributed so far in the United States to "pioneers," and this week Google announced another 30,000 would be available for $1,500 apiece. Abadie said she got hers in May and has become an "evangelist" for the technology.

A spokesman for Google did not reply to a request for comment. On its website, Google says this about using the headgear while driving: "Read up and follow the law. Above all, even when you're following the law, don't hurt yourself or others by failing to pay attention to the road."

___

Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.

___

Follow Justin Pritchard at https://twitter.com/lalanewsman

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-31-Google%20Glass%20Ticket/id-7025da1bebf1422d80e8b7854adec5b2
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Pregnant Kerry Washington to Host "Saturday Night Live" with a Stoic Eminem: Watch Here!

She's seen weekly on her hit series, "Scandal," but this week fans will get an extra dose of Kerry Washington as she hosts "Saturday Night Live."

The 36-year-old actress looks stoked about the opportunity in a couple of new promos for the show, which features musical guest Eminem.

In one clip, the "Monster" rapper stands sullen and silent as Kerry shares her excitement with a cast member.

Another promo has the expecting Ms. Washington sharing their plans to go out for cupcakes after the show, to which Em replies, "I love cupcakes." Check it out in the player below.

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/kerry-washington/pregnant-kerry-washington-host-saturday-night-live-stoic-eminem-watch-here-953357
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FAA to allow personal electronic devices during takeoff and touchdown

Sure it's not healthy, but we admit that we get a bit shaky in the time it takes to complete our final descent. We've read all of SkyMall, and it's just too hard to be away from the warming glow of our Kindle Paperwhite. Thankfully, however, the FAA has finally pulled the trigger on the long-awaited ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/_Fum22Nk7aM/
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Major oyster reef rebuilding begins on Texas coast

A large excavator is silhouetted as it scoops up a load of limestone boulders from a barge in the gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. The huge boulders will be dropped into the water to help rebuild a reef that once filled some 400 acres and now barely exists. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

A large excavator is silhouetted as it scoops up a load of limestone boulders from a barge in the gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. The huge boulders will be dropped into the water to help rebuild a reef that once filled some 400 acres and now barely exists. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

A large excavator is drops a load of limestone boulders from a barge into the gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. The huge boulders are being put in place to help rebuild a reef that once filled some 400 acres and now barely exists. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

A large excavator shovel dumps huge limestone boulders into the Gulf of Mexico to help rebuild an oyster reef off the Texas coast on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. The $5.4 million project will rebuild some 57 acres of reef, helping to revitalize the fragile Gulf marine ecosystem. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

A conservationist shows a live oyster plucked from an existing reef in the Gulf of Mexico, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. Huge limestone boulders are being dropped into the water off the Texas coast in one of the largest oyster reef restoration projects in the United States. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

A bird stands on an oyster shell strip atop an existing reef in the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. Conservationist have undertaken a $5.4 million project to rebuild some 57 acres of oyster reef. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

MATAGORDA, Texas (AP) — A deep sea oyster reef restoration being touted as the largest ever in the Gulf of Mexico began in an unlikely place: a quarry in landlocked Missouri.

That is where years of research, planning and precise engineering led Mark Dumesnil, an associate director of restoration for the Nature Conservancy in Texas, as he sought to restore what was once a nearly 500-acre oyster reef and is now no more than hard sand and shell remains, with not one oyster in sight.

And so, about seven years after Dumesnil was first tipped off by wildlife ecosystem experts that restoration of Half Moon Reef might be possible, 36 barges carrying 93,000 tons of Missouri limestone traveled for 12 days down the Mississippi River, arriving in the Gulf earlier this month. Scientists, engineers, researchers and laborers will spend some eight weeks dropping the boulders onto a 54-acre plot 8 feet underwater as part of a $5.4 million, two-phase project designed to revitalize a damaged ecosystem.

The project also will provide a robust natural barrier from hurricanes and teach scientists whether reefs can rebuild in drought conditions, becoming another mechanism for marine habitats to withstand devastating dry spells.

"This project is designed to be innovative and different," said Dumesnil, who has financial backing from a variety of agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Texas General Land Office.

Oysters filter 50 gallons of water daily. Each acre of reef the oysters cling to filters another 24 million gallons of water daily. Together, they are vital to a healthy marine ecosystem and to commercial fisheries because they are home, feeding and breeding grounds for hundreds and even thousands of other fish, shrimp, clams, crabs and other life. In Texas alone, the oyster industry is a nearly $30 million a year industry, according to state statistics.

Oyster reefs, however, have been severely damaged by overfishing and other causes during the last century. Nearly 50 percent of the reefs in the Gulf, and 85 percent of those globally, have disappeared, according to The Nature Conservancy.

In 1907, a survey of Matagorda Bay done by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries indicated Half Moon Reef covered 494 acres of seabed. Since then, however, a variety of factors led to a slow death, including the release in the 1920s of a major logjam in the Colorado River that allowed large amounts of freshwater to flow into the estuary about 10 years later, upsetting the delicate salinity levels that oysters need to thrive; rerouting in the 1940s of the intracoastal waterway, which released tons of sediments, and may have helped bury and kill oysters; commercial dredging of live and dead oyster shells between 1922 and 1983, often to build roads; and the damage from Hurricane Carla in 1961.

Oyster reef restoration has long been done along shorelines, successfully helping decrease erosion and protect sensitive coastal communities from tropical storms. Similar projects in deeper waters, including off the Virginia coast, have also been done, but generally on smaller scales and with flatter, less contoured materials and not typically limestone.

The idea behind this project, Dumesnil explained, and the reason boulders of varying sizes are being used, is to try to replicate as closely as possible a real reef, and to get the eventual growth of it to be vertical — as it would be if it were naturally occurring.

"If we were here 100 years ago ... we would see reef, oysters breaking the surface of the water. So you would see waves breaking on the oyster reef, it was that high, 6 to 7 feet high," said David Buzan, project manager for Atkins North America, a global engineering, design and project management consultancy firm. "Now, we're building a reef that's 3 feet high with the hopes that oysters will grow on it, colonize it and eventually return that oyster reef back to the height that it originally was 100 years ago."

The limestone from Missouri was specifically chosen because it was the precise material, Dumesnil said, needed to guarantee it wouldn't sink into the seabed allowing the oysters to build vertically. Project designers also decided to build 32 rows of 650-foot reefs, deliberately leaving space between them. The hope is that as the spat — or oyster babies — stick to the boulders they will eventually fill in the gaps while growing the reef vertically.

"What we were wanting to do is build in as much diversity in the design of the project," Dumesnil said. "The more diverse a habitat is the more diverse and types and kinds and numbers of species will use that."

Coincidentally, the project is being launched as Texas struggles through years of drought, which has increased the salinity of Matagorda Bay and other estuaries as less freshwater from rivers flows into the Gulf. This is allowing scientists to study the effects this has on oyster reefs and learn whether they can grow in drought conditions, an issue of increasing concern for scientists who expect more frequent dry spells due to global warming, said Laura Huffman, the director of the Nature Conservancy in Texas.

"We want to test the conditions at their more extreme," Huffman said.

___

Plushnick-Masti can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RamitMastiAP .

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-11-01-Oyster%20Reef%20Restoration/id-000446c0d7494aaabf5fa69775c0a0b1
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The Cancellations Are Deliberate

Joe Wilson didn’t know how right he was.

When the South Carolina congressman blurted, “You lie!” at President Obama’s health care speech to Congress in September 2009, Wilson could have been summarizing the president’s entire approach to passing and implementing Obamacare.

Most famously, Obama promised, again and again, “If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan, period.”

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2013/10/31/the_cancellations_are_deliberate_318890.html
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Google's Nexus 5 is a steal, unless you buy it from a UK carrier

	16GB PAYG	32GB PAYG	SIM Price
O2	N/A	£549.99	Free
Three	£399.99	N/A	Free
Google Play	£299.99	£339.99	Free
Price Difference	£100	£210	N/A

Buy the device from Google's Play Store and order a free pay-as-you-go SIM to go with it (or you can, of course, use your own).

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/01/google-nexus-5-uk-carrier-prices/?ncid=rss_truncated
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FAA to allow use of electronics for entire flights

Globe-trotting laptop workaholics and electronic media junkies will soon no longer fidget helplessly during the beginning and ending of their flights: The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has lifted the ban on use of personal electronics during the take-off and landing of airplanes, provided that the electronic devices are used in airplane mode.

Over the next few months, each airline will enact their own policies that will permit their passengers to use their own devices through an entire flight.

[ For a quick, smart take on the news you'll be talking about, check out InfoWorld TechBrief -- subscribe today. | Read Bill Snyder's Tech's Bottom Line blog for what the key business trends mean to you. ]

Airplane passengers, in most cases, will be able to read electronic books and magazines, watch videos, play video games, listen to music and work on their computers throughout an entire flight.

Their devices must be in airplane mode, however, which will not allow them to be used voice communications or data transmission through mobile networks. The devices can, however, connect with an airplane's Wi-Fi service, if one is offered. Short-range, device-to-device communication, through Bluetooth for instance, is also permissible.

This change in policy has been long called for, at least by voracious users of electronic devices, who saw the ban as unnecessary.

Currently, airline passengers in the U.S. are required power down their smartphones, tablets, laptops and electronic readers when the airplane is taking off or landing.

Since people started bringing personal electronic communication devices on flights, the FAA assumed a cautious stance of limiting their use, fearing the devices would interfere with the airplane's radio frequency communications.

The FAA's Personal Electronic Device Aviation Rulemaking Committee concluded in a report earlier this year that most commercial airplanes can tolerate radio interference signals from portable devices. For the new ruling, the FAA also took feedback from airlines, aviation manufacturers, passengers, pilots, flight attendants and the mobile technology industry.

Mobile phone communications falls under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, which the FAA has urged to review its rules on in-flight use. Unlike other mobile electronic operations, cell phones send out relatively powerful signals that could interfere with in-flight radio communications.

Even devices that do not transmit signals can hamper a plane's communications, navigation, flight control and electronic equipment because they may emit radio energy at the same frequencies as the plane's equipment.

The airlines should determine how much radio interference their own communications systems can withstand. The airlines must then set their own conditions for usage and get FAA approval for these conditions.

The current FAA policy will remain in effect on an airline-by-airline basis until the FAA gives each airline approval to switch to the new policy.

Even after the new policy is adopted, an airline may also need to have their passengers shut down their devices during periods of low visibility to ensure adequate communications in such adverse conditions. The FAA expects that such conditions would apply to about one percent of all flights.

Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab's e-mail address is Joab_Jackson@idg.com

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/t/federal-regulations/faa-allow-use-of-electronics-entire-flights-229948
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Magnetic 'force field' shields giant gas cloud during collision with Milky Way

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

31-Oct-2013

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Contact: Charles Blue
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National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Doom may be averted for the Smith Cloud, a gigantic streamer of hydrogen gas that is on a collision course with the Milky Way Galaxy. Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) have discovered a magnetic field deep in the cloud's interior, which may protect it during its meteoric plunge into the disk of our Galaxy.

This discovery could help explain how so-called high velocity clouds (HVCs) remain mostly intact during their mergers with the disks of galaxies, where they would provide fresh fuel for a new generation of stars.

Currently, the Smith Cloud is hurtling toward the Milky Way at more than 150 miles per second and is predicted to impact in approximately 30 million years. When it does, astronomers believe, it will set off a spectacular burst of star formation. But first, it has to survive careening through the halo, or atmosphere, of hot ionized gas surrounding the Milky Way.

"The million-degree upper atmosphere of the Galaxy ought to destroy these hydrogen clouds before they ever reach the disk, where most stars are formed," said Alex Hill, an astronomer at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) and lead author of a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal. "New observations reveal one of these clouds in the process of being shredded, but a protective magnetic field shields the cloud and may help it survive its plunge."

Many hundreds of HVCs zip around our Galaxy, but their obits seldom correspond to the rotation of the Milky Way. This leads astronomers to believe that HVCs are the left-over building blocks of galaxy formation or the splattered remains of a close galactic encounter billions of years ago.

Though massive, the gas that makes up HVCs is very tenuous, and computer simulations predict that they lack the necessary heft to survive plunging through the halo and into the disk of the Milky Way.

"We have long had trouble understanding how HVCs reach the Galactic disk," said Hill. "There's good reason to believe that magnetic fields can prevent their 'burning up' in the halo like a meteorite burning up in Earth's atmosphere."

Despite being the best evidence yet for a magnetic field inside an HVC, the origin of the Smith Cloud's field remains a mystery. "The field we observe now is too large to have existed in its current state when the cloud was formed," said Hill. "The field was probably magnified by the cloud's motion through the halo."

Earlier research indicates the Smith Cloud has already survived punching through the disk of our Galaxy once and -- at about 8,000 light-years from the disk -- is just beginning its re-entry now.

"The Smith Cloud is unique among high-velocity clouds because it is so clearly interacting with and merging with the Milky Way," said Felix J. Lockman, an astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, W.Va. "Its comet-like appearance indicates it's already feeling the Milky Way's influence."

Since the Smith Cloud appears to be devoid of stars, the only way to observe it is with exquisitely sensitive radio telescopes, like the GBT, which can detect the faint emission of neutral hydrogen. If it were visible with the naked eye, the Smith Cloud would cover almost as much sky as the constellation Orion.

When the Smith Cloud eventually merges with the Milky Way, it could produce a bright ring of stars similar to the one relatively close to our Sun known as Gould's Belt.

"Our Galaxy is in an incredibly dynamic environment," concludes Hill, "and how it interacts with that environment determines whether stars like the Sun will continue to form."

###

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

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31-Oct-2013

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Contact: Charles Blue
cblue@nrao.edu
434-296-0314
National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Doom may be averted for the Smith Cloud, a gigantic streamer of hydrogen gas that is on a collision course with the Milky Way Galaxy. Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) have discovered a magnetic field deep in the cloud's interior, which may protect it during its meteoric plunge into the disk of our Galaxy.

This discovery could help explain how so-called high velocity clouds (HVCs) remain mostly intact during their mergers with the disks of galaxies, where they would provide fresh fuel for a new generation of stars.

Currently, the Smith Cloud is hurtling toward the Milky Way at more than 150 miles per second and is predicted to impact in approximately 30 million years. When it does, astronomers believe, it will set off a spectacular burst of star formation. But first, it has to survive careening through the halo, or atmosphere, of hot ionized gas surrounding the Milky Way.

"The million-degree upper atmosphere of the Galaxy ought to destroy these hydrogen clouds before they ever reach the disk, where most stars are formed," said Alex Hill, an astronomer at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) and lead author of a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal. "New observations reveal one of these clouds in the process of being shredded, but a protective magnetic field shields the cloud and may help it survive its plunge."

Many hundreds of HVCs zip around our Galaxy, but their obits seldom correspond to the rotation of the Milky Way. This leads astronomers to believe that HVCs are the left-over building blocks of galaxy formation or the splattered remains of a close galactic encounter billions of years ago.

Though massive, the gas that makes up HVCs is very tenuous, and computer simulations predict that they lack the necessary heft to survive plunging through the halo and into the disk of the Milky Way.

"We have long had trouble understanding how HVCs reach the Galactic disk," said Hill. "There's good reason to believe that magnetic fields can prevent their 'burning up' in the halo like a meteorite burning up in Earth's atmosphere."

Despite being the best evidence yet for a magnetic field inside an HVC, the origin of the Smith Cloud's field remains a mystery. "The field we observe now is too large to have existed in its current state when the cloud was formed," said Hill. "The field was probably magnified by the cloud's motion through the halo."

Earlier research indicates the Smith Cloud has already survived punching through the disk of our Galaxy once and -- at about 8,000 light-years from the disk -- is just beginning its re-entry now.

"The Smith Cloud is unique among high-velocity clouds because it is so clearly interacting with and merging with the Milky Way," said Felix J. Lockman, an astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, W.Va. "Its comet-like appearance indicates it's already feeling the Milky Way's influence."

Since the Smith Cloud appears to be devoid of stars, the only way to observe it is with exquisitely sensitive radio telescopes, like the GBT, which can detect the faint emission of neutral hydrogen. If it were visible with the naked eye, the Smith Cloud would cover almost as much sky as the constellation Orion.

When the Smith Cloud eventually merges with the Milky Way, it could produce a bright ring of stars similar to the one relatively close to our Sun known as Gould's Belt.

"Our Galaxy is in an incredibly dynamic environment," concludes Hill, "and how it interacts with that environment determines whether stars like the Sun will continue to form."

###

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

---

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| E-mail


Share

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/nrao-mf103113.php
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Here Comes Honey Boo Boo...On 'Family Feud'?!

Last summer, the Thompson-Shannon family, a.k.a. the stars of TLC's Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, filmed an episode of Family Feud. Honey Boo Boo (Alana Thompson), Mama (June Shannon), Pumpkin (Lauryn Shannon), Chickadee (Anna Shannon), Chubbs (Jessica Shannon) and Sugar Bear (Mike Thompson) competed against Cake Boss' Buddy Valastro and his wife and three sisters. The teams each played for a charity (Honey Boo Boo's was the gay and lesbian rights group, GLAAD), and the episode will air Nov. 11.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/honey-boo-boo-will-appear-family-feud-november/1-a-551452?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Ahoney-boo-boo-will-appear-family-feud-november-551452
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Kim Kardashian Takes a Selfie While Screaming on a Roller Coaster -- Picture

Hold on to your phones, guys and ghouls! Here is a shot of Kim Kardashian taking a selfie while screaming on a roller coaster.

PHOTOS: Famous celebrity families

The Kardashian/Jenner family rented out a theme park on Oct. 29 to celebrate Kendall Jenner's upcoming 18th birthday. The birthday girl -- flanked by amicably separated mom and dad Kris and Bruce Jenner, big sisters Kim and Khloe, birthday girls Kendall, plus brothers Rob Kardashian, Brody and Brandon Jenner -- enjoyed a goofy afternoon filled with crazy rides, games and pictures to document the fun at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, Calif.

PHOTOS: The Kardashian family vacation album

Newly-engaged Kim, who like her family members posted social media updates from the bash, shared this Keek video while on a roller coaster. "Alright, I hope this isn't too scary," said the 33-year-old reality star as the caboose slowly inched its way up a steep incline. "We better not drop our phone." Like a true pro, even as the screaming commenced, the mom to 4-month-old North West managed to keep her phone and subsequently shared the experience on social media.

PHOTOS: KimYe's sweetest moments

Although her fiance Kanye West was unable to join the somewhat-private affair, Kardashian reciprocated the rapper's lovey-dovey, recent interview with Ryan Seacrest in her Oct. 30 appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. "I'm very happy right now," she shared. The star also confessed to Leno how the fat-shaming she endured while pregnant with her first baby was damaging to her soul.

"It changed how I am in public," said the bombshell. "I've tried to live more of a private life."

PHOTOS: Kim's post-baby body style

Source: http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/kim-kardashian-selfie-while-screaming-on-a-roller-coaster-picture-20133110
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Mick Jagger says he never hit on Katy Perry at 18

FILE - This July 28, 2013 file photo shows singer Katy Perry at the world premiere of "The Smurfs 2" in Los Angeles. Perry says though she’s “older and wiser,” she still plans to have fun on her new album. During an interview with an Australian radio show this week, the pop star said she sang backing vocals for Mick Jagger’s 2004 song, “Old Habits Die Hard.” Perry said she had dinner with the veteran rocker and that “he hit on me when I was 18.” In a statement Thursday, Oct. 31, a representative for Jagger says he “categorically denies that he has ever made a pass at Katy Perry.” (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — In her teenage dream? Mick Jagger says he never hit on Katy Perry when she was 18.

During an interview with an Australian radio show this week, the pop star said she sang backing vocals for Jagger's 2004 song "Old Habits Die Hard." Perry said she had dinner with the veteran rocker and that "he hit on me when I was 18."

In a statement Thursday, a representative for Jagger says he "categorically denies that he has ever made a pass at Katy Perry." The rep adds: "Perhaps she is confusing him with someone else."

Perry was one of the singers to make a guest appearance on the Rolling Stones' tour this year. The 29-year-old singer also said in the interview that the 70-year-old Jagger has been "very kind" to her.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mick-jagger-says-never-hit-katy-perry-18-184315896.html
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Jerk or genius? Debate over Banksy's month of art

NEW YORK (AP) — The secretive street artist Banksy ended his self-announced month-long residency in New York City with a final piece of graffiti, a $615,000 painting donated to charity and a debate: Is he a jerk or a genius?

Banksy, who created a new picture, video or prank every day of October somewhere in the city, spent his last day like thousands of graffiti artists before him: He tagged a building near a highway with his name in giant bubble letters. The twist was that these letters were actual bubbles: balloon-like inflatables stuck to a wall near the Long Island Expressway in Queens.

As if to underscore his dual identity as both a street punk and an art-world darling, he also donated a painting that was auctioned off Thursday night for $615,000. The original painting first sold for $50 at a Manhattan thrift shop that benefits Housing Works, an organization that fights homelessness and AIDS. Banksy added a Nazi soldier to the landscape scene and Housing Works sold it in an online auction.

Throughout his 31 days here, Banksy put pictures of his work on BanksyNY.com, with clues as to locations but nothing precise. That spawned a treasure hunt by fans who hunted the works down, shared locations via social media, then swarmed to see them.

But by the time Banksy was done, New Yorkers were divided in their opinions. Some tweeted "Go home, Banksy!" Others declared their admiration.

The turning point for many was an essay he wrote criticizing the building replacing the World Trade Center. Banksy called the new design "vanilla ... something they would build in Canada," and added, "It so clearly proclaims the terrorists won." He offered the essay to The New York Times. The paper wouldn't print it, so he posted it on his website.

"The terrorists won" comment upset many New Yorkers, including Brian Major, 51, of Brooklyn. "Enough!" Major said. "Who is this guy? Everybody's got a right to an opinion but what gives him any kind of credibility in New York? Shut up, Banksy! Go home!"

A lifelong New Yorker, Major says he understands graffiti culture, and he also appreciates fine art. But he doesn't think Banksy's art is all that good — "though I'll give him credit, he's a good marketer."

But Sean Lynch, 25, of Staten Island thinks Banksy is "one of the more captivating artists of our generation." Lynch said it was magical visiting Banksy sites around the city and hearing conversations about art that the works inspired, with "people of all different walks and cultures sharing opinions, sharing stories. ... The walls started to talk to them, in a way."

Banksy, who refuses to reveal his full identity, began his career spray-painting buildings in Bristol, England. In New York, many of his images were silhouetted figures or spray-painted messages. The art ranged from a stencil of a dog lifting his leg on a hydrant to a video of a "slaughterhouse delivery truck" filled with stuffed animals. Some works were defaced by other graffiti artists. But interest grew with each piece, and at least one Banksy street work was covered with plexiglass to preserve it. He also sold some pieces, unadvertised, for $60 on the street.

Radhika Subramaniam, a professor at Parsons The New School for Design in Manhattan, says Banksy is part of a long tradition of graffiti artists like Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat whose work ultimately earned recognition from the art establishment. But he also fits into a contemporary trend of opening up public spaces to conversations about who owns them and what can happen there — especially in today's cleaned-up New York, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg, when asked about Banksy, called graffiti "a sign of decay and loss of control."

OK, but is Banksy any good? "There's plenty of wit in what he does, as well as some thoroughly ordinary, sometimes pleasant, sometimes banal, but sometimes sweet things," Subramaniam said. But he's also "not a naïf in the art world. After all, who would care if you or I were to set up a blog and enact a residency like this? It's only because he's able to marshal this kind of PR and marketing that ... catapults his residency to another level and elicits these polarized points of view."

In a final gesture that was simultaneously serious and self-mocking, audio commentary posted Thursday on Banksy's website called his final piece— his name in bubble letters by the road — "an homage ... to the most prevalent form of graffiti in the city that invented it for the modern era. Or it's another Banksy piece that's full of hot air."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jerk-genius-debate-over-banksys-month-art-050216837.html
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