US News:
Soldiers punished for skipping Christian concert?
RICHMOND, Va. — The Army said Friday it was investigating a claim that dozens of soldiers who refused to attend a Christian band's concert at a Virginia military base were banished to their barracks and told to clean them up.
Fort Eustis spokesman Rick Haverinen told The Associated Press he couldn't comment on the specifics of the investigation. At the Pentagon, Army spokesman Col. Thomas Collins said the military shouldn't impose religious views on soldiers.
"If something like that were to have happened, it would be contrary to Army policy," Collins said. |
Suburb rises from Katrina's shadow
(CNN) -- "This can be yours," the black-and-white newspaper advertisement promised above an image of a tree-lined ranch home in Pontchartrain Park.
At the bottom, it said "Available to Negroes."
It was the 1950s in segregated New Orleans, Louisiana, and the promise of a slice of suburbia for black Americans lured hundreds to the new community.
That included Meldon Woods, an Air Force corporal who had been given a home loan for his military service through the GI Bill. He and his wife, Audrey, a schoolteacher at the time, purchased a two-story home in 1957 where they raised their four children.
Fifty years later, he was forced to evacuate that home as Hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans on August 29, 2005.
"My husband said, no, he was not leaving, because he was upstairs and if the water came, he'd be upstairs," Audrey Woods recalled. |
Second Iowa farm recalls eggs in salmonella sweep
A second Iowa egg farm is recalling eggs as part of an investigation into a U.S. salmonella outbreak that is linked to almost 300 illnesses across the country.
Hillendale Farms of Iowa Inc said on Friday it was voluntarily recalling shell eggs potentially contaminated with salmonella in an expanding national egg recall that is among the largest in recent years, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
Another Iowa egg producer, Wright County Egg, recalled 380 million eggs on Thursday as more than 270 illnesses in California, Colorado and Minnesota were reported to have a connection to the northern Iowa farm. |
Thieves steal gold bar from Florida museum
(CNN) -- Authorities Friday were checking fingerprints and clarifying video images showing the theft of a $550,000 gold bar from a museum in Key West, Florida.
For 25 years, visitors to the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West, Florida, had the opportunity to lift the glittery piece of treasure in a special display case.
"It was touching something that came off the ocean floor," said Melissa Kendrick, the museum's executive director.
On Wednesday, two thieves got the gold bar and walked out, having accomplished their brazen theft in just a few minutes, Kendrick said.
Key West Police and the FBI are trying to identify the two men who walked into the gallery room around 5:10 p.m. No visitors or security guards were present, but a video camera was.
Police had no suspects Friday afternoon, department spokeswoman Alyson Crean told CNN. "There's been progress but no changes." |
Biden Urges D.N.C. to Reject Grim Election Forecast
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. admonished Democrats on Friday to shake away their pessimism about the fall elections, arguing that the prospect of historic losses would be minimized because the Republican Party has been overtaken by extreme candidates and stale ideas.
"The reports of the death of the Democratic Party have been greatly exaggerated," Mr. Biden said, paraphrasing Mark Twain as he addressed party leaders here. "The day after the election, there will be a Democratic majority in the House and a Democratic majority in the Senate. If it weren’t illegal, I’d make book on it." |
World News:
Wyclef Jean's Haiti presidential candidacy rejected
PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haiti's provisional electoral council ruled Friday that hip-hop star Wyclef Jean was not eligible to run as a presidential candidate for a Nov. 28 election.
Singer-songwriter Jean, 40, an international celebrity who is popular in his impoverished and earthquake-ravaged homeland, was left off the list of approved candidates published by the council. |
Libya keeps quiet a year after Lockerbie release
TRIPOLI — Libya kept a low profile on Friday after Britain warned against any repeat of the celebrations a year ago that greeted the release of a Libyan intelligence agent convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
Libya feted the return home of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, touting it as a victory for Libyan negotiating skills although the official reason for his release was compassionate grounds -- prostate cancer, believed at the time to be terminal.
But Megrahi remains alive today, prompting U.S. questions about the medical advice that led to his release, and calls from Britain on Libya to eschew any festivities on the first anniversary of the release that would be regarded as offensive to the families of Lockerbie victims, who were mainly American. |
Iran sees victory in nuclear reactor startup
BUSHEHR, Iran — The planned startup of Iran's first nuclear reactor Saturday is generating heightened concern in the West while Tehran plans to celebrate the milestone in what it says is its right to produce atomic energy.
As Iranian and Russian technicians Friday continued preparations for the loading of nuclear fuel at the Bushehr facility in the south, Tehran also planned major clebrations.
"The startup operations will be a big success for Iran," conservative lawmaker Javad Karimi said in Tehran. "It also shows Iran's resolve and capability in pursuing its nuclear activities."
The fuel-loading operation is expected to take at least a week at Bushehr, about 745 miles south of Tehran. It will take more than two months before it begins generating electricity. |
Suit over jailed Iranian misdirected, company says
(CNN) -- Nokia Siemens Networks said Friday it rejects a lawsuit filed in a U.S. court by a jailed Iranian journalist and his son, who have accused the European telecommunications company of providing the Iranian government the tools to spy on its own citizens.
"The Saharkhiz lawsuit is brought in the wrong place, against the wrong party and on the wrong premise," the company announced in a statement e-mailed to CNN. "The Saharkhizes allege brutal treatment by the government in Iran, but they have not sued that government. Instead, they are seeking to blame Nokia Siemens Networks for the acts of the Iranian authorities by filing a lawsuit in the U.S., a country that has absolutely no connection to the issue they are raising."
Earlier this week, New Jersey-based Iranian blogger Mehdi Saharkhiz filed a lawsuit in a U.S. federal court against Nokia Siemens Networks on behalf of his father, Isa, who has been in an Iranian prison since July 2009.
The lawsuit accuses the telecommunications company of helping the Iranian government establish "spying centers" that allegedly were used to monitor Saharkhiz's cell phone communications. Isa Saharkhiz is just one of hundreds of outspoken critics of the Iranian government to have been arrested as part of a wide-ranging crackdown on opposition leaders over the past year. |
Health News:
Binge drinking, high blood pressure a lethal combo
It's no secret that high blood pressure increases your risk of heart disease and stroke. Nor should it come as a surprise that binge drinking isn't the healthiest habit. But a new study suggests that combining the two may add up to double the trouble -- and much more, in some cases.
Compared with teetotalers with normal blood pressure, men with high blood pressure (hypertension) who even occasionally down more than six drinks in one sitting have nearly double the risk of dying from a stroke or heart attack, according to the study, which followed 6,100 South Koreans age 55 and up for two decades.
If men with high blood pressure have 12 drinks or more at one time, their risk is nearly five times higher, the study found. |
Sadness Over Poor Global Response To Pakistani Floods
Professor Zulfiqar Bhutta and Dr Shereen Zulfiqar Bhutta, both public health experts, lament the poor global response to Pakistan's recent floods in a Comment in the medical journal The Lancet. Prof. Bhutta was also interviewed in a Lancet exclusive (podcast below), in which he stresses the priorities for the relief effort; priorities include:
- mobilizing food and clean water to badly affected areas
- re-establishing sanitation
- re-establishing primary health facilities
- providing care for elderly displaced persons with chronic (long-term) diseases who no longer have access to medications
|
Being Afraid Of Falling Leads To Higher Risk Of Falling, Regardless Of Actual Fall Risk
People who are afraid of falling down have a higher risk of experiencing subsequent falls, compared to individuals who do not have that fear, says a new report published in the BMJ (British Medical Journal). The authors say that both actual and perceived fall risk should be included in fall risk assessment in order to help protect elderly people from falls.
A significant number of elderly individuals are afraid of falling down. Fear of falling is also linked to anxiety, depressions, poor balance, and having had previous falls. The investigators, from Belgium and Australia wanted to understand fear of falling better, as well as determining its impact on the risk of falls. |
New Form Of Ketamine Treats Depression "Like Magic"
"It's like a magic drug", said the lead researcher of a team from Yale University in the US whose latest study suggests that ketamine, a drug normally used as an anasthetic, could be reformulated as an anti-depressant that takes effect in hours rather than the usual weeks and months of most available medications.
You can read how the researchers discovered this effect in a study they performed on rats which was published online on 20 August in the journal Science.
Senior author Dr Ronald Duman, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at Yale, told the media that just one dose of the drug can work rapidly and lasts for seven to ten days.
This is the same ketamine that is used as a recreational drug, called "Special K", or "K". |
Environment News:
Dyes, Laundry Aids, and EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released action plans today to address the potential health risks of benzidine dyes, hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) and nonylphenol (NP)/nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs). The chemicals are widely used in both consumer and industrial applications, including dyes, flame retardants, and industrial laundry detergents. The plans identify a range of actions the agency is considering under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) |
Indonesia Coral - Impacts of hotter water temperatures
The Wildlife Conservation Society today released initial field observations that indicate that a dramatic rise in the surface temperature in Indonesian waters has resulted in a large-scale bleaching event that has devastated coral populations.
WCS's Indonesia Program "Rapid Response Unit" of marine biologists was dispatched to investigate coral bleaching reported in May in Aceh–a province of Indonesia–located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. The initial survey carried out by the team revealed that over 60 percent of corals were bleached.
"Bleaching"– a whitening of corals that occurs when algae living within coral tissues are expelled – is an indication of stress caused by environmental triggers such as sea surface temperature fluctuations. Depending on many factors, bleached coral may recover over time or die.
Subsequent monitoring conducted by marine ecologists from WCS, James Cook University (Australia), and Syiah Kuala University (Indonesia) were completed in early August and revealed one of the most rapid and severe coral mortality events ever recorded. The scientists found that 80 percent of some species have died since the initial assessment and more colonies are expected to die within the next few months. |
We love our tech toys; but how best to trash them?
Julayna Smith has a problem. Over the years, she has accumulated eight cell phones in trying to keep up with the latest models. Her boyfriend has also started a small BlackBerry pile of his own.
"I don't know the first place to look to recycle a phone, I just have no idea where I would start," she said.
Smith, 22, of Duluth, Minn., is not alone.
States, cities and consumer groups are increasingly looking for a federal solution to the growing problem of getting rid of more than 2 million tons of used electronic gadgets each year. |
Science News:
Harvard confirms misconduct by morality researcher
Bowing to pressure from scientists in animal cognition, Harvard University has confirmed that an internal investigation has found evidence of misconduct by Marc Hauser, one of the field's leading lights.
"[I]t is with great sadness that I confirm that Professor Marc Hauser was found solely responsible, after a thorough investigation by a faculty investigating committee, for eight instances of scientific misconduct," says a letter emailed to Harvard faculty by Michael Smith, dean of arts and sciences. Smith also writes that Harvard has moved to "impose appropriate sanctions", but does not explain what action is being taken. |
How collapsing bubbles could shoot cancer cells dead
Jets of fluid propelled by the collapse of microscopic bubbles could deliver drugs directly into cancer cells, if an idea from a team of engineers pays off. They have made the bubbles project a fine jet that is powerful enough to puncture the cell wall and enter the cell.
Applying a pulse of heat or ultrasound to a fluid can produce bubbles that initially expand rapidly, before collapsing suddenly when the pulse ends. Pei Zhong and his team at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, knew that the collapsing bubbles send a pressure wave through the surrounding fluid, and that oscillations at the surface of the bubble can generate a needle-like jet. The problem is predicting where the jet will go, and how powerful it will be.
"Previously, there has been little control in jetting direction, and it has been hard to control the strength of the jet," Zhong says. Now the team has shown that when pairs of bubbles collapse in close proximity, they interact in a predictable way. |
Big quakes more frequent than thought on San Andreas fault
Earthquakes have rocked the powerful San Andreas fault that splits California far more often than previously thought, according to UC Irvine and Arizona State University researchers who have charted temblors there stretching back 700 years.
The findings, to be published in the Sept. 1 issue of Geology, conclude that large ruptures have occurred on the Carrizo Plain portion of the fault – about 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles – as often as every 45 to 144 years. But the last big quake was in 1857, more than 150 years ago.
UCI researchers said that while it's possible the fault is experiencing a natural lull, they think it's more likely a major quake could happen soon.
"If you're waiting for somebody to tell you when we're close to the next San Andreas earthquake, just look at the data," said UCI seismologist Lisa Grant Ludwig, principal investigator on the study.
An associate professor of public health, she hopes the findings will serve as a wake-up call to Californians who've grown complacent about the risk of major earthquakes. She said the new data "puts the exclamation point" on the need for state residents and policymakers to be prepared. |
Researchers advance understanding of enzyme that regulates DNA
Thanks to a single-molecule imaging technique developed by a University of Illinois professor, researchers have revealed the mechanisms of an important DNA-regulating enzyme.
Helicase enzymes are best known for "unzipping" DNA for replication, but have many other functions for DNA repair and maintenance. The Illinois team focused on a particular bacterial helicase called PcrA involved in preventing unwanted recombination.
A DNA double helix consists of two strands twisted around each other. When one strand is damaged or breaks, the surrounding area is degraded, leaving a single-stranded region. Specialized proteins then start the process of recombination – rebuilding the second strand using the intact DNA as a template.
"Recombination is essential for DNA repair, but if it runs amok, it causes problems," said U. of I. physics professor Taekjip Ha. "This helicase controls recombination by removing recombination proteins from the DNA." |
Tech News:
Mozilla's Popcorn Project Adds Extra Flavor to Web Video
Video on the web has always been a bit disappointing.
After all, it’s pretty much just like television, only smaller. And unlike the rest of the web, video is just as much a passive experience in your browser as it is anywhere else.
Mozilla would like to change that. Developers at the browser maker’s Drumbeat project — an initiative that advocates new open web technologies — have created Popcorn, a tool intended to make web video every bit as interactive as the rest of the web.
Popcorn is a very new effort and still a bit rough around the edges, but results are already impressive. Popcorn adds metadata to HTML5 native web video, annotating videos with information like location, details about the people and topics in the video, subtitles, and licensing details. The metadata can be used in real time to add to the experience. |
Google Wi-Fi Spy Lawsuits Head to Silicon Valley
Whether Google is liable for damages for secretly intercepting data on open Wi-Fi routers across the United States is to be aired out in a Silicon Valley federal court.
Eight proposed class actions from across the country that seek unspecified monetary damages from Google were consolidated this week and transferred to U.S. District Judge James Ware in San Jose, California. Another five cases are likely to join.
The lawsuits allege that Google violated federal and state privacy laws in collecting fragments of data from unencrypted wireless networks as its fleet of camera-equipped cars moseyed through neighborhoods snapping pictures for its Street View program. |
How to create a secure 'super password'
Say goodbye to those wimpy, eight-letter passwords.
The 12-character era of online security is upon us, according to a report published this week by the Georgia Institute of Technology.
The researchers used clusters of graphics cards to crack eight-character passwords in less than two hours.
But when the researchers applied that same processing power to 12-character passwords, they found it would take 17,134 years to make them snap.
"The length of your password in some cases can dictate the vulnerability," said Joshua Davis, a research scientist at the Georgia Tech Research Institute.
It's hard to say what will happen in the future, but for now, 12-character passwords should be the standard, said Richard Boyd, a senior research scientist who also worked on the project. |
Facebook Places: Here's how it works
Facebook has rolled out its long-awaited location feature, Facebook Places, an application that lets users "check in" on their mobile phones so friends know where they're hanging out and what they're doing.
It's a function similar to what apps such as Foursquare and Gowalla have been doing for a while. But Facebook's 500 million-user base dwarfs the 2 million-plus on Foursquare, meaning the "check-in" concept is probably new to a lot of folks.
So here are answers to some of the questions and comments we're hearing since the feature went live in some places Wednesday night. (Note: It's still not active in a lot of places. In Atlanta, we tried the application Thursday morning but got a message saying it "will be available in your region soon.")
What does it do?
Facebook Places, like existing location-based apps, uses GPS so people can "check in" on their mobile phones, letting friends know where they are and what they're up to.
It's probably most useful to a young, socially active set. |
NuCaptcha Flash CAPTCHAs to combat spambots
"Completely Automated Public Turing tests to tell Computers and Humans Apart" (CAPTCHA) technology is designed to generate phrases that while still legible to humans, cannot easily be machine read. Its purpose is to defeat the tools spammers and criminals use to automate tasks such as the setting up of accounts in forums and with email services.
Usually static images are used, but the software from NuCaptcha generates animated CAPTCHAs to make automated machine reading even more difficult, while actually increasing legibility for humans. Animated CAPTCHAs themselves aren't new, but animation was only used to do things like hiding part of a character string with a bouncy ball or other graphic objects, or superimposing moving grid lines. |
Space News:
Asteroid Threat Early Warning System Proposed
Scientists are taking a hard look at a proposal to keep a high-tech, yet low-cost, eye on the heavens for asteroids or comets that may have Earth in their crosshairs.
The proposal is dubbed ATLAS – short for the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System – and calls for two telescopes to serve as an early warning system against incoming asteroids. Scientists hope such a system could provide many hours or days notice of an impending Earth impact.
Leading the ATLAS effort here are space scientists John Tonry and Robert Jedicke of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii.
As sketched out, the proposed ATLAS project would include two observatories separated by about 60 miles (100 km) that can simultaneously scan the entire night sky visible from their locations twice a night. Each observatory would be composed of four commercially available telescopes, with two at each site observing the same region of the sky. |
Dark Energy Mystery Illuminated By Cosmic Lens
By peering at the distant reaches of the universe through a galactic magnifying lens, astronomers may have found a way to better understand mysterious dark energy, which is thought to be speeding up the expansion of the cosmos.
Though scientists don't know what dark energy is – nor have they proven definitively that it exists – they think it is the force causing galaxies to stray away from each other at an ever-quickening pace. Dark energy is the name given to whatever stuff is permeating the universe and causing this surprising accelerated expansion..
In the new study, astronomers used a massive galaxy cluster called Abell 1689 as a giant cosmic lens to study how mass warps space and time around it. When light from even more distant galaxies passes near the cluster on its way to our telescopes on Earth, the light appears magnified and distorted because of this effect. |
Mud Volcanoes May Help Search for Life on Mars
If life does — or ever did — exist on Mars, signs of such life might well be found in a region in the northern plains called Acidalia Planitia, according to a new study.
The region appears to be dotted with what scientists believe are geological structures known as mud volcanoes, spewing out muddy sediments from underground. These sediments might contain organic materials that could be biosignatures of possible past and present life.
"If there was life on Mars, it probably developed in a fluid-rich environment," said lead author Dorothy Oehler, a research scientist at the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Directorate at NASA's Johnson Space Center. "Mud volcanoes themselves are an indicator of a fluid-rich subsurface, and they bring up material from relatively deep parts of the subsurface that we might not have a chance to see otherwise." |
Planetary Society Urges Congress to Reconsider Space Exploration Plan
The Planetary Society, a non-profit organization involved in space advocacy, is deeply concerned about the future of U.S. space exploration and is urging Congress to reconsider NASA's current plans.
In an Aug. 18 letter, the society asks Congress to revisit the current human space exploration plan. The letter was sent to the leaders of four subcommittees currently discussing policies that affect NASA's future and also highlights what the society contends are oversights in the current space exploration bills under discussion.
"We are concerned about omissions and a lack of coherence in the four committees' versions of this bill," members of the Planetary Society stated in the letter. |