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Thursday, February 28, 2013
The Satechi Bluetooth Smart Trigger and an iOS app gives you expanded control over your DSLR camera
The Bluetooth Smart Trigger from Satechi slides onto the hot shoe of your Canon, Nikon, or Pentax DSLR camera and adds new dimensions to how you can use the camera. ?The Smart Trigger uses Bluetooth 4.0 technology to pair with your iPhone (4S or 5) or iPad (3 or mini); an iOS app then turns [...]
Advanced breast cancer edges up in younger women - seattlepi.com
CHICAGO (AP) ? Advanced breast cancer has increased slightly among young women, a 34-year analysis suggests. The disease is still uncommon among women younger than 40, and the small change has experts scratching their heads about possible reasons.
The results are potentially worrisome because young women's tumors tend to be more aggressive than older women's, and they're much less likely to get routine screening for the disease.
Still, that doesn't explain why there'd be an increase in advanced cases and the researchers and other experts say more work is needed to find answers.
It's likely that the increase has more than one cause, said Dr. Rebecca Johnson, the study's lead author and medical director of a teen and young adult cancer program at Seattle Children's Hospital.
"The change might be due to some sort of modifiable risk factor, like a lifestyle change" or exposure to some sort of cancer-linked substance, she said.
Johnson said the results translate to about 250 advanced cases diagnosed in women younger than 40 in the mid-1970s versus more than 800 in 2009. During those years, the number of women nationwide in that age range went from about 22 million to closer to 30 million ? an increase that explains part of the study trend "but definitely not all of it," Johnson said.
Other experts said women delaying pregnancy might be a factor, partly because getting pregnant at an older age might cause an already growing tumor to spread more quickly in response to pregnancy hormones.
Obesity and having at least a drink or two daily have both been linked with breast cancer but research is inconclusive on other possible risk factors, including tobacco and chemicals in the environment. Whether any of these explains the slight increase in advanced disease in young women is unknown.
There was no increase in cancer at other stages in young women. There also was no increase in advanced disease among women older than 40.
Overall U.S. breast cancer rates have mostly fallen in more recent years, although there are signs they may have plateaued.
Some 17 years ago, Johnson was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer at age 27, and that influenced her career choice to focus on the disease in younger women.
"Young women and their doctors need to understand that it can happen in young women," and get checked if symptoms appear, said Johnson, now 44. "People shouldn't just watch and wait."
The authors reviewed a U.S. government database of cancer cases from 1976 to 2009. They found that among women aged 25 to 39, breast cancer that has spread to distant parts of the body ? advanced disease ? increased from between 1 and 2 cases per 100,000 women to about 3 cases per 100,000 during that time span.
The study was published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
About one in 8 women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime, but only 1 in 173 will develop it by age 40. Risks increase with age and certain gene variations can raise the odds.
Routine screening with mammograms is recommended for older women but not those younger than 40.
Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, the American Cancer Society's deputy chief medical officer, said the results support anecdotal reports but that there's no reason to start screening all younger women since breast cancer is still so uncommon for them.
He said the study "is solid and interesting and certainly does raise questions as to why this is being observed." One of the most likely reasons is probably related to changes in childbearing practices, he said, adding that the trend "is clearly something to be followed."
Dr. Ann Partridge, chair of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's advisory committee on breast cancer in young women, agreed but said it's also possible that doctors look harder for advanced disease in younger women than in older patients. More research is needed to make sure the phenomenon is real, said Partridge, director of the breast cancer center at the Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
The study shouldn't cause alarm, she said. Still, Partridge said young women should be familiar with their breasts and see the doctor if they notice any lumps or other changes.
Software engineer Stephanie Carson discovered a large breast tumor that had already spread to her lungs; that diagnosis in 2003 was a huge shock.
"I was so clueless," she said. "I was just 29 and that was the last thing on my mind."
Carson, who lives near St. Louis, had a mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation and other treatments and she frequently has to try new drugs to keep the cancer at bay.
Because most breast cancer is diagnosed in early stages, there's a misconception that women are treated, and then get on with their lives, Carson said. She and her husband had to abandon hopes of having children, and she's on medical leave from her job.
"It changed the complete course of my life," she said. "But it's still a good life."
____
Online:
JAMA: http://jama.ama-assn.org
CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/breast/index.htm
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Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Lingering racism crux of voting rights case
The historical marker, placed by the Alabama Historical Association, on the original Shelby County courthouse. (Tommy Daspit/YCN)
?Nobody likes to be stereotyped,? said Reggie Giles, a resident of Shelby County, Ala. Which is why stereotypical assumptions about Southerners, he noted?specifically, that they?re racists?is offensive.
?Racism is a stigma that the South can't seem to shake and that most of the rest of the country seems to want to perpetuate,? Giles, a software engineer, said.
Giles was one of several Shelby County residents who shared their thoughts with Yahoo News earlier this week as the Supreme Court prepares to hear Shelby County v. Holder on Wednesday. It?s a case that may determine the constitutionality of nearly five decades of voting rights legislation, specifically Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and a referendum of sorts on how far their county, and most of the South, has evolved on voting rights in the past 50 years.
Giles, who lives in Pelham, a Birmingham suburb, said protecting all voters? rights is a ?no-brainer.? But like many Shelby County residents, he finds some laws antiquated: Legislation conceived in 1965, he noted, doesn?t always apply in 2013.
At the heart of the debate reaching the court is local control of election laws against alleged racial discrimination in voting. Nine states (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia) are covered under Section 5 of the act, which mandates that changes to local election laws?no matter how trivial those alterations are perceived?must receive clearance from the Justice Department or through a lawsuit at the D.C. district court. Also subject to Section 5 are 57 counties and 12 townships outside those nine states. (See a full list.)
Congress has renewed the law several times, the last time in 2006 when it extended the Voting Rights Act until 2032.
The petitioner in this case is Shelby County, home to nearly 200,000 residents. The county didn?t seek to amend its voting laws, but it nevertheless sued the Justice Department to strike down Section 5 in its entirety.
(SCOTUS Blog has more in-depth analysis and information for those interested in exploring the legislation?s more esoteric nooks and crannies, including the formula in Section 4 that determines which areas Section 5 covers.)
Legislative diversity helps battle racism in government
The racism label is hardly limited to the South. Former South Dakota state Sen. Thomas Shortbull, who also shared his thoughts with Yahoo News, says government oversight is needed in his state.
Two of the state?s counties?Shannon and Todd?already comply with the federal government. And for years, state politicians fought over the counties that hold part of the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations along the southern border with Nebraska.
In 1975, Shortbull recommended that Shannon and Todd counties sit in the same legislative district where 90 percent of the voters would be American Indian. Shortbull argued that the only way the group could gain a legislative voice was to merge the reservations into one district. Five years later, the state?reluctantly, Shortbull said?created one district that covered most of the reservations.
?[Section 5] is the only vehicle in some states to fight institutional racism in local and state governments,? Shortbull wrote in his first-person account. ?In the state of South Dakota, racism towards minorities is prevalent, and the only means of diminishing the racism is to elect more minorities to state and local governments.?
Local victories tough to win?and maintain
In Houston, Rogene Calvert has advocated for the city?s Asian-American communities for years. While there are 280,000 Asian-Americans in Houston, Calvert says, they rarely can elect a representative candidate because the state has dispersed those voters into separate districts.
They did score a victory in 2004, however, when Rep. Hubert Vo bounced a 22-year incumbent from House District 149 in southwestern Houston and became Texas? first Vietnamese-American representative.
Vo, who won that race by 16 votes after three recounts, has been re-elected four times. But, Calvert said, in 2011, the state eyed redistricting to eliminate Vo?s seat and break it up into three districts.
?We objected to this at every stage of the process,? she said, noting that she testified before the state?s House Redistricting Committee, urging it to reconsider its plan to split up Asian-American voters in southwest Harris County.
?The state legislature ignored us,? she added.
Under Section 5, however, the Justice Department refused to approve redistricting.
?Because of that, we still have a vibrant coalition in HD 149 and we still can elect the candidates of our choice,? Calvert said. ?Without the protection of the VRA, the influence of the Asian-American community would have been drastically reduced.?
?Punished for the sins of our fathers?
In Shelby County, things are less pragmatic and more philosophical. Residents who shared their thoughts about the Voting Rights Act focused less on political gerrymandering and more on how they believed it impugns local control and the spirit of sovereignty.
Jonathan Williams, a 32-year-old Montevallo resident, often gathers at the local coffee shop to listen to wisdom from men he calls the town?s elders.
?Occasionally, they let me sit in their august presence?one of my favorite ways to spend a Friday afternoon,? Williams wrote in his account. ?Between the eight of them, they have seen and done almost everything?fought for their country, traveled the world, raised families, lost and won fortunes. Black, white, blue-collar and white-collar, they all gather around a table each afternoon to solve the world's problems while shamelessly flirting with the servers.?
When Williams raised Shelby County v. Holder, the elders weren?t shy about sharing their opinions, he said.
One elder offered: "Are we second-class citizens in our own country?"
Another said: "I don't care if a man is black, white, Mexican or Chinese.?
The more important questions, to him: ?Is he Republican or Democrat? Where does he go to church?"
Williams said he?s seen too much progress to believe Section 5 should survive a court challenge. ?How long must we be punished for the sins of our fathers before the rest of the nation realizes things have changed? I'm sick of it," he said.
Elections are the only true shared experience
Unlike Williams, Tommy Daspit hasn?t live in Shelby County his whole life. He?s called it home for three years after living in diverse locales such as Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Washington state and Indiana.
He noted the subtle differences in dialect, food, music and ideologies. But elections, he said, are the same.
?The experience of voting in Shelby County, Ala., was the same as it was in Tippecanoe, Ind., Kittitas County, Wash., or Dallas County, Texas,? Daspit, a photographer, said. ?Sure, there are some differences in the way the ballots look from one place to the next, but the experience of voting is the same.?
Daspit said Section 5 is dispensable and excessive: ?It has aided in transforming the South into a place where my children can grow up friends with children of all colors. However, it is no more relevant to Shelby County today than it would be in the North or the West.?
Bigots are not the prevailing entities
Daspit?s wife, Kelly, said she sees postracial evolution in Shelby County?s youngest residents. She writes:
Last week, my 8-year-old son was making Valentines for his 21 classmates at the elementary school he attends in Shelby County. He spent extra time decorating five of them, writing on those, in his approximated spelling, the word "FRANDS."
Two of those "FRANDS" are African-American boys. They play together and sometimes argue together, but they are friends. When my son celebrates his birthday, those two boys will be among the others invited to his party. There wouldn't be a question in the children's or in their parents' minds that it should be otherwise.
Born in 1975, Kelly Daspit said she understands life wasn?t always that way. Even after legal integration, unofficial social segregation?black and white students sitting at separate tables in school cafeterias?continued in her youth. But through the years, she said, it?s improved:
I have taught in five schools, and little by little, year by year, I have watched the change. No longer is it taboo for black and white children to have relationships. There are no longer "white" and "black" tables, and today's children could hardly imagine otherwise. Why? Because their parents did not teach them otherwise. Because, as we grew up in integrated schools, working in integrated workplaces, we learned each other. We learned there was nothing to fear from another's skin or another's culture. We learned that we really do all have the same worth. And racism, little by little, year by year, has perished. Yes, there are still some bigots; there always will be. You can find those in any town, in any state. But they are not the majority. They are not the prevailing entity.
How can I be sure? Because a public school is a reflection of its society. And if you wish to know about the prevailing society in Shelby County, Ala., just consider my 8-year-old son and consider who his "FRANDS" are.
Giles, the Pelham resident, offered his own evidence of progress: ?For the record, my votes were split in the past two presidential elections. In 2008, I voted for one of the two major party's candidate, and in 2012 I voted for the other.?
Nobody likes to be stereotyped.
The original Shelby County courthouse, 1854-1908, in Columbiana, Ala. (Tommy Daspit/YCN)
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
One and done at Oscars for MacFarlane
NEW YORK (AP) ? It looks like it's one and done at the Oscars for Seth MacFarlane.
The "Family Guy" creator was asked on his Twitter account whether he'd consider hosting the Academy Awards again and he replied: "No way. Lotta fun to have done it, though."
MacFarlane's edgy comedy proved a polarizing force on Sunday's Academy Awards, with jokes about domestic violence, women's bodies and Jews in Hollywood that offended some viewers. The Oscars did get their biggest audience in three years, however, with particular growth among young viewers.
MacFarlane's spokeswoman said Tuesday she had nothing to add to the tweet.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/one-done-oscars-macfarlane-185207358.html
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The Walking Dead, Season 3
Merle Dixon, fighting zombies with duct tape
Ever since zombies saved the protagonists from boredom by overrunning Hershel?s farm, the members of the Grimes group seem to rarely get downtime for one-on-one connecting. Instead, we usually find them fighting zombies or yelling about what to do next or ignoring Hershel as a group. That?s a shame. It?s their occasional two-minute dialogues that truly flesh out the characters and give us some modicum of sympathy for them.
This is particularly true this season for Daryl. We?ve learned a good deal about Daryl?s backstory and character from the one-on-one exchanges he?s had with other characters. When Daryl and Carl were clearing a cellblock together earlier in the season, we found out that Daryl?s mother was an alcoholic who died in a house fire. This didn?t just offer a greater glimpse into Daryl?s rough childhood; his attempt to connect with Carl illustrated his empathy, and you could just hear fans swoon at this demonstration of his daddy skills. Similarly, Daryl and Merle?s scuffle in the woods in ?Home? revealed more than details about their fathers? abuse. It's why they?re so loyal to each other: They both endured the same abusive father, and they each resent the other for his abandonment.
Our interest in Merle relies entirely on little dialogues like these. Without them, he?s just a raving, racist redneck. With them, he?s nuanced: a bibliophile, even a devout man. These well-drawn dialogues tend to reveal a discrepancy between a character and his or her airbrushed group persona. Daryl seems the dispassionate zombie-killing machine, but he?s actually empathetic and wounded. Merle seems the shameless sociopath, but he?s actually remorseful. Rick seems the level-headed leader (well, not anymore), but he?s actually overrun with guilt.
There?s a psychological controversy known as the person-situation debate. One side argues that individuals? inner personality traits determine their behavior. On the other side, the ?situationalists? argue that people act so inconsistently across situations that it?s not very meaningful to ascribe personality traits to them. The truth is probably somewhere in between, but I?m glad The Walking Dead is erring on the side of situationalism. It makes a show about zombies and Axel?s titanium, bullet-blocking corpse somehow realer. It?s not exactly subtle, but then The Walking Dead isn?t about subtlety. We do have zombies to kill, you know.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=1d12ce5a339d11a5f9f8a85f0570c9b4
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Coast Guard trying to ID family missing at sea
MONTEREY, Calif. (AP) ? Authorities have turned to the public in hopes of identifying a family that sent a series of distress calls saying their boat was sinking far off the Central California coast.
"There is still no information on where the boat was coming from, where it was going or who the people on board are," said Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Mike Lutz.
The unidentified family of four ? including two children under 8 ? had been sailing a small vessel Sunday west of Monterey Bay. Forecasters had issued a weekend advisory warning boaters of rough seas in the area, and water temperatures typically are in the 40s and 50s, making long-term survival difficult.
The group made its first distress call late Sunday afternoon, Coast Guard Lt. Heather Lampert said. Investigators used the boat's radio signal and radar to determine the call came from an area about 60 miles west of Monterey.
The boaters reported that their 29-foot sailboat was taking on water and the electronics were failing.
Crews planned to search by sea and air through the night Monday to find the family, who said in the calls that they were fashioning a raft from a cooler and a life-preserver ring before they lost contact with the Coast Guard.
"We will just saturate the search area with as many assets as we can, so we can hopefully rescue them," Lutz said.
The Coast Guard released one of the family's recorded distress calls (http://bit.ly/W90cyv ), in hopes that it would lead to new information from the public that could help in the search. So far the agency has received no reports of missing persons in the case.
The agency believes the boat's name was Charmblow. In the crackling recording, a man's voice is heard saying, "Coast Guard, Coast Guard, we are abandoning ship. This is the (Charmblow), we are abandoning ship."
Investigators determined from the broken distress calls that the family included a husband and wife, their 4-year-old son and his cousin, Lampert said.
The boat's location initially was reported farther north, but Lampert said investigators now believe the call came from west of Monterey Bay, about 100 miles south of San Francisco. The boat did not have a working GPS system.
Calls to harbors in California have failed to locate the boat, and database searches have come up empty, Lampert said. The Coast Guard was expanding its search to Hawaii, the Seattle area and north into Canada.
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Monday, February 25, 2013
Has anyone ever used a lucid dream to do something productive?
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'Just make the cuts'
Washington is in panic mode over the so-called sequester?automatic, across-the-board spending cuts set to be triggered March 1 if Congress and the White House can't reach a deficit reduction deal. Just days before the federal budget will be forced to shave less than 3 percent from its annual budget, politicos from President Barack Obama to Republican House Speaker John Boehner are prophesying Armageddon.
But while most lawmakers flail through the nation's capital as if their hair just caught fire, a coalition of conservative groups are urging lawmakers to stop worrying and learn to love the sequester.
Americans for Prosperity, for example, is one of a few organizations hailing the looming budget cuts as a potential victory. The group, backed by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, has dispatched members from its network of activists to visit 10 lawmakers' state offices in Florida, North Carolina, Arkansas and Minnesota urging them to let the across-the-board cuts take their course. The group is also circulating a petition arguing that sequestration is "not enough" and plans to release online ads.
"Just make the cuts," AFP President Tim Phillips told Yahoo News in an interview. "These are modest cuts. It's about 2 cents roughly on every dollar of federal spending."
Meanwhile, AFP is urging its 2.3 million members to flood congressional officers with letters calling on them not to make a deal to avoid the cuts. "Thankfully, Congress and the President have already agreed to cut $85 billion from the budget this year," the form letter reads. "That?s not enough but it?s a good first step. I urge you not to undo those spending cuts."
The sequestration plan, crafted in 2011 as part of deficit reduction negotiations to encourage both Republicans and Democrats to find a compromise, will affect both domestic discretionary spending and the defense budget. Phillips conceded that he felt the defense cuts were "disproportionately tough," but said it was worth it to achieve that level of spending cuts.
"The president and Senate Democrats all agreed to this during the debt limit deal," he said. "They ought to keep their word."
Meanwhile, a group of nearly 50 leaders of conservative organizations signed onto a letter that called for passage of the cuts?even those that affect the Pentagon, an area of government spending the right rarely likes to touch.
"While many conservatives would prefer reprogramming defense cuts to other areas of discretionary spending (dollar for dollar cuts in the same year), the current sequester savings are better than none at all," the letter, signed by Club for Growth President Chris Chocala, former attorney general Edwin Meese, who served under President Ronald Reagan, and others, read.
At least for now, all signs suggest these groups will get their wish. The Senate this week is poised to vote on a Democrat-sponsored deficit-reduction package that mixes spending cuts with tax increases, but Republicans in the House and Senate have refused to approve any measure that increases taxes. Lawmakers have until Friday to secure a deal.
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Safety on everyone's mind at Daytona 500
Daytona International Speedway president Joie Chitwood III speaks during a news conference before the start of the Daytona 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. Several spectators were injured when a car crashed into the catch fence during the Nationwide Series auto race on Saturday sending debris into the grandstand. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
Daytona International Speedway president Joie Chitwood III speaks during a news conference before the start of the Daytona 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. Several spectators were injured when a car crashed into the catch fence during the Nationwide Series auto race on Saturday sending debris into the grandstand. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
Emergency officials put out a fire from driver Kyle Larson's engine after his car hit the wall and safety fence along the front grandstands on the final lap of a NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. Larson's crash sent car parts and other debris flying into the stands injuring spectators. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Injured spectators are treated after a crash at the conclusion of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. Driver Kyle Larson's car hit the safety fence sending car parts and other debris flying into the stands. (AP Photo/David Graham)
A wheel, tire and suspension parts sit in the stands after crash on the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. Several fans were injured when large chunks of debris sailed into the grandstands after a car flew into the fence. (AP Photo/David Graham)
Kyle Larson (32) goes airborne and into the catch fence in a multi-car crash involving Dale Earnhardt Jr. (88), Parker Kligerman (77), Justin Allgaier (31) and Brian Scott (2) during the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? Raymond Gober parked his motorcycle outside Daytona International Speedway, climbed off and briefly considered bringing his helmet into the track.
"I was about to wear it in, but I knew everyone would be laughing at me," said Gober, a pastor from outside Atlanta.
Maybe not.
Safety was on everyone's mind before and during the Daytona 500 on Sunday, a day after a horrific wreck in a second-tier NASCAR series race hurled chunks of debris, including a heavy tire, into the stands and injured nearly 30 people.
With small spots of blood still soaked into the concrete seating area, the accident raised questions about the safety of fans at race tracks. Should fences be higher and sturdier? Should grandstands be farther from the track?
NASCAR has long been a big draw because of its thrilling speeds, tight-knit racing, frantic finishes and the ability to get so close to the action.
That proximity comes with some risk.
And after Saturday's 12-car melee on the final lap of the Nationwide Series opener, some questioned whether that risk outweighed the reward.
"These are the best seats in the house, but they're also dangerous," Gober said.
Gober was one of thousands of fans who returned to Daytona less than 24 hours after Kyle Larson's car flew into the fence, crumbled into pieces and sprayed parts at spectators.
Early in the 500-mile "Great American Race," a nine-car wreck took out several top contenders.
Three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart and 2007 race winner Kevin Harvick were knocked out.
The wreck started when Kasey Kahne let off the gas to slow as they neared the first turn at Daytona International Speedway ? not too far from Saturday's near-disaster. Kyle Busch tried to do the same, but couldn't avoid contact.
Busch sent Kahne spinning across the track. Juan Pablo Montoya, 2010 race winner Jamie McMurray and defending series champion Brad Keselowski also were involved.
Thankfully, the wrecking cars stayed on the track. Things would be considerably different had they done the same Saturday.
"You don't have time to react, but I just remember thinking, 'This is gonna hurt,'" said Steve Bradford, of Dade City. "We were showered with debris."
Gober picked up a bolt that landed next to his left foot and plans to take it home as a souvenir from a crash that could have considerably worse.
He and Bradford have been coming to races at Daytona for years, always seeking out scalped tickets so they can get ultra-close to the cars zooming by at 200 mph.
Now, though?
"Needless to say, we won't be here next year," Bradford said ? meaning the seats, not the race.
He pointed at the upper level.
"Next year, we'll be up there," he said.
Not everyone felt the same way.
John and Andrea Crawford, of Streetsboro, Ohio, love sitting a few rows up. They were there Saturday and back again Sunday, just like so many in that seating section.
The area had rubber marks on seats hit by the tire. Several fans pointed out a chair bent backward, the spot one man was sitting when he got pummeled by the 60-pound tire and wheel.
"I'm not nervous," Andrea Crawford said. "It doesn't happen that much."
When Rick Barasso arrived at his seats, he noticed a few reporters and some tire marks. He asked what was going on and then couldn't stop smiling as he waved his friends over and shared details with them.
"These should be good seats," he said. "I mean, what are the chances?"
Maybe small, but there's little doubt the latest fallout could prompt NASCAR and track officials to consider changes ? at Daytona and elsewhere.
Daytona has plans to remodel the grandstands. Track President Joie Chitwood said Saturday's wreck could prompt sturdier fences or stands farther from the action.
"It's tough to connect the two right now in terms of a potential redevelopment and what occurred," Chitwood said. "We were prepared yesterday, had emergency medical respond. As we learn from this, you bet: If there are things that we can incorporate into the future, whether it's the current property now or any other redevelopment, we will.
"The key is sitting down with NASCAR, finding out the things that happened and how we deal with them."
Daytona reexamined its fencing and ended up replacing the entire thing following Carl Edwards' scary crash at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama in 2009. Edwards' car sailed into the fence and spewed debris into the stands.
"We've made improvements since then," Chitwood said. "I think that's the key: that we learn from this and figure out what else we need to do."
Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Johnny Rutherford said Sunday that things should be done across auto racing. It was just 16 months ago that IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon was killed when his car crashed into a fence at Las Vegas.
"Maybe we need a double fence, one behind the other, with maybe a space in between to do something to stop this," Rutherford said. "There's a lot of things. I'm sure NASCAR and the IndyCar series are looking at everything to make it safer. What happened yesterday was a terrible thing.
"The drivers, we accept that. That's part of the game. We have to roll the dice and move on. But you don't want to involve the fans."
Chitwood said any fans who felt uncomfortable with their up-close seating for the Daytona 500 could exchange their tickets for spots elsewhere.
"If fans are unhappy with their seating location or if they have any incidents, we would relocate them," Chitwood said. "So we'll treat that area like we do every other area of the grandstand. If a fan is not comfortable where they're sitting, we make every accommodation we can."
Few fans seemed willing to relocate.
"Real NASCAR fans ain't scared," said Zeb Daniels, who was attending his fifth Daytona 500 with his daughter. "If we see anything coming to the fence, we'll hit the floor and pray."
So why take a chance?
"We come for the thrill, the excitement," Daniels said. "We can feel the heat, the tire rubber in our eyes."
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Sunday, February 24, 2013
Anti-communist oaths persist despite court rulings
In this photo taken Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, Rep. Matt Shea, R-Spokane Valley, smiles as he sits at his desk on the House floor in Olympia, Wash. It has been just shy of 50 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Washington state law barring members of the Communist Party from working for the state is unconstitutional. Evidently, that is not enough time to remove it from the books. Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, D-Burien, first introduced a measure to repeal the anachronistic law last year, saying that it would be a quiet end to a moot statute originating from a dark period in our nation?s history. Shea opposes the measure. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
In this photo taken Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, Rep. Matt Shea, R-Spokane Valley, smiles as he sits at his desk on the House floor in Olympia, Wash. It has been just shy of 50 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Washington state law barring members of the Communist Party from working for the state is unconstitutional. Evidently, that is not enough time to remove it from the books. Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, D-Burien, first introduced a measure to repeal the anachronistic law last year, saying that it would be a quiet end to a moot statute originating from a dark period in our nation?s history. Shea opposes the measure. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
In this photo taken Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, D-Burien, speaks on the House floor in Olympia, Wash. It has been just shy of 50 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Washington state law barring members of the Communist Party from working for the state is unconstitutional. Evidently, that is not enough time to remove it from the books. Fitzgibbon first introduced a measure to repeal the anachronistic law last year, saying that it would be a quiet end to a moot statute originating from a dark period in our nation?s history. Though his bill passed out of the House Judiciary Committee, it did do so on a party-line vote, with four Republicans opposed. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) ? It has been just shy of 50 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Washington state law barring members of the Communist Party from voting or holding public-sector jobs is unconstitutional.
Evidently, that is not enough time to remove it from the books.
Washington is one of a handful of states with similar laws still in existence despite their having been declared unconstitutional decades ago.
With few exceptions ? most notably Georgia, where an anti-communist oath was administered to incoming Dunwoody City Councilmembers as recently as last year ? the laws are treated as part of a bygone era, not unlike state statutes prohibiting interracial marriage, the last of which was removed from Alabama's books in 2001 even though the Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional in 1967.
Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, D-Burien, first introduced a measure to repeal Washington state's anachronistic anti-subversives law last year, figuring, he says, that it would be an unceremonious end to a dead-letter statute originating from a dark period in our nation's history.
He was wrong. Though his bill passed out of the House Judiciary Committee, it did so on a party-line vote, with four Republicans opposed.
With only so much political capital to expend on contentious legislation, House Democratic leaders declined to move it forward, and it never made it to the floor for a vote.
This year, Fitzgibbon lowered his sights, introducing House Bill 1062 with the understanding that it likely would not even get out of committee.
By the end of Friday, as a key deadline for policy-related bills passed without the bill coming up for a committee vote, that understanding was confirmed.
"There are some (Democratic lawmakers) that think this is a bad political issue for us, but I really don't," he said. "I don't think there is a lot of fear in our state these days about the prospects of a communist takeover."
That may be, but several decades removed from the Red Scare, any suggestion of kowtowing to communists can still inflame passions.
After Fitzgibbon spoke in favor of the bill in the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month, Rep. Matt Shea, a conservative Republican from Spokane Valley, was ready with a sharp rejoinder.
"For the large Ukrainian, Russian, North Korean and Chinese populations in the state who fled communism ? including my wife, whose father was arrested by the KGB, who suffered horrible persecution, whose friends were sent to the gulag in Russia ? do you see this as a little bit of a slap in the face to them that communism is not subversive?"
Responded Fitzgibbon: "I don't believe we persecute people based on their political beliefs in Washington state, and I would say that applies to communists as well as anybody else."
In addition to Washington state and Georgia, Pennsylvania and California have laws requiring state workers to take an oath swearing they are not subversives or members of a group dedicated to overthrowing the government. At least five other states ? Connecticut and Virginia among them ? have laws prohibiting subversives from working in emergency management. Illinois has a statute barring communists from seeking elected office.
Thanks to a series of 1960s U.S. Supreme Court rulings that found them to be unconstitutional, those laws have long been all-but unenforceable.
The ruling that struck down Washington state's statute on subversive activities, handed down in 1964, found that the definition of a subversive group was too vague.
Three years later, the Supreme Court ruled that Eugene Frank Robel, a worker at the Todd Shipyard in Seattle, had been wrongly fired from his job building warships over his membership in the Communist Party.
"Robel put the nail in the coffin" for laws limiting communists from public-sector jobs, says University of Washington Law Professor Stewart Jay. "If you can't fire (a communist) working in national defense, what can you do?"
But while the Supreme Court struck down loyalty oaths that predicate public-sector employment on a lack of affiliation with a subversive group, it has upheld less-expansive pledges to defend the United States from its enemies and uphold the Constitution.
Including those that also have anti-subversives oaths, at least 13 states have such laws on their books, including Florida, Tennessee and Arizona.
In California, Marianne Kearney-Brown, a math instructor at California State University East Bay who refused to take such an oath as a Quaker and a pacifist was fired from her post in 2008 before swiftly being reinstated and assured that she would not be forced to take up arms.
Periodically, a lawmaker seeking to stem the perceived tide of cultural decline will propose a new loyalty oath. Last month, a Republican state lawmaker in Arizona, Rep. Bob Thorpe, proposed legislation requiring high school students to swear an oath defending the Constitution before being allowed to graduate. That measure, House Bill 2467, is pending.
In general, though, such efforts are on the wane ? a state of affairs not lost on communists themselves.
"It's a good thing to get rid of these laws," says Libero Della Piana, vice chair of the Communist Party USA. "But the reality is that people are more worried about foreclosures on their houses than subversives in student government."
___
Follow AP writer Jonathan Kaminsky at http://www.twitter.com/jekaminsky
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Why doesn?t Washington work? Our leaders are just too human
By CONNIE CASS
February 24, 2013
Posted by The Associated Press on February 24, 2013. Filed under Featured,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
February 24, 2013
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Turns out politicians are people, too, only worse.
Just ask pros who make their living in the trenches of everyday human drama such as divorce, family feuds or schoolyard scraps. They recognize in Washington?s bitter budget standoff a hint of human nature as they know it, but with the crazy pumped up to absurd levels.
?We?re seeing middle school behavior here,? says Barbara Coloroso, who crusades against childhood bullying. Psychologist Piers Steel, an expert on procrastination, says Congress has the worst case of it he?s seen. Divorce attorney Sanford Ain?s assessment is blunter: ?It?s nuts!?
A sampling of conflict-savvy professionals and scholars interviewed by The Associated Press finds dismay that the nation is in political stalemate after two years of showdowns and near-misses for the economy. Not that these they have any easy solutions, either.
Some dream of locking up President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner. R-Ohio, together until the nation?s tax and spending issues are settled.
?That?s my fantasy: To go into a room and tell them what to do, right or wrong, and make them do it,? said Marvin McIntyre, a prominent financial adviser in the District of Columbia who writes political novels on the side.
With lawmakers and the president on the brink of yet another compromise-or-else deadline Friday, the nonpoliticians shared their take on the all-too-human behavior in Washington.
Historian Altina Waller is reminded of the Hatfields and McCoys. Of course, she would be: Waller?s an authority on the deadly 19th century feud.
Despite the myth, the Hatfield-McCoy conflict wasn?t primarily about clan hatred, Waller said, and she doesn?t think today?s acrimony between Republicans and Democrats is fully explained by partisanship or ideology.
The Appalachian feud grew out of economic anxiety as farming declined and logging and coal moved in, she said. These days, Democrats and Republicans worry about the economy and the loss of American jobs and influence to foreign competition, and blame each other.
?Like the Hatfields and McCoys,? Waller said, ?they are personalizing a problem brought about by larger economic forces.?
Coloroso, author of ?The Bully, the Bullied and the Bystander,? sees too many politicians acting like the mean girl who taunts unpopular classmates in the cafeteria.
?Bullying is about contempt for the other person,? Coloroso said. ?Do you see how that fits with some of the people in Congress? Utter contempt, bullying, wanting to bring somebody down. You cannot resolve a major issue like a budget with name-calling, with disdain for the person you?re supposed to be working with.?
Ain says the political fight illustrates something he?s learned in 40 years of striving to keep family law cases amicable: ?If you have extreme views and won?t compromise, you can?t get anything done. It?s going to go to war.?
Yet a sudden switch to civility won?t guarantee that tough decisions get made.
Human brains are wired to put off the unpleasant, says ?The Procrastination Equation? author Steel.
We postpone starting a diet, put off going to the gym, keep meaning to write those thank-you notes. Congress members are masters of this.
?They?re pretty much the worst, hands down, of any group we ever investigated,? said Steel, who has researched procrastination for more than a decade. ?They?re worse than college students.?
What finally gets people moving? A deadline. The paper must be written to pass the class. The house is tidied because company?s coming. The expense report is finished because the boss demands it by 5 p.m.
So it makes sense to set deadlines for solving the nation?s pressing fiscal problems. Only it isn?t working.
Congress and the White House have lurched from the brink of default or government shutdown or ?fiscal cliff? to the next potentially disastrous deadline, this time automatic budget cuts known as the ?sequester.? They?ve only achieved temporary fixes without resolving the big disagreements over the deficit, taxes and Medicare and Social Security spending. Obama calls it ?drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next.?
Why aren?t the deadlines working?
Pushing the limits isn?t always procrastination; sometimes it?s strategy.
Negotiation expert Robert Mnookin points to labor disputes resolved just before the strike deadline and lawsuits settled on the courthouse steps on the eve of trial. Bargainers tend to play ?chicken? like two drivers speeding toward each other in hopes the other will swerve first.
?It?s often believed that you won?t be able to extract the very best concession from the other side unless you are on the brink of something that?s very bad,? said Mnookin, chairman of Harvard?s Program on Negotiation and author of ?Bargaining with the Devil.?
Both the Republicans and Democrats have die-hards pushing to keep charging ahead.
?It?s a hugely dangerous game to play,? Mnookin warns, ?because people aren?t always rational in their behavior.?
What happens if Democrats and Republicans collide head-on this time? Some $85 billion in automatic federal budget cuts over the next seven months, with more in following years.
Obama says that would weaken the military, disrupt programs Americans rely on, eliminate jobs and weaken the economy. Boehner calls it ?an ugly and dangerous way? to reduce spending. These cuts were designed to be so distasteful that politicians would agree on more rational budget-cutting to stop them.
But there?s another way out. Lawmakers and Obama could agree to block the cuts, before or after they kick in, and once again postpone making big fiscal decisions that might cost some of them re-election.
That?s a problem with artificial deadlines: They?re hard to enforce.
Economist Christopher Kingston, whose research ranges from 19th century dueling to modern game theory, says what lawmakers need is a strong ?commitment device.? He cites the story of William the Conqueror burning his ships after his invading army landed in England, ensuring his soldiers couldn?t retreat.
A less reliable commitment device: A shopaholic cutting up his credit cards. That works unless he gets new ones and start running up debt again.
?It?s really hard to create a commitment device artificially, particularly if you don?t have an external power that?s going to enforce it,? said Kingston, an associate professor at Amherst College.
Congress and the president have no judge, no referee, no board of directors. Washington won?t hear from the voters again for two years, and even then the message may be unclear.
With human nature against them, how can politicians escape gridlock?
A few tips from the pros:
?Shock them with kindness. ?Try to do something unexpectedly nice for the other side,? advises Ain, and your surprised opponent may reciprocate.
?Avoid the ?zero-sum? trap. Just because something is good for one side doesn?t mean it?s bad for the other. ?There are all kinds of deals that the president and the Congress could make that would be better for the economy and the nation as a whole and in that sense would benefit them all,? Mnookin says.
?Get a mediator. Maybe the special 2011 deficit committee could have reached agreement with the help of a trusted outsider. It?s worth a try, Ain says, because ?that works in major litigation and all sorts of situations.?
?Shame the bullies. If politicians denounced their fellow party members who display contempt for the other side, Coloroso says, it would squelch the mocking tone.
America?s citizens also are mostly silent bystanders right now, the author said.
?What are we going to do about it?? she asked. ?Do we just stand by and shrug our shoulders??
___
Follow Connie Cass on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ConnieCass
___
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2013 Capitol Hill Blue
Posted by The Associated Press on February 24, 2013. Filed under Featured,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.Source: http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/46560
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World's Smallest Space Telescopes Launching Monday
Two tiny satellites billed as the world's smallest space telescopes will launch into orbit Monday (Feb. 25) on a mission to study the brightest stars in the night sky.
The Bright Target Explorer (BRITE) nanosatellites?look like little cubes and will blast off atop an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) at 7:20 a.m. EST (1220 GMT) on Monday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India.
While tiny nanosatellites have launched into space before, they have been mainly used to study Earth or test new spaceflight technologies, but the BRITE satellites will be the first to peer into the cosmos, their builders say. The diminutive spacecraft are less than 8 inches (20 centimeters) wide and weigh less than 15.5 pounds (7 kilograms). Once in orbit, they are expeted to observe the brightest stars (from Earth's perspective), including those that make up well-known constellations like Orion, the Hunter.
"BRITE is expected to demonstrate that nanosatellites are now capable of performance that was once thought impossible for such small spacecraft," said Cordell Grant, manager of satellite systems for the Space Flight Laboratory at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS), where the satellites were designed.
One of the BRITE satellites launching Monday was designed and built at the Space Flight Laboratory. The other was designed by the center, but assembled in Austria, university officials said in a statement. They are two of seven satellites set to blast off with India's rocket launch on Monday.
The nanosatellites can only fit small telescopes, so they won't be capturing amazing high-resolution images of the cosmos, Grant explained in the statement. But they will be able to observe and record changes in a star's brightness over time. Such observations could help scientists find spots on the star, an orbiting planet or secondary star, or "starquakes" caused by oscillations within the star itself.
The nanosatellites can monitor their target stars from whatever orbit they are placed on. They just need to be above the atmosphere to avoid the twinkling, or scintillating effect, that overwhelms stars' relatively small changes in brightness, researchers said.
The two BRITE satellites launching Monday are designed to be the first wave of a planned constellation of six space telescopes to study the brightest stars in the night sky, UTIAS officials said. In all, the six-spacecraft constellation will include two Austrian nanosatellites, a pair from Poland and a pair provided by Canada.
By keeping the satellites small, they can be built faster and at a lower cost than their larger counterparts, and be launched as a piggyback payload on rockets carrying larger spacecraft, UTIAS officials said.
"A nanosatellite can take anywhere from six months to a few years to develop and test, but we typically aim for two years or less," Grant said.
Follow SPACE.com on Twitter?@Spacedotcom. We're also on?Facebook?and?Google+.
Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Source: http://news.yahoo.com/worlds-smallest-space-telescopes-launching-monday-223020950.html
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Saturday, February 23, 2013
"Beasts" comes to Oscars with tiny budget, first-time director
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Beasts of the Southern Wild", nominated for four Oscars including Best Picture, is one the most unlikely contenders ever for Hollywood's top honors.
Produced for just $1.5 million by a collective of first-time filmmakers who bunked in a fishing shack during the shooting, it is considered a long-shot to win the top Oscar, but it has already set a new standard for thrifty filmmaking in an industry that routinely spends 100 times more for a major picture.
"It's the perfect combination of art and commerce, but the commerce was made a lot better because of that price," said Fox studio chairman Jim Gianopulos, whose Fox Searchlight Pictures unit distributes the film in the United States.
The film, set in the swamps of Louisiana near New Orleans, portrays the fierce pride and intimate, if dysfunctional, culture of a community on the furthest margins of society.
The stars are a hard-drinking father and his young daughter, played by the now nine-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis, whose performance made her the youngest-ever Best Actress nominee.
The film was created by Benh Zeitlin, a 30-year-old first-time director who set up his studio in the abandoned Connecticut racquetball court that he had used for his senior thesis film at Wesleyan University.
"I'm not sure they knew what we were doing in there when we set up to make the film," said Zeitlin. "I think they thought we were just making short films."
The crew he assembled became Court 13 pictures, named for the court, and it describes itself on its website as a collective of "madcap artists and animators" who work on one another's projects.
Zeitlin also ranged far outside the usual list of Hollywood names in casting the film, using first-time actors, including Wallis and Dwight Henry as her father.
The crew were all paid the same salary as the director, said producer Paul Mezey, and will share in whatever profits the film makes. So far, it has generated $12 million in domestic ticket sales and is not yet profitable, he said, after Fox deducts its marketing and other costs.
The crew traveled Louisiana to shoot the film, where they stayed in what they called the "Crash Pad", a fishing cabin behind a gas station with 12 bunk beds.
Zeitlin said the group "became scavengers" to make the film. They used lumber from houses that were being torn down, and changed the script where needed to make props out of things they found on the streets.
The lead financier of the effort was Cinereach, a non-profit organization that mostly backs documentaries.
"They usually give out $30,000 to $50,000 grants for an artist's exploration and discovery of his gifts," said Mezey. "When they read the script, they paid for nearly all of it."
Cinereach had become interested after seeing Zeitlin's thesis film, an eight-minute short called "Egg", and "being blown away by Benh's vision, his touch, the almost poetic way he crafted the film", Mezey said.
"Beasts of the Southern Wild" won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012, and then lured Fox Searchlight to distribute the film in the United States. The production retained the foreign rights, and has sold many of them.
"It was surreal, like something from 'Alice in Wonderland'," Zeitlin said of the Oscar nominations. If he wins, he would be the youngest director every to lug the statute home.
(This story corrects name of production company in paragraph 8 and of actor in paragraph 9 in Feb. 21 story)
(Reporting By Ronald Grover; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Pravin Char)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/beasts-comes-oscars-tiny-budget-first-time-director-070020952--finance.html
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Iraq gunmen kill 7 Sunni fighters, officials say
BAGHDAD (AP) ? Attackers disguised in military uniforms killed seven anti-al-Qaida militiamen in Iraq early on Friday as anti-government protests once again raged in Iraq's Sunni provinces.
The militiamen, members of the Sahwa group, were killed outside the town of Tuz Khormato, about 210 kilometers (130 miles) north Baghdad. Police said they were lured to a checkpoint where gunmen overpowered them, tied them up and executed each with a gunshot to the head.
Sahwa joined forces with U.S. troops to fight al-Qaida during the Iraq war. Ever since then, it has been a target for Sunni insurgents who consider its members to be traitors.
Elsewhere, in a northern suburb of Baghdad, a car bomb killed one civilian bystander and wounded three policemen when it hit a police convoy, police said. Hospital officials confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief reporters.
The killings happened hours before tens of thousands of Sunnis rallied in several cities to complain about perceived discrimination by the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
They renewed threats to march on the capital if the government continues to ignore their demands, echoing comments a prominent sheik, Ahmed Abu Risha, made to The Associated Press earlier this week.
"The people urged you (the government) to end the injustice and the discrimination, but we've only seen negligence and heard empty promises," Sunni cleric Mohammed Taha told the thousands-strong crowd at Friday prayers in the city of Samarra.
Taha's speech was interrupted several times by protesters who chanted "Baghdad we are coming to you" and "Baghdad will be returned to its people."
Organizers considered holding mass prayers in the capital last week but later backed off after government forces sealed off approaches to the city.
In the western cities of Fallujah and Ramadi ? former insurgent strongholds ? demonstrators as in past weeks poured onto the main highway to preform Friday noon prayers. In Mosul, thousands gathered in the northern city's main square.
For the past two months, Sunni Muslims have been protesting what they describe as unfair treatment by the country's Shiite-led government, extending concerns over rising sectarian tension in the country.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iraq-gunmen-kill-7-sunni-fighters-officials-152657413.html
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Live: London Irish v London Wasps
Live: London Irish v London Wasps
By Alan ManicomFebruary 21, 2013
London Irish continue their battle to avoid relegation from the Aviva Premiership when high-flying local rivals London Wasps visit Madejski Stadium on Sunday (12.05pm kick-off).
Alan Manicom will bring live updates from the crunch derby and he wants you to get involved too.
Click below after 11.55am and you can interact with Alan and other supporters by posting your own views.
There are no comments about this article at the moment.
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Source: http://www.getbracknell.co.uk/sport/rugby/london_irish/s/2129533_live_london_irish_v_london_wasps
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Friday, February 22, 2013
Siberian Caves Reveal Advancing Permafrost Thaw
Melting of significant portions of Arctic permafrost could accelerate climate change into a catastrophe
PERMAFROST CAVE: The frost crystals at the entrance to the Ledyanaya Lenskaya cave in Russia denote the region's permafrost, which has been in place for roughly 400,000 years, according to the cave's speleothems. Image: Vladimir V Alexioglo
Permafrost is not so permanent. Across the Arctic, swathes of once-frozen-solid ground have begun to thaw. If the records preserved in Siberian caves are accurate, much more of the region could melt if temperatures continue to warm.
Geoscientist Anton Vaks of the University of Oxford led an international team of experts?including the Arabica Caving Club in Irkutsk?in sampling the spindly cave growths known as stalagmites and stalactites across Siberia and down into the Gobi Desert of China. Taking samples of such speleothems from six caves, the researchers then reconstructed the last roughly 500,000 years of climate via the decay of radioactive particles in the stone. When the ground is frozen above a cave no water seeps into it, making such formations "relicts from warmer periods before permafrost formed," the researchers wrote in a study published online in Science on 21 February.
The details of the study reveal that conditions were warm enough even in Siberia for these mineral deposits to form roughly 400,000 years ago, when the global average temperature was 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than present. It also suggests that there was no permafrost in the Lena River region at that time, because enough water seeped into the northernmost cave to enable roughly eight centimeters of growth in the formations.
That was, in fact, the last time the formations in the Ledyanaya Lenskaya Cave grew, although other caves further south showed multiple periods of growth coinciding with other warmer periods. "That boundary area of continuous permafrost starts to degrade when the mean global temperature is 1.5 degrees C higher than present," Vaks explains. "Such a warming is a threshold after which continuous permafrost zone starts to be vulnerable to global warming."
Since Vaks's present is the "preindustrial late Holocene," that means the planet is already more than halfway there, having experienced 0.8 degree C warming to date. Such a thaw is no small matter, given that permafrost covers nearly a quarter of the land in the Northern Hemisphere and holds roughly 1,700 gigatonnes of carbon?or roughly twice as much carbon as is currently trapping heat in the atmosphere. Much of that carbon would end up in the atmosphere if the permafrost was to thaw further.
That may not have occurred during the warm period 400,000 years ago, known as Marine Isotope Stage 11 to scientists, which featured elements such as boreal forest on Greenland and higher sea levels. "The thawing was probably very brief because the layer deposited in the northernmost cave stalactite was relatively thin," Vaks says?too thin in fact to determine how long the warm period lasted. "We don't see any extraordinary increase in atmospheric CO2 or methane during MIS-11." And the Gobi Desert might benefit, enjoying wetter conditions in the future if the record in these caves is accurate.
It's not clear how far north such thawing might extend if global average temperatures continue to warm until they match those from long ago. "Now we are looking for caves with speleothems in northern Siberia to answer this question," Vaks notes, adding that the northernmost cave is already much warmer than in the late 18th century based on historical reports. Further research could be done by taking sediment cores from Arctic river deltas or lakes, though this remains an epic task given the vastness and remoteness of the region. But, already, it is clear that global climates not much warmer than present are enough to thaw even more permafrost?as far north as 60 degrees latitude.
"The potential impact of these results extends to global policy: these results indicate the potential release of large amounts of carbon from thawed permafrost even if we attain the 2 degree [C] warming target under negotiation," says Kevin Schaefer, a scientist at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center, who has also studied permafrost but was not involved in this, in his words, "great science" effort. "Permafrost thaws slowly and the carbon will be released into the atmosphere over two to three centuries."
Already, such thawing Arctic ice?whether underground or at sea?has further opened up the territory to exploration for resources, particularly oil. At the same time, the big thaw will make getting the oil out more expensive?billions of dollars in infrastructure investments in pipelines, roads and the like will be damaged as the ground shifts beneath them.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=36834cd46cb4494860702371769087bd
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Hudson sports news
Purchase tickets for state wrestling tourney
All-session ticket sales for the 2013 Ohio High School Athletic Association state wrestling tournament have begun and plenty of tickets are available.
The tourney is scheduled to run Feb. 28 and March 1-2. It is set to take place at the Schottenstein Center on Ohio State University's campus.
Tickets can be purchased at Ticketmaster locations, by calling Ticketmaster at 1-800-745-3000 or online at www.ticketmaster.com. Single-session tickets will go on sale Feb. 25 at 10 a.m. at $15 each.
Golf offered
A spring junior golf league is set to begin April 3 at Maplecrest Golf Club in Kent.
The league is for beginners and advanced golfers, ages 6 to 17. There will be four divisions: three holers, five holers, nine holers rookie and nine holers advanced White (boys) and Red (girls).
A 30-minute professional instruction clinic is expected to be given each week before league play begins.
Contact Mike Genovese at 330-812-0110 or at genomacs4@gmail.com for details or to sign up.
Register for softball
Hudson Girls Softball Association is accepting registrations for the 2013 season.
Slow-pitch teams are available for grades kindergarten through 12. Forms are available at www.hgsa.org or at the Hudson Community Education Recreation office.
For details, call 330-656-4894 or email info@hgsa.org.
Source: http://www.hudsonhubtimes.com/sports/2013/02/21/hudson-sports-news
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Watch live: VP Biden on guns from Connecticut
Vice President Joe Biden spoke on Thursday at a conference on gun violence in Connecticut just 10 miles from Sandy Hook Elementary School, scene of the Dec. 14 mass shooting.
The symposium, held at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, is hosted by Connecticut Democratic lawmakers Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and Rep. Elizabeth Esty. It includes panel discussions with local, state and national leaders; law enforcement; mental health experts; sportsmen; faith leaders; and families and survivors of gun violence.
Biden is slated to deliver a speech this afternoon. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan addressed the conference first, telling the audience that the issue of gun violence is personal to him because of his childhood growing up on the violent South Side of Chicago. "When you grow up and see your mentors and role models dying that has a huge impact on you," he said. "We think the current status quo is unacceptable."
Biden has been the White House's lead on gun violence after President Barack Obama chose him to head up a gun reform task force in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting.
Biden in 1994 was the architect of legislation that temporarily banned assault weapons. The president and Biden have been advocating reinstating that ban as well as a ban on high-capacity magazine clips, universal background checks and other measures they believe will reduce gun violence.
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