congresspeople tinfoil: February 2013

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Inside Benedict's spectacular temporary home

Alessandro Di Meo / EPA

A garden at the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo, the pope's summer residence, on the outskirts of Rome. Pope Benedict XVI officially steps down on Thursday, Feb. 28. Benedict will stay at Castel Gandolfo until renovations on his permanent home are completed. Click the image for more photos.

By M. Alex Johnson, staff writer, NBC News

Even though Pope Benedict XVI is leaving the papacy, he'll remain in sumptuous, familiar surroundings ? at least for a few weeks.

Sometime in April, Benedict will take up permanent residence in Mater Ecclesiae, a modest convent for cloistered nuns at the Vatican. The convent is under renovation, however, so in the meantime, Benedict?will live at Castel Gandolfo, the small town of about 8,000 people a few miles southeast of Rome that has been the summer retreat for popes for almost four centuries.

Vatican records indicate that Benedict has spent an average of five weeks a year at the grand Apostolic Palace at Castel Gandolfo since he assumed the papacy in 2005, so he should feel quite at home.

Alessandro Di Meo / EPA

A light switch bears the Papal seal.

And what a home it is. The complex, which overlooks Lake Albano and what's left of the enormous villa of the first-century Roman Emperor Domitian, actually dwarfs Vatican City by almost 400,000 square feet. It comes complete with landscaped gardens, an arboretum, natural conservatories, museums and fish ponds.

Step inside Pope Benedict's temporary new home

The sculptured gardens, which make up more than half of the estate, are a favorite retreat for popes, who have been known to frequently take long walk along their paths.?

And don't forget the 25 dairy cattle, which are reputed to produce some of the finest milk in Europe.

The town is named for the castle of the Gandolfi family of Genoa, which was built around 1200. It was originally a fortress against marauders, which explains its high walls and other ancient barriers.?

Franco Origlia / Getty Images

The Apostolic Palace and the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo on Lake Albano will be the Pope Benedict XVI's residence during the next Conclave, in Rome, Italy. The Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo, 10 miles south Rome, is also the summer residence for popes.

Formally speaking, the Vatican assumed control of Castel Gandolfo only in 1929 under the Lateran Treaty, which formalized relations between Italy and the independent state of Vatican City. But in reality, it has been the church's domain since 1596, when Pope Clement VIII seized it from the Savelli family in lieu of unpaid debts, according to the Vatican's official history.

Today, it's home not only to the Apostolic Palace but also the Vatican Observatory (where visitors can see a moon rock collected during the Apollo XVII mission), the Villa Barberini (where many remains of Domitian's palace are still visible), Villa Cybo (which is used by school of the Maestre Pie Filippini religious community), apartments for 21 employees and the Pontifical Church of St. Thomas of Villanova.

Castel Gandolfo, where Pope Benedict XVI will live until his permanent home is completed, has been a quiet sanctuary for 400 years. NBC's Savannah Guthrie reports.

The spectacular view of Lake Albano from the complex has inspired many artists. Landscapes of the scene by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, J.M.W. Turner and Claude Lorraine, among others, hang in some of the world's premier museums.

The complex itself is the setting for stunning works of religious art, as well, among them frescoes by Jan Henryk de Rosen and Angelo Righetti's statue "Madonna of the Park."

The Pontifical Church, designed in 1658 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the leading sculptor of his age, features interior domes and statues by Antonio Raggi, famous for grand pieces such as the "Virgin and Child" in Paris and the marble "Death of Saint Cecelia" in Rome. One of Bernini's own masterpieces, a fontana, or fountain, adorns the the piazza facing the Apostolic Palace.

At Castel Gandolfo, "I find everything: a mountain, a lake; I even see the sea," Benedict remarked in 2011. Those words are now engraved on a plaque in the town hall.

Benedict will move in to Castel Gandolfo late Thursday afternoon. He'll get there by helicopter ? a tradition started in 1975 by Pope Paul VI, who wanted to avoid traffic on the ancient Appian Way.

Paul VI was an especially enthusiastic visitor to Castel Gandolfo. In 1972, he described its charms in words that might resonate with Benedict, who said he was abdicating because of his age and declining health:

A view of a grotto inside the pope's summer residence.

"We, too, enjoy this God-given gift, by breathing the fresh air, admiring the beauty of our natural surroundings, appreciating the enchantment of its light and silence and seeking here to restore our lack of energy, which is never enough and now even a little scarce."

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Protests mark anniversary of Trayvon Martin's shooting death

SANFORD, Fla./NEW YORK (Reuters) - Demonstrators symbolically wearing hoodies gathered in New York, Florida and California on Tuesday to mark the anniversary of the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, reviving a national discussion on gun laws and racial profiling.

Actor Jamie Foxx joined Martin's parents and several hundred protesters for a candlelight vigil in New York City's Union Square, while a smaller crowd estimated at 110 to 125 met at a park in the Florida town where Martin died, vowing to continue to agitate for an end to racial discrimination.

"We want you (to) know we love you and we won't leave you," Foxx told Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, in New York.

Neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot and killed Martin, 17, in the Orlando suburb of Sanford on February 26, 2012, and initially went free based on his claims of self defense. Then a national outcry forced the city's police chief to resign and the governor to appoint a special prosecutor.

Zimmerman now faces second-degree murder charges and a June trial. He has maintained his innocence, and supporters say he has been unfairly tainted as racist, noting the neighborhood had been hit by a wave of break-ins and that Zimmerman is of mixed race - his father is white and his mother Afro-Peruvian.

In Sanford, the case triggered deep emotions, and protesters staged a candlelight vigil and moment of silence at 7:15 p.m., the time Martin was killed, at Fort Mellon Park.

"There are no excuses for violence against our children. Let us take the tragedy of Trayvon's death and use it for good," said organizer Geri Hepburn, a white parent of a teenage son who became politically active as a result of the shooting.

The crowd was small compared to the thousands who filled the same park at the apex of public outrage of the killing last year, when the story dominated national news for weeks.

SYMBOLIC HOODIES

In New York, demonstrators recreated the "Million Hoodie March" of last year, when people wore hooded sweatshirts in the style worn by Martin the night of his death, when Zimmerman called police to report a suspicious looking person in his gated neighborhood and defied a police admonishment not to follow him.

The coast-to-coast series of events also saw a crowd gather in the Leimert Park section of Los Angeles. Participants carried lit candles and many of them also wore hoodies, said organizer Najee Ali, who spoke at the gathering in Los Angeles.

"Trayvon was everyone's son. He belonged to all of us," Ali said in a phone interview.

Martin was on his way home to the house of his father's girlfriend, and the hoodie became a symbol of what critics considered racial profiling.

"We are all Trayvon Martin," demonstrators chanted at Tuesday's vigil.

James Flood, 33, a black bartender and screenwriter, said he was constantly the victim of racial profiling and wanted better for his 11-year-old son.

"My skin color cannot change no matter how much money I make. I still get profiled," Flood said. "It has to stop."

Zimmerman, 29, who was released on bail, remained out of sight on the anniversary.

Thrust into the national spotlight, Martin's grieving parents, Fulton and father Tracy Martin, have become national advocates for stricter gun control laws and critics of Florida's Stand Your Ground law.

The law, passed in 2005, allows people to use lethal force in self defense if they are in fear of serious bodily harm. More than 20 states have since passed similar laws.

Police cited that law in initially declining to arrest Zimmerman, which sparked celebrity protests and popular demonstrations across the country, turning the case into an international story.

Zimmerman's attorney plans to invoke the Stand Your Ground law at an April 29 hearing at which a Florida judge could determine if the law applied to Zimmerman, possibly granting him immunity and averting a criminal trial.

(Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Cynthia Osterman and Lisa Shumaker)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/protests-mark-anniversary-trayvon-martin-death-012438318.html

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Moderate climate warming could melt permafrost

Ancient cave formations in Siberia reveal effects of warmer past on frozen ground

Ancient cave formations in Siberia reveal effects of warmer past on frozen ground

By Puneet Kollipara

Web edition: February 25, 2013

Enlarge

A researcher works in Ledyanaya Lenskaya Cave, in northern Siberia. The cave is in an area where the soil is frozen year-round.

Credit: Sebastian FM Breitenbach

A stalagmite?s past may help reveal Earth?s future. By studying Siberian cave formations as old as 500,000 years, researchers have found that even moderate climate warming may set off significant thawing of permafrost.

If such extensive thawing of frozen soil occurred today, it could trigger a massive release of greenhouse gases, scientists report online February 21 in Science. Permafrost locks in huge amounts of carbon, so if the frozen ground thaws, much of the carbon could convert to carbon dioxide and methane and boost global warming.

During an era with average temperatures just 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than preindustrial times, permafrost melted in areas that today are frozen year-round, the researchers report. Alarmingly, this melting came with a change in climate less than the 2 degrees that the United Nations has set as a target for averting catastrophic effects of warming, says Ted Schuur of the University of Florida, Gainesville, who was not involved in the study.

The new research, he says, is the first to shed light on permafrost from hundreds of thousands of years ago. ?It's nice to look back in the past and see what's already happened on the Earth, and that gives us some confidence about our future predictions,? Schuur says.

Enlarge

Mineral deposits in Siberian caves add layers much like trees add rings. Researchers searched in the formations for clues on permafrost?s history and found that just a 1.5? Celsius rise could thaw permafrost in areas that are completely frozen now.

Credit: Anton Vaks

Researchers can use soil and ice to calculate the age of existing ? but not past ? permafrost.

Anton Vaks of the University of Oxford and an international team probed what happened to permafrost in warmer climates long ago by studying speleothems, ancient cave formations that include stalactites on cave ceilings and stalagmites on cave floors. These formations grow as mineral-laden water seeps into caves. In areas with permafrost, that only happens when the climate is warm enough to cause thawing, the researchers say. So determining the age of speleothem layers gave the researchers an indirect way to study ancient thawing permafrost.

Vaks and his team sampled speleothems from six caves along a path from northern Siberia south to the Gobi Desert. They dated layers going back 500,000 years by measuring the amounts of certain radioactive elements within the layers.

In nearly all of the warm periods studied, layers grew on speleothems in areas that today have partial permafrost cover, the researchers found. During the warmest period studied, some 400,000 years ago, global temperature was 1.5 degrees higher than in preindustrial times. Only during that period did speleothems grow in the cave farthest to the north.

That suggests that 1.5 degrees of warming was enough to thaw permafrost even in areas that are fully covered today. And the finding implies the same could happen in the future, says George Kling of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. ?Our challenge is to predict how much and how fast the carbon currently frozen in permafrost will enter the atmosphere,? he says.

Vladimir Romanovsky of the University of Alaska Fairbanks praises the study but warns against generalizing its findings to permafrost in other regions of the globe, noting that the method has some uncertainty. ?Permafrost could be only one of the possible causes of growing or not growing of speleothems.? One possibility is that fractures in still-frozen permafrost could allow water to seep through, he says.

Another concern is that the method the researchers used might not detect partial thawing. If that had happened, water may not have reached caves, and speleothems would not have grown, Romanovsky says. But even partial thawing could change the climate, he warns, by turning previously locked-up carbon into greenhouse gases.

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/348585/title/Moderate_climate_warming_could_melt_permafrost

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Koop, who transformed surgeon general post, dies

FILE - In this Feb. 12, 2002 file photo, former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Koop testifies in Concord, N.H. Koop, who raised the profile of the surgeon general by riveting America's attention on the then-emerging disease known as AIDS and by railing against smoking, has died in New Hampshire at age 96. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, File)

FILE - In this May 12, 1997 file photo, former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop discusses the proposed increase of the New Hampshire cigarette tax at the governor's office in the Statehouse in Concord, H.H. Koop, who raised the profile of the surgeon general by riveting America's attention on the then-emerging disease known as AIDS and by railing against smoking, died Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, in Hanover, N.H. He was 96. (AP Photo/Andrew Sullivan, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 1, 1993 file photo, former Surgeon Genera C. Everett Koop, left, sits with then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton during a meeting with more than 100 prominent doctors in the White House in Washington. Koop, who raised the profile of the surgeon general by riveting America's attention on the then-emerging disease known as AIDS and by railing against smoking, died Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, in Hanover, N.H. He was 96. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 29, 1991 file photo, former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop speaks in Washington during a conference for preventing transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Hepatitis B Virus to patients during procedures by medical personal. Koop, who raised the profile of the surgeon general by riveting America's attention on the then-emerging disease known as AIDS and by railing against smoking, died Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, in Hanover, N.H. He was 96. (AP Photo/Barry Thumma, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 14, 1988 file photo, U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop speaks in Philadelphia. Koop, who raised the profile of the surgeon general by riveting America's attention on the then-emerging disease known as AIDS and by railing against smoking, died Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, in Hanover, N.H. He was 96. (AP Photo/Robert J. Gurecki, File)

With his striking beard and starched uniform, former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop became one of the most recognizable figures of the Reagan era ? and one of the most unexpectedly enduring.

His nomination in 1981 met a wall of opposition from women's groups and liberal politicians, who complained President Ronald Reagan selected Koop, a pediatric surgeon and evangelical Christian from Philadelphia, only because of his conservative views, especially his staunch opposition to abortion.

Soon, though, he was a hero to AIDS activists, who chanted "Koop, Koop" at his appearances but booed other officials. And when he left his post in 1989, he left behind a landscape where AIDS was a top research and educational priority, smoking was considered a public health hazard, and access to abortion remained largely intact.

Koop, who turned his once-obscure post into a bully pulpit for seven years during the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations and who surprised both ends of the political spectrum by setting aside his conservative personal views on issues such as homosexuality and abortion to keep his focus sharply medical, died Monday at his home in Hanover, N.H. He was 96.

An assistant at Koop's Dartmouth College institute, Susan Wills, confirmed his death but didn't disclose its cause.

Dr. Richard Carmona, who served as surgeon general a decade ago under President George W. Bush, said Koop was a mentor to him and preached the importance of staying true to the science even if it made politicians uncomfortable.

"He set the bar high for all who followed in his footsteps," Carmona said.

Although the surgeon general has no real authority to set government policy, Koop described himself as "the health conscience of the country" and said modestly just before leaving his post that "my only influence was through moral suasion."

A former pipe smoker, Koop carried out a crusade to end smoking in the United States; his goal had been to do so by 2000. He said cigarettes were as addictive as heroin and cocaine. And he shocked his conservative supporters when he endorsed condoms and sex education to stop the spread of AIDS.

Chris Collins, a vice president of amFAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, said many people don't realize what an important role Koop played in the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.

"At the time, he really changed the national conversation, and he showed real courage in pursuing the duties of his job," Collins said.

Even after leaving office, Koop continued to promote public health causes, from preventing childhood accidents to better training for doctors.

"I will use the written word, the spoken word and whatever I can in the electronic media to deliver health messages to this country as long as people will listen," he promised.

In 1996, he rapped Republican presidential hopeful Bob Dole for suggesting that tobacco was not invariably addictive, saying Dole's comments "either exposed his abysmal lack of knowledge of nicotine addiction or his blind support of the tobacco industry."

Although Koop eventually won wide respect with his blend of old-fashioned values, pragmatism and empathy, his nomination met staunch opposition.

Foes noted that Koop traveled the country in 1979 and 1980 giving speeches that predicted a progression "from liberalized abortion to infanticide to passive euthanasia to active euthanasia, indeed to the very beginnings of the political climate that led to Auschwitz, Dachau and Belsen."

But Koop, a devout Presbyterian, was confirmed after he told a Senate panel he would not use the surgeon general's post to promote his religious ideology. He kept his word.

In 1986, he issued a frank report on AIDS, urging the use of condoms for "safe sex" and advocating sex education as early as third grade.

He also maneuvered around uncooperative Reagan administration officials in 1988 to send an educational AIDS pamphlet to more than 100 million U.S. households, the largest public health mailing ever.

Koop personally opposed homosexuality and believed sex should be saved for marriage. But he insisted that Americans, especially young people, must not die because they were deprived of explicit information about how HIV was transmitted.

Koop further angered conservatives by refusing to issue a report requested by the Reagan White House, saying he could not find enough scientific evidence to determine whether abortion has harmful psychological effects on women.

Koop maintained his personal opposition to abortion, however. After he left office, he told medical students it violated their Hippocratic oath. In 2009, he wrote to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, urging that health care legislation include a provision to ensure doctors and medical students would not be forced to perform abortions. The letter briefly set off a security scare because it was hand delivered.

Koop served as chairman of the National Safe Kids Campaign and as an adviser to President Bill Clinton's health care reform plan.

At a congressional hearing in 2007, Koop spoke about political pressure on the surgeon general post. He said Reagan was pressed to fire him every day, but Reagan would not interfere.

Koop, worried that medicine had lost old-fashioned caring and personal relationships between doctors and patients, opened his institute at Dartmouth to teach medical students basic values and ethics. He also was a part-owner of a short-lived venture, drkoop.com, to provide consumer health care information via the Internet.

Koop was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, the only son of a Manhattan banker and the nephew of a doctor. He said by age 5 he knew he wanted to be a surgeon and at age 13 he practiced his skills on neighborhood cats.

He attended Dartmouth, where he received the nickname Chick, short for "chicken Koop." It stuck for life.

Koop received his medical degree at Cornell Medical College, choosing pediatric surgery because so few surgeons practiced it.

In 1938, he married Elizabeth Flanagan, the daughter of a Connecticut doctor. They had four children, one of whom died in a mountain climbing accident when he was 20.

Koop was appointed surgeon-in-chief at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia and served as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

He pioneered surgery on newborns and successfully separated three sets of conjoined twins. He won national acclaim by reconstructing the chest of a baby born with the heart outside the body.

Although raised as a Baptist, he was drawn to a Presbyterian church near the hospital, where he developed an abiding faith. He began praying at the bedside of his young patients ? ignoring the snickers of some of his colleagues.

Koop's wife died in 2007, and he married Cora Hogue in 2010.

He was by far the best-known surgeon general and for decades afterward was still a recognized personality.

"I was walking down the street with him one time" about five years ago, recalled Dr. George Wohlreich, director of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, a medical society with which Koop had longstanding ties. "People were yelling out, 'There goes Dr. Koop!' You'd have thought he was a rock star."

___

Ring reported from Montpelier, Vt. Cass reported from Washington. AP Medical Writers Lauran Neergaard in Washington and Mike Stobbe in New York contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2013-02-25-Obit-Koop/id-f20d0c4172e540a0a168a37bef6d07ee

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Indigo is a cloud-based, cross-platform personal assistant for Android and Windows Phone 8 (hands-on)

The idea of a personal assistant needs no introduction: you already know Siri, and those of you fortunate to own a Jelly Bean handset (or at least a hacked ICS one) have the privilege of using Google Now So there's very little we haven't seen here. And yet, we were inclined to take a look at Indigo, a new personal assistant for Android and Windows Phone 8 that launched yesterday, and will be available as a free download in the coming weeks. Meet us past the break to find out why.

Gallery: Indigo personal assistant hands-on

Filed under: Software, Mobile

Comments

Source: Indigo

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/26/indigo-personal-assistant-hands-on/

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Monday, February 25, 2013

Suspect identified in deadly Vegas Strip shooting

Uncredited / AP

This photo provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department shows Ammar Harris in a booking photo from a 2012 arrest in Las Vegas. Police have identified Harris as a suspect in a shooting that sent a Maserati into a taxi that exploded, killing three people on Feb. 21, 2013 in Las Vegas.

By Becky Bratu, Staff Writer, NBC News

Police have identified a suspect in an early morning shooting and pileup that killed three people and injured at least six on Las Vegas' famous Strip Thursday, NBC affiliate KSNV reported.

Police are seeking Ammar Harris, 26, in the shooting and subsequent car crashes that occurred in a section of the Strip that includes Caesars Palace, Bally?s and the Bellagio.

The shooting came after the occupants of a black Range Rover and a Maserati got into an altercation in the valet area of the Aria hotel and casino, according to Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie.

?We have numerous witnesses to this,? Las Vegas Police Sgt. John Sheahan said. ?But what is the genesis of this? We don?t know yet.?

The suspect was in the Range Rover, while 27-year-old aspiring rapper Kenny ?Clutch? Cherry of Oakland, Calif., was at the wheel of the Maserati.

According to reports, the Range Rover pulled up and allegedly opened fire into the Maserati near a stoplight in the pre-dawn hours. A passenger was injured by the gunfire and Cherry was killed, causing the car to spin out of control. The careening silver Maserati smashed into a taxicab, trapping the passenger and driver and causing the cab to burst into flames; both occupants were killed, police said.

In a scene witnesses describe as looking like a Hollywood set, a confrontation between a group of men escalated into a shooting, multiple vehicle pileup, and an exploding taxicab. The incident left three people dead. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.

Then, the Maserati smashed into three other cars before coming to a stop.?

The taxi driver was identified as Michael Boldon, 62, of Las Vegas. His passenger was Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, 48, of Maple Valley, Wash. She was a two-time breast cancer survivor. Both died of "multiple blunt force injuries," the coroner's office said.

All three deaths were classified as homicide.

Police released a photo that was taken when Harris was arrested last year on pandering, kidnapping, sexual assault and coercion charges, according to The Associated Press.

KSNV reported that police did not find Harris at his residence Saturday, but the black Range Rover was found just a few blocks away from the intersection where the violent incident occurred.

Police also said they found shell casings in Harris's apartment that linked him to Cherry's death.

NBC News' Matthew DeLuca and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:

Aspiring rapper among the dead after explosive Vegas Strip shooting

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/23/17071675-suspect-identified-in-deadly-vegas-strip-shooting?lite

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WCS Adirondack Park study shows exurban residences impact bird communities up to 200 meters away

Public release date: 25-Feb-2013
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Contact: Scott Smith
ssmith@wcs.org
718-220-3698
Wildlife Conservation Society

Some species keeping their distance, while others cozy up to human neighbors

As part of the study, scientists sampled the presence of 20 species of birds both near and far from 30 rural residences in the Adirondack Park. Calculating their occurrence at increasing distances from the residences, they determined that "human-adapted" species are 36 percent more likely to occur near the homes than in the surrounding mixed hardwood-conifer forests, and that "human-sensitive" species were 26 percent less likely. Beyond 200 meters, occupancy rates were similar to the surrounding forest.

The report appears in the current online edition of the Journal of Landscape and Urban Planning. Authors of the study are Drs. Michale Glennon and Heidi Kretser of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Rural exurban development is residential development existing outside of cities and towns, and is generally characterized by larger lot sizes (5-40 acres or more) and lower density than suburban development. Exurban residences exist within an otherwise unaltered ecosystem.

Exurban homes change the environment by bringing vehicles, noise, lights, pets, people, and food sources into the forest, as well as by physically altering and fragmenting habitat. These changes can have myriad impacts, including altered species behavior and composition, increased human wildlife conflicts, new predator-prey dynamics, and decreased biotic integrity (a measure of how pristine a wildlife community is).

"Adirondackers take great pride in their surroundings and try not to unduly disturb the natural setting in which they live," said WCS Adirondack Program Science Director Michale Glennon. "A key finding of the study is that the ecological footprint of development can be much larger than its physical footprint. We found that even a small home and lawn can change bird communities some 200 meters away, which means more than 30 acres of the surrounding landscape, depending on what types of activities are occurring on the residential property. It is important that we learn how birds and other wildlife react to particular kinds of human activities, and find ways to minimize the negative impacts for wildlife in exurban areas."

The study found that species sensitive to human impacts include the black-throated blue warbler, black-throated green warbler, hairy woodpecker, hermit thrush, ovenbird, scarlet tanager and the winter wren. The presence of some species, like the scarlet tanager, are a good indicator of undisturbed forest health.

WCS Livelihoods and Conservation Coordinator Heidi Kretser said, "Some wildlife species are sensitive to exurban development and are less likely to be found near those residences than adapted species. More sensitive and less common species could ultimately be displaced from the area as a result of this kind of development."

The study was modeled after one conducted in a shrub-oak ecosystem in Colorado where scientists calculated a 180-meter ecological effect zone based on their results. Glennon and Kretser believe that the similar results in two different ecosystem types may indicate that human behaviors associated with exurban homes play a larger role in shaping avian community characteristics nearby than do habitat alterations created by construction and clearing.

While breeding bird communities were used to measure the impacts of exurban development in the study, the authors note that birds can serve as valuable indicators of overall biodiversity.

WCS Adirondack Program Director Zoe Smith said, "The Adirondack Park is one of the last large, intact, wild ecosystems in the northeastern United States, and it is becoming increasingly important as we face global threats like climate change. As we strive to find a healthy balance between conservation and the needs of humans within the park, we need to fully understand the impacts of different development patterns. This research is another step toward that understanding and can help inform decisions on development and land-use in this rural landscape."

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WCS Adirondack Park study shows exurban residences impact bird communities up to 200 meters away

Public release date: 25-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail |

Share ]

Contact: Scott Smith
ssmith@wcs.org
718-220-3698
Wildlife Conservation Society

Some species keeping their distance, while others cozy up to human neighbors

While breeding bird communities were used to measure the impacts of exurban development in the study, the authors note that birds can serve as valuable indicators of overall biodiversity.

###

[ | E-mail |

Share ]

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/2013-02/wcs-wa022513.php

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Nate Silver, Microsoft researcher analyze Oscar voting: ?they provide for plenty of parallels to political campaigns?

Posted on February 23, 2013

By Slashdot

Nate Silver, Microsoft Researcher Analyze the Oscars

Nate Silver, famous for applying rigorous statistical methods to U.S. political elections, has focused his predictive powers on a somewhat more lighthearted topic: this weekend?s Academy Awards. ?The Oscars, in which the voting franchise is limited to the 6,000 members of the Academy of Motion?

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Source: http://progressivevoices.com/nate-silver-microsoft-researcher-analyze-oscar-voting-they-provide-for-plenty-of-parallels-to-political-campaigns/

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MC Hammer Arrested For Obstructing Officer, Alleges Profiling

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/mc-hammer-arrested-for-obstructing-officer-alleges-profiling/

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Sunday, February 24, 2013

Coming soon? Town in N. Dakota may show future oil, gas impact

The economy is booming in Dickinson, N.D., a community whose population was similar to Marietta's a couple of years ago, but has grown by 30 percent since 2010 and is still increasing, thanks to North Dakota's oil-laden Bakken shale deposits.

McDonald's workers in Dickinson earn $15 to $20 an hour with benefits; truck drivers start out at $34 an hour, and workers in their 20s can make between $100,000 and $150,000 a year in the oil fields, according to Steve Sprague, a former Tunnel resident and Waterford High School ag science instructor.

"This is what's coming to Marietta-and sooner than you think," said Sprague, 62, who moved to the Dickinson area a year ago after learning jobs there were prosperous and plentiful.

Article Photos

Photo by Jim Blecha, courtesy of Six Gun Hotshot
A horizontal hydraulic fracturing operation can be seen in the distance, along with a more conventional water well in the foreground near the town of Dickinson, N.D. Oil and gas companies retrieving oil from North Dakota?s Bakken shale beds have sparked a booming economy in that area that some say could be similar to what?s coming to Washington County.

He's now a supervisor for Six Gun Hotshot, a small trucking company that does a lot of business with a number of oil and gas companies that have established horizontal hydraulic drilling operations in that area.

"My boss is 32 years old and started the business in 2007 with a single truck and a 'hotshot' (a dually pickup towing a trailer)," Sprague said. "Now he has five hotshots, five semi trucks, and a crane-hauling truck. We work in North Dakota but are also pushing into Wyoming, Montana and Canada."

He said the success enjoyed by the company has become typical of businesses in the Dickinson area.

Fact Box

Some of the shale industry's impacts on Dickinson, N.D.:

The city has no bonded indebtedness.

Unemployment was at 1.5 percent in July.

Population increased from 17,787 in 2010 to 23,000 in 2012.

The city budget increased from $21 million in 2010 to $73.4 million in 2012.

Sales tax revenue jumped from $3 million in 2010 to a projected $8.6 million this year.

In 2010 the average 2-bedroom home rented for $600. In 2012 the same facility rented for $2,000.

There were 854 hotel rooms in 2010. In 2012 there were 2,711 rooms built or planned.

Source: City of Dickinson 2012 report, Opportunities in Dickinson.

"Every business is booming," Sprague said. "It's unbelievable. There are signs all along the roadways, advertising for help wanted, and people from all over the country are going to North Dakota to work. There's a lot of work, and not enough people."

But he said the growing prosperity does have some drawbacks.

"Anyone going there should be sure and do their homework on the area first," Sprague said. "It can be difficult to find a place to stay-hotels are filled, and some folks end up living in their cars or small trailers. Some of the oil companies have built 'man camps' near the drilling sites where employees can stay while working 12-hour shifts with two weeks on and two weeks off."

He said housing is probably the biggest concern in the Dickinson area right now, and noted one-bedroom apartments are renting for $750 to $1,200 per month, plus utilities, and homes with three or four bedrooms may rent from $2,750 to $4,500 a month.

Marietta Area Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Charlotte Keim said the housing impact of the shale industry moving into the Mid-Ohio Valley is already being felt here.

"The president and CEO of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce was here this week, and we spent some time talking about the shale development," she said. "It's already happening here, and the first sign was an increase in the local bed tax collection."

The bed tax, or city hotel/motel tax, has been growing in the last few years, and is expected to generate more than $960,000 by the end of 2013.

Keim said hotel and motel rooms have been filled throughout the week as oil and gas company representatives began arriving in the area to look at land availability and analyze the mineral potential in local Utica and Marcellus shale beds.

"Two years ago I started receiving phone calls from oil and gas workers in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio who were having problems finding housing," Keim said. "Some of our surrounding counties have no lodging facilities, so they came here."

She said some advance shale workers want to bring their families here and need housing during the one or two years they'll be working in the area.

"Those initial people have the specialty skills needed to get the shale process set up, and after a couple of years they'll go back to their homes or move on to the next job site," Keim said.

But as companies hire more permanent workers, the housing demand will increase.

"We're already seeing that, too," Keim said. "The demand is turning housing from a buyer's to a seller's market. And overall that's good because people will begin upgrading and improving their existing housing for sale."

She said anyone who wants to take advantage of employment opportunities with the oil and gas industry should be obtaining the needed skills now.

"They should start doing some research about the industry and what jobs are needed," Keim said, adding that obtaining a CDL license could be a good start as truck drivers are already in demand by some shale companies in this area.

And training for oil and gas industry jobs is already available at local facilities like Washington State Community College and the Washington County Career Center.

Sprague said work in the "oil patch" is hard and goes on 24/7, but anyone willing to put in the effort stands to make a lot of money in a relatively short period of time.

The economic boom has brought other unexpected issues to the Dickinson area, too.

"You have to make an appointment two weeks ahead of time to have an oil change for your car," Sprague said. "One local tire shop had to add five or six new bays, and they still can't keep up with the demand for tires."

Gasoline prices also tend to be higher in the Dickinson area. He said some locals will drive across the border into Wyoming where they can buy gas 50-cents cheaper than in town.

Sprague said shale oil and gas companies are now setting up shop in the Mid-Ohio Valley, drilling wells into the Appalachian region's mineral-rich Marcellus and Utica shale beds.

"It's happening here, and the best thing you can do is have the infrastructure ready when companies start bringing their equipment in," Sprague said.

Washington County began developing a road use maintenance agreement (RUMA) last year that holds drilling companies responsible for maintaining county and township roadways that may be damaged by heavy equipment and increased truck traffic.

"The infrastructure can take a beating from that traffic," said county engineer Roger Wright.

He noted that state highways are generally pre-designed to handle heavy traffic, but many county and township roads have developed over years from original trails and pathways into gravel and paved roadways.

"We have a road use maintenance agreement with drilling companies," Wright said. "For example, PDC is currently putting stone on roads in Adams Township leading to their drilling sites. The county wants to reach out and work with all of the drillers who plan to operate here."

He said the Ohio County Engineers Association provides a venue where counties can share their experiences about dealing with the shale oil and drilling industry across the state.

"We're still in the infant stage here, so we're trying to learn as much as we can from other counties," Wright added. "But in my opinion taxpayer funds should not have to be used to pay for road repairs that are caused by heavy drilling equipment. Those industries should be responsible. That's why it's important that we obtain road use maintenance agreements with the shale companies."

Marietta city engineer Joe Tucker said the city is already seeing an increase in the number of trucks traveling on city streets.

"We've talked about a road use maintenance agreement for the city to help protect any impact on our streets, and we're currently looking at establishing a wellhead protection plan for our drinking water wells as a precautionary measure," he said.

Tucker noted the city is also continuing to work on major intersection improvements along the Ohio 7 and Pike Street corridor which will help ease traffic congestion that could be generated by additional vehicles on the road due to projected growth from the oil and gas industries.

Source: http://www.mariettatimes.com/page/content.detail/id/550053.html

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Union leaders to vote on returning sports, clubs to Ontario high schools

Leaders for the Ontario?s high-school teachers will vote Friday afternoon on a motion to return sports teams and clubs to schools.

Sources told the Globe and Mail that although the Liberal government has not made any concrete overtures, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers? Federation executive want educators to trust that talks are moving in a positive direction and return to extracurriculars. The motion will be voted on this afternoon.

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Insiders say that government discussions with leaders representing high-school teachers have moved at a quicker pace than with their elementary school counterparts. The OSSTF and their colleagues at the elementary level have been meeting with government officials for several weeks.

Public school teachers have withdrawn extracurricular activities to show their frustration at the provincial government for legislating the terms of their contracts.

School boards have been worrying for months about the loss of students to the Catholic and private systems because of the cancellation of extracurriculars. With early enrolment projections suggesting numbers could be down, and budget discussions introducing the prospect of teacher layoffs, those fears are spreading to union leaders.

New Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne, and Education Minister, Liz Sandals, have indicated plans to revamp the negotiations process, which has involved an informal agreement for all parties to meet at the provincial discussion table over the last decade. Teachers and school boards have lamented that the process doesn't leave enough room for local-level negotiations, and the imposition of contract terms through legislation earlier this year has left a bitter taste in the mouths of many teachers.

More Related to this Story

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/union-leaders-to-vote-on-returning-sports-clubs-to-ontario-high-schools/article8967452/?cmpid=rss1

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Post-2014 Afghan force of 8,000-12,000 discussed: U.S

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO allies discussed keeping a NATO force of between 8,000 and 12,000 troops in Afghanistan after 2014, but U.S. President Barack Obama has not decided how many American troops will remain there, Pentagon spokesman George Little said on Friday.

"A range of 8-12,000 troops was discussed as the possible size of the overall NATO mission, not the U.S. contribution," Little said after a NATO defense ministers' meeting in Brussels.

"The president is still reviewing options and has not made a decision about the size of a possible U.S. presence after 2014, and we will continue to discuss with allies and the Afghans how we can best carry out two basic missions: targeting the remnants of al Qaeda and its affiliates, and training and equipping Afghan forces," he said.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Adrian Croft; editing by Rex Merrifield)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/post-2014-afghan-force-8-000-12-000-140936197.html

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SPORTS ROUNDUP: Skaters make tourney

Max Turcotte's pair of goals powered Holliston boys hockey to a 4-1 non-league win at Littleton last Saturday night, clinching a state tournament berth for the Panthers.

Turcotte got the Panthers on the board first early in the second period off an assist from Matt Dracoules. After Littleton knotted the score at 1-1, Turcotte put the Panthers ahead 2-1 early in the third period off assists from Dracoules and Mike Sancomb. Drew Ballenger and Owen Palmatier also scored. Goalie Jamie Losanno made 13 saves for Holliston (10-8-1).

Ballenger, a junior wing, netted the game-winning goal in the second period and sophomore goalie Brad Arvanitis made 34 saves for the shutout as Holliston stunned Westwood 1-0 in a Tri-Valley League matchup at the Canton Rink last Wednesday.

Holliston (5-7-1 TVL) recorded its first victory over Westwood in Rick LeBlanc?s five-year tenure on the Holliston coaching staff.

Ballenger knocked in a rebound during a power play midway through the second period with Bedard and Chris Losanno earning assists.

"It was our whole team," said LeBlanc. "We just battled. It was a great defensive effort."

WRESTLING

Led by individual champions Kevin Tomasetti and Jordan Paecht, Holliston finished fourth in last Saturday?s Division 3 Central sectional meet at Wayland High.

Tri-Valley League rival Norton won the team title with 218 points followed by Wayland with 200, Tyngsboro with 199 and the Panthers with 180.

Tomasetti placed first at 113 pounds and Paecht followed by winning at 120. Bob Evans (138), Alex Mitchell (170) and Donny Murphy (285) were runners-up. Robert Mejia (145) and Maro Fakhory (220) finished third for the Panthers.

Holliston coach Paul Capobianco was happy his team qualified seven wrestlers for the Division 3 state meet slated Tuesday and Wednesday in Wakefield.

"As a team, coming in fourth, though, I?m disappointed," said Capobianco. "But I thought that Norton, Wayland and Tyngsboro obviously wrestled better than we did."

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Kylie Lorenzen and Catherine Tehan combined for 31 points and 27 rebounds as Holliston rallied in the fourth quarter to top Medway 53-49 in a closely contested Tri-Valley League game last Friday night.

Lorenzen scored 18 points, including eight in the fourth quarter when the Panthers rallied from a 42-39 deficit after three periods, grabbed 10 rebounds and limited Medway?s co-MVP Sarah Hope to three second-half points. Tehan recorded 13 points and 17 rebounds.

Hope finished with 19 points for Medway, which jumped out to a 13-2 lead and led 15-14 after one quarter.

Sophomore Heather Leger added nine points and four steals for Holliston, which led 31-26 at he half.

"It was an amazing game, back and forth," said Holliston coach Kristen Hedrick. "Both teams played tough. It was a battle at both ends of the court."

On Monday, senior Stephanie Berard hit a game-winning jumper with 0.6 seconds left as Holliston (13-6) rallied in the fourth quarter to top Stoughton 52-50 in a thrilling first-round matchup at the Sharon Tournament.

With the game tied 50-50, Holliston took control of the ball with 21 seconds left, brought it down the court before Tehan rebounded a missed shot and kicked it out to Berard, who netted the game-winner for her only points of the night.

Lorenzen scored 14 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Lindy Kyger had 14 points, including four 3-pointers. Heather added eight points for Holliston, which trailed 22-21 at the half and 34-31 after three quarters.

Holliston improved to 13-6 (12-6 in the TVL).

In a TVL matchup last Tuesday, Lorenzen scored 18 points and Kyger followed with 17, including three 3-pointers, to lead Holliston to a 52-29 romp past Dover-Sherborn.

Tehan had 11 points for Holliston, which led 27-20 before breaking it open with a 9-0 run to start the third quarter.

BOYS BASKETBALL

In Holliston?s season finale last Friday night, senior center Chris Miller had 12 points and 10 rebounds to lead the team, but the Panthers fell 68-39 to Medway in a Tri-Valley League game.

Matt Jeye added eight points for Holliston, which finished the season 6-14 overall and 5-13 in the TVL. The Panthers trailed 34-17 at halftime.

Senior guard Brian Barone scored 14 points and Miller added 11 points for Holliston in a 68-54 loss to Dover-Sherborn in a TVL game last Tuesday.

Holliston trailed by 20 points in the third period before closing the quarter by scoring nine straight points to make it 50-39.

INDOOR TRACK

Freshmen Sydney Snow finished fourth in the 600 meters in 1:40.67, while classmate Madison Ward placed fifth in the high jump with a leap of 5-feet even to lead Holliston?s girls team in the Division 3 state meet last Thursday at the Reggie Lewis Center.

Holliston's girls placed 20th (8.5 points) while the boys finished 27th with three points.

Holliston's best finishes on the boys? side came from the 4x800 team of senior Matt Simonelli and juniors Ryan Leonard, Jack Boyd and Ryan Moser, which finished seventh, and senior Evan Vasilauskas, who placed eighth in the 55-meter hurdles in 8.31.

SWIMMING

Nina Sparre finished seventh in 200-yard freestyle and ninth in the 100 free to lead Holliston at the Division 2 state championship girls meet at Springfield College last Saturday.

Sparre joined Danielle Potemri, Kristen Ydoate and Carolyn Banak on a 200 free relay that finished 24th. Holliston placed 24th as a team with 21 points.

In the Division 2 championship boys meet at Harvard University on Sunday, Charlie Doyle was 21st in the 50 free and Neel Sekar was 25th in the 100 backstroke.

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Source: http://www.wickedlocal.com/holliston/news/x711923758/Skaters-make-tourney?rssfeed=true

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Friday, February 22, 2013

NFL combine: Woods hopes to grab some attention

At times this past season, Robert Woods became USC's Forgotten Man. A terrific receiver in his own right, Woods just so happened to play alongside a once-in-a-generation talent: Biletnikoff Award winner Marqise Lee.

With Lee becoming the focal point of the offense, Woods' production fell from record-setting in 2011 to merely very good in '12. His NFL draft stock took a bit of a hit as well.

This week offers Woods an opportunity to bounce back up -- to make the people who matter remember.

The 2013 NFL scouting combine is under way in Indianapolis, and Woods is among more than 300 participants. Like former teammate Matt Barkley, Woods is out to prove to general managers, scouts and coaches that he's the same player who dominated two seasons ago, even if the most recent set of statistics suggests otherwise.

"I'm just trying to go out there and show that I still am who I am -- same game, even better," Woods said before heading to the combine. "I hope they didn't forget about me."

They haven't. Woods is considered one of the best receivers in the 2013 class. But there's a difference between being one of the best and being the best, and Woods seemed to be tracking toward the latter after a spectacular sophomore season.

Woods caught 111 passes -- most in Pac-12 history -- for 1,292 yards and 15 touchdowns in 2011. He was everybody's All-American.

Ankle surgery slowed Woods the following offseason. Then the Trojans' offense shifted. Lee caught more passes and received more accolades. Woods ended up with 76 receptions for 846 yards and 11 TDs -- fine totals in a vacuum but nowhere near his 2011 production.

"I think I made the best of the opportunities I did have," Woods said during a break from training with Velocity Sports Performance in Irvine.

"I did what I was capable of doing. But I felt like I could have done a little more to help the team."

Woods wasn't happy about his reduced role, but he didn't complain about it either. He approached every play as if he were going to get the ball. If he knew he wasn't, he'd try to block like a fullback.

"I don't know how you could be put in a harder situation," said USC coach Lane Kiffin, who, as the team's play-caller, contributed to Woods being in that situation.

"As a true sophomore, you catch more passes than anyone in the history of this conference. Then you go into your junior year, and all of a sudden you're not catching the most balls on the team. And it happens to be your buddy that you raised in the system.

"He handled that great. That speaks to who he is. I don't think many people would have handled that that well."

NFL personnel types undoubtedly will make note of Woods' unselfishness. When they talk to Kiffin, they'll also hear about an ultra-competitive player who loathed having to sit out practices while his ankle healed. His peers training with Velocity call him "L.A. Rob," but there's little glitz to Woods' game, no diva in his personality.

"Robert has a true love for the game," Kiffin said. "He loves to practice ... which is not always the case with kids. Robert's old school that way."

Woods and Barkley are similarly wired; it's one of the reasons they worked so well together (and will do so again at USC's March 27 pro day). If it rankled Woods to miss practices, one can only imagine how Barkley felt having to miss the Trojans' final two-plus games, as well as the Senior Bowl, because of a shoulder injury.

Barkley's representatives informed NFL teams that their client will not throw at the combine because his shoulder isn't fully healed. Whether he does other drills when quarterbacks work out Sunday remains to be seen. Barkley is scheduled to meet the media Friday.

Opinions on where Barkley will be drafted vary from day to day and analyst to analyst. Some believe, when all's said and done, that he'll still be a top-10 pick in a quarterback-starved league. Others -- the majority, at this point -- project him as a second-round selection, a concept that would have been inconceivable a year ago.

"Matt is a great quarterback," Woods said. "There's always going to be doubters. There's been people who doubted Matt ever since he stepped on USC's campus. So that's nothing new.

"He's been out of the picture a little bit, but ... once you see Matt in person again, once he does the interviews, people are going to remember why he is Matt Barkley."

This is the time to conjure those positive memories. No one knows that better than the Forgotten Man.

Contact the writer: mlev@ocregister.com

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50893395/ns/local_news-orange_county_ca/

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Secrets of human speech uncovered

Thursday, February 21, 2013

A team of researchers at UC San Francisco has uncovered the neurological basis of speech motor control, the complex coordinated activity of tiny brain regions that controls our lips, jaw, tongue and larynx as we speak.

Described this week in the journal Nature, the work has potential implications for developing computer-brain interfaces for artificial speech communication and for the treatment of speech disorders. It also sheds light on an ability that is unique to humans among living creatures but poorly understood.

"Speaking is so fundamental to who we are as humans ? nearly all of us learn to speak," said senior author Edward Chang, MD, a neurosurgeon at the UCSF Epilepsy Center and a faculty member in the UCSF Center for Integrative Neuroscience. "But it's probably the most complex motor activity we do."

The complexity comes from the fact that spoken words require the coordinated efforts of numerous "articulators" in the vocal tract ? the lips, tongue, jaw and larynx ? but scientists have not understood how the movements of these distinct articulators are precisely coordinated in the brain.

To understand how speech articulation works, Chang and his colleagues recorded electrical activity directly from the brains of three people undergoing brain surgery at UCSF, and used this information to determine the spatial organization of the "speech sensorimotor cortex," which controls the lips, tongue, jaw, larynx as a person speaks. This gave them a map of which parts of the brain control which parts of the vocal tract.

They then applied a sophisticated new method called "state-space" analysis to observe the complex spatial and temporal patterns of neural activity in the speech sensorimotor cortex that play out as someone speaks. This revealed a surprising sophistication in how the brain's speech sensorimotor cortex works.

They found that this cortical area has a hierarchical and cyclical structure that exerts a split-second, symphony-like control over the tongue, jaw, larynx and lips.

"These properties may reflect cortical strategies to greatly simplify the complex coordination of articulators in fluent speech," said Kristofer Bouchard, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Chang lab who was the first author on the paper.

In the same way that a symphony relies upon all the players to coordinate their plucks, beats or blows to make music, speaking demands well-timed action of several various brain regions within the speech sensorimotor cortex.

Brain Mapping in Epilepsy Surgery

The patients involved in the study were all at UCSF undergoing surgery for severe, untreatable epilepsy. Brain surgery is a powerful way to halt epilepsy in its tracks, potentially completely stopping seizures overnight, and its success is directly related to the accuracy with which a medical team can map the brain, identifying the exact pieces of tissue responsible for an individual's seizures and removing them.

The UCSF Comprehensive Epilepsy Center is a leader in the use of advanced intracranial monitoring to map out elusive seizure-causing brain regions. The mapping is done by surgically implanting an electrode array under the skull on the brain's outer surface or cortex and recording the brain's activity in order to pinpoint the parts of the brain responsible for disabling seizures. In a second surgery a few weeks later, the electrodes are removed and the unhealthy brain tissue that causes the seizures is removed.

This setting also permits a rare opportunity to ask basic questions about how the human brain works, such as how it controls speaking. The neurological basis of speech motor control has remained unknown until now because scientists cannot study speech mechanisms in animals and because non-invasive imaging methods lack the ability to resolve the very rapid time course of articulator movements, which change in hundredths of seconds.

But surgical brain mapping can record neural activity directly and faster than other noninvasive methods, showing changes in electrical activity on the order of a few milliseconds.

Prior to this work, the majority of what scientists knew about this brain region was based on studies from the 1940's, which used electrical stimulation of single spots on the brain, causing a twitch in muscles of the face or throat. This approach using focal stimulation, however, could never evoke a meaningful speech sound.

Chang and colleagues used an entirely different approach to studying the brain activity during natural speaking brain using the implanted electrodes arrays. The patients read from a list of English syllables ? like bah, dee, goo. The researchers recorded the electrical activity within their speech-motor cortex and showed how distinct brain patterning accounts for different vowels and consonants in our speech.

"Even though we used English, we found the key patterns observed were ones that linguists have observed in languages around the world ? perhaps suggesting universal principles for speaking across all cultures," said Chang.

###

University of California - San Francisco: http://www.ucsf.edu

Thanks to University of California - San Francisco for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126947/Secrets_of_human_speech_uncovered

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Rasmussen College Career and Networking Expo Today

ROCKFORD (WIFR) -- Rasmussen College is hosting its bi-annual, Winter Career and Networking Expo on Thursday, Feb. 21.

The expo will give job seekers the opportunity to connect with employers and organizations, explore career opportunities, and gain valuable job-seeking knowledge.

What: Career and Networking Expo

When: Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013: 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Where: Tebala Shrine Center, 7910 Newburg Road Rockford, IL 61108

For additional information visit www.Rasmussen.edu/CareerExpo

Source: http://www.wifr.com/news/headlines/Rasmussen-College-Career-and-Networking-Expo-192261661.html

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New tech changes nature of fighting crime

NEW YORK (AP) ? A 911 call comes in about a possible bomb in lower Manhattan and an alert pops up on computer screens at the New York Police Department, instantly showing officers an interactive map of the neighborhood, footage from nearby security cameras, whether there are high radiation levels and whether any other threats have been made against the city.

In a click, police know exactly what they're getting into.

Such a hypothetical scenario may seem like something out of a futuristic crime drama, but the technology is real, developed in a partnership between the nation's largest police department and Microsoft Corp., and the latest version has been quietly in use for about a year.

The project could pay off in more ways than one: The NYPD could make tens of millions of dollars under an unprecedented marketing deal that allows Microsoft to sell the system to other law enforcement agencies and civilian companies around the world. The city will get a 30 percent cut.

The Domain Awareness System, known as the dashboard, gives easy access to the police department's voluminous arrest records, 911 calls, more than 3,000 security cameras citywide, license plate readers and portable radiation detectors. This is all public data ? not additional surveillance.

Right now, it is used only in NYPD offices, mostly in the counterterrorism unit. Eventually, the system could supply crime-fighting information in real time to officers on laptops in their squad cars and on mobile devices while they walk the beat.

"It works incredibly well," said Jessica Tisch, director of planning and policy for the counterterrorism unit.

For example, officers used the system during a deadly shooting outside the Empire State Building in August. Dozens of 911 calls were coming in, and it initially looked like an attack staged by several gunmen. But officers mapped the information and pulled up cameras within 500 feet of the reported shots to determine there was only one shooter.

Analysts are cautious about the potential profits, saying that largely depends on Microsoft's sales efforts and whether any major competition arises. While there other data-drilling products made by other companies, they say the NYPD's involvement could set the dashboard apart.

"This is the kind of stuff you used to only see in movies," said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group, a technology analysis firm. "Getting it to work in a way that police departments can use in real time is huge."

The venture began in 2009 when the NYPD approached Microsoft about building software to help mine data for the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, a network of private and public cameras and other tools monitored by the department's counterterrorism bureau. Development cost the department between $30 million and $40 million, officials said.

"Usually, you purchase software that you try to work with, but we wanted this to be something that really worked well for us, so we set about creating it with them," said Richard Daddario, the NYPD's deputy commissioner for counterterrorism.

Officers were involved throughout the process with the programmers, offering advice on what they need during an emergency.

"It was created by cops for cops," Tisch said. "We thought a lot about what information we want up close and personal, and what needs to be a click away. It's all baked in there."

The system uses hundreds of thousands of pieces of information. Security camera footage can be rewound five minutes so that officers can see suspects who may have fled. Sensors pick up whether a bag has been left sitting for a while. When an emergency call comes in, officers can check prior 911 calls from that address to see what they might be up against.

Prospective clients can customize it to fit their organization.

Dave Mosher, a Microsoft vice president in charge of program management, said the company started to market the system in August and is looking at smaller municipalities, law enforcement agencies and companies that handle major sporting events.

He would not say whether any clients have been lined up and would not give details on the price except to say that it would depend on how much customization must be done.

Shawn McCarthy, an analyst with the research firm IDC, described the partnership ? and outcome ? as unusual in the tech world. "I see huge potential, but so much depends on the price and competition," he said.

No firm timetable has been set on when the dashboard will be rolled out to the entire 34,000-offficer department.

___

Associated Press video journalist Bonny Ghosh contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nypd-microsoft-create-crime-fighting-tech-system-174310276--finance.html

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