Sunday, June 30, 2013

Egypt erupts with protests demanding Morsi ouster

CAIRO (AP) ? Hundreds of thousands thronged the streets of Cairo and cities around the country Sunday and marched on the presidential palace, filling a broad avenue for blocks, in an attempt to force out the Islamist president with the most massive protests Egypt has seen in 2? years of turmoil.

In a sign of the explosive volatility of the country's divisions, a hard core of young opponents broke away from the rallies and attacked the main headquarters of President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, pelting it with stones and firebombs until a raging fire erupted in the walled villa. During clashes, Brotherhood supporters opened fire on the attackers, and activists said two protesters were killed.

Fears were widespread that the two sides could be heading to a violent collision in coming days. Morsi made clear through a spokesman that he would not step down and his Islamist supporters vowed not to allow protesters to remove one of their own, brought to office in a legitimate vote. Thousands of Islamists massed not far from the presidential palace in support of Morsi, some of them prepared for a fight with makeshift armor and sticks.

At least five anti-Morsi protesters were killed Sunday in clashes and shootings in southern Egypt.

The protesters aimed to show by sheer numbers that the country has irrevocably turned against Morsi, a year to the day after he was inaugurated as Egypt's first freely elected president. But throughout the day and even up to midnight at the main rallying sites, fears of rampant violence did not materialize.

Instead the mood was largely festive as protesters at giant anti-Morsi rallies in Cairo's central Tahrir Square and outside the Ittihadiya palace spilled into side streets and across boulevards, waving flags, blowing whistles and chanting.

Fireworks went off overhead. Men and women, some with small children on their shoulders, beat drums, danced and sang, "By hook or by crook, we will bring Morsi down." Residents in nearby homes showered water on marchers below ? some carrying tents in preparation to camp outside the palace ? to cool them in the summer heat, and blew whistles and waved flags in support.

"Mubarak took only 18 days although he had behind him the security, intelligence and a large sector of Egyptians," said Amr Tawfeeq, an oil company employee marching toward Ittihadiya with a Christian friend. Morsi "won't take long. We want him out and we are ready to pay the price."

The massive outpouring against Morsi raises the question of what is next. Protesters have vowed to stay on the streets until he steps down, and organizers called for widespread labor strikes starting Monday. The president, in turn, appears to be hoping protests wane.

For weeks, Morsi's supporters have depicted the planned protest as a plot by Mubarak loyalists. But their claims were undermined by the extent of Sunday's rallies. In Cairo and a string of cities in the Nile Delta and on the Mediterranean coast, the protests topped even the biggest protests of the 2011's 18-day uprising, including the day Mubarak quit, Feb. 11, when giant crowds marched on Ittihadiya.

It is unclear now whether the opposition, which for months has demanded Morsi form a national unity government, would now accept any concessions short of his removal. The anticipated deadlock raises the question of whether the army, already deployed on the outskirts of cities, will intervene. Protesters believe the military would throw its weight behind them, tipping the balance against Morsi. The country's police, meanwhile, were hardly to be seen Sunday.

"If the Brothers think that we will give up and leave, they are mistaken," said lawyer Hossam Muhareb as he sat with a friend on a sidewalk near the presidential palace. "They will give up and leave after seeing our numbers."

Violence could send the situation spinning into explosive directions.

The fire at the Brotherhood headquarters, located on a plateau overlooking Cairo, sent smoke pouring in the air, even as youths clashed with Brotherhood supporters at the site. Two on the anti-Morsi side were shot to death, and 60 were wounded, an activist who monitored casualties at the hospital, Ahmed Saeed, said.

Southern Egypt saw deadly attacks on anti-Morsi protests, and five people were killed. Two protesters were shot to death during clashes outside offices of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, one in Beni Suef, the other in Fayoum. In the city of Assiut, gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on a protest, killing one person and wounding four others.

The enraged protesters then marched on the nearby Freedom and Justice offices, where gunmen inside opened fire, killing two more, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to the press. Clashes erupted, with protesters and security forces fighting side by side against Morsi's supporters.

At least 400 people were injured nationwide, the Health Ministry said.

Morsi, who has three years left in his term, said street protests cannot be used to overturn the results of a free election.

"There is no room for any talk against this constitutional legitimacy," he told Britain's The Guardian newspaper in an interview published Sunday, rejecting early elections.

If an elected president is forced out, "there will (be) people or opponents opposing the new president too, and a week or a month later, they will ask him to step down," he said.

Morsi was not at Ittihadiya as Sunday's rally took place ? he had moved to another nearby palace.

As the crowds massed, Morsi's spokesman Ihab Fahmi repeated the president's longstanding offer of dialogue with the opposition to resolve the nation's political crisis, calling it "the only framework through which we can reach understandings."

The opposition has repeatedly turned down his offers for dialogue, arguing that they were for show.

The demonstrations are the culmination of polarization and instability that have been building since Morsi's June 30, 2012, inauguration. The past year has seen multiple political crises, bouts of bloody clashes and a steadily worsening economy, with power outages, fuel shortages, rising prices and persistent lawlessness and crime.

In one camp are the president and his Islamist allies, including the Muslim Brotherhood and more hard-line groups. Morsi supporters accuse Mubarak loyalists of being behind the protests, aiming to overturn last year's election results, just as they argue that remnants of the old regime have sabotaged Morsi's attempts to deal with the nation's woes and bring reforms.

Hard-liners among them have also given the confrontation a sharply religious tone, denouncing Morsi's opponents as "enemies of God" and infidels.

On the other side is an array of secular and liberal Egyptians, moderate Muslims, Christians ? and what the opposition says is a broad sector of the general public that has turned against the Islamists. They say the Islamists have negated their election mandate by trying to monopolize power, infusing government with their supporters, forcing through a constitution they largely wrote and giving religious extremists a free hand, all while failing to manage the country.

"The country is only going backward. He's embarrassing us and making people hate Islam," said Donia Rashad, a 24-year-old unemployed woman who wears the conservative Islamic headscarf. "We need someone who can feel the people and is agreeable to the majority."

As they marched toward the presidential palace, some chanted, "You lied to us in the name of religion." The crowds, including women, children and elderly people, hoisted long banners in the colors of the Egyptian flag and raised red cards ? a sign of expulsion in soccer.

In Tahrir, chants of "erhal!", or "leave!" thundered around the square. The crowd, which appeared to number some 300,000, waved Egyptian flags and posters of Morsi with a red X over his face. They whistled and waved when military helicopters swooped close overhead, reflecting their belief that the army favors them over Morsi.

Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi warned a week ago that the military would intervene to prevent the nation from entering a "dark tunnel." Army troops backed by armored vehicles were deployed Sunday in some of Cairo's suburbs, with soldiers at traffic lights and major intersections. In the evening, they deployed near the international airport, state TV said.

Similarly sized crowds turned out in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta cities of Mansoura, Tanta and Damanhour, with sizeable rallies in cities nationwide.

"Today is the Brotherhood's last day in power," Suliman Mohammed, a manager of a seafood company, said in Tahrir.

The protests emerge from a petition campaign by a youth activist group known as Tamarod, Arabic for "Rebel." For several months, the group has been collecting signatures on a call for Morsi to step down.

On Saturday, the group announced it had more than 22 million signatures ? proof, it claims, that a broad sector of the public no longer wants Morsi in office.

It was not possible to verify the claim. If true, it would be nearly twice the some 13 million people who voted for Morsi in last year's presidential run-off election, which he won with around 52 percent of the vote. Tamarod organizers said they discarded about 100,000 signed forms because they were duplicates.

Morsi's supporters have questioned the authenticity of the signatures, but have produced no evidence of fraud.

Near Ittihadiya palace, thousands of Islamists gathered in a show of support for Morsi outside the Rabia al-Adawiya mosque. Some Morsi backers wore homemade body armor and construction helmets and carried shields and clubs ? precautions, they said, against possible violence.

At the pro-Morsi rally at the Rabia al-Adawiya mosque, the crowd chanted, "God is great," and some held up copies of Islam's holy book, the Quran.

"The people hold the legitimacy and we support Dr. Mohamed Morsi," said Ahmed Ramadan, one of the rally participants. "We would like to tell him not to be affected by the opponents' protests and not to give up his rights. We are here to support and protect him."

____

AP reporters Tony G. Gabriel and Mariam Rizk contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-erupts-protests-demanding-morsi-ouster-215829657.html

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Obama to announce new power initiative for Africa

U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama wave as they depart Waterkloof Air Base for a flight to Cape Town on Sunday, June 30, 2013, in Centurion, South Africa. The president is in South Africa, embarking on the second leg of his three-country African journey. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama wave as they depart Waterkloof Air Base for a flight to Cape Town on Sunday, June 30, 2013, in Centurion, South Africa. The president is in South Africa, embarking on the second leg of his three-country African journey. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. President Barack Obama, left, stands for a moment of silence for Nelson Mandela during an official dinner with South African President Jacob Zuma at the Presidential Guest House on Saturday, June 29, 2013, in Pretoria, South Africa. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama toast during an official dinner hosted by South African President Jacob Zuma at the Presidential Guest House on Saturday, June 29, 2013, in Pretoria, South Africa. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama wave as they depart Waterkloof Air Base for a flight to Cape Town on Sunday, June 30, 2013, in Centurion, South Africa. The president is in South Africa, embarking on the second leg of his three-country African journey. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Performers dressed in traditional Xhosa outfits dance at the wedding of Sbongiseni Tetani and his wife Charity from the Xhosa tribe, near the home of former South African president Nelson Mandela house in Qunu, South Africa, Saturday, June 29, 2013. President Barack Obama plans to visit privately Saturday with relatives of former South African President Nelson Mandela, but doesn't intend to see the critically ill anti-apartheid icon he has called a "personal hero." (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

(AP) ? President Barack Obama on Sunday will announce a new initiative to double access to electric power in sub-Saharan Africa, part of his effort to build on the legacy of equality and opportunity forged by his personal hero, Nelson Mandela.

Obama, who flew from Johannesburg to Cape Town Sunday, will pay tribute to the ailing 94-year-old Mandela throughout the day. The president and his family were visiting Robben Island, where the anti-apartheid leader spent 18 years confined to a tiny cell, including a stop at the lime quarry where Mandela toiled and developed the lung problems that put him in the hospital for most of the month.

The White House said Obama's guide during his tour of the island will be 83-year-old South African politician Ahmed Kathrada, who also was held at the prison for nearly two decades and guided Obama on his 2006 visit to the prison as a U.S. senator. The president will also see the prison courtyard where Mandela planted grapevines that remain today, and where he and others in the dissident leadership would discuss politics, sneak notes to one another and hide writings.

During the tour, which took place against the backdrop of sunshine and clear, blue skies, Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and their daughters took in the expansive view of the island's lime quarry, a huge crater with views of the rusty guard tower from where Mandela likely would have been watched. Obama commented on the "hard labor" Mandela endured and asked Kathrada to remind his daughters, Malia and Sasha, how long Mandela was in prison.

Michelle Obama asked how often Mandela would work and was told he worked daily. As the family turned to leave, Obama asked Kathrada to tell his daughters how the African National Congress, the South African political party, got started.

After the tour, Obama will deliver what the White House has billed as the signature speech of his weeklong trip, an address at the University of Cape Town that will be infused with memories of Mandela.

During the speech, Obama will unveil the "Power Africa" initiative, which includes an initial $7 billion investment from the United States over the next five years. Private companies, including General Electric and Symbion Power, are making an additional $9 billion in commitments with the goal of providing power to millions of Africans crippled by a lack of electricity.

Gayle Smith, Obama's senior director for development and democracy, said more than two-thirds of people living in sub-Saharan Africa do not have electricity, including 85 percent of those living in rural areas.

"If you want lights so kids can study at night or you can maintain vaccines in a cold chain, you don't have that, so going the extra mile to reach people is more difficult," Smith said.

The U.S. and its private sector partners initially will focus its efforts on six countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and Tanzania, where Obama will wrap up his trip later this week. Former President George W. Bush, who supports health programs throughout the continent, will also be in Tanzania next week, and the White House did not rule out the possibility that the two men might meet.

Obama will also highlight U.S. efforts to bolster access to food and health programs on the continent. His advisers said the president sees reducing the poverty and illness that plague many parts of Africa as an extension of Mandela's example of how change can happen within countries.

The former South African president has been hospitalized in critical condition for three weeks. Obama met Saturday with members of Mandela's family, but did not visit the anti-apartheid icon, a decision the White House said was in keeping with his family's wishes.

Obama's weeklong trip, which opened last week in Senegal, marks his most significant trip to the continent since taking office. His scant personal engagement has come as a disappointment to some in the region, who had high hopes for a man whose father was from Kenya.

Obama visited Robben Island when he was a U.S. senator. But since being elected as the first black American president, Obama has drawn inevitable comparisons to Mandela, making Sunday's visit particularly poignant.

The president said he's also eager to bring his family with him to the prison to teach them about Mandela's role in overcoming white racist rule, first as an activist and later as a president who forged a unity government with his former captors.

He told reporters Saturday he wanted to "help them to understand not only how those lessons apply to their own lives but also to their responsibilities in the future as citizens of the world, that's a great privilege and a great honor."

Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, said Mandela's vision was always going to feature prominently in the speech. But his deteriorating health "certainly puts a finer point on just how much we can't take for granted what Nelson Mandela did."

Harkening back to a prominent theme from Obama's 2009 speech in Ghana ? his only other trip to Africa as president ? Obama will emphasize that Africans must take much of the responsibility for finishing the work started by Mandela and his contemporaries.

"The progress that Africa has made opens new doors, but frankly, it's up to the leaders in Africa and particularly young people to make sure that they're walking through those doors of opportunity," Rhodes said.

Obama will speak at the University of Cape Town nearly 50 years after Robert F. Kennedy delivered his famous "Ripple of Hope" speech from the school. Kennedy spoke in Cape Town two years after Mandela was sentenced to life in prison.

___

Follow Nedra Pickler and Julie Pace on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nedrapickler and http://www.twitter.com/jpaceDC .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-30-Obama/id-d32f09cf210a4017ba898b99d7ff54ee

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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Google reveals new London 'groundscraper' HQ

By Tom Bill

LONDON (Reuters) - Google has revealed that its new UK headquarters is a building longer than the Shard skyscraper is tall.

The so-called groundscraper at the King's Cross Central development is the latest overseas property deal by the cash-rich U.S. internet group, which will house all of its London staff under one roof when completed in 2016.

Google revealed designs for the low-rise one million square feet scheme on Friday after announcing its move to King's Cross in January.

At 330 meters long, it exceeds the height of the 310-metre tall Shard, western Europe's tallest skyscraper.

Swiss bank UBS is undertaking a similar large-scale low-rise scheme at the Broadgate complex in London's main financial district.

Google said 35,000 people will work at the site - a large scale operation it would have found difficult to house in space-constrained central London where land is also more expensive.

Google has spent about 650 million pounds to buy and develop the 2.4 acre site and the finished development will be worth up to one billion pounds, sources told Reuters.

Construction will start early next year subject to planning approval and it will be one of the internet giant's largest offices outside its so-called Googleplex corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California.

The internet giant is a prized tenant for landlords and its presence is expected to draw other technology companies to King's Cross - especially small start-ups - and help bump up rents.

The new site is likely to include a 20,000 square feet area for bike parking, about the size of seven tennis courts, and features a climbing wall between floors, a source close to the project told Reuters.

The company's offices are famous for perks like gourmet food, bowling alleys, roof gardens, high-tech gyms and on-site medical staff and massages.

King's Cross Central, which sits on a former fish, coal and grain goods yard to the north of the city, spans 67 acres and will contain homes, offices and shops. It is being built by the King's Cross Central Limited Partnership which includes developer Argent Group.

Google has traditionally leased its overseas offices but in the past two years has purchased premises in Paris, Dublin, and now London, its filings show.

As of December 31, 2011, Google had $44.6 billion of cash, with $21.2 billion of that held offshore, according to its 2011 annual report. If the funds held offshore were repatriated, they would be subject to U.S. taxes, Google said.

Tax campaigner and accountant Richard Murphy told Reuters at the time of the January announcement that the decision to buy rather than rent was likely "tax motivated", driven by the fact the company cannot repatriate the cash to the U.S. without paying a fat tax bill.

Google declined to comment on the tax issue in relation to its new London building but said such a large-scale investment was a boost to the Britain's economy.

Earlier this month British MPs described Google's tax affairs as "contrived" after a Reuters report showed the company employed staff in sales roles in London, even though it had told MPs in November its British staff were not selling to UK clients - an activity that could boost its tax bill substantially.

(Editing by David Cowell)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/google-reveals-london-groundscraper-hq-132510940.html

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You?re Gonna Want to Sit Down for This: 6 High-End Desk Chairs Reviewed

You’re Gonna Want to Sit Down for This: 6 High-End Desk Chairs Reviewed
First-world problems don't get much bigger than having to pick out a chair in which you can sit comfortably all day while you're using your computer.

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/06/office-chairs-review/

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- Apartments

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Source: https://flippa.com/2944036-absolutely-awesome-real-estate-domain-exclusively-at-flippa

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Witness to Zimmerman-Martin 'tussle' says he saw punches before shooting

Joe Burbank / Orlando Sentinel pool via EPA

Eyewitness Jonathan Good watches prosecutor Bernie De La Rionda demonstrate possible fight positions of George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin during the 15th day of the Zimmerman trial in Seminole circuit court, in Sanford, Fla., on June 28.

By Elizabeth Chuck, Tom Winter and Rob Rivas, NBC News

A resident of the gated community where Trayvon Martin was killed told a Florida court Friday he saw the unarmed teen punching George Zimmerman before the two had a fatal confrontation in February of 2012.

Jonathan Good was watching TV with his wife at the Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26, 2012, when a faint noise caught his attention, he told a Seminole County court Friday. When he heard more noise, he opened his sliding glass door, took a step outside, and spotted what "seemed like a tussle.?

??I could really only see one person, and I think I described it as possibly being some type of dog attack, because there are a lot of dogs that walk in that back area,? Good said.

But as the figures rolled a little closer to Good on the rainy evening, he realized it was two people.

?And then at one point I yelled out, ?What?s going on?? and ?Stop it,? I believe,? Good told the jury, who is seated for Zimmerman?s second-degree murder trial. Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty, claiming self-defense.

Good only saw the two fighting for what he described as ?10 seconds, max? before running inside to call 911, but his eyewitness account of Martin?s final moments could prove crucial for jurors and investigators in the case.

Good didn?t recognize either men, and said one was straddling the other.

?I could tell the person on the bottom had a lighter skinned color,? Good said. Zimmerman is of white and Hispanic descent, and Martin is black. ?

When one straddled the other, the person on the bottom was ?face up,? he said.

?I think at that time is when I thought it was serious,? he said.

?OK. What made you think that?? prosecutor Bernie De La Rionda asked.

??'Cause it looked like there were strikes being thrown, or punches being thrown, but as I clarified, due to the lighting, it could have also been, you know, holding down. But there were arm movement[s] going downward,? Good said.

?And the arm movements that you describe, would that have been from the person on top?? De La Rionda asked. ?

?Correct,? responded Good.

Later, in cross-examination, defense attorney Mark O?Mara pressed Good for specifics of the confrontation.

?The person who you now know to be Trayvon Martin was on top, correct?? O?Mara asked.

?Correct,? Good said.

?And he was the one who was raining blows down on the person on the bottom, George Zimmerman, right??

?That?s what it looked like,? Good said.

Good added it was too dark to see many details, and said he was too far away. He also said he didn?t see either person slam the other?s head against concrete, something Zimmerman alleges Martin did and part of the reason he says he acted out of self-defense in shooting Martin.

But Good did say he later heard screams coming from one person, who he believed to be Zimmerman.

?If it was coming from on top it would have echoed off a wall instead of coming directly at me,? he said.

He added he couldn?t say for sure which person it was.

911 call played in court
Good?s 911 call ? which he placed when he heard the gun go off ? was also played for the first time in court on Friday.

?Um, I?m pretty sure the guy?s dead out here. Holy sh*t,? he says to the 911 operator.

Martin?s parents, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, sat quietly during Good?s testimony. Fulton held ?Our Daily Bread,? a Christian monthly devotional, in her hand.

Parts of the cross-examination were decidedly antagonistic.

?Don?t really want to be here, do you?? O?Mara opened his cross-examination by asking. ?You were very reluctant to be involved in the case at all, correct??

Good agreed that he was one of the only witnesses who had requested anonymity and had not wanted to partake in the trial.

O?Mara questioned Good about a martial arts phrase he had used with police officers in his initial statement to describe Martin and Zimmerman?s fight.

?What you saw was the person on top in an MMA-style straddle position, correct? That was further described, was it not, as being ?ground and pound.? What is ?ground and pound? as you define it?? O?Mara asked.

?The person on top being able to punch the person on the bottom, but the person on the bottom also has a chance to get out or punch the person on top. It?s back and forth,? Good said.

O?Mara also demanded to know exactly what Good, who did not know either Zimmerman or Martin, saw that night, questioning him numerous times about his definition of being positioned in ?vertical? and ?horizontal? standings. Good, visibly annoyed at times, invited O?Mara to get down on his knees to demonstrate the positions he saw for the jurors, which the lawyer did.

Good is the next-door neighbor of Jenna Lauer, another resident at the Retreat at Twin Lakes gated community, who testified on Thursday. Lauer placed the 911 call that captured screams in the moments before Martin?s death. On Thursday, she told the court that she heard ?scuffling? that sounded like ?sneakers on pavement and grass? before she called 911.

Editor's note: George Zimmerman has sued NBC Universal for defamation. The company strongly denies the allegation.

Previous reports on the George Zimmerman trial:

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663306/s/2df20dcb/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A60C280C191927510Ewitness0Eto0Ezimmerman0Emartin0Etussle0Esays0Ehe0Esaw0Epunches0Ebefore0Eshooting0Dlite/story01.htm

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Friday, June 28, 2013

Family & Friends Pay Final Respects to James Gandolfini

Friends and family attended the funeral service of James Gandolfini Thursday morning at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in Manhattan to pay their final respects.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/james-gandolfinis-funeral-family-friends-say-goodbye/1-a-540171?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Ajames-gandolfinis-funeral-family-friends-say-goodbye-540171

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Radiation from airport scanners: The dose we actually get is low

June 27, 2013 ? A new report by an independent task force commissioned by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), has found that people absorb less radiation from airport X-ray backscatter scanner than they do while standing in line waiting for the scan itself.

Measurements made on two scanners in active use at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), as well as seven other scanners not in active use at the time of measurement, found that full-body scanners deliver a radiation dose equivalent to what a standard man receives every 1.8 minutes on the ground, or every 12 seconds during an airplane flight.

Put another way, an individual would have to receive more than 22,500 scans in a year to reach the standard maximum safe yearly dose determined by the American National Standards Institute and the Health Physics Society, according to AAPM Report No. 217, "Radiation Dose from Airport Scanners."

"This report represents a wholly independent review of the X-ray scatter airport scanners and is the first we know of to look at multiple scanners including those in actual airport use," said Christopher Cagnon, PhD, DABR, the chief of radiology physics at UCLA Medical Center and one of the lead authors of the new report. "We think the most important single take-away point for concerned passengers is to keep an appropriate perspective: the effective radiation dose received by a passenger during screening is comparable to what that same passenger will receive in 12 seconds during the flight itself or from two minutes of natural radiation exposure."

Sources of Radiation

Natural sources of radiation on the ground include terrestrial sources such as radon in the air, cosmic radiation from space, and even the decay of potassium in the human body. Radiation doses are greater in the air because at cruising altitude, there is less atmosphere to shield passengers and crew from cosmic radiation.

To compare naturally occurring radiation with that emitted by airport scanners, AAPM convened a volunteer task force composed of medical physicists from the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, Davis who donated their time. They measured the radiation delivered by Rapiscan Secure 1000 SP backscatter X-ray scanners, a model once commonly used in American airports but which the Transportation Security Administration has largely pulled from major airports due to passenger concerns over privacy.

The task force found that for a standard man -- approximately 178.6 cm (5'10") tall and 73.2 kg (161.4 pounds) -- one full-body scan delivered approximately 11.1 nanosieverts of radiation. (The "Sievert" is a common unit of radiation dose, and one "nanosievert" is one billionth of a sievert.)

On the ground, the same man receives approximately 3.11 millisieverts of radiation per year -- more than 10,000 times as much. The task force also found that the radiation dose a passenger receives during an average 2.84-hour plane flight -- 9.4 microsieverts -- is nearly 1,000 times greater than the dose delivered by one full-body scan.

"To our knowledge, all prior studies were contracted by the government and looked at a single scanner that was either of an older model or mocked up from component parts," Cagnon said. "A significant difference in our work is we were able to look at multiple working scanners both in the factory and in an international airport."

The AAPM report found that the LAX scanners emitted doses that were even lower than reported in the government contracted studies. The report also examines dose to skin and other superficial organs. To avoid any appearance of conflict of interest, this work was performed by independent physics experts volunteering their expertise, Cagnon added.

Full report: http://www.aapm.org/pubs/reports/RPT_217.pdf

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/sHbUPfq9ftA/130627151642.htm

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Calgary Humane Society deals with rush of animals ... - Metro News

Staff at the Calgary Humane Society are asking people to hold off on animal surrenders as they care for the pets of dozens of owners displaced by flooding in the city.

Spokesperson Christy Thompson said the 615 furry residents at the organization?s shelter presently puts it near ? or at ? capacity.

?We are trying to manage the space we have right now,? she said. ?We are community-driven, we are looking at community need right now and the need for us is to be emergency boarding.?

Even this week, Thompson said flood victims have continued to drop their pets at the shelter as they are given uncertain timelines on when they can return home.

She said staff hope the capacity issue doesn?t last for long.

?We?re hoping within a week we?ll have a really good idea of where we stand,? Thompson said.

The society is offering up support packs for flood victims who continue to care for their pets that include blankets, food and other essential items.

For more information, head to calgaryhumane.ca.

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Source: http://metronews.ca/news/calgary/720725/calgary-humane-society-deals-with-rush-of-animals-after-flooding/

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NIH to retire most chimps from medical research

FILE - This Feb. 19, 2013 file photo shows two chimps walking together at Chimp Haven in Keithville, La. The government is about to retire most of the chimpanzees who?ve spent their lives in U.S. research labs. The National Institutes of Health said Wednesday that it will retire about 310 chimps from medical research over the next few years, saying humans? closest relatives ?deserve special respect.?The agency will keep only 50 other chimps essentially on retainer _ available if needed for crucial medical studies that could be performed no other way. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

FILE - This Feb. 19, 2013 file photo shows two chimps walking together at Chimp Haven in Keithville, La. The government is about to retire most of the chimpanzees who?ve spent their lives in U.S. research labs. The National Institutes of Health said Wednesday that it will retire about 310 chimps from medical research over the next few years, saying humans? closest relatives ?deserve special respect.?The agency will keep only 50 other chimps essentially on retainer _ available if needed for crucial medical studies that could be performed no other way. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

(AP) ? It's official: The National Institutes of Health plans to end most use of chimpanzees in government medical research, saying humans' closest relatives "deserve special respect."

The NIH announced Wednesday that it will retire about 310 government-owned chimpanzees from research over the next few years, and keep only 50 others essentially on retainer ? available if needed for crucial medical studies that could be performed no other way.

"These amazing animals have taught us a great deal already," said NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins. He said the decision helps usher in "a compassionate era."

The NIH's decision was long expected, after the prestigious Institute of Medicine declared in 2011 that nearly all use of chimps for invasive medical research no longer can be justified. Much of the rest of the world already had ended such research with this species that is so like us.

Any future biomedical research funded by the NIH with chimps, government-owned or not, would be allowed only under strict conditions after review by a special advisory board. In five years, the NIH will reassess if even that group of 50 government-owned apes still is needed for science.

"This is an historic moment and major turning point for chimpanzees in laboratories, some who have been languishing in concrete housing for over 50 years," said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States. "It is crucial now to ensure that the release of hundreds of chimpanzees to sanctuary becomes a reality."

What's unclear is exactly where the retiring chimps, which have spent their lives in research facilities around the country, now will spend their final years. NIH said they could eventually join more than 150 other chimps already in the national sanctuary system operated by Chimp Haven in northwest Louisiana. In that habitat, the chimps can socialize at will, climb trees and explore different play areas.

But NIH officials said currently there's not enough space to handle all of the 310 destined for retirement. They're exploring additional locations, and noted that some research facilities that currently house government-owned chimps have habitats similar to the sanctuary system.

The other hurdle is money: Congress limited how much the NIH can spend on caring for chimps in the sanctuary system. Negotiations are under way to shift money the agency has spent housing the animals in research facilities toward supporting their retirement.

"Everybody should understand this is not something that is going to happen quickly," Collins cautioned.

One chimp center, the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, said keeping just 50 of the animals for ongoing research isn't enough and could hamper efforts to fight not just human illnesses but diseases that kill apes, too.

Moreover, moving retired chimpanzees to the federal sanctuary "would take them away from their caregivers, many of whom they have known all of their lives," said an institute statement that argued the animals would fare better if they stayed put.

The NIH's decision came two weeks after the Fish and Wildlife Service called for protection of all chimpanzees as endangered. Until now there was a "split listing" that labeled wild chimps as endangered but those in captivity as threatened, a status that offers less protection.

That move also would affect any future use of chimps in medical research, and NIH said it would work with its government counterpart to ensure compliance.

Chimps rarely have been used for drug testing or other invasive research in recent years; studies of chimp behavior or genetics are a bit more common. Of nine biomedical projects under way, the NIH said six would be ended early. Of another 13 behavioral or genetic studies involving chimps, five would be ended early. NIH would not identify the projects, but Collins said potential future need for chimps could be in creating a vaccine against hepatitis C.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2013-06-26-Chimp%20Research/id-1265365804014cb4bf1aff2e1afdf3c4

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

SK Telecom launches the world's first LTE-Advanced network, and the Galaxy S4 LTE-A

SK Telecom launches the world's first LTEAdvanced network, and the Galaxy S4 LTEA

Just days after an LTE-Advanced variant of Samsung's Galaxy S 4 leaked, Korean carrier SK Telecom has officially announced it's launching the world's first LTE-Advanced wireless network. The Galaxy S4 LTE-A is also official (in red or blue) as the first device able to take advantage of the new technology for even faster data transmission speeds. According to the press release, SK Telecom plans to have as many as seven LTE-A devices available by the end of the year, all capable of up to 150Mbps. While SK Telecom is using Carrier Aggregation and Coordinated Multi Point technology to improve speeds right now, it will add Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination in 2014 to go even faster. After that, it suggest carrier aggregation will improve to support higher speeds and faster uploads in subsequent years.

To take advantage of the higher speeds, SK Telecom's Btv IPTV service will begin offering 1080p video streaming in early July. That will be accompanied by enhanced multiview baseball broadcasts, more free videos, an HD video shopping service with six channels on one screen in August and the addition of FLAC audio files via its music package. Right now, the company has Seoul covered in LTE-A, and plans to eventually offer it in 84 cities, all at the same price as existing LTE service. Check after the break for the press release with all the details, plus video of a speed test.

Update: We've just come across another juicy tidbit that makes the Galaxy S4 LTE-A all the more worthwhile... it'll ship with a Snapdragon 800 SoC that contains a 2.3GHz quad-core CPU. It goes without saying that this phone will be speedy on all angles.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/25/sk-telecom-lte-advanced-galaxy-s-4/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Obama to lay out three-part plan for addressing climate change (cbsnews)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/315057498?client_source=feed&format=rss

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The Daily Roundup for 06.25.2013

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

DNP The Daily RoundUp

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/25/the-daily-roundup-for-06-25-2013/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Dems unhappy IRS screened for progressives too

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Democrats are unhappy that newly revealed Internal Revenue Service documents show the agency screened for progressive groups seeking tax-exempt status, not just the tea party organizations for which the IRS was already under fire.

Democrats also want to know why the Treasury Department inspector general who investigated IRS targeting of conservative groups didn't mention that terms like "Progressives" and "Healthcare legislation" were on the same lists agency workers used to find applications to review closely.

"The Inspector General seriously erred in not making clear in both the audit report and his testimony on this matter that 'Tea Party' and 'Progressives' were included" in the lists IRS workers used to screen applications, Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., wrote Monday in a memo his aides distributed. Levin is the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee.

That Treasury investigator, J. Russell George, released a report in May detailing "inappropriate criteria" the IRS used to single out conservative groups for intensified treatment, and has testified to congressional committees several times. He never affirmed that progressive groups were sought out as well, although he cautioned lawmakers that he recently had found lists that raised concerns about other "political factors" he did not specify.

Levin's complaint came hours after Danny Werfel, the new IRS chief, told reporters that his agency's screening of groups seeking tax-exempt status was broader and lasted longer than has been previously disclosed.

In a conference call with reporters, Werfel said that after becoming acting IRS chief last month, he discovered "inappropriate criteria that was in use" and ordered the practice halted immediately. Previously, investigators have said agency officials ended the targeting of conservative groups in May 2012 ? not revealing that screening for other political viewpoints had continued.

Werfel did not specify what terms were on the lists. But later Monday, Levin's Democratic staff released 15 lists that IRS screeners used to find groups that merited close attention, and lists from April 2013 included the terms "Paying National Debt" and "Green Energy Organizations."

Those lists, which changed over time and were dated between August 2010 and April 2013, also included the terms "Progressive" and "Tea Party" as well as "Medical Marijuana," ''Occupied Territory Advocacy," ''Healthcare legislation," ''Newspaper Entities" and "Paying National Debt." The lists ranged from 11 pages to 17 pages and were heavily blacked out to protect sensitive taxpayer information.

Neither the 15 IRS lists released by Democrats nor a separate IRS document obtained by The Associated Press addressed how many progressive groups received close scrutiny or how the agency treated their requests. Dozens of conservative groups saw their applications experience lengthy delays, and they received unusually intrusive questions about their donors and other details that agency officials have conceded were inappropriate.

A statement by the GOP staff of House Ways and Means said, "It is one thing to flag a group, it is quite another to repeatedly target and abuse conservative groups."

The term "Tea Party" appeared on the earliest IRS lists, though by 2012 it was replaced by more generic descriptions of political activity. IRS regulations allow it to grant tax-exempt status to groups mostly engaged in "social welfare," but not if participation in political election campaigns becomes their "primary" activity ? guidelines that agency officials concede can be vague and confusing.

Werfel ordered a halt in the use of spreadsheets listing the terms ? called BOLO lists for "be on the lookout for" ? on June 12 and formalized their suspension with a June 20 written order, according to the IRS document obtained by the AP.

That document also referred to terms including "Israel" and "Occupy" as being on the lists. Those terms did not appear on the lists released by Ways and Means Democrats.

The document obtained by the AP blamed the continued use of inappropriate criteria by screeners on "a lapse in judgment" by the agency's former top officials.

In a letter to George he wrote Monday, Levin asked him to describe why his May report omitted mentioning that "Progressives" appeared on the IRS lists.

On Monday, Karen Kraushaar, a spokeswoman for the inspector general, said their May audit focused on terms the IRS used to pick cases to be studied for political campaign activity, which might disqualify a group from tax-exempt status. Other terms were listed for other reasons, such as helping screeners find possible cases of fraud, she said.

Kraushaar said the inspector general was reviewing whether other criteria used by IRS officials led to expanded scrutiny for some groups "and why these criteria were implemented."

Werfel's remarks came as he released an 83-page examination he has conducted of his embattled agency. The conclusions, which Werfel cautioned were preliminary, so far have found there was "insufficient action" by IRS managers to prevent and disclose the problems but no specific cases of misconduct.

"We have not found evidence of intentional wrongdoing by anyone in the IRS or involvement in these matters by anyone outside the IRS," he told reporters.

Werfel's report describes new procedures aimed at preventing unfair treatment of taxpayers. They include a fast-track process for some groups seeking tax-exempt status and a new board that will recommend any additional personnel moves "to hold accountable those responsible" for the targeting of conservative groups.

The top five people in the agency responsible for the tax-exempt status of organizations have already been removed, including the former acting commissioner, Steven Miller, whom President Barack Obama replaced with Werfel.

Werfel's comments and report drew negative reviews from one of the IRS' chief critics in Congress, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

"As investigations by Congress and the Justice Department are still ongoing, Mr. Werfel's assertion that he has found no evidence that anyone at IRS intentionally did anything wrong can only be called premature," Issa said.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., whose panel is also investigating the agency, said the IRS "still needs to provide clear answers to the most significant questions ? who started this practice, why was it allowed to continue for so long, and how widespread was it?"

Werfel, initially named the IRS' acting commissioner, is now the agency's deputy principal commissioner because federal law limits the time an agency can be led by an acting official.

___

Associated Press writers Stephen Ohlemacher and Henry C. Jackson contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dems-unhappy-irs-screened-progressives-too-071908269.html

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Apple reportedly notifying customers of in-app purchase settlement details

Customers whose kids racked up in-app purchase bills without their knowledge can reportedly now begin to seek some form of compensation. An email from the ?Apple In-App Purchase Litigation Administrator? has begun to hit inboxes, and 9to5Mac managed to get hold of a copy:

If your iTunes account was charged for an in-app purchase made by a minor in a game app without your knowledge or permission, you could be entitled to benefits under a class action settlement.

The parties have reached a settlement in a consolidated class action lawsuit against Apple Inc. (?Apple?) regarding in-app purchases of game currency charged by minors to an iTunes account without the account holder?s knowledge or permission. If the settlement is court-approved, your rights may be affected. The United States District Court for the Northern District of California authorized this notice. The Court will have a hearing to consider whether to approve the settlement so that the benefits may be paid. This summary provides basic information about the settlement.

Those who racked up $30 or less will receive a $5 iTunes gift card as compensation, but those who exceeded that may end up receiving a cash reimbursement. Any iMore readers received the same email? Shout out in the comments!

Source: 9to5Mac

    


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/rLLhAROI2Gk/story01.htm

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Firefox 22 brings OdinMonkey for web gaming, WebRTC for chat ...

firefox-22-bananabread

Mozilla has released Firefox 22, and there are a pair of under-the-hood changes that make the new version a pretty big deal. In addition to landing full-blown WebRTC support, Firefox 22 also includes the awesome OdinMonkey JavaScript optimizer.

With OdinMonkey on board, Firefox users around the globe now have built-in support for web-based apps and games that rival their native counterparts. It?s somewhat similar to Chrome?s Native Client, but OdinMonkey focuses on code compiled using Emscripten. The result is blazing fast performance that makes you forget you?re using a browser.

Sceptical? Try out Mozilla?s Bananabread demo. The 3D world looks fantastic, and the game runs well on fairly modest hardware.

There may not be much to play right now, but game developers will follow soon enough. Mozilla and Epic have already laid the groundwork, by?porting the Unreal 3 engine. That should make it simple enough for games like Infinty Blade and Mass Effect to find their way to your browser.

You?ll still need ?a gaming-ready PC to play them, of course. Just because bigger, better games are coming to your browser doesn?t mean the system requirements will be dropping. That?s easy enough to see in the Bananabread demo. It runs much better on my ballsy workstation than my last-gen Toshiba laptop.

OdinMonkey isn?t just about games, of course. It makes Firefox 22 capable of running ported apps, too, and they should arrive in the near future. As the retail launch of Firefox OS approaches and the Firefox Marketplace fills up, Mozilla?s faithful will have plenty of high-performance apps to pick from.

Where does WebRTC fit in? Communication will no doubt play an important role in many of these apps and games. WebRTC provides a fully open platform that developers can use to deliver experiences like Skype and Ventrilo within their apps.

With these additions, Firefox is better equipped than ever to challenge Chrome for the web app and gaming performance crown. Of course, the Foundation would tell you that it?s not about beating its competitors. It?s about pushing the web forward and providing the best experience possible to Firefox users.

Source: http://www.geek.com/apps/firefox-22-brings-odinmonkey-for-web-gaming-webrtc-for-chat-1560122/

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Afghan Taliban attack in Kabul throws peace talks into further doubt

By Mirwais Harooni and Hamid Shalizi

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban militants attacked key buildings near Afghanistan's presidential palace and the U.S. CIA headquarters in Kabul, a brazen assault that could derail attempts for peace talks to end 12 years of war.

The Taliban, who have said they are willing to take part in talks with the United States and Afghan President Hamid Karzai's administration, said they launched the early morning assault, which triggered a 90-minute firefight.

A U.S. envoy was in Kabul on Tuesday to try to smooth the way forward for the stalled talks in the Gulf state of Qatar ahead of the pullout from Afghanistan of most of the NATO-led troops next year. He had been expected to meet reporters at the U.S. Embassy, but the conference was called off.

Karzai was also due to attend, but his whereabouts were not known. A palace official said he was safe.

A Reuters reporter at the palace said the attack began soon after 6.30 a.m. (10:00 p.m. EDT) when at least one man opened fire with an automatic rifle close to a gate to the palace in central Shash Darak district. The fighting was over before 8 a.m.

Reporters at the palace gates for security checks took cover when the firing started.

A senior government official told Reuters four or five attackers had used fake identify papers to try to make their way through security gates in the Shash Darak district, which leads to Kabul's most tightly guarded areas.

One car made it through, but a second vehicle was stopped and those inside began shooting. Grenades were thrown.

The area is home to the presidential palace compound, the Ministry of Defense and an annexe of the U.S. embassy at the old Ariana Hotel. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's Afghanistan station is based there.

Afghan forces and U.S. servicemen returned fire and explosions resounded through the area. Children walking to school were caught in the shooting, but escaped serious injury.

A thick plume of smoke was seen rising from the Ariana at the height of the exchanges.

One of the attackers was killed when he detonated a bomb on his body, the government official said, and three or four were killed by security forces. At least two Afghan security guards were killed.

The U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Jim Cunningham, condemned the attack and called on the Taliban to once again commit to the nascent peace process in Doha.

"We remain steadfast in supporting the Afghan government and people against the scourge of terrorism and the violence directed against them," he said.

REJUVENATING PEACE TALKS

U.S. officials have been trying to rejuvenate peace talks in Qatar, thrown off course after rows last week over the opening there of a Taliban office.

The U.S. envoy appointed to help Kabul pursue peace with the Taliban, James Dobbins, arrived on Monday and met Karzai and the Afghan body intended to negotiate with the insurgents.

He told reporters that Washington was trying to determine if the Taliban were willing to engage in talks.

In claiming responsibility for the attack, the Taliban said it had targeted the presidential palace, the CIA office and the Defense ministry.

But Afghan security officials told Reuters they believed it had been carried out by the Taliban-linked Haqqani Network. The Haqqani Network is accused of masterminding high-profile attacks in Kabul and is believed to have close links to al Qaeda.

Adela Raz, a spokeswoman for Karzai, dismissed the suggestion that the palace had been under threat, saying any shooting had taken place far from the compound's walls.

The Defense ministry said the assault had been aimed at the Ariana.

In southern Afghanistan, a roadside bomb killed eight women, two children and an elderly man travelling in a minivan in southern Kandahar province on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Kandahar government said.

(U.S. envoy had been due to meet reporters at embassy, not at the palace, paragraph 3)

(Additional reporting by Dylan Welch; Writing by Dylan Welch; Editing by Ron Popeski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gunmen-attack-afghan-presidential-palace-reuters-witnesses-022942464.html

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Monday, June 17, 2013

How to move giant magnet from New York to Chicago (+video)

This 50-foot-wide magnet is going nowhere fast: It will take more than a month for scientists to roll the magnet across land and sea to its new home.

By Elizabeth Barber,?Contributor / June 17, 2013

This June photo provided by Brookhaven National Laboratory shows a red stabilizing apparatus that will be used to transport a 50-foot-wide electromagnet storage ring, at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y., on eastern Long Island.

Brookhaven National Laboratory/AP

Enlarge

Compared to ants, we humans have a ways to go in the science of moving large objects.?

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But we're getting better at it. We've shown we can safely cart 165,000-pound space shuttles from hangars to launch sites to an L.A. museum. We're pretty good at hoisting steel girders to the top of skyscrapers and grand pianos into second-story apartments.

The latest test: a 15-ton magnet.?

Long Island scientists will on Saturday begin to move a 50-foot-wide, 15-ton electromagnet about 3,200 miles to Chicago, in what is expected to be a more than month-long trip, according to? Brookhaven National Laboratory, the magnet's original home in Long Island, where it was built in the 1990s.

The magnet is being transported to Illinois?s US Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, where scientists from 26 institutions worldwide will use it for a new experiment called Muon g-2 that will study muons, subatomic particles that exist for just 2.2 millionths of a second.

"The transport of the ring from Brookhaven to Fermilab is a great example of the cooperation that exists between national laboratories," said James Siegrist, associate director of science for high-energy physics with the U.S. Department of Energy, in a press release. "The Muon g-2 experiment is an important component of the future of particle physics in the United States."

Moving a 15-ton anything is no easy task, and moving a 15-ton magnet is more difficult still, as the magnet can?t be taken apart or twisted more than 1/8th of an inch without ruining the superconducting coils inside and making the magnet ? and the long, expensive move ? useless. That means the super magnet must be slowly rolled across the eastern United States, aboard a truck and barge specially designed for the job.

The move is expected to cost some $3 million ? a sum substantially less than the $30 million it would cost to build a new electromagnet.

"It costs about 10 times less to move the magnet from Brookhaven to Illinois than it would to build a new one," said Lee Roberts of Boston University, spokesperson for the Muon g-2 experiment, in a press release. "So that's what we're going to do. It's an enormous effort from all sides, but it will be worth it."?

The truck, which looks something like a U.F.O. painted Ferrari red, will be guarded with rolling barricades as it chugs across land and will travel mostly at night at no more than 10 miles an hour.

No word yet on whether or not the truck will be repurposed as a transportation option for members of the slow-travel, slow-food movement.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/VCitXnCsInE/How-to-move-giant-magnet-from-New-York-to-Chicago-video

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Polymer-coated catalyst protects 'artificial leaf'

June 17, 2013 ? Due to the fluctuating availability of solar energy, storage solutions are urgently needed. One option is to use the electrical energy generated inside solar cells to split water by means of electrolysis, in the process yielding hydrogen that can be used for a storable fuel. Researchers at the HZB Institute for Solar Fuels have modified so called superstrate solar cells with their highly efficient architecture in order to obtain hydrogen from water with the help of suitable catalysts. This type of cell works something like an "artificial leaf." But the solar cell rapidly corrodes when placed in the aqueous electrolyte solution.

Now, Ph.D. student Diana Stellmach has found a way to prevent corrosion by embedding the catalysts in an electrically conducting polymer and then mounting them onto the solar cell's two contact surfaces, making her the first scientist in all of Europe to have come up with this solution. As a result, the cell's sensitive contacts are sealed to prevent corrosion with a stable yield of approx. 3.7 percent sunlight.

Hydrogen stores chemical energy and is highly versatile in terms of its applicability potential. The gas can be converted into fuels like methane as well as methanol or it can generate electricity directly inside fuel cells. Hydrogen can be produced through the electrolytic splitting of water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen by using two electrodes that are coated with suitable catalysts and between which a minimum 1.23 volt tension is generated. The production of hydrogen only becomes interesting if solar energy can be used to produce it. Because that would solve two problems at once: On sunny days, excess electricity could yield hydrogen, which would be available for fuel or to generate electricity at a later point like at night or on days that are overcast.

New approach with complex thin film technologies

At the Helmholtz Centre Berlin for Materials and Energy (HZB) Institute for Solar Fuels, researchers are working on new approaches to realizing this goal. They are using photovoltaic structures made of multiple ultrathin layers of silicon that are custom-made by the Photovoltaic Competence Centre Berlin (PVcomB), another of the HZB's institutes. Since the cell consists of a single -- albeit complex -- "block," this is known as a monolithic approach. At the Institute for Solar Fuels, the cell's electrical contact surfaces are coated with special catalysts for splitting water. If this cell is placed in dilute sulphuric acid and irradiated with sun-like light, a tension is produced at the contacts that can be used to split water. During this process, it is the catalysts, which speed up the reactions at the contacts, that are critically important.

Protection against corrosion

The PVcomB photovoltaic cells' main advantage is their "superstrate architecture": Light enters through the transparent front contact, which is deposited on the carrier glass; there is no opacity due to catalysts being mounted onto the cells, because they are located on the cell's back side and are in contact with the water/acid mixture. This mixture is aggressive, that is to say, it is corrosive, so much so that Diana Stellmach had to first replace the usual zinc oxide silver back contact with a titanium coat approximately 400 nanometers thick. In a second step, she developed a solution to simultaneously protect the cell against corrosion with the mounting of the catalyst: She mixed nanoparticles of RuO2 with a conducting polymer (PEDOT:PSS) and applied this mixture to the cell's back side contact to act as a catalyst for the production of oxygen. Similarly, platinum nanoparticles, the sites of hydrogen production, were applied to the front contact.

Stable H2-Production

In all, the configuration achieved a degree of efficacy of 3.7 percent and was stable over a minimum 18 hours. "This way, Ms. Stellmach is the first ever scientist anywhere in Europe to have realized this kind of water-splitting solar cell structure," explains Prof. Dr. Sebastian Fiechter. And just maybe anywhere in the World, as photovoltaic membranes with different architectures have proved far less stable.

Yet the fact remains that catalysts like platinum and RuO2 are rather expensive and will ultimately have to give way to less costly types of materials. Diana Stellmach is already working on that as well; she is currently in the process of developing carbon nanorods that are coated with layers of molybdenum sulphide and which serve as catalysts for hydrogen production.

Watch the "artificial leaf" in action: http://www.helmholtz-berlin.de/aktuell/pr/mediathek/video/energieversorgung/superstratzelle_de.html

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/biochemistry/~3/z8mBjgudw-o/130617111251.htm

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