dizzy rafaelita: March 2013

Monday, March 18, 2013

Life after Higgs boson: What's next for the world's largest atom smasher?

It's a Higgs boson!! Now what? After confirming that the particle discovered last July really is a Higgs boson, the Large Hadron Collider is ready to look for other universes, figure out dark matter, recreate the Big Bang, or find something totally unexpected.

By Stephanie Pappas,?LiveScience Senior Writer / March 14, 2013

The Large Hadron Collider, in its underground tunnel beneath France and Switzerland, found the data that confirms what LHC scientists suspected last July: They found a Higgs boson.

Martial Trezzini / Keystone / AP / File

Enlarge

Less than five years after it went live, the Large Hadron Collider has confirmed the existence of a Higgs boson, the particle which may explain how other particles get their mass.

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The confirmation comes today (March 14), after a July 2012 announcement of the elementary particle's discovery. At the time, researchers strongly suspected they'd found a Higgs, but needed to collect more data. Since then, they've more than doubled the amount of data they have on the particle using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 17-mille-long (27 kilometers) underground ring on the French-Swiss border where protons zing around at near the speed of light.

With a Higgs boson discovered, what more is there for this enormous and unusual piece of machinery to do? Lots, according to physicists.

For one thing, scientists are still working out whether the Higgs boson they've discovered fits the Standard Model of physics or if it better fits another theory. (So far, the Standard Model appears to be the winning candidate.)

And the hunt for the Higgs boson is just one of the ongoing projects at the particle accelerator. Other projects have such humble goals as explaining dark matter, revealing the symmetries of the universe and even looking for new dimensions of space, according to the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.?

"It really is a machine that's capable of going to higher energies, maybe ultimately to a factor of seven times higher energy," said Peter Woit, a physicist at Columbia University. "Which means going to distances seven times smaller and basically looking for anything you can find."

Here are the major projects ongoing at the LHC:

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment @ CERN): By smashing particles together, scientists can recreate the first few milliseconds after the Big Bang, illuminating the early history of the universe. A detector 52 feet (16 meters) high and 85 feet (261 m) long enables scientists to study what's known as quark-gluon plasma. The researchers collide heavy ions, liberating their quarks and gluons (quarks are the constituent part of protons, which are held together by gluons). It takes a machine like the LHC to separate these atomic particles and study them individually.

ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC Apparatus): This is the experiment that observed a Higgs in July. But ATLAS's work isn't done. The LHC, and the ATLAS detector, are currently in shutdown mode, preparing for an energy increase. When LHC starts up again after 2013, the atom smasher will be able to fling protons at each other at 14 teraelectronvolts (TeV), double its previous 7 TeV.

ATLAS has a broad mission. It's a tool that can search for extra dimensions of space and supersymmetry, the idea that every known particle has a "superpartner particle," an important component of string theory. Supersymmetry would, in turn, help elucidate dark energy, which may exist in the vacuum of space and be responsible for the acceleration of the universe's expansion. ATLAS is also part of the search for dark matter, a mysterious form of matter that may make up more than 95 percent of the universe's total matter density, but which is virtually unknown. [Whoa! The Coolest Little Particles in Nature]

CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid): Like ATLAS, CMS is a jack-of-all trades. The detector is meant to explore the same questions about the origins of the universe and the fundamentals of matter.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/ZOkMgPRP-AU/Life-after-Higgs-boson-What-s-next-for-the-world-s-largest-atom-smasher

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Sunday, March 17, 2013

China, US: Stop hacking accusations, says official

Terril Yue Jones , Reuters ? ? ? 9 hrs.

BEIJING ? China and the United States should avoid "groundless accusations" against each other about cyber security and hacking into each other's computer systems, newly installed Premier Li Keqiang said on Sunday.

Li's comments, at the close of China's annual meeting of parliament and a day after he assumed the premiership, come amid a war of words between Beijing and Washington over cyber attacks and national security.

A U.S. computer security company said last month that a secretive Chinese military unit was likely behind a series of hacking attacks mostly targeting the United States.

Responding to a reporter at a news conference, Li said he "sensed the presumption of guilt" in the question.

"I think we should not make groundless accusations against each other, and spend more time doing practical things that will contribute to cyber security," Li said.

"This is a worldwide problem. In fact, China itself is a main target of such attacks," he said. "China does not support, indeed we are opposed to, such activities."

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will press China to investigate and stop cyber attacks on U.S. companies and other entities when he visit China this week, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.

President Barack Obama also raised U.S. concerns about computer hacking in a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, the same day Xi took office.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/china-us-should-stop-war-words-hacking-says-new-chinese-1C8912386

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Automate Your Vegetable Garden with these Self-Watering Planters

Automate Your Vegetable Garden with these Self-Watering Planters We've shown you how to make self-watering planter boxes with plastic storage containers, but if you want something a little more permanent for your backyard, The Family Handyman has a great design for a self-watering planter.

This build is fairly complex, but the resulting planters are attractive enough to show off in your yard, and can keep plants hydrated for weeks at a time without adding water. The design utilizes porous plastic drainage tubes wrapped in fabric to soak the soil and let your herbs and vegetables sip water as needed. If you're interested in building one of your own, be sure to check out the guide on The Family Handyman.

Build Your Own Self-Watering Planter | The Family Handyman

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/ZZmaXZfPjHg/automate-your-vegetable-garden-with-these-self+watering-planters

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Saturday, March 16, 2013

25 Famous Toys We Took to Outer Space

NASA recently released a few photos of the Expedition 34 crew aboard the International Space Station. Sitting inconspicuously in the corner of one of the pictures was Gort, the Earth-murdering robot from the 1951 classic The Day the Earth Stood Still. So we decided to sift through the vast archives of space exploration looking for other toys in space. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/qoPhOCl_JSQ/these-are-the-most-famous-toys-in-space

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Carnival returns to profit; travelers fear mishaps

MIAMI (AP) ? The world's largest cruise line has suffered through a series of high-profile mishaps. Yet passengers continue to book vacations thanks to discounts, albeit at a slower pace.

The company offered more sales to help attract passengers after an engine fire last month crippled the Carnival Triumph, leaving 4,200 people stranded for five days without working toilets or power. This week, two more of its ships had mechanical problems, ruining the vacations of thousands of more travelers.

Carnival Corp., earned $37 million, or 5 cents per share, in its first quarter. That compares with a loss of $139 million, or 18 cents per share, a year earlier. But its forecast for the year came in below analyst's predictions. Its shares fell more than 3 percent in morning trading.

On Thursday, the company ended the voyage of the Carnival Dream after the ship's backup emergency diesel generator failed, causing problems with elevators and toilets. Instead of continuing back to Florida, Carnival was forced to charter airplanes to fly home the ship's 4,300 passengers. The Dream's next trip, which was supposed to start Sunday, was also canceled. All of the passengers on that voyage will receive a refund for the cruise and airfare.

Late Thursday, the company announced another ship ? the Legend ? was also having mechanical problems and would skip its stop at the Cayman Islands, heading straight to its final port in Tampa, Fla. instead.

Vacationers have been wary about booking cruises ever since the Costa Concordia ? also owned by Carnival ? sank off the coast of Italy in January 2012. Passengers have returned to the seas, but only thanks to deep discounts.

Following the Triumph mishap, the cruise line is doing an assessment of emergency power and redundancies across its entire fleet, Howard S. Frank, Carnival's chief operating officer, told analysts during a conference call Friday. There is no estimate to the cost of improvements, which will take some time to carry out. "I don't see it as being enormous," Frank said.

The company refused to tell analysts how much it spent each year on safety and training.

In its earnings release Friday, the Miami-based company said advance bookings for 2013 are behind the same point a year earlier. The company also blamed Europe's economic problems for its inability to raise prices. North American prices are up slightly but those in Europe and Asia are lagging behind. Passengers in Europe are booking vacations much closer to the date of departure.

Asked if they would like to share how deep the discounts have been for the various lines, Carnival executives replied, "Not particularly."

Carnival runs cruises under 10 brands including Holland America, Princess, Cunard and Seabourn.

For the quarter that ended Feb. 28, adjusted earnings were 8 cents per share. Analysts had expected 3 cents per share. Revenue rose slightly to $3.59 billion. Analysts expected $3.64 billion.

The best thing going for Carnival right now is declining fuel prices.

The cruise line paid $677 per metric ton for fuel in the first quarter, down 4 percent from the same period last year. That savings alone accounted for 3 cents per share.

However, it is the full-year outlook that worries Wall Street.

Carnival had predicted in December that revenue would rise in 2013 by 1 to 2 percent. On Friday, it said that is now expects revenue to be flat.

Other cruise lines have also been hurt, mainly because of the lagging European economy. Summer Mediterranean cruises favored by Italians and Spaniards are suffering due to those countries economic woes. Last month, Royal Caribbean, the world's second-largest cruise line wrote down $413.9 million due to a substantial drop in bookings and prices in Spain following the government's austerity measures there. Royal Caribbean also blamed residual fears from the Costa Concordia disaster for a drop in European bookings.

Carnival's stock was down $1.28, or 3.6 percent, to $34.45 in morning trading.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-15-US-Earns-Carnival/id-63e8847745754e45aadedb78c8b8f791

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Egypt's Islamists Warn Giving Women Some Rights Could Destroy ...

Fear that the Freedom and Justice Party?s (FJP) victory in Egypt would lead to a move toward a harsh religious legal system were initially rejected but seem to have borne some fruit today, with the party condemning the UN declaration on women?s rights and promising to oppose the resolution.

In the statement, the FJP claims that the declaration would destroy the family and lead to a complete disintegration of society insisting full equality would mean allowing women to marry non-Muslims and would mean a de facto end to polygamy.

It further frets that allowing women to work and travel without the permission of their husbands would return society to a state of ?pre-Islamic ignorance,? demanding the world reject the plan as ?subversive.?

The declaration has several opponents worldwide, with Egypt?s government joining Iran?s, as well as the Russians and the Vatican, all with various objections centering to around gender equality or legalizing the use of contraceptives.

Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz

Source: http://news.antiwar.com/2013/03/15/egypts-islamists-warn-giving-women-some-rights-could-destroy-society/

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Rand Paul on McCain: 'The GOP of old has grown stale and moss-covered' (Washington Post)

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Friday, March 15, 2013

Insurance Industry Ill-Prepared for Climate Change Risks and Impacts

Insurance companies need to prepare for climate change risks Eleven extreme weather events took place in the US in 2012. Each left at least $1 billion in damages in their wake. Besides the cost in human life, Superstorm Sandy left behind some $50 billion in economic losses, along with insured losses by property & casulty (P&C) insurers in the tens of billions of dollars.

US insurance companies are well aware of the rising costs of increasingly frequent and more intense extreme weather events, as well as those associated with less sudden and intense shifts in weather patterns and climate. Yet most are ill-prepared and ?only just beginning to address the effects climate change may have on their businesses,? according to a new report from Ceres, a coalition of investors, companies and public interest groups advocating from sustainability leadership.

?Climate change is potentially a serious financial threat to the insurance industry, and needs to be on insurers? and regulators? radar,? Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, a leading advocate for stronger climate risk disclosure and action by insurance companies, was quoted in a Ceres press release. ?If insurance is to remain available and affordable, companies will need to adapt. The last thing we want to see are unprepared companies simply pulling out of markets or seeking unreasonable rate hikes.?

Climate change and the US insurance industry

Insurance is vital to the smooth functioning of the economy. Extreme weather events such as Superstorm Sandy and a second consecutive year of widespread drought have big impacts on and ramifications for insurers, as do less abrupt and dramatic shifts in weather and climate.

Yet of 184 insurance company disclosures Ceres reviewed for ?Insurer Climate Risk Disclosure Survery: 2012 Findings & Recommendations,? ?only 23 in the property and casualty (P&C), life and annuity, and health insurance sectors of the industry have comprehensive strategies in place to deal with the impacts and effects of climate change.

?Every segment of the insurance industry faces climate risks, yet the industry?s response has been highly uneven,? Ceres president Mindy Lubber was quoted in a press release.

?The implications of this are profound because the insurance sector is a key driver of the economy. If climate change undermines the future availability of insurance products and risk management services 2012 proved to be the warmest year on record in the lower 48 US states, as well as ranking second in terms of the number of extreme weather events. in major markets throughout the US, it threatens the economy and taxpayers as well.?

Among Ceres? key findings:

The quality of overall disclosure and performance by the 184 insurers was low ? the average score, on a scale developed by Ceres, was 7.3 points out of a possible 50 points.
Of the 23 insurance companies with a comprehensive strategy to cope with climate change, 13 of those companies are foreign-owned, and eight are P&C companies.
Based on their climate risk disclosure responses, the industry leaders include: ACE Ltd., Munich Re, Allianz Group, Swiss Re Group, Farmers Group, The Prudential Group, Travelers Group, Hartford Insurance Group, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Zurich US Insurance.
Smaller insurance companies tend to be far less prepared to mange climate risk than larger companies.

With serious implications for both the asset and liability sides of insurer?s balance sheets, climate change impacts and effects are being felt across the entire insurance industry, not only P&C insurers. Life insurers, Ceres points out, own ?hundreds of billions of dollars worth of real estate in vulnerable coastal areas.?

American taxpayers collectively are also on the line. Taxes are paying for losses sustained by the National Flood Insurance Program, as well as the rising spending on disaster relief, Ceres notes.

What to do

?As a long-term investor, CalSTRS is dedicated to making sure climate change is factored into the regular risk management practices of our portfolio companies,? Jack Ehnes, chief executive officer of the California State Teachers? Retirement System (CalSTRS), the largest educator-only pension fund in the world and former Colorado insurance commissioner, told reporters at March 7 news conference in Boston.

?By integrating climate change risk management into their practices, insurance companies greatly improve their abilities to offer sustained shareholder value. This report gives us yet another tool as we engage with companies on climate change and other sustainability challenges.?

In its report, Ceres? recommends insurers of all stripes do the following:

Treat climate change as a corporate-wide strategic issue, affecting all functions, at all levels, and formalize this in a public corporate policy statement.
Assess how a warming climate will alter extreme weather events, disease vectors, political risk and infrastructure resilience, and implement strategies to adapt their underwriting and investment practices accordingly.
Develop catastrophic models that anticipate the probable effects of climate change on extreme weather events.
Advocate for public policies that will help reduce carbon emissions and maintain an economy that is resilient to climate risk.

Insurance regulators need to take stronger action as well. Ceres recommends they:

Continue to mandate annual, public climate risk disclosure by insurers.
Engage with insurers, consumers and other public policy makers to better understand the nature of climate change risk, including how rates should be adjusted to reflect changing risks, and the steps insurers and regulators need to take to better incentivize consumers to reduce their vulnerability to these risks.

Image credit: David Shankbone, courtesy flickr

Source: http://theenergycollective.com/globalwarmingisreal/198201/us-insurance-industry-ill-prepared-deal-climate-change-risk-impacts

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Reviewing Humble Bundle 5: the overview

Humble Bundle app

Over the past week, we've been taking a look at each of the games available in the fifth iteration of the Humble Bundle. There are a lot of good new titles this time around -- and three old favorites that were just added in as a bonus -- so we wanted to give a wrap-up of the entire bundle. Facilitating all of these game downloads, installs and updates is a pivotal app that is worth mentioning as well -- the Humble Bundle for Android app.

Hang with us after the break for our final conclusions on the Humble Bundle 5.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/d9l4DfcxfMc/story01.htm

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Current TV, Olbermann settle their legal dispute

NEW YORK (AP) ? Keith Olbermann and Current TV say they've settled their dispute nearly a year after Olbermann was fired by the network and responded with a $50 million lawsuit.

Both parties say in a Wednesday statement that the terms of the settlement are confidential.

Olbermann was fired last March as a host and executive at the left-leaning cable talk network.

Olbermann sued, claiming Current violated his agreement and engaged in shoddy production values. Current's countersuit accused him of breaching his contract, including taking vacation without notice.

The at-times volatile host came to Current in June 2011 after a stormy eight-year stint at MSNBC, which he abruptly left that January.

Current, co-founded by Al Gore, is now being acquired for $500 million by Al-Jazeera, which is owned by the government of Qatar.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/current-tv-olbermann-settle-legal-dispute-142459135.html

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Thursday, March 14, 2013

Family firm makes investment in plant - Business - Norwich Evening ...

Bill Littleboy and Rupert Jarvis with the new machinery at Longwater Gravel at Horstead. Photo: Bill Smith

By shaun lowthorpe Business editor
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
4:22 PM

Norfolk-run family firm Longwater Gravel has completed a ?300,000 investment to buy two new JCBs and upgrade its washing plant facilities at one of its aggregrate extraction sites.

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The third generation family firm, which celebrated its diamond jubilee last year, took the decision to invest in the new equipment after securing extra land at its existing extraction site at Horstead, near Coltishall.

The two JCB loading shovels were supplied by Wymondham-based Watling JCB, while the firm also worked with three other Norfolk businesses ? ADR Electrical, at Honningham, DJ Ireland, from Mulbarton, and Panks Pumps in Norwich for the electrics, groundworks, and pumps and pipework.

Bill Littleboy, director, said the business made the investment after securing an extension to the site on neighbouring land which adds 10 years to the life of the site, which is now in its eighth year.

?We decided it was a good time to upgrade the machinery and spend a bit of money,? he said. ?We?ve bitten the bullet and spent ?300,000 on the two JCBs. The JCBs have come in at the right price and it?s always nice to buy British.?

Based at the Longwater business park in Costessey, near Norwich, the business, which employs 15 staff across three sites in Norfolk has a turnover of about ?2.5m.

It has also developed a side business recycling concrete topsoil and brick rubble, while a sister company, builders? merchant business, Longwater Construction, run by Neil Carter, has also been going from strength to strength.

Meawhile, three years ago it appointed a non-family member, Simon Smith, as a director of the business.

Will Littleboy, managing director, said the decision was a reflection of the growing nature of the business and the need to give it a broader management base.

?We were very lucky as he has national experience, and we realised that we needed somebody at that level,? he said.

He said the new investment would help improve efficiency at the site, which extracts about 1,000 tonnes of gravel a week.

Despite tough times in the construction industry he said the business positioned itself at the smaller end of the market, and hired out part of its sites to ready mix businesses, which as well as providing a market for its materials was an attractive proposition to those firms as they could be immediately on site.

?We don?t chase the big contracts because those tend to go to the multi-nationals,? he said. ?We are at the smaller end of the market, working with the smaller builders.

?They have found ways to keep themselves going. Generally the smaller builders are quite busy.?

shaun.lowthorpe@archant.co.uk

Source: http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/business/family_firm_makes_investment_in_plant_1_1977152

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Syrian opposition pushes for interim government

BEIRUT (AP) ? The main Syrian opposition group is pushing to form a breakaway interim government to rein in chaotic rebel-held areas in the north. But it faces objections from within its own ranks amid fears that such a move is premature and could lead to the fragmentation of the country.

The differing views will be put to the test at a two-day meeting starting Monday in Istanbul, where supporters hope to name a prime minister to oversee the formation of an interim government. Two previous attempts were postponed over seemingly intractable differences. Organizers say consensus has been building as the Syrian civil war enters its third year.

"We are in desperate need for an interim government, a recognized civilian entity that can restore law and order and secure basic services to liberated areas," said Walid al-Bunni, a spokesman for the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition. "Otherwise we are headed toward a very bad situation."

State institutions have all but collapsed in areas where the Syrian military withdrew, leaving many communities to fend for themselves with little electricity and sometimes no running water. Islamic courts have been set up to resolve local disputes, often one of the few vestiges of any sort of administration.

The idea of an interim government that would help administer the large swaths of land in the north and northeast that has been seized by the rebels has been floating around for more than a year, but divisions among members Assad's foes have kept it from happening. Opposition groups and even members of the same groups disagree over fundamental issues such as whether to hold negotiations with the regime or whether Assad should be allowed to be part of the transition.

It is unclear how much sway, if any, interim opposition leaders would hold over the rebels in Syria, where local units made up of tens of thousands of autonomous fighters have very little central organization or command structure.

But SNC officials say that as the opposition seizes more territory, the need for an interim government has become more pressing and consensus has been building on the need to control the growing chaos and lawlessness.

The U.S. has in the past been lukewarm to the idea of a unilateral announcement of an interim government by the divided Syrian opposition, saying the focus should be on uniting in a transitional government that could facilitate a handover of power and take over if Assad steps down. The international community endorsed a broad and ambiguous proposal last year calling for Assad supporters and opponents to propose representatives for the government, with each side able to veto candidates.

SNC leader Mouaz al-Khatib, a 52-year-old preacher turned activist has suggested that he himself is opposed to the formation of an interim government, fearing that it would deepen Syrian divisions.

"He and others are worried that a breakaway interim government would consecrate the country's divide between two governments, one in liberated territories and another in areas under Assad's control," al-Bunni said. "Either we convince him or he convinces us at the meeting in Istanbul."

Al-Khatib provoked a backlash last month when he offered to hold talks with members of the regime if it would help end the bloodshed, which the U.N. says has killed more than 70,000 people. His offer marked a departure from the mainstream opposition's insistence that Assad step down before any talks. That angered some of his colleagues who accused him of acting unilaterally.

Ahead of the Istanbul meeting, American and French diplomats said that the U.S., Russia and France are working together to try to bring the Syrian government and the SNC to the table together, hoping to reach agreement on a government with wide executive powers that would pave the way for a peaceful transition.

On Wednesday, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. was trying to help foster a "preliminary conversation" among Syrians about how to fill a transitional government.

"We are not going to decide. The Syrians are going to decide," she told reporters. "We are encouraging the Russians to see if the Syrian government can put forward anybody who would be acceptable."

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Vincent Floreani echoed the U.S. position Thursday in an online briefing.

"The Syrian drama can only be solved by putting in place a political solution that passes by dialogue between the opposition and members of the regime who do not have blood on their hands," he said, adding that Assad himself could "not be a party to these discussions."

The comments came as French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said France and Britain are ready to help arm Syrian rebel fighters even if other European Union countries disagree.

Some international diplomats warn that more weapons are the last thing that Syria needs after the bitter violence that has wracked the country since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011 and eventually escalated into an armed rebellion in response to a brutal government crackdown of protests. Others believe that only when Assad feels militarily cornered would he agree to come to the negotiating table.

Fabius said France and Britain are pushing for an urgent EU meeting to try to persuade the bloc to lift an arms embargo on Syria. "Lifting the embargo is one of the only means left to make things move politically" in Syria, he said on France-Info radio.

While they welcomed the French and British comments Thursday, some Syrian opposition leaders accused the West of trying to "impose" an interim government that includes members of Assad's regime and said this should hasten formation of their own government.

"This is a very dangerous thing," said Bassam al-Dada, a Turkey-based Free Syrian Army official. "By agreeing to have any member of Assad's regime in an interim government, we would be giving the killer legitimacy."

But Mounzir Makhous, a coalition member who was appointed as ambassador to France in November, said an interim civilian government would not only help restore law and order, but it could work on freeing up frozen regime and state assets to help provide the rebels with weapons and pay their salaries.

It could also work on securing income and other support from strategic facilities recently seized by rebels in the north and east, including oil fields in the oil-rich Deir el-Zour and Hassakeh provinces near the Iraqi and Turkish borders, the country's biggest hyrdroelectric dam and grain silos.

Most war weary Syrians were skeptical, saying the Syrian opposition has lost credibility because of the constant bickering.

"For God's sake I beg you, for once agree on something, this is not the time for disputes. People are dying," said one response to the meeting's announcement on the SNC's Facebook page.

___

Associated Press writers Bradley Klapper in Washington and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-opposition-pushes-interim-government-205905267.html

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Howard scores 39, leads Lakers past Magic 106-97

Former teammates Orlando Magic's Jameer Nelson, left, and Los Angeles Lakers' Dwight Howard (12) shake hands before leaving the court at the end of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, March 12, 2013, in Orlando, Fla. Los Angeles won the game 106-97.(AP Photo/John Raoux)

Los Angeles Lakers' Dwight Howard (12) smiles as walks on the court after a time out late in the fourth quarter during an NBA basketball game against the Orlando Magic, Tuesday, March 12, 2013, in Orlando, Fla. Los Angeles won the game 106-97.(AP Photo/John Raoux)

Los Angeles Lakers' Dwight Howard, left, makes a move to the basket around Orlando Magic's Nikola Vucevic, of Montenegro, during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, March 12, 2013, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Los Angeles Lakers' Steve Nash, right, attempts a shot over Orlando Magic's Tobias Harris, left, during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, March 12, 2013, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Los Angeles Lakers' Dwight Howard (12) makes a shot over Orlando Magic's Tobias Harris, left, during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, March 12, 2013, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) ? Dwight Howard endured the worst reception of his NBA career on Tuesday night.

He then promptly turned in probably his best performance of this season.

Howard scored a season-high 39 points, had 16 rebounds and was sent to the free throw line 39 times by his former team as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Orlando Magic, 106-97.

The victory came in Howard's first return to Orlando since his drama-filled offseason trade to the Lakers. He endured a chorus of boos throughout, and tied his own NBA record for free throw attempts.

The majority of them came as the Magic tried to employ an intentional foul strategy. It backfired, though, as the All-Star center hit on 16 of 20 attempts in the second half. It silenced his detractors and more importantly, helped the Lakers secure their fourth straight victory and keep from slipping in their playoff chase.

His reception aside, Howard said he left the court still thankful for the support he got during his eight years in Orlando.

"I wasn't nervous tonight. I was looking forward to playing here," Howard said. "It was a hostile environment, but I think that was something that was good for me. For my progress as a player, I think I needed that tonight."

Jameer Nelson scored 21 points, but also had six of Orlando's 14 turnovers. The Magic have lost three of their last four and haven't won back-to-back games since December. They also missed on their first season sweep of the Lakers since 2008-09.

After a week of back-and-forth in the media following some perceived negative comments made about his former team during a television interview, Howard and Nelson spoke briefly just after the final buzzer and shook hands.

"Everybody's always going to say certain things in order to start certain situations," Howard said. "But Jameer's my brother. We came in together, and I have no bad feelings toward him."

The embrace was a light moment in what was mostly a hostile atmosphere.

Homemade signs jeering Howard with sentiments that said everything from "Coward" to "Kobe's Kid" were sprinkled throughout the Amway Center stands.

Boos rained down on the All-Star center almost every time he touched the basketball. They were followed by louder cheers when he missed a free throw.

The intensity was also ramped up at times, too.

Howard got tangled up in a verbal back-and-forth with the Magic bench at one point during the first half, and Kobe Bryant left briefly in the first quarter, bleeding from his right eye after a collision.

"I think professionally it was really big for him," Bryant said of Howard's night. "Coming into this environment, playing as well as he did, it's big for his confidence."

The Lakers led 76-68 entering the final period and scored the first eight points of the quarter to push it out to a 16-point lead.

The Magic battled back and closed to 91-82 on a 3-pointer by E'Twaun Moore with 6 minutes to play in the game.

Howard made four straight free throws at one point and the Lakers got their lead back up to 102-88 on a 3-pointer by Jodie Meeks with 2:25 left.

The Magic kept up the strategy, but Howard ? who was shooting 47.8 percent before the game ? hit his final eight attempts to help close out the victory.

"With any player, if you get 39 cracks at it, it's only natural for you to gain some type of rhythm," Magic guard Arron Afflalo said. "And he did a good job of making them down the stretch for them."

Magic coach Jacque Vaughn defended the strategy, though.

"I think early on it was a strategy that worked for us," he said. "If we would have made six more 3s, I probably wouldn't have done it, but strategy-wise I need to give our guys a rest."

Howard embraced the negative environment from the outset and was the main reason the Lakers had a 50-46 halftime lead.

He had 19 points and 10 rebounds in the opening 24 minutes, and would have had more if not for his 9-for-19 effort at the line.

Howard started just 2 for 9 from the foul line, prompting the Magic to try fouling him intentionally three times late in the second quarter. He had found his touch by then, though, hitting five of six on those occasions.

With the exception of Tobias Harris' 15-point first half, Orlando struggled offensively. The Magic had decent looks at the basket, but shot a paltry 37 percent (17 for 46) from the field.

They were also thin in the frontcourt for most of the half with center Nik Vucevic playing only 13 minutes because of two quick fouls. He went scoreless, with just two three rebounds.

At the end of the night, Howard said he was ready to turn the page.

"I think it was something I needed, to come back and I think it was something that the city needed, too," he said. "It's closure. We can all move on. We had eight great years. People are going to feel the way they feel. I totally understand that."

Notes: Los Angeles now leads its all-time series with Orlando, 32-15....Harris had a career-high 15 rebounds....Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said that injured F Pau Gasol (torn plantar fascia, right foot) is starting to run again and "feels pretty good." He said he will continue to be monitored to make sure there aren't setbacks, but that "it's close."

___

Follow Kyle Hightower on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/khightower .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-12-BKN-Lakers-Magic-/id-a968e1d69c254042a39793b2a38d6fb1

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Mali media outlets go silent over editor's arrest

Mali's President Dioncounda Traore, center, listens to questions from journalists as Senegalese counterpart Macky Sall, left, looks on, at a news conference prior to Traore's departure, at the airport in Dakar, Senegal, Tuesday, March 12, 2013. Mali's president Tuesday concluded a two-day visit to neighboring Senegal, one of the West African nations to have contributed troops to the French-led fight against Islamic extremists in Mali's north. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) ? The airwaves in Mali's capital fell silent on Tuesday and newspapers didn't print a morning edition in protest over the arrest last week of an editor who published an open letter challenging the salary of the country's coup leader.

Boukary Daou, editor-in-chief of The Republican newspaper, was taken away by agents from Mali's intelligence service on March 6, soon after his newspaper published a letter from an army officer denouncing Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo's recently-decreed salary of $8,000 per month, an incredibly high salary in the impoverished country. The letter argues that the salary ? as much as 26 times what Sanogo earned before last year's coup ? is in fact an incentive for future coups.

Sanogo seized power a year ago last March. Faced with international sanctions, he was forced to relinquish control just weeks later, but succeeded in negotiating a golden parachute for himself, including the salary of an ex-head of state. Despite officially stepping down, country watchers say Sanogo remains the power behind the throne, as Daou's arrest seven days ago underscores.

The media strike began on Tuesday and "will continue until Boukary Daou is freed," according to a statement from the country's press association.

President Dioncounda Traore defended the decision to arrest Daou and said that if he is innocent, he will be freed. Speaking to reporters during a stop in the capital of neighboring Senegal, Traore said the letter published in The Republican was subversive, and aimed to demoralize the nation's troops at a time of war.

"Mali is in a state of emergency. We all need to remember this. We are in a state of war, and we cannot allow this kind of thing," he said. "If he is guilty, he will need to answer to the courts. If he is not, there's no reason he'll be kept in prison," he added.

Kassim Traore, the president of the Young Journalists' Organization of Mali said that Daou has refused to disclose the identity of the officer, who penned the letter under the name Capt. Toure.

"The security agents demanded that Daou give the name of his source and Daou refused, which is his duty as a journalist," said Traore. "It's because he would not disclose the name of his source that they are still detaining him, which is why the leaders of the Malian press have organized this No Press Day in order to free our colleague," he said.

In the chaos that followed Sanogo's coup last year, a mixture of rebel groups allied with al-Qaida occupied Mali's northern half, plunging the country and the region into crisis. Since January, French troops, helped by Malian soldiers, have been methodically clearing the north. The letter published in The Republican threatened that if Sanogo's salary is not reduced, soldiers deployed in Mali's north will refuse to fight. The average salary of a rank-and-file soldier is just $100 per month, 80 times less than what Sanogo is now earning.

The incendiary letter began: "Mr. President, we have learned that while we are dying in the great desert (in northern Mali), Capt. Sanogo, in return for leading a coup that plunged the country into the current situation, enjoys a salary of 4 million francs ($8,000). And the others in his group, in his clan, who are refusing to come fight are enjoying the same treatment," wrote Capt. Toure. "If this decision (to accord him this salary) is not reversed within the next two weeks, we will cease ... fighting."

A communique read on state television late Monday said Mali's military had not been able to find an officer of that rank with that name, and urged the press "to be more vigilant in the face of the obscure endeavors (of those) seeking to compromise the unity and discipline of our troops in the field." The communique added that "the investigation is in progress by the relevant authorities in order to identify the real author of this fake letter whose aim was to destabilize our army."

___

Associated Press writers Babacar Dione and Rukmini Callimachi contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-12-AF-Mali-Editor-Detained/id-d14fba4b259d47bbb41894263ec7dbf6

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Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Neural 'synchrony' may be key to understanding how the human brain perceives

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Despite many remarkable discoveries in the field of neuroscience during the past several decades, researchers have not been able to fully crack the brain's "neural code." The neural code details how the brain's roughly 100 billion neurons turn raw sensory inputs into information we can use to see, hear and feel things in our environment.

In a perspective article published in the journal Nature Neuroscience on Feb. 25, 2013, biomedical engineering professor Garrett Stanley detailed research progress toward "reading and writing the neural code." This encompasses the ability to observe the spiking activity of neurons in response to outside stimuli and make clear predictions about what is being seen, heard, or felt, and the ability to artificially introduce activity within the brain that enables someone to see, hear, or feel something that is not experienced naturally through sensory organs.

Stanley also described challenges that remain to read and write the neural code and asserted that the specific timing of electrical pulses is crucial to interpreting the code. He wrote the article with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Stanley has been developing approaches to better understand and control the neural code since 1997 and has published about 40 journal articles in this area.

"Neuroscientists have made great progress toward reading the neural code since the 1990s, but the recent development of improved tools for measuring and activating neuronal circuits has finally put us in a position to start writing the neural code and controlling neuronal circuits in a physiological and meaningful way," said Stanley, a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.

With recent reports that the Obama administration is planning a decade-long scientific effort to examine the workings of the human brain and build a comprehensive map of its activity, progress toward breaking the neural code could begin to accelerate.

The potential rewards for cracking the neural code are immense. In addition to understanding how brains generate and manage information, neuroscientists may be able to control neurons in individuals with epilepsy and Parkinson's disease or restore lost function following a brain injury. Researchers may also be able to supply artificial brain signals that provide tactile sensation to amputees wearing a prosthetic device.

Stanley's paper highlighted a major challenge neuroscientists face: selecting a viable code for conveying information through neural pathways. A longstanding debate exists in the neuroscience community over whether the neural code is a "rate code," where neurons simply spike faster than their background spiking rate when they are coding for something, or a "timing code," where the pattern of the spikes matters. Stanley expanded the debate by suggesting the neural code is a "synchrony code," where the synchronization of spiking across neurons is important.

A synchrony code argues the need for precise millisecond timing coordination across groups of neighboring neurons to truly control the circuit. When a neuron receives an incoming stimulus, an electric pulse travels the neuron's length and triggers the cell to dump neurotransmitters that can spark a new impulse in a neighboring neuron. In this way, the signal gets passed around the brain and then the body, enabling individuals to see, touch, and hear things in the environment. Depending on the signals it receives, a neuron can spike with hundreds of these impulses every second.

"Eavesdropping on neurons in the brain is like listening to a bunch of people talk?a lot of the noise is just filler, but you still have to determine what the important messages are," explained Stanley. "My perspective is that information is relevant only if it is going to propagate downstream, a process that requires the synchronization of neurons."

Neuronal synchrony is naturally modulated by the brain. In a study published in Nature Neuroscience in 2010, Stanley reported finding that a change in the degree of synchronous firing of neurons in the thalamus altered the nature of information as it traveled through the pathway and enhanced the brain's ability to discriminate between different sensations. The thalamus serves as a relay station between the outside world and the brain's cortex.

Synchrony induced through artificial stimulation poses a real challenge for creating a wide range of neural representations. Recent technological advances have provided researchers with new methods of activating and silencing neurons via artificial means. Electrical microstimulation had been used for decades to activate neurons, but the technique activated a large volume of neurons at a time and could not be used to silence them or separately activate excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Stanley compared the technique with driving a car that has the gas and brake pedals welded together.

New research methods, such as optogenetics, enable activation and silencing of neurons in close proximity and provide control unavailable with electrical microstimulation. Through genetic expression or viral transfection, different cell types can be targeted to express specific proteins that can be activated with light.

"Moving forward, new technologies need to be used to stimulate neural activity in more realistic and natural scenarios and their effects on the synchronization of neurons need to be thoroughly examined," said Stanley. "Further work also needs to be completed to determine whether synchrony is crucial in different contexts and across brain regions."

###

Stanley, Garrett B., "Reading and writing the neural code," Nature Neuroscience (2013): http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.3330.

Georgia Institute of Technology: http://www.gatech.edu

Thanks to Georgia Institute of Technology for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127273/Neural__synchrony__may_be_key_to_understanding_how_the_human_brain_perceives

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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

What you 'like' on Facebook can be revealing

LONDON (AP) ? Clicking those friendly blue "like" buttons strewn across the Web may be doing more than marking you as a fan of Coca-Cola or Lady Gaga.

It could out you as gay.

It might reveal how you vote.

It might even suggest that you're an unmarried introvert with a high IQ and a weakness for nicotine.

That's the conclusion of a study published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers reported analyzing the likes of more than 58,000 American Facebook users to make guesses about their personalities and behavior, and even whether they drank, smoked, or did drugs.

Cambridge University researcher David Stillwell, one of the study's authors, said the results may come as a surprise.

"Your likes may be saying more about you than you realize," he said.

Facebook launched its like button in 2009, and the small thumbs-up symbol has since become ubiquitous on the social network and common across the rest of the Web as well. Facebook said last year that roughly 2.7 billion new likes pour out onto the Internet every day ? endorsing everything from pop stars to soda pop. That means an ever-expanding pool of data available to marketers, managers, and just about anyone else interested in users' inner lives, especially those who aren't careful about their privacy settings.

Stillwell and his colleagues scooped up a bucketful of that data in the way that many advertisers do ? through apps. Millions of Facebook users have surveyed their own personal traits using applications including a program called myPersonality. Stillwell, as owner of the app, has received revenue from it, but declined to say how much.

The study zeroed in on the 58,466 U.S. test takers who had also volunteered access to their likes.

When researchers crunched the "like" data and compared their results to answers given in the personality test, patterns emerged in nearly every direction.

The study found that Facebook likes were linked to sexual orientation, gender, age, ethnicity, IQ, religion, politics and cigarette, drug, or alcohol use. The likes also mapped to relationship status, number of Facebook friends, as well as half a dozen different personality traits.

Some likes were more revealing than others. Researchers could guess whether users identified themselves as black or white 95 percent of the time. That success rate dropped to a still impressive 88 percent when trying to guess whether a male user was homosexual, and to 85 percent when telling Democrats from Republicans. Identifying drug users was far trickier ? researchers got that right only 65 percent of the time, a result scientists generally describe as poor. Predicting whether a user was respectively a child of divorce was even dicier. With a 60 percent success rate, researchers were doing just slightly better than random guesses.

The linkages ranged from the self-evident to the surreal.

Men who liked TV song-and-dance sensation "Glee" were more likely to be gay. Men who liked professional wrestling were more likely to be straight. Drinking game aficionados were generally more outgoing than, say, fans of fantasy novelist Terry Pratchett. People who preferred pop diva Jennifer Lopez usually gathered more Facebook friends than those who favored the heavy metal sound of Iron Maiden.

Among the more poignant insights was the apparent preoccupation of children of divorce with relationship issues. For example, those who expressed support for statements such as "Never Apologize For What You Feel It's Like Saying Sorry For Being Real" or "I'm The Type Of Girl Who Can Be So Hurt But Still Look At You & Smile" were slightly more likely to have seen their parents split before their 21st birthday.

Some of the patterns were difficult to understand: The link between curly fries and high IQ scores was particularly baffling.

Stillwell, designer of the myPersonality app, said revenue from it came from advertising. "I'd prefer not to say how much, but it wasn't enough to live on," he said.

Jennifer Golbeck, a University of Maryland computer scientist who wasn't involved in the study but has done similar work, endorsed its methodology, calling it smart and straightforward and describing its results as "awesome."

But she warned of what the work showed about privacy on Facebook.

"You may not want people to know your sexual orientation or may not want people to know about your drug use," she said. "Even if you think you're keeping your information private, we can learn a lot about you."

Facebook said the study fell in line with years of research and was not particularly surprising.

"The prediction of personal attributes based on publicly accessible information, such as ZIP codes, choice of profession, or even preferred music, has been explored in the past," Facebook's Frederic Wolens said in a written statement.

Wolens said that Facebook users could change the privacy settings on their likes to put them beyond the reach of researchers, advertisers or nearly anyone else. But he declined to say how many users did so.

For the unknown number of users whose preferences are public, Stillwell had this advice: Look before you like.

The like button is "quite a seductive thing," he said. "It's all around the Web, it's all around Facebook. And it's so easy."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/facebook-revealing-190246280--finance.html

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Researchers solve riddle of what has been holding two unlikely materials together

Mar. 11, 2013 ? For years, researchers have developed thin films of bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) -- which converts heat into electricity or electricity to cooling -- on top of gallium arsenide (GaAs) to create cooling devices for electronics. But while they knew it could be done, it was not clear how -- because the atomic structures of those unlikely pair of materials do not appear to be compatible. Now researchers from North Carolina State University and RTI International have solved the mystery, opening the door to new research in the field.

"We've used state-of-the-art technology to solve a mystery that has been around for years," says Dr. James LeBeau, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper on the research. "And now that we know what is going on, we can pursue research to fine-tune the interface of these materials to develop more efficient mechanisms for converting electricity to cooling or heat into electricity. Ultimately, this could have applications in a wide range of electronic devices."

To study the phenomenon, the researchers had to create the nanometer-scale thin films on a GaAs substrate, or foundation. The GaAs is first placed in a vapor deposition chamber. Molecules containing bismuth and tellurium are then introduced into the chamber, where they react with each other and "grow" into a crystalline Bi2Te3 structure on the surface of the GaAs.

Using advanced "Super-X" X-ray spectroscopy technology in conjunction with an aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope, the researchers were able to determine what was binding the Bi2Te3 to the GaAs -- and it was not what they were expecting.

They found that when the tellurium molecules were introduced to the vapor deposition chamber, the tellurium reacted with the GaAs substrate to create a new surface layer of gallium telluride, which was only one molecule thick. The Bi2Te3 then formed a thin film on top of that new surface layer.

Because gallium telluride does not react with Bi2Te3, the research team knew chemical bonding could not be holding them together. Instead, the two layers are held together by the weaker force of van der Waals bonds -- meaning the materials are held together by weak electrical forces.

"While these materials have been investigated previously by RTI and NC State, the state-of-the-art techniques applied by LeBeau and his team have revealed significant new insights into how the film grows," notes Dr. Rama Venkatasubramanian of RTI International, who is also a co-author of the paper.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by North Carolina State University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

J. Houston Dycus, Ryan M. White, Jonathan M. Pierce, Rama Venkatasubramanian, James M. LeBeau. Atomic scale structure and chemistry of Bi2Te3/GaAs interfaces grown by metallorganic van der Waals epitaxy. Applied Physics Letters, 2013; 102 (8): 081601 DOI: 10.1063/1.4793518

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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/-baivAsSwsA/130311091535.htm

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Ch?vez funeral: How do you spot a true Ch?vista? (+video)

For millions of Hugo Ch?vez?s supporters, waiting in line for 12 hours or more is a small sacrifice for the opportunity to spend a few seconds in front of his coffin.

By Ezra Fieser,?Correspondent, Andrew Rosati,?Correspondent / March 8, 2013

Supporters of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez hold a poster reading in Spanish 'Move forward commander!' outside the military academy where the late president's funeral ceremony took, in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday.

Rodrigo Abd/AP

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They spend all day in line in the searing heat for a chance to pay their respects. For Hugo Ch?vez?s supporters, waiting in line for 12 hours or more to spend a few seconds in front of his coffin has become something of a required pilgrimage.

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