Cory Monteith's mom tweets about son's death

Celebs

Randee Dawn TODAY contributor

18 hours ago

Immediately after the sudden and tragic death of "Glee" star Cory Monteith in mid-July, there was a period of respectful silence as friends and family tried to absorb what had happened.?

"Glee" is now heading back into production, and on Thursday more former co-stars began to speak up, as the show posted a memorial card on YouTube and Monteith's mother tweeted for the first time since her son's death:

McGregor also sent out several tweets?denying that an individual who had been "releasing articles related to my feelings and thoughts on how to take care of Cory's ashes has never been in contact with me."?

It's unclear exactly who McGregor was referring to, but Life & Style quoted a supposed cousin of the actor last week that McGregor planned to "spread some of the ashes in the different places he loved."

Additionally on Thursday, co-star Darren Criss appeared on "Conan" and spoke about working with Monteith. He said "it's been a very rough time," but added, "he will be severely missed. But I'm just so happy a guy like him got to touch as many lives as he did while we were lucky enough to have him."

Monteith died on July 13 in a Vancouver hotel of a mixture of a mix of heroin and alcohol and was reportedly cremated.?

Monteith's girlfriend Lea Michele, who had tweeted a photo of herself with Monteith on July 29, returned to work on "Glee" on Thursday and tweeted:

And the "Glee" cast also posted a short tribute "Memorial Card" on YouTube Thursday, which has already racked up nearly 850,000 hits.?

"Glee" returns on Sept. 26, then will go on a three-week hiatus.?

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/cory-monteiths-mom-tweets-about-sons-death-6C10838690

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Gunmen surround Libyan justice ministry

By Ghaith Shennib and Jessica Donati

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Armed groups in pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns and rocket-launchers surrounded Libya's justice ministry Tuesday to press demands for former aides to deposed dictator Muammar Gaddafi to be barred from senior government posts.

Tensions between the government and armed militias has been rising since authorities began a campaign to dislodge the gunmen from strongholds in the capital Tripoli to tackle lawlessness menacing Libya's democratic transition since Gaddafi's demise.

Gunmen first ringed the foreign ministry on Sunday and have targeted other state buildings, aiming to paralyze government until legislation banning those who once served under Gaddafi, who was overthrown and killed in a 2011 uprising, is adopted.

The unrest spurred the General National Congress to postpone its next sitting, scheduled for Tuesday, to Sunday. A spokesman said this would give lawmakers time to consider legislation that protesters were clamoring for.

"This is definitely an attempt to impose their agenda on the political process. It's not massively out of character - we have seen this before - but it is definitely a worrying trend," said a Western diplomat in Tripoli.

The justice ministry was surrounded by gunmen occupying the roads outside the building with around 20 pickup trucks, including one with Grad missiles positioned at the gates.

The minister and his staff later left the building at the insistence of the armed group, one of the gunmen told Reuters.

The legislation demanded by militia groups who played a pivotal role in the anti-Gaddafi revolt could potentially blacklist several long-serving ministers, the congress chairman and Prime Minister Ali Zeidan himself.

WEAK GOVERNMENT

Efforts to enact such a law have been hobbled by wrangling within the legislature and many Libyans are losing patience with the national assembly's haplessness.

About 100 people gathered in Tripoli's Martyrs Square on Tuesday to voice their support for the legislation, shouting, "Oh, martyrs, your blood will not go in vain", referring to those who died fighting to topple Gaddafi.

Demonstrators calling for the legislation to be passed said the government, so weak that big swathes of the vast oil-producing desert country are beyond central authority, would fall if it did not yield to their demands.

"If they don't pass the political isolation law, we will protest here and topple the government," said Faisal Alaqsa.

Demonstrators carried wooden coffins wrapped in flags and photographs of those who had died in the 2011 revolution as a reminder of its human cost. "This government is disappointing because it has not done anything to sack people from the former regime," said Khalid Sharif, one of the coffin bearers.

A rival demonstration in support of the transitional government was initially planned for Tuesday afternoon but it was unclear whether it would go ahead.

The build-up in armed protests this week has increased fears of a security breakdown in Tripoli and prompted the German embassy to suspend some activities. Protesters have also unsuccessfully tried to storm the interior ministry.

The U.N. Support Mission in Libya said it was monitoring the siege of state institutions and urged Libyans to resolve their differences through dialogue and abide by principles of democracy and rule of law that had driven the uprising.

(Reporting by Ghaith Shennib and Jessica Donati; Writing by Jessica Donati; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gunmen-surround-libyan-justice-ministry-105602345.html

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As combat role eases, aircraft crashes are biggest killer of U.S. troops in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan With the combat role of U.S. troops in Afghanistan tapering off, aircraft accidents emerged as the biggest killer of U.S. troops here during the first four months of the year. Since Jan. 1, 13 service members have been killed in five crashes.

U.S. troop deaths remain at their lowest levels here in recent years. The number so far this year, 33 through Tuesday, is the lowest at this point since 2008.

After air accidents, the next biggest cause of death was improvised bombs, which claimed at least eight service members. Four died from causes unrelated to combat.

In all, 42 members of the international coalition have been killed in Afghanistan this year, including three of unknown nationalities, whose deaths in an explosion in southern Afghanistan were announced Tuesday night.

Commanders with the U.S.-led coalition say the obvious reason that casualties remain low is that Afghan security forces are doing the fighting now in most parts of the country, and they?re expected to take the lead completely in the next two months

Deaths and injuries among Afghan security forces, consequently, are reaching new highs. A Ministry of Defense spokesman would release only the number of Afghan National Army deaths from Feb. 21 through the end of March, which was 107, up from 97 for the same period the previous year. U.S. military officers say large numbers of Afghan police officers also are being killed.

Civilian casualties are up sharply, too, as are estimates of the number of insurgent attacks, which soared 47 percent in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period in 2012, according to a recent report by the Afghan NGO Safety Office, which monitors violence in Afghanistan for nongovernment aid agencies.

Civilian casualties climbed almost 30 percent, with 475 people killed and 872 injured, compared with the first quarter of 2012, according to the United Nations? senior envoy in Afghanistan, Jan Kubis. Insurgents caused most of the civilian deaths.

?Afghans in the lead? means U.S. forces aren?t exposed to risk as often as they were when Americans led much of the offensive operations in Afghanistan. Hundreds of small and medium-sized outposts have been torn down or handed to Afghan forces, and many of the 66,000 remaining U.S. troops work mainly on heavily secured bases, where they focus on advising and training with large units of the Afghan security forces rather than working with front-line units on patrols and assault operations.

Casualties from so-called green-on-blue attacks ? in which Afghan forces turn on their coalition allies ? also remain low so far this year. Such attacks caused 62 deaths last year, according to the coalition. This year, though, there have been just two incidents so far, resulting in the deaths of one British and two U.S. service members.

The drop in attacks is at least partly due to several measures the coalition put into place last fall to reduce their likelihood, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. James L. Terry, the outgoing leader of the international joint command, said Tuesday in his last news conference here.

"I think we?ve come a long way in the last year in countering that threat," he said, pausing briefly to knock on the wood of his lectern. "We?re not over it, and I?m sure there will be more attempts as we look down the road."

He noted that the Taliban have threatened recently to increase their infiltration of Afghan forces to give them a chance to stage more attacks, but he said the leaders of the Afghan security forces were working diligently to reduce the chances of more.

The measures the coalition put in place include stepping up security between adjacent Afghan and coalition bases, and assigning armed "guardian angels" to stand watch when there?s interaction with Afghan security forces.

Meanwhile, such attacks have grown more common within the Afghan forces, perpetrated by those who are sympathetic to the insurgency.

There?s no particular pattern to the types of aircraft in the five crashes. They were a Black Hawk utility helicopter, an Apache attack helicopter, a small two-seat Kiowa reconnaissance helicopter, an F-16 jet fighter and a twin-engine MC-12 surveillance turboprop plane.

In each case the Taliban claimed credit, but NATO officials said all the crashes apparently were accidents. Taliban statements often prove false or wildly inflated.

On Monday, a Boeing 747 cargo plane under contract to the Department of Defense crashed on takeoff at Bagram, the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan, claiming the lives of seven civilian crew members. The massive jet had just refueled, and after it appeared to stall on takeoff, it fell inside the base?s security perimeter and burned fiercely. NATO officials said they weren?t aware of any insurgent activity at the time of the crash.

The Taliban claimed that one, too.

Source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/04/30/4013520/as-combat-role-eases-aircraft.html

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Faried leads Denver past Warriors 107-100

DENVER (AP) ? Kenneth Faried would like to punch a hole in Mark Jackson's theory that he's a dirty player who tried to hurt Stephen Curry.

"We were just playing physical," Faried said after setting the tone in Denver's 107-100 win over Golden State that sent the series back to Oakland for Game 6. "They say we were playing dirty, but we were just playing physical. We were hitting them like they were hitting us.

"They've been hitting me and pushing me and shoving me the whole series," Faried said. "I've been hit in the throat, got my hair pulled a couple of times. And I don't say much. I just keep going. I might say, 'Yo, ref, what about this play or that play?' and they don't really say anything. But, hey, when we do it, we're playing dirty."

Faried put his foot down 48 hours after putting his size-16 sneaker through the wall in the visiting locker room in Oakland, sparking a debate about dirty play. The fiery forward energized the Nuggets, who rediscovered their toughness in time to stave off elimination Tuesday night.

The Nuggets never trailed, piled up points in the paint, slowed down the Warriors' guards, jumpstarted their transition game and got under Andrew Bogut's skin ? basically, returning to the brand of basketball that helped them win an NBA franchise-best 57 games before a three-game skid in the playoffs put them on the brink of another early exit.

They jumped out to a 22-point lead before weathering the Warriors' frenetic fourth-quarter rally to cut their series deficit to 3-2 and force Thursday night's Game 6, where Faried and his teammates are sure to face the wrath of Golden State's notoriously crazed crowd.

Jackson accused the Nuggets of trying to hurt Curry, his banged-up sharpshooter who was just 1 for 7 from long-range and finished with a series-low 15 points.

"Some dirty plays early," Jackson said. "It's playoff basketball, that's all right. We own it. But make no mistake about it, we went up 3-1 playing hard, physical, clean basketball ? not trying to hurt anybody."

Jackson mentioned Faried setting some "great screens and some great illegal ones, too."

"He did his job. Hey, I played with guys like that. They get paid to do that. Dale Davis, Anthony Davis, Charles Oakley. You get paid to do it. So give them credit," Jackson said. "As an opposing coach, I see it, and I'm trying to protect my guys."

Jackson complained about one screen in particular on Curry being "a shot at his ankle, clearly. That can't be debated." He added, "I got inside information that some people don't like that brand of basketball and they clearly didn't co-sign it. They wanted to let me know they have no parts in what was taking place. Let the best team win. And let everybody with the exception of going down with a freak injury, let everybody leave out of here healthy. That's not good basketball."

"It's basketball," countered Faried. "I try to do the little things my team needs me to do. It's physical. If you can't stand the physicality, you shouldn't be playing."

Asked about accusations he tried to hurt Curry, Faried said: "That's intriguing because I think they were purposefully trying to hurt me every play I went for a rebound ? the hits, the grab to the throat."

Curry said there were a few plays that went overboard.

"There were a couple, man. Going through the paint minding my own business and they come out of nowhere trying to throw elbows," he said. "I got a (target) on me, I don't know what it is, just got to keep playing and do your thing."

The Nuggets said they were surprised the Warriors were the ones complaining about physical play.

"I think I've taken the hardest hit in the series, Game 1 or 2, when Bogut leaned in to me on a screen. And I didn't remember what happened the rest of the game," Andre Iguodala said. "I think they kind of brought the physicality to the series. And we stopped being the receivers and we're starting to hit back a little bit. But as far as anybody trying to cheap shot, I don't condone that myself. It's not my game."

Klay Thompson said "a couple of them could have been cheap shots. I thought Steph got cheap shot one time, he got a bloody nose. It's not acceptable, but we've got to match that. We can't let it get in our heads, just do what we did in the second half."

Nuggets coach George Karl went back to a big lineup, giving JaVale McGee his first career playoff start, and the big man responded with 10 points, eight rebounds and three blocks to go with Faried's seven points, eight boards and one big block as the Nuggets raced out to a 66-46 halftime lead.

Iguodala had 25 points and 12 rebounds, Ty Lawson had 19 points and 10 assists and Faried had 13 points and 10 boards. Harrison Barnes led Golden State with 23 points and nine rebounds.

The Warriors never got closer than five points after Denver's first-half blitz led by Faried.

Curry, whose 18 3-pointers were the most by any player in NBA history in the first four playoff games of his career, went ice cold, missing his first five 3-pointers before finally hitting with 5:09 left to pull Golden State to 96-91.

Faried responded to Curry's sole 3-pointer with an alley-oop dunk.

Curry and Thompson missed back-to-back 3s that would have made it a two-point game with less than two minutes left, and Wilson Chandler's 3 seconds later at the other end made it 103-95. Chandler finished with 19 points.

"You've got to like the way we finished the game," Curry said, "and we've got to bottle that up for the next game because if have a feeling it's going to be the same kind of atmosphere."

Bogut gave a two-handed shove to Faried's neck after his hard screen on Curry in the first half, drawing a flagrant-1 foul, and Draymond Green was whistled for a flagrant foul for body-checking Faried in the second half.

"Draymond Green, did he play football or basketball at Michigan State," cracked Karl.

Notes: Bogut finished with two points and five rebounds in 18 minutes, his worst showing of the series. ... The Nuggets haven't lost back-to-back games since Feb. 8-9, 2012. ... The Nuggets are 29-1 at home when Faried has a double-double. ... The Nuggets have been down 3-2 nine times before and twice won Game 6, including last year against the Lakers. They've never won a series after trailing 3-2, however. ... Denver's only other wire-to-wire win this year was its regular season finale against Phoenix. ... Nuggets F Danilo Gallinari underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee and will later have another procedure to fix his ruptured ACL.

___

Arnie Melendrez Stapleton can be reached at: www.twitter.com/arniestapleton

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/faried-leads-denver-past-warriors-107-100-074807665.html

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End for Herschel space telescope

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

Europe's flagship space telescope has stopped working.

The billion-euro Herschel observatory has run out of the liquid helium needed to keep its instruments and detectors at their ultra-low functioning temperature.

This equipment has now warmed, meaning the telescope cannot see the sky.

Herschel, which was sensitive to far-infrared and sub-millimetre light, was launched in 2009 to study the birth of stars and the evolution of galaxies.

Its 3.5m mirror and three state-of-the-art instruments made it the most powerful observatory of its kind ever put in space.

The end of operations is not a surprise. Astronomers always knew the helium store onboard would be a time-limiting factor.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

The telescope gathered images and information in such volume that astronomers have barely scratched database?

End Quote Prof Matt Griffin Cardiff University, UK

The "blind" satellite is currently located about 1.5 million km from Earth on the planet's "night side".

Controllers at the European Space Agency's (Esa) operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany, will run some final tests on the spacecraft in the coming weeks before putting it in a slow drift around the Sun.

"We will push it out into a heliocentric orbit and passivate it," said Micha Schmidt, the Herschel spacecraft operations manager.

"We will switch off the transponder and the spacecraft will go silent."

Herschel should not come anywhere near the Earth again for several hundred years.

Data legacy

The telescope will be remembered for its great vistas of gas and dust; the billowing clouds and threading filaments that trace the locations where future stars will form.

Over the course of the mission, it gathered thousands of such images. It also acquired detailed spectrographic data on many of its subjects, revealing their chemistry.

All of the information is now being assembled into a public archive.

Jonathan Amos inspected Herschel just before its launch in May 2009

This will become an important resource for future study and a starting point to plan follow-up observations with other astronomical facilities.

This is already happening with the recently opened, ground-based Alma telescope in Chile, which views the sky at frequencies that overlap those pursued by Herschel.

A US-German telescope called Sofia, which is mounted on a converted Boeing 747, can also see some of Herschel's frequencies.

"But the amazing thing about Herschel is that its maximum productivity in science terms probably won't be reached for another five years yet," said Prof Matt Griffin, the principal investigator on Herschel's Spire instrument.

"The telescope gathered images and information in such volume that astronomers have barely scratched the database," the Cardiff University, UK, scientist told BBC News.

Engineers issued an alert early in March warning astronomers that observations were coming to an end.

Herschel used special light detectors in its instruments known as bolometers. Although supremely efficient at capturing light, the technology must be kept close to absolute zero (-273C) to work properly.

This was achieved with the aid of 2,300 litres of liquid helium that was held in a giant flask, or cryostat.

But as the mission progressed, the cryogen gradually boiled away, and, on Monday, the Darmstadt controllers received telemetry from Herschel confirming every last drop was gone.

Continue reading the main story

Herschel Space Telescope

• Herschel was one of the largest space telescopes ever launched; its 3.5m diameter mirror perfectly captured infrared light
• It clocked more than 1,440 days of operations; making 22,000 hours of scientific observations; resulting in 600 scholarly papers... so far
• Infrared shines through gas and dust clouds that can block visible light - Herschel could see deep into dusty, star-forming regions
• The telescope was named after the astronomer William Herschel, who discovered infrared radiation while studying the Sun in 1800
• The Earth's atmosphere is an infrared absorber, so Herschel was launched in 2009 to get a clear view of the long-wavelength Universe

Herschel's demise occurred close to the time forecast at the start of operations nearly four years ago.

If anything, astronomers got a few months' more observations than they were expecting.

Herschel's cryostat approach to cooling was evolved from a previous Esa mission - the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), which operated in the 1990s.

This approach is described as a "passive" system because once initial conditions are set inside the flask, a continuing presence of helium and good insulation is all that is required to maintain those conditions.

An "active", or mechanical, cooling system was considered for Herschel in the initial feasibility studies. This would have involved a chain of Stirling units that use a cycle of compression and decompression in a fluid to get to low temperatures.

Theoretically, mechanical coolers could have given Herschel more life, but engineers considered such a design to be too risky.

"There was a competitive concept but it involved a lot of stages, a lot of machines," recalls Jean-Jacques Juillet, the director of scientific programmes at Thales Alenia Space, the company that led the industrial development of Herschel.

"If one of those stages had failed, it could have been a disaster for the continuity of the mission. The cryostat option was the safest option," he told BBC News.

With the cryostat path adopted, engineers then set about constructing the largest possible helium vessel they could fit inside an Ariane launch rocket.

Esa hopes to join a future far-infrared telescope project called Spica. This is a Japanese venture that could fly in the early 2020s.

Europe would provide important components, including the primary mirror and a spectrograph. Unlike Herschel, Spica is likely to use mechanical coolers.

Continue reading the main story

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21934520#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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What Lies Beyond This Interstellar Rabbit Hole?

Stephen Hawking is right, ?We must continue to go into space for humanity.? But what do we do when confronted with the unimaginable possibilities we find out there?

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/xnEP6oRNVpc/what-lies-beyond-this-interstellar-rabbit-hole-484451421

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Snakeheads get stunned, then tagged as biologists study fish?s effect on Potomac

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128018/Snakeheads_get_stunned__then_tagged_as_biologists_study_fish___s_effect_on_Potomac

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Visitors help Boston shops bounce back after Marathon attacks

By Ross Kerber

BOSTON (Reuters) - One tourist wanted to eat at a restaurant as close to the Boston Marathon finish line as possible. Other well-wishers made a point of buying shoes at the running store just a few steps away from a bomb blast site.

With their dining and shopping dollars, throngs of visitors to Boston's Boylston Street are helping small businesses recover quickly from millions of dollars in losses after the Boston Marathon bombing attacks on April 15.

"The support has been incredible," said Colin Peddie, owner of Marathon Sports, of the customers who have flooded his running goods store close to the racecourse finish - and the site of the first of two blasts that killed three people and injured 264.

Unlike the September 11, 2001 attacks, the last comparable event on U.S. soil, the low-tech bombing of the Boston Marathon left relatively little property damage.

Still, a number of businesses in the area were forced to temporarily close to repair minor damage or wait for police to complete their investigation of crime scene.

Meg Mainzer-Cohen, president of the 500-member local Back Bay Association trade group, said about half of them lost at least some money due to the bombings and their aftermath. She estimated losses total tens of millions of dollars.

Many retailers and restaurants now hope to make up their losses through increased foot traffic from visitors, runners and locals coming to the site of the attacks, she said.

At Marathon Sports, where the blasts blew apart the shopfront, Peddie credited his local insurer with helping him reopen quickly and said the store is on track to recoup the losses as visitors return to the area.

"It's for all the wrong reasons, but for now when someone comes to Boston they're going to take that walk down Boylston Street," Peddie said.

Mark Shapiro, a doctor who had just arrived from San Diego on Friday and was taking pictures outside a packed Marathon Sports, said he and his wife made it one of their first stops.

"We both agreed we wanted to pay our respects, but it was nothing like I expected. I had no idea it would be so crowded," Shapiro said.

Representatives for several investment fund companies and other professional businesses in the area said most employees were able to work remotely during the days much of the area was closed off as a crime scene - including during a citywide shutdown on April 19 as police searched for one of the bombing suspects.

These included International Data Group, the technology research firm whose headquarters are in an office building just next to the site of the first blast.

SEEKING RESTAURANT NEAR FINISH LINE

Some retailers and businesses were less fortunate.

At The Tannery, a fashionable footwear and clothing store at the corner of Boylston and Exeter streets, general manager Gerardo Defabritiis estimated lost sales of more than $100,000 for his store, which has 15 employees.

"We're talking about six figures," he said. Still, only one window was slightly damaged in the attacks and nobody was injured, he said. "We're OK, thank God," he said.

Those likely to wind up hit hardest are doctors, hair salons and other service providers who charge by the visit and cannot easily make up sales such as by staying open later, said Mainzer-Cohen of the Back Bay Association.

"There are only so many hours in the day," she said.

The U.S. Small Business Administration said on Monday it would make available low-interest disaster loans of up to $2 million to help those impacted by the attack. Not all business-interruption insurance covers losses tied to terror attacks.

Mike Ross, a Boston city councilman whose district includes the area, said he has gotten a flood of contacts from out-of-town visitors looking to stop in after the attacks. One man from New York, Ross said, e-mailed for help finding a restaurant as close to the Boston Marathon's finish line as possible.

"We're really pumped," Ross said of visitors' new enthusiasm for the area.

(Reporting By Ross Kerber; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/visitors-help-boston-shops-bounce-back-marathon-attacks-212025839.html

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White House Correspondents Dinner 2013: Obama, Conan Bring the House Down

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Win of the day: Weather Channel pummels interns with 'tornado'

Tornado Week kicked off today for the Weather Channel ? both on screen and in the network's office.?

The channel has announced a Twitter campaign to promote its upcoming mega-block of tornado-centric programming. Weather Channel interns will be buffeted by a "Twitter-powered tornado" throughout the day, which can be seen on a live feed streaming to the web. The more tweets referencing the campaign's #TornadoWeek hashtag, the harder the artificial wind blows. Should the campaign notch one million mentions, the winds will hit?EF-5 levels. On the Enhanced Fujita Scale, EF-5 is the fiercest type of tornado, with winds topping 200 miles per hour.

By midafternoon, the campaign had racked up thousands of tweets ? many of them, perhaps unsurprisingly, snarky ? as curious Twitter users sought to make things more interesting for themselves, and for those wind-battered interns.

You can watch the live stream above. If you get bored, you know what to do.

Source: http://theweek.com/article/index/243432/win-of-the-day-weather-channel-pummels-interns-with-tornado

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These Award-Winning Vines Are Everything a Six Second Film Should Be

Vines aren't exactly a new from of high art or anything. But while poorly edited Vine's of your friends' cats doing nothing are probably what you see most often, there are some pretty good ones, with a bit more meat to 'em. These Tribeca Vine Competition winners are a pretty good sample. They're so good you might even go "huh!" More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/-dE2Itrn1Xk/these-award+winning-vines-are-everything-a-six-second-film-should-be

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Court may limit use of race in college admission decisions

By Joan Biskupic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Thirty-five years after the Supreme Court set the terms for boosting college admissions of African Americans and other minorities, the court may be about to issue a ruling that could restrict universities' use of race in deciding who is awarded places.

The case before the justices was brought by Abigail Fisher, a white suburban Houston student who asserted she was wrongly rejected by the University of Texas at Austin while minority students with similar grades and test scores were admitted.

The ruling is the only one the court has yet to issue following oral arguments in cases heard in October and November, the opening months of the court's annual term which lasts until the early summer. A decision might come as early as Monday, before the start of a two-week recess.

As hard as it is to predict when a ruling will be announced, it is more difficult to say how it might change the law. Still, even a small move in the Texas case could mark the beginning of a new chapter limiting college administrators' discretion in using race in deciding on admissions.

For decades, dating back at least to the John F. Kennedy administration of the 1960s, U.S. leaders have struggled with what "affirmative action" should be taken to help blacks and other minorities. In the early years, it was seen as a way to remedy racial prejudice and discrimination; in the more modern era, as a way to bring diversity to campuses and workplaces.

Since 1978, the Supreme Court has been at the center of disputes over when universities may consider applicants' race. In that year's groundbreaking Bakke decision from a University of California medical school, the justices forbade quotas but said schools could weigh race with other factors.

In another seminal university case, the court in 2003 reaffirmed the use of race in admissions to create diversity in colleges. But with the current bench more conservative than the one in 2003, there is a strong chance a majority of the justices will undercut that decade-old ruling on a University of Michigan case.

Writing for the majority in that case, Grutter v. Bollinger, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor declared that "the path to leadership" should be "visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity." That meant public universities must be able to take special steps to enroll minorities, O'Connor wrote.

O'Connor retired in January 2006 and her successor as the regular swing vote on racial dilemmas has been Justice Anthony Kennedy, who dissented in the 2003 case and may well author the ruling to come in the latest case. The student in the case, Abigail Fisher, graduated from Louisiana State University last year.

"HURT," "INJURY"

Notably, during oral argument in the University of Texas case on October 10, Kennedy referred to the "hurt" and "injury" caused by screening applicants by race. However, Kennedy's comments during arguments suggested that he was not ready to vote to forbid all racial criteria in admissions.

In his dissenting opinion in the 2003 Michigan case, he wrote that the court has long accepted universities' stance that racial diversity enhances the educational experience for all students, while insisting such policies be narrowly drawn.

Kennedy's view of when exactly race can be considered and of the discretion of college administrators in the matter are likely to be crucial.

Marvin Krislov, now president of Oberlin College in Ohio and a past vice-president and general counsel of the University of Michigan, said on Friday that university administrators were concerned about how broadly it might sweep and whether it will ultimately reduce the number of minority students on campus.

"Colleges and universities care deeply about student body diversity," he said, adding of his colleagues in higher education: "We're all watching and waiting."

Once oral arguments are held, the court's deliberations on a case are shrouded in secrecy. The timing of a particular decision is not known in advance. And racial dilemmas have never been easy for the court, a point underscored by the current delay.

When the justices ruled in the 1978 case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, they issued six separate opinions. None drew a majority. Four justices would have upheld a program that set aside a certain number of slots for minority applicants; four justices would have struck it down. Justice Lewis Powell provided the essential fifth vote, allowing universities to consider race and ethnic origin but forbidding quotas or a reserved number of places. Powell planted the seed of the diversity justification that blossomed in O'Connor's opinion in 2003.

The Michigan case divided the bench 5-4, with O'Connor joining with the more liberal members of the bench to allow race as a consideration in admissions. In a 2007 dispute testing the use of race in student placements to ensure diversity in school districts, the court tipped the opposite way. Conservatives, including O'Connor's successor Samuel Alito, curtailed such public school integration plans.

Only eight of the nine justices will be deciding the Texas case. Justice Elena Kagan, a former U.S. solicitor general, has taken herself out of the dispute because of her prior involvement in the case. The government is siding with the University of Texas.

The challenged program supplements a Texas state policy guaranteeing admission to the university for high school graduates scoring in the top 10 percent at their individual schools. University of Texas administrators argue that the "Top 10" program does not make the university sufficiently diverse.

The Texas approach, with the dual programs, is distinct. The larger issue is how a decision would affect other universities.

"The court seems to have been leaning away from allowing affirmative action for some time," said University of Virginia law professor John Jeffries, a former law clerk and biographer of Justice Lewis Powell. "If they close the door that, potentially, is a very big deal."

(Editing by Howard Goller, Martin Howell; desking by Christopher Wilson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/court-may-limit-race-college-admission-decisions-133238785.html

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Earnings beating forecasts but jury's out on rest of season

By Caroline Valetkevitch and Ben Berkowitz

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. companies have easily beaten expectations for first-quarter earnings so far in the reporting season, but nearly half of the members of the S&P 500 are yet to announce results and they are unlikely to be as robust.

With results in from 271 of the S&P 500 companies, year-over-year earnings growth is projected at 3.9 percent, compared with a forecast for 1.5 percent growth at the start of the earnings season, Thomson Reuters data shows. That figure includes those that have reported and analyst estimates for those who have not.

The companies yet to report are expected to post an aggregate earnings decline of 0.4 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data - whereas the companies that have already reported have posted growth of 6.1 percent.

Among the biggest companies yet to report are Dow components Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Home Depot .

Some 69 percent of the S&P 500 have beaten forecasts, once again conforming to the pattern of lowering expectations enough to "surprise" by beating them. The 69 percent figure exceeds the long-term average of 63 percent. This has been the pattern for the last 15 quarters, with growth estimates at the beginning of earnings ultimately being beaten by at least a full percentage point.

From April 1 to April 24, S&P 500 earnings growth expectations fell 170 basis points for the second quarter, 130 basis points for the third quarter and 70 basis points for the fourth quarter.

"If this recent pattern holds, you're going to find that those beats will continue and therefore lead earnings season to be one of continued positive surprise," said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.

So far, this has been good enough for investors. Since earnings season began with Alcoa's report on April 8, the S&P 500 has gained 1.2 percent, and it closed Friday less than 1 percent from its all-time high of 1,593.37 reached on April 11. So far this year, it has climbed nearly 11 percent.

GOING FORWARD, WITH CAUTION

Even though profits have been better than expectations, revenue forecasts have declined, a sign, once again, that companies are exceeding results on the bottom line because of reduced expenses, and not because of stellar sales. So far, just 42 percent of companies are beating revenue expectations, below the long-term average.

First-quarter revenue now is expected to fall 0.3 percent, which is worse than the forecast for 1 percent growth when the season started.

That means companies - yet again - have been able to squeeze out higher profits through cost-cutting and other measures. But that does not bode well for hiring and stands as a potential headwind to the economy in coming quarters.

"It does concern me. It's not sustainable over the medium or the long term. There's only so much companies can do to sustain growth without increasing sales," said Paul Zemsky, head of asset allocation at ING Investment Management, in New York.

There are plenty of examples of major companies that were deeply reserved about the second quarter or the remainder of the year.

Among those were Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc . Apple, until recently the world's biggest company by market value, saw its first quarterly profit decline in a decade and issued a soft outlook for the second quarter that fell short of investor hopes. The stock has lost about 40 percent of its value since September.

"The market was telling you the numbers were too high," BGC analyst Colin Gillis said of Apple's outlook, adding that it was "pretty much even worse than even I was expecting."

(Additional reporting by Rodrigo Campos and Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/earnings-beating-forecasts-jurys-rest-season-211325703.html

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GDP growth slows: why Washington must repeal the sequester

GDP?grew only 2.5 percent in the first quarter. It's evidence that?the economy is slowing, the recovery is stalling, and Washington must repeal the sequester, Reich writes.

By Robert Reich,?Guest blogger / April 26, 2013

Jobseekers stand in line around the block to attend the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. career fair held by the New York State department of Labor in New York. No economy can maintain momentum just on the spending of the richest 10 percent, Reich writes.

Lucas Jackson/Reuters/File

Enlarge

Economic forecasters exist to make astrologers look good. Most had forecast growth of at least 3 percent (on an annualized basis) in the first quarter. But we?learned this morning?(in the Commerce Department?s report) it grew only 2.5 percent.

Skip to next paragraph Robert Reich

Robert is chancellor?s professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Clinton. Time Magazine?named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written 13 books, including ?The Work of Nations,? his latest best-seller ?Aftershock: The Next Economy and America?s Future," and a new?e-book, ?Beyond Outrage.??He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.

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That?s better than the 2 percent growth last year and the slowdown at the end of the year. But it?s still cause for serious concern.?

First, consumers won?t keep up the spending. Their savings rate fell sharply ? from 4.7% in the last quarter of 2012 to 2.6% from January through March.

Add in?March?s dismal employment report, the lowest percentage of working-age adults in jobs since 1979, and January?s hike in payroll taxes, and consumer spending will almost certainly drop.?

Artificial sense of touch gets smarter, lets robots really feel

The verdict's still out on whether or not androids dream of electric sheep. But their ability to feel? Well, that's about to approach levels of human sensitivity. We're of course talking about the sense of touch, not emotions. And thanks to work out of Georgia Tech, tactile sensitivity for robotics, more secure e-signatures and general human-machine interaction is about to get a great 'ol boost. Through the use of thousands of piezotronic transistors (i.e., grouped vertical zinc oxide nanowires) known as "taxels," a three-person team led by Prof. Zhong Lin Wang has devised a way to translate motion into electronic signals. In other words, you're looking at a future in which robotic hands interpret the nuances of a surface or gripped object akin to a human fingertip and artificial skin senses touch similar to the way tiny hairs on an arm do.

What's more, the tech has use outside of robotics and can even be levereged for more secure e-signature verification based on speed and pressure of a user's handwriting. And the best part? These sensors can be manufactured on transparent and flexible substrates like the one pictured above, which allows for various real-world applications -- just use your imagination. Pretty soon, even robots will have the pleasure of enjoying the touch... the feel of cotton and maybe even hum that jingle to themselves, too.

Filed under: Science, Alt

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Via: MIT Technology Review

Source: Georgia Tech, Science

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/26/artificial-sense-of-touch-gets-smarter-lets-robots-really-feel/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Honda recalls nearly 46,000 Fit Sports

DETROIT (AP) ? Honda is recalling nearly 46,000 Fit Sport small cars in the U.S. and Canada to fix a problem with the electronic stability control system.

The recall affects cars from the 2012 and 2013 model years. Honda says the stability control system can let the car tilt too far before it applies the brakes to prevent a crash.

The defect was discovered in government testing of models with a particular type of tires. Honda says it doesn't know of any crashes or injuries from the problem.

Honda dealers will update the system's software free of charge. Owners will be notified starting in mid-May.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/honda-recalls-nearly-46-000-fit-sports-014434400.html

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The Engadget Podcast is live at 3:30PM ET!

With Tim quite literally up in the air this week, Brian and Peter will be joined by Dana this time out to discuss all of the week's happenings. You can join along, too, after the break.

Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/sFb7JHK3CGQ/

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Fotopedia Reporter for iPad lets photographers publish their own photo stories

Fotopedia Reporter is a gorgeous app that lets you create your own photo stories and publish them to the popular social magazine. Whether it's a gallery from your last vacation, a tour of your garden, a review of your favorite restaurant, there's a place for your editorial creativity on Fotopedia.

Creating a photo story is easy: start with a cover photo, choose a title and description, add a location, pull text from Wikipedia or add your own, and share for all to see!

In addition to sharing your own stories, you can also browse stories posted by other people. Fotopedia has a featured page of great content as well as the most popular and new stories organized by category.

Fotopedia is very social at lets you rate stories up to 5 stars as well as leave comments. You can also follow users and see all their work viewed as a list or thumbnails.

The good

• Stunning design
• Easy to create a photo story
• Find amazing work by other users
• Organize by featured or category (new or popular)
• Leaving ratings and comments
• Follow users and view profiles
• Share to Facebook and Twitter

The bad

• No complaints

The bottom line

Fotopedia Reporter is incredibly well designed and is a great way for photographers to showcase their work. I am in awe by some of the photos I've come across and it makes me want to pick a theme and take a stab at photojournalism.

• Free - Download now

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/CoGB8ldagU4/story01.htm

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Quote of the Day (Taegan Goddard's Political Wire)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/301460872?client_source=feed&format=rss

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