সোমবার, ৪ মার্চ, ২০১৩

Mid-life crisis? New Corvette convertible unveiled

It was just another car rolling down the assembly line this past week ? or would have been if it wasn't, in fact, the last sixth-generation Corvette to be produced at General Motors? assembly plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

The white two-seater with a dark canvas top was perhaps the appropriate way to end a product run that began in 2005. Sometimes referred to as ?America?s sports car,? the seventh-generation Corvette almost didn?t make it to production, the project nearly scuttled by GM?s 2009 bankruptcy. But even a year late, the new coupe version of the ?Vette, which fans call the C7, proved the star of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this past January.

Company officials there revealed plans to add an assortment of spin-off models, and an all-new version of the Chevrolet Corvette Convertible will make its formal debut at this coming week?s Geneva Motor Show.

It was the star of the hometown car show but now General Motors hopes to prove its new, seventh-generation Chevrolet Corvette has international appeal as it drops the top on the so-called "C7? by introducing the convertible edition at the Geneva Motor Show.

Though a few hazy ?spy shots? have surfaced in recent weeks, these are the first official images of the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible, which reveal that GM designers and engineers went to great lengths to maintain the striking shape of the coupe that was first introduced in January at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Indeed, in a conversation with TheDetroitBureau.com, Tadge Juechter, the chief engineer on the C7 Corvette program stressed that it ?was designed with the convertible in mind.? That?s unlike the way GM and many other automakers have traditionally approached the development of a ragtop.

The Detroit Bureau: China's Car Boom Could Go Bust

All too often, they start out with a coupe and then find ways to slice off the roof. But that weakens the overall vehicle platform, something you clearly don?t want in a sports car, so it requires the introduction of significant supports and bracing. With the 2014 Corvette Convertible, however, there?s essentially nothing added. Yet the base model of the C7 droptop, Juechter said, is 20 percent stiffer than the old hardtop version of the higher-performance Corvette Z06.

There will be a modest gain in weight, he acknowledged, because of the folding rooftop rails and the motor drive system. Specific details won?t be released until Geneva, but the new convertible is expected to be operated by a single button and will be able to be raised and lowered while moving slowly. Considering competitive convertible sports cars like the Porsche 911 Cabriolet can operate in less than 20 seconds, the new C7 Convertible likely will be quicker, as well.

The Detroit Bureau: Chrysler Investing Nearly $400 Mil, Adding Another 1,250 Jobs

Chevrolet eventually plans an assortment of Corvette Coupe variants, as in the past, with the stock hardtop shown in Detroit, and a higher-performance Z06 and a track-ready ZR1 to follow over the next several years, according to various sources. It?s not clear yet if the Detroit maker also will offer multiple versions of the Convertible, but that appears likely.

Chevrolet marked the final year ? and the 60th anniversary ? of the Corvette nameplate by introducing a tire-shredding version of the last-generation, ?C6? ?Vette. Dubbed the Grand Sport, it was the most powerful version of the 2-seater ever produced, at 430-horsepower and 424 pound-feet of torque.

At launch, the new C7 Convertible will share the same drivetrain as the new 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe, which means it will actually deliver more power than the Grand Sport, at 450-hp and 450 lb-ft. And though ever so slightly heavier than the hardtop, the al fresco edition should also be able to deliver 0-to-60 times of four seconds or less.

All that?s fine, but why go all the way to Geneva to introduce the new Chevrolet Corvette Convertible rather than, say, wait for less than a month and reveal it during the last of the season?s big U.S. car shows in New York?

The Detroit Bureau: New McLaren P1 "Ultracar" Could Leave You Breathless

The answer has to do with the changing nature of Chevy itself. While you might think of it as ?the Heartbeat of America,? as it long billed itself, the modern reality is that nearly two of every three Chevrolet products will be sold outside North America this year. In an otherwise retrenching European car market, it?s one of the few growing marques. It?s an increasingly strong player in China and the bowtie brand has traditionally been one of the most powerful in Latin America, as well.

While many of those markets get unique products, such as the Captiva crossover, that we don?t even see in the States, the Corvette has been as much a halo car for Chevrolet abroad as it has been at home. And with GM?s largest brand aiming to turn the C7 remake of ?America?s sports car? into a truly global competitor, targeting exotics as far afield as Porsche and even Ferrari, Geneva takes the fight to their home turf.

Copyright ? 2009-2013, The Detroit Bureau

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/mid-life-crisis-new-corvette-convertible-unveiled-1C8655842

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Van Cliburn remembered as gifted pianist

Pallbearers carry Van Cliburn's coffin into Broadway Baptist Church for a funeral service for in Fort Worth, Texas on Sunday, March 3, 2013. The internationally famous musician died this week. About 1,400 people attended a memorial service for Cliburn, who died Wednesday at 78 after fighting bone cancer. As the service began, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra accompanied a choir as pall bearers carried his flower-covered coffin into the Fort Worth church. (AP Photo/Star-Telegram, Ron T. Ennis, Pool)

Pallbearers carry Van Cliburn's coffin into Broadway Baptist Church for a funeral service for in Fort Worth, Texas on Sunday, March 3, 2013. The internationally famous musician died this week. About 1,400 people attended a memorial service for Cliburn, who died Wednesday at 78 after fighting bone cancer. As the service began, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra accompanied a choir as pall bearers carried his flower-covered coffin into the Fort Worth church. (AP Photo/Star-Telegram, Ron T. Ennis, Pool)

Choir members and early arrivals wait for Broadway Baptist Church to open for the funeral service of Van Cliburn in Fort Worth, Texas on Sunday, March 3, 2013. About 1,400 people attended a memorial service for Cliburn, who died Wednesday at 78 after fighting bone cancer. As the service began, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra accompanied a choir as pall bearers carried his flower-covered coffin into the Fort Worth church. (AP Photo/Star-Telegram, Ron T. Ennis, Pool)

(AP) ? Legendary pianist Van Cliburn was remembered Sunday as a gifted musician who transcended the boundaries of politics and art by easing tensions during the Cold War and introducing classical music to millions.

About 1,400 people attended a memorial service for Cliburn, who died Wednesday at 78 after fighting bone cancer. As the service began, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra accompanied a choir while pall bearers carried his flower-covered coffin into a Fort Worth church.

Several speakers referred to what made Cliburn famous: winning the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958, when he was just 23. At the height of the Cold War, the win by the pianist who grew up in Texas helped thaw the icy rivalry between the United States and Soviet Union.

"Over the course of many years, during the most difficult historical times, the art of Van Cliburn brought together people from different countries, different continents and united them," Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a statement that was read during the service. "We shall always remember Van Cliburn as a true and sincere friend of the Russian people."

Former President George W. Bush told mourners that Soviets at the competition didn't find the expected stereotypical Texas cowboy but a gracious, humble young man who was "beloved, even by the enemy." Cliburn continued to spread peace and love through his music, Bush said.

"Members of the presidents' club could have taken a lesson from him in diplomacy," said Bush, who presented Cliburn with the Presidential Medal of Freedom ? the nation's highest civilian honor ? in 2003.

After the Moscow win, Cliburn returned to a hero's welcome and a ticker-tape parade ? the first ever for a classical musician. A Time magazine cover proclaimed him "The Texan Who Conquered Russia." Cliburn's popularity soared, and he sold out concerts and caused riots when he was spotted in public.

As a result, Cliburn introduced Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff to a younger generation ? those who may never have heard or liked classical music, said Juilliard School President Joseph Polisi.

Cliburn played for every U.S. president since Harry Truman, plus royalty and heads of state worldwide.

"I am confident that the enduring beauty of his art will sustain his legendary status for years to come," President Barack Obama said in a statement that was read during the service.

Cliburn also used his skill and fame to help other young musicians through the Van Cliburn International Music Competition, held every four years. Created in 1962 by a group of Fort Worth teachers and citizens, it remains among the top showcases for the world's best pianists. The next competition, to be held in May and June, is being dedicated to Cliburn's memory.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Cliburn helped keep the state at the center of the arts "and in that way, Van lives on."

Cliburn was born Harvey Lavan Cliburn Jr. on July 12, 1934, in Shreveport, La., the son of oilman Harvey Cliburn Sr. and Rildia Bee O'Bryan Cliburn. At age 3, he began studying piano with his mother, herself an accomplished pianist who had studied with a pupil of the great 19th century Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt.

The family moved back to the east Texas town of Kilgore within a few years of his birth.

Cliburn won his first Texas competition when he was 12, and two years later he played in Carnegie Hall as the winner of the National Music Festival Award. At 17, Cliburn attended the Juilliard School in New York. Between 1952 and 1958, he won all but one competition he entered. By age 20, he had played with the New York Philharmonic and the symphonies of most major cities.

Despite his phenomenal success over five decades, Cliburn remained humble and gracious, friends said.

The Rev. Brent Beasley said Cliburn gave beauty back to God and to the world, "and we are profoundly grateful."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-03-03-US-Van-Cliburn-Funeral/id-f560faae44d943a78ae34836bbcc9971

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Supply ship meets space station after shaky start - KWQC-TV6 News ...

By MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - A private Earth-to-orbit delivery service made good on its latest shipment to the International Space Station on Sunday, overcoming mechanical difficulty and delivering a ton of supplies with high-flying finesse.

To NASA's relief, the SpaceX company's Dragon capsule pulled up to the orbiting lab with all of its systems in perfect order. Station astronauts used a hefty robot arm to snare the unmanned Dragon, and three hours later, it was bolted into place.

The Dragon's arrival couldn't have been sweeter - and not because of the fresh fruit on board for the six-man station crew. Coming a full day late, the 250-mile-high linkup above Ukraine culminated a two-day chase that got off to a shaky, almost dead-ending start.

Moments after the Dragon reached orbit Friday, a clogged pressure line or stuck valve prevented the timely release of the solar panels and the crucial firing of small maneuvering rockets. SpaceX flight controllers struggled for several hours before gaining control of the capsule and salvaging the mission.

"As they say, it's not where you start, but where you finish that counts," space station commander Kevin Ford said after capturing the Dragon, "and you guys really finished this one on the mark."

He added: "We've got lots of science on there to bring aboard and get done. So congratulations to all of you."

Among the items on board: 640 seeds of a flowering weed used for research, mouse stem cells, food and clothes for the six men on board the space station, trash bags, computer equipment, air purifiers, spacewalking tools and batteries. The company also tucked away apples and other fresh treats from an employee's family orchard.

The Dragon will remain at the space station for most of March before returning to Earth with science samples, empty food containers and old equipment.

The California-based SpaceX run by billionaire Elon Musk has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to keep the station well stocked. The contract calls for 12 supply runs; this was the second in that series.

This is the third time, however, that a Dragon has visited the space station. The previous capsules had no trouble reaching their destination. Company officials promise a thorough investigation into what went wrong this time; if the maneuvering thrusters had not been activated, the capsule would have been lost.

Ford said everything about Sunday's rendezvous ended up being "fantastic."

"There sure were some big smiles all around here," NASA's Mission Control replied from Houston.

Proclaimed SpaceX on its web site: "Happy Berth Day."

In a tweet following Friday's nerve-racking drama, Musk said, "Just want to say thanks to (at)NASA for being the world's coolest customer. Looking forward to delivering the goods!"

Musk, who helped create PayPal, acknowledged Friday that the problem - the first ever for an orbiting Dragon - was "frightening." But he believed it was a one-time glitch and nothing so serious as to imperil future missions. The 41-year-old entrepreneur, who also runs the electric car maker Tesla, oversaw the entire operation from Hawthorne, Calif., home to SpaceX and the company's Mission Control.

The Dragon's splashdown in the Pacific, off the Southern California coast, remains on schedule for March 25.

NASA is counting on the commercial sector to supply the space station for the rest of this decade; it's supposed to keep running until at least 2020. Russia, Europe and Japan are doing their part, periodically launching their own cargo ships. But none of those craft can return items like the Dragon can; they burn up on re-entry.

Russia also is providing rides for astronauts - the only game in town since the retirement of NASA's space shuttles in 2011.

SpaceX, or more formally Space Exploration Technologies Corp., leads the commercial pack that is working toward launching astronauts in another few years. Musk said he can have people flying on a modified Dragon by 2015.

NASA's shuttles used to be the main haulers for the space station. At the White House direction, the space agency opted out of the Earth-to-orbit transportation business in order to focus on deep space exploration. Mars is the ultimate destination.

___

Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/launch/index.html

SpaceX: http://www.spacex.com/

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.kwqc.com/story/21446867/dragon-capsule-tamed-closing-in-on-space-station

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Meatless Monday: How to quick soak dry beans (+video)

Soaking your own beans will not only save you money, you'll get a better-for-you-bean to boot.

By France Morissette and Joshua Sprague,?Beyond The Peel / March 3, 2013

Some beans require soaking overnight. A short cut version is to use boiling water and a couple of tablespoons of vinegar to speed up the softening process.

Beyond The Peel

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One of the biggest challenges that I hear about most often is that transitioning to a whole food diet will be cost prohibitive. Here?s just one of the many food items that is less expensive than its processed counterpart, takes little to no effort to prepare, and is very simple to do! Beans and legumes.

Skip to next paragraph France Morissette and Joshua Sprague

Beyond The Peel

Cookbook author, France Morissette, and her husband Joshua Sprague believe that healthy food should be uncompromising when it comes to flavor. They creatively explore the world of natural, whole foods, leaving no stone unturned in their quest to create mouth watering, flavor packed, whole food meals. Through stories, photos, recipes and their online show Beyond The Peel TV, they're on a mission to help you eat healthy and enjoy every last bite in the process.

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Make your own and skip the canned version. The homemade ones have a better texture, cause less digestive upset, and are healthier for you.

It's simple: add a couple cups of dry black beans to a bowl, add a couple of tablespoons of apple cider, cover with 6 cups of boiling water. Let them sit for 1 hour. That's it!

After you?ve finished with the soaking process (whether you choose the 1 hour or 8-24 hour process) you?re ready for the cooking part. Drain the beans, rinse well and place the beans in a pot. Add water in a 3:1 ratio to the beans and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until tender. This could take anywhere from 45 minutes to 1-1/2 hours. If at that point they still aren?t cooked (some beans are really old and need longer cooking times, but it?s rare), add a teaspoon of baking soda to the water and continue to cook until tender.

I?ve heard stories of beans not being cooked after 4 hours. At that point, I?d toss the beans and buy different ones, but I hear the baking soda trick does work. You choose.

To salt or not to salt? It?s entirely up to you. You can even use vegetable or chicken stock instead of water or add spices and herbs to the pot, but if you want to keep it simple, basic water does the trick.

A can of organic beans will cost you $2.99 a can (that?s 1-1/2 cups of beans). You can make them for a fraction of the cost. A 1/2 cup of dried beans will make 1-1/2 cups cooked. Organic dried beans might cost about .30 cents for 1/2 cup. Now that?s saving some money.

If you want to learn more about traditional methods of cooking as taught through the teachings of Weston A. Price and Nourishing Traditions visit our friend Wardeh?s website Gnowfglins. Wardeh?s online course will teach you everything you need to know.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of food bloggers. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by The Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own and they are responsible for the content of their blogs and their recipes. All readers are free to make ingredient substitutions to satisfy their dietary preferences, including not using wine (or substituting cooking wine) when a recipe calls for it. To contact us about a blogger, click here.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/fp8Jy0DbdiE/Meatless-Monday-How-to-quick-soak-dry-beans-video

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রবিবার, ৩ মার্চ, ২০১৩

Nigerian Islamist leader denies peace talks in video

MAIDUGURI (Reuters) - The leader of Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram rejected peace talks with the government in a new video on Sunday, distancing himself from a purported commander who declared a ceasefire on behalf of the sect in January.

The video was circulated to reporters in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, from where Boko Haram is waging a bloody insurgency against the state that has killed at least 3,000 people across northern Nigeria since 2009.

The video could not be immediately be verified, although the speaker appeared to be Abubakar Shekau, leader of the militant movement who has made several films threatening the authorities or outlining the sect's position in the past.

A purported Boko Haram commander called Sheik Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulazeez, who is known to Nigerian security forces, declared a ceasefire at the end of January.

The government cautiously welcomed it, but Shekau himself was silent and violence in the north has continued unabated.

"Abdulazeez has not been speaking on my behalf and I disassociate myself from him completely," Shekau said in the brief video in the northern Hausa language.

"(Boko Haram) has at no time offered a ceasefire and we are not in dialogue with government, neither are we prepared for it until the conditions we laid down have been met," he added, listing those conditions as that Nigerian security forces must stop killing the sect's members and calling them armed robbers.

Shekau's comments raise questions about possible rifts within the secretive movement, which analysts say has long been splintered into different factions with varying interests.

No one knows where Shekau is, and the security forces believe him to have been wounded in a gun battle with them late last year.

Nigerian security forces killed 20 Boko Haram militants when they tried to attack the Monguno barracks in the northeastern state of Borno, a security force spokesman said. The Nigerian military often claims successes in clashes with Islamists, but rarely admits civilian deaths or significant casualties on its own side.

Western governments are concerned that Boko Haram, or some factions of it, have linked up with groups elsewhere in the region, including al Qaeda's North African franchise, especially given the conflict in nearby Mali, to which Nigeria has committed hundreds of troops.

Attacks in northern Nigeria are increasingly targeting foreign interests, especially since France's operation last month to flush Islamsists out of northern Mali.

Gunmen killed a security guard and abducted a Briton, an Italian, a Greek and four Lebanese workers after storming the compound of Lebanese construction firm Setraco in Bauchi state on February 16.

That attack was claimed by a Boko Haram splinter group called Ansaru, which British authorities believe was behind the killing of a British and an Italian hostage last year.

Gunmen claiming to be from Boko Haram are holding a French family of seven seized from northern Cameroon.

(Reporting by Ibrahim Mshelizza; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nigerian-islamist-leader-denies-peace-talks-video-153444897.html

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Film industry gets partial tax relief - Real Film Career Forum for What ...

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Film-industry-gets-partial-tax-relief/articleshow/18745065.cms

ByBharati Dubey, TNN

The fierce lobbying of the film industry with the North block has resulted in partial tax relief .Finance Minister P Chadambaram?in his budget speech said, ?Last year, at the request of the film industry, full exemption of?service tax?was granted on copyright on cinematography. The industry has now requested to limit the benefit of exemption to films exhibited in cinema halls. I propose to accept the request.?

Last year when the industry asked for the exemption on the temporary transfer of copyrights, the industry didn?t expect that?the Government?will bring all the services related to film production under the purview of?service tax?hence with this move of the government the film industry suffered heavily as the cost of the film went up by almost 12%. Says?an industry insider, ?post?the last year?s budget, we kept sending representations to the ministry and had many meetings to explain that this exemption had no meaning if the service tax continues to be on the cost and there is no tax on the output when we sell the rights. Various options were suggested to the government by theProducers Guild?which you can see in the final representation sent to the finance ministry by us on 7th Jan 2013.?

In this year?s budget, the FM has announced that the service tax exemption will continue only on films released in cinema halls only hence the producers now can charge service tax on the non theatrical rights such as Music, Video, New Media and satellite etc.. With this change, the producers can set off the service tax charged to them by all those who provide services to the films such as Actors, Technicians, Directors, Shooting locations etc. With this change the film industry is likely to be benefited.

Film producers are much relieved.?Apoorva Mehta of Dharma Production?said,? It implies that service tax will be brought back which is great news for the industry as earlier we were unable to offset the service tax incurred on the cost of production in the absence of service tax on copyright?this will certainly be a cost relief for producers and production houses, but full details will be needed on the scope of this levy to ascertain the actual relief.?

Producer Mukesh Bhatt?has been making several presentation to the information and broadcasting ministry appealing for tax concession for film industry which has been burdened by multiple taxes. Bhatt said, ?We have got some relaxation which will set off about 3 per cent of our film production which is not good enough but it is better than getting nothing.?

The film industry in his proposal to the finance minister expected the government to restore service tax exemption on transmission of digital cinema. Bhatt said, ?We expected relief in digital prints if the government is given us some relief in terms of exhibition that digital prints are part of it. We would like to request the finance minister to consider our plea for relief on digital cinema. If such benefit was granted by the government it would not only encourage us to go more digital and but also curb piracy which is eating into our business in a big way.?

Digitalisation of cinema has only helped growth of smaller and independent filmmakers who were expecting some relief on digital prints.?Filmmaker Sanjay Puran Chauhan?said, ?If the to more people viewing the film, more prints for movies leading to bigger releases and yes, the audience pays less. They are digital screens get exemption for service tax, the movie industry will benefit hugely. Ticket costs of the films can then go down as well leading god and need to be appeased.?

Source: http://realfilmcareer.com/film-industry-gets-partial-tax-relief/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=film-industry-gets-partial-tax-relief

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Keystone Pipeline study: We must kill the environment to save it (Americablog)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/288614103?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Reports: Expectant parents die in crash; baby survives

By Alastair Jamieson, Staff writer, NBC News

A young couple en route to a hospital to have their first child was killed in a car crash in New York City early Sunday but their child survived, according to reports.

Nathan and Raizy Glauber, both 21 and Orthodox Jews, were using a car service to go to the hospital when another vehicle crashed into the side of theirs at an intersection in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, Hasidic community activist Isaac Abraham told The Associated Press.

Nathan Glauber was pronounced dead at Beth Israel Hospital, while his wife died at Bellevue, the New York Post and the AP reported.

Pictures of the scene were posted on Vos Iz Neias, a news site that covers the Jewish community.

The couple's son was delivered at the scene and was taken to a hospital in serious condition, said Abraham, who is also a neighbor of Raizy Glauber's parents and lives two blocks from the scene of the crash.

The driver of the vehicle that hit the couple's car fled, police told the AP. No arrests have yet been made.

The Post reported that a BMW was involved and that it was the driver of the BMW who fled the scene, at the intersection of Kent Avenue and Wilson Street.

The condition of the car service's driver is unclear, police said, according to the AP.

Brooklyn is home to the largest community of ultra-orthodox Jews outside Israel, more than 250,000.

?

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/03/17166773-reports-expectant-parents-killed-in-nyc-crash-baby-born-at-scene?lite

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Vt. town ponders exhibit honoring Soviet dissident

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) ? Residents of the southern Vermont town that was once the home-in-exile of former Soviet dissident and writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn are considering whether to convert an historic church into an exhibit to honor the Nobel laureate's 18 years in Cavendish.

At Town Meeting ? the locals' annual decision-making gathering and the venue where Solzhenitsyn once addressed his neighbors when he arrived in 1977 ? voters will be asked whether they should take ownership of a small stone Universalist Church and use it to honor him.

Solzhenitsyn, who spent eight years in prison and labor camps for criticizing Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, said he chose Cavendish for its resemblance to his homeland and its small-town personality.

"I dislike very much large cities with their empty and fussy lives," he told his new neighbors. "I like very much the simple way of life and the population here, the simplicity and the human relationship. I like the countryside, and I like the climate with the long winter and the snow, which reminds me of Russia."

Solzhenitsyn wrote his best known works, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" and "The Gulag Archipelago," based on his years imprisoned, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970.

If the town decides at the meeting Monday to take over the deed to the church, plans call for some repairs and later an exhibit that would include videos of Solzhenitsyn, talking about his years in Cavendish where he lived until 1994 and where his son, Ignat, a pianist and conductor, still lives with his family.

The town, which prided itself on protecting Solzhenitsyn's privacy, hopes to find the sign that once sat in a store window warning that the proprietors offered no directions to his home.

Visitors still ask, and townspeople still decline.

"That's been our legacy is to let people do what they need to do, and let people be as best we can. I love our town's history of being a place of refuge, and I love the fact that when Solzhenitsyn was here he extended that to other people ...," said Margo Caulfield, coordinator of the Cavendish Historical Society.

The impetus for the project came when the town had little to offer a group of Russian tourists last summer who expected a monument in their countryman's honor, Caulfield said.

Built in 1844 under the leadership of renowned abolitionist Rev. Warren Skinner, the church was decommissioned in the 1960s. Caulfield said church leaders last year offered to donate the building to the town.

"He just did an incredible job of showing that a person can sustain unbelievable horrors and go on to live a remarkable life and just really thrive," Caulfield said of the town's famous resident. "Our focus is clearly we want to make sure our schoolchildren know about the work that he did and the importance that it played."

In 1994, just before he and his family moved back to Russia, Solzhenitsyn spoke again at Town Meeting, bringing tears to people's eyes. And after he died in Russia in 2008, the town held a memorial service to honor him at the elementary school.

___

Online: http://cavendishhistoricalsocietynews.blogspot.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vt-town-ponders-exhibit-honoring-soviet-dissident-214222339.html

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Gulf investors may bid $2.3 bln for Arsenal -report | Morocco World ...

Dubai, March 3, 2013 (Reuters)

A Middle Eastern consortium is poised to bid 1.5 billion pounds ($2.3 billion) for full ownership of Britain?s Arsenal Football Club in the biggest-ever takeover of a soccer team, The Telegraph newspaper reported.

The bid is likely to be mounted in the next few weeks, seeking to buy out the current majority owner, U.S. sports investor Stan Kroenke, the British newspaper said.

The Middle Eastern investors do not want to reveal their identities yet but will be backed by funds from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, the newspaper reported late on Saturday without naming its sources.

The consortium would make available transfer funds ?to transform the club into a major force in European and world football?, the newspaper quoted an unnamed source familiar with the plan as saying.

?The bid team regard Arsenal as one of the great clubs of European football but also one that is no longer punching its weight and is in danger of falling behind,? it said.

The newspaper added that the consortium would pledge to reduce ticket prices at Arsenal?s Emirates Stadium in London, and would aim to recreate there some of the atmosphere of Highbury, Arsenal?s historic former stadium.

The takeover would raise questions over the future of Arsenal?s manager, Arsene Wenger, although the consortium values his football knowledge and want him to remain at the club, The Telegraph said.

An acquisition would add to a string of investments in European soccer teams by Middle Eastern interests over the last several years.

Manchester City, the current English Premier League champions, were bought by a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family in 2008, while Kuwait?s al-Hasawi family bought twice European Cup winners Nottingham Forest in July last year. France?s Paris St Germain and Spain?s Malaga are owned by Qatari investors.

Source: http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2013/03/80835/gulf-investors-may-bid-2-3-bln-for-arsenal-report/

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Tamed Dragon supply ship arrives at space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) ? A privately owned Dragon capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, delivering a ton of supplies with high-flying finesse after a shaky start to the mission.

The Dragon's arrival was one day late but especially sweet ? and not because of the fresh fruit on board for the station astronauts who snared the capsule.

SpaceX, the California-based company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, had to struggle with the Dragon following its launch Friday from Cape Canaveral. A clogged pressure line or stuck valve prevented thrusters from working, and it took flight controllers several hours to gain control and salvage the mission.

In the end, the Dragon approached the orbiting lab with its 1-ton load about as smoothly as could be expected, with all of its thrusters, or little maneuvering rockets, operating perfectly. The capture occurred as the two spacecraft zoomed 250 miles above Ukraine.

"As they say, it's not where you start, but where you finish that counts," said space station commander Kevin Ford, "and you guys really finished this one on the mark."

He added: "We've got lots of science on there to bring aboard and get done. So congratulations to all of you."

Among the items on board: 640 seeds of a flowering weed used for research, mouse stem cells, food and clothes for the six men on board the space station, trash bags, computer equipment, air purifiers, spacewalking tools and batteries. The company also tucked away apples and other fresh treats from an employee's family orchard.

The Dragon will remain at the space station for most of March before returning to Earth with science samples, empty food containers and old equipment.

SpaceX ? Space Exploration Technologies Corp. ? has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to keep the station well stocked. The contract calls for 12 supply runs; this was the second in that series.

This is the third time, however, that a Dragon has visited the space station. The previous two capsules had no trouble reaching their destination. Company officials promise a thorough investigation into what went wrong this time; if the thrusters had not been activated, the capsule would have been lost.

Ford said everything about Sunday's rendezvous ended up being "fantastic."

"There sure were some big smiles all around here," NASA's Mission Control replied from Houston.

In a tweet following Friday's nerve-racking drama, Musk said, "Just want to say thanks to (at)NASA for being the world's coolest customer. Looking forward to delivering the goods!"

Musk, who helped create PayPal, acknowledged Friday that the problem ? the first ever for an orbiting Dragon ? was "frightening." But he believed it was a one-time glitch and nothing so serious as to imperil future missions. The 41-year-old entrepreneur, who also runs the electric car maker Tesla, oversaw the entire operation from Hawthorne, Calif., home to SpaceX and the company's Mission Control.

The Dragon's splashdown in the Pacific, meanwhile, remains on schedule for March 25.

NASA is counting on the commercial sector to supply the space station for the rest of this decade; it's supposed to keep running until at least 2020. Russia, Europe and Japan are doing their part, periodically launching their own cargo ships. But none of those craft can return items like the Dragon can; they burn up on re-entry

Russia also is providing rides for U.S. astronauts.

SpaceX and other companies are working toward launching astronauts in another few years. Musk leads the charge; he said he can have people flying on a modified Dragon by 2015.

NASA's space shuttles, retired to museums after a 30-year run, used to be the main haulers for the space station. At the White House direction, the space agency opted out of the Earth-to-orbit transportation business in order to focus on deep space exploration. Mars is the ultimate destination.

___

Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/launch/index.html

SpaceX: http://www.spacex.com/

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tamed-dragon-supply-ship-arrives-space-station-103324638.html

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Jailbreak Statistics - Business Insider

iphone jailbreak

htaule93 via Flickr

See Also

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Some impressive numbers come our way from this tweet by iOS security researcher @pod2g ??14,051,500 Apple devices running iOS 6 have now been jailbroken.

Furthermore, the Cydia jailbreak app is now seeing roughly 23 million monthly unique users (this statistic ignores iOS versions).

As a fraction of the whole, however, this statistic becomes less remarkable.

Given that Apple recently sold its 500 millionth iOS device, this means slightly fewer than 5% of iOS devices are operating outside of Apple's boundaries. However, the first day that the iOS 6 jailbreak was available, over 270,000 people downloaded it. This seems to send a clear message that people want to do more with their iPhones than Apple is willing to allow.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/jailbreak-statistics-2013-3

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Florida man feared dead after sinkhole swallows him

SEFFNER, Florida (Reuters) - A Florida man was missing and feared dead on Friday after a sinkhole suddenly opened up under the bedroom of his suburban Tampa home, police and fire officials said.

Rescuers responded to a 911 call late on Thursday after the family of Jeff Bush, 36, reported hearing a loud crash in the house and rushed to his bedroom.

"All they could see was a part of a mattress sticking out of the hole," said Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Chief Ron Rogers. "Essentially the floor of that room had opened up."

A sheriff's deputy rescued Bush's brother, Jeremy, who had jumped into the sinkhole to try to find him. Three other adults and a 2-year-old child were in the house at the time the sinkhole opened up.

"I feel in my heart he didn't make it," Jeremy Bush, 35, told Tampa TV station WFTS. "There were six of us in the house, five got out."

The entire household except Jeff Bush went out to eat ice cream on Thursday night and when they got home, Jeff was in his room sleeping. They were getting ready for bed when they heard a huge crash and Jeff screaming.

"It sounded like a car ran into the back of the house," said Norman Wicker, 48, the father of Jeremy's fianc?e who also lived in the house.

Jeremy jumped into the hole as Wicker ran to the shed for a shovel and flashlight. When he returned, Wicker said he yelled for Jeremy to get out but the brother furiously kept digging until a deputy arrived and pulled him out.

Authorities had not detected any signs of life after lowering listening devices and cameras into the hole and rescue efforts were suspended after the site was deemed too unsafe for emergency personnel to enter.

The evacuation of several nearby homes was ordered due to concerns the sinkhole was growing.

The Bush brothers worked together as landscapers, according to Leland Wicker, 48, one of the other residents of the house.

Fire Rescue spokeswoman Jessica Damico said the sinkhole appeared to be as wide as 30 feet, 30-feet deep, and an estimated 100 feet wide down below.

"It started in the bedroom and it has been expanding outward and it's taking the house with it as it opens up," said Bill Bracken, the head of an engineering company assisting rescuers.

The risk of sinkholes is common in Florida due to the state's porous geological bedrock, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. As rainwater filters down into the ground, it dissolves the rock causing erosion that can lead to underground caverns, which cause sinkholes when they collapse.

Florida suffered one of its worst sinkhole accidents in 1994 when a 15-story-deep chasm opened up east of Tampa at a phosphate mine. It created a hole 185 feet deep and as much as 160 feet wide. Locals dubbed it Disney World's newest attraction - 'Journey to the Center of the Earth.'

In 1981 in Winter Park near Orlando, a sinkhole was measured as 320 feet wide and 90 feet deep, swallowing a two-story house, part of a Porsche dealership, and an Olympic-size swimming pool. The site is now an artificial lake in the city.

"Mortgage companies are more and more requiring Florida home buyers to have sinkhole coverage on their homeowners insurance policy," said K.C. Williams a Tampa sinkhole and property damage claims lawyer who lives 2 miles away from the damaged home.

(Additional reporting by David Adams and Tom Brown; Writing by Kevin Gray; Editing by Tom Brown, Marguerita Choy and Andrew Hay)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/florida-man-missing-being-swallowed-sinkhole-145826313.html

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Obama signs order for "sequester" cuts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama formally ordered broad cuts in government spending on Friday night after he and congressional Republicans failed to reach a deal to avert automatic reductions that could dampen economic growth and curb military readiness.

As the United States staggered into another fiscal crisis, the White House predicted that the spending cuts triggered by the inability of Obama and lawmakers to forge a broader deficit-reduction agreement would be "deeply destructive" to the nation's economic and national security.

"Not everyone will feel the pain of these cuts right away. The pain though will be real. Beginning this week, many middle-class families will have their lives disrupted in significant ways," Obama told journalists after his meeting with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders.

Late on Friday, Obama signed an order that put in effect the across-the-board government spending cuts known as "sequestration." Government agencies will now begin to hack a total of $85 billion from their budgets between Saturday and October 1.

Half of the cuts will fall on the Pentagon. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the reductions put at risk "all of our missions.

Congress and Obama could still halt the cuts in the weeks to come, but neither side has expressed any confidence they will do so. Both Democrats and Republicans set the automatic cuts in motion during feverish deficit-reduction efforts in August 2011.

MARKETS SHRUG OFF CRISIS

Friday's events marked the first budget showdown in Washington of many in the past decade that was not somehow resolved at the last minute - often under pressure from rattled financial markets. Markets in New York shrugged off the stalemate in Washington on Friday as they have for months.

Democrats predicted the cuts could soon cause air-traffic delays, meat shortages as food safety inspections slow down, losses to thousands of federal contractors and damage to local economies across the country, particularly in the hardest-hit regions around military installations.

At the heart of Washington's persistent fiscal crises is disagreement over how to slash the budget deficit and the $16 trillion national debt, bloated over the years by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and government stimulus for the ailing economy.

Obama wants to close the fiscal gap with spending cuts and tax hikes. Republicans do not want to concede again on taxes after doing so in negotiations over the "fiscal cliff" at the New Year.

Public outrage, if it materializes, would be the most likely prod for a resolution as the impact of the spending cuts starts to be felt in the coming weeks and months.

As a percentage of total government spending every year, $3.7 trillion, the actual spending reductions are small. But because safety-net programs such as Social Security and Medicare will be untouched, the brunt falls mostly on federal government employees rather than direct recipients of aid.

The U.S. government is the nation's largest employer, with a workforce of roughly 2.7 million civilians spread across the country. If the cuts stay in place, more than 800,000 of those workers could see reduced work days and smaller paychecks between now and September.

Furlough notices warning employees and their unions started to go out earlier this week and the pace picked up on Friday after it became clear that talks at the White House between Obama and congressional leaders would be fruitless.

While the International Monetary Fund warned that the belt-tightening could slow U.S. economic growth by at least 0.5 of a percentage point this year, that is not a huge drag on an economy that is picking up steam.

'THE SPENDING PROBLEM'

Many Republicans accuse the Obama administration of overstating the effects of the cuts in order to pressure them into agreeing to a solution to the White House's liking.

A deal proved elusive as Obama met at the White House with House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, as well as the top two Democrats in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi.

"The discussion about revenue, in my view, is over. It's about taking on the spending problem," Boehner said after the meeting.

Asked why he did not just refuse to let congressional leaders leave the room until they had a deal, Obama told reporters: "I am not a dictator. I'm the president. So, ultimately, if Mitch McConnell or John Boehner say, 'We need to go to catch a plane,' I can't have Secret Service block the doorway, right?"

The across-the-board cutbacks were mandated by a deficit reduction law, structured to be so disruptive that Congress would ultimately replace them with more targeted savings. But partisan gridlock has prevented agreement on where to save.

The White House budget office sent a report to Congress detailing the spending cuts. Some 115,000 employees of the Department of Justice - including prosecutors and the FBI - were among the first to get the official word of furloughs.

The government also sent letters to several state governors advising them of cuts to services like the Head Start education program in California and military facilities in Virginia.

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty expressed rare public frustration with the United States for lurching from crisis to crisis.

One reason for the inaction in Washington is that both parties still hope the other will either be blamed by voters for the cuts or cave in before the worst effects predicted by Democrats come into effect.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday showed 28 percent of Americans blamed congressional Republicans for the sequestration mess, 18 percent thought Obama was responsible and 4 percent blamed congressional Democrats. Thirty-seven percent blamed them all, according the online poll.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office predicts 750,000 jobs could be lost in 2013, and federal employees throughout the country are looking to trim their own costs.

"The kids won't go to the dentist, the kids might not go to the doctor, we won't be spending money in local restaurants, local movie theaters," said Paul O'Connor, president of the Metal Trades Council, which represents 2,500 workers at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.

After weeks of White House warnings about the cuts causing disruption, Obama acknowledged it might be a while before effects fully kicked in. "We will get through this. This is not going to be an apocalypse," Obama said.

In the absence of any deal at all, the Pentagon will be forced to slice 13 percent of its budget between now and September 30.

In his first Pentagon news conference since he was sworn in on Wednesday, Hagel struck a more moderate tone than many other defense officials who have said the spending reductions would be devastating or could turn the U.S. military into a second-rate power.

"America ... has the best fighting force, the most capable fighting force, the most powerful fighting force in the world," he said. "The management of this institution, starting with the Joint Chiefs, are not going to allow this capacity to erode."

Most non-defense programs, from NASA space exploration to federally backed education and law enforcement, face a 9 percent reduction.

Moving to head off a new budget crisis later this month, Boehner said the Republican-led House would move a "continuing resolution" to fund government through the rest of the fiscal year, thus hopefully averting a government shutdown.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Roberta Rampton, Deborah Zabarenko and Jeff Mason in Washington and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Peter Cooney and Will Dunham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-lurches-budget-crisis-spending-cuts-imminent-005547865--business.html

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Sinkholes are common, but rarely catastrophic

Luis Echeverria / Associated Press

In this file photo released by Guatemala's Presidency, a sinkhole covers a street intersection in downtown Guatemala City, May 31, 2010.

By John Roach, Contributing Writer, NBC News

A Florida man is missing after an apparent sinkhole opened in his bedroom in the middle of the night, sucking him and his bed deep into the earth. As frightening as it sounds, sinkholes happen all the time, according to geologists. Usually, though, they are slow-motion processes that can take years.

Sinkholes of the sort that swallowed the Florida man form when slightly acidic groundwater dissolves limestone or similar rock that lies beneath the soil creating a large void or cavities. When the overlying ceiling can no longer support the weight of the soil and whatever is on top of it, the earth collapses into the cavity.?

"Then you have the depression at the land surface, which is the sinkhole," Jonathan Arthur, director of the Florida Geological Survey, told NBC News.

If a house or road sits on top of the sinkhole, it too falls into the earth, as did the Florida man who fell into a hole estimated at 20-feet-deep by 20-feet-wide.?


"They heard a sound they described as a car crash emanating from the bedroom," Hillsborourgh County Fire Chief Ron Rogers said at a Friday morning news conference?describing the reaction of the man's family. ?They rushed in. All they could see was part of a mattress sticking out of the hole. The floor of the room had opened."

Luis Echeverria / AP

A look at some of the most amazing sinkholes around the world.

Technically, the event in Tampa has not been ruled a sinkhole, "although that is what most people believe it to be," Arthur said. "A little further site geology and geotechnical work would be needed to absolutely confirm its nature."

These types of sudden sinkholes are so-called cover-collapse sinkholes. When they occur, a hole typically forms and grows over a period of minutes to hours. Sediments may continue to slump down the sides of the sinkhole for several days and erosion of the edges can last even longer.?

At the apparent sinkhole near Tampa the victim "could be drawn into the water with the debris falling on top of him, so he wouldn't be able to possibly escape from that," Grenville Draper, a professor in the department of Earth and the environment at Florida International University, told NBC News.

"That part of it is very tragic," he added. "I've never heard of there being a fatality associated with these before. They do occur rather suddenly, but we're not talking like an earthquake. You do have minutes or even an hour to take action to save yourself."?

Cover-collapse sinkholes are quite rare, according to the Florida Sinkhole Research Institute. A preliminary assessment of 1,400 sinkholes found only or two. More common is the slow, gradual subsidence of land, forming bowl-shaped depressions at the surface in a process than can last years.

Sinkholes can reach more than 100 feet deep into the earth and spread across several hundred feet. Others are tiny ? a few feet across and maybe a foot deep. Some hold water and form ponds.?

"A very small percentage of sinkholes that form actually have some adverse effect on human life and infrastructure," Arthur said. "However, it is those that make the news, whether it is under a roadway or a home."

In addition to Florida, other U.S. hotspots for sinkholes include Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Pennsylvania, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.?

Just because one sinkhole opens, does not necessarily mean another nearby is imminent. They are usually isolated events, the Florida Geological Survey notes. However, certain events such as a hurricane following a period of drought can trigger a series of sinkholes to occur within minutes to hours of each other, Arthur noted.

This happened in the wake of Tropical Storm Debby in June 2012. "It came across Florida after a period of drought where water levels in the ground were lower and then we had the massive influx of rain, over 20 inches in some areas, and that change in the climate and the groundwater levels triggered hundreds of sinkholes across the state over a very, very short period of time," Arthur said.

Human activity can also cause sinkholes to develop. Excessive pumping of groundwater, for example, can cause the soil to settle. Others form under the weight of runoff-storage ponds, which cause the underground support material to collapse.?

Sinkholes are most often found in seven states, including Florida where the ground recently collapsed in Seffner, Fla., near Tampa, sending 37-year-old Jeffrey Bush and his entire bedroom into the earth. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.

John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News. To learn more about him, check out his website.?

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/01/17148454-the-science-of-sinkholes-common-but-rarely-catastrophic?lite

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SpaceX rocket poised for flight to space station

This Jan. 12, 2013 photo provided by NASA shows the Dragon spacecraft inside a processing hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. where teams had just installed the spacecraft's solar array fairings. The California company known as SpaceX is scheduled to launch its unmanned Falcon rocket on Friday morning, March 1, 2013, carrying a Dragon capsule containing more than a ton of food, tools, computer hardware and science experiments. (AP Photo/NASA, Kim Shiflett)

This Jan. 12, 2013 photo provided by NASA shows the Dragon spacecraft inside a processing hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. where teams had just installed the spacecraft's solar array fairings. The California company known as SpaceX is scheduled to launch its unmanned Falcon rocket on Friday morning, March 1, 2013, carrying a Dragon capsule containing more than a ton of food, tools, computer hardware and science experiments. (AP Photo/NASA, Kim Shiflett)

(AP) ? A private rocket is poised to blast off Friday on a supply run to the International Space Station.

The unmanned Falcon rocket is owned by the SpaceX company. The Dragon capsule on board is filled with more than a ton of space station supplies and experiments.

Good weather is forecast for the 10:10 a.m. liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Fla. It's a one-second launch window.

NASA is paying SpaceX to deliver cargo to the space station, and bring back science samples and other goods. This will be the company's third delivery mission.

There's no ice cream this time for the six space station astronauts. The freezers are full. But SpaceX included fruit straight from the orchard.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk hopes to fly people aboard a modified Dragon capsule by 2015.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-03-01-US-SCI-Private-Space/id-91ff63fc39da4ebe8757c28736a150e8

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Mapping The Effects Of The Sequester On Science

Copyright ? 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

IRA FLATOW, HOST:

As I just mentioned, the automatic spending cuts go into effect today, covering much of the federal budget, and we were trying to talk with Lamar Smith about where those cuts might come, obviously across the board. Well, someone who might be more forthcoming or know more about it is here with us, Michael Lubell. He is professor of physics at City College at the City University of New York, director of public affairs at the American Physical Society. He's here in our New York Studio. Good to see you again.

MICHAEL LUBELL: Good to see you, Ira.

FLATOW: Any thoughts on what's going to happen?

LUBELL: Well, let me just first correct the statement that Chairman Smith made. He said it was a 2.3 percent reduction, that's true for the entire federal budget, but two-thirds of that budget is Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. And when you look at what we call the discretionary budget, it is more like five to eight percent, in some cases even a little bit higher.

And one of the difficulties that we face in science is that it's not like a road project, you say well, we don't have the money to continue paving something today, we'll call the crew off and bring them back six months or nine months from now. Science, you cut it, the people aren't coming back, the facilities aren't going to be opened again. It's a pretty sad state that we're heading for.

FLATOW: Off the top of your head, what's going to get the biggest whack if nothing changes?

LUBELL: Well, the legislation is very specific. It says you have to take everything down by the same amount. There's very little latitude that the administration in any of the science agencies have. They just have to use the meat-axe approach and take everything down. It's one of the worst things you can do in policy. This is driven by politics, and it's - God help us.

FLATOW: NIH Director Francis Collins said that the directors of the institutes - the different ones, there are a lot of them - inside NIH could decide how to apportion the reduction within their institute, and they'll likely reduce every grant payout to meet the targets.

LUBELL: That's pretty much, I think, what's going to happen in most of the agencies. In some cases it's not just grants. The Department of Energy runs major facilities. You're going to have the same kind of approach there. There'll be furloughs, so some facilities maybe shut, shuttered completely and never to open again.

And this is - we are a high-tech country, and...

FLATOW: And we run national labs. We have...

LUBELL: We run national labs. That's absolutely correct.

FLATOW: We don't hear much or know much about them, Battelle, other ones, things like that.

LUBELL: Well, the Department of Energy, right here on Long Island, Brookhaven National Laboratory is one example. They run a number of facilities that are used by scientists all over the country. Illinois there are two. California has two very large ones. And you can go around the country, you will find them.

It's not that the people who do the work there live there. Most of them live elsewhere and come and use those facilities, because they're just too big and too expensive for any university or any industry to maintain.

FLATOW: Do you think the public will know about these?

LUBELL: No. This is the problem. What is going to - I think of this as - I'll take, instead of a frog, I'll talk about a goose in a pond of water, and we're slowly heating it up, and eventually the goose gets cooked. And by the time it gets cooked, it's a little bit too late to deal with it. That's what's going to happen to us. Unfortunately the public doesn't see it immediately, and I think the president probably made a mistake in trying to steer people, because you're not going to see it, at least, for several months, if then.

It's just going to be a very slow erosion, and in the case of science, as I said, that erosion is not something that you repair easily.

FLATOW: Because people leave.

LUBELL: People leave, facilities shut - and any new projects that are underway will be stopped.

FLATOW: And as far as science education, too.

LUBELL: Science education exactly the same thing. Money that we put into education grants, all that's going to be cut. And this is at a time when the rest of the world, particularly Asia, is ramping up. And we've already seen what happens when some of the powers there really devote themselves to things. This is not a good track for us to be on.

FLATOW: So while the president or people in the administration talk about well, you're going to have longer lines at the airports, you're going to have - they don't talk about the other kinds of things, in the science world and technology and leadership and those fields.

LUBELL: It is - that's correct. And in fact I would argue that the more devastating effects are the long-term effects. If you have a longer line at the airport today, put money back in there, those lines will get shorter. If we remove the money from our investment - and let me just make a couple comments about this. I mean, half of the economic growth since the end of World War II was attributable to science and technology.

One fact that people don't usually know is that laser-enabled technologies account for one-third of our economy today, and they began with a small amount of government money more than 50 years ago.

FLATOW: That's the kind of research you're talking about.

LUBELL: Yeah, that's it.

FLATOW: All right, Dr. Lubell, thank you very much for taking time to be with us. Michael Lubell, stay with us, we're going to go take our break and come back, professor physics at the City College of the City University of New York. Our number, 1-800-989-8255, if you want to talk with Dr. Lubell. He'll stick around; we'll take some questions. And we'll talk about what you think. You can also tweet us @scifri, @-S-C-I-F-R-I. We'll be right back after this break.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

FLATOW: I'm Ira Flatow. This is SCIENCE FRIDAY from NPR.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

FLATOW: This is SCIENCE FRIDAY; I'm Ira Flatow. We're talking about funding for science and the sequester, those automatic federal budget cuts that go into effect today. My guest is Dr. Michael Lubell, director of public affairs at the American Physical Society, talking - the major point, I guess that you made before we went to the break was that once money gets shut off, some of these projects are shut down.

LUBELL: They shut down forever.

FLATOW: It's not like people come back. It's what they used to talk about in the space program. You know, you can't bring the rocket scientists back. They've gone on. They're gone away. They've gone to do other things.

LUBELL: People are smart. They find other things to do. And hard to attract them back, absolutely correct.

FLATOW: Let's see if we can go to the phones, get a call in here. Let's go to Bruce(ph) in Phoenix. Hi Bruce.

BRUCE: Hi, how's it going?

FLATOW: Fine, how are you?

BRUCE: Doing good. I work in traumatic brain injury, we actually are working on two different trials right now for traumatic brain injury. And both of those projects, there's no way you can cut out a small portion of that. It's either do it all, or do none of it. And that's my concern is as the speaker suggested, if we are not funded, we'll have to stop what we're doing, and it won't ever be re-funded.

FLATOW: So you're actively working on that research now?

BRUCE: Correct, been underway - those projects take years to go through the scientific validation process and then the funding process. And then they get ramped-up, and we're right now waiting for our next year's funding, and we're very nervous that if it gets cut, we will just not be able to continue doing what we're doing.

FLATOW: Oh, so you're depending on from one year to the next for the funding to continue what you're doing?

BRUCE: Correct. They adjust it every year.

FLATOW: And so if you run out of that funding, you have to just close up shop, there's nothing to hold you over?

BRUCE: Well, if they cease funding, we will absolutely close up shop. But the problem is if they cut funding, we are right at the bone right now. We don't have any extra that we can just say well, let's get rid of part of this project because every part is interdependent. And if we shut down one part, we will shut down the entire study.

FLATOW: Michael Lubell?

LUBELL: Well, let me make one other point. I think what you said is you find in many, many laboratories around the country. Another point I would make, though, is that science in general is done in a very efficient way. There is very little waste. And scientists themselves tend to be fairly frugal people. And everybody's always looking for a way to save a few pennies.

And so you're - you know, what you're saying is the same thing I've seen in my laboratories: You cut a small amount, you're really cutting into the bone.

FLATOW: All right, thanks for calling, Bruce.

BRUCE: Thank you very much.

FLATOW: Wait and see what happens.

BRUCE: Bye-bye.

FLATOW: And you were saying before that, even though that people in government are talking about between two and three percent of a budget that - tell me why it's higher. Explain that again.

LUBELL: The federal budget has two components. One of them is what we call mandatory spending. The public understands that from Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and there are a number of other programs. For the most part these are not affected by the cuts. There's a small amount of money in Medicare that will be taken out.

It's the balance of the budget, and that represents one-third of total spending will be hit with all the cuts. So while Chairman Smith was right, overall it's 2.3 percent, one-third of the budget gets hit by it means it's going to be over six percent, seven percent.

FLATOW: And I guess the hopeful news is that they could reverse the sequestration any time they wanted to if they wanted to.

LUBELL: If they - well, it's a question not only if they want to, if they can find the political will to do it.

FLATOW: All right, Dr. Lubell, thank you very much for taking time to be with us today. Michael Lubell is professor of physics at City College of the City University of New York, director of public affairs at the American Physical Society right there in New York, too.

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Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/03/01/173242988/mapping-the-effects-of-the-sequester-on-science?ft=1&f=1007

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Sleep deprivation has genetic consequences, study finds

Doctors know that being chronically sleep-deprived can be hazardous to your health. Night-shift workers, college crammers and all the rest of us who get less than our fair share of zzz's are more likely to be obese and to suffer cardiovascular woes than people who get a consistent, healthful eight hours.

Now scientists have some new clues about how lack of sleep translates into disease.

After subjecting 26 volunteers to seven nights of insufficient shut-eye followed by a marathon all-nighter, researchers detected changes in the way hundreds of genes were expressed in their bodies. Some genes, including damage-inducing ones involved in stress reactions, were amplified. Others, including many that nurture and renew cells and tissues, were turned down.

"It's possible to see how that contributes to poor health," said Colin Smith, a genomics researcher at the University of Surrey in England and one of the senior authors of a report detailing the findings this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Scientists have long puzzled over the purpose of sleep. For years they focused on how it influenced the brain, said Derk-Jan Dijk, a sleep and circadian rhythm researcher at the same institution and the study's other senior author.

But epidemiologists noticed that people who work early in the morning or late at night ? or who lack sleep in general ? have higher rates of diabetes, stroke and high blood pressure, among other ailments. And biologists have discovered that people who get poor sleep produce more of the stress hormone cortisol and the appetite stimulating hormone ghrelin, among other biochemical changes.

"It used to be thought that sleep was by the brain, of the brain, for the brain," said Dr. Charles Czeisler, a Harvard Medical School researcher who is well-known for his examinations of how poor sleep affects people in a variety of everyday settings. "Now it's recognized that it plays an important role in bodily functions."

To learn more about the biological mechanisms at work, Dijk, Smith and colleagues asked their study volunteers to complete two 12-day-long evaluations.

In one test condition, the subjects ? all healthy adults who did not suffer from sleep disorders ? were allowed to stay in bed for 10 hours on seven consecutive nights. Brain wave scans showed that they slept for an average of 8.5 hours each night, an amount considered sufficient.

In the other test condition, subjects were allowed to stay in bed just six hours a night for seven nights, and they got an average of only 5.7 hours of sleep.

At the end of each week of controlled sleep, the researchers kept subjects awake for 39 to 41 hours, drawing blood every three hours for a total of 10 samples.

Then they analyzed cells in the blood, looking at changes in RNA ? the molecule that carries out DNA instructions, creating the proteins that drive processes in the body.

They found that losing sleep changed rhythmic patterns in the way genes turn on and off, disrupting the genes' circadian clock.

Also, overall, 711 genes were expressed differently when people were sleep-deprived: 444 were turned down, and 267 were amped up.

Further analysis revealed that genes involved in inflammation, immunity and protein damage were activated, suggesting that tissue harm was occurring after sleep deprivation. Many of the down-regulated genes, in contrast, were involved in producing new proteins, cells and tissues. The balanced process of tissue renewal seemed to be disrupted by insufficient sleep.

Dijk and Smith said they found it striking that the changes were so readily apparent after just one week.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 30% of civilian adults in the U.S. say they get six or fewer hours of sleep. That suggests that millions of people might be sustaining damage to their bodies.

Scientists who were not involved the study praised its careful design and said that being able to use blood to assess the molecular effects of sleep deprivation represented a promising advance for the field.

In the past, many studies of the biological consequences of sleep restriction were conducted in laboratory animals like mice, with scientists examining gene expression in tissues from the brain or the liver. For obvious reasons, that's not feasible with people.

But the ability to use a simple blood test to "tell what time of day" it is in a person's body could help doctors deal with their sleep-deprived patients, said Czeisler, who wasn't part of the British research team.

Today, doctors must rely on a patient's self-assessment of how tired he or she feels. But caffeine "gums up the signal" that tells the brain when it needs more sleep, fooling people into thinking that they're getting plenty of rest, Czeisler said.

"This could be an early warning system" that could let doctors know a patient is at risk for ills related to sleep loss, he said.

eryn.brown@latimes.com

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/rmFLFSWsSWk/la-sci-sleep-genes-20130302,0,6028167.story

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