Gene Simmons of Kiss performs live on stage, for a one-off Independence Day show as a fundraiser for the Help for Heroes charity, at The Kentish Town Forum on July 4, 2012 in London, England. Kiss was... moreGene Simmons of Kiss performs live on stage, for a one-off Independence Day show as a fundraiser for the Help for Heroes charity, at The Kentish Town Forum on July 4, 2012 in London, England. Kiss was just nomonated to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images) less
"What?" you say. "This isn't my middle school graduation! Why is Vitamin C playing? What's going on around here!" Well, ladies and gentlemen, it is my graduation from Saturdays to not-Saturdays, and I would be honored if you would take a moment to celebrate with me.
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3D printers are a dime-a-dozen these days, but every so often something special comes along. Like this thing: an industrial printer made by Arburg that can create products containing both hard and soft parts at the same time.
Called Freeformer, the device uses a technique called Plastic Freeforming to take 3D CAD data and make parts out of liquid plastic, without the need for molds. To do that, it uses a stationary nozzle to spray plastic onto a moving platform. The platform's shifted to gradually build up layers of material and—depending on how the piezo-controlled nozzle is used—the deposited material can either be hard or soft.
Capable of producing items in small batches, the first Freeformer units will be on sale early next year. In the meantime, the device is currently on display at K Trade Fair in Düsseldorf until 23 October. [Arburg via Engadget]
If your company isn't fully taking advantage of social media, it might be missing out on opportunities to connect with customers, gain market share, and bring needed talent into the organization.
Experts say virtually every type of business can benefit from using social media as a business tool.
"We really are seeing interest and the potential for business value across the board," says Jeffrey Mann, research vice president at Gartner. "No one is immune, although it will be easier for some than others."
The most likely to see value, Mann says, are knowledge-based and highly collaborative industries, such as media, education, consulting, and high technology; industries or organizations that aren't hamstrung by regulation; and organizations with younger employees who are accustomed to working with social media.
NEW YORK (AP) — A division of Europe's HSBC has been ordered to pay about $2.46 billion in a class action lawsuit claiming it violated federal securities laws.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs said that the judgment, which includes $1.48 billion in damages and nearly $1 billion in prejudgment interest, was the biggest ever following a securities fraud class action trial.
HSBC Holdings PLC, Europe's biggest bank by market value, said in a statement on Friday that it will appeal, noting that it was "the next step in an 11-year-old case and we believe we have a strong argument."
James Glickenhaus of Glickenhaus & Co., one of the three lead plaintiffs appointed by the court in 2002 to represent the class, said in a statement that the judgment "shows that the fraud committed by Household International and the individual defendant officers will not go unpunished, and we look forward to having the judgment affirmed on appeal."
The lawsuit named Household International Inc., which is now HSBC Finance Corp., and former executives William Aldinger, David Schoenholz and Gary Gilmer. It claimed that the company fraudulently misled investors about its predatory lending practices, the quality of its loans and its financial accounting from March 23, 2001 through Oct. 11, 2002.
HSBC acquired consumer lender Household International in 2003. The acquisition made HSBC the biggest subprime lender in the U.S. at the time, which resulted in billions of losses to HSBC leading up to the financial crisis of 2008.
A jury in Chicago found in favor of the plaintiffs in May 2009. In the final judgment entered in the U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division on Thursday, Household International, Aldinger, and Schoenholz are held jointly and severally liable for the judgment. Gilmer is held severally liable for 10 percent of the judgment.
HSBC's U.S. shares shed 8 cents to $55.08 in premarket trading. They are up less than 2 percent for the year.
Contact: Thomas Sumner tsumner@agu.org 202-777-7516 American Geophysical Union
WASHINGTON, DCEarth's most eminent emissary to Mars has just proven that those rare Martian visitors that sometimes drop in on Earth a.k.a. Martian meteorites really are from the Red Planet. A key new measurement of Mars' atmosphere by NASA's Curiosity rover provides the most definitive evidence yet of the origins of Mars meteorites while at the same time providing a way to rule out Martian origins of other meteorites.
The new measurement is a high-precision count of two forms of argon gasArgon-36 and Argon-38accomplished by the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument on Curiosity. These lighter and heavier forms, or isotopes, of argon exist naturally throughout the solar system. But on Mars the ratio of light to heavy argon is skewed because a lot of that planet's original atmosphere was lost to space, with the lighter form of argon being taken away more readily because it rises to the top of the atmosphere more easily and requires less energy to escape. That's left the Martian atmosphere relatively enriched in the heavier Argon-38.
Years of past analyses by Earth-bound scientists of gas bubbles trapped inside Martian meteorites had already narrowed the Martian argon ratio to between 3.6 and 4.5 (that is 3.6 to 4.5 atoms of Argon-36 to every one Argon-38) with the supposed Martian "atmospheric" value near four. Measurements by NASA's Viking landers in the 1970's put the Martian atmospheric ratio in the range of four to seven. The new SAM direct measurement on Mars now pins down the correct argon ratio at 4.2.
"We really nailed it," said Sushil Atreya of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the lead author of a paper reporting the finding today in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. "This direct reading from Mars settles the case with all Martian meteorites," he said.
One of the reasons scientists have been so interested in the argon ratio in Martian meteorites is that it was before Curiosity the best measure of how much atmosphere Mars has lost since the planet's earlier, wetter, warmer days billions of years ago. Figuring out the planet's atmospheric loss would enable scientists to better understand how Mars transformed from a once water-rich planet more like our own to the today's drier, colder and less hospitable world.
Had Mars held onto its entire atmosphere and its original argon, Atreya explained, its ratio of the gas would be the same as that of the Sun and Jupiter. They have so much gravity that isotopes can't preferentially escape, so their argon ratio which is 5.5 represents that of the primordial solar system.
While argon comprises only a tiny fraction of the gases lost to space from Mars, it is special because it's a noble gas. That means the gas is inert, not reacting with other elements or compounds, and therefore a more straightforward tracer of the history of the Martian atmosphere.
"Other isotopes measured by SAM on Curiosity also support the loss of atmosphere, but none so directly as argon," said Atreya. "Argon is the clearest signature of atmospheric loss because it's chemically inert and does not interact or exchange with the Martian surface or the interior. This was a key measurement that we wanted to carry out on SAM."
###
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Curiosity mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The SAM investigation on the rover is managed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Journalists and public information officers (PIOs) of educational and scientific institutions who have registered with AGU can download a PDF copy of this early view article by clicking on this link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2013GL057763/abstract
Or, you may order a copy of the final paper by emailing your request to Thomas Sumner at tsumner@agu.org. Please provide your name, the name of your publication, and your phone number.
Neither the paper nor this press release is under embargo.
Title:
"Primordial argon isotope fractionation in the atmosphere of Mars measured by the SAM instrument on Curiosity, and implications for atmospheric loss"
Authors:
Sushil K. Atreya and Michael H. Wong
Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.;
Melissa G. Trainer, Heather B. Franz, Charles A. Malespin, Paul R. Mahaffy, Pamela G. Conrad and Anna E.
Brunner
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.;
K. Manning
Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn.;
Laurie A. Leshin
School of Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y.;
John H. Jones
NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Tx.;
Christopher R. Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.;
Tobias C. Owen
University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii;
Robert O. Pepin
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn.;
R. Navarro-Gonzlez
Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, Ciudad Universitaria, Apartado, Mxico.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Curiosity confirms origins of Martian meteorites
Public release date: 16-Oct-2013 [
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Contact: Thomas Sumner tsumner@agu.org 202-777-7516 American Geophysical Union
WASHINGTON, DCEarth's most eminent emissary to Mars has just proven that those rare Martian visitors that sometimes drop in on Earth a.k.a. Martian meteorites really are from the Red Planet. A key new measurement of Mars' atmosphere by NASA's Curiosity rover provides the most definitive evidence yet of the origins of Mars meteorites while at the same time providing a way to rule out Martian origins of other meteorites.
The new measurement is a high-precision count of two forms of argon gasArgon-36 and Argon-38accomplished by the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument on Curiosity. These lighter and heavier forms, or isotopes, of argon exist naturally throughout the solar system. But on Mars the ratio of light to heavy argon is skewed because a lot of that planet's original atmosphere was lost to space, with the lighter form of argon being taken away more readily because it rises to the top of the atmosphere more easily and requires less energy to escape. That's left the Martian atmosphere relatively enriched in the heavier Argon-38.
Years of past analyses by Earth-bound scientists of gas bubbles trapped inside Martian meteorites had already narrowed the Martian argon ratio to between 3.6 and 4.5 (that is 3.6 to 4.5 atoms of Argon-36 to every one Argon-38) with the supposed Martian "atmospheric" value near four. Measurements by NASA's Viking landers in the 1970's put the Martian atmospheric ratio in the range of four to seven. The new SAM direct measurement on Mars now pins down the correct argon ratio at 4.2.
"We really nailed it," said Sushil Atreya of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the lead author of a paper reporting the finding today in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. "This direct reading from Mars settles the case with all Martian meteorites," he said.
One of the reasons scientists have been so interested in the argon ratio in Martian meteorites is that it was before Curiosity the best measure of how much atmosphere Mars has lost since the planet's earlier, wetter, warmer days billions of years ago. Figuring out the planet's atmospheric loss would enable scientists to better understand how Mars transformed from a once water-rich planet more like our own to the today's drier, colder and less hospitable world.
Had Mars held onto its entire atmosphere and its original argon, Atreya explained, its ratio of the gas would be the same as that of the Sun and Jupiter. They have so much gravity that isotopes can't preferentially escape, so their argon ratio which is 5.5 represents that of the primordial solar system.
While argon comprises only a tiny fraction of the gases lost to space from Mars, it is special because it's a noble gas. That means the gas is inert, not reacting with other elements or compounds, and therefore a more straightforward tracer of the history of the Martian atmosphere.
"Other isotopes measured by SAM on Curiosity also support the loss of atmosphere, but none so directly as argon," said Atreya. "Argon is the clearest signature of atmospheric loss because it's chemically inert and does not interact or exchange with the Martian surface or the interior. This was a key measurement that we wanted to carry out on SAM."
###
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Curiosity mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The SAM investigation on the rover is managed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Journalists and public information officers (PIOs) of educational and scientific institutions who have registered with AGU can download a PDF copy of this early view article by clicking on this link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2013GL057763/abstract
Or, you may order a copy of the final paper by emailing your request to Thomas Sumner at tsumner@agu.org. Please provide your name, the name of your publication, and your phone number.
Neither the paper nor this press release is under embargo.
Title:
"Primordial argon isotope fractionation in the atmosphere of Mars measured by the SAM instrument on Curiosity, and implications for atmospheric loss"
Authors:
Sushil K. Atreya and Michael H. Wong
Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.;
Melissa G. Trainer, Heather B. Franz, Charles A. Malespin, Paul R. Mahaffy, Pamela G. Conrad and Anna E.
Brunner
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.;
K. Manning
Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn.;
Laurie A. Leshin
School of Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y.;
John H. Jones
NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Tx.;
Christopher R. Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.;
Tobias C. Owen
University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii;
Robert O. Pepin
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn.;
R. Navarro-Gonzlez
Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, Ciudad Universitaria, Apartado, Mxico.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
KIEV (Reuters) - The daughter of Ukraine's jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko sees two years of pain and "psychological torture" ending for her mother with her departure to Germany for medical treatment by November 19 under a deal brokered by European envoys.
The release of Tymoshenko, jailed for seven years in 2011 after what the West said was a political trial, is expected to clear the way for the ex-Soviet republic to sign landmark agreements with the European Union at the end of November.
Yevgenia, Tymoshenko's 33-year-old English-educated daughter, told Reuters that her mother was ready to compromise now so as not to jeopardize the signing in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on November 28.
"Her decision was mainly based on the fact that Ukraine is living through this historical time when Ukraine should decide, and must take the step of joining the European family. It was to make sure that the signing is not blocked or stalled because of her decision to stay," she said.
"It was very hard for her to make this decision (to leave) but she has now made the decision and now we are waiting for the decision from the president," Yevgenia said.
The likely option is for Tymoshenko to be freed to go to Germany for treatment at Berlin's Charite clinic, she said.
Her departure to Germany, whenever it comes, will mark the end of a battle of wills between President Viktor Yanukovich and Tymoshenko, his arch rival whom he only narrowly defeated in a run-off for the presidency in February 2010.
Despite pressure from Western governments to end what they see as a flagrant case of selective justice, Yanukovich only indicated he might free her after being warned a refusal would endanger key deals on association and free trade with the EU.
The agreements and the shift westwards could herald a historic break from dominance by Russia, and encourage foreign investment that would help Ukraine with its short-term debt repayment obligations.
Two European envoys, who have shuttled between Brussels and Kiev for a year and a half, have appealed to Yanukovich to pardon Tymoshenko to allow her to travel to EU member Germany for treatment for a chronic spinal condition.
While Yanukovich indicated on October 11 he would relent, he set no specific time and must solve the issue well before the Vilnius summit with the EU bloc.
Tymoshenko, 52, is said by her family to have been reluctant to accept a pardon from Yanukovich since this would not clear her of a criminal conviction, which will hinder a quick return to politics in Ukraine for the fiery populist.
COMPROMISE
Technical details related to her departure for Germany were being discussed, Yevgenia said, though there was still no word from Yanukovich's side on the timing or conditions.
EU ministers are expected to sign off on the pacts at a key November 18 meeting - assuming Yanukovich frees Tymoshenko. "I hope on the 19th November we can all be happy. This the latest date for the authorities (to make their decision)," said Yevgenia.
Tymoshenko is under prison guard in a hospital in northern Ukraine where she is being treated by German doctors.
She was in considerable pain and cannot walk without help, Yevgenia said. "It continues to be psychological torture for her ... These two years have been so trying and difficult and torturing we (her family) feel she will be re-born again (when she is released)."
Tymoshenko said on October 4 she was ready to go to Germany for treatment "for the good of a successful Ukraine". But she said she would not seek political asylum there and would return to Ukraine to fight "dictatorship" there.
Under the so-called partial pardon being worked out for her, Tymoshenko's seven-year sentence would be officially viewed as having been fully served and she would be freed.
That would ensure the criminal conviction would remain on her record, barring her from running for office for three years and rule her out of the February 2015 presidential election.
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled Tymoshenko's pre-trial detention unlawful [ID:nL6N0DH3GI] and Yevgenia hoped European courts would eventually overturn the original verdict.
(Writing By Richard Balmforth; Editing by Jon Boyle)
Bob Costas weighed in on the ongoing controversy over the Washington Redskins' name during halftime of the team's Sunday Night Football game against the Dallas Cowboys.
The legendary NBC sportscaster began by saying, "There is no reason to believe that owner Daniel Snyder, or any official or player from his team, harbors animus toward Native Americans or wishes to disrespect them." And he noted that a majority of Native Americans say they're not offended by the name.
But after assessing the implications of other Native American-inspired team names -- including the Atlanta Braves, Kansas City Chiefs and now-defunct monikers like the Stanford Indians and St. John's Redmen -- Costas concluded that Washington's team name is offensive.
"It's an insult, a slur, no matter how benign the present-day intent," Costas said. "It is fair to say that for a long time now, and certainly in 2013, no offense has been intended. But if you take a step back, isn't it clear to see how offense might legitimately be taken?"
Although controversy over the Redskins' name has flared up in the past, the issue has reached a fever pitch over the past few months with the Oneida Indian Nation's campaign to get Washington to change its name. Although Snyder has vowed to keep the name, the NFL said it will meet with the tribe's representatives, and even President Obama said he'd think about changing the name if he were the owner.
Costas spends each Sunday Night Football halftime commenting on an issue of his choice.
Read Costas' full halftime essay and watch video of his remarks below.
Bob Costas' Halftime Essay on Redskins Name
With Washington playing Dallas here tonight, it seems like an appropriate time to acknowledge the ongoing controversy about the name "Redskins."
Let's start here. There is no reason to believe that owner Daniel Snyder, or any official or player from his team, harbors animus toward Native Americans or wishes to disrespect them. This is undoubtedly also true of the vast majority of those who don't think twice about the longstanding moniker. And in fact, as best can be determined, even a majority of Native Americans say they are not offended.
But, having stipulated that, there's still a distinction to be made. Objections to names like "Braves," "Chiefs," "Warriors," and the like strike many of us as political correctness run amok. These nicknames honor rather than demean. They are pretty much the same as "Vikings," "Patriots," or even "Cowboys." And names like "Blackhawks," "Seminoles" and "Chippewas," while potentially more problematic, can still be okay provided the symbols are appropriately respectful -- which is where the Cleveland Indians with the combination of their name and "Chief Wahoo" logo have sometimes run into trouble.
A number of teams, mostly in the college ranks, have changed their names in response to objections. The Stanford Cardinal and the Dartmouth Big Green were each once the Indians; the St. John's Redmen have become the Red Storm, and the Miami of Ohio Redskins -- that's right, Redskins -- are now the Red Hawks.
Still, the NFL franchise that represents the nation's capital has maintained its name. But think for a moment about the term "Redskins" and how it truly differs from all the others. Ask yourself what the equivalent would be if directed toward African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, or members of any other ethnic group.
When considered that way, "Redskins" can't possibly honor a heritage or noble character trait, nor can it possibly be considered a neutral term. It's an insult, a slur, no matter how benign the present-day intent. It is fair to say that for a long time now, and certainly in 2013, no offense has been intended. But if you take a step back, isn't it clear to see how offense "might" legitimately be taken?
President Barack Obama stands with Jeh Johnson, his choice for the next Homeland Security Secretary, in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, Friday, Oct. 18, 2013. Johnson was general counsel at the Defense Department during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
President Barack Obama stands with Jeh Johnson, his choice for the next Homeland Security Secretary, in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, Friday, Oct. 18, 2013. Johnson was general counsel at the Defense Department during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
President Barack Obama shakes hands with Jeh Johnson, his choice for the next Homeland Security Secretary, in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, Friday, Oct. 18, 2013. Johnson was general counsel at the Defense Department during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
President Barack Obama stands with Jeh Johnson, his choice for the next Homeland Security Secretary, and Vice President Joe Biden, in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, Friday, Oct. 18, 2013. Johnson was general counsel at the Defense Department during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
President Barack Obama stands with Jeh Johnson, his choice for the next Homeland Security Secretary, and Vice President Joe Biden, in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, Friday, Oct. 18, 2013. Johnson was general counsel at the Defense Department during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Jeh Johnson, President Barack Obama's choice for the next Homeland Security Secretary, watches in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, Friday, Oct. 18, 2013. Johnson was general counsel at the Defense Department during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Friday nominated the Pentagon's former top lawyer to help craft the nation's counterterrorism policy as secretary of homeland security, suggesting a shift from the department's emphasis on immigration and border issues to a greater focus on security against possible attacks.
If confirmed by the Senate — and no organized opposition has been indicated — Jeh C. Johnson would replace Janet Napolitano, who left her post last month to become president of the University of California system. Johnson, whose first name is pronounced "Jay," is now a lawyer in a private firm.
Obama said he was nominating Johnson because of his "deep understanding of the threats and challenges facing the United States." He credited Johnson with helping design and implement policies to dismantle the core of the al-Qaida terror organization overseas and to repeal the ban on openly gay service members in the U.S. military.
"He's been there in the Situation Room, at the table in moments of decision," Obama said as he announced the nomination from the Rose Garden on a crisp and sunny fall afternoon.
Napolitano, who came to the Homeland Security Department after serving as governor of Arizona, made clear that her top priority was immigration reform, and she routinely championed the issue in congressional testimony. In contrast, Johnson has spent most of his career dealing with national security issues as a top military lawyer. Issues he has handled include changing military commissions to try some terrorism suspects rather than using civilian courts and overseeing the escalation of the use of unmanned drone strikes during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Homeland Security Department was created in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which Johnson said occurred on his birthday. He noted that he was in Manhattan on that fateful day when the World Trade Center was struck, and he said he was motivated to do something to help the country in response. But he left government service in 2012 and said he was settling back into private life and work at a law firm.
"I was not looking for this opportunity," Johnson said. "But when I received the call, I could not refuse it."
Johnson, a multimillionaire lawyer outside of his government posts, has defended the administration's targeted killings of U.S. citizens overseas as well as the role of the U.S. spy court and crackdowns to keep government secrets.
If confirmed, he would manage a department with more than 20 different agencies, a budget of more than $45 billion and a staff of hundreds of thousands of civilian, law enforcement and military personnel. On any given day, the job includes making decisions about disaster relief, distribution of a shrinking grants budget, which immigrants living in the United States illegally to deport and how to protect passenger jets from would-be terrorists.
Johnson, a one-time assistant U.S. attorney in New York, would inherit a department whose public face in recent years has been associated with immigration. But that's an area he has little experience with.
Matt Fishbein, who worked with Johnson in a private law firm in the early 1980s and served on a New York City bar panel while the nominee was chairman in the late '90s, described the job Johnson will face.
"Ultimately, he's responsible for security in this age of terrorism," said Fishbein, a Debevoise & Plimpton law firm partner in New York. "I imagine that means every single day coming across his desk is going to be very scary information that he's going to have to sort out and see if there's a basis for it. You need to secure and protect the country while not overstepping the bounds, violating civil liberties. It's a tough job."
Johnson has made clear his support for using done strikes to kill enemy combatants, including U.S. citizens overseas. He has also said that he considers "lone wolf" terrorists to be a law enforcement problem, not enemy combatants who should be targeted in military strikes.
Homeland Security is almost never the lead law enforcement agency in domestic terror cases. It includes Customs and Border Protection, whose primary mission is preventing terrorists from coming into the country. DHS also has a presence on the FBI-led joint terrorism task forces around the country, with agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Secret Service.
Johnson's experience in dealing with overseas actions and counterterror decisions may also be helpful for a department still trying to define its role in the fight against terrorism. Homeland Security has a growing footprint around the world.
If confirmed, Johnson would take over an agency with numerous high-level vacancies, including the deputy secretary. When Janet Napolitano left to take over as president of the University of California in September, one-third of the heads of key agencies and divisions were filled with acting officials or had been vacant for months. Obama has nominated several people to key positions, including general counsel. His pick to be the department's No. 2, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas, is the subject of an internal investigation, and his nomination has been stalled.
Johnson is a 1979 graduate of Morehouse College and a 1982 graduate of Columbia Law School. After leaving the administration in 2012, he returned to private practice. According to the website of his law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, his civil and criminal clients have included Citigroup, Salomon Smith Barney, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Gillette.
Johnson earned more than $2.6 million from his partnership at that law firm, according to 2009 government financial disclosure documents. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Johnson donated more than $33,000 to Obama's campaign, federal records show. He was also a supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton, having contributed $2,300 to her presidential primary campaign in July 2008. He's also given $5,000 to the New Jersey Democratic Party and $1,000 to Democrats nationwide, as well as to several congressional candidates.
Obama's campaign website listed Johnson as a member of the then-candidate's national finance committee and an adviser to Obama's foreign policy team during the 2008 election.
___
Associated Press writers Nedra Pickler, Lolita C. Baldor and Jack Gillum in Washington and Larry Neumeister in New York contributed to this report.
___
Follow Alicia A. Caldwell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/acaldwellap
If you tear open a packet of M&M's, what's the first thing you notice?
The colors: bright blue, vibrant orange, bold yellow. Kids love this visual stimulation.
But the sponsors of a new petition on Change.org — which is urging M&M-maker Mars to replace the artificial colorings used to create these distinctive hues — say these dyes can make some kids hyperactive.
"In this petition, I'm asking Mars to change to natural colorings," mom Renee Shutters told me by phone. "It's very doable."
Shutters, who lives in Jamestown, N.Y., is mother of 9-year-old Trenton. And she says his behavior improved dramatically after she removed artificial dyes from his diet several years back.
"I went through all our cupboards and I couldn't believe how much of the stuff had dyes in it," Shutters told us. The chicken tenders in her freezer had dyes, as did the yogurts — even "the macaroni and cheese I was giving [my kids] had it."
Shutters says Mars has already replaced many of the dyes in the candies it sells in Europe and the U.K. with natural colorings made from vegetables and other plant sources.
"So it is [achievable]," says Shutters, "but they just haven't done it here for our kids."
In Europe, natural dyes outstripped their synthetic counterparts for the first time this year, says food scientist Kantha Shelke of Corvus-Blue in Chicago.
But in the U.S., Shelke says, "the adoption of natural colors is are significantly behind." One reason is that natural colors tend not to be as brilliant nor as stable as artificial dyes.
Cost is also a factor: Natural colorings are more expensive, says Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which is cosponsoring the petition. Jacobson says colorings derived from beet juice or carrot juice are going to cost manufacturers more than the mass-produced, petroleum-based food dyes used by many U.S. food-makers today.
Now, there's no consensus among scientists that synthetic food dyes are a major contributor to behavioral problems such as hyperactivity.
Andrew Adesman, chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York, says that parents are free to see if eliminating avoiding artificial dyes from their kids' diets improves their behavior.
"On the one hand," says Adesman, "I think there's a growing body of research that shows that artificial food colorings can affect a child's behavior. On the other hand, these effects are relatively modest."
And he adds that there's no research to suggest that artificial dyes pose any serious long-term safety or health risks.
Mars sent us a statement that says, "we are aware of the petition." The company said that while all the colors used in its products comply with strict internal quality and safety requirements, "we are constantly evaluating and updating ingredients based on consumer preference, new technology and scientific information."
One clue that Mars may soon swap out one artificial dye for a plant-based alternative here in the U.S.? CSPI's Jacobson says the company recently won FDA approval to use a spirulina extract.
This algae-derived, natural compound could be used to color its M&M's blue.
Illustration and text by Sara Levine/T.S Spookytooth
In some of the best children’s books, dandelions turn into stars, sharks and radishes merge, and pancakes fall from the sky. No one would confuse these magical tales for descriptions of nature. Small children can differentiate between “the real world and the imaginary world,” as psychologist Alison Gopnik has written. They just “don’t see any particular reason for preferring to live in the real one.”
Children’s nuanced understanding of the not-real surely extends to the towering heap of books that feature dinosaurs as playmates who fill buckets of sand or bake chocolate-chip cookies. The imaginative play of these books may be no different to kids than radishsharks and llama dramas.
But as a parent, friendly dinos never steal my heart. I associate them, just a little, with old creationist images of animals frolicking near the garden of Eden, which carried the message that dinosaurs and man, both created by God on the sixth day, co-existed on the Earth until after the flood. (Never mind the evidence that dinosaurs went extinct millions of years before humans appeared.) The founder of the Creation Museum in Kentucky calls dinosaurs “missionary lizards,” and that phrase echoes in my head when I see all those goofy illustrations of dinosaurs in sunglasses and hats.
I’ve been longing for another kind of picture book: one that appeals to young children’s wildest imagination in service of real evolutionary thinking. Such a book could certainly include dinosaur skeletons or fossils. But Bone by Bone, by veterinarian and professor Sara Levine, fills the niche to near perfection by relying on dogs, rabbits, bats, whales, and humans. Levine plays with differences in their skeletons to groom kids for grand scientific concepts.
Bone by Bone asks kids to imagine what their bodies would look like if they had different configurations of bones, like extra vertebrae, longer limbs, or fewer fingers. “What if your vertebrae didn’t stop at your rear end? What if they kept going?” Levine writes, as a boy peers over his shoulder at the spinal column. “You’d have a tail!”
“What kind of animal would you be if your leg bones were much, much longer than your arm bones?” she wonders, as a girl in pink sneakers rises so tall her face disappears from the page. “A rabbit or a kangaroo!” she says, later adding a pike and a hare. “These animals need strong hind leg bones for jumping.” Levine’s questions and answers are delightfully simple for the scientific heft they carry.
With the lightest possible touch, Levine introduces the idea that bones in different vertebrates are related and that they morph over time. She starts with vertebrae, skulls and ribs. But other structures bear strong kinships in these animals, too. The bone in the center of a horse’s hoof, for instance, is related to a human finger. (“What would happen if your middle fingers and the middle toes were so thick that they supported your whole body?”) The bones that radiate out through a bat’s wing are linked to those in a human hand. (“A web of skin connects the bones to make wings so that a bat can fly.”) This is different from the wings of a bird or an insect; with bats, it’s almost as if they’re swimming through air.
Illustration and text by Sara Levine/T.S Spookytooth
Of course, human hands did not shape-shift into bats’ wings, or vice versa. Both derive from a common ancestral structure, which means they share an evolutionary past. Homology, as this kind of relatedness is called, is among “the first and in many ways the best evidence for evolution,” says Josh Rosenau of the National Center for Science Education. Comparing bones also paves the way for comparing genes and molecules, for grasping evolution at the next level of sophistication. Indeed, it’s hard to look at the bat wings and human hands as presented here without lighting up, at least a little, with these ideas. So many smart writers focus on preparing young kids to read or understand numbers. Why not do more to ready them for the big ideas of science? Why not pave the way for evolution? (This is easier to do with older kids, with books like The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate and Why Don’t Your Eyelashes Grow?)
Courtesy Lerner Publishing Group
The whimsical illustrations in Bone by Bone, by T.S Spookytooth, also speak to imagination in its native tongue. The boys’ and girls’ bodies stretch and morph, and one little boy collapses into a puddle of mud with a baseball cap on top: “Could you be an animal if you didn’t have any bones at all?” the text asks. Answer: Yes! Just check out the starfish, the beetle, and the clam on the next pages. No didactic preaching here. Still other big ideas flash by wordlessly, like a vestigial hipbone in a whale. Vestigial structures, in case your child asks, also provide evidence of evolution, suggesting ways in which structures that were perhaps once useful no longer are.
Maybe it’s a shame that evolution skeptics are so busy with textbooks in Texas right now. If they had time, they might take exception to Bone by Bone, generating the kind of attention that could turn it into a best-seller. The book really ought to needle them: It prepares young minds for evolution without ever using the word, appealing to kids just starting out in school. If you’re a parent who thinks science matters, you’ll go for the provocation.
TOKYO (Reuters) - More than 40 percent of Japanese companies surveyed have no plans to spend or invest funds generated by an expected cut in the corporate tax rate, a reflection of the deep-seated risk-aversion in corporate Japan and a challenge to the success of Abenomics.
The result of the Reuters Corporate Survey of 400 companies taken in late September and early October stands in contrast to other recent indicators of a thawing in corporate risk-aversion on signs of continued recovery in Japan's economy.
In the monthly Reuters survey, 30 percent of companies said they would bank any savings from a lower corporate tax rate and build up internal reserves, which now total more than $2 trillion for Japan's corporations taken as a whole.
Another 12 percent of companies responding said they would use any cash generated by a corporate tax cut pledged by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to offset the expected higher costs from a sales tax increase set to take effect in April.
Abe's government is seeking an early end to a corporate tax levy that has funded rebuilding from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. That step is projected to save companies some 900 billion yen ($9.1 billion) as part of a stimulus package worth more than 5 trillion yen to be compiled in December.
Most companies surveyed by Reuters said a corporate tax cut would be positive for earnings: 54 percent said it would boost profit, while 46 percent said it would have no effect.
But only a minority of companies surveyed said they were ready to use the additional earnings in the areas most crucial to the success of the prime minister's "Abenomics" economic program - investment in plants and equipment and higher wages for Japanese workers.
Only 5 percent of companies responding said they would use the additional savings to raise wages. Another 5 percent said they intended to use the savings from a tax cut to increase hiring.
"Our profit-and-loss conditions are improving, but the situation remains far from assured. We need to stick to internal reserves," said one machinery maker.
About one in five respondents said they would use the savings from the tax cut to offset the cost of updating and replacing ageing equipment and plants.
HOARDING CASH
For years Japanese firms have been hoarding cash, instead of spending on plants and equipment or raising salaries, due in part to the view that Japan would remain mired in deflation. As a result, corporate Japan is sitting on a cash pile of some 220 trillion yen, Bank of Japan data shows.
Abe has also instructed his government and ruling coalition to start considering a permanent cut in the effective corporate tax rate, set at 38 percent for a large Tokyo-based corporation, which is higher than the global average of 24 percent.
Analysts have cautioned that the economic boost from a corporate tax cut could be muted. After two decades of slow growth and deflation, only about 30 percent of companies pay corporate tax. The rest are either unprofitable or they are able to apply tax credits accumulated from losses incurred during the lean years.
The Reuters Corporate Survey was taken between September 30 and October 11 alongside the Reuters Tankan survey of business sentiment.
That indicator showed confidence among manufacturers was steady in October, a sign the positive mood generated by Abe's reflationary policies is continuing.
Other recent indicators have also been positive. Earlier this month, the Bank of Japan offered a slightly more upbeat assessment of capital spending, saying corporate investment was picking up as profits improve.
UNDER PRESSURE
Abe's government has kept pressure on large companies to raise wages when annual negotiations begin in early 2014.
Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of the business lobby Keidanren, on Thursday hailed the planned government stimulus package and pledged to do the utmost to meet the government's wishes.
"I conveyed the collective will of business circles that we want to invest profits in capital spending and wages," Yonekura told reporters after a meeting between business leaders, labor union representatives and government officials.
Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor Corp , told the same meeting that he would consider returning improved profits in the form of pay, while Hitachi Ltd Chairman Takashi Kawamura said raising base wages would be an option.
Many Japanese firms have preferred to increase bonuses instead of base wages to avoid rises in fixed costs.
The Corporate Survey, conducted for Reuters by Nikkei Research, polls upper management at 400 companies capitalized at more than 1 billion yen each. The firms, which are split evenly between manufacturers and non-manufacturers, are not required to answer every question and provide responses on condition of anonymity.
($1 = 98.5950 Japanese yen)
(Additional reporting by Hitoshi Ishida; Editing by Kevin Krolicki and Chris Gallagher)
After a long period of developer (and enthusiast) previews, Ubuntu 13.10 for smartphones, as well as desktops, is finally available as a stable release. The gesture-heavy, Linux-based mobile OS still doesn't have an official hardware home -- if you'll remember, Canonical's Indiegogo bid for the ...
Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch, left) and Rosalee (Bree Turner) aren't standing idly by when "Grimm" returns next Friday.
The guys of NBC's fairy-tale crime drama "Grimm" usually find themselves at the center of most of the action, but the ladies aren't slouches either.
When the show returns on Oct. 25, Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch), Adalind (Claire Coffee) and Rosalee (Bree Turner) aren't going to be standing around and looking pretty, they're going to be right in the thick of things. After all, Nick (David Giuntoli) has been captured (and turned into a zombie), and it looks like Juliette and Rosalee will have to combine their strengths to help find him.
Meanwhile, Adalind, the former Hexenbiest, is still using her charm and her smarts to try to regain her powers.
A video called "The Ladies of Grimm" that NBC is sharing first with TODAY shows just how big a role the women will be playing in the new season.
"They're very self-assured, they know what they want," teases Coffee in the clip.
"I think you're going to see a lot more of that in season three," Tulloch adds of the female action. The actress also noted that Juliette is no damsel in distress. "It's been alluded to that she's kind of a bad ass!"
"It just presents women who are strong, women who are smart, and women who are taking action," Coffee says in the video as scenes of the ladies taking tough situations into their own hands roll by. "The women of 'Grimm' kick ass!"
"Grimm" season three premieres Oct. 25 at 9 p.m. on NBC.
Coming at us fast and loud with a small piece of a brand new song, Lady Gaga just released a section of "Do What U Want" featuring R. Kelly today (October 16).
Gaga also announced that she will be releasing the new song in full on Monday, October 21st as a promotional single off her upcoming album ARTPOP. She will release a second song on October 27th and a third song on November 4th.
Featured as the tune accompanying a "Beats" headphones commercial, the 27-year-old singer superstar's voice haunts the ad, hitting us with relaxed drumbeats and angelic vocals.
Stay linked to GossipCenter for the latest updates on Lady Gaga, her upcoming singles, and the release of her brand new album, ARTPOP!
NEW YORK (AP) — Thomas Pynchon, Jhumpa Lahiri and George Saunders were among the finalists Wednesday for the National Book Awards.
A month after releasing long-lists of 10 in each of the four competitive categories, the National Book Foundation announced the five remaining writers for fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people's literature.
Winners receive $10,000 and will be announced at a dinner ceremony in Manhattan on Nov. 20.
All five fiction nominees are well established, from Pynchon, whose "Bleeding Edge" is set in Manhattan around the time of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks; to Lahiri, whose "The Lowland" was a Booker finalist; to Saunders, whose "Tenth of December" was the rare short-story collection to make-best seller lists. The other finalists are Rachel Kushner, nominated for her highly praised "The Flamethrowers," and James McBride, known to millions for "The Color of Water" and a finalist for "The Good Lord Bird."
The nonfiction list features three books by New Yorker staff writers: Lawrence Wright's Scientology investigation "Going Clear"; George Packer's dire account of contemporary America, "The Unwinding"; and Jill Lepore's biography of Benjamin Franklin's sister, Jane Franklin, "The Book of Ages." Also nominated for nonfiction are Wendy Lower's "Hitler's Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields" and Alan Taylor's "The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832."
For poetry, the finalists are Frank Bidart's "Metaphysical Dog," Lucie Brock-Broido's "Stay, Illusion," Adrian Matejka's "The Big Smoke," Matt Rasmussen's "Black Aperture" and Mary Szybist's "Incarnadine."
The young people's literature nominees are Kathi Appelt's "The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp," Cynthia Kadohata's "The Thing About Luck," Tom McNeal's "Far Far Away," Meg Rosoff's "Picture Me Gone" and Gene Luen Yang's "Boxers & Saints," a two-volume graphic novel.
Four of the fiction finalists were published by imprints of the recently merged Penguin Random House, which released 10 of the 20 nominees overall.
The long-lists were started this year as part of an effort to increase awareness of the awards and lead to more sales. New York publishers, several of whom are represented on the foundation's board, have complained that fiction nominees in recent years have been too obscure and have cited Britain's Man Booker Prize as a model. Besides establishing long-lists, the foundation has expanded the pool of judges, once exclusively fellow writers, to include journalists, booksellers and librarians.
The foundation would likely settle for the success of the National Book Award fiction winner from 2012, Louise Erdrich's "The Round House," which has sold more than 300,000 copies. Erdrich's publisher, HarperCollins, gave much of the credit to the award.
Honorary winners include Maya Angelou, whose medal will be presented by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, and E.L. Doctorow, who will be introduced by the publisher emeritus of The Nation and former National Book Award winner Victor Navasky.
The National Book Foundation, which presents the awards, is a nonprofit organization that sponsors numerous writing and educational events and programs.
She loves playing a doting aunt to her sister Kim Kardashian's daughter, and Khloe Kardashian shared a lovely photo of her beautiful niece’s hand via Instagram yesterday (October 15).
The “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” starlet posted the black and white image, featuring her own hand holding baby North West’s arm.
Unfortunately, Khloe’s shot didn’t include North’s face, but it seems she’s staying stylish in a snazzy striped onesie.
Earlier in the week, the E! reality television star uploaded a shot of Kendall Jenner’s hands wrapped in boxing bandages, along with the caption, "My boxing buddy @KendallJenner and I went HAM,” followed by, “Can't move my arms after that boxing class w/ @KendadllJenner. Love/hate this feeling! We accomplished something. Our faces were SOOO red. LOL."
After a torrent of bad news, the digital currency Bitcoin has survived to fight another day. According to one economist, the next battle is likely to be with the government.
Bitcoin is an open-source, decentralized, digital currency, whose production is designed to simulate the mining of a commodity, like gold. Mining bitcoins is, obviously, a bit different: Bitcoin clients, which anyone can run, race to solve cryptographic puzzles. Those that reach certain milestones first receive the new bitcoins with ever decreasing frequency, in order to keep an influx of users from changing the number of bitcoins in existence too quickly (and ultimately to stop production of bitcoins altogether). The new bitcoins are then added to the network, and validated by all other Bitcoin users.
The currency was around as a tech curio for years, the enigmatic original designer “Satoshi Nakamoto” (no one knows who this is), but when its price increased 200-fold—well, people noticed. But many forecast that Bitcoin was doomed to failure.
Bitcoin’s brightest day so far may well have been Oct. 1. That day, years after Bitcoin’s inaugural buzz, Reuters reported that venture capitalists “show[ed] no sign of shying away from investing in startups related to Bitcoin.” Was stability finally looming for the tumultuous currency, which had bounced from less than $1 per bitcoin in 2011 to $266 this year?
The next day, the Department of Justice arrested Ross Ulbricht and shut down Silk Road, the anomalous black market accessible only through the Deep Web. In doing so, law enforcement performed the largest Bitcoin seizure in history: 26,000 bitcoins worth approximately $3.6 million from Silk Road users. Their eyes are still set on a bigger prize: the nearly 600,000 bitcoins that Ulbricht allegedly collected as commission for running the bazaar. Because the government has been unable to crack Ulbricht’s private key, a necessary step in accessing his digital wallet, acquisition of that jackpot has proved more difficult. Those 600,000 would be worth, today, about $85 million. They also account for about 5 percent of all Bitcoins in existence today.
Silk Road was one of the most critical support beams for Bitcoin. In March 7,000 of 10,000 items on Silk Road were drugs. After the news, the value of a bitcoin plummeted from $145 to under $110. And the claims of the currency’s demise reignited.
But the currency has stood strong, and jumped back to more than $130 the day after Ulbricht’s arrest. As of today, it’s back at about $140. The market’s resilience bolstered an optimistic, underdog outlook about the news, which viewed the arrest as a necessary step toward legitimacy. After all, Silk Road’s reputation for illegal activity—from drugs to guns—made it an easy target for Bitcoin critics. (Silk Road’s seizure will not be the last, either: The success of both Bitcoin and Silk Road has already inspired competitors.)
So what about our economist’s warning about trouble with governments? Simon Johnson, a professor of entrepreneurship at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, expects “big political backlash.” The seemingly inevitable collision stems from the novelty of a currency over which no government has tight control.
While Bitcoin has survived the exorcism of what was arguably its largest devil—that is to say, its largest political liability—others remain, which means if the Department of Justice does decide to throw another punch, it won’t have a hard time finding a weak spot. One venture capital firm says online gambling accounts for almost half of all Bitcoin transactions. Also vulnerable are the exchanges that manage Bitcoin transactions and currency conversions. These exchanges have repeatedly walked into finance-law hornets’ nests.
Lobbyists will almost certainly play a role: Entire industries are threatened by Bitcoin. At a modest scale, Bitcoin provides an evolutionary step away from credit cards, which charge fees for each transfer (either to the consumer and/or the seller). Even services like PayPal remain dependent on the credit card industry, while Bitcoin transactions never go through a credit card agency and incur no (or small) fees. If it reached a larger scale, Bitcoin could rival banks, which also reap huge profits from money transfers and can wield enormous lobbying campaigns. In the long term, were Bitcoin to become a viable rival currency, it would have severe consequences for the basic monetary policies of Western economies—and the finance industry they empower.
And that’s all without any new law specifically targeted at Bitcoin.
Bitcoin stakeholders have been meeting with regulators to try to figure out exactly what existing laws actually apply to this new currency. Its use in a Ponzi scheme forced the Securities and Exchange Commission’s hand earlier this year. The agency argued that bitcoins were money, and in August, a court agreed. It means Bitcoin is one important step toward being considered a viable currency. It also means the nascent Bitcoin industry must comply with a host of laws that not long ago it had a reputation for flouting.
While regulators are likely to promulgate new rules without much fanfare, some lawmakers have also drawn lines in the sand. Bitcoin supporters should keep their eyes on at least one politician, Sen. Chuck Schumer, who called Bitcoin a form of money laundering way back in 2011.
Bitcoin may be un- or underarmed in a political fight: Without a centralized power source, it’s unlikely that Bitcoin will be able to marshal the political might of the industries it is disrupting.
This article arises from Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, the New America Foundation, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, visit the Future Tense blog and the Future Tense home page. You can also follow us on Twitter.
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After a long period of developer (and enthusiast) previews, Ubuntu 13.10 for smartphones, as well as desktops, is finally available as a stable release. The gesture-heavy, Linux-based mobile OS still doesn't have an official hardware home -- if you'll remember, Canonical's Indiegogo bid for the ...
