Acoustic time delay could improve phased array systems

Mar. 29, 2013 ? Radar systems today depend increasingly on phased-array antennas, an advanced design in which extensive grids of solid state components direct signal beams electronically. Phased array technology is replacing traditional electro-mechanical radar antennas -- the familiar rotating dish that goes back many decades -- because stationary solid state electronics are faster, more precise and more reliable than moving mechanical parts.

Yet phased array antennas, which require bulky supporting electronics, can be as large as older systems. To address this issue, a research team from the Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a novel device -- the ultra-compact passive true time delay. This component could help reduce the size, complexity, power requirements and cost of phased array designs, and may have applications in other defense and communication areas as well.

The patent-pending ultra-compact device takes advantage of the difference in speed between light and sound, explained Ryan Westafer, a Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) research engineer who is leading the effort. The ultra-compact device uses acoustic technology to produce a type of signal delay that's essential to phased-array performance; existing phased-array antennas use cumbersome electrical technology to create this type of signal delay.

"Most true time delay equipment currently uses long, meandering electromagnetic delay lines -- comparable to coaxial cable -- that take up a lot of space," Westafer said. "In addition, there are some time delay designs that utilize photonic technology, but they currently have size and functionality drawbacks as well."

The ultra-compact delay device uses acoustic delay lines that are embedded entirely within thin film materials. The component can be made thousands of times smaller than an electrical delay-line design, Westafer said, and it can be readily integrated on top of semiconductor substrates commonly used in radar systems.

A Critical Delay

In a phased array radar system, true time delays are necessary to assure proper performance of the many signal beam producing elements that make up the array. As the elements scan back and forth electronically at extremely high speeds, their timing requires extremely fine coordination.

"The individual antenna elements of a phased array appear to scan together, but in fact each element's signal has to leave up to a few nanoseconds later than its neighbor or the steered beam will be spoiled," explained Kyle Davis, a GTRI research engineer who is a team member. "These delays need to march down each element in the array in succession for a steered beam to be produced. Without correct time delays, the signals will be degraded by a periodic interference pattern and the location of the target will be unclear."

Traditional phased array systems use one foot of electrical delay line for each nanosecond of delay. By contrast, the Georgia Tech team's time-delay design consists of a thin-film acoustic component that's a mere 40 microns square. The tiny device can be readily integrated into the silicon substrate of a radar component, yet it provides the same delay as many feet of cable.

This size reduction is possible because of a simple fact of physics -- sound traveling through the air moves about 100,000 times more slowly than light. As a result, when an electromagnetic wave such as a radar signal becomes an acoustic wave, it slows down dramatically. In the case of the ultra-compact passive true time delay component, the acoustic area of the component furnishes a multi-nanosecond delay in the space of a few microns.

"Microwave acoustic delay lines actually date back to 1959, but our ultra-compact delay's small size represents a significant advance that should allow microwave acoustic delay lines to be manufactured and integrated much more readily," explained William Hunt, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "And it's worth noting that this innovative work took place as the result of both strong student participation and very effective collaboration across several Georgia Tech units."

Acoustic Wave Conversion

A phased array radar using the Georgia Tech time delay component could operate like this: An electromagnetic wave is transmitted through an electrical line to the compact time delay device. Then, within the delay device, a piezoelectric transducer converts electromagnetic waves to acoustic waves, and over the distance of a few microns the waves are slowed by several orders of magnitude.

Once the required delay is achieved, the acoustic waves are transduced back to electromagnetic waves, delivered into another electrical line and transmitted by an antenna. A similar but reverse sequence takes place when the radar beam bounces back from its target and is received by the antenna.

In addition to Westafer, Davis and Hunt, the Georgia Tech development team includes GTRI principal research engineers Jeff Hallman and Jim Maloney; GTRI research engineer Brent Tillery and GTRI research associate Chris Ward; School of Electrical and Computer Engineering student Stephen Mihalko, and GTRI student assistant Jonathan Perez.

To date, the Georgia Tech team has successfully demonstrated that the current version of the ultra-compact passive true time delay can handle radar signals at 100 percent bandwidth while delivering a 10 nanosecond delay. The team is presently addressing technical issues such as signal loss, and near-term plans call for the demonstration of an improved device design and the delivery of initial packaged devices to customers.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/technology/~3/tebPuz3J_E8/130329124307.htm

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Jim Carrey Responds to Fox News: "A Media Colostomy Bag" (Little green footballs)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295517466?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Bill Allowing Gold and Silver as Money; Bureaucratic Nightmare ...

I have encouraging news in the state of Arizona where lawmakers back gold, silver as currency.

The measure is Arizona's latest jab at the federal government, which prohibits states from minting their own money. It also reflects a growing distrust of government-backed money.

The bill, which advanced in a 4-2 vote by a House committee Monday, states that gold and silver should be legal currency not subject to tax or regulation as property. The Republican-led Senate gave the bill its blessing in February in a 17-11 partisan vote.

The bill would let people use the precious metals as money as long as businesses agree to take them. If made law, it would take effect in 2014.

Democrats oppose the measure. They say it would be a bureaucratic nightmare because businesses don't have the equipment to determine the value of gold and silver.

Bureaucratic Nightmare?

Nonsense.

The bill is well written and extremely well thought out. It does not force companies to accept gold or silver (nor should it), it merely allows businesses to do so if they want. Any company that does not want to deal with gold or silver will not have to. So where's the nightmare?

States will not be minting their own money under such a proposal (nor should they) so there is no conflict on that part of Federal law.

I commend this bill, expect Arizona lawmakers to pass it, and urge the Governor to sign it. When that happens, gold will once again be legal money.

I support gold as money and believe gold is money whether or not the bill passes.

There is significant reason for people to distrust government-sponsored fiat currencies backed by nothing. I made the case recently in Fraudulent Guarantees; Fictional Reserve Lending; Comparison of US to Cyprus; What About New Zealand?

Here is a brief synopsis, but I encourage you to read the full article.

Monetary Recap

• Base Money Supply: $2.9 Trillion
• M1: 2.4 Trillion
• M2: 10.4 Trillion
• Total Credit Market Debt Owed: $56.3 trillion

One Giant Ponzi Scheme

Clearly far more money has been lent than exists. How can it possibly be paid back? If it can't be paid back, how good is a government guarantee on deposits?

In 2010 Bernanke proposed ending reserve requirements completely, but long-time Mish readers understand what Bernanke proposed is the de facto state of affairs already. (see the above link for an explanation).

Five Key Points

1. In a Fractional Reserve Lending scheme, the notion there are meaningful reserves is ridiculous.
2. Far more money has been lent out than really exists (the rest is a fictional accounting entry).
3. Fractional reserve lending constitutes fraud (just as lending something you do not own is fraud).
4. There is no way for all this money to be paid back (so it won't be).
5. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has the most sensible policy on deposit insurance of all the world's central banks. (NZ offers no deposit insurance). See my article for a full explanation.

In the sake of full disclosure, I own gold, silver, platinum, as well as shares in various mining corporations.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Source: http://townhall.com/columnists/mikeshedlock/2013/03/30/bill-allowing-gold-and-silver-as-money-bureaucratic-nightmare-n1553007

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Proximity to coal-tar-sealed pavement raises risk of cancer, study finds

Mar. 28, 2013 ? People living near asphalt pavement sealed with coal tar have an elevated risk of cancer, according to a study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. Much of this calculated excess risk results from exposures in children, age six or younger, to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from the sealant.

"The increased cancer risk associated with coal-tar-sealed asphalt (CSA) likely affects a large number of people in the U.S. Our results indicate that the presence of coal-tar-based pavement sealants is associated with significant increases in estimated excess lifetime cancer risk for nearby residents," said E. Spencer Williams, Ph.D., principal author of the study and Baylor University assistant research scientist at the Center for Reservoir and Aquatic Systems Research in Baylor's College of Arts & Sciences.

Researchers from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and the in Austin, Texas, are the first to report on the potential human health effects of PAHs in settled house dust and soil in living spaces and soil adjacent to parking lots sealed with coal-tar-based products.

"Exposure to these compounds in settled house dust is a particularly important source of risk for children younger than six years of age, as they are expected to ingest this material at higher rates," Williams said. "This indicates that the use of coal-tar-based pavement sealants magnifies aggregate exposures to PAHs in children and adults in residences adjacent to where these products are used and is associated with human health risks in excess of widely accepted standards."

Data on PAHs in settled house dust used for this analysis were published previously by the same authors. In that study, settled house dust and parking lot dust were sampled for 23 ground-floor apartments in Austin, Texas. The parking lot surfaces adjacent to the apartments were coal-tar-sealed asphalt, asphalt-based sealant over asphalt pavement, or unsealed concrete. Concentrations of PAHs were 25 times higher in house dust in residences adjacent to coal-tar-sealed pavement compared to those with other pavement types. "This study was the first to find a strong association between a product or a behavior and PAHs in house dust," said Barbara Mahler, the USGS research hydrologist who oversaw the study.

For this study, doses and risk associated with residences adjacent to unsealed asphalt lots were considered relative to those adjacent to (CSA) parking lots. Benzo(a)pyrene concentrations in CSA-affected settled house dust were high relative to those reported in most parts of the U.S. where coal-tar-based sealcoat is not used (California and Arizona). Data for PAHs in coal-tar-sealed asphalt-affected soils and unsealed asphalt-affected soils are available from samples from New Hampshire and suburban Chicago.

The analysis did not consider exposure to the dust on the pavement itself, which has PAH concentrations 10s to 100s of times higher than those in house dust or soil, or inhalation of air over sealed pavement. "Over time, about half of the PAHs in the sealcoat are released into the air, and concentrations in air are extremely high, particularly in the hours to days after application," said Peter Van Metre, USGS research hydrologist and author of two papers on volatilization of PAHs from sealcoat.

Sealcoat is a black, shiny substance sprayed or painted on the asphalt pavement of parking lots, driveways, and playgrounds to improve appearance and protect the underlying asphalt. An estimated 85 million gallons of coal-tar-based sealant are applied to pavement each year, primarily east of the Continental Divide in the U.S. and parts of Canada. Coal-tar-based pavement sealants are 15 to 35 percent coal-tar pitch, which has been classified as a human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Over time, the dried sealant is worn away from pavement surfaces, and the resulting mobile dust particles can be transported into nearby homes.

"Although the analysis presented here is based on a limited dataset, the results indicate that biomonitoring might be warranted to characterize the exposure of children and adults to PAHs associated with coal-tar-based pavement sealant," Williams said. "Further investigation is also needed into the impacts of coal-tar-based pavement sealants on PAH concentrations in indoor and outdoor environments."

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Journal Reference:

1. E. Spencer Williams, Barbara J. Mahler, Peter C. Van Metre. Cancer Risk from Incidental Ingestion Exposures to PAHs Associated with Coal-Tar-Sealed Pavement. Environmental Science & Technology, 2013; 47 (2): 1101 DOI: 10.1021/es303371t

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/fZe2BuEECVo/130328125236.htm

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The Ocean Is Safe from Swarms of Man-Sized Robo-Jellyfish?For Now

While there's still a debate over whether the world's real jellyfish population is exploding or not, a team at Virginia Tech is working hard to supplement the prehistoric blobs' numbers with robotic monsters of their own. Huzzah? More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/57YDLGRjokQ/the-ocean-is-safe-from-swarms-of-man+sized-robo+jellyfishfor-now

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Gene discovery may yield lettuce that will sprout in hot weather

Mar. 28, 2013 ? A team of researchers, led by a University of California, Davis, plant scientist, has identified a lettuce gene and related enzyme that put the brakes on germination during hot weather -- a discovery that could lead to lettuces that can sprout year-round, even at high temperatures.

The study also included researchers from Arcadia Biosciences and Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, India.

The finding is particularly important to the nearly $2 billion lettuce industries of California and Arizona, which together produce more than 90 percent of the nation's lettuce. The study results appear online in the journal The Plant Cell.

"Discovery of the genes will enable plant breeders to develop lettuce varieties that can better germinate and grow to maturity under high temperatures," said the study's lead author Kent Bradford, a professor of plant sciences and director of the UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center.

"And because this mechanism that inhibits hot-weather germination in lettuce seeds appears to be quite common in many plant species, we suspect that other crops also could be modified to improve their germination," he said. "This could be increasingly important as global temperatures are predicted to rise."

Most lettuce varieties flower in spring or early summer and then drop their seeds -- a trait that is likely linked to their origin in the Mediterranean region, which, like California, characteristically has dry summers. Scientists have observed for years that a built-in dormancy mechanism seems to prevent lettuce seeds from germinating under conditions that would be too hot and dry to sustain growth. While this naturally occurring inhibition works well in the wild, it is an obstacle to commercial lettuce production.

In the California and Arizona lettuce industries, lettuce seeds are planted somewhere every day of the year -- even in September in the Imperial Valley of California and near Yuma, Ariz., where fall temperatures frequently reach 110 degrees.

In order to jump-start seed germination for a winter crop in these hot climates, lettuce growers have turned to cooling the soil with sprinkler irrigation or priming the seeds to germinate by pre-soaking them at cool temperatures and re-drying them before planting -- methods that are expensive and not always successful.

In the new study, researchers turned to lettuce genetics to better understand the temperature-related mechanisms governing seed germination. They identified a region of chromosome six in a wild ancestor of commercial lettuce varieties that enables seeds to germinate in warm temperatures. When that chromosome region was crossed into cultivated lettuce varieties, those varieties gained the ability to germinate in warm temperatures.

Further genetic mapping studies zeroed in on a specific gene that governs production of a plant hormone called abscisic acid -- known to inhibit seed germination. The newly identified gene "turns on" in most lettuce seeds when the seed is exposed to moisture at warm temperatures, increasing production of abscisic acid. In the wild ancestor that the researchers were studying, however, this gene does not turn on at high temperatures. As a result, abscisic acid is not produced and the seeds can still germinate.

The researchers then demonstrated that they could either "silence" or mutate the germination-inhibiting gene in cultivated lettuce varieties, thus enabling those varieties to germinate and grow even in high temperatures.

Other researchers on the study were: Post-doctoral researcher Heqiang Huo and staff researcher Peetambar Dahal, both of the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences; Keshavulu Kunusoth of Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, India; and Claire McCallum of Arcadia Biosciences, which provided the lettuce lines with variants of the target gene to help confirm the study's findings.

Funding for the study was provided the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the National Science Foundation.

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Journal Reference:

1. H. Huo, P. Dahal, K. Kunusoth, C. M. McCallum, K. J. Bradford. Expression of 9-cis-EPOXYCAROTENOID DIOXYGENASE4 Is Essential for Thermoinhibition of Lettuce Seed Germination but Not for Seed Development or Stress Tolerance. The Plant Cell, 2013; DOI: 10.1105/tpc.112.108902

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/l_5Ao2sF1pE/130329125309.htm

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Samsung Reportedly Debuting Stores-Within-A-Store At Best Buy Locations For Galaxy S4 Launch

Samsung will reportedly be launching Samsung Stores in select Best Buy locations ahead of the Galaxy S4's U.S. launch, a new report from Geek.com claims. The new sections, which will occupy spots close to the mobile department, will feature Samsung branding throughout and highlight a number of Samsung products, not just the upcoming Galaxy S4, though that flagship device will be the core focus.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Jcm4HeD1ROQ/

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Knox case puts spotlight on Italy's dysfunctional legal system

By Barry Moody

ROME (Reuters) - The decision to order a retrial of American Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the murder of her British housemate has put the spotlight back on Italy's courts, where years of legal process often fail to uncover the truth.

Knox and the family of murdered British student Meredith Kercher said they hoped the case would finally be solved after Italy's highest court on Tuesday ordered a retrial for the 2007 murder in the Umbrian hill town of Perugia.

The judgment overruled the verdict of an appeal court in 2011 which acquitted Knox and Sollecito, who had previously been sentenced to 26 and 25 years in prison for the stabbing to death of Kercher, a Leeds University student who was 21 at the time.

Both the accused have always professed their innocence.

Rudy Guede, an Ivorian drug dealer, is serving 16 years in jail for the murder after a separate trial, but prosecutors say he could not have committed the crime alone.

Although the Kercher case grabbed global headlines, emotional appeals from relatives for the truth about the death of loved ones are familiar in Italy, where high profile cases are often marked by dizzying changes of tack by investigators over who they believe is guilty - sometimes leading to a string of different people being accused of the same thing.

No judgment is considered final until appeals have been exhausted. As in the Kercher case, the top Court of Cassation can order a retrial which adds years more to the process.

A final verdict on Knox and Sollecito is now likely to take at least two more years on top of those already clocked up since the murder in 2007. The verdict of the new trial will again be subject to review by Italy's top court.

Such a time lag is not unusual. On average criminal cases take five years to conclude in Italy and civil cases seven. The latter is seen as a major disincentive to foreign investment.

There is a backlog of about 9 million cases and wholesale judicial reform is widely considered central to modernizing the Italian economy.

CONFLICTING VERDICTS

"Murders on the waiting list. Trials that take years and years between adjournments, conflicting verdicts and new adjournments," Fiorenza Sarzanini said in an commentary on the Kercher case on Wednesday in the Corriere della Sera daily.

Referring to other notorious unsolved murders of young women marked by botched investigations, one dating back to 1990, she added:

"To allow such a long time to pass without justice for the victims or their families seems a weight too heavy to bear."

Yet such cases are nothing compared to the most notorious examples of Italy's flawed legal system.

In the "Monster of Florence" case eight couples were murdered outside the Tuscan city between 1968 and 1985. Four men were at various time convicted of the murders in different trials and several other suspects arrested and released. Many Italians believe the real culprit was never found.

Even more extraordinary was the investigation into a 1969 bombing which killed 17 people in Milan and launched years of extremist violence between right and left in Italy.

After seven trials and numerous appeals over 33 years, during which the secret service was accused of setting false trails, the Court of Cassation in 2005 acquitted all the accused and ordered relatives of the victims to pay court costs.

In the Kercher case, an appeal court in 2011 threw out the convictions of Knox and Sollecito after independent forensic experts tore apart police scientific testimony, saying DNA samples were unreliable, evidence contaminated and international protocols not followed.

But prosecutors and Kercher family lawyers called that verdict "contradictory and illogical".

It will take months for the high court to explain its decision, but experts said it was likely that it had found fault with the published motivation for the lower court verdict.

"PROFOUND ERRORS"

The Cassation Court prosecutor, who successfully argued for a retrial, argued that the appeal court judges had "lost their bearings" in the highly publicized case, suggesting a series of profound errors in legal process.

This will pave the way for a new trial which will not only reexamine the previous case but could accept new evidence, experts say.

If Knox is convicted, after a final appeal to the Cassation Court, she would likely face an Italian demand for extradition, which experts here believe would not clash with U.S. double jeopardy laws because no case is final until the long process is exhausted.

Carlo Federico Grosso, a Turin university law professor, said the Kercher case would again raise questions about Italy's legal system. "Doesn't it reveal once again the very grave failings of our justice system or even the incompetence of many judges?" he wrote in La Stampa newspaper.

But he added that the Kercher case was complex and difficult because of mistakes in the police investigation and the fact that any verdict would be based on circumstantial evidence.

(Additional reporting by Emilio Parodi in Milan; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/knox-case-puts-spotlight-italys-dysfunctional-legal-system-180038179--nfl.html

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New insights into the development of the heart

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Viewed from the outside, our body looks completely symmetrical. However, most internal organs ? including the heart ? are formed asymmetrically. The right side of the heart is responsible for pulmonary circulation; the left side supplies the rest of the body. This asymmetry allows the heart to do its job effectively. In a study on zebrafish embryos, the researchers Dr. Justus Veerkamp and PD Dr. Salim Seyfried from the Max Delbr?ck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch have now shown how the left and right sides of the heart develop differently.

A protein called Nodal plays an important role in the development of asymmetry. In an early stage of heart development, Nodal is formed on the left side and triggers a multi-step signaling cascade that enables the cardiac progenitor cells on this side to migrate faster. The researchers were able to observe the migration of the cardiac progenitor cells in the zebrafish embryos in vivo. Since the embryos are transparent it is possible to view each single cell using the microscope.

While analyzing the individual proteins involved in the asymmetric development of the heart, Dr. Veerkamp and Dr. Seyfried encountered a surprise: Previously, scientists had assumed that another signaling molecule, the protein Bmp, triggered cell migration on the left side of the heart and, as a consequence, must be very active there.

Current studies, however, show just the opposite: Bmp reduces the motility of the cells that form the heart. The protein Nodal regulates this process by activating the enzyme Has2. This in turn restricts Bmp activity on the left side. Thus, the cells of the left side of the heart migrate faster and ultimately form a functional, asymmetric heart.

However, when the researchers modulated the experiments so that individual proteins of the signaling cascade were expressed at elevated or decreased levels, the cardiac cells showed subtle differences in "random walk" cell motility rates. This resulted in the development of hearts that were completely symmetrical or whose sides were laterally inverted.

Many of these malformations of the heart in zebrafish embryos are also known in humans. Often asymmetric disorders not only affect the heart but also other organs such as the spleen. It may be missing or two spleens may be present. Depending on the severity of the malformations, the problems of the affected individuals vary in seriousness. It is also possible that the processes identified by the researchers are also involved in the development of diseases in which cell migration plays a role.

###

Their findings were published in the journal Developmental Cell (doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2013.01.026)

Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres: http://www.helmholtz.de/en/index.html

Thanks to Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127475/New_insights_into_the_development_of_the_heart

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North Korea to cut communication channels with South

Mar 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $3,787,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,154,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 11. Keegan Bradley $1,274,593 12. Charles Howell III $1,256,373 13. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 14. Brian Gay $1,171,721 15. Justin Rose $1,155,550 16. Jason Day $1,115,565 17. Chris Kirk $1,097,053 18. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-cut-channels-south-war-may-break-090941398.html

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James Cameron donates deep sea sub to science

Mark Thiessen / National Geographic.

Filmmaker and National Geographic explorer-in-residence James Cameron emerges from the Deepsea Challenger submersible after his successful solo dive to the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean.

By Douglas Main
LiveScience

One year after James Cameron made a solo dive to the deepest spot in the world's oceans, he is donating his submersible, the Deepsea Challenger, to science. Cameron is giving the sub to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to help improve future submersibles and facilitate the exploration of the deep ocean, according to a release from the institution.

"The seven years we spent designing and building the Deepsea Challenger were dedicated to expanding the options available to deep-ocean researchers," Cameron said in the statement. "Our sub is a scientific proof-of-concept, and our partnership with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a way to provide the technology we developed to the oceanographic community."

The Deepsea Challenger contains several unique features that allowed it to withstand the crushing pressures at the Challenger Deep ? the deepest spot in the world's oceans?at about 36,000 feet (11 kilometers) beneath the surface of the Pacific. Among those special features are unique approaches to flotation, battery design and energy storage, as well as innovative ways to gather imagery and samples from the seafloor, according to the WHOI statement.

Examination of samples and video collected by the Deepsea Challenger one year ago has revealed several likely new species, such as a sea cucumber seen at the Challenger Deep. Analysis by Natalya Gallo, a doctoral researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, also turned up a second previously unknown species of squid worm, she told OurAmazingPlanet in February. These wormy animals are several inches long and live in the midwater, above the seafloor, Gallo said.

Cameron's dive also turned up microbial mats ? strange-looking, filamentlike clumps of microorganisms ? on the seafloor. Researchers have speculated that a similar setup could have sparked the chemical steps that led to the development of life on Earth. The dive also revealed the presence of giant single-celled amoebas called xenophyophores ? bizarre creatures that are among the biggest cells known to humans ? near the Challenger Deep. ?

WHOI said it envisions a whole range of uses for the Deepsea Challenger's innovations. For example, its lighting and camera systems will be used on one of WHOI's existing vehicles to explore trenches in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in the next two years, according to the release.

"The technological solutions (Cameron's team) developed for the Deepsea Challenger system can be incorporated into other human-occupied and robotic vehicles, especially those used for deep-sea research," said Susan Avery, WHOI president, in the statement. "We plan to make that happen."

[Video: James Cameron Donates Sub to Science]

"Jim's record-breaking dive was inspirational and helped shine a spotlight on the importance of the deep ocean," Avery said. "We face many challenges in our relationship with the ocean, so there is heightened urgency to implement innovative approaches. Partnerships such as this one represent a new paradigm and will accelerate the progress of ocean science and technology development."

Email Douglas Main?or follow him @Douglas_Main. Follow us?@OAPlanet, Facebook?or? Google+. Original article on LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2a03ebf1/l/0Lscience0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C260C174742220Ejames0Ecameron0Edonates0Edeep0Esea0Esub0Eto0Escience0Dlite/story01.htm

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New evidence ancient asteroid caused global firestorm on Earth

Mar. 27, 2013 ? A new look at conditions after a Manhattan-sized asteroid slammed into a region of Mexico in the dinosaur days indicates the event could have triggered a global firestorm that would have burned every twig, bush and tree on Earth and led to the extinction of 80 percent of all Earth's species, says a new University of Colorado Boulder study.

Led by Douglas Robertson of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES, the team used models that show the collision would have vaporized huge amounts of rock that were then blown high above Earth's atmosphere. The re-entering ejected material would have heated the upper atmosphere enough to glow red for several hours at roughly 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit -- about the temperature of an oven broiler element -- killing every living thing not sheltered underground or underwater.

The CU-led team developed an alternate explanation for the fact that there is little charcoal found at the Cretaceous-Paleogene, or K-Pg, boundary some 66 million years ago when the asteroid struck Earth and the cataclysmic fires are believed to have occurred. The CU researchers found that similar studies had corrected their data for changing sedimentation rates. When the charcoal data were corrected for the same changing sedimentation rates they show an excess of charcoal, not a deficiency, Robertson said.

"Our data show the conditions back then are consistent with widespread fires across the planet," said Robertson, a research scientist at CIRES, which is a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Those conditions resulted in 100 percent extinction rates for about 80 percent of all life on Earth."

A paper on the subject was published online this week in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences, a publication of the American Geophysical Union. Co-authors on the study include CIRES Interim Director William Lewis, CU Professor Brian Toon of the atmospheric and oceanic sciences department and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and Peter Sheehan of the Milwaukee Public Museum in Wisconsin.

Geological evidence indicates the asteroid collided with Earth about 66 million years ago and carved the Chicxulub crater in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula that is more than 110 miles in diameter. In 2010, experts from 33 institutions worldwide issued a report that concluded the impact at Chicxulub triggered mass extinctions, including dinosaurs, at the K-Pg boundary.

The conditions leading to the global firestorm were set up by the vaporization of rock following the impact, which condensed into sand-grain-sized spheres as they rose above the atmosphere. As the ejected material re-entered Earth's atmosphere, it dumped enough heat in the upper atmosphere to trigger an infrared "heat pulse" so hot it caused the sky to glow red for several hours, even though part of the radiation was blocked from Earth by the falling material, he said.

But there was enough infrared radiation from the upper atmosphere that reached Earth's surface to create searing conditions that likely ignited tinder, including dead leaves and pine needles. If a person was on Earth back then, it would have been like sitting in a broiler oven for two or three hours, said Robertson.

The amount of energy created by the infrared radiation the day of the asteroid-Earth collision is mind-boggling, said Robertson. "It's likely that the total amount of infrared heat was equal to a 1 megaton bomb exploding every four miles over the entire Earth."

A 1-megaton hydrogen bomb has about the same explosive power as 80 Hiroshima-type nuclear bombs, he said. The asteroid-Earth collision is thought to have generated about 100 million megatons of energy, said Robertson.

Some researchers have suggested that a layer of soot found at the K-Pg boundary layer roughly 66 million years ago was created by the impact itself. But Robertson and his colleagues calculated that the amount of soot was too high to have been created during the massive impact event and was consistent with the amount that would be expected from global fires.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Colorado at Boulder.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Douglas S. Robertson, William M. Lewis, Peter M. Sheehan, Owen B. Toon. K-Pg extinction: Reevaluation of the heat-fire hypothesis. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 2013; DOI: 10.1002/jgrg.20018

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/k2wC9zxC0PY/130327144249.htm

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US stocks fall on broad concern about Europe

Stocks reversed an early rise on Wall Street Monday as traders returned to worrying about the European economy.

Optimism about a deal to prevent financial collapse in Cyprus had briefly pushed the Standard & Poor's 500 index to within a quarter-point of its record closing high, but stocks soon turned negative.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite index both closed down 0.3 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 0.4 percent.

Stocks turned negative about an hour into the trading day Monday as the initial euphoria about Cyprus' deal to secure 10 billion euros in emergency funding was overshadowed by renewed concerns about the European economy.

The fear intensified after a top European official indicated that investors in struggling banks may be forced to take losses ? an element of the Cyprus agreement that had previously been seen as unique to that country.

All ten industry groups in the S&P 500 closed lower, with industrial and materials companies posting the biggest losses. Network technology company VMware Inc. dove after the website Business Insider reported that PayPal and eBay will remove its software from 80,000 servers. The stock fell $3.65, or 4.6 percent, to $76.50.

Among the biggest drags on the S&P 500 index were software maker Red Hat Inc., online marketplace eBay Inc. and Textron Inc., an aerospace and defense contractor.

Europe still needs a long-term economic fix, said David Kelly, chief global strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds. Business activity in the 17 nations using the euro has declined continually since September 2011, according to research by Markit, a data provider. The region's economy shrank 0.6 percent in 2012, according official government statistics.

Business activity in nations that use the euro contracted more quickly in March, according to Markit's closely-watched survey of purchasing executives, which was published Thursday. The index had its worst decline in four months.

European policy makers have avoided a financial crisis by flooding the market with cash, but they haven't addressed economic hardship on the ground, Kelly said. In granting Cyprus' emergency rescue, for example, lenders demanded economic reforms, debt payments and a banking overhaul that will result in heavy losses for bank bondholders and shareholders. In addition, people with more than 100,000 euros in their accounts will lose up to 40 percent of their deposits.

Kelly said that's tough to swallow for people facing high unemployment and government cutbacks in Greece, Italy, Spain and other countries that received bailouts.

"If they're going to end up broke anyway," Kelly said, it will be "harder and harder for people to make the sacrifices that Europe is demanding of them." That could lead voters in bailed-out countries to resist lenders' terms, increasing political and economic instability in Europe and weighing on global markets, he said.

That concern intensified Monday after a key official indicated that the Cyprus rescue may serve as a model in other nations with struggling banks.

"If the bank can't do it, then we'll talk to the shareholders and the bondholders, we'll ask them to contribute in recapitalizing the bank, and if necessary the uninsured deposit holders," said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs meetings of finance ministers from nations that use the euro, in an interview with the Financial Times and Reuters. Dijsselbloem's office confirmed the remarks.

Wall Street had opened higher, following gains in Europe and Asia. Traders were relieved that international lenders agreed early Monday to release emergency rescue funds for Cyprus. The European Central Bank will continue to support the nation's foundering banks. In exchange, Cyprus will take major steps to shrink its troubled banking industry and cut its budget.

At first, the deal to save Cyprus' banks erased the latest source of anxiety for investors, who have traded for more than three years under the cloud of a debt crisis in Europe. The fear is that a heavily indebted country will default on its financial obligations and be forced to exit the shared currency. That could cause the eurozone to unravel, deepening the recession there and roiling international financial markets.

Concern about Cyprus last week pushed U.S. stock indexes to only their second weekly loss this year. Investors watched closely as the small, Mediterranean island scrambled to satisfy its lenders and prevent its banks from collapsing.

Traders expect more turbulence from Europe before the crisis has been resolved, said Anthony Conroy, head trader at ConvergEx Group, which provides technology to support big traders like investment advisers and hedge funds. Given the uncertainty, it's not surprising that stocks would veer between positive and negative, he said.

"When you have concern, you have volatility, and you're seeing volatility in here," Conroy said.

European stocks were up when Wall Street opened Monday, but turned lower shortly after Wall Street's gains evaporated. France's CAC-40 closed down 1.1 percent, London's FTSE 100 fell 0.2 percent and Germany's DAX lost 0.5 percent.

Earlier, Asian stocks closed mostly higher on optimism about the Cyprus deal.

The S&P 500 closed down five points at 1,551.69. The loss was offset in part by big jumps for Apollo Group Inc. and McGraw-Hill Cos. Computer maker Dell Inc. also supported the index as a bidding war broke out among investors who want to take the company private.

The Dow fell 64 points to 14,447.75. The Nasdaq dropped nine to 3,235.30.

As the final week of trading this quarter kicks off, the indexes are holding onto most of the gains built during the long rally earlier this month. The Dow is up 10 percent, the S&P 500 nearly nine percent.

Conroy expects stocks to maintain their recent gains as short-term dips draw more traders into the market. Kelly agreed, noting that stocks typically decline in the last week of a strong quarter, as investors seek to lock in their gains.

Among the companies making big moves:

? Apollo Group soared after the for-profit education company said its quarterly net income exceeded Wall Street's expectations. The stock rose $1.21, or 7.1 percent, to $18.25.

? Dollar General's quarterly net income rose as the operator of discount stores attracted more customers and sold more goods. The stock rose $1.01, or 2 percent, to $51.08.

? Dell rose 37 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $14.51. The company received competing bids from activist investor Carl Icahn, who offered $15 per share for a majority stake; and buyout firm Blackstone Group, which proposed a deal worth $14.25 per share. Founder Michael Dell had been in talks to take the company private for about $13.65 per share.

? McGraw-Hill Cos. rose strongly after it said it will resume an accelerated share buyback program capped at $500 million. The media company will use cash generated by the recent sale of its education business. Its stock rose $1.66, or 3.4 percent, to $50.03.

___

Daniel Wagner can be reached at www.twitter.com/wagnerreports.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-stocks-fall-broad-concern-europe-173923435--finance.html

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Porsha Williams Divorce: It's Over!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/porsha-williams-divorce-its-over/

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BlackBerry Z10 sales said to have ?dramatically slowed? with Galaxy S 4 on the way

In his new cover story for New York magazine, Joe Hagan offers the most in-depth look at the Today?show ratings?disaster that has created Matt Lauer's weeks-long attempt at image rehabilitation, and it's now clear that the defining moment that brought the morning show crashing own to Earth ? the exit of Ann Curry ? was something of a cross between the fourth circle of Hell and?and running with the Heathers?in high school: Curry got pranked, she got her clothes made fun of, she was prevented from reaching out to Robin Roberts, and her legacy lives on as a ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blackberry-z10-sales-said-dramatically-slowed-galaxy-4-173930315.html

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Molecular roots of Down syndrome unraveled

Mar. 24, 2013 ? Researchers have discovered that the extra chromosome inherited in Down syndrome impairs learning and memory because it leads to low levels of SNX27 protein in the brain.

What is it about the extra chromosome inherited in Down syndrome -- chromosome 21 -- that alters brain and body development? Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) have new evidence that points to a protein called sorting nexin 27, or SNX27. SNX27 production is inhibited by a molecule encoded on chromosome 21. The study, published March 24 in Nature Medicine, shows that SNX27 is reduced in human Down syndrome brains. The extra copy of chromosome 21 means a person with Down syndrome produces less SNX27 protein, which in turn disrupts brain function. What's more, the researchers showed that restoring SNX27 in Down syndrome mice improves cognitive function and behavior.

"In the brain, SNX27 keeps certain receptors on the cell surface -- receptors that are necessary for neurons to fire properly," said Huaxi Xu, Ph.D., professor in Sanford-Burnham's Del E. Webb Neuroscience, Aging and Stem Cell Research Center and senior author of the study. "So, in Down syndrome, we believe lack of SNX27 is at least partly to blame for developmental and cognitive defects."

SNX27's role in brain function

Xu and colleagues started out working with mice that lack one copy of the snx27 gene. They noticed that the mice were mostly normal, but showed some significant defects in learning and memory. So the team dug deeper to determine why SNX27 would have that effect. They found that SNX27 helps keep glutamate receptors on the cell surface in neurons. Neurons need glutamate receptors in order to function correctly. With less SNX27, these mice had fewer active glutamate receptors and thus impaired learning and memory.

SNX27 levels are low in Down syndrome

Then the team got thinking about Down syndrome. The SNX27-deficient mice shared some characteristics with Down syndrome, so they took a look at human brains with the condition. This confirmed the clinical significance of their laboratory findings -- humans with Down syndrome have significantly lower levels of SNX27.

Next, Xu and colleagues wondered how Down syndrome and low SNX27 are connected -- could the extra chromosome 21 encode something that affects SNX27 levels? They suspected microRNAs, small pieces of genetic material that don't code for protein, but instead influence the production of other genes. It turns out that chromosome 21 encodes one particular microRNA called miR-155. In human Down syndrome brains, the increase in miR-155 levels correlates almost perfectly with the decrease in SNX27.

Xu and his team concluded that, due to the extra chromosome 21 copy, the brains of people with Down syndrome produce extra miR-155, which by indirect means decreases SNX27 levels, in turn decreasing surface glutamate receptors. Through this mechanism, learning, memory, and behavior are impaired.

Restoring SNX27 function rescues Down syndrome mice

If people with Down syndrome simply have too much miR-155 or not enough SNX27, could that be fixed? The team explored this possibility. They used a noninfectious virus as a delivery vehicle to introduce new human SNX27 in the brains of Down syndrome mice.

"Everything goes back to normal after SNX27 treatment. It's amazing -- first we see the glutamate receptors come back, then memory deficit is repaired in our Down syndrome mice," said Xin Wang, a graduate student in Xu's lab and first author of the study. "Gene therapy of this sort hasn't really panned out in humans, however. So we're now screening small molecules to look for some that might increase SNX27 production or function in the brain."

This research was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (National Institute on Aging grants R01AG038710, R01AG021173, R01AG030197, R01AG044420; National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke grants R01NS046673, P30NS076411; Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development grant P01HD29587; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences grant P01ES016738), Alzheimer's Association, American Health Assistance Foundation, National Natural Science Foundation of China, 973 Prophase Project, Natural Science Funds for Distinguished Young Scholar of Fujian Province, Program for New Century Excellent Talents in Universities, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, and Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation.

The study was co-authored by Xin Wang, Sanford-Burnham; Yingjun Zhao, Sanford-Burnham and Xiamen University; Xiaofei Zhang, Sanford-Burnham; Hedieh Badie, Sanford-Burnham; Ying Zhou, Sanford-Burnham; Yangling Mu, Salk Institute; Li Shen Loo, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore; Lei Cai, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore; Robert C. Thompson, Sanford-Burnham; Bo Yang, Sanford-Burnham; Yaomin Chen, Sanford-Burnham; Peter F. Johnson, National Cancer Institute-Frederick; Chengbiao Wu, University of California, San Diego; Guojun Bu, Xiamen University; William C. Mobley, University of California, San Diego; Dongxian Zhang, Sanford-Burnham; Fred H. Gage, Salk Institute; Barbara Ranscht, Sanford-Burnham; Yun-wu Zhang, Sanford-Burnham and Xiamen University; Stuart A. Lipton, Sanford-Burnham and University of California, San Diego; Wanjin Hong, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore and Xiamen University; and Huaxi Xu, Sanford-Burnham and Xiamen University.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute.

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Journal Reference:

1. Xin Wang, Yingjun Zhao, Xiaofei Zhang, Hedieh Badie, Ying Zhou, Yangling Mu, Li Shen Loo, Lei Cai, Robert C Thompson, Bo Yang, Yaomin Chen, Peter F Johnson, Chengbiao Wu, Guojun Bu, William C Mobley, Dongxian Zhang, Fred H Gage, Barbara Ranscht, Yun-wu Zhang, Stuart A Lipton, Wanjin Hong, Huaxi Xu. Loss of sorting nexin 27 contributes to excitatory synaptic dysfunction by modulating glutamate receptor recycling in Down's syndrome. Nature Medicine, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nm.3117

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/9u0EdzWrArI/130324152305.htm

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Finally Someone Stepped Up and Designed A Way To Not Lose MagSafe Adapters

The $10 MagSafe to MagSafe 2 Converter is annoyingly expensive, but it's better than buying new gear. And now for $15 you can adopt an annoyingly expensive, but ingenious way to keep track of the tiny dongle. It's the Apple way. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Qv1GXRutyZY/finally-someone-stepped-up-and-designed-a-way-to-not-lose-magsafe-adapters

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Northug clinches overall cross-country WCup title

FALUN, Sweden (AP) ? Petter Northug of Norway clinched the overall cross-country World Cup title Sunday with a convincing victory in the final race of the season.

Northug had a big lead over his main competitors going into the concluding 15-kilometer freestyle pursuit race at the three-day World Cup finals, and won the race in 35 minutes, 48.3 seconds. In his usual flamboyant style, Northug even slowed down on the final straight to savor the win before finally crossing the line. Finn Haagen Krogh came 0.7 seconds back and Martin Johnsrud Sundby was another 1.1 behind in third as Norwegians swept the podium.

Alexander Legkov of Russia and Swiss defending champion Dario Cologna both had a chance of overtaking Northug for the overall victory but couldn't come close to catching the Norwegian. Legkov beat Cologna in a sprint for fourth place, and thereby finished second in the overall standings ahead of the Swiss.

Northug, who also won the overall title in 2010, finished on 1,561 points. Legkov had 1,381 and Cologna 1,364.

In the women's finale, Norway's Marit Bjoergen protected her big lead to win a 10K pursuit that had little impact on the overall standings.

The triple Olympic champion skied alone for the whole race and won in 26 minutes, 39.6 seconds. Fellow Norwegian Therese Johaug was 49.3 seconds back in second, with Sweden's Charlotte Kalla 1:11.7 behind in third.

It was Bjoergen's 59th World Cup race victory. In her 13 races this season, she was never worse than second. However, she skipped several races ahead of the world championships and couldn't prevent Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland from taking the overall title. Kowalczyk skipped Sunday's race but still finished more than 500 points ahead of Johaug in second. Kikkan Randall of the United States was third, with Bjoergen in fourth.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/northug-clinches-overall-cross-country-wcup-title-151109001--spt.html

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Severe U.S. storm brings heavy snow, baseball-sized hail

By Mary Wisniewski

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A major early spring storm brought heavy snow, severe thunderstorms and floods as it moved east across the United States on Saturday, closing highways, forcing flight cancellations and causing a pileup involving dozens of vehicles.

The weather system forced the cancellations of more than 100 flights in and out of Denver International Airport on Saturday and blowing and drifting snow closed several roads in Colorado, including Interstate 70 in both directions east of Denver to the Kansas state line.

"Travel on the eastern plains is strongly discouraged," said Mindy Crane, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation. "It is snowing half an inch an hour with sustained winds of 25 miles an hour with gusts up to 40 miles an hour."

A chain-reaction crash involving some 50 vehicles and at least four tractor-trailers shut down Interstate 25 about 30 miles north of Denver for several hours on Saturday, the Colorado State Patrol said in a statement. A tanker involved in the accident burst into flames.

Several injured people were taken to the hospital but no fatalities were reported, police said.

Kyle Fredin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said some counties in far eastern Colorado had seen a foot of snow by mid-afternoon.

Snowfall accumulations in the Denver metropolitan area could top 10 inches, with higher amounts in the foothills west of the city, he said.

The snow was expected to move east to Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio, over the next 24 hours, before moving into the mid-Atlantic states, Kines said.

Rough weather also was forecast in the Gulf Coast region from Florida to eastern Texas throughout Saturday, with large hail, damaging winds and possible tornadoes, Kines said.

In northern Florida, the National Weather Service in Jacksonville had reports of high winds and possible tornado touchdowns, though no twisters have been confirmed, according to meteorologist Phil Peterson.

Peterson said the weather service also had reports of baseball-sized hail west of Lawtey, Florida, early in the afternoon. Lake City received two inches of heavy rain in 30 minutes, he said.

(Reporting by Mary Wisniewski and Keith Coffman; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Dan Whitcomb, David Brunnstrom and Jackie Frank)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/severe-u-storm-bring-heavy-snow-possible-tornadoes-164536444.html

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Mayor Bloomberg On Domestic Drones In NYC - Business Insider

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg considers the domestic use of military-style drones "scary" but says that there is no way to stop it.

?Everybody wants their privacy, but I don?t know how you?re going to maintain it,? Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show. ?It?s just we?re going into a different world, uncharted, and, like it or not, what people can do, what governments can do, is different ... you can?t keep the tides from coming in.?

In September a Congressional Research report stated that domestic drones may be able to bypass constitutional privacy safeguards because of their high level of sophistication.

At least 81 entities, including 17 police departments, have applied for permission to fly drones in U.S. airspace.

But the mayor seems to be referring to something more omnipresent, like having drones with ARGUS technology flying 17,500 feet above the Big Apple while transmitting high resolution images of people.

"There'll be cameras every place" within five years, Bloomberg estimated. "We're going to have more visibility and less privacy. I just don't see how you could stop that."

The mayor figures that if the city already has security cameras in strategic places around the city ? 2,400 in Manhattan alone as of 1998 ? then drones aren't any different.

?It's scary. What?s the difference whether the drones up in the air or in the building?? Bloomberg said. ?I mean intellectually, I have trouble making a distinction. And you know you're going to have face recognition software."

Donna Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union told CBS that the mayor's nonchalance does nothing to quell legitimate concerns that the government could save the data to analyze it.

?It?s disappointing that the mayor shows such disdain for the legitimate concern of New Yorkers about their privacy," she said. "None of us expects that we?ll go unseen when we?re out on the street, but we also have the right to expect that the government isn?t making a permanent record."

Here the CBS news report with Bloomberg's remarks:

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/mayor-bloomberg-on-domestic-drones-in-nyc-2013-3

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Ga. woman says she's certain suspect shot her baby

This photo provided Friday, March 22, 2013 by Sherry West, of Brunswick, Ga., shows her son Antonio Santiago celebrating his first Christmas in December of 2012. West says a teenager trying to rob her at gunpoint Thursday asked "Do you want me to kill your baby?" before he fatally shot 13-month-old Antonio in the head. West was walking with Antonio in his stroller near their home in coastal Brunswick. The mother was shot in the leg and says another bullet grazed her ear. Police are combing school records and canvassing neighborhoods as they search for the gunman and a young accomplice a day after the slaying Thursday. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Sherry West)

This photo provided Friday, March 22, 2013 by Sherry West, of Brunswick, Ga., shows her son Antonio Santiago celebrating his first Christmas in December of 2012. West says a teenager trying to rob her at gunpoint Thursday asked "Do you want me to kill your baby?" before he fatally shot 13-month-old Antonio in the head. West was walking with Antonio in his stroller near their home in coastal Brunswick. The mother was shot in the leg and says another bullet grazed her ear. Police are combing school records and canvassing neighborhoods as they search for the gunman and a young accomplice a day after the slaying Thursday. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Sherry West)

This Friday, March 22, 2013 photo provided by the Glynn County Detention Center shows De'Marquise Elkins, 17, one of two teenagers arrested Friday and accused of fatally shooting a 13-month-old baby in the face and wounding his mother during their morning stroll in Brunswick, Ga. Elkins is charged as an adult with first-degree murder, along with a 14-year-old who was not identified because he is a juvenile, Police Chief Tobe Green said. (AP Photo/Courtesy of the Glynn County Detention Center)

Sherry West breaks down in tears as she describes the incident the day before where her 13-month-old son was fatally shot and she was wounded Friday, March 22, 2013 in Brunswick, Ga. West said Friday a teenager trying to rob her at gunpoint asked "Do you want me to kill your baby?" before he fatally shot her 13-month-old son in the head. (AP Photo/The Brunswick News, Bobby Haven)

Luis Santiago tries to comfort Sherry West at her apartment Friday, March 22, 2013, in Brunswick, Ga., the day after their 13-month-old son, Antonio Santiago, was shot and killed. West says she was walking her baby in his stroller when a teenage gunman demanding money shot the baby in the face and shot her in the leg. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)

Authorities investigate the scene of shooting in Brunswick, Ga. on Thursday, March 21, 2013. A young boy opened fire on a woman pushing her baby in a stroller in a Georgia neighborhood, killing the 1-year-old boy and wounding the mother, police said. The woman, Sherry West, told WAWS-TV that two boys approached her and demanded money Thursday morning. Brunswick Police Chief Tobe Green said the boys are thought to be between 10 and 15 years old.(AP Photo/The Morning News, Terry Dickson)

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) ? The mother of a baby gunned down in his stroller says she has no doubt a teenage suspect is the man who killed her 13-month-old son, but family members say he wasn't anywhere near the scene.

"That's definitely him," Sherry West said Saturday when she saw the jail mugshot of 17-year-old De'Marquise Elkins, who is charged as an adult with first-degree murder. Police also arrested a 14-year-old who has not been identified because he's a minor.

"We're trying to determine which one actually was the shooter," police spokesman Todd Rhodes said Saturday.

But West said she was certain the gunman was the older suspect. "He killed my baby, and he shot me, too," she said.

On Thursday morning, West was pushing Antonio Santiago in his stroller after a trip to the post office. She said a teen, accompanied by a smaller boy, asked her for money.

"And he kept asking, and I just said, 'I don't have it.' And he said, 'Do you want me to kill your baby?' And I said, 'No, don't kill my baby!'" she said.

One of the teens fired four shots, then walked around to the stroller and shot the baby in the face.

Police announced the arrests of Elkins and the 14-year-old Friday afternoon. But Katrina Freeman, Elkins' aunt, said Saturday that he couldn't be the killer because the two were together at the time of the shooting.

Freeman said Elkins dropped by her home about 8:15 a.m. ? roughly an hour before the shooting ? and she cooked them grits, eggs and sausage for breakfast.

They stayed at her home until about 11 a.m., Freeman said, and then Elkins accompanied her and her children on some errands for about an hour. After noon, he left for classes he's taking to earn his GED, she said.

"He was with us the whole time," said Freeman, adding that she gave police the same account of her nephew's whereabouts. "There is no doubt in my mind that he is innocent."

Brunswick police have said little about what evidence led them to Elkins or the younger suspect. Police spokesman Todd Rhodes said Saturday that he's not surprised Elkins' aunt would try to protect him.

"That's what she's saying, but the evidence we're looking at says something else," Rhodes said. He would not elaborate. He said investigators still can't say what motivated the shootings.

Elkins' older sister said her brother had been living in Atlanta and returned to Brunswick only a few months ago. On Friday morning, as her brother made his way along the sidewalk to her home, police came to her door, she said.

"The police came pointing a Taser at him, telling him to get on the ground," she said. "He said, 'What are you getting me for? Can you tell me what I did?'"

On Saturday, police released recordings of three 911 calls made by West's neighbors right after the shooting.

One caller, sobbing, tells the operator she heard three gunshots. The woman says she saw the mother lay the child on the ground to try to revive him with CPR.

"Yes, I heard the shots. Somebody shot this child," the caller said. "She's got him on the ground. Please, we need everything we can get."

One caller solemnly tells an operator: "No, the baby's not breathing." He says the child was shot "right between the eyes."

A woman can be heard screaming in the background just before police arrive and sirens drown out her cries.

No callers reported seeing the shootings, and police said the three calls were the only ones they knew of.

At her apartment Saturday, West had filled several bags with her son's clothes and diapers to donate to charity. She said she hopes prosecutors pursue the death penalty in the case.

"My baby will never be back again," West said, sobbing. "He took an innocent life. I want his life, too."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-23-Baby%20In%20Stroller%20Slain/id-d909fef571954f7ea7d81cbcb2136082

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