Monday, August 12, 2013

House Of Wolves

Hi! I'm interested in the RP but I was curious as to what you meant by "Type of Lycan"? Like evil, ill etc.? Or are there actual types you want us to pick from? If there are types can you list them and what the difference is between all of them? Thank you!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/TvckAcx3HNM/viewtopic.php

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Thursday, August 8, 2013

The Dumbest Candidate Ever? (Taegan Goddard's Political Wire)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/324964061?client_source=feed&format=rss

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England faces science teacher gap

England risks a shortage of science and maths teachers next summer, a leading recruitment expert has warned.

The government's new School Direct scheme is recruiting too few trainee teachers in key subjects, says Oxford Brookes university's Prof John Howson.

Some three-quarters of trainee physics teacher places on the scheme are unfilled, says Prof Howson.

The government said numbers of physics teacher trainees were "now at their highest level since records began".

From September about a quarter of the funding for teacher training will switch from universities to School Direct.

"On-the-job"

The government wants almost 10,000 new teachers to train on the scheme instead of at universities.

The aim is to give head teachers more control over training and guarantee more "on the job" experience for recruits.

Prof Howson's analysis suggests that at the start of August just over half of this number, some 5,630 trainees, had been accepted onto the scheme.

He analysed acceptances onto School Direct schemes and onto traditional university Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGCE) courses.

He said that although the scheme "was coping well in many of the arts and humanities subjects, it was failing badly to recruit trainee teachers in key science, mathematics and technology (Stem) subjects".

There are two training routes on School Direct - salaried and unsalaried.

For physics, 75% of salaried trainee places were still empty at the start of August, as were 77% of unsalaried places.

In chemistry, some 63% of salaried places were unfilled and 57% of unsalaried places.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

Shortfalls of this magnitude in Stem subjects cannot be glossed over as insignificant?

End Quote Prof Peter Howson

For maths, the figures were 56% and 61% respectively.

Recruitment for trainee biology teachers was stronger, with 71% of salaried places filled but only 43% of unsalaried places.

Prof Howson says this amounts to more than 800 unfilled training places for Stem teachers on School Direct.

His analysis indicates that the shortfall is compounded by fewer Stem trainees on PGCE courses where between 40% and 50% of places remain unfilled.

"Shortfalls of this magnitude in Stem subjects cannot be glossed over as insignificant" said Prof Howson.

'Breathing space'

He added that an improving economy may make it harder to recruit new graduates with good degrees in Stem subjects into teaching.

Annette Smith, of the Association for Science Education, said: "University departments which train science teachers are seeing cuts.

"If it is the case that School Direct is recruiting so poorly the result is not going to be good."

Peter Main, of the Institute of Physics, said initiatives to recruit physics teachers had "seen dramatic gains in recent years".

But he added: "This year, numbers have fallen sharply.

"While that fall cannot necessarily be attributed to the changes in recruitment routes, School Direct is a very new scheme and although successful in some areas, it has been much less so in shortage subjects such as physics.

"It is not clear exactly why there are such large differences between subjects, but it would be wise to offer both schools and universities some breathing space and reduce School Direct quotas to allow time to develop a better understanding of the process and to enable us all to learn from this year's lessons."

A Department for Education spokesman said: "School Direct is proving extremely popular. By May around 22,500 people had applied for 10,000 places, and applications continue to rise.

"Of course it is right that head teachers are selective and choose only the brightest graduates best suited to their schools.

"This year we have seen an increased number of highly qualified graduates and career changers move into science and maths teaching, with the number of physics teacher trainees now at the highest level since records began."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23588850#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Friday, July 26, 2013

Where, if anywhere, will unemployed vets land?

NEW YORK (AP) ? Ray Lewis, Brian Urlacher and Ronde Barber grabbed the headlines by retiring, walking away from the game when they almost certainly still could have contributed to NFL teams.

Their departures overshadowed the pink slips handed to some longtime starters ? and stars. And as training camps open, the likes of John Abraham, Dallas Clark, Richard Seymour and Willis McGahee are unemployed.

So are Bart Scott, Kerry Rhodes, Brandon Lloyd and Vince Young.

What's the deal? Or, better yet, why haven't these solid players gotten any deals yet?

Here's a Pick 6 of positions where veterans with strong resumes are available, maybe even for a discounted price:

___

DEFENSIVE LINE: NFL teams really bulked up on defensive linemen in this year's draft, with nine selected in the first round. But with rotations on the D-line the norm, most rosters will have eight linemen who get onto the field in each game.

Available are three-time Super Bowl champion Seymour, last with Oakland, who has indicated he will retire without the right contract offer, and Abraham. Seymour is the more versatile, but Abraham is much more of a sacks threat and had 10 with Atlanta in 2012, when Seymour played only eight games because of injuries. Neither would come cheap and both are at the age ? Abraham is 35, Seymour turns 34 in October ? where they would be part-timers.

___

RUNNING BACK: Most teams are set with their starter, but as just about every club outside of Minneapolis and Seattle has discovered, more than one running back is essential.

On the market is McGahee, released by Denver in a youth movement and for salary cap purposes. Also available are Cedric Benson, Beanie Wells, Brandon Jacobs and Michael Turner. All have off-field or injury or durability issues and appear to be beyond their primes.

Yet when RBs inevitably go down in training camp or flop in the preseason, these guys could expect their phones to ring.

___

LINEBACKER: So much depends on whether a team uses a 3-4 or 4-3 alignment. On the street are Scott, who fits best in the 3-4, Keith Brooking, Thomas Howard, Takeo Spikes and Joe Mays. Spikes, Brookings and Scott fit exclusively on the inside.

___

RECEIVER/TIGHT END: Clark's career numbers and leadership would indicate he will land somewhere soon, especially with every team incorporating more plays for tight ends. Could he even wind up in troubled New England?

That's where Lloyd last worked, making 74 catches and 12 more in the postseason. Other wideouts available are Randy Moss, Early Doucet and, yes, even Terrell Owens and Chad Johnson.

___

DEFENSIVE BACKS: Teams tend to bring in and send out DBs all the time, so future employment seems likely for safeties Rhodes, Quintin Mikell and Jordan Babineaux. Same for cornerbacks William Middleton, Stanford Routt and Sheldon Brown. But they'll probably need to play special teams, too.

___

QUARTERBACKS: You won't find any likely starters here, maybe not even No. 2 QBs, but among those who could lend experience somewhere are Young, a former Offensive Rookie of the Year, Byron Leftwich and Matt Leinart.

___

AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/where-anywhere-unemployed-vets-land-075805909.html

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Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Catholic Church now offering #absolution to Twitter followers, just like Jesus did - 10 Things

Catholic Church now offering #absolution to Twitter followers, just like Jesus did - 10 Things
Nostalgia is a powerful emotion, and there's something deeply comforting about the familiar - and that's why Australia is feeling oddly soothed by the news that Derryn Hinch is pleading not guilty to contempt of court. He's been accused of defying a court order by publishing details of Jill Meagher's murderer on his blog and Twitter and if found guilty the 69 year old Hinch is off to jail, although he's insisting that he is innocent of the charges and that he's being used as a test case for social media trials in Australia. Meanwhile the rest of the nation are looking in mirrors, touching their faces and whispering "Derryn Hinch contempt charges? Wow, I remember seeing him leaving court for the first time in what, must have been 1987? Hawke was in power, everyone was listening to Kick by INXS, and the future just seemed so much? brighter?" before falling silent.

Speaking of the social medias, the Vatican's come up with a great way to increase their Twitter followers: those that add Pope Francis to their follow list get time off from Purgatory! It's a move that puts an excitingly 21st century spin on the age-old system of pontiffs allowing wealthy parishioners to buy their way out of sin, although the church has added that it's not enough just to follow the Pope: you also need to be contrite, carry out good deeds, and use hashtags like #godtotallyexists, #catholicsdoitbetter and #whatsabitofinstituionalisedchildabusebetweenfriends. Speaking of which, remember that following @TheVineOnline and @AndrewPStreet is the only way - the ONLY way - to guarantee priority entry into heaven, including a free drink on arrival and use of the VIP bathrooms. Tell 'em God sent you!

Stevie Wonder has a message for you, Florida, and it is this: until you drop your "stand your ground" laws, no Wonder for you. He's the latest person to call racially-motivated bullshit on the law that allowed George Zimmerman to walk away a free man after shooting Trayvon Martin dead in February last year, although as we mentioned yesterday, maybe he simply doesn't want to be beaten up on stage by a crazy person, as happened to 74 year old soul legend Lester Chambers after he expressed his disappointment about the verdict.

Egypt's merry jig towards all-out civil war continues apace with news that seven supporters of the deposed president Mohamed Morsi are dead and 260 are injured after fresh clashes with police in Cairo. The flashpoint was the Muslim Brotherhood's new policy of "surprise marches" blocking major thoroughfares in the city, and the Brotherhood will only stop disrupting things if Morsi is returned to power ahead of new elections, and the interim government are not prepared to consider that as an option since the entire point of a military coup is to remove a country's leader and they already went to so darn much effort. So basically things are turning into a game of chicken at this point.

Manufacturers of things are generally not idiots, which is why they know that if they put the word "organic" on their products more people will buy them under the impression that they're somehow healthier. The literal meaning of "organic" is "containing compounds of carbon" - which means that you, dear reader, can legitimately advertise yourself as organic. However, the makers of eight different kinds of bottled water either don't know much about chemistry or were subtly admitting to having tainted their refreshing mix of hydrogen and oxygen by using the word in their product names. In any case, the ACCC have ruled that water can't possibly be organic and that all of those manufacturers will have to change their brand names and packaging, despite arguments that the claims were not referencing the water itself but were just brand names that happened to have the word "organic" in them. Which is why this site is delighted to announce our own refreshing Mighty Giant Penis Growth Water - which isn't a claim, but is merely a name chosen in tribute to TheVine's grandfather, Archibald Mighty Giant Penis Growth. Incidentally, it may reduce severity of cold symptoms.?

So, how many moons does Neptune have? If you said "thirteen" then you need to quit living in the past, jerk: SETI's Mark Showalter was analysing Hubble data about everyone's favourite massive ice-giant planet and discovered a 14th moon, provisionally named S/2004 N1 until the International Astronomical Union give it one based around Greek or Roman gods of the sea. Fun fact: its largest moon Triton is orbiting the planet in the opposite direction to all of the other moons, suggesting it was captured in Neptune's mighty gravity rather than formed along with the planet in the early days of the solar system. SCIENCE!

While we're on the subject of science and the awesomeness of science, workers on the new overpass in Brisbane's suburb of Geebung have uncovered a batch of glorious fossils thought to date back 50 million years, a period about which we know surprisingly little. The fossils - which appear to contain ancient plants, fish and crocodiles - are from after the death of the dinosaurs (65 million years back) but before the rise of the mammals, and way before the mighty Australian megafauna that strode our proud nation like the giant, hairy colossi that they were. It follows the discovery of 98 million year old dinosaur fossils near Longreach, once again confirming that Queensland's golden age was around the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary.

Plans for two massive marine sanctuaries in the Antarctic have been postponed by a challenge from Russia's delegation, who are asking whether the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources has a mandate for creating things like marine sanctuaries. It's an odd stalling tactic, given that creating marine sanctuaries was the principal reason for forming the Commission in the first place, and Russia is being accused of doing so purely in order to keep areas open for commercial fishing rather than protecting marine living resources. Russia is expected to next dispute the meanings of "resources", "marine", "commission", "Antarctic" and "for", before demanding to know how the commission can even be certain that there's an external reality beyond their own sense impressions, let alone whether or not they should be allowed to fish there.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has officially applied for temporary asylum in Russia, presumably having really developed a fondness for the place over the four weeks he's been living in its airport's transit lounge. It's a tricky situation, since Vladimir Putin has already made clear that he doesn't want Snowden in his country any longer than he absolutely has to have him, while the countries that have offered him asylum would have difficulty physically getting him within their borders, not least since the US isn't above diverting international flights and searching them for errant Snowdens, as the president of Bolivia learned last week. If accepted, Edward will have three months to come up with a plan - assuming that Vlad doesn't have an unfortunate accident befall him, of course.

And finally, prepare to squee as you check out the new baby panda twins born to 15 year old Lun Lun at Atlanta Zoo. The birth came as a surprise to the staff there - well, not the birth per se, but the number of cubs in said birth - and also awwwww! Just don't think about how there are less that 2000 pandas left in the wild, since that will spoil the whole thing - and happy Wednesday!

Source: http://www.thevine.com.au/life/news/catholic-church-now-offering-absolution-to-twitter-followers-just-like-jesus-did-10-things/

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Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Juror: Race not an issue in Zimmerman verdict

A juror in the George Zimmerman trial made her first public appearances since the trial reached its verdict on Saturday, saying race did not play a role in the jury?s decision but admitted she believes Zimmerman went "above and beyond" his role as a neighborhood watch member.

Juror B37, who asked to remain her anonymity, said she did not find the prosecution?s witnesses to be credible and that race did not play a role in the jury?s decision.

However, she also acknowledged her belief that Zimmerman went "above and beyond" in his decision to ignore police direction by confronting Trayvon Martin.

Appearing on CNN?s ?Anderson Cooper 360,? she said neither she nor any of the other jurors discussed race when reviewing the case.

?I don?t think it did. If there was another person, Spanish, white, Asian; if they came in the same situation as Trayvon did, I think George would have reacted the same way,? she said.

?I think all of us thought race did not play a role. We never had that discussion. I think he just profiled him because he was the neighborhood watch and he profiled anyone that was acting strange.?

However, she did acknowledge that the jury was initially split on the decision, saying that two jurors initially pushed for a manslaughter charge and a third pushed for a second-degree murder conviction. Eventually, all settled on not guilty verdict.

And in a revealing moment, the juror said Zimmerman went ?above and beyond? acceptable action by confronting Martin.

?[Zimmerman] got displaced by the vandalism in the neighborhood and wanting to catch these people so badly that he went above and beyond what he should have,? she said. ?It just went terribly wrong. I think he?s guilty of not using good judgment. When he was in the car and called 911 he shouldn?t have gotten out of that car.?

Juror B37 says she wants to maintain her anonymity but she has been willing to speak out on the case. As reported earlier on Monday, juror B37 announced plans to write a tell-all book about her experiences on the jury in the Zimmerman trial .

?Nobody knew exactly what happened,? Juror B37 said when asked about the specific details of the case. ?I don?t think anybody knows.?

When asked if she feels sorry for the death of Trayvon Martin, she responded, ?I feel sorry for both of them.?

?I think both of them were responsible for the situation they got themselves into,? she added. ?I think they each could have made the decision to walk away.?

And in another revealing exchange, the juror said that while she agrees with the decision to return Zimmerman?s gun, she at first appeared hesitant when asked if she would want him serving in neighborhood watch in her own neighborhood.

?I think he has every right to carry a gun. I think everyone has a right to carry a gun.?

But Juror B37 paused for several seconds when Cooper asked about serving on a neighborhood watch in her own community.

?If he didn?t go too far,? she said. ?He didn?t stop at the limitations he should have stopped at. I would feel comfortable having George, but I think he?s learned a good lesson. I think he didn?t know when to stop.?

Juror B37 said she never wants to serve on a jury again. And admitted she has concerns about her own safety following the verdict.

?I?m not really scared, but I want to be cautious,? she said. ?We cried over it afterwards. I don?t think any of us could ever do anything like that again.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/-juror-says-zimmerman-went--above-and-beyond--but-that-race-was-not-an-issue--010659567.html

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Capture of Zetas leader unlikely to quell violence

In this combo of three photos released on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 by the Mexican Navy, are Zetas drug cartel leader Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, center, Ernesto Reyes Garcia, left, and Abdon Federico Rodriguez Garcia, right, after their arrests in Mexico. Trevino Morales, 40, was captured before dawn Monday by Mexican marines who intercepted a pickup truck with $2 million in cash in the countryside outside the border city of Nuevo Laredo, which has long served as the Zetas' base of operations. The truck was halted by a marine helicopter, and Trevino Morales was taken into custody along with a bodyguard and an accountant and eight guns, government spokesman Eduardo Sanchez told reporters. (AP Photo/Mexican Navy)

In this combo of three photos released on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 by the Mexican Navy, are Zetas drug cartel leader Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, center, Ernesto Reyes Garcia, left, and Abdon Federico Rodriguez Garcia, right, after their arrests in Mexico. Trevino Morales, 40, was captured before dawn Monday by Mexican marines who intercepted a pickup truck with $2 million in cash in the countryside outside the border city of Nuevo Laredo, which has long served as the Zetas' base of operations. The truck was halted by a marine helicopter, and Trevino Morales was taken into custody along with a bodyguard and an accountant and eight guns, government spokesman Eduardo Sanchez told reporters. (AP Photo/Mexican Navy)

Mexico's government spokesman Eduardo Sanchez, center, speaks during a news conference flanked by Rodrigo Archundia. left, of the Attorney General's office, Gen. Martin Terrones, second from left, spokesman of the Defense Ministry, Navy Capt. Jorge Vazquez, second from right, spokesman of the Mexican Navy and Carlos Cervantes, Commissioner for National Security and Federal Police in Mexico City, Monday, July 15, 2013. Sanchez announced that Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, the notoriously brutal leader of the Zetas drug cartel, was captured by Mexican Marines before dawn Monday after being intercepted in a pickup truck with $2 million in cash on a dirt road in the countryside outside the border city of Nuevo Laredo, which has long served as their base of operations. (AP Photo/Christian Palma)

Reporters take videos and photos of mug shots showed on a TV screen of the Zetas drug cartel leader Miguel Angel Trevino Morales during a news conference given by the Mexican government in Mexico City, Monday, July 15, 2013. Trevino Morales, the notoriously brutal leader of the Zetas, was captured by Mexican Marines before dawn Monday who intercepted a pickup truck with $2 million in cash on a dirt road in the countryside outside the border city of Nuevo Laredo, which has long served as their base of operations, officials announced. (AP Photo/Christian Palma)

FILE - This undated file image downloaded from the Mexican Attorney General's Office rewards program website, shows the leader of Zetas drug cartel, Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, alias ?Z-40?. Mexican media reports and a U.S. federal official confirmed that Trevino Morales has been captured. (AP Photo/Mexican Attorney General's Office website)

This mug shot released by Mexico's Interior Ministry on Monday, July 15, 2013, shows Zetas drug cartel leader Miguel Angel Trevino Morales after his arrest. Trevino Morales, the notoriously brutal leader of the Zetas, was captured by Mexican Marines before dawn Monday who intercepted a pickup truck with $2 million in cash on a dirt road in the countryside outside the border city of Nuevo Laredo, which has long served as their base of operations, officials announced. (AP Photo/Mexico's Interior Ministry)

(AP) ? Mexico's most brutal drug cartel leader built a business empire stretching from the Southwest United States to Central America, but Miguel Angel Trevino Morales' final days of freedom were spent lying low in the hinterlands of Tamaulipas state, traveling only at night over back roads as Mexican marines closed in on his trail.

The last of the Zetas drug cartel's old-guard leaders saw fate swoop in on him in the pre-dawn hours Monday when a military helicopter flew low over his pickup truck, then almost touching the ground, faced down the vehicle with its guns, Mexico Federal Security spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said.

The vehicle stopped, and three men emerged. Two hit the ground while the third tried to run. All were captured by marine ground forces who had been watching the movements of 40-year-old Trevino Morale, Sanchez told The Associated Press Tuesday. Not a single shot was fired.

Time was clearly running out for the cartel leader better known ? and feared ? by his nickname, "Z-40," a play on police radio code for a commander. Mexico's navy, which has brought down a number of top drug lords, "found out that he had been traveling in the early morning hours on dirt roads. They had been corralling him in little by little," Sanchez said.

Trevino Morales had $2 million in cash and eight rifles with him when marines caught him outside the border city of Nuevo Laredo, long the Zetas' base of operations. He was taken to Mexico City for questioning, but unlike the days of former President Felipe Calderon, there was no perp walk by a handcuffed suspect or piles of cash and guns put on display for the TV cameras.

Instead, the government released only a single video of a rumpled-looking, un-handcuffed Trevino Morales walking through prosecutors' headquarters, saying it wanted to avoid glamorizing drug traffickers or risk rights violations that could lead to a dismissal of charges. Authorities didn't even refer to his nickname, Z-40.

The Zetas are Mexico's most violent, if not richest, cartel, with the largest turf. A New York indictment against Trevino Morales estimates he received $10 million per month in income from cocaine sales alone, and that wasn't even the gang's strong suit.

His arrest was particularly pleasing for the United States. Trevino Morales allegedly orchestrated a series of killings on the U.S. side of the border, including several by a group of young U.S. citizens who gunned down their victims on the streets of Laredo. His gang was also believed to be responsible for the slayings of U.S. ICE Agent Jaime Zapata in 2011 and American citizen David Hartley in 2010 on Falcon Lake, which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trevino Morales is "one of the most significant Mexican cartel leaders to be apprehended in several years," the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said. "His ruthless leadership has now come to an end."

The Zetas have kidnapped or held tens of thousands of migrants, often demanding ransoms of $3,000 each. Federal officials say the Zetas stole and smuggled at least $46 million worth of Mexican oil to U.S. refineries. Trevino Morales channeled about $16 million to his brother in the United States to buy, train and race horses.

Trevino Morales' methods, like those of Zetas leaders before him, led to a "Zetanization" of how cartels do their fighting, said George Grayson, an expert on the group and a professor of government at the College of William & Mary.

"Inflicting fear into the heart of your target is an extremely efficient way to get what you want," Grayson said. "That genie is out of the box."

Trevino Morales was being held for questioning along with a bodyguard and accountant captured in Monday's raid. Sanchez said government forces "have been able to obtain information on the possible movements of his other accomplices," and phones or computers carried by traffickers often provide such information, even if the suspects themselves don't talk.

U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar, who represents Laredo, Texas, and was briefed on the arrest by U.S. and Mexican officials, noted: "The U.S. was very involved in this."

"The U.S. has been helping in trying to track him for a while. There have been some close calls," Cuellar said. "Here you have U.S. intelligence combined with the (Mexican) marines implementing it."

While Trevino Morales is wanted on several counts in the U.S., it was unclear whether Mexico would try him first at home or extradite him. He will probably be held at a top security prison near Mexico City, where no escapes have occurred.

It was a surprising end for a capo so violent he soaked rivals in diesel fuel and burned them alive in 55-gallon drums. Many had thought he would go down with guns blazing, but Sanchez said the precision raid apparently caught him by surprise.

For the group most terrorized by Trevino Morales, Central American migrants who were kidnapped, beaten and extorted by the tens of thousands, the arrest "will certainly be a relief," said the Rev. Alejandro Solalinde. The Roman Catholic priest runs a migrant shelter in the state of Oaxaca and has spent much of the last decade living under death threats from the Zetas.

"This was a blow, but it's only skin deep," Solalinde said. "The Zetas operate in almost 20 states of Mexico. They have a lot of public servants on their payroll, a lot of police."

Solalinde said that in southern Mexico, the Zetas have used their ties in Honduras and Guatemala, where they also ship cocaine and grow opium, to recruit street gang members to kidnap and kill Central American migrants in Mexico.

The Zetas forcibly recruit some migrants, kill those who won't join and increasingly kidnap young girls, who are forced into prostitution at Zeta-run bars or are made to distribute Zeta drugs.

"We're talking about human trafficking, organ trafficking, kidnappings, forced recruitment, everything," Solalinde said.

The Zetas have run their enormous turf with almost unbelievable brutality since the founders, a corps of special forces defectors who went to work for drug traffickers, splintered off into their own cartel in 2010 and metastasized across Mexico.

The Zetas were responsible for some of the worst atrocities of Mexico's drug war, including the slaughter of 72 Central and South American migrants in the northern town of San Fernando in 2010, authorities said.

The following year, federal officials announced the discovery of 193 bodies buried in San Fernando, most of them migrants kidnapped off buses and killed by the Zetas, some because they refused to work as drug mules. Sanchez said Trevino Morales is charged with ordering those crimes.

In 2011, a woman who angered the Zetas by blogging about crime and violence on a Nuevo Laredo website was found decapitated, her head placed atop a computer keyboard, with a message warning fellow bloggers about speaking out.

Experts say the arrest is unlikely to diminish the violence in the short term.

"The international experience ... demonstrates that there is a danger of greater atomization, and extremely violent armed conflict, if the hundreds of legal businesses that the Zetas run are not frozen or seized," said organized crime analyst Edgardo Buscaglia. He noted the many firms set up by the cartel "are where the Zetas real financial power is located."

The Zetas operate in 16 different lines of business, both legal and illegal, he said, including pirated goods, importing contraband consumer goods and weapons trafficking. The Zetas reportedly use their turf in Cancun to smuggle Cuban migrants into Mexico, and their bases in northern Mexico to steal oil from government pipelines and sell it to refineries.

Sanchez said officials were on alert for possible flare-ups of violence following the arrest, and it was unclear who could be in line to replace him.

The Zetas remain active in Nuevo Laredo, the nearby border state of Coahuila, the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, as well as parts of north central Mexico and Central America, although Trevino Morales' arrest means the gang has become "a franchise operation, not a vertical organization," Grayson said.

One possible successor is Trevino Morales' younger brother, Omar, a former low-ranking turf boss who's seen as a far weaker figure. There are some reports that Omar is also suffering from a chronic illness that would weaken his chances of taking over.

In the past, the arrest or death of top Mexican capos have led some cartels, like the Beltran Leyva gang, to splinter into smaller, vicious warring gangs with small patches of turf. Others, like the Arellano Felix cartel, have largely been subsumed by the usual winner in these disputes, the Sinaloa cartel.

Any debilitation of the Zetas could strengthen the country's most-wanted man, Sinaloa cartel head Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who has overseen a vicious turf war with the Zetas from suspected hideouts in rugged western Mexico.

One thing is certain: The Zetas' success has spawned imitators.

"Today, there are probably people calling themselves Zetas who don't necessarily have any real link to the organization," Sanchez said.

___

Alicia Caldwell in Washington and Michael Weissenstein in Mexico City contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-07-16-Mexico-Zeta%20Leader/id-18b187697f6043039b67d2d0fbcfb2cd

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Golf-Perry rolls to another major success with U.S. Senior Open

July 14 | Mon Jul 15, 2013 3:40am IST

July 14 (Reuters) - Kenny Perry fired a 63 to complete a record comeback victory in the U.S. Senior Open championship, winning by five strokes in Omaha, Nebraska, for his second successive senior major title.

Perry, who two weeks ago won the Senior Players Championship, was 10 behind pace-setter Michael Allen at the halfway mark but romped to victory by shooting a 64 in the third round and finishing with a seven-under round at Omaha Country Club.

The previous biggest comeback after 36 holes in a senior major was seven strokes.

"That was by far probably the greatest round of golf I ever played," Perry, a 14-time winner on the PGA Tour, said in a TV interview after his round.

"It all came together today."

Finishing second was fellow American Fred Funk, who shot a final-round 68 for eight-under-par 272.

Another stroke back were Rocco Mediate (66) and Corey Pavin (67) on 273, with Allen a further shot behind after registering a two-over 72 on Sunday.

Perry began the final round two shots behind Allen, but back-to-back birdies from the second hole set the tone for his brilliant finish.

After a bogey at the fifth, Perry made four birdies in a row to make the turn at five-under 30, needing only 10 putts as he took command of the championship.

Perry twice came agonizingly close to winning a major, finishing second at the 1996 PGA Championship and at the 2009 Masters, but never broke through.

In winning the U.S. Senior Open, the 52-year-old became the 11th player ever to win back-to-back senior majors.

(Reporting by Larry Fine in New York; Editing by Gene Cherry)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/INgolf/~3/qLfLbiNQ1vg/golf-seniors-idINL1N0FK0F520130714

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Former About.me Engineers Launch Finally.io To Monitor Cloud Server Performance

finally ioA couple of engineers who used to work for About.me have launched a new service called Finally.io in private beta. That service is designed to help other developers and engineers to keep tabs on their cloud server infrastructure and to prevent it from breaking.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/2VhQD7Yy6kg/

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Monday, July 15, 2013

LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL: Torrington 9-10 year-old All-Stars lose in semifinals against Avon

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Click thumbnails to enlarge

Pete Paguaga Register Citizen Austin Cordano pitched a complete game, striking out five batters in Torrington's 5-2 loss to Avon.

Pete Paguaga Register Citizen Jacob Grobel slides into home safe, scoring Torrington's second run of the game.

Pete Paguaga Register Citizen Joey Rinaldi hits a base hit in the top of the second inning.

Pete Paguaga Register Citizen The Torrington 9-10 year-old All-Star team during the National Anthem before their 5-2 loss in the district semifinals against Avon.

TORRINGTON >> The Torrington 9-10 year-old Little League All-Stars season came to end in a 5-2 loss to Avon.

?They fought hard,? said Torrington manager, Joe Latulipe. ?They never gave up.?

Both starting pitchers, Austin Cordano for Torrington and Daniel Bae for Avon, battled, throwing up zeros for the first three and a half innings, before Avon broke through first.

In the bottom of the fourth Benjamin Angus, Avon?s leadoff hitter, led off the inning with a walk, which was followed up with a rare catcher?s interference call allowing Bae to reach first.

Avon?s number three hitter, Logan Kozlowski then got a base hit, loading the bases for Brian Rowling.

With no outs and the bases full, Rowling hit a groundball to Torrington?s first baseman, Zac McLaughlin, who threw home to get the ball out at the plate.

The throw sailed over the head of Torrington?s catcher, Austin Latulipe, allowing not one but two runs to come around and score, giving Avon a 2-0 lead.

Avon then went to the bullpen brining in Benjamin Angus, removing Bae after four innings of work.

?He?s been pitching this well all season,? said Avon head coach Steven Angus.

After, Cordano worked his way out of the jam, the Torrington bats went to work, loading the bases themselves with no outs. Continued...

?We always have fight,? said Latulipe.

Cordano walked with the bases loaded to score Torrington?s first run of the game, after Alex Nocera popped out for the first out.

Jacob Groebl then scored on a passed ball tying the game up at 2-2.

As fast as they tied to game, was as fast as Avon took the lead back.

?The kids have supported each other all season,? said Avon head coach, Steven Angus.

After the first batter popped out, Avon got the next three batters on base, loading the bases.

Kozlowski then stepped to the plate and lined a base hit into center field scoring two runs and giving Avon the lead back, 4-2.

?They never lose focus that it?s just little league,? said Angus. ?When you have fun, you can hit, pitch and field well.?

Avon then added another run to extend their lead by three that was all they needed, as Benjamin Angus closed the door on Torrington in the top of the sixth.

?(Bae) and Benjamin have done a great job setting the tone for the team,? said Angus. Continued...

Cordano pitched the entire game for Torrington, striking out five batters and allowing only four hits in the loss.

?Today was the best he?s pitched during these five games,? said Latulipe.

Though the Torrington All-Star?s postseason is now over, Latulipe is pleased with how his team performance.

?It was definitely some good experience.?

Avon 5 Torrington 2

At Harwinton Field Complex

Avon 00023x- 5 4 0

Torrington 000020- 2 3 0

WP: Benjamin Angus

LP: Austin Cordano

Source: http://www.registercitizen.com/articles/2013/07/14/sports/doc51e3074028bf7351925838.txt

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Sports briefs: Maria Sharapova hires Jimmy Connors as coach

Tennis ? Maria Sharapova has hired Jimmy Connors as her new coach.

A day after announcing she was parting with Thomas Hogstedt, Sharapova posted on her website Saturday that she would work with the eight-time major champion.

Connors coached Andy Roddick for two years before resigning in 2008. He briefly worked with Sharapova before the 2008 Australian Open.

Hogstedt coached Sharapova for nearly three years. She said Friday he wouldn?t be able to travel in the near future and they agreed she should find a new coach.

A winner of the career Grand Slam, the second-ranked Sharapova was upset in the second round at Wimbledon this year. She said, "I am really excited about our new partnership and looking forward to the upcoming tournaments."

UFC confirms rematch of Weidman, Silva

MMA ? Chris Weidman, who won the UFC middleweight championship in an upset, will face Anderson Silva again on Dec. 28, UFC announced.

Weidman had landed a left hook to the chin of Silva, sending him to the mat at UFC 162 in Las Vegas on July 6. He followed with ground strikes until the match was called at 1:18 of the second round, handing Silva his first loss in UFC and the first knockout of his pro career. A stunned MMA fan base watched as Weidman, who is 10-0, left the cage with a belt over his shoulder.

story continues below

Softball president makes plea to IOC

Softball ? The president of the International Softball Federation says the re-introduction of the sport to the Olympics would add value to the games and provide opportunities for young women around the world to pursue their athletic dreams.

Don Porter attended the World Cup of Softball. The top official with softball?s international governing body spoke with The Associated Press less than two months before the International Olympic Committee will consider a combined bid by softball and baseball to return to the games.

The combined baseball/softball bid is competing with bids from wrestling and squash to be included on the program for the 2020 Olympics.

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/sports/56590355-77/sharapova-softball-ufc-coach.html.csp

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Sunday, July 14, 2013

Reid, McConnell yield no ground in filibuster showdown

By Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate's top Democrat and Republican yielded no ground on Sunday as they neared a showdown over President Barack Obama's executive-branch nominees that could dramatically change how the Senate operates.

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid charged that Republican obstructionism has prevented Obama from getting much of his second-term team in place.

Unless Republicans permit a number of Obama's nominees to be confirmed this week, Reid has threatened to change the rules and strip Republicans of their ability to block the president's picks with procedural roadblocks known as filibuster.

Nominees set for vote on Tuesday include Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Gina McCarthy to head of the Environmental Protection Agency; Thomas Perez as labor secretary, and three picks for the National Labor Relations Board.

"I want everyone to hear this. The changes we are making a very, very minimal," Reid said, sounding as if a final decision had already been made.

"What we are doing is saying, 'Look American people, shouldn't President Obama have somebody working for whom he wants?'" Reid said.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell his party was obstructing the process and urged Democrats to reconsider plans for an unprecedented change in Senate rules.

Filibusters have long been part of the Senate's basic fabric, providing the chamber's minority leverage to extend debate and force the majority to compromise.

But in the past decade or so, each side, when in the majority, has accused the minority of misusing the filibuster to produce gridlock, not change.

Reid is moving toward abolishing the filibuster only on executive-branch nominees, not on judicial nominees or legislation.

Democrats charge that Republicans have blocked a number of top nominees, not because they are unqualified, but because Republicans oppose the agencies that they would head.

Senate rules state that 67 votes are needed to change its rules. But Democrats, who hold the Senate, 54-46, could do it with just 51 by essentially rewriting the rule book with a procedural power plan known as "the nuclear option."

Once Democrats switched the threshold on rule changes, they would then reduce to 51 from 60 the number of votes needed to end filibusters on executive-branch nominees.

"The reason they call this the 'nuclear option' because it is breaking the rules of the Senate to change the rules of the Senate," McConnell said in a separate appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press."

With Senate Democrats and Republicans set to meet privately on Monday to discuss their difference, McConnell urged calm.

"We need to start talking to each other rather than at each other," said McConnell, who last week said Reid would go down as "the worst Senate leader ever" if he invoked "the nuclear option."

In 2005, the then-Senate Republican majority threatened "the nuclear option" in response to Democrats blocking a number of Republican President George W. Bush conservative nominees.

At the time, Reid spoke against "the nuclear option," saying it would undermine the Senate, while McConnell argued for it, saying change was needed.

The threat was averted when a bipartisan deal was reached only to filibuster judges in "extraordinary circumstances."

"I'm glad we didn't do it," McConnell said of the 2005 showdown. "We went to the brink and we pulled back because cooler heads prevailed .... That is what I hope happens here."

(Reporting by Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/reid-mcconnell-yield-no-ground-u-filibuster-showdown-164546330.html

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Apple got up to 5,000 data requests in six months

Apple

June 17, 2013 at 9:46 AM ET

An Apple logo is seen at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2013 in San Francisco, California June 10, 2013. REUTERS/Stephen Lam

? Stephen Lam / Reuters

An Apple logo is seen at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2013 in San Francisco.

(Reuters) - Apple received over the last six months between 4,000 and 5,000 requests for customer data from U.S. law enforcement authorities relating to criminal investigations and national security matters, the company said on Monday.

Microsoft and Facebook Inc published similar data last week after reaching a deal about disclosures with U.S. national security authorities.

"We have asked the U.S. government for permission to report how many requests we receive related to national security and how we handle them. We have been authorized to share some of that data," Apple said.

In a statement posted on its website Apple said that the requests were received from December 1 2012 to May 31 2013, and between 9,000 and 10,000 accounts or devices were specified in those requests, which came from federal, state and local authorities. (http://link.reuters.com/bar88t)

The most common form of request came from police investigating robberies and other crimes, searching for missing children, trying to locate a patient with Alzheimer's disease, or hoping to prevent a suicide, it said.

"Apple has always placed a priority on protecting our customers' personal data, and we don't collect or maintain a mountain of personal details about our customers in the first place," the company said.

Apple said conversations which take place over iMessage and FaceTime are "protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can see or read them. Apple cannot decrypt that data".

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663301/s/2ea6b5d1/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Capple0Egot0E50E0A0A0A0Edata0Erequests0Esix0Emonths0E6C10A331949/story01.htm

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NC Theatre's ?The Altar Boyz? is the Hottest ?Concert? in Town ...

Woodard, Ortiz, Carolan, Elliott, Hampton

Boy band fans will recognize much of Patrick Elliot?s hilarious choreography in NC Theatre?s ?Altar Boyz,? which is appropriate, since the story?s main focus is on a group of 20-something would-be pop stars with a religious bent. In fact, the play is really more of a ?concert,? with the boys dancing, singing, and pausing for some oh-so-deep religious musings. Each song-and-dance number is more uproarious than the last as the boyz try desperately to reduce the number of ?lost souls? in the audience?a convenient lost-soul counter ticks its way down (and up again a few times!) as the show breezes on.

Though this entire review could focus on just how amazing the choreography is, credit also has to go to John Bartenstein?s lighting design, which often takes the form of perfectly-timed spotlights and full-on laser light shows. And then, of course, there are the 90s-style costumes by Meredith Scott. Though there were a few minor sound-snags at the opening night performance, everything else comes together perfectly for a funny and thoroughly entertaining show.

When the boyz aren?t busy belting out tunes, they?re dragging reluctant audience members on stage?watch out if you?re a pretty girl sitting on the front row! But, aside from all the laughs, there are some deeper things happening here. Band member, Mark (Patrick Elliot), is harboring a secret crush on handsome front-man Matthew (Marshal Kennedy Carolan), and his struggles to reveal his crush and his true self are delicately touched upon. Likewise, there?s a nice commentary here about God or at least religion as a marketable concept. This ?concert? combines the antics of every mega-church preacher and televangelist and turns it into something funny, touching, and incredibly clever. The show is a surprise hit for the season and a must-see for any lover of religious parody?or The Backstreet Boys.

Source: http://triangleartsandentertainment.org/2013/07/nc-theatres-the-altar-boyz-is-the-hottest-concert-in-town/

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This Week in the Movement | Death with Dignity National Center

You are the key to ensuring well-crafted Death with Dignity laws for all Americans. With your financial and volunteer help, the Death with Dignity National Center, a 501(c)(3), non-partisan, non-profit organization, has been the leading advocate in the death with dignity movement. Member contributions helped us pass a new Death with Dignity law in Washington, defend the Oregon law, and provide education and outreach programs for the vitality of the death with dignity movement.

donate today

Source: http://www.deathwithdignity.org/2013/07/12/this-week-in-the-movement

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Police: Robbery not motive in SF store killings

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? A bloodied gunman suspected of killing two women and seriously wounding a man inside a jewelry store at a popular shopping center had visited the store at least once before, and investigators don't believe that robbery was a motive for the attack, police said Saturday.

San Francisco police identified the suspect as 23-year-old Barry White of Antioch.

White was arrested after opening fire on officers Friday afternoon. He's been booked on two counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder, police said in a statement on Saturday.

Officers encountered him outside the San Francisco Giftcenter & Jewelrymart in the trendy South of Market area. Initially, the officers weren't sure if the man, who had blood on his clothes, was a shooting victim or a suspect. The man then opened fire at officers while retreating into a restaurant, according to police.

"The suspect fired additional multiple rounds at the officers and then, we believe, ran out of ammunition, threw the gun on the ground and surrendered," police Chief Greg Suhr said on Friday.

Officers didn't return fire because the sidewalks were crowded with shoppers and residents.

Inside the shopping center, officers found two women dead and a man injured with gunshot and stab wounds at the Victoga jewelry shop. One woman was shot and the other suffered "wounds from an edged weapon," police said.

A gun and a knife were recovered from the scene.

Witnesses say the women were employees and the man is the shop's owner. Their names haven't been released. Police said Saturday that the man was in critical condition.

The suspect, who police believe acted alone, was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Police said Saturday that White had conducted at least one business transaction at the store before Friday's attack.

The shopping center is just blocks from the Hall of Justice, which is the home of San Francisco Superior Court, a jail and police headquarters. Several tech companies, including online game maker Zynga, are also in the neighborhood.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-robbery-not-motive-sf-store-killings-022902382.html

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Saturday, July 13, 2013

Florida Senate President sounds off on Stephen Ross

Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross watches warmups at Dolphins Stadium in Florida.Getty Images

The efforts of Dolphins owner Stephen Ross to retaliate against politicians who blocked efforts to finagle public funds for renovations to Sun Life Stadium may be backfiring.

According to Anthony Mann of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Florida Senate President Don Gaetz has complained about the methods Ross is using to target certain members of the House of Representatives. ?Ross has formed a Political Action Committee that already has begun to campaign against multiple members of the House.

?I believe that the tactics of Mr. Ross in threatening members of the Florida House of Representatives, and saying that Mr. Ross for his own personal reasons, is going to take down members of the Florida House of Representatives, gains him no friends in the Florida Senate,? Gaetz said. ??That?s not the way to get things done. ?We work together to find solutions and solve problems. ?We don?t make public policy under threat. ?And we?re not going to do it in the next session either.?

Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford, who appeared with Gaetz at the same event that preceded Gaetz?s comments to the media, said Weatherford isn?t concerned that Ross will knock the Speaker out of office.

?I don?t worry about that,? Weatherford said. ??I wish Mr. Ross all the luck in the world. ?I hope the Dolphins go 16-0 again, break the old record, and win the Super Bowl. ?But I can?t worry about what Mr. Ross thinks of me. ?All I can do is try to serve my membership and worry about the state of Florida.?

The Dolphins became infuriated with Weatherford because the team believes he reneged on multiple promises to put a stadium renovation bill that would have partially funded the renovations on the floor of the House of Representatives. ?The Dolphins also believe that Weatherford torpedoed the bill to bolster Weatherford?s political aspirations by currying favor with Miami billionaire Norman Braman, who previously owned the Eagles and who currently enjoys twisting the tail of Stephen Ross.

And so the Dolphins seem to be no closer to obtaining partial public funding for the stadium renovations. ?If anything, the goal could be getting farther away.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/07/12/florida-senate-president-sounds-off-on-stephen-ross/

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Friday, July 12, 2013

Galaxy S4 Vs HTC One Vs Sony Zperia Z

Galaxy S4 Vs HTC One Vs Sony Zperia Z

Quality is as follows.
Cheap - Awesome - ok

Speed is as follows.
Awesome - Awesome - nearly there

Screen is as follows.
Awesome - awesome - grainy

Screen outside as follows.
Its on? - awesome - its on?

Sound quality in call.
good - good - awesome

Speaker quality
good - awesome - ok

I have the HTC, mate has the S4, other mate had the Sony, he now has a HTC

Source: http://www.civinfo.com/forum/any-non-civic-chat-here-please/102325-galaxy-s4-vs-htc-one-vs-sony-zperia-z.html

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Boeing Dreamliner catches fire at Britain's Heathrow airport

By Rhys Jones

LONDON (Reuters) - A Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by Ethiopian Airlines caught fire at Britain's Heathrow airport on Friday in a fresh blow for the U.S. planemaker which earlier this year was forced to ground the new planes for three months because of overheating batteries.

Boeing shares closed down 4.7 percent at $101.87. Earlier in the session they tumbled as much as 7 percent, wiping $5.4 billion off its market capitalization after television footage showed the Dreamliner surrounded by foam used by firefighters at Heathrow.

Heathrow briefly closed both its runways to deal with the fire which broke out while the aircraft was parked at a remote stand. There were no passengers aboard the plane.

Television footage showed an area on the fuselage in front of the tail that appeared to be scorched.

"A Boeing 787 Dreamliner suffered an on board internal fire," a Heathrow spokeswoman said. "The plane is now parked at a remote parking stand several hundred meters away from any passenger terminals."

It was not clear if the fire was related to the batteries, which were the cause of the previous incidents that led to the grounding of the Dreamliner in January.

The Dreamliner's two battery compartments are low down, according to public Boeing diagrams, while the visible damage to the Ethiopian plane appears to be higher up and further towards the rear, according to footage from the scene.

Former U.S. National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker said the Heathrow incident was extraordinary news, coming so soon after the fleet had returned to service, but he cautioned against jumping to conclusions.

"It's very early. No one knows where the fire started at this point," Rosenker told Reuters, adding it could be something as simple as a coffee pot left on in a galley.

Boeing said it was aware of the fire and that had people on the ground working to understand the causes of it. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it was aware of the fire and was in contact with Boeing.

"This is terrible for the Dreamliner, any event involving fire and that airplane is going to be a PR disaster for Boeing," Christine Negroni, an aviation writer and safety specialist based in New York, said in a telephone interview.

"Because of the battery issue, the public is even more sensitive to events that happen to the Dreamliner. Even if they are normal, benign teething problems, that subtlety is going to be lost on the public," she said.

Another Boeing Dreamliner operated by Thomson Airways returned to the United Kingdom due to technical issues as a precaution, TUI Travel said.

Ethiopian Airlines said its aircraft had been parked at Heathrow for more than eight hours before smoke was detected.

Richard Aboulafia, a senior aerospace analyst at the Teal Group in Virginia, said early evidence, including images of the jet, suggest the battery is not the issue because of the location of the fire.

DREAMLINER

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner was grounded by regulators in January after batteries overheated on two of the jets within two weeks, including a fire at Boston airport on a parked Japan Airlines plane.

The Dreamliner resumed flying in April, with Ethiopian Airlines being the first carrier to put it back into passenger service.

The new high-tech jet came under intense scrutiny and Boeing redesigned the battery system to add more layers of protection against fire. Boeing began installing reinforced lithium-ion battery systems on the 787 in April.

Teams of engineers were dispatched by Boeing worldwide to install the stronger battery casing and other components designed to prevent a repeat of the meltdowns that led to the first U.S. fleet grounding in 34 years.

The plan approved by the Federal Aviation Administration called for Boeing to encase the lithium-ion batteries in a steel box, install new battery chargers, and add a duct to vent gases directly outside the aircraft in the event of overheating.

The 787 uses a powerful electrical system to drive air conditioning and hydraulic functions that are run from compressed air on traditional aircraft designs. That electrical system experienced fire during its development which also prompted changes in its electrical panels.

The Dreamliner which caught fire at Heathrow on Friday was delivered to Ethiopian Airlines in November last year.

It arrived at Heathrow from Addis Ababa in the early hours of Friday, according to the Flightradar monitoring web site. The plane was due to make the return journey later on Friday.

Asked whether the incident could lead to the renewed grounding of Dreamliner jets, a spokesman for Britain's Civil Aviation Authority said decisions on the airworthiness of particular models of plane were made by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

An EASA spokesman said it was too early to say whether the aircraft would be grounded again.

United Continental and Polish airline LOT said they would continue to operate their 787s.

Ethiopian Airlines Dreamliners are powered by General Electric GEnx engines.

Aircraft graphic: http://link.reuters.com/rax39t

(Reporting by Rhys Jones, Estelle Shirbon, Mark Anderson, Michael Holden in London; Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa in Washington, Alwyn Scott in Seattle and Tim Hepher in Paris; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton; Editing by Jane Barrett, David Evans and Tim Dobbyn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/heathrow-airport-closes-both-runways-plane-fire-161909885.html

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Abdominal Fat Linked to Raised Heart, Cancer Risks

From

People with excessive belly fat have a greater risk of heart disease and cancer than those who have fat in other body areas, a new study finds.

Researchers used CT scans to assess fat in the abdomen, around the heart tissue and around the aortic artery in more than 3,000 Americans, average age 50. They were then followed for up to seven years.

During the follow-up, there were 90 cardiovascular...

Content Preview This content is exclusive for Newsday digital access and 7-day home delivery subscribers and Optimum Online customers.

Source: http://www.newsday.com/news/health/abdominal-fat-linked-to-raised-heart-cancer-risks-1.5662740

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Thursday, July 11, 2013

Cars that look around to work out where they are

YOU are driving home when your car screeches to a halt under a bridge. It hasn't broken down, it's just lost. If driverless cars are going to navigate safely, they need to know exactly where they are all the time ? and if they rely on GPS they are likely to lose their bearings every time they enter a tunnel, go past a skyscraper or drive under a bridge. Now a new system can pin down the location of a travelling car to within 3 metres without the aid of GPS ? just by looking around.

The geolocation system, designed by Marcus Brubaker and colleagues at the Toyota Technological Institute in Chicago, uses two simple cameras mounted on the car that survey its surroundings as the vehicle drives along. Software uses this camera data to work out when the road curves or is straight and then compares the layout of the route and its intersections to a map of the area from OpenStreetMap, a crowdsourced mapping application. An inexpensive onboard motion sensor helps tell when the car has changed direction.

As the cameras pass by an increasing number of streets, the system eliminates the locations on the map that don't match up until it has worked out exactly where it is. On average, this process is completed after just 20 seconds of driving.

This method may sound too simplistic to work on the exact grids of a metropolis like New York, but according to Brubaker, it can pick up on the small differences in the size of each city block to pinpoint location accurately ? even in Manhattan.

When it was tested out on maps covering 2150 kilometres of roads within the city of Karlsruhe in Germany, the system placed the car to within 3 metres of its actual position as measured by a GPS unit.

Brubaker unveiled the GPS-free system at the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition conference in Portland, Oregon, last month.

Junsung Kim, who works on autonomous vehicles at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, says the paper is promising but that even better accuracy will be needed to ensure that vehicles know which lane they are travelling in.

"Self-localisation without a GPS is one of the most important technologies to make autonomous driving part of everyday lives," says Kim.

This article appeared in print under the headline "The driverless car with its own sense of direction"

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Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/2e7b2830/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cmg219292550B90A0A0Ecars0Ethat0Elook0Earound0Eto0Ework0Eout0Ewhere0Ethey0Eare0Bhtml0Dcmpid0FRSS0QNSNS0Q20A120EGLOBAL0Qonline0Enews/story01.htm

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