Monday, 29 April 2013

Justice Breyer released from hospital after bicycle fall

By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer was released from the hospital on Monday after being injured in a fall from his bicycle last week, a court spokeswoman said.

Breyer, 74, had shoulder surgery on Saturday at Georgetown University Hospital to repair a broken bone in his right shoulder after the bicycle accident on Friday afternoon near the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington.

He missed the court's public session on Monday. The next time the nine justices are due to meet is at their private conference on May 9. The next public session is scheduled for May 13.

Breyer is no stranger to bicycle accidents, having been injured twice before.

In 2011, he broke his collarbone, while in 1993, before he was appointed to the court, he broke his ribs and suffered a punctured lung.

Breyer, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, is viewed as a moderate on the liberal wing of the nine-member court.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Howard Goller and Eric Beech)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/justice-breyer-released-hospital-bicycle-fall-213013638.html

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Curry leads Warriors past Denver 115-101 in Game 4

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ? His star point guard slowed by a sore left ankle, Warriors coach Mark Jackson told Stephen Curry in the first half he might shut him down for the rest of the game.

Curry quieted his coach with a resounding answer.

Curry shook off the soreness in his ankle to score 22 of his 31 points in a spectacular third quarter, leading the Warriors past the Denver Nuggets 115-101 on Sunday night for a commanding 3-1 series lead.

"It was almost like a boxer that knew he was on the ropes, because it was just a matter of time" said Jackson. "I told him I don't need him to be a hero. Talk about smart coaching. And I guess he realized and sensed it. He captured and embraced the moment. The thing that stood out to me, it was almost as if he had been waiting for this his entire career and he wasn't going to allow his body to tell him it was too hurt to match the moment."

Curry finished 10 of 16 from the floor, including 6 of 11 from long range, and added seven assists in a dominant and dazzling display that rivaled his days in the NCAA tournament for tiny Davidson. Only this time, he stole the spotlight in the NBA playoffs, earning praise from Hall of Famers and past and present All-Stars all over social media.

Curry took a pain-killing injection before the game for the first time in his career, though he looked slow early and even covered his head in a towel on the bench late in the first quarter. Then, he hit five 3-pointers in the third quarter to lift Golden State to a 20-point lead and its third straight victory in this frenetic and flashy series.

"I don't know what happened. Something kicked in there," Curry said.

Jarrett Jack added 21 points and nine assists and Andrew Bogut broke out in the first half with 12 points and five rebounds for the sixth-seeded Warriors, who can close out the Nuggets in Game 5 on Tuesday night in Denver.

Ty Lawson scored 26 points and Andre Iguodala had 19 for the third-seeded Nuggets. Denver won the rebounding battle for the first time in this series ? 37 to 29 ? but Golden State didn't miss much.

The Warriors outshot the Nuggets 55.7 to 46.5 percent.

"The next 48 hours are going to be difficult, to say the least," Nuggets coach George Karl said. "They found some magic, and we have to find a way to take it away."

The Warriors lost All-Star forward David Lee to a season-ending hip injury in Game 1, and Curry sprained his left ankle late in Game 2. Seemingly down and out, Curry has carried the load anyway.

The quick-shooting point guard hit 5 of 8 from beyond the arc in a jaw-dropping third quarter, when nearly every gold-shirt wearing fan in the sellout crowd of 19,596 stood and cheered. Curry scored all 22 points in the final 6:22 of the quarter, showing the kind of range that helped him make 272 3-pointers in the regular season ? three more than Ray Allen's record set in 2005-06 with Seattle.

Curry capped his remarkable run with two of his most highlight-reel plays.

He stole the ball from Lawson, stopped in heavy traffic and dropped in a 27-footer before sprinting all the way to the bench high-fiving and chest-bumping teammates. Following a timeout, Curry sprung free near for a corner 3 ? looking back right in front of Denver's bench ? that gave Golden State a 91-72 lead entering the fourth.

Curry's five 3s in the quarter were a Warriors playoff record for a half.

"As soon as he gets the ball in the half court, he's in range," Bogut said.

Curry, wearing heavy tape around his nagging ankle, gave fans another scare when Corey Brewer poked Curry in the right eye going for a rebound early in the fourth. He returned about 4? minutes later, receiving another standing ovation from the home fans and later said his eye wouldn't be an issue.

While Curry scored only seven points in the first half, Bogut broke out in a big way to provide the one-two punch Golden State had long envisioned.

The 7-footer from Australia had three big dunks in the first half, including a thunderous right-handed slam over JaVale McGee. Bogut, who received a technical foul in Game 3 for daring Denver's big man to punch him on the chin during a face-to-face altercation, stared back at McGee while backpedalling down court.

"I just gathered myself and the ankle held up," Bogut said.

Bogut sat out the final 4:37 of the first half with three fouls, and Andre Miller ? whose last-second shot in Game 1 is the only thing keeping Denver alive ? almost single-handily brought the Nuggets within a bucket. Then Curry hit his first 3-pointer of the game ? officially a 27-footer that seemed closer to the scorer's table than the arc ? as Golden State scored the last 11 points before the break to go ahead 56-44.

Lawson, who scored a career-playoff high 35 points in the Game 3 loss, rallied from a slow start to highlight a 14-4 run that sliced Golden State's lead to 62-58 midway through the third quarter. Just when it seemed they might crawl back, Curry countered one devastating swish after another to put a major dent in Denver's playoff hopes.

That's not the only patchwork needed, either.

Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried kicked a hold in the wall just inside the visiting locker room afterward that symbolized his team's frustration. The scene was reminiscent of the hole Dirk Nowitzki put in the wall outside the locker room? which remains till this day ? when he threw a chair after his top-seeded Dallas Mavericks were upset in the first round by Golden State in 2007.

"There's no good news," said Faried, who had eight points and 12 rebounds. "The effort of coming back and trying to keep playing, it was there. But when they come down and just hit 3s when you've just crossed half-court, you can't scheme around that. You can't stop that. We just have to find a way to not let them do that.

NOTES: For the third straight game, Jackson listed Carl Landry at power forward in his starting lineup submitted before the game, even though Harrison Barnes started at power forward and Landry came off the bench. Jackson said beforehand that he'd do it again because "it worked." Karl said it's not what coaches typically do but joked that Jackson is "consistent" and maybe "superstitious." ... Jackson's wife, Desiree Coleman Jackson, sang the national anthem.

___

Antonio Gonzalez can be reached at: www.twitter.com/agonzalezAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/curry-leads-warriors-past-denver-115-101-game-042746068.html

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Jonah Peretti: Sex Is A Lot More Popular Than Jesus On Google

0Y8NWPL2QzgdUPLmFe5llF6Cxam17Wz6Dgjz689YJ9gToday at Disrupt NY 2013, Buzzfeed founder Jonah Peretti took the stage to talk to the audience about how content works on the Internet: What sells, what gets shared and why. Peretti, a journalist, programmer, marketer and founding member of The Huffington Post (now owned by TechCrunch parent company AOL), has long been a student of viral media. Not surprisingly, Peretti's latest brainchild, Buzzfeed, has turned into publication of record when it comes to Web-born viral content

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/HdUQkeOxnq8/

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Vikes?take punter; Kluwe welcomes competition

Washington v USCGetty Images

Here are the terms of trades completed on Saturday, April 27, the third and final day of the 2013 NFL Draft. All draft choices are 2013 selections unless otherwise noted:

The Jaguars traded a fourth-round pick (No. 98) to the Eagles. In exchange, the Eagles sent fourth- and seventh-round picks (Nos. 101, 210) to Jacksonville. With pick No. 98, the Eagles selected Southern California quarterback Matt Barkley. Three picks later, the Jaguars selected South Carolina wide receiver Ace Sanders at No. 101. With pick No. 210, the Jaguars took Appalachian State cornerback Demetrius McCray.

The Buccaneers acquired a fourth-round pick (No. 100) from Oakland. The Raiders, in turn, received fourth- and sixth-round selections (Nos. 112, 181) from Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers took Illinois defensive tackle Akeem Spence at No. 100. The Raiders selected Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson at No. 112 and UCF running back Latavius Murray at No. 181.

The Giants traded for a fourth-round pick (No. 110) belonging to Arizona. In exchange, New York sent fourth- and sixth-round selections (Nos. 116, 187) to the Cardinals. The Giants took Syracuse quarterback Ryan Nassib at No. 110. With No. 116, the Cardinals took James Madison offensive guard Earl Watford, and with No. 187, they selected Clemson running back Andre Ellington.

The Steelers acquired a fourth-round pick from Cleveland (No. 111). In return, the Browns will get the Steelers? third-round pick in 2014. The Steelers selected Syracuse safety Shamarko Thomas at No. 111.

The Packers traded for Denver?s fourth-round pick (No. 125), giving the Broncos fifth- and sixth-round picks (Nos. 146, 173) in return. The Packers selected UCLA running back Jonathan Franklin at No. 125. At No. 146, the Broncos selected Western Kentucky defensive end Quanterus Smith. At No. 173, the Broncos took Virginia Tech offensive tackle Vinston Painter.

The Seahawks acquired the Lions? fifth-round selection (No. 137). In return, the Lions received fifth- and sixth-round choices (Nos. 165, 199) from Seattle. At No. 137, the Seahawks took Alabama defensive tackle Jesse Williams. The Lions took Appalachian State punter Sam Martin at No. 165 and Notre Dame running back Theo Riddick at No. 199.

The Colts acquired the Browns? fifth-round pick (No. 139) in exchange for Indianapolis? 2014 fourth-round pick. At No. 139, the Colts selected Tennessee-Martin defensive tackle Montori Hughes.

The Falcons acquired the Bears? fifth-round selection (No. 153), sending fifth- and seventh-round picks (Nos. 163, 236) to Chicago. The Falcons selected Texas Christian defensive end / outside linebacker Stansly Maponga. The Bears took Louisiana Tech tackle Jordan Mills at No. 163 and Washington State wide receiver Marquess Wilson at No. 236.

The Rams traded back into Round Five, sending sixth- and seventh-round picks (Nos. 184, 198) to the Texans for Houston?s fifth-round pick (No. 160). The Rams took Vanderbilt running back Zac Stacy at No. 160. The Texans exercised pick No. 198 on Bowling Green defensive tackle Chris Jones. The Texans dealt selection No. 184 to Oakland (see next entry).

The Texans acquired a sixth-round pick from Oakland (No. 176). In return, Houston sent sixth- and seventh-round selections to Oakland (Nos. 184, 233). The Texans selected San Jose State offensive tackle David Quessenberry at No. 176. The Raiders used selection No. 184 on Tennessee tight end Mychal Rivera and selection No. 233 on Missouri Western State defensive end David Bass.

The Buccaneers traded running back LeGarrette Blount to the Patriots for running back / kick returner Will Demps and a seventh-round pick (No. 229). The Buccaneers traded the No. 229 pick to Minnesota (see next entry).

The Buccaneers acquired a sixth-round pick from Minnesota (No. 189). In return, the Vikings received sixth- and seventh-round picks (Nos. 196, 229). The Buccaneers took Miami (Fla.) running back Mike James at No. 189. The Vikings selected UCLA offensive guard Jeff Baca at No. 196 and Florida State defensive tackle Everett Dawkins with pick No. 229.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/27/chris-kluwe-looking-forward-to-vikings-punter-competition/related/

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Sunday, 28 April 2013

In a first, black voter turnout rate passes whites

WASHINGTON (AP) ? America's blacks voted at a higher rate than other minority groups in 2012 and by most measures surpassed the white turnout for the first time, reflecting a deeply polarized presidential election in which blacks strongly supported Barack Obama while many whites stayed home.

Had people voted last November at the same rates they did in 2004, when black turnout was below its current historic levels, Republican Mitt Romney would have won narrowly, according to an analysis conducted for The Associated Press.

Census data and exit polling show that whites and blacks will remain the two largest racial groups of eligible voters for the next decade. Last year's heavy black turnout came despite concerns about the effect of new voter-identification laws on minority voting, outweighed by the desire to re-elect the first black president.

William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, analyzed the 2012 elections for the AP using census data on eligible voters and turnout, along with November's exit polling. He estimated total votes for Obama and Romney under a scenario where 2012 turnout rates for all racial groups matched those in 2004. Overall, 2012 voter turnout was roughly 58 percent, down from 62 percent in 2008 and 60 percent in 2004.

The analysis also used population projections to estimate the shares of eligible voters by race group through 2030. The numbers are supplemented with material from the Pew Research Center and George Mason University associate professor Michael McDonald, a leader in the field of voter turnout who separately reviewed aggregate turnout levels across states, as well as AP interviews with the Census Bureau and other experts. The bureau is scheduled to release data on voter turnout in May.

Overall, the findings represent a tipping point for blacks, who for much of America's history were disenfranchised and then effectively barred from voting until passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

But the numbers also offer a cautionary note to both Democrats and Republicans after Obama won in November with a historically low percentage of white supporters. While Latinos are now the biggest driver of U.S. population growth, they still trail whites and blacks in turnout and electoral share, because many of the Hispanics in the country are children or noncitizens.

In recent weeks, Republican leaders have urged a "year-round effort" to engage black and other minority voters, describing a grim future if their party does not expand its core support beyond white males.

The 2012 data suggest Romney was a particularly weak GOP candidate, unable to motivate white voters let alone attract significant black or Latino support. Obama's personal appeal and the slowly improving economy helped overcome doubts and spur record levels of minority voters in a way that may not be easily replicated for Democrats soon.

Romney would have erased Obama's nearly 5 million-vote victory margin and narrowly won the popular vote if voters had turned out as they did in 2004, according to Frey's analysis. Then, white turnout was slightly higher and black voting lower.

More significantly, the battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida and Colorado would have tipped in favor of Romney, handing him the presidency if the outcome of other states remained the same.

"The 2012 turnout is a milestone for blacks and a huge potential turning point," said Andra Gillespie, a political science professor at Emory University who has written extensively on black politicians. "What it suggests is that there is an 'Obama effect' where people were motivated to support Barack Obama. But it also means that black turnout may not always be higher, if future races aren't as salient."

Whit Ayres, a GOP consultant who is advising GOP Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a possible 2016 presidential contender, says the last election reaffirmed that the Republican Party needs "a new message, a new messenger and a new tone." Change within the party need not be "lock, stock and barrel," Ayres said, but policy shifts such as GOP support for broad immigration legislation will be important to woo minority voters over the longer term.

"It remains to be seen how successful Democrats are if you don't have Barack Obama at the top of the ticket," he said.

___

In Ohio, a battleground state where the share of eligible black voters is more than triple that of other minorities, 27-year-old Lauren Howie of Cleveland didn't start out thrilled with Obama in 2012. She felt he didn't deliver on promises to help students reduce college debt, promote women's rights and address climate change, she said. But she became determined to support Obama as she compared him with Romney.

"I got the feeling Mitt Romney couldn't care less about me and my fellow African-Americans," said Howie, an administrative assistant at Case Western Reserve University's medical school who is paying off college debt.

Howie said she saw some Romney comments as insensitive to the needs of the poor. "A white Mormon swimming in money with offshore accounts buying up companies and laying off their employees just doesn't quite fit my idea of a president," she said. "Bottom line, Romney was not someone I was willing to trust with my future."

The numbers show how population growth will translate into changes in who votes over the coming decade:

?The gap between non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black turnout in 2008 was the smallest on record, with voter turnout at 66.1 percent and 65.2 percent, respectively; turnout for Latinos and non-Hispanic Asians trailed at 50 percent and 47 percent. Rough calculations suggest that in 2012, 2 million to 5 million fewer whites voted compared with 2008, even though the pool of eligible white voters had increased.

?Unlike other minority groups, the rise in voting for the slow-growing black population is due to higher turnout. While blacks make up 12 percent of the share of eligible voters, they represented 13 percent of total 2012 votes cast, according to exit polling. That was a repeat of 2008, when blacks "outperformed" their eligible voter share for the first time on record.

?White voters also outperformed their eligible vote share, but not at the levels seen in years past. In 2012, whites represented 72 percent of total votes cast, compared to their 71.1 percent eligible vote share. As recently as 2004, whites typically outperformed their eligible vote share by at least 2 percentage points. McDonald notes that in 2012, states with significant black populations did not experience as much of a turnout decline as other states. That would indicate a lower turnout for whites last November since overall voter turnout declined.

?Latinos now make up 17 percent of the population but 11 percent of eligible voters, due to a younger median age and lower rates of citizenship and voter registration. Because of lower turnout, they represented just 10 percent of total 2012 votes cast. Despite their fast growth, Latinos aren't projected to surpass the share of eligible black voters until 2024, when each group will be roughly 13 percent. By then, 1 in 3 eligible voters will be nonwhite.

?In 2026, the total Latino share of voters could jump to as high as 16 percent, if nearly 11 million immigrants here illegally become eligible for U.S. citizenship. Under a proposed bill in the Senate, those immigrants would have a 13-year path to citizenship. The share of eligible white voters could shrink to less than 64 percent in that scenario. An estimated 80 percent of immigrants here illegally, or 8.8 million, are Latino, although not all will meet the additional requirements to become citizens.

"The 2008 election was the first year when the minority vote was important to electing a U.S. president. By 2024, their vote will be essential to victory," Frey said. "Democrats will be looking at a landslide going into 2028 if the new Hispanic voters continue to favor Democrats."

___

Even with demographics seeming to favor Democrats in the long term, it's unclear whether Obama's coalition will hold if blacks or younger voters become less motivated to vote or decide to switch parties.

Minority turnout tends to drop in midterm congressional elections, contributing to larger GOP victories as happened in 2010, when House control flipped to Republicans.

The economy and policy matter. Exit polling shows that even with Obama's re-election, voter support for a government that does more to solve problems declined from 51 percent in 2008 to 43 percent last year, bolstering the view among Republicans that their core principles of reducing government are sound.

The party's "Growth and Opportunity Project" report released last month by national leaders suggests that Latinos and Asians could become more receptive to GOP policies once comprehensive immigration legislation is passed.

Whether the economy continues its slow recovery also will shape voter opinion, including among blacks, who have the highest rate of unemployment.

Since the election, optimism among nonwhites about the direction of the country and the economy has waned, although support for Obama has held steady. In an October AP-GfK poll, 63 percent of nonwhites said the nation was heading in the right direction; that's dropped to 52 percent in a new AP-GfK poll. Among non-Hispanic whites, however, the numbers are about the same as in October, at 28 percent.

Democrats in Congress merit far lower approval ratings among nonwhites than does the president, with 49 percent approving of congressional Democrats and 74 percent approving of Obama.

William Galston, a former policy adviser to President Bill Clinton, says that in previous elections where an enduring majority of voters came to support one party, the president winning re-election ? William McKinley in 1900, Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 and Ronald Reagan in 1984 ? attracted a larger turnout over his original election and also received a higher vote total and a higher share of the popular vote. None of those occurred for Obama in 2012.

Only once in the last 60 years has a political party been successful in holding the presidency more than eight years ? Republicans from 1980-1992.

"This doesn't prove that Obama's presidency won't turn out to be the harbinger of a new political order," Galston says. "But it does warrant some analytical caution."

Early polling suggests that Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton could come close in 2016 to generating the level of support among nonwhites as Obama did in November, when he won 80 percent of their vote. In a Fox News poll in February, 75 percent of nonwhites said they thought Clinton would make a good president, outpacing the 58 percent who said that about Vice President Joe Biden.

Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of the NAACP, predicts closely fought elections in the near term and worries that GOP-controlled state legislatures will step up efforts to pass voter ID and other restrictions to deter blacks and other minorities from voting. In 2012, courts blocked or delayed several of those voter ID laws and African-Americans were able to turn out in large numbers only after a very determined get-out-the-vote effort by the Obama campaign and black groups, he said.

Jealous says the 2014 midterm election will be the real bellwether for black turnout. "Black turnout set records this year despite record attempts to suppress the black vote," he said.

___

AP Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta and News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

EDITOR'S NOTE _ "America at the Tipping Point: The Changing Face of a Nation" is an occasional series examining the cultural mosaic of the U.S. and its historic shift to a majority-minority nation.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/first-black-voter-turnout-rate-passes-whites-115957314.html

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FAA: Air traffic system soon at full operation

A United Airlines jet departs in view of the air traffic control tower at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Seattle. A day after flight delays plagued much of the U.S., air travel is smoother Tuesday. But the government is warning passengers that the situation can change by the hour as it runs the nation's air traffic control system with a smaller staff. Airlines and members of Congress urged the Federal Aviation Administration to find other ways to make mandatory budget cuts besides furloughing controllers. While delays haven't been terrible yet, the airlines are worried about the long-term impact late flights will have on their budgets and on fliers. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

A United Airlines jet departs in view of the air traffic control tower at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Seattle. A day after flight delays plagued much of the U.S., air travel is smoother Tuesday. But the government is warning passengers that the situation can change by the hour as it runs the nation's air traffic control system with a smaller staff. Airlines and members of Congress urged the Federal Aviation Administration to find other ways to make mandatory budget cuts besides furloughing controllers. While delays haven't been terrible yet, the airlines are worried about the long-term impact late flights will have on their budgets and on fliers. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

The control tower stands in the background as a passenger lays on the pavement outside the international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson airport, Friday, April 26, 2013, in Atlanta. Congress easily approved legislation Friday ending furloughs of air traffic controllers that have delayed hundreds of flights daily, infuriating travelers and causing political headaches for lawmakers.(AP Photo/David Goldman)

A passenger sits at right in the international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson airport, Friday, April 26, 2013, in Atlanta. Congress easily approved legislation Friday ending furloughs of air traffic controllers that have delayed hundreds of flights daily, infuriating travelers and causing political headaches for lawmakers.(AP Photo/David Goldman)

The control tower stands in the background as a passenger paces while on the phone outside the international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson airport, Friday, April 26, 2013, in Atlanta. Congress easily approved legislation Friday ending furloughs of air traffic controllers that have delayed hundreds of flights daily, infuriating travelers and causing political headaches for lawmakers.(AP Photo/David Goldman)

(AP) ? The Federal Aviation Administration said that the U.S. air traffic system will resume normal operations by Sunday evening after lawmakers rushed a bill through Congress allowing the agency to withdraw furloughs of air traffic controllers and other workers.

The FAA said it has suspended all employee furloughs and that traffic facilities will begin returning to regular staffing levels over the next 24 hours. The furloughs were fallout from the $85 billion in automatic-across-the-board spending cuts this spring.

They started to hit air traffic controllers this past week, causing flight delays that left thousands of travelers frustrated and furious. Planes were forced to take off and land less frequently, so as not to overload the remaining controllers on duty.

The FAA had no choice but to cut $637 million as its share of $85 billion in automatic, government-wide spending cuts that must be achieved by the end of the federal budget year on Sept. 30.

Flight delays piled up across the country Sunday and Monday as the FAA kept planes on the ground because there weren't enough controllers to monitor busy air corridors. Cascading delays held up flights at some of nation's busiest airports, including New York, Baltimore and Washington. Delta Air Lines canceled about 90 flights Monday because of worries about delays. Just about every passenger was rebooked on another Delta flight within a couple of hours. Air travel was smoother Tuesday.

The cuts were required under a law enacted two years ago as the government was approaching its debt limit. Democrats were in favor of raising the debt limit without strings attached so as not to provoke an economic crisis, but Republicans insisted on substantial cuts in exchange. The compromise was to require that every government "program, project and activity" ? with some exceptions, like Medicare ? be cut equally.

The FAA had reduced the work schedules of nearly all of its 47,000 employees by one day every two weeks, including 15,000 air traffic controllers, as well as thousands of air traffic supervisors, managers and technicians who keep airport towers and radar facility equipment working. That amounted to a 10 percent cut in hours and pay.

Republicans accused the Obama administration of forcing the furloughs to raise public pressure on Congress to roll back the budget cuts. Critics of the FAA insist the agency could have reduce its budget in other ways that would not have inconvenience travelers including diverting money from other accounts, such as those devoted to research, commercial space transportation and modernization of the air-traffic control computers.

President Barack Obama chided lawmakers Saturday over their fix for widespread flight delays, deeming it an irresponsible way to govern, dubbing it a "Band-Aid" and a quick fix, rather than a lasting solution to the spending cuts known as the sequester.

"Republicans claimed victory when the sequester first took effect, and now they've decided it was a bad idea all along," Obama said, singling out the GOP even though the bill passed with overwhelming Democratic support in both chambers.

He scolded lawmakers for helping the Federal Aviation Administration while doing nothing to replace other cuts that he said harm federal employees, unemployed workers and preschoolers in Head Start.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-27-FAA-Furloughs/id-57961b2ae846408c9ad97944fb159470

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Einstein's theory of general relativity gets most extreme test yet

In their efforts to crack the mysteries of gravity, scientists continue to probe Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. The latest test involved a curious binary star system.

By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / April 25, 2013

Snow falls on the Albert Einstein Memorial Statue at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C. during the early morning hours in February 2010. Scientists continue to probe Einstein's theory of general relativity, in their efforts to crack the mysteries of gravity.

Hyungwon Kang/Reuters/File

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The most massive neutron star known and its tightly orbiting companion, a wimp of a white-dwarf, have provided one of the most extreme tests yet of Einstein's theory of general relativity.

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The theory has again passed with flying colors ? for now.

Although the theory has cleared test after test over the past century, researchers keep trying to find its limits. They don't think it's wrong, just incomplete.

The other basic forces of nature ? the strong force, which binds particles in an atom's nucleus, the weak force, which governs radioactive decay, and electromagnetism ? have found explanations in quantum physics. Gravity is the only force that so far has resisted assimilation.

Many physicists are convinced that resistance is futile and that at some point gravity will yield to a quantum-physics explanation. But that breakdown may only become apparent under the most extreme conditions ? conditions no human technology can establish.

So researchers turn to the cosmos for their extremes. And in the binary pair identified as PSR J0348+0432, they've found perhaps the most extreme conditions yet.

The pair is located some 7,000 light-years from Earth. The neutron star is all that remains of a star at least 10 times more massive than the sun that ended its luminous run in an explosion known as a supernova. Astronomers estimate that the neutron star is about 12 miles across. But it is so dense that a thimble full of the matter the explosion left behind would weigh about 1 billion tons.

It's white dwarf companion is the slowly cooling end state of a star like the sun.

White dwarfs are dense as well, typically packing roughly half of the sun's mass into an object slightly larger than Earth. This one, however is a lightweight, tipping the scales at about 17 percent of the sun's mass into an object roughly seven times larger than Earth.

Follow-up observations at radio and visible wavelengths revealed a duo that orbits its combined center of mass once every 2.46 hours. Considering the two objects are about a 500,000 miles apart, that's a mighty brisk pace.

"What we were looking for were changes in the orbital period," Dr. Lynch explains, referring to the time it takes for the two objects to orbit each other.

Those changes arise because the act of orbiting dissipates energy. That energy leaves in the form of gravity waves ? ripples in space-time, the very fabric of the cosmos. These ripples travel through space almost as though some interstellar housekeeper was shaking out the sheets.

This loss of energy shortens the time it takes to complete an orbit, signaling that the two objects are slowing and inching closer to one another. Different theories of gravity offer up different predictions for the rate at which the orbits of objects as close and as massive as these decay.

The key issue: "Can we measure that number precisely enough that we can say this agrees with general relativity or disagrees?" Lynch says. After careful measurements using the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico to track the pulsar, and the Very Large Telescope in Chile to track the white dwarf, the answer is: Yes we can, and it agrees with general relativity.

Beyond the test of Einstein's theory of general relativity, the system also poses a challenge to ideas about how binary systems form, Lynch adds.

The neutron star was discovered in 2009 as researchers at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's facility at Green Bank, W. Va., combed through data gathered two years earlier during a hunt for rapidly spinning neutron stars, dubbed pulsars.

Pulsars earned their name because they emit radio waves as they spin, acting like beacons in the cosmos. Researchers were able to detect this neutron star because it, too, is a pulsar, spinning once every 39 milliseconds.

The team, led by John Antoniadis, with the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, also combed through data gathered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to see if anything showed up in the pulsar's vicinity at visible wavelengths. That's when they found the pulsar's companion.

Astronomers have found other pulsars that spin as fast as the pulsar in the PSR J0348+0432 system, he says. But when such pulsars appear in binary systems, their companions tend to have more mass.

It's the combination of a pulsar with a relatively long spin period in a tight orbit with a relatively low-mass white dwarf "that makes this a little strange," he says, adding that the combination suggests that the system had a unique evolutionary history,

So how fast is the orbital period decreasing? The pace is slowing by about 2.7 ten-trillionths of a second per second. At that rate, some 400 million years from now, the binary system will become an ultra-compact binary system with X-rays for a beacon, the team suggests.

If the neutron star ends up near the high end of the mass scale for such objects as it draws matter from its partner, an eventual merger with the white dwarf could lead to a catastrophic collapse into a black hole ? an object whose gravity is so strong that not even light, traveling at 186,000 miles a second, can escape. If the neutron star star ends up with a more middling mass, the white dwarf in essence would be considered a planet once it cools sufficiently.

A formal report of this test of Einstein's theory of general relativity was published Thursday in the journal Science.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/WR6kqBKKYj0/Einstein-s-theory-of-general-relativity-gets-most-extreme-test-yet

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Saturday, 27 April 2013

333 Heroin Packets in Bra: N.J. Woman Gives New Meaning to "Drug Bust"

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/333-heroin-packets-in-bra-woman-gives-new-meaning-to-drug-bust/

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Obama honors firefighters killed in Texas fertilizer plant blast

By Steve Holland

WACO, Texas (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, standing before a line of flag-draped coffins, consoled family and friends on Thursday at a memorial service for firefighters killed in a massive explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant.

The deaths of 14 people, nearly all of them emergency responders, ripped a hole in the heart of the nearby town of West, where farming is a way of life and where many people volunteer for the fire department in their spare time.

"To the families, the neighbors grappling with unbearable loss, we are here to say you are not alone. You are not forgotten. We may not all live here in Texas, but we're neighbors, too," Obama told more than 9,000 mourners who packed a basketball arena at Baylor University in Waco.

Video testimonials for each victim were read by a family member or friend and broadcast on a large screen behind the podium.

In one video, Carmen Bridges, wife of Morris Wayne Bridges Jr., 40, fought back tears as she told of the last time she had seen her husband. As he rushed out the door to respond to the April 17 fire in West, he stopped to hug his 2-year-old son.

"'Daddy loves you and he'll be right back,'" Bridges recalled her husband telling the boy. "And he didn't come back."

As the name of each victim was read aloud, a bell rang, echoing through the vast arena, where a dozen coffins - most covered with U.S. flags, and a couple covered with Texas flags - were lined up in front of the stage.

The April 15 Boston Marathon bombings and the search for the suspects last week often overshadowed the Texas tragedy in the national news media.

But Obama sought to assure Texans that they were in his thoughts. He vowed that federal and state authorities would help to rebuild the town of about 2,800 residents.

"Know this, for the eyes of the world may have been fixed on places far away, our hearts have also been here through times of tribulation," Obama said.

The explosion at the West Fertilizer Co. plant obliterated a residential section of West, about 20 miles north of Waco.

The town had 33 volunteer fireman. Five were killed, as were four paramedics from nearby towns who rushed to the scene. Among the others killed was an off-duty Dallas fireman who lived in West and a local welder who went to the plant to help.

Obama praised the courage of people "who so love their neighbors as themselves that they are willing to lay down their lives for each other.

"America needs towns like West. That's what makes this country great, it's towns like West," he said.

Investigators have not determined the cause of the blast, which also injured some 200 people.

Besides Obama, speakers included Texas Governor Rick Perry and Baylor University President Kenneth Starr, best known for his investigation of the sex scandal involving then-President Bill Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky during the 1990s.

(Editing by David Lindsey and Xavier Briand)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-honors-firefighters-killed-texas-fertilizer-plant-blast-230244388.html

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Sony revises its 2012 earnings forecast, doubles expected net profits

Just like last year, we're reporting on a revision Sony's making to its expectations for last year's profits, but this time around there's some positive news. According to Sony, selling some of the buildings it owns and a weakening yen have doubled its expected net profit from 20 billion yen announced in February to 40 billion yen ($403 million). The complete results will be announced May 9th, and despite Sony managing its first profit since 2008 investors are hoping to hear how it plans to keep the streak going with business gains next year. The PlayStation 4 is expected to headline CEO Kaz Hirai's plans for future products, we should hear just how optimistic Sony is about those prospects in a couple of weeks.

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Via: Bloomberg

Source: Sony (PDF)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/CkXG8LsDEQE/

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Friday, 26 April 2013

Dems cave on FAA sequester, pass ?Reducing Flight Delays Act? (Michellemalkin)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/301774528?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Third Child on the Way for Dierks Bentley

The country star and wife Cassidy will welcome a sibling for big sisters Evie and Jordan..

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/b8g22gic5kQ/

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Poor parenting -- including overprotection -- increases bullying risk

Apr. 25, 2013 ? Children who are exposed to negative parenting -- including abuse, neglect but also overprotection -- are more likely to experience childhood bullying by their peers, according to a meta-analysis of 70 studies of more than 200,000 children.

The research, led by the University of Warwick and published in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect, found the effects of poor parenting were stronger for children who are both a victim and perpetrator of bulling (bully-victims) than children who were solely victims.

It found that negative or harsh parenting was linked to a moderate increase in the risk of being a 'bully-victim' and a small increase in the risk of being a victim of bullying. In contrast, warm but firm parenting reduced the risk of being bullied by peers.

The study authors, Professor Dieter Wolke, Dr Suzet Lereya and Dr Muthanna Samara, called for anti-bullying intervention programmes to extend their focus beyond schools to focus on positive parenting within families and to start before children enter school.

Professor Wolke said: "The long shadow of bullying falls well beyond the school playground -- it has lasting and profound effects into adulthood.

"We know that victims and bully-victims are more likely to develop physical health problems, suffer from anxiety and depression and are also at increased risk of self-harm and suicide.

"It is vital we understand more about the factors linked to bullying in order to reduce the burden it places on the affected children and society.

"People often assume bullying is a problem for schools alone but it's clear from this study that parents also have a very important role to play.

"We should therefore target intervention programmes not just in schools but also in families to encourage positive parenting practices such as warmth, affection, communication and support."

The study categorised behaviours such as abuse/neglect, maladaptive parenting and overprotection as negative parenting behaviour.

It categorised authoritative parenting, parent-child communication, parental involvement and support, supervision and warmth and affection as positive parenting behaviours.

Professor Wolke highlighted the finding that overprotection was linked to an increased risk of bullying.

"Although parental involvement, support and high supervision decrease the chances of children being involved in bullying, for victims overprotection increased this risk.

"Children need support but some parents try to buffer their children from all negative experiences.

"In the process, they prevent their children from learning ways of dealing with bullies and make them more vulnerable.

"It could be that children with overprotective parents may not develop qualities such as autonomy and assertion and therefore may be easy targets for bullies.

"But it could also be that parents of victims become overprotective of their children.

"In either case, parents cannot sit on the school bench with their children.

"Parenting that includes clear rules about behaviour while being supportive and emotionally warm is most likely to prevent victimisation.

"These parents allow children to have some conflicts with peers to learn how to solve them rather than intervene at the smallest argument."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Warwick, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. \ Suzet Tanya Lereya, Muthanna Samara, Dieter Wolke. Parenting behavior and the risk of becoming a victim and a bully/victim: A meta-analysis study. Child Abuse & Neglect, 2013 DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2013.03.001

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/living_well/~3/-9amG3HR3LE/130425214005.htm

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Was Jennifer Lopez Going To Replace Mariah Carey On 'American Idol'?

New report claims that panicked producers hatched plot to bring back former judge.
By Gil Kaufman

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1706232/american-idol-jennifer-lopez-replace-mariah-carey.jhtml

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Thursday, 25 April 2013

Mexican teachers attack political party offices

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) -- Striking teachers in Mexico's Guerrero state attacked the offices of four political parties and a building of the state's education department Wednesday after the legislature approved an education reform without meeting their demands.

Dozens of teachers carrying sticks and stones smashed windows, spray-painted insults at President Enrique Pena Nieto on walls and destroyed computers and furniture. They set fire to the state headquarters of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party and another building.

No injuries were reported as the teachers, some masked, ran wild after a protest march in the state capital of Chilpancingo.

Minervino Moran, a spokesman for the strikers, said the attacks were in response to the approval by Guerrero's legislators of legislation similar to a recently adopted federal education law that requires teachers to be evaluated and that seeks to remove control over hiring and firing from the teachers' union.

"We as leaders and as a movement endorse these actions because there is a lot of anger, a lot of outrage with the decision the (state) congress made," said Moran, a spokesman for Guerrero state's Education Workers Union.

The 20,000-member group went on strike in Guerrero state, where the resort city of Acapulco is located, shortly after Pena Nieto signed into law the sweeping education reform two months ago. Its members have since staged increasingly disruptive protests, including blocking the main highway connecting Mexico City to Acapulco.

Guerrero Gov. Angel Aguirre said in a tweet that prosecutors had issued arrest warrants for Moran and another union leader because they were the "masterminds of the acts of vandalism that took place today."

Television footage showed teachers trashing each of the buildings without the intervention of authorities.

Aguirre told Radio Formula that police didn't try to stop the attacks because officers were busy guarding the government palace and legislature building.

The national education law was seen as Pena Nieto's first major legislative victory after taking office Dec. 1. The constitutional amendment eliminates Mexico's decades-old practice of allowing the buying and selling of teaching jobs, and replaces it with a standardized national teaching test.

That's heresy to a radical splinter union of elementary and high school teachers in Guerrero, one of the country's poorest and worst-educated states. The teachers claim the test is a plot to fire them all as a step toward privatizing education, although there is little evidence the government plans that.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mexican-teachers-attack-political-party-124039056.html

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Fireballs! 'Tis the season for massive meteors.

Tonight (April 23) through Friday at dawn may be your best chance of the year to spot a fireball, a meteor that shines brighter than Venus, the brightest planet in the sky.

By Joe Rao,?SPACE.com / April 23, 2013

In this picture provided by Wally Pacholka of AstroPics.com, a Geminid fireball explodes over the Mojave Desert in the Jojave Desert, Calif. on Dec. 13, 2009. Unlike this Geminid fireball, the fireball-watching in the next few nights isn't connected to the just-completed Lyriad meteor shower or any other regular meteor shower.

Wally Pacholka / AstroPics.com / AP

Enlarge

The dramatic fireball that exploded over Russia in February got many people wondering if there is any way to anticipate future dazzling meteors before they appear.

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Well, meteors not associated with an annual shower are certainly tough to predict. But there are some patterns that skywatchers can keep in mind to maximize their chances of spotting a fireball (which technically is any meteor that shines more brightly than Venus in the sky).

For example, springtime is "fireball season," when the number of bright meteor sightings increases by as much as 30 percent, NASA experts say. And the three-day stretch from Tuesday (April 23) to Thursday (April 25) is perhaps the best time to watch for the next prospective fireball event, which might possibly even lead to the fall of a meteorite.?

Over the years, some real dazzlers have been seen during this time frame. And in at least two cases, the orbits of the meteors were virtually identical, suggesting Earth might hit more such space rocks when it passes through this part of its orbit.

A river of rubble?

Is there perhaps a "river of rubble" orbiting the sun that is populated by rather large meteoroids?

Unlike most of the annual meteor showers that are composed chiefly of dust and sand-sized particles ? such as the Lyrids, which peaked overnight Sunday (April 21) ? this supposed fireball stream might be made up of objects that are considerably larger, perhaps originating in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter or perhaps being shed by the nucleus of a long-dormant comet.?

The circumstantial evidence for such a meteor stream lies with two brilliant fireballs that appeared during the 1960s.

One of these fireballs cast shadows over northern New Jersey on April 23, 1962. The other was seen by thousands of people over England, Wales and Northern Ireland on April 25, 1969 and also dropped a 0.6-pound (0.27 kilograms) meteorite in the town of Sprucefield, Northern Ireland.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/JN_cGf2dRGw/Fireballs!-Tis-the-season-for-massive-meteors

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Sprint posts increase in quarterly revenue

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp, an acquisition target of both Japan's SoftBank Corp and Dish Network Corp, posted a smaller than expected quarterly loss, even as it saw steep customer losses from the Nextel network it is shutting down.

Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. mobile service provider, on Wednesday recorded a first-quarter loss of $643 million, or 21 cents per share, compared with a loss of $863 million, or 29 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Analysts had expected a loss of 33 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose to $8.79 billion from $8.73 billion. Analysts had expected $8.71 billion.

Sprint reported a subscriber loss of 560,000 for the quarter compared with expectations for a loss of almost 525,000 from five analysts contacted by Reuters.

The company said it now expects 2013 adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization at the high-end of its previously announced target of between $5.2 billion and $5.5 billion, excluding costs of closing strategic transactions.

Sprint's board is currently evaluating a $25.5 billion acquisition offer from No. 2 U.S. satellite TV service Dish, which challenged Sprint's October agreement to sell 70 percent of the company to SoftBank for $20.1 billion.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Gerald E. McCormick)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sprint-posts-increase-quarterly-revenue-111713705--sector.html

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Wednesday, 24 April 2013

Lee Pace Joins Guardians of the Galaxy

Lee Pace once tested for the lead in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, but too bad he didn't get it. The part of Peter Quill went to Chris Pratt instead. As it turns out, there's a more fitting role for him in the movie.

According to TheWrap, Pace is playing the villain in the movie. Who he is playing was not revealed, so it could range from The Controller to the recently rumored The Collector to a host of other villainous characters (Thanos?). We'll know soon enough.

Ophelia Lovibond boarded the move earlier this week in a mystery role as well. It has been said that she's playing a supporting or assistant-like character. Speculate away.

The pair will be joined in the movie by Chris Pratt as Peter Quill, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, and Michael Rooker as Yondu.

James Gunn is directing Guardians of the Galaxy this June over in London for an August 1, 2014 release.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1927328/news/1927328/

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Using black holes to measure the universe's rate of expansion

Apr. 22, 2013 ? Radiation emitted in the vicinity of black holes could be used to measure distances of billions of light years, says TAU researcher

A few years ago, researchers revealed that the universe is expanding at a much faster rate than originally believed -- a discovery that earned a Nobel Prize in 2011. But measuring the rate of this acceleration over large distances is still challenging and problematic, says Prof. Hagai Netzer of Tel Aviv University's School of Physics and Astronomy.

Now, Prof. Netzer, along with Jian-Min Wang, Pu Du and Chen Hu of the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Dr. David Valls-Gabaud of the Observatoire de Paris, has developed a method with the potential to measure distances of billions of light years with a high degree of accuracy. The method uses certain types of active black holes that lie at the center of many galaxies. The ability to measure very long distances translates into seeing further into the past of the universe -- and being able to estimate its rate of expansion at a very young age.

Published in the journal Physical Review Letters, this system of measurement takes into account the radiation emitted from the material that surrounds black holes before it is absorbed. As material is drawn into a black hole, it heats up and emits a huge amount of radiation, up to a thousand times the energy produced by a large galaxy containing 100 billion stars. For this reason, it can be seen from very far distances, explains Prof. Netzer.

Solving for unknown distances

Using radiation to measure distances is a general method in astronomy, but until now black holes have never been used to help measure these distances. By adding together measurements of the amount of energy being emitted from the vicinity of the black hole to the amount of radiation which reaches Earth, it's possible to infer the distance to the black hole itself and the time in the history of the universe when the energy was emitted.

Getting an accurate estimate of the radiation being emitted depends on the properties of the black hole. For the specific type of black holes targeted in this work, the amount of radiation emitted as the object draws matter into itself is actually proportional to its mass, say the researchers. Therefore, long-established methods to measure this mass can be used to estimate the amount of radiation involved.

The viability of this theory was proved by using the known properties of black holes in our own astronomical vicinity, "only" several hundred million light years away. Prof. Netzer believes that his system will add to the astronomer's tool kit for measuring distances much farther away, complimenting the existing method which uses the exploding stars called supernovae.

Illuminating "Dark Energy"

According to Prof. Netzer, the ability to measure far-off distances has the potential to unravel some of the greatest mysteries of the universe, which is approximately 14 billion years old. "When we are looking into a distance of billions of light years, we are looking that far into the past," he explains. "The light that I see today was first produced when the universe was much younger."

One such mystery is the nature of what astronomers call "dark energy," the most significant source of energy in the present day universe. This energy, which is manifested as some kind of "anti-gravity," is believed to contribute towards the accelerated expansion of the universe by pushing outwards. The ultimate goal is to understand dark energy on physical grounds, answering questions such as whether this energy has been consistent throughout time and if it is likely to change in the future.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Friends of Tel Aviv University.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Jian-Min Wang, Pu Du, David Valls-Gabaud, Chen Hu, Hagai Netzer. Super-Eddington Accreting Massive Black Holes as Long-Lived Cosmological Standards. Physical Review Letters, 2013; 110 (8) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.081301

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/top_technology/~3/6XRfCgxonw8/130422123040.htm

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Tuesday, 23 April 2013

West ramps up accusations of systemic repression in Turkmenistan

By Robert Evans

GENEVA (Reuters) - Western states on Monday ratcheted up accusations against Turkmenistan that it allows torture and crushes free speech but Asian and Islamic states came to the defense of the natural gas-rich republic in the main U.N. human rights forum.

Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov wields almost unlimited power in his Central Asian desert nation, a former Soviet republic which holds the world's fourth largest known reserves of natural gas.

At a special session of the 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council, a senior Turkmen official denied allegations of relentless, systemic repression and said the government was working for democratization and development.

Islamic and Asian states backed that argument, saying Turkmenistan had boosted economic growth and improved living, health and educational standards of its 5.5 million people.

The United States told the gathering that Turkmen officials "are not held accountable for torture or other human rights violations" while journalists, ethnic and religious minorities and critics of the government were detained or intimidated.

Australia said "fundamental freedoms remain heavily curtailed" in the reclusive Central Asian republic.

Norway and Chile said Turkmen women suffered widely from domestic violence while the government stood by, and the Netherlands and Poland called on the Ashgabat government to allow in U.N. investigators on torture and other abuses.

The special session was part of the rights council's Universal Periodic Review in which every U.N. member state has its record examined - for three hours - once every four years.

The procedure has been criticized by independent rights groupings which argue that it gives no time for a proper review and allows a country's allies to shield it from full examination by showering it with plaudits.

Among countries praising Turkmenistan were North Korea, Belarus, Sri Lanka and Iran as well as fellow ex-Soviet neighbors Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan - all frequently under Western fire for alleged human rights abuses.

Berdymukhamedov, who is widely referred to as "Arkadag" (The Patron) in Turkmenistan, has ruled since the death of his autocratic predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov in 2006.

Berdymukhamedov has eased controls on small-scale entrepreneurs and the Turkmen economy has grown rapidly on the back of high world energy prices.

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/west-ramps-accusations-systemic-repression-turkmenistan-171745931.html

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Workplace stress poses risk to health

Apr. 23, 2013 ? Stressful situations at work can have a negative impact on the cardiovascular system and the metabolism. Stress, which is transmitted by direct and indirect signaling pathways, leads to an inflammatory response in the body, which can trigger cardiovascular diseases, amongst others.

These results, which were achieved by scientists from the Helmholtz Zentrum M?nchen following their evaluation of data from a population-based cohort study, were published in the specialist journals Brain, Behavior, and Immunity and Psychosomatic Medicine.

The study is based on a long-term observation of more than 950 people as part of the population-based cohort study MONICA/KORA. The work was conducted by Dr. Rebecca Emeny as part of the Mental Health working group headed by Prof. Karl-Heinz Ladwig, Institute of Epidemiology II (EPI II) at the Helmholtz Zentrum M?nchen (HMGU). Data was analyzed from questionnaires on psychological stress at work and concentrations of inflammatory biomarkers in the blood. The results showed that healthy workers who were exposed to stress at work displayed significantly elevated inflammatory parameters and faced twice the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

More than half of the participants in the study stated that they experienced psychological strain and stress at work. Stress is regarded as a cardiovascular risk factor. Its consequences are communicated directly via activated messenger substances as well as indirectly via unhealthy stress-related behavior. In particular, the scientists found a clear association between stress and elevated concentrations of CRP (C-reactive protein), which is an inflammatory marker, and were thus able to demonstrate a stress-related inflammatory reaction in the body. Moreover, job stress led to harmful psychological effects such as depression and sleep disturbances as well as to unhealthy behavior, for example, physical inactivity. Doing sports regularly, for at least one hour per week, significantly reduced inflammatory activity. However, the differences in terms of health risks between people who suffered from work stress and those who did not still remained.

With their analysis, the scientists at HMGU have made a substantial contribution towards a deeper understanding of stress-related responses in the body. "The insights gained from this study form important starting points for finding preventive measures that will protect against stress-related diseases such as coronary heart disease," says Dr. Emeny, first author of the study.

Environmental factors and lifestyle play a major role in the development of common diseases in Germany such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus. The aim of the Helmholtz Zentrum M?nchen is to develop new approaches for the diagnosis, therapy and prevention of the most common diseases.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen - German Research Centre for Environmental Health.

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


Journal References:

  1. Rebecca Emeny, Marie-Elena Lacruz, Jens Baumert, Astrid Zierer, Alexander von Eisenhart Rothe, Christine Autenrieth, Christian Herder, Wolfgang Koenig, Barbara Thorand, Karl-Heinz Ladwig. Job strain associated CRP is mediated by leisure time physical activity: Results from the MONICA/KORA study. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 2012; 26 (7): 1077 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2012.07.004
  2. Emeny, R.T. et al. Contributions of Job Strain and 9 Emerging Biomarkers of Coronary Events in Healthy Workers: the MONICA/KORA Augsburg Case-Cohort. Psychosomatic Medicine, 75(3):317-25

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/mind_brain/mental_health/~3/uVpg6C8YPCY/130423090940.htm

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