St. John's Episcopal Church in Marysville opened today as a cooling center for people who may be unsheltered or living in homes that lack air conditioning.
Knowing extreme heat can be life-threatening, the church reached out to the Red Cross and to Marysville Mayor Ricky Samayoa to offer its air-conditioned Great Hall during this week's heat wave to accommodate residents and their pets during the day's peak heat hours.
St. John's is at 800 D St. on the northwest corner of Eighth Street in Marysville.
The center, which opened at 2 p.m., will be staffed by the Red Cross, which also will be providing bottled water. St. John's will provide bowls and water for pets.
The hall will close at 8 p.m. and be open again from 2 p.m.-8 p.m. Monday and any day this week when temperatures are predicted to hit 104 degrees, which is the Red Cross guideline.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Disruptions: Social Media Images Form a New Language Online ... Not surprisingly, the largest social networking companies are spending billions of dollars to be the place where consumers latch onto these visual nods. ... According to Instagram, more than 50 percent of people who use the service are outside North America, and global use of social sites continues to rise each year, with more than 63 percent of people online logging into a social media Web site at ...
By Arturo Garcia Saturday, June 29, 2013 20:58 EDT
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In a far-ranging interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, conservative columnist Ann Coulter said that the immigration bill recently passed by the Senate was not only akin to the death of the entire Supreme Court, but that it signaled the end of the Republican party.
?All the Democrats care about here is the votes,? Coulter said on Hannity?s radio show on Friday. ?They don?t care that they?re legalizing law-breakers, they don?t care that they are going to massively harm African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans who dominate the low-wage professions by bringing in 30 million unskilled, law-breaking voters for the Democratic Party.?
The bill, which was approved by the Senate in a 68-32 vote on Thursday, establishes a 13-year path to citizenship for the country?s 11 million undocumented immigrants, and won Republican support by also adding border security benchmarks.
Regardless, Coulter continued to refer to it as an ?amnesty bill,? while fretting that most of these potential new citizens skewed heavily toward voting for Democrats, accurately pointing out Pew Research Center data showing increased support for marriage equality and far-ranging support for President Barack Obama?s re-election bid in 2012.
Coulter also said that Latinos reported ?more negative associations? with capitalism than socialism than members of the Occupy Wall Street movement, but the Pew center noted that most Latino respondents replied negatively to both terms. She also alluded to research indicating heavy Latino support for both the Affordable Care Act and reproductive choice for women.
?Any politician who claims to be pro-life but supports amnesty is a liar,? she continued. ?If you bring in 30 million voters who overwhelmingly support socialism, gay marriage, abortion, Obamacare, then you don?t believe in any of those things. This is changing the electorate so that the entire country becomes California and Republicans never win another election.?
As the Senate bill makes its way to the House of Representatives for consideration, Colter said the passage of new legislation would be like a plane crash killing the entire Supreme Court and Obama replacing the justices with ?9 Ruth Bader Ginsburgs.?
?Do not tell me, Republicans, that voting to confirm nine Ruth Bader Ginsburgs is just another vote,? she argued. ?Amnesty is not just another vote. It is the end of the pro-life movement. It?s the end of the marriage movement. It?s the end of trying to repeal Obamacare. It is the end of everything.?
?I?ve actually come around to your way of thinking on the House,? Hannity answered. ?I think the House should leave it alone.?
Hannity told Coulter that ?sources? told him that Republican members of the House of Representatives supported a five-year ?temporary legal status? clause for undocumented immigrants, which would be rescinded if border security guidelines went unmet.
?That?s not even a believable fig leaf,? Coulter responded. ?They really think we?re stupid. The Democrats must be sitting back thinking, ?I can?t believe Republicans are falling for this.??
Listen to Coulter?s interview with Hannity, as posted by Media Matters on Friday, below.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twenty-two of President Barack Obama's top advisers make the top White House salary of $172,200 per year - but there is one official who earns 30 percent more.
It's not Chief of Staff Denis McDonough. Not Obama's senior adviser and close friend Valerie Jarrett. Not Cecilia Munoz, who is overseeing White House efforts on immigration reform, nor Lisa Monaco, who advises Obama on homeland security and counterterrorism.
The best-paid person of the 460 people who work at the White House is Seth Wheeler, a senior adviser at the National Economic Council, who is crafting Obama's strategy on housing finance.
One of the newest appointees, Wheeler earns $225,000, according to the annual White House report on its $37.9 million payroll released on Friday.
Wheeler has been detailed to the role from the Federal Reserve where the pay scale is higher, a White House official explained.
It also means he earns more than his boss, Gene Sperling, the director of the National Economic Council, who earns the White House limit of $172,200.
At the Fed, Wheeler was chief of staff for the Office of Financial Stability Policy and Research.
He is an ex-Morgan Stanley banker who worked for former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson during the Bush Administration, and was a key architect with the Obama administration's mortgage modification program, helping craft the signature housing aid program known as the Home Affordable Modification Program.
"His pay reflects the anomaly of the Fed pay scale," said Phillip Swagel, who served in the Treasury Department under President George W. Bush.
"It is noteworthy that the NEC is pretty political so it's fascinating that they have a Fed employee in a political position," Swagel said.
Federal employees who work for banking regulators, including the Fed, have higher pay scales than employees of other federal departments, said Julia Gordon, director of housing finance and policy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank.
"I'm sure if he went back to Morgan Stanley, he'd be making 10 times that," Gordon said.
Wheeler replaces Jim Parrott, who had been detailed to the White House from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and earned $144,385 last year. Parrott left the White House in January, and recently joined the Urban Institute.
Wheeler's salary approaches that of Vice President Joe Biden, who this year is poised to earn $230,700. Obama's salary is $400,000.
HOUSING SYSTEM 'IN SHAMBLES'
The housing advisor position has been held by four different people during the Obama administration, punctuated by lengthy vacancies between advisers, said Gordon, who hopes the White House now begins to takes a more active role on the issue.
"Our housing system is still in shambles," Gordon said.
"Just because people hear that prices are going back up doesn't mean we've fixed anything. A lot of the underlying problems are still there."
One of the key issues is reforms for mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were seized by the government in 2008 as the housing crisis threatened their solvency.
The companies own or guarantee half of all U.S. mortgages and have been propped up with $187.5 billion in taxpayer funds.
Democrats and Republicans want to reduce the government's role and put more of the risk of lending onto the private sector, but they disagree on how far to go.
The salary report can be found at - http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/disclosures/annual-records/2013.
(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; editing by Jackie Frank)
Scientists at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK are working on a Star Trek-like deflector shield to enable the transport of humans between planets and stars without subjecting them to lethal doses of cosmic radiation.?This research comes at a vital time, as numerous groups, including NASA, look to send humans to Mars ? but without adequate shielding from the Sun?s harsh cosmic rays, it could be a one-way trip full of vomiting, diarrhea, and more serious symptoms of radiation poisoning, such as death.
Other than time and money, one of the biggest barriers to sending humans to other planets is Solar radiation (from flares and coronal ejections) and galactic cosmic rays. The exact origin of GCRs is unknown, but it?s theorized that they originate in supernovae and the dense nuclei of other galaxies. In any case, both forms of radiation consist of high-energy protons that bombard every square inch of the Solar System, including Earth. Being hit by a high-energy proton is bad news, and if you get hit by enough you will develop radiation sickness, your tissues will degenerate, and you might develop cancer.
Fortunately, here on Earth you?re protected from Solar radiation and GCRs by a number of awesome effects. The Earth?s atmosphere absorbs most Solar radiation. The Earth?s magnetic field deflects all but the most powerful GCRs. There?s also an interplanetary magnetic field, produced by the Sun, which deflects GCRs at the edge of the Solar System (the heliopause; the region of space that Voyager-1 recently traversed). As a result, we receive very little radiation from space here on Earth ? about 0.4 milli-Sieverts (mSv) per year. Astronauts aboard the Apollo missions, though, which traveled far away from Earth?s atmosphere and magnetic field, received on the order of 1.2 mSv per day, or 1100 times more radiation than those of us down on Earth.
XKCD?s radiation dose chart. Click to zoom in.
As we know from XKCD?s amazing Radiation Dose Chart (pictured above), we know that a dosage of around 100 mSv in a single year increases your chance of developing cancer. It?s estimated that a trip to Mars could expose the astronauts to as much as 1,000 mSv (1Sv) or more. Solar radiation and GCRs are unlikely to cause acute radiation poisoning ? you need a bigger dose in a shorter period ? but unless you want everyone to develop cancer, or spend the entire trip vomiting and ejecting liquid poop, spacecraft will need adequate radiation shielding.
Which leads us neatly onto the?Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK, which has devised a ?mini magnetosphere? that essentially recreates the protection provided by the Earth?s magnetic field. The scientists have so far used the magnetosphere to protect a scale spacecraft from radiation (pictured right, in a plasma stream), and they?re now working on a concept spacecraft,?called Discovery, with a full-scale magnetosphere that could theoretically take humans to Mars.
The advantage of the magnetosphere method is that it?s significantly lighter than conventional radiation shielding, which usually consists of thick metal plates. Other viable methods have popped up in recent months, though. Most notably, Inspiration Mars, which will send two humans to Mars in 2018, will employ a radiation shield fashioned out of food, water, and poop stored against the hull of the spacecraft.
Now read:?NASA working on faster-than-light space travel, says warp drives are ?plausible?
As babies, it doesn't take long for us to realize that?as fun as it is to grab on to everything within our reach?it's even more fun to chuck those things as far and as hard as we can. And now, thanks to a new study, we know the reason behind that delightfully destructive pitcher's instinct?and it all started with Homo erectus almost two million years ago.
Neil Roach, lead author of the study and professor at George Washington University, is no stranger to the study of throwing mechanics. Previously, though, his test subjects included retired Hollywood chimpanzees, and he ultimately found that, though these star chimps could toss with some accuracy, they were severely lacking in power. Thanks to their high shoulders, chimps are stuck with throwing 20mph underhand balls at best. So this time, wanting to see why that evolutionary divide might have occurred, Roach and his colleagues used motion capture technology and 20 (human) members of Harvard's baseball team to construct 3D representations of every leg, hip, torso, elbow, and shoulder movement behind a fastball.
Ultimately, Roach discovered that the trick behind our speedy toss is the elastic energy produced in our shoulder rotation?the fastest motion a human body is capable of. As Discover Magazine notes:
Professional pitchers can reach a rotation of 9,000 degrees per second. At that speed, if the arm could rotate a full 360 degrees it would complete 25 rotations in one second.
A fact that may be a fun little bonus for us, but for our ancestors, the ability to throw with force could have meant the difference between life and death. Stronger throws allowed easier hunting, which meant more food and a better chance of survival.
There are three upper body anatomical shifts, in particular, that allow our faster throws, and using fossil records, the researchers were able to determine that we started evolving towards this more advantageous ability around two million years ago. Of course, evidence regarding ancient humans' hunting practices is limited, but with the facts we do have, it seems highly likely that baseball's biggest stars owe it all to good ol' Homo erectus. [Nature via Discover Magazine]
Reading together is an enriching and bond-creating experience.
Summer time can be a great time for supplementing your children?s education by planning some additional activities at home.
As a parent, one of your highest priorities is ensuring that your child receives an exceptional education. After all, the quality of her education will play a very real role in her success as an adult. When school systems seem to be more focused on ensuring that kids pass standardized tests through memorization and repetition than providing an actual education, though, it can be quite frustrating. Taking matters into your own hands by actively working with your child to supplement her education at home is one of the most effective ways of ensuring that she meets and exceeds her academic goals, but it?s not always easy to know where to start. These tips will help you ensure that your little one is learning and growing intellectually, even if the education provided by a public school system is less than thorough.
??Assess Her Actual Skills ? Before you can help your child to improve academically, you must first know where she stands. Since objectively assessing her existing skills can be difficult for any parent, it?s wise to look into online or print tests that will provide you with real, incontestable results so you know where to begin.
??Rethink Your Stance on Screen Time ? For babies and young toddlers, the American Academy of Pediatrics has long held a stance of severely limiting screen time. After all, the very young brain learns from things that respond to speech and interaction, something a television just can?t do. Older kids, however, can learn from educational and intellectually worthwhile electronics and computer games. In fact, some kids may learn better that way. Before you take an aggressive approach to banning electronics usage, consider the benefits of educational software and programming.
??Take Advantage of Library Programs ? Even families with a tight budget can take advantage of programs at the local library, as they tend to be very low cost or even free. These programs also tend to be aimed at boosting literacy skills and fostering a love of reading, something that will have a very real effect on your child?s ability to learn and comprehend new concepts.
? Read Together ? Local library programs are great, and can have a very real impact on your child. One thing that trumps the library in terms of value and inspiration, however, is reading together. Your child wants to spend time with you, so making a habit of reading together from an early age is one of the most effective measures you can take to supplement her formal education at home.
??Play Trivia Games ? Family game night is a great way to spend time together having fun, but it can also be an exciting opportunity to enrich your kids? general knowledge skills if you?re playing trivia games.
Read more at?How to Supplement Your Child?s Education at Home.
Remember the Olloclip lens for the iPhone 4? That model's done mighty well in Apple retail stores, so it's only fitting that there's a follow-up. Today at the CE Week line show in New York, we got a look at the company's upcoming telephoto lens, which complements the original clip-on by adding 2X magnification. Priced at $100 versus $70 for its predecessor, the accessory offers a circular polarizing lens on the other side, keeping in line with the company's existing two-in-one design. You can get the standalone clip-on lens for the aforementioned price when the gadget debuts in July -- it's compatible with Olloclip's previously announced $49 iPhone 5 case as well.
The Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville and the Americana Music Association will welcome the American Bar Association Forum On Entertainment and Sports Industries to present its annual Nashville Entertainment Law Symposium during the Americana Music Festival and Conference, to be held September 18-20, 2013 at the Downtown Nashville Sheraton Hotel.
The CLE program provides attorneys with the ability to obtain 12+ hours of CLE credit during the three-day conference. The Nashville Entertainment Law Symposium will present panels on touring and personal appearances, current topics in entertainment litigation, licensing, film and television and legal ethics. The panels will feature national and local speakers including Christine Lepera of New York (current Chair of the Forum), Richard J. Idell (Incoming Chair of the Forum), Nashville Forum Committee Members Henry Root (Los Angeles), Kirk Schroder (Richmond, Va.), Todd Brabec (Los Angeles), Mike Milom (Nashville) and Jim Zumwalt (Nashville).
?The Arts & Business Council is truly delighted to bring the ABA Forum on Entertainment and Sports Industries and its Nashville Entertainment Law Symposium into this successful partnership with the Americana Music Association which will allow us to offer new sophisticated content from some of the leading entertainment law practitioners across the country,? said Casey Summar, Arts & Business Council Executive Director. ?This partnership provides our family of attorneys an excellent opportunity to earn all of their CLE credit for the year, network with professionals in the Americana community, plus enjoy the Music Festival in the evenings.?
A portion of the proceeds from the CLE program will go to benefit the Arts & Business Council?s Volunteer Lawyers & Professionals for the Arts program, which provides free legal advice to low-income artists of all disciplines, as well as emerging arts nonprofits. With a roster of over 250 generous volunteer lawyers and professionals, this program has provided $1.2 million worth of pro bono services to the creative community since opening six years ago.
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About the Author
Jessica Nicholson is a staff writer with MusicRow Enterprises. Her previous music journalism experience includes work with Country Weekly magazine, TasteofCountry.com and Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) magazine. She holds a BBA degree in Music Business and Marketing from Belmont University. She welcomes your feedback at jnicholson@musicrow.com.
When Vine started shipping for Android, there was one, big, near-universal complaint amongst its users: It didn't support front-facing cameras. While the existing iOS port had been supporting front cameras for months, Android users looking to take Vine-selfies (Velfies?) were stuck contorting their wrists like some sort of chump. In an update pushed to the Google Play store just a few minutes ago, Vine for Android finally picked up compatibility that front lens.
MOSCOW (AP) ? Russian President Vladimir Putin says that fugitive National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has been in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport since flying in from Hong Kong ? meaning that he has not officially entered the country. If true, it's effectively a life of airport limbo for Snowden, whose American passport has been revoked by U.S. authorities.
Here's a look at how the place looks and operates.
WHAT IT'S LIKE
The area where Snowden is purportedly staying serves both connecting passengers traveling via Moscow to onward destinations and passengers departing from Moscow who have passed border and security checks. An Associated Press reporter entered the area Wednesday by flying from Kiev, Ukraine.
The huge area unites three terminals: the modern, recently built D and E, and the older, less comfortable F, which dates to the Soviet era. The transit and departure zone is essentially a long corridor, with boarding gates on one side and gleaming duty free shops, luxury clothing boutiques and souvenir stores selling Russian Matryoshka dolls on the other. About a dozen restaurants owned by local and foreign chains serve various tastes.
Hundreds of Russian and foreign tourists await flights here, some stretched out on rows of gray chairs, others sipping hot drinks at coffee shops or looking out through giant windows as silver-blue Aeroflot planes land and take off.
Business ran as usual at the terminals on Wednesday morning. An Asian girl, about 10 years old, slept peacefully on her father's lap. A middle-aged mother and her teenage daughter tried out perfume samples at a duty free store, while nearby a woman in a green dress picked out a pair of designer sunglasses. A pilot was buying lunch at Burger King.
NO TRACE OF SNOWDEN
Putin insisted Tuesday that Snowden has stayed in the transit zone without passing Russian immigration and is free to travel wherever he likes. Snowden, who arrived Sunday on a flight from Hong Kong, registered for a Havana-bound flight Monday en route to Venezuela, but didn't board the plane. His ultimate destination was believed to be asylum in Ecuador. Dozens of Russian and foreign journalists boarded the Havana flight only to photograph Snowden's empty seat 17A during the 12-hour journey.
The U.S. move to annul Snowden's passport might have further complicated his travel plans.
Hordes of journalists armed with laptops and photo and video cameras have camped in and around the airport, looking for Snowden or anyone who may have seen or talked to him. But after talking to passengers, airport personnel, waiters and shop clerks, the press corps has discovered no trace of the elusive leaker.
Russian news agencies, citing unidentified sources, reported that Snowden was staying at a hotel in the transit terminal, but he was nowhere to be seen at the zone's only hotel, called "Air Express." It offers several dozen capsule-style spaces that passengers can rent for a few hours to catch some sleep. Hotel staff refused to say whether Snowden was or has in the past stayed there.
"We only saw lots of journalists, that's for sure," said Maxim, a waiter at the Shokoladnitsa diner not far from Air Express. He declined to give his last name because he wasn't allowed to talk to reporters.
PLACES TO HIDE
The departure and transit area is huge and has dozens of small rooms, some labeled "authorized personnel only," where one could potentially seek refuge with support from airport staff or security personnel. And security forces or police patrolling the area can easily whisk a person out of this area though back doors or corridors.
There are also a few VIP lounge areas, accessible to business-class passengers or people willing to pay some $20 per hour. Snowden was not seen in those areas.
Exiting the area would either require boarding a plane or passing through border control. Both require a valid passport or other identification.
Sheremetyevo's press service declined to comment on Snowden's whereabouts. A policeman at the airport laughed off a question from an AP reporter about Snowden's whereabouts. "Journalists have searched this place for three days and have found nothing. Was he ever here in the first place?" the policeman asked. He spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Contact: James E. Rickman jamesr@lanl.gov 505-665-9203 DOE/Los Alamos National Laboratory
Application to be featured at IAEA conference on nuclear security in Vienna
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., and MARINA DEL REY, Calif., June 26, 2013 Los Alamos National Laboratory and Tribogenics, the pioneer of innovative X-ray solutions, have partnered to create a unique, lightweight, compact, low-cost X-ray system that uses the MiniMAX (Miniature, Mobile, Agile, X-ray) camera to provide real-time inspection of sealed containers and facilities. The innovative technology will be featured at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) International Conference on Nuclear Security: Enhancing Global Efforts, July 1-5, in Vienna, Austria.
"Cost and portability are the major barriers to expanding the use of X-ray imaging," said Scott Watson of Los Alamos's Nuclear Engineering and Nonproliferation Division. "We designed MiniMAX to demonstrate that such a system will open up new applications in security inspection, field medicine, specimen radiography and industrial inspection."
Los Alamos has developed MiniMAX as an alternative to the large, expensive and fixed facilities presently required for security inspections using X-ray imaging. The complete MiniMAX portable radiography system weighs less than five pounds, compared to much larger and heavier systems currently available.
Los Alamos Physicists demonstrated MiniMAX using a conventional X-ray source, a radioisotopic source, and a prototype source from Tribogenics operating at 90 keV. The Los Alamos team used the Tribogenics source to produce an X-ray image of a hand-held calculator.
"We were delighted when Los Alamos approached us to explore a partnership," said Carlos Camara, Chief Scientist at Tribogenics. "This is exactly the type of breakthrough, portable application we envision for our disruptive X-ray technology."
###
About Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company and URS for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health and global security concerns.
About Tribogenics
Tribogenics is a transformative X-ray technology company developing affordable and highly portable solutions for materials analysis and imaging. The Tribogenics range of X-ray sources includes the X-Change cartridge, the world's smallest turnkey X-ray source designed for use in revolutionary new XRF systems. Tribogenics technology is based on a DARPA-funded initiative that originated at UCLA and the company is venture-backed by prominent investors, including Peter Thiel's Founders Fund. To learn more, visit http://www.tribogenics.com.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: James E. Rickman jamesr@lanl.gov 505-665-9203 DOE/Los Alamos National Laboratory
Application to be featured at IAEA conference on nuclear security in Vienna
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., and MARINA DEL REY, Calif., June 26, 2013 Los Alamos National Laboratory and Tribogenics, the pioneer of innovative X-ray solutions, have partnered to create a unique, lightweight, compact, low-cost X-ray system that uses the MiniMAX (Miniature, Mobile, Agile, X-ray) camera to provide real-time inspection of sealed containers and facilities. The innovative technology will be featured at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) International Conference on Nuclear Security: Enhancing Global Efforts, July 1-5, in Vienna, Austria.
"Cost and portability are the major barriers to expanding the use of X-ray imaging," said Scott Watson of Los Alamos's Nuclear Engineering and Nonproliferation Division. "We designed MiniMAX to demonstrate that such a system will open up new applications in security inspection, field medicine, specimen radiography and industrial inspection."
Los Alamos has developed MiniMAX as an alternative to the large, expensive and fixed facilities presently required for security inspections using X-ray imaging. The complete MiniMAX portable radiography system weighs less than five pounds, compared to much larger and heavier systems currently available.
Los Alamos Physicists demonstrated MiniMAX using a conventional X-ray source, a radioisotopic source, and a prototype source from Tribogenics operating at 90 keV. The Los Alamos team used the Tribogenics source to produce an X-ray image of a hand-held calculator.
"We were delighted when Los Alamos approached us to explore a partnership," said Carlos Camara, Chief Scientist at Tribogenics. "This is exactly the type of breakthrough, portable application we envision for our disruptive X-ray technology."
###
About Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company and URS for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health and global security concerns.
About Tribogenics
Tribogenics is a transformative X-ray technology company developing affordable and highly portable solutions for materials analysis and imaging. The Tribogenics range of X-ray sources includes the X-Change cartridge, the world's smallest turnkey X-ray source designed for use in revolutionary new XRF systems. Tribogenics technology is based on a DARPA-funded initiative that originated at UCLA and the company is venture-backed by prominent investors, including Peter Thiel's Founders Fund. To learn more, visit http://www.tribogenics.com.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Batman had one under his mansion outside Gotham. Osama bin Laden was found in one just in Pakistan. Underground lairs are an integral part of pop culture fantasy and real-life current events?but whether they're fake or real, they're always cloaked in intrigue. And frankly, they're cool as hell.
The last time we wrote about Windows 8.1, we had lots to talk about, but very little to share in the way of hands-on impressions. You see, though Microsoft unveiled loads of new features, apps and UI tweaks, it only released a handful of screenshots -- and nobody outside the company was permitted to actually use the new software. Today, though, the OS update is available for anyone to download for free; in fact, because we're oh-so special, we've playing around with it for about 15 hours already. So while that's not enough time to put together a comprehensive review, we feel qualified to offer a few early thoughts. If you're curious, you can meet us after the break for impressions on everything from the new panorama capture feature to Xbox Radio. And yes, we brought screenshots this time. Lots of 'em.
May 8, 2013 ? Since polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are produced through industrial processes or activities, it is assumed that people living in industrial cities will have higher concentrations of these toxic chemicals in their blood than people in rural communities.
Researchers at the University of Iowa say this isn't the case. In a paper published in March in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, scientists report that mothers and children in East Chicago, Ind., and Columbus Junction, Iowa, had only subtle differences in their PCB blood levels. This analytical paper is the first to report such a comparison between two communities, between mothers and children, and including all 209 PCB compounds.
"This is not good news, and it certainly applies to all of us," says Keri Hornbuckle, professor of civil and environmental engineering in the UI College of Engineering and senior author on the paper. "I thought it would be worse in a very industrial city than in a rural community. Our results really shook us up. We all have PCBs in our blood, and they are coming from somewhere. We don't make them in our bodies."
Study subjects from Indiana live in a highly industrialized community of 32,400 people that is bisected by the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. In contrast, Columbus Junction is a rural community of 1,899 with no known current or historical PCB sources.
Serum samples were collected from junior high school-aged students and their mothers who were enrolled in the Airborne Exposures to Semivolatile Organic Pollutants (AESOP) study between April 2008 and January 2009. The AESOP study is directed by Peter Thorne, professor of occupational and environmental health in the UI College of Public Health and a project leader in the Iowa Superfund Research Program.
The serum analyzed was gathered from 41 mothers and their 44 children in East Chicago, and from 44 mothers and their 48 children in Columbus Junction. Researchers found a greater variety of PCBs in the blood of mothers and children in East Chicago. Despite the expectation of a large environmental exposure difference, East Chicago and Columbus Junction participants had similar concentrations of PCBs in their blood.
"We're looking for evidence of inhalation exposure. There are clearly big stores of PCBs in the environment," says Rachel Marek, doctoral student in civil and environmental engineering and first author on the paper. "How can we reduce of the overall level of PCBs in the environment and therefore reduce exposure to PCBs? We need to be able to identify those sources and clean them up."
PCBs can enter the human body by eating or drinking contaminated food, through the air we breathe, or by skin contact. Hornbuckle, however, doesn't know why participants in East Chicago and Columbus Junction have similar PCB concentrations in their blood.
"What is probably going on is that these two communities eat similar things, because their demographics are similar, and they breathe similar air with respect to the total amount of PCBs in the air," says Hornbuckle, a project leader in the Iowa Superfund Research Program who analyzes PCBs in blood and air.
Ninety-two individual PCB compounds were detected in the samples. Researchers report the detection of PCB 11 and PCB 83, which, to their knowledge, have not been found previously in human blood.
The researchers detected the neurotoxic PCB 11 in more than 60 percent of participants -- more East Chicago mothers than Columbus Junction mothers. This finding helps verify that the environment is a significant source of PCB exposure. In particular, recent studies found that PCB 11 has been an inadvertent byproduct of paint production. The compound has been found in the air and in a wide variety of organic paint pigments from multiple manufacturers.
"PCBs are everywhere and they are really high in building materials, especially for homes that were built between 1950 and 1970. Both communities have similar housing materials," Hornbuckle says. "We also found that PCBs are in modern household paint, so it doesn't matter if you live in East Chicago or Columbus Junction."
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, PCBs have been shown to cause cancer, along with a variety of other adverse effects on the body's immune, reproductive, nervous, and endocrine systems. ?
"These chemicals are known to be toxic to humans, and they are known to be toxic for developing humans, so we want them out," Hornbuckle says. "We don't want them in our paint. We don't want them in our indoor air. That's why there are fish consumption advisories on all the Great Lakes, because we don't want them in our food."
Contributing authors include Thorne; Kai Wang, associate professor of biostatistics; and Jeanne DeWall, research associate in occupational and environmental health.
The National Institutes of Health (grant numbers: P42 ES013661 and P30 ES005605) and a GAANN fellowship from the Department of Education (grant number: P200A09035011) supported this study.
James Franco, Zach Galifianakis, and Edward Norton teamed up with the awesome comedians, The Lonely Island guys, for their latest video entitled “Spring Break Anthem”. The video begins with a seemingly normal chat between Zach Galifianakis and James Franco, before things go south rather quickly. Check it out and it’s definitely NSFW! Zach asking James ...
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The Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville and the Americana Music Association will welcome the American Bar Association Forum On Entertainment and Sports Industries to present its annual Nashville Entertainment Law Symposium during the Americana Music Festival and Conference, to be held September 18-20, 2013 at the Downtown Nashville Sheraton Hotel.
?The Arts & Business Council is truly delighted to bring the ABA Forum on Entertainment and Sports Industries and its Nashville Entertainment Law Symposium into this successful partnership with the Americana Music Association which will allow us to offer new sophisticated content from some of the leading entertainment law practitioners across the country,? said Casey Summar, Arts & Business Council Executive Director. ?This partnership provides our family of attorneys an excellent opportunity to earn all of their CLE credit for the year, network with professionals in the Americana community, plus enjoy the Music Festival in the evenings.?
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Public release date: 26-Jun-2013
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James Franco, Zach Galifianakis, and Edward Norton teamed up with the awesome comedians, The Lonely Island guys, for their latest video entitled “Spring Break Anthem”. The video begins with a seemingly normal chat between Zach Galifianakis and James Franco, before things go south rather quickly. Check it out and it’s definitely NSFW! Zach asking James ...
