The Weirdest Thing on the Internet: Wild Casting

And that's why you don't walk into the lion house 15 minutes before feeding time, smelling of ham. I mean, really.

The a team of six talented student animators at GOBELINS l'?cole de l'image, a 50-year-old Parisian school of digital communication and interactive design, created this entertaining romp across an unnamed American city skyline. Well, not entertaining for the guy that fell off the building, that has to suck, but pretty cool for the other guy. Very few people get to brag to their friends that they've just been eaten by a ham-crazed apex predator.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/the-weirdest-thing-on-the-internet-wild-casting-706968416

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Street Protests Are the Easy Part

A man demonstrates against Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff. How much can street protests do?

Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters

LONDON?In Brazil, the protesters wore halter tops and shorts. In Egypt, they wore headscarves and long sleeves. In Turkey, they wore more of the former, some of the latter, and quite a bit of face paint as well. In each of these three places they looked different, used different slogans, spoke different languages. And yet the parallels among these three protest movements on three different continents in three countries run by democratically elected leaders are striking, not least for what they reveal about the nature of the modern street protest.

In Istanbul, Rio, and Cairo, the crowds had legitimate complaints about their respective democracies. Protesters shouted, among other things, about corruption in Brazil; creeping authoritarianism in Turkey; economic incompetence in Egypt. Economic slowdown was the background to protest in all three countries, but even so, the scale of the demonstrations was a surprise. Everywhere, the numbers were bigger and younger than anyone expected.

As we?ve all been told many times, these things are easier than ever to organize. The combination of Twitter, Facebook, as well as the more old-fashioned medium of television can help get people out on the street. If you?ve seen it already in a photograph or on a video clip, then you know how to create provocative posters, wear costumes and masks, organize bits of street theater, and create chants and songs. Heavy-handed policing in several cases helped bring people out as well: Tear gas surely creates as many street revolutionaries as it discourages.

But if it?s easier than ever to get people on the street, it?s still very hard to get people to follow up with necessary organizational work. As we?ve all learned in recent years, a flash mob created with the help of the Internet is not necessarily well equipped to make big institutional changes. Social media is not the same thing as social activism. The courage and dedication it takes to transform a society is not the same thing as the impulse it takes to join a crowd. ?Just showing up? at the demonstration or the march can help create a day?s headline but nothing more. Real change requires the founding of institutions, of political parties, of news organizations, of local and neighborhood associations, of economic clubs and discussion groups that think about the interests of the nation, not of a single group or faction.

In the end, the ultimate success of a street protest in a democracy depends on the degree to which its members are willing to turn their protest into real activism, to enter into their respective nations? political systems, to work within the law, and to transform passion and anger into institutional and finally political change. In Egypt, whose new democracy was by far the most fragile of the three, the protests have in this sense already failed. Egypt?s anti-Morsi activists had not yet organized themselves into a coherent political party, they hadn?t created a political program with mass appeal, and they didn?t have an alternative elite prepared to carry it out. ?Without these things, their influence over the course of events was necessarily going to be limited. Knowing that they might well lose a new election, they called for the help of the army, and thus threw Egypt?s entire democratic project into jeopardy.

In Brazil, by far the strongest of the three democracies, the protests seem to have already succeeded, at least in this narrow sense: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was forced to appear on television and to declare, ?I hear you,? and she has called for a plebiscite on political reform. More lasting change in Brazil will require the crowds of young people to create an alternative political party to the one Rousseff leads, to put aside their dislike of the corrupt political establishment and learn how to join it, to renew it, to clean it up, to change its habits.

If anything, young Turks in Istanbul face an even more difficult challenge: how to craft a political message that will appeal not just to the secular and the well-educated but to the mass of voters who brought Prime Minister Recep Erdo?an and his Justice and Development Party to power in the first place, and who might well do so again.

But the first step to creating such an alternative is to understand that it?s necessary to do so. It?s fine to have disgust for politicians in a democracy, as long as you?re willing to become one, yourself?and it?s excellent to dislike establishment political parties, as long as you are willing and able to build your own in their place.?

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2013/07/protests_in_brazil_egypt_and_turkey_the_wave_of_massive_uprisings_requires.html

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Penn State ex-president files libel lawsuit papers

(AP) Penn State's former president Graham Spanier initiated a libel and defamation case Thursday against Louis Freeh, the former FBI director who a year ago produced a report for the school that was highly critical of Spanier's role in the child sex abuse scandal involving longtime assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

Paperwork filed in Centre County, where the school is located, disclosed little about the nature of his claims but checked off a box on a court system form that described the case as "slander/libel/defamation."

The filing was made one day before the one-year anniversary of Freeh's report, which concluded that Spanier, late coach Joe Paterno and other high-ranking Penn State administrators failed to protect children against Sandusky. Under Pennsylvania law, those who believe they have been libeled or defamed have a year to initiate a civil lawsuit.

Calls and emails seeking comment from Freeh and from Spanier lawyer Elizabeth Ainslie were not returned. Along with Freeh, the paperwork also names as a defendant the law firm where Freeh works.

The Freeh report said Spanier told Freeh's investigators that he never heard anyone say Sandusky was sexually abusing children. But Freeh wrote it was more reasonable to conclude that Spanier, Paterno, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz "repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky's child abuse from the authorities, the university's board of trustees, the Penn State community and the public at large."

Curley, who was placed on leave to serve out his contract, and Schultz, now retired, were both charged in November 2011, when Sandusky was arrested, and accused of perjury and failure to properly report suspected abuse.

Spanier was forced out as president at that time, and a year later was himself charged as part of an alleged cover-up of complaints about Sandusky. A school spokesman said Thursday Spanier remains a faculty member on administrative leave.

Paterno died of complications from lung cancer in January 2012 and was not charged with any crime. The Freeh report's scathing conclusions about the former coach was followed more than a week later by the school administration's decision to remove his statue from outside the football stadium.

Additional charges were also filed against Curley and Schultz last November, but there has not been a preliminary hearing yet because of a legal dispute about the role played in the grand jury proceedings by Cynthia Baldwin, a former state Supreme Court justice who at the time was Penn State's top lawyer.

On Tuesday, a district judge in the Harrisburg suburbs announced the preliminary hearing would be held for Spanier, Schultz and Curley starting July 29 in the county courthouse. The hearing will determine if there are grounds to forward the case to county court for trial. All three men have vigorously denied the allegations against them.

Sandusky, 69, was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse, including violent attacks on boys inside school facilities, after a three-week trial last summer in which eight victims testified against him. He is serving a 30- to 60-year prison term and maintains he was wrongfully convicted. He is pursuing appeals.

Associated Press

Source: http://timesleader.com/news/apsports/302684456877727946088/Penn-State-ex-president-files-libel-lawsuit-papers&source=RSS

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ID got you, under the skin

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Forget fingerprints or iris recognition, the next big thing in biometrics will be a thermal imaging scan that maps the blood vessels under the skin of your face for instantaneous face recognition that would be almost impossible to spoof.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/IHKNoe4GOJg/130711113420.htm

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GALEX decommissioned: What happens to abandoned space probes?

NASA's earth-orbiting GALEX was shut down Friday, meaning that the spacecraft will join a long line of space probes sacrificed to the universe.

By Elizabeth Barber,?Contributor / July 1, 2013

This NASA Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) mosaic of ultraviolet images obtained from December 2003 shows the large galaxy in Andromeda, Messier 31.

NASA/California Institute of Technology /AFP

Enlarge

The pink slip was delivered at 3:09 p.m. EDT on Friday in Dulles, Vermont. The order: decommission Galaxy Evolution Explorer.

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And so, after about a decade of use, the power was flicked off on GALEX.

The Earth-orbiting spacecraft ? which had been cut from NASA?s budget in February 2011 and had survived off funds from the California Institute of Technology ? had racked up a sizable roster of discoveries?during its mission, observing the teenage-stage of galaxy growth, a black hole consuming a star, the presence of new stars around dead galaxies, and?insights into the nature of dark energy.

The spacecraft will remain in orbit for at least another 65 years, floating glumly and uselessly around the Earth. Then it will fall back toward the planet, burning up as it re-enters the atmosphere, doing one last service as a ?shooting star? on which a celestial-looking child might make a wish ? just as writer Ray Bradbury, in his 1951 story Kaleidoscope, imagined an unlucky, falling astronaut as the object on which a small Illinois boy pins all his hopes.?

GALEX?s sad, lonely end is typical. Few objects launched into space have hope of seeing Earth again. Unless, of course, there are people on board, that brave object is designed not to come back to us, but to serve its mission and then remain out there as a teeny record of human ingenuity and curiosity floating through an impassive universe.

Some of these explorers, like GALEX, will meet a sudden end. Our space record is packed with casualties ? spacecraft that made fatal landings and the dust of which has been received neatly into the universe. There was Russia?s Venera 3, a Venus-bound probe that crashed into the planet in 1966. And there?s the US?s Mars Climate Orbiter, which in 1998 made a faulty entry into the planet?s orbit and fizzled up in the unfriendly atmosphere.

But for other spacecraft, the end is more uncertain, more a long wait for something, anything, to happen. Other Venera probes (Russia launched some 16 of them) are presumably still somewhere on Venus, their batteries shot. And on Mars, NASA's Spirit Rover stopped communicating in 2010; since then it has lingered hopelessly there in the Martian desert. Opportunity, its twin rover, is still chugging along, sending back new information as it waits for something to go wrong. ?Every day is a gift,? said John Callas, of NASA?s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, of that rover, earlier this month.

Curiosity rover ? which landed on Mars last summer ? has a mission of one Mars year, or some 687 Earth days. Perhaps it will outlast its warranty. But eventually it will join the other decommissioned, powerless rovers on the Red Planet, waiting dully for something to happen to it, ever so slowly eroding and gathering Martian dust.

Perhaps the loneliest of ends is reserved for the most far-flung objects, which quietly, without complaint, recede into the universe.

In Bradbury?s Kaleidoscope, a spacecraft splinters midflight and sends its human cargo floating through the terrible emptiness, waiting for something that will put an end to it all. And so they fall with ?vague acceptance,? with ?varying degrees of terror and resignation,? with the knowledge that ?nothing could bring them back.?

The falling astronauts in that story enjoy the benefit of a reasonably short lifespan. But for the (mercifully non-sentient) space probes, the wait is much longer, possibly forever.

Voyager 1, which is now at the outskirts of our solar system and preparing to depart for the rest of our galaxy, and Voyager 2 will run out of fuel in about 2020. After that, the siblings will drift through space, waiting, "each going to a separate and irrevocable fate."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/2ZnQarWW6-c/GALEX-decommissioned-What-happens-to-abandoned-space-probes

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Authors lose class status in Google digital books case

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) - Google Inc notched a legal victory in its bid to create the world's largest digital books library, winning the reversal of a court order that had allowed authors challenging the project to sue as a group.

A panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said Circuit Judge Denny Chin prematurely certified a class of authors without first deciding if the "fair use" defense under U.S. copyright law allowed Google to display snippets of books.

The three-judge panel also signaled it may prove improper to allow a class action on behalf of potentially hundreds of thousands of writers arguing that the Google Books Library Project improperly copied their works without permission.

"Putting aside the merits of Google's claim that plaintiffs are not representative of the certified class ? an argument which, in our view, may carry some force ? we believe that the resolution of Google's fair use defense in the first instance will necessarily inform and perhaps moot our analysis of many class certification issues," the panel said.

A class action would let The Authors Guild, an association of authors, and others sue as a group rather than individually, potentially resulting in higher awards and lower legal costs.

Google has scanned more than 20 million books after partnering in 2004 with major libraries around the world such as the Harvard University library and the New York Public Library.

The lawsuit began in 2005, and Google has estimated that it could eventually owe more than $3 billion if The Authors Guild, which has demanded $750 for each scanned book, were to prevail.

"We're obviously disappointed," Michael Boni, a lawyer for The Authors Guild, said in a phone interview. "We're going to litigate the fair use now, and that is the shooting match."

Matt Kallman, a Google spokesman, in an emailed statement said the Mountain View, California-based company is "delighted" with the decision.

Google has said its digitization of current and out-of-print works would help researchers and the general public.

It has argued that authors, especially of obscure works, could benefit from the library, and that a case-by-case approach was needed to determine fair use.

"DE FACTO MONOPOLY"

In certifying a class, Chin in May 2012 said it would be unfair to force authors to sue individually given the "sweeping and undiscriminating nature of Google's unauthorized copying."

But the 2nd Circuit panel said several court rulings, including a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court decision favoring Wal-Mart Stores Inc, might help Google avoid a class action.

It sent the case back to Chin to review fair use issues, and eventually consider class certification again.

In March 2011, Chin had rejected a $125 million settlement, saying it raised copyright and antitrust issues by giving Google a "de facto monopoly" to copy books en masse without permission.

Among the individual plaintiffs is former New York Yankees baseball pitcher Jim Bouton, the author of "Ball Four."

Groups of photographers and graphic artists have also been suing Google over its digitization of their works.

Publishers had also been part of the lawsuit, but settled with Google last October.

The 2nd Circuit panel included Circuit Judges Pierre Leval, Jose Cabranes and Barrington Parker. Chin oversaw the case as a trial judge and kept jurisdiction after joining the 2nd Circuit.

The case is Authors Guild Inc et al v. Google Inc, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 12-3200.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Sofina Mirza-Reid and Phil Berlowitz)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-court-throws-google-digital-books-class-status-140506289.html

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Long-term cannabis use may blunt the brain's motivation system

July 1, 2013 ? Long-term cannabis users tend to produce less dopamine, a chemical in the brain linked to motivation, a study has found.

Researchers found that dopamine levels in a part of the brain called the striatum were lower in people who smoke more cannabis and those who began taking the drug at a younger age.

They suggest this finding could explain why some cannabis users appear to lack motivation to work or pursue their normal interests.

The study, by scientists at Imperial College London, UCL and King's College London, was funded by the Medical Research Council and published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

The researchers used PET brain imaging to look at dopamine production in the striatum of 19 regular cannabis users and 19 non-users of matching age and sex.

The cannabis users in the study had all experienced psychotic-like symptoms while smoking the drug, such as experiencing strange sensations or having bizarre thoughts like feeling as though they are being threatened by an unknown force.

The researchers expected that dopamine production might be higher in this group, since increased dopamine production has been linked with psychosis. Instead, they found the opposite effect.

The cannabis users in the study had their first experience with the drug between the ages of 12 and 18. There was a trend for lower dopamine levels in those who started earlier, and also in those who smoke more cannabis. The researchers say these findings suggest that cannabis use may be the cause of the difference in dopamine levels.

The lowest dopamine levels were seen in users who meet diagnostic criteria for cannabis abuse or dependence, raising the possibility that this measure could provide a marker of addiction severity.

Previous research has shown that cannabis users have a higher risk of mental illnesses that involve repeated episodes of psychosis, such as schizophrenia.

"It has been assumed that cannabis increases the risk of schizophrenia by inducing the same effects on the dopamine system that we see in schizophrenia, but this hasn't been studied in active cannabis users until now," said Dr Michael Bloomfield, from the Institute of Clinical Sciences at Imperial, who led the study.

"The results weren't what we expected, but they tie in with previous research on addiction, which has found that substance abusers -- people who are dependent on cocaine or amphetamine, for example -- have altered dopamine systems.

"Although we only looked at cannabis users who have had psychotic-like experiences while using the drug, we think the findings would apply to cannabis users in general, since we didn't see a stronger effect in the subjects who have more psychotic-like symptoms. This needs to be tested though.

"It could also explain the 'amotivational syndrome' which has been described in cannabis users, but whether such a syndrome exists is controversial."

Other studies have looked at dopamine release in former cannabis users and not seen differences with people who haven't taken cannabis, suggesting that the effects seen in this study are likely to be reversible.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/G5dWhevvbJA/130701081053.htm

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Why Hedge Funds Are Failing Right Now - Business Insider

Over the last several weeks Wall Street has learned a powerful and painful lesson: Sometimes nothing is safe.

Call them what you want to ? Top Dogs, Smart Money, Heavyweights ? these are the kings, and their castles are crumbling.

Funds that looked bulletproof are getting smoked.

Ray Dalio's famous 'All Weather' fund is down 8% for the year. The top performer of 2012 is down 5.66% for the year as of last week.

Market gurus may try to make what's happening sound complicated, but it's really not. In fact, what's going on can be explained in two big market and investing themes. The first theme is the overall effect of the Federal Reserve's change in policy and what it's doing to risk across asset classes. The second theme is an age-old debate about how people should structure their investments in general.

First the Fed. After Bernanke announced that the Fed would gradually reduce purchase of Treasuries, the market has become unrecognizable. Interest rates on the 10-year Treasury note have leaped to 2.5% from 1.93% in early May.

Investors are selling bonds like crazy, and hedge funds with exposure to credit markets ? like Metacapital Management, the best performer of 2012 which made mortgage backed arbitrage its cornerstone? ? are suddenly losers. Bond mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) have seen record monthly redemptions of $61.7 billion through June 24th, according to Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, the stock market has been a whipsaw. In early April the S&P 500 hit 2007 highs (1575), climbing steadily until Bernanke's speech on the 19th, when it decided to take us all on a ride. That's when if fell and kept falling almost 5%. At the beginning of last week traders were starting to think this was the new normal, and then all of a sudden, over the past three days the S&P rallied 2.7%.

This is the return of volatility. It had been kept bottled up, and now it's on the loose to wreak havoc on investors who thought they knew what they were doing.

As U.K. hedge fund manager Hugh Hendry put it in a note (via Zero Hedge):

The invisible regime of low volatility and low correlations that had been so supportive of risk markets for at least the last year started to become unhinged... As cross-asset correlations rose, the Fund became less diversified.

What that means in plain English is that assets that once had nothing to do with one another started exhibiting the same behaviors. Hendry' fund is down 2.1%. Some of the calls that he made earlier this spring, like going long Japanese equities, turned against him.

That brings us to the second theme ? the debate about investing being played out in markets right now.

It goes something like this: Old school portfolio managers like Jack Bogle's Vanguard maintain that a 60/40 portfolio (60% stocks, 40% bonds) will serve you well. The newer breed of high-powered hedge fund managers think differently. They argue that a 60/40 strategy puts too much risk (and thus the portfolio's success) into equities.

That's why Dalio created the first "risk parity" fund (yes, the All Weather) in 1996. Ideally, it spreads risk evenly across one's portfolio by using leverage to amp up traditionally secure assets (like bonds) and deemphasizing more volatile assets like stocks.

You can imagine how that wouldn't work in this market.

From Reuters:

Bridgewater created a portfolio based on two of the four basic economic scenarios: rising growth, falling growth, rising inflation, falling inflation. Different types of assets do well in each of these scenarios and the all-weather portfolio contemplates spreading its risk evenly.

After Bernanke made his statement, those economic scenarios fell apart as stock and bond prices fell together. Now that stocks are making their way up and 10-year Treasury bonds are still yielding 2.4%, risk parity still isn't the answer.

Meanwhile, the $19.5 billion Vanguard Balanced Index Fund, which uses the 60/40 method is up 5.48% this year through June 24th, according to Investment News.

Timing is everything, and if you called this, you're smarter than a lot of brilliant people.

Or you're just lucky ... this is investing after all.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-hedge-funds-are-failing-right-now-2013-6

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Obama suggests spying on nations' allies is common

FILE - This June 17, 2013 file photo shows President Barack Obama meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. President Barack Obama brushed aside sharp European criticism on Monday, suggesting all nations spy on each other, as the French and Germans expressed outrage over alleged U.S. eavesdropping on European Union diplomats. American analyst-turned-leaker Edward Snowden, believed to be stranded for the past week at Moscow?s international airport, applied for political asylum to remain in Russia. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - This June 17, 2013 file photo shows President Barack Obama meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. President Barack Obama brushed aside sharp European criticism on Monday, suggesting all nations spy on each other, as the French and Germans expressed outrage over alleged U.S. eavesdropping on European Union diplomats. American analyst-turned-leaker Edward Snowden, believed to be stranded for the past week at Moscow?s international airport, applied for political asylum to remain in Russia. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) in the Kremlin in Moscow, Monday, July 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, Pool)

In this photo taken on Monday, June 24, 2013, shows a view of Moscow's Airport Sheremetyevo, terminal E, with a hotel for transit passengers at the transit zone inside. Leaker Snowden has been caught in legal limbo in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23. The U.S. has annulled his passport, and Ecuador, where he has hoped to get asylum, says it may take months to rule on his case. Russia's President Vladimir Putin said Monday, July 1, 2013, that Snowden will have to stop leaking U.S. secrets if he wants to get asylum in Russia, but added that Snowden has no plan to stop leaking. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr)

FILE - In this file photo taken Friday, June 28, 2013, a Russian supporter of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden holds a poster outside Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow. Leaker Snowden has been caught in legal limbo in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23. The U.S. has annulled his passport, and Ecuador, where he has hoped to get asylum, says it may take months to rule on his case. Russia's President Vladimir Putin said Monday, July 1, 2013, that Snowden will have to stop leaking U.S. secrets if he wants to get asylum in Russia, but added that Snowden has no plan to stop leaking. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Bolivian President Evo Morales, second right, attend the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) in the Kremlin in Moscow, Monday, July 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Maxim Shemetov, Pool)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama brushed aside sharp European criticism on Monday, suggesting that all nations spy on each other as the French and Germans expressed outrage over alleged U.S. eavesdropping on European Union diplomats. American analyst-turned-leaker Edward Snowden, believed to still be at Moscow's international airport, applied for political asylum to remain in Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a statement he acknowledged sounded odd, told reporters in Moscow that Snowden would have to stop leaking U.S. secrets if he wanted asylum in Russia ? and he added that Snowden seemed unwilling to stop publishing leaks of classified material. At the same time, Putin said that he had no plans to turn over Snowden to the United States.

Obama, in an African news conference with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, said the U.S. would provide allies with information about new reports that the National Security Agency had bugged EU offices in Washington, New York and Brussels. But he also suggested such activity by governments would hardly be unusual.

"We should stipulate that every intelligence service ?not just ours, but every European intelligence service, every Asian intelligence service, wherever there's an intelligence service ? here's one thing that they're going to be doing: They're going to be trying to understand the world better, and what's going on in world capitals around the world," he said. "If that weren't the case, then there'd be no use for an intelligence service."

The latest issue concerns allegations of U.S. spying on European officials in the German news weekly Der Spiegel. French President Francois Hollande on Monday demanded that the U.S. immediately stop any such eavesdropping and suggested the widening controversy could jeopardize next week's opening of trans-Atlantic trade talks between the United States and Europe.

"We cannot accept this kind of behavior from partners and allies," Hollande said on French television.

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin, "Eavesdropping on friends is unacceptable." He declared, "We're not in the Cold War anymore."

Even before the latest disclosures, talks at the upcoming free-trade sessions were expected to be fragile, with disagreements surfacing over which items should be covered or excluded from an agreement. The United States has said there should be no exceptions. But France has called for exempting certain cultural products, and other Europeans do not appear eager to give up longtime agricultural subsidies.

Obama said the Europeans "are some of the closest allies that we have in the world." But he added, "I guarantee you that in European capitals, there are people who are interested in, if not what I had for breakfast, at least what my talking points might be should I end up meeting with their leaders. That's how intelligence services operate."

Nonetheless, Obama said he'd told his advisers to "evaluate everything that's being claimed" and promised to share the results with allies.

Meanwhile, the Interfax news agency said a Russian consular official has confirmed that Snowden had asked for asylum in Russia.

Interfax cited Kim Shevchenko, the duty officer at the Russian Foreign Ministry's consular office in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, as saying that Snowden's representative, Sarah Harrison, handed over his request on Sunday.

Snowden, in legal limbo, is believed to have been in the airport's transit zone since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23. The U.S. has annulled his passport, and Ecuador, where he has hoped to get asylum, has been giving off mixed signals about offering him shelter.

"If he wants to go somewhere and there are those who would take him, he is welcome to do so," Putin said. "If he wants to stay here, there is one condition: He must stop his activities aimed at inflicting damage on our American partners, no matter how strange it may sound coming from my lips."

Obama said "there have been high-level discussions with the Russians" about Snowden's situation.

"We don't have an extradition treaty with Russia. On the other hand, you know, Mr. Snowden, we understand, has traveled there without a valid passport, without legal papers. And you know we are hopeful that the Russian government makes decisions based on the normal procedures regarding international travel and the normal procedures regarding international travel and the normal interactions that law enforcement has. So I can confirm that."

Putin didn't mention any Snowden effort to seek asylum in Russia, and spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to say what the Russian response might be. Putin insisted that Snowden wasn't a Russian agent and that Russian security agencies hadn't contacted him.

Three U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly discuss the Snowden case, said Washington's efforts were focused primarily on persuading Russia to deport Snowden either directly to the United States or to a third country, possibly in eastern Europe, that would then hand him over to U.S. authorities.

In a sign of the distrust the latest report had revealed, the German government said it had launched a review of its secure government communications network and the EU's executive, the European Commission, ordered "a comprehensive ad hoc security sweep."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday he didn't know the details of the allegations, but he still played them down, maintaining that many nations undertake various activities to protect their national interests. Kerry failed to quell the outrage from allies, including France, Germany and Italy.

A spokesman for Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, said, "The European Union has demanded and expects full and urgent clarification by the U.S. regarding the allegations."

According to Der Spiegel's report, which it said was partly based on information leaked by Snowden, NSA planted bugs in the EU's diplomatic offices in Washington and infiltrated the building's computer network. Similar measures were taken at the EU's mission to the United Nations in New York, the magazine said.

It also reported that NSA used secure facilities at NATO headquarters in Brussels to dial into telephone maintenance systems that would have allowed it to intercept senior officials' calls and Internet traffic at a key EU office nearby.

As for Snowden, White House national security spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the White House won't comment on specific asylum requests but reiterated its message to all countries that he "needs to be expelled back to the U.S. based on the fact that he doesn't have travel documents and the charges pending against him."

Regarding possible effects on U.S. interactions with Russia, she said it remains the case "that we don't want this issue to negatively impact the bilateral relationship."

___

Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Sarah DiLorenzo in Paris, Frank Jordans and Geir Moulson in Berlin, Elena Becatoros in Athens, Raf Casert in Brussels, Deb Riechmann in Brunei, Nicole Winfield in Rome, Julie Pace in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-07-01-NSA%20Surveillance/id-ff817bc0d87a40a99ea29de9675766a9

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The quantum secret to alcohol reactions in space

June 30, 2013 ? Chemists have discovered that an 'impossible' reaction at cold temperatures actually occurs with vigour, which could change our understanding of how alcohols are formed and destroyed in space.

To explain the impossible, the researchers propose that a quantum mechanical phenomenon, known as 'quantum tunnelling', is revving up the chemical reaction. They found that the rate at which the reaction occurs is 50 times greater at minus 210 degrees Celsius than at room temperature.

It's the harsh environment that makes space-based chemistry so difficult to understand; the extremely cold conditions should put a stop to chemical reactions, as there isn't sufficient energy to rearrange chemical bonds. It has previously been suggested that dust grains -- found in interstellar clouds, for example -- could lend a hand in bringing chemical reactions about.

The idea is that the dust grains act as a staging post for the reactions to occur, with the ingredients of complex molecules clinging to the solid surface. However, last year, a highly reactive molecule called the 'methoxy radical' was detected in space and its formation couldn't be explained in this way.

Laboratory experiments showed that when an icy mixture containing methanol was blasted with radiation -- like would occur in space, with intense radiation from nearby stars, for example -methoxy radicals weren't released in the emitted gases. The findings suggested that methanol gas was involved in the production of the methoxy radicals found in space, rather than any process on the surface of dust grains. But this brings us back to the problem of how the gases can react under extremely cold conditions.

"The answer lies in quantum mechanics," says Professor Dwayne Heard, Head of the School of Chemistry at the University of Leeds, who led the research.

"Chemical reactions get slower as temperatures decrease, as there is less energy to get over the 'reaction barrier'. But quantum mechanics tells us that it is possible to cheat and dig through this barrier instead of going over it. This is called 'quantum tunnelling'."

To succeed in digging through the reaction barrier, incredibly cold temperatures -- like those that exist in interstellar space and in the atmosphere of some planetary bodies, such as Titan -- are needed. "We suggest that an 'intermediary product' forms in the first stage of the reaction, which can only survive long enough for quantum tunnelling to occur at extremely cold temperatures," says Heard.

The researchers were able to recreate the cold environment of space in the laboratory and observe a reaction of the alcohol methanol and an oxidising chemical called the 'hydroxyl radical' at minus 210 degrees Celsius. They found that not only do these gases react to create methoxy radicals at this incredibly cold temperature, but that the rate of reaction is 50 times faster than at room temperature.

To achieve this, the researchers had to create a new experimental setup. "The problem is that the gases condense as soon as they hit a cold surface," says Robin Shannon from the University of Leeds, who performed the experiments. "So we took inspiration from the boosters used for the Apollo Saturn V rockets to create collimated jets of gas that could react without ever touching a surface."

The researchers are now investigating the reactions of other alcohols at very cold temperatures. "If our results continue to show a similar increase in the reaction rate at very cold temperatures, then scientists have been severely underestimating the rates of formation and destruction of complex molecules, such as alcohols, in space," concludes Heard.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/isF70kH0e8w/130630145004.htm

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Iran confirms detention of Slovak nationals

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? An Iranian semi-official news agency is reporting the country has confirmed it is detaining an unspecified number of Slovak nationals, saying they have broken the law.

The Sunday report by ISNA quotes Abbas Araghchi, spokesman of Iran's foreign ministry, as saying the Slovaks entered Iran as tourists, "but they had unconventional behavior and instruments. They violated Iran's law."

Araghchi said the case is under judicial investigations and would later be sent to the courts. He said Slovak diplomats have access to the detainees.

Iran did not identify the detainees or give any detail on their numbers.

In February Iran released a Slovak national after weeks after accusing him of spying for the CIA.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-confirms-detention-slovak-nationals-101327445.html

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Record-breaking crowds celebrate Blackhawks at parade, rally

Welcome back to Chicago, Lord Stanley. We think you'll notice how our Blackhawks have grown up.

Three years after a Champagne-soaked extravaganza on Michigan Avenue, the city hosted a more mature ? but equally, if not more, jubilant ? Grant Park celebration for a crowd estimated at over 2 million people. More mature, that is, if you don't count the expletive-laced anatomy lecture from goalkeeper Corey Crawford.

Chicago feted the club with a massive parade and rally Friday that broke the 2010 attendance record and perhaps will go down as the best-attended celebration in city history. Dressed in hockey sweaters on an 80-degree day, fans transformed Grant Park into a red sea that only a few final celebratory refrains of "Chelsea Dagger" could part.

Heeding Mayor Rahm Emanuel's call for the entire metropolitan area to enjoy a "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," the Blackhawks faithful skipped work, ditched meetings and feigned illness to celebrate the team's victory over the Boston Bruins this week. They lined the streets from the Near West Side to the lakeshore, then filled Grant Park in numbers so big they made the Taste of Chicago look like a cozy street fair.

The beer-guzzling players, drunken dancing and bullhorn speeches from three years ago may have vanished, but the fans' enthusiasm for the team and appreciation of the storied Cup's significance seemed to have increased exponentially.

"For the guys that were here in 2010, we didn't think there was a chance we could outmatch that performance by the fans, but you guys did somehow," captain Jonathan Toews said at the rally. "This shows how unbelievable this city is."

The celebration began early, with fans filling trains and buses before sunrise. At one point, Metra routes became so crowded that the commuter train service began to fall behind schedule and started skipping stops because of capacity concerns.

When rally organizers opened Hutchinson Field about 9 a.m., revelers sprinted toward the stage in the hope of getting an up-close spot. Among the first on the field was Alexander Smith of Naperville, who had covered his naked torso in red body paint and donned a faux-Native American headdress purchased from a Party City store.

"Go all-out," Smith said. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing."

With several hours to kill before the rally, fans passed time tossing beach balls and trying to keep hydrated with the free bottled water being passed out. The sun ? and, in some cases, an overindulgence in nonwater beverages ? proved too much for some as the Chicago Fire Department began treating people for heat exhaustion.

The Fire Department responded to 91 calls for medical assistance at the parade and in 42 cases transported people to area hospitals. In addition to the free water, fire officials used mist-generating fans to help cool the crowds.

"It did go well," Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said. "There was a lot of water being passed out, and people were in pretty good shape. The Cup survived."

But the overheated crowds proved testy at times, and police reported making six arrests, including one involving a Matteson man who police say was carrying two guns during the rally. The other five were for misdemeanors.

And, for many, seeing the Cup in person Friday was as thrilling as Dave Bolland's game-winning goal Monday night. Dozens flocked to the United Center before the parade in the hope of touching the storied trophy, even though it meant missing most of the other festivities.

Team owner Rocky Wirtz mingled with fans on his way into the building, shaking hands and posing for pictures in front of the Michael Jordan statue, which is currently draped in a Hawks sweater.

Stanley Cup caretaker Phil Pritchard also made it through a gantlet of fans to the administration entrance. He quickly came back out, however, after realizing at least one fan waiting there wanted his autograph, too.

A short time later, the team emerged from the building to the cheers of onlookers. Most wore flip-flops and shorts with their red sweaters. And many had ditched or significantly trimmed their playoff beards for the occasion, while Patrick Kane continued to sport his lucky mullet.

"It's an unbelievable feeling to bring the Cup back here," defenseman Brent Seabrook told reporters. "The city of Chicago did a great job. The fans and everybody coming out is awesome."

After driving through Loop streets that quickly filled with confetti, the team arrived at Grant Park to cheers of "Let's Go Hawks!" Unlike the 2010 rally at which many players spoke, only a few took the microphone at the homecoming party.

Kane, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs' most valuable player, continued a team tradition of awarding a gold-plated professional wrestling belt to the MVP of the last game. He gave it to Crawford, whom he described as the league's best postseason player.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/chicagotribune_julieshealthclub/~3/yoKFe4XpXi0/story01.htm

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