Melancon, Romo, Tillman added to All-Stars

Associated Press Sports

updated 12:58 p.m. ET July 14, 2013

NEW YORK (AP) - Pittsburgh pitcher Mark Melancon has been picked as a replacement for the NL All-Star team, giving the Pirates five players in the game for the first time since 1972.

NL manager Bruce Bochy also selected Sergio Romo, his San Francisco Giants closer, as a replacement pick Sunday. Pirates pitcher Jeff Locke and Washington Nationals pitcher Jordan ZImmermann, both on the original NL All-Star roster, are hurt and will miss Tuesday's game at Citi Field.

Baltimore pitcher Chris Tillman was picked by AL manager Jim Leyland of Detroit to replace Tigers ace Justin Verlander, who started Sunday. Under baseball's labor contract, pitchers who start on the Sunday before the All-Star game may opt not to participate. Verlander was the starter and loser of last year's All-Star game at Kansas City.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Freak show: Lincecum spins no-no

HBT: Giants right-hander Tim Lincecum tossed his first career no-hitter on Saturday against the Padres. He fanned 13 while getting nine runs of support.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/52473956/ns/sports-baseball/

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Undiagnosed pre-diabetes highly prevalent in early Alzheimer's disease study

[unable to retrieve full-text content]When a neurologist began enrolling people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease into a nationwide study last year, he expected to find only a handful of participants with undiagnosed glucose intolerance, as all the patients were already under a doctor's care and those with known diabetes were excluded. But the scientists said he was "shocked" by how many study participants were found to have pre-diabetes -- a finding that is triggering important questions.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/uzDlOOyeXZY/130714160840.htm

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Government says no new contracts for Serco, G4S until after review

LONDON (Reuters) - The British government said it would not be awarding outsourcing companies G4S and Serco any new contracts until they receive a clean bill of health from a government review into their public service provision.

"In-flight procurements involving these two companies will continue but they will not be awarded any business until the review is complete -- and they have a clean bill of health," said a spokeswoman at the government's Cabinet Office, which on Thursday launched a review of both companies' public sector contracts.

(Reporting by William James; editing by Rhys Jones)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/government-says-no-contracts-serco-g4s-until-review-155941725.html

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Holy Comforter Episcopal Church celebrates 60 years of congregation, community

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Source: http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20130712/LIVING06/307120030/1103/RSS18

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China security ministry says GSK executives confess to economic crimes

BEIJING (Reuters) - Executives of GlaxoSmithKline Plc in China have confessed to charges of bribery and tax law violations, the country's security ministry said, in one of the most prominent graft cases involving a foreign company in three years.

Bribes were offered to Chinese government officials, medical associations, hospitals and doctors to boost sales and prices, the ministry said in a statement on its website on Thursday. GSK executives also used fake receipts in unspecified tax law violations, it added.

The statement did not give details on the number of GSK executives questioned, their identities or when the questioning took place. In response to the ministry's charges, GSK said it is willing to cooperate with the authorities.

China in recent months has targeted foreign firms on multiple fronts including alleged price-fixing, quality controls and consumer rights, forcing companies to defend their reputations in a country where international brands often have a valuable edge over local competitors in terms of public trust.

The charges of bribery make the GSK case the highest profile probe in China since four executives of mining giant Rio Tinto Plc were jailed in March 2010 for taking bribes and stealing commercial secrets.

The four - one a China-born Australian citizen and three Chinese nationals - received jail terms of between seven and 14 years after being found guilty of getting information from confidential strategy meetings of the body representing China's steel industry in negotiations with iron ore suppliers.

Under China's legal system, the GSK executives will be formally charged after the completion of the preliminary investigations.

"We take all allegations of bribery and corruption seriously," GSK said in its statement.

"We continuously monitor our businesses to ensure they meet our strict compliance procedures - we have done this in China and found no evidence of bribery or corruption of doctors or government officials."

The company declined to comment on the number or nationality of staff involved.

It is too early in the process to know the extent of potential punishments, said Jerry Ling, a Shanghai-based partner for law firm Jones Day who specializes in U.S. and Chinese anti-bribery law.

But the GSK case could be serious, Ling said.

"The Administration for Industry and Commerce deals with your run-of-the-mill bribery. It could lead to fines and being put on a black list, but rarely results in criminal sentences," he said.

"The fact that the Ministry of Public Security is running this investigation means that the exposure is more serious."

GSK has also run into other problems in China.

It said on Monday it was investigating separate allegations that its staff had used improper tactics to market the cosmetic treatment Botox in China, but had so far found no evidence of bribery or corruption.

GSK, Merck & Co Inc and other foreign and domestic drugmakers are also being investigated by China's top economic planning agency on cost and pricing issues.

China is an increasingly important market for international pharmaceutical companies, which are relying on growth in emerging markets to offset slower sales in Western markets where many former blockbuster drugs have lost patent protection.

(Reporting by Michael Martina in BEIJING, Kazunori Takada in SHANGHAI and Paul Sandle in LONDON; Writing by Jonathan Standing; Editing by Stephen Coates and Ryan Woo)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-security-ministry-says-gsk-execs-confess-crimes-061601706.html

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Do antibiotics in animal feed pose a serious risk to human health?

[unable to retrieve full-text content]As fears rise over antibiotic resistance, two experts debate whether adding antibiotics to animal feed poses a serious risk to human health.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/I41ewvO72XM/130711084851.htm

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Pentagon chief says draconian steps would be needed to meet cuts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned on Wednesday the Pentagon would have to take draconian steps next fiscal year, including hiring freezes and cuts in weapons purchases, unless Congress acts to stop $52 billion in spending cuts.

"I strongly oppose cuts of that magnitude because, if they remain in place for FY 2014 and beyond, the size, readiness and technological superiority of our military will be reduced," Hagel wrote in a letter to the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee released on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pentagon-chief-says-draconian-steps-needed-meet-cuts-192830709.html

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Quebec oil train disaster: Investigators focus on earlier blaze

Searchers are on the hunt for those who are still missing after an oil train derailed in Quebec, killing at least 15 people.

By M. Alex Johnson, Staff Writer, NBC News

Canadian safety investigators said Tuesday there's no evidence that the derailed oil train that flattened a small Quebec town was sabotaged.

Two more bodies were found Tuesday, raising the death toll to 15 after the runaway train carrying crude oil slipped from its moorings early Saturday, speeded almost 7 miles down a steep grade, derailed and exploded in the town of Lac-M?gantic.

About three dozen other people remained unaccounted for.

---

Authorities said the cause of the incident still wasn't known, but they contested the assertion of Ed Burkhardt, chairman of the parent company of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic, the railway that operated the train, that "we have evidence" that it had been tampered with.

Quebec police Capt. Michel Forget said Tuesday that police had "discovered elements" that had led them open a criminal investigation. He said terrorism wasn't suspected and cautioned that "criminal negligence might be one of the leads we are looking at," as opposed to sabotage or active tampering.

Ryan Remiorz / The Canadian Press via AP

Searchers dig through the rubble for victims of the inferno in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, on Monday.

Authorities announced the criminal probe Monday, saying more than 100 officers were involved.

Ed Belkaloul, manager of eastern rail operations for the Canadian Transportation Safety Board, also said at a news conference Tuesday that investigators had no evidence of sabotage and added that Burkhardt's company hadn't offered them any. Transportation authorities said Monday that the locomotive suspected of causing the derailment had been inspected just the day before the incident, on Friday, and was found to have no defects.

For the first time, TSB investigators gave a broad timeline of events overnight Friday and early Saturday.

The train, comprising 73 rail cars, all but one of them carrying crude oil, was parked for the night in the town of Nantes when a fire was reported shortly before midnight, TSB investigator Donald Ross said at a briefing for reporters. He said firefighters extinguished the blaze.

That fire is the focus of a dispute between the railway and investigators. Burkhardt said firefighters might have been responsible because they shut down the locomotive to put out the fire ? and possibly turned off the brakes.

But Patrick Lambert, the Nantes fire chief, told The Globe and Mail of Toronto that his crew was following standard procedures dictated by Montreal, Maine & Atlantic and was told it could leave the scene by the railway. He angrily said he would "clear this all up" in the next few days.

What isn't in dispute is that by shortly before 1 a.m., the fire crew and a railway employee who had responded to the fire had left the scene. That's when the train is believed to have started rolling downhill about 7 miles toward Lac-M?gantic.

The slope of the track along that stretch is about 1.2 percent ? which is relatively steep ? and the train eventually raced well past the authorized speed limit, Ross said.?At some point, "the locomotive detached from the rest of the train and carried through the rest of the town and out the other side, approximately six-tenths of a mile," he said.

Transportation Safety Board of Canada / handout

Handout image released Monday by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada showing an investigator looking over a locomotive in the train involved in the derailment and fire in Lac M?gantic.

Rail dispatch crews had no notice that the potential fireball was hurtling toward Lac-M?gantic because the train was traveling along a secondary line ? that is, not one of major lines that serve cities like Montreal ? and had no warning system.

"This area is not equipped with the type of signal systems that would even show to a rail traffic controller that something was moving on the territory that they hadn't authorized," Ross said.

Evacuees returning home

The white-hot fire continued burning through the weekend, forcing the evacuations of about 2,000 area residents and hampering investigators' access to the scene.

The fire was finally declared under control Tuesday, and about 1,200 residents of two neighborhoods were being allowed to return home.

The remaining 800 or so were still prohibited from returning home because they live in or near the center of town, the area hardest hit by the explosions, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

"It's tough, but we'll live through it," Denis Couture, one of those allowed to go home, told The Montreal Gazette.

Ticking off the names of business that had been destroyed, he said: "We'll rebuild. There'll be another Dollarama. There'll be another Musi-Cafe bar. You just wait and see.

"We'll never replace what was there, but we will rebuild, and we'll keep on living."

Related:

This story was originally published on Tue Jul 9, 2013 7:49 PM EDT

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Same-Sex Couples Ask New Mexico Supreme Court to Protect their Right to Marry

Lawsuit Also Asks Court to Recognize Marriages Between Same-Sex Couples Performed Out of State as Valid in New Mexico

July 3, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: 212-549-2666,?media@aclu.org

ALBUQUERQUE, NM ? Today, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, ACLU national, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Albuquerque law firm Sutin, Thayer & Brown PC and Albuquerque attorneys Maureen Sanders, Kate Girard and Lynn Perls filed a writ of mandamus with the New Mexico State Supreme Court seeking a ruling on the issue of whether same-sex couples can marry in the State of New Mexico. The writ also asks the court to clarify that New Mexico respects the marriages of same-sex New Mexico couples who married in another state, which is necessary to ensure that those couples qualify for all of the federal programs that are now available to married same-sex couples as a result of the United States Supreme Court decision last week invalidating the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

?The United States Supreme Court?s decision to overturn DOMA has increased our sense of urgency to clarify the ability of same-sex couples to marry in New Mexico,? said ACLU-NM Executive Director Peter Simonson. ?With all barriers to federal recognition removed, our State cannot stand by as thousands of same-sex couples, many of whom were married out of state, continue to be denied those protections.?

There are more than 1,100 places in federal laws and programs where being married makes a difference, including eligibility for family medical leave, social security survivor?s benefits, and access to health care for a spouse. With DOMA now overturned, same-sex couples could immediately become eligible for these federal benefits and protections, as well as all of the protections given to spouses under state law, if the New Mexico Supreme Court rules that New Mexico law permits same-sex couples to marry and also requires that the state respect the marriage of same-sex couples who have married out-of-state.

?Every day that goes by, same-sex couples and their families are being harmed by not being able to protect their families through marriage,? said NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell.? ?The fall of DOMA has greatly upped the stakes for loving, committed same-sex couples in New Mexico.?? Now more than ever, we urgently need guidance from the courts on whether these couples can access the protections and societal recognition of marriage.?

A writ of mandamus is a special legal action that permits the New Mexico Supreme Court to resolve an issue without waiting for the lower courts to rule.? The New Mexico Supreme Court is not legally required to accept writ petitions, but it may do so when presented with an issue of great public importance.

The ACLU of New Mexico,? ACLU national, NCLR, Sutin Law Firm and Albuquerque attorneys Maureen Sanders, Kate Girard and Lynn Perls filed an earlier lawsuit seeking the freedom to marry on behalf of same-sex couples in the Second Judicial District Court on March 21, 2013.? If the New Mexico Supreme Court declines to hear the writ petitions, that lawsuit, Griego v. Oliver, will proceed and will determine whether same-sex couples have a constitutionally protected right to marry in the state.

Source: http://www.aclu.org/lgbt-rights/same-sex-couples-ask-new-mexico-supreme-court-protect-their-right-marry

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'Drone It Yourself' turns (not quite) anything into a quadcopter

drones

Devin Coldewey NBC News

6 hours ago

Jasper Van Loenen

The drone kit applied to a keyboard.

If you want a drone but you feel all the existing options aren't quite your style, you may want to give a "Drone It Yourself" kit a try. Clip the rotors and power supply to your phone or book or cardboard box or piece of toast, and watch it take flight!

Everything required appears in that stylish case below: four rotors, a power supply and flight control unit. The idea is to just unpack it, assemble and attach to the lucky item that will be your new drone body. It won't support anything that weighs more than a couple of pounds, though: Drones have to be light to get off the ground, so your dreams of flying toasters may go unfulfilled for now.

Jasper Van Loenen

The full kit, with 3-D printed pieces and motorized parts.

It's not for sale just yet, but the kit is really nothing more than 3-D printed parts that attach with clamps. And the creator, Jasper Van Loenen, has made the printer files available, so you can make them yourself.

Some expertise is required, of course. Your paperback or toy car may not handle as well as an item that was actually meant to fly. But it could be a fun project for the savvy RC and 3-D printing fans out there to try on a summer afternoon.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663301/s/2e615bf0/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Cdrone0Eit0Eyourself0Eturns0Enot0Equite0Eanything0Equadcopter0E6C10A570A660A/story01.htm

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Friday Harbor girl suffers broken ankle in 4th of July parade pileup

Scott Rasmussen

Onlookers rush to into the street and lift up a convertible to rescue a young girl trapped beneath it the wake of a collision at the annual Friday Harbor Fourth of July parade.

July 8, 2013 ? Updated 7:39 PM?

The good news is she is home, doing well and in good spirits.

The bad news, however, is that the Friday Harbor girl who was struck by a slow-moving car and then temporarily trapped beneath the 1950?s era convertible won?t be doing any cartwheels anytime soon.

Kevin Holmes said his daughter Jessica suffered a broken ankle and a bit of road rash as well. Holmes noted that the front tire of the car did not, as some suspected, run over Jessica?s leg.

?A lot of people have been asking so we wanted to let them know she?s okay,? he said.

Both Jessica and the driver of the Thunderbird convertible were participating in the parade on behalf of San Juan Island Library. Jessica was carrying a banner when she stumbled, fell, and then ended up underneath the car, which had been crawling along directly behind her.

?

Source: http://feeds.soundpublishing.com/~r/jsjnews/~3/83XZ0nzoVbU/214696601.html

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WASHINGTON EXAMINER: House Tea Party Brigade is Washington?s most independent political force. A?

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: House Tea Party Brigade is Washington?s most independent political force.

Among the most prized and frequently claimed ? yet least often demonstrated ? virtues in establishment Washington is political independence. Politicians in both the Democratic and Republican parties routinely insist that they are independent. There are even two senators who call themselves ?Independent? but both caucus with Senate Democrats and almost never vote contrary to the wishes of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The truth is there is only one genuinely independent political force in Washington these days, the Tea Party, a fact that is abundantly demonstrated by the future prospects for the recently passed immigration reform bill in the Senate.

Generally, in Washington parlance, ?independence? means ignoring what your constituents want in order to do what the media wants.

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 8:31 am

Source: http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/172036/

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iOS 7 beta 3 arrives for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Aquarius

This is a fantastic day for getting your point of view across, Aquarius. Decisive and eloquent, you can say what you mean as you put your cards on the table. Nevertheless, you had better resist any temptation to try to blind someone with science or talk them into submission using a blizzard of clever arguments as your weapons. You have to play fair!

Source: http://www.topix.com/tech/ipad/2013/07/ios-7-beta-3-arrives-for-iphone-ipad-and-ipod-touch?fromrss=1

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MaxPreps Top 15 Maryland Football Dynasties

http://www.maxpreps.com/news/vwNyS__...-dynasties.htm

1. Gilman (Baltimore)
Record: 70-27
Opponents' Record: 682-365
State Championships: 2

2. River Hill (Clarksville)
Record: 118-12
Opponents' Record: 775-630
State Championships: 4

3. Quince Orchard (Gaithersburg)
Record: 103-20
Opponents' Record: 770-578
State Championships: 1

4. Loyola Blakefield (Towson)
Record: 77-30
Opponents' Record: 611-480-1
State Championships: 0

5. Damascus
Record: 105-20
Opponents' Record: 798-575
State Championships: 3

6. Linganore (Frederick)
Record: 89-27
Opponents' Record: 767-527-1
State Championships: 2

7. McDonogh (Owings Mills)
Record: 56-41
Opponents' Record: 602-392
State Championships: 0

8. Urbana (Ijamsville)
Record: 88-29
Opponents' Record: 761-531
State Championships: 1

9. Sherwood (Sandy Spring)
Record: 95-26
Opponents' Record: 772-554
State Championships: 1

10. Dunbar (Baltimore)
Record: 120-17
Opponents' Record: 826-673-2
State Championships: 7

11. Douglass (Upper Marlboro)
Record: 100-24
Opponents' Record: 769-590
State Championships: 0

12. Old Mill (Millersville)
Record: 98-23
Opponents' Record: 698-610
State Championships: 2

13. Arundel (Gambrills)
Record: 96-22
Opponents' Record: 663-610
State Championships: 0

14. Georgetown Prep (North Bethesda)
Record: 58-42
Opponents' Record: 595-427
State Championships: 0

15. Gwynn Park (Brandywine)
Record: 91-26
Opponents' Record: 690-583
State Championships: 1

Source: http://talk.baltimoresun.com/showthread.php?332467-MaxPreps-Top-15-Maryland-Football-Dynasties&goto=newpost

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Camp Joy named Nonprofit of the Year | Business People

Camp Joy won the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber?s Small Business Excellence Award Nonprofit of the Year. Over 100 organizations apply annually for the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber?s Small Business Excellence Awards, the awards breakdown into seven categories totaling 35 finalists. Camp Joy was selected out of a group of three finalists in the Large Nonprofit category.

This year marks Camp Joy?s 75th year of providing life-changing experiences for underserved youth from the Greater Cincinnati Region. Camp Joy provides these experiences to youth in foster care, low-income youth, and children with medical and special needs. Camp Joy?s Outdoor Education program delivers experiences for school age youth that focus on academic standards in an experiential learning setting. In addition, Camp Joy provides experiential leadership and team building programs for business professionals, community leaders, and university / high school students.

Posted in: Awards

Tags: Camp Joy, Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber

Source: http://cincinnati.com/blogs/businesspeople/2013/07/06/camp-joy-named-nonprofit-of-the-year/

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FOR SATURDAY Privacy vs. security: 'False choice' poisons debate on NSA leaks

Security

Bob Sullivan, Columnist, NBC News

7 hours ago

Amy Sancetta / AP Photo

Americans seem comfortable with law enforcement snapping pictures of license plates ??at least those of cars involved in moving violations ??as this ticketing camera near downtown Cleveland suggests. Germans feel radically different about such data collection.

A mystery gunman who allegedly fired 700 road-rage-inspired bullets at German drivers during the past five years was finally arrested in late June. Digital sleuthing was credited with ending the reign of driving terror. Germany?s E-ZPass-like system is off-limits to law enforcement, so police set up a temporary network that tracked license plates on the road and used the data to catch the suspect.

While the arrest has been celebrated, civil rights advocates have complained that thousands of innocent drivers were also caught up in the police dragnet, and have questioned its legality. The argument might sound absurd to American ears ? would Germans really rather be shot at than have their license plates recorded? ? but Germans are more sensitive to government overreach than Americans. A rabid debate about security and privacy has begun.

As the Edward Snowden affair enters its second month, Americans don't seem to have much appetite for the subtlety of such a debate. The Prism leak discussion has been framed repeatedly as a zero-sum game, pitting privacy on one side and security on the other.

"You can't have 100 percent security and also have 100 percent privacy," President Obama said on June 7, in his principal public statement in the issue, suggesting there is some dial which forces government officials to pick one over the other.

It's a false choice, say many security experts.

Liberty vs. control
"I've never liked the idea of security vs. privacy, because no one feels more secure in a surveillance state," said Bruce Schneier, security expert and author of Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Insecure World. "There's plenty of examples of security that doesn't infringe on privacy. They are all around. Door locks. Fences ... Firewalls. People are forgetting that quite a lot of security doesn't affect privacy. The real dichotomy is liberty vs. control."

Dan Solove, a privacy law expert at George Washington University Law School, said the privacy vs. security framing has interfered with what could be a healthy national debate about using high-tech tools to fight terror.

"You have pollsters and pundits and (National Intelligence Director James) Clapper saying, 'Do you want us to catch the terrorists or do you want privacy?' But that's a false choice. It's like asking, 'Do you want the police to exist or not?'" he said. "We already have the most invasive investigative techniques permissible with the right oversight. With probable cause you can search my home. ... People want limitations and transparency, so they can make a choice about how much surveillance (they) are willing to tolerate."

By creating an either/or tension between privacy and security, government officials have invented a heavy weapon to wield against those who raise civil liberties concerns, he said. It's easy to cast the choice in stark terms: Who wouldn't trade a little personal data to save even one American life?

'A bigger haystack'
An honest, open examination of surveillance programs might show the choice is not so simple, says Ashkan Soltani, an independent security researcher.

"The government feels like they need all this information in order to do its job, that there can't be security without them having access to everything. Well, that's a lazy or shortsighted way of seeing things," he says. "The idea I reject is that you need to violate everyone's privacy rather than be better at your job of identifying specific (targets).'"

Casting such wide nets is also ineffective, he argues. Collecting mountains and mountains of data simply means that when the time comes to find that proverbial needle in a haystack, you've simply created a bigger haystack.

"Law enforcement is being sold bill of goods that the more data you get, the better your security is. We find that is not true," Soltani said.

Collecting data is a hard habit to break, as many U.S. corporations have discovered after years of expensive data breaches. The NSA?s data hoard may be useful in future investigations, helping agents in the future in unpredictable ways, some argue. Schneier doesn't buy it.

"The NSA has this fetish for data, and will get it any way they can, and get as much as they can," he said. "But old ladies who hoard newspapers say the same thing, that someday, this might be useful."

Even worse, an overreliance on Big Data surveillance will shift focus from other security techniques that are both less invasive and potentially more effective, like old-fashioned ?spycraft,? Soltani says.

The J. Edgar Hoover test
Soltani is worried that Americans, despite their vocal complaining about Washington politics, have forgotten history and are too trusting of their government when it comes to the exchange of liberty for safety.

"Right now, the abuses seem theoretical. There seems to be a lack of historical context, a lack of cases where the government has abused power," he said. "People seem to have forgotten about J. Edgar Hoover."

In fact, Solove has a test he uses to consider every extension of government power, what might be called the "Hoover test."

"Put J. Edgar Hoover in charge of the program. If your reaction is 'Yikes!' then there isn't adequate protection built in," he said. "One of the tests should be is how do we feel if we don't like the people in charge, because we don't know who will be in charge of it in the future."

The German motorway shooter example is instructive on how a system that provided both security and privacy might work. Police never considered acquiring all data, or demanding it from outside firms. They set up their own temporary collection tool, and German privacy officials are already demanding that the 60 to 80 million records collected from innocent people be handled with care.

In the world of email or mobile surveillance, it would be possible to imitate this example, Schneier says. Internet and phone record collection should not be indiscriminate, but limited, focused and temporary.

"Here's the middle path: transparency and oversight," he said. "We've already recognized that police need extraordinary powers to violate privacy ... but we have to recognize that when you give someone the power to violate privacy, that power is ripe for abuse."

Government officials have often said that oversight itself must be a secret: Mere disclosure of the existence of government surveillance programs tips off the terrorists. Schneier rejects this.

?So they tell the terrorists they are eavesdropping on email. What's the problem? We assume the terrorists don't know? This is fanciful nonsense," he said.

Follow Bob Sullivan on Facebook or Twitter.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663301/s/2e45f3fc/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Csaturday0Eprivacy0Evs0Esecurity0Efalse0Echoice0Epoisons0Edebate0Ensa0Eleaks0E6C10A536226/story01.htm

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As Illinois prepares to enact concealed carry gun plan, few towns opt for assault weapons bans (Star Tribune)

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Hastings Man Center Of Attention At The 4th Of July Parade In Seward

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Video will be available shortly

Seward, Neb. As the 145th annunal 4th of July celebration parade rolled through Seward, one act stood out.
Loren Wehling is almost 70 years old and rode a 56-inch high wheel bike made in 1879. He purchased the bike from his uncle who found it at an auction years ago.
"When I was a younger man...mid-age...it took me two weeks to learn how to ride it," said Wehling. "It's a dream of mine at almost 70 I can ride this bike. I can really get thrilled from riding."
His daughter Regina Harvey sat in the crowd proud to watch her dad fulfill his dream.
"He's 70 and so it takes a lot of skill...to get up on one of those high wheel bikes," said Harvey.
Wehling says this may be his last ride.
"At my age it was my dream to do that today," said Wehling.

Source: http://www.1011now.com/home/headlines/Man-Steals-Show-at-the-4th-of-July-parade-in-Seward-214343021.html

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Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition (2014)

An antivirus utility that removes and defends against viruses, Trojans, rootkits, spyware, and all types of malicious software is totally doing its job. Yes, some vendors pack all sorts of goodies into their nominally stand-alone antivirus tools, but those goodies aren't required. The relatively new Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition (2014) sticks with the essentials, and does quite a good job.

Bitdefender Free is clearly meant to be as unobtrusive as possible. There's no configuration required, none at all. The most you can do is turn off real-time protection and turn off the background automatic scan?but why would you do that? The main window is tiny, and it vanishes any time you click on another window. If the real-time protection or the background scanner find and fix any problems, you'll get a transient balloon notification near the product's system tray icon. This makes it a great choice for those who want an antivirus that just quietly does its job.

Like Norton, Kaspersky, and some others, Bitdefender no longer applies a version number or year number to the antivirus or other security products. I've appended (2014) to the name, so we can distinguish this edition from future number-free editions.

Some Installation Woes
Bitdefender Free's installer runs a quick scan that's intended to wipe out any active malware that might interfere with the installation process. The pre-installs scan did find problems on several test systems. I got the product up and running on eight of my twelve malware-infested test systems with no trouble.

Ransomware made installation impossible on one system, and malware actively killed the installer on another. On advice from tech support, I downloaded and burned a copy of Bitdefender's impressive Rescue CD. A Rescue CD scan solved both of these problems.

I worked with tech support through email, since that's the only way users of the free edition get support. I will confess that I got super-expedited email service, to speed the completion of my testing.

On one test system the system repeatedly hung during Bitdefender's installation. After a scan with the Rescue CD, I managed to install the product. However, the system had totally lost connectivity. A good bit of email back and forth with tech support got this system's connectivity restored.

Another test system suffers a ton of visibly active malware processes including what I had thought to be a fake antivirus. Bitdefender Free identified it as a real antivirus from China and asked to have it removed to avoid a conflict. It would appear that this antivirus was installed as a kind of smokescreen by a malware program that it doesn't detect; very tricky!

On this system the pre-install scan requested a reboot to finish its cleanup not once by twice. Unfortunately, after the second reboot the system got stuck in an endless loop of logging off and logging on; it would not start. The tech support team requested logs generated in the Rescue CD environment. Cleaning up this system using the Rescue CD took over 24 hours! Tech support sent scripts to perform fixes and gather more data. Over a period of several days they managed to get the collateral damage to this system repaired.

The free Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.70 installed on all my test systems without any problem. Admittedly, these were test systems infested with my previous malware collection, and Malwarebytes is strictly a cleanup tool, with no ongoing protection. Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ 10.5 also installed with little or no trouble, and it did the job on the same systems that gave Bitdefender Free so much trouble.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/Cx9ZAE1L7oY/0,2817,2421252,00.asp

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Glympse scores saving to Evernote on Android, iOS support coming soon

Sharing your location through Glympse has been a time-sensitive affair, with friends and family receiving links to maps that would plot your position for a few hours at most. Now, however, Glympse has partnered with Evernote to save records of your travels. Simply share your current location broadcast to Evernote and the complete trek will be saved to a "My Glympse Trails" folder. Android users are getting the first crack at the new feature starting today, but folks running the iOS app are set to receive the integration shortly. Check your handset for the update or click the bordering source link to grab ahold of the app.

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Software, Mobile

Comments

Source: Glympse (GooglePlay)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/03/glympse-save-to-evernote/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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'Parrot dinosaur' walked on all fours, then graduated to two (+video)

New research suggests that Psittacosaurus, China's 'parrot dinosaur,' walked on four feet ? and then two feet.

By Elizabeth Barber,?Contributor / June 28, 2013

A Psittacosaurus skeleton is shown in the permanent collection of The Children?s Museum of Indianapolis.

Michelle Pemberton/Wikimedia Commons/Science Daily

Enlarge

A baby in a dinosaur costume can do a laudable imitation of how a young dinosaur might have behaved.

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New research suggests that Psittacosaurus, the 'parrot dinosaur,' walked on four feet ? and then two feet.

New research suggests that Psittacosaurus, the 'parrot dinosaur,' walked on four feet ? and then two feet ? some 100 million years ago in what is now China. It would have grown up much like the modern human, at first exploring its world on all fours, like a toddler, and then graduating to upright motion.

Qi Zhao, a Ph.D student at the University of Bristol and a researcher at the Institute for Vertebrate Paleontology in Beijing, studied a total of 16 fossil specimens ranging in from less than 1 year old to 10 years old. He found that the 1-year-old Psittacosaurus?specimens had long arms and short legs, meaning that the toddler dinosaur was biologically equipped to walk on all fours.

The arm bones showed continued growth in the dinosaurs between 1 and 3 years old, but the arm growth was dwarfed when the animal?s legs began to rapidly grow between 4 and 6 years old. At the age of 6, the Psittacosaurus?had legs twice as long as its arms and would have walked upright.?

That discovery, published in the scientific journal Nature Communications,?suggests not only that individual?Psittacosauruses went from four to two legs, but that the species had also evolved over time from four-legged adults to two-legged adults, adapting to environmental pressures.

?Having four-legged babies and juveniles suggests that at some time in their ancestry, both juveniles and adults were also four-legged, and Psittacosaurus and dinosaurs in general became secondarily bipedal,? said Mike Benton, a professor at the University of Bristol.

Measuring dinosaur growth is difficult, since enough samples are seldom available to track the species? development through its life cycle. Psittacosaurus, an herbivore distantly related to Triceratops, is a popular dinosaur for study, given the uniquely wide availability of viable fossils. The dinosaur?s genus includes between nine to 11 species, found in China, Mongolia, Russia, and Thailand.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/Qx2JVP8McsY/Parrot-dinosaur-walked-on-all-fours-then-graduated-to-two-video

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Breakthrough: Sensors monitor cells at work

Public release date: 2-Jul-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Wolf Frommer
wfrommer@carnegiescience.edu
Carnegie Institution

Stanford, CATransport proteins are responsible for moving materials such as nutrients and metabolic products through a cell's outer membrane, which seals and protects all living cells, to the cell's interior. These transported molecules include sugars, which can be used to fuel growth or to respond to chemical signals of activity or stress outside of the cell. Measuring the activity of transporter proteins in a living organism has been a challenge for scientists, because the methods are difficult, often require the use of radioactive tracers, and are difficult to use in intact tissues and organs.

A team led by Wolf Frommer, director of Carnegie's Plant Biology Department, has now developed a groundbreaking new way to overcome this technology gap. This new technology has major implications not just for plant biology, but also for cellular biology research in every type of organism, including humans. Their work is published by eLife.

"With the advent of biosensors, we could measure energy dynamics and concentrations of various cellular intermediates, which allowed us to get a first-level picture of metabolic networks," Frommer said. "But we had not been able to directly follow enzyme or transporter activity or to monitor their regulation in a live organism."

Frommer and his team hypothesized that it may be possible to probe transport activity by spying on the structural rearrangements that a transporter undergoes as it moves its target molecule across the membrane barrier. They decided to do this by encoding environmentally sensitive fluorescent tags in the cell's DNA.

The teamwhich included Carnegie's Roberto De Michele, Cindy Ast, Chen-Hsun Ho, Viviane Lanquar, and Guido Grossmanfocused on the important transporter responsible for moving the ammonium into a cell. This activity is very important in plants, fungi, and bacteria, because ammonium serves as the key source of nitrogen in these organisms. But in excess ammonium becomes toxic. Therefore, its concentration must be very carefully regulated. The transporter for ammonium is conserved in plants, fungi, and, bacteria. It is also present in humans, where it is generally known as the Rhesus factor and plays an important role in kidney function and male fertility.

The team's approach has provided new insights into how the plant ammonium transporter works. And their sensor concept is expected to find many other applications to monitor other types of transporters and transporters in other organisms outside of the plant kingdom and even enzymes.

"For example, in humans such sensors could be used to help understand neurotransmitter transport in the brain or identify new drugs targets," Frommer said.

###

This work was made possible by the NSF, the Carnegie Institution for Science, and DAAD, the DOE Joint BioEnergy Institute, and the DFG.

The Carnegie Institution for Science is a private, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with six research departments throughout the U.S. Since its founding in 1902, the Carnegie Institution has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research. Carnegie scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology, astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary science.

---

[ | 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.

Public release date: 2-Jul-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Wolf Frommer
wfrommer@carnegiescience.edu
Carnegie Institution

Stanford, CATransport proteins are responsible for moving materials such as nutrients and metabolic products through a cell's outer membrane, which seals and protects all living cells, to the cell's interior. These transported molecules include sugars, which can be used to fuel growth or to respond to chemical signals of activity or stress outside of the cell. Measuring the activity of transporter proteins in a living organism has been a challenge for scientists, because the methods are difficult, often require the use of radioactive tracers, and are difficult to use in intact tissues and organs.

A team led by Wolf Frommer, director of Carnegie's Plant Biology Department, has now developed a groundbreaking new way to overcome this technology gap. This new technology has major implications not just for plant biology, but also for cellular biology research in every type of organism, including humans. Their work is published by eLife.

"With the advent of biosensors, we could measure energy dynamics and concentrations of various cellular intermediates, which allowed us to get a first-level picture of metabolic networks," Frommer said. "But we had not been able to directly follow enzyme or transporter activity or to monitor their regulation in a live organism."

Frommer and his team hypothesized that it may be possible to probe transport activity by spying on the structural rearrangements that a transporter undergoes as it moves its target molecule across the membrane barrier. They decided to do this by encoding environmentally sensitive fluorescent tags in the cell's DNA.

The teamwhich included Carnegie's Roberto De Michele, Cindy Ast, Chen-Hsun Ho, Viviane Lanquar, and Guido Grossmanfocused on the important transporter responsible for moving the ammonium into a cell. This activity is very important in plants, fungi, and bacteria, because ammonium serves as the key source of nitrogen in these organisms. But in excess ammonium becomes toxic. Therefore, its concentration must be very carefully regulated. The transporter for ammonium is conserved in plants, fungi, and, bacteria. It is also present in humans, where it is generally known as the Rhesus factor and plays an important role in kidney function and male fertility.

The team's approach has provided new insights into how the plant ammonium transporter works. And their sensor concept is expected to find many other applications to monitor other types of transporters and transporters in other organisms outside of the plant kingdom and even enzymes.

"For example, in humans such sensors could be used to help understand neurotransmitter transport in the brain or identify new drugs targets," Frommer said.

###

This work was made possible by the NSF, the Carnegie Institution for Science, and DAAD, the DOE Joint BioEnergy Institute, and the DFG.

The Carnegie Institution for Science is a private, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with six research departments throughout the U.S. Since its founding in 1902, the Carnegie Institution has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research. Carnegie scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology, astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary science.

---

[ | 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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/ci-bsm062613.php

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The Supreme Court's LGBT Catch-22 (Atlantic Politics Channel)

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Firefighters unaccounted for battling Ariz. blaze

YARNELL, Ariz. (AP) ? A fire information officer says 19 firefighters are unaccounted for while battling the Yarnell Hill Fire in a central Arizona community.

Mike Reichling told the Arizona Republic (http://bit.ly/158NjWp ) that 20 firefighters were involved in a "serious incident."

The newspaper reports that one of the firefighters has been located.

The Yavapai County Sheriff's Office has notified residents in the Peeples Valley area and in the town of Yarnell to evacuate.

Roxie Glover, spokeswoman at Wickenburg Community Hospital, told The Associated Press that the hospital has been told to expect residents with injuries and firefighters.

Earlier Sunday, the fast-moving fire prompted evacuations of 50 homes in the Buckhorn, Model Creek and Double A Bar Ranch areas about 85 miles northwest of Phoenix.

In the afternoon, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office expanded the evacuations to include residents in the Peeples Valley area and in the town of Yarnell.

The wildfire also forced the closure of parts of state Route 89, the Arizona Department of Transportation announced. The department did not have an estimate of how long the closure would last but advised drivers to use U.S. 93 or Interstate 17 as alternate routes.

The Red Cross has opened a shelter at Yavapai College in Prescott, the sheriff's office said.

The Yarnell Hill Fire now covers nearly 2,000 acres, according to the newspaper.

The fire started Friday but picked up momentum Sunday as the area experienced high temperatures, low humidity and windy conditions.

About two hundred firefighters are now working at the fire, but an additional 130 firefighters and more water- and retardant-dropping helicopters and aircraft are on their way.

In another Arizona fire, a 2-acre blaze that started at a motorcycle salvage yard and spread to a trailer park has destroyed five mobile homes in the Gila County community of Rye, located more than 130 miles east of Yarnell.

Gila County Health and Emergency Services Director Michael O'Driscoll said no one was injured in Rye.

The fire was ignited Saturday night at All Bikes Sales located off Highway 87. It spread to neighboring federal Forest Service land but was fully contained within 12 hours of its start.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Seven adults and two children were staying at a shelter set up for people who were evacuated, the Red Cross said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/firefighters-unaccounted-battling-ariz-blaze-020159739.html

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Easier to get Legal Aid? ? The Online Citizen

By Leong Sze Hian

I refer to the article ?More to benefit from legal aid services? (Today, Jul 1).

300,000 more qualify for Legal Aid?

It states that ?Another 300,000 Singaporeans and permanent residents will potentially benefit from amendments to the Legal Aid and Advice Act, which take effect today.

The Legal Aid Bureau (LAB), a department under the Ministry of Law, administers legal aid, and the ministry said the extension of aid to more people would enable greater?access?to justice for those who need basic legal services but cannot afford it.

To be eligible, applicants must pass both a means test and a merits test.

Under the means test previously, an applicant?s annual disposable?income?and disposable capital cannot exceed S$10,000.

With the expansion of existing deductibles and creation of new ones for the income and capital criteria, more people will now be covered.

Under the merits test, the Legal Aid Board will assess whether the applicant?s case has merit from the legal perspective.?

How easy to qualify?

I was curious as to how easy (or difficult) it may be now to qualify for legal aid. So, I visited the?Legal Aid Bureau?s web site.

The?LAB?s press release?has a table which shows examples of Singaporeans who would qualify for legal aid, before and after the subject amendment effective 1 July.

Single annual gross income over $20,000 don?t qualify?

For example. a single Singaporean or PR with annual gross income not above $20,000 would qualify for legal aid because his or her disposable income of $10,000 (after deducting employee?s 20 % CPF contribution, personal relief of $4,500 and 0 for rental relief as staying in own property) would just pass the means test hurdle of $10,000.

Against the above, before the amendment, he or she would need to earn not above $18,125 (compared to $20,000 now ? $1,875 more allowed a year ? a big?deal!) to qualify.

Family of 3 over $35,000 don?t qualify?

Let?s look at another example of a family with one child. The income criteria in this example has now been raised from $26,875 to $35,000.

Can afford to engage lawyer?

So, the $64,000 question may be ? can a single person with net annual income (after 20 % employee CPF contribution) of $16,000 or a family of 3 with $28,000 income (in this example) afford to pay to engage a lawyer?

Poor enough to qualify for GST, but not legal aid?

Is it not somewhat ironic, that a person earning $20,000 (GST?voucher?eligibility is not more than $24,000 annual income) or a couple earning $35,000 are deemed to be ?lower-income? enough to likely qualify for the GST offset voucher scheme, but too well off to qualify for legal aid?

Next ? pass disposable capital test?

OK ? Let?s say you managed to pass the income test ? your next hurdle is the disposable capital test.

?Only persons with a?disposable income?of not more than S$10,000 per year and a?disposable capital?of not more than S$10,000 may be granted legal aid.?

?Disposable capital is the property which the applicant possesses or is entitled to, such as,?money?in?hand or in banks, shares or vehicles, after excluding the applicable categories of property under the?Act, such as HDB flat, CPF moneys, etc.?

(Note: the current property annual assessed value (AV) threshold of $13,000 would mean that almost all?private?property owners won?t qualify, and now up to?$46,000 of the surrender value of life?insurance policies and CPF investments (just amended from 1 July) and?your?savings?of up to S$30,000?if you are aged 60 years and above?are also exempted)

Next ? pass merits test?

So, let?s say you managed to pass both the income and disposable capital tests. Your next hurdle is -

?The merits test is assessed by the Legal Aid Board on whether?the applicant has reasonable grounds for seeking legal aid?

Co-payment also?

With regard to ?To foster greater self-ownership of legal aid cases, applicants will have to pay a contribution to the Legal Aid Bureau. The quantum payable will be based on their financial means and the extent of work done by the bureau? ? Does it mean that applicants may in a sense be worse off after the subject amendment, because of the co-payment?

Greater access to justice?

In the final analysis, to what extent will the subject amendment ? ?would give people who need but cannot afford basic legal service greater access to justice?? (?Changes to legal aid rules from today?, Straits Times, Jul 1)

90 % success rate?

As to ?Annually, there are around 10,000 applicants, with about 90 per cent succeeding? ? does this statistic exclude those who may be told that they do not even have to apply because they clearly fail the means test?

More statistics please?

How many who pass the means test end up failing the merits test?

Or is it such that most cases that clearly will fail the merits test, will not even be tested for the means test?

What percentage of those who go to the LAB are told that their issue may clearly fail the merits test and thus do not need to go through the means test?

I wonder how many who fail the merits test, may be able to get a lawyer to proceed if they can afford one ? and thus let the legal system and the courts decide on the merits of their case?

Try the means test indicator?

By the way, if you have insomnia, you may like to try the?means test indicator?- just in case!

?

Comments

comments

Source: http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2013/07/easier-to-get-legal-aid/

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