NCAA Football Quarterbacks to Watch This Year

1. RTB.com's Alabama News Bot HALL OF FAME MEMBER

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   What a year this promises to be in the NCAA it?s left me pondering the NCAA rankings and my thoughts on wagering. When composing this piece about the best quarterbacks who will grace our college football fields this year, I continually changed my mind. I had a look at the wageronsports.com website to see what the site recommend, but I was still unsure as to who would come out top dog. I finally settled on three quarterbacks who I believe will make their mark this year. AJ McCarron, Alabama. For two seasons in a row now, McCarron has completed over 2,600 yards ? a phenomenal achievement. He has had his fair share of controversy too but don?t let this distract you from the obvious talent this kid possesses. An approximate 66% pass completion rate which contributed to 26 touchdowns in 2012, McCarron is obviously a key choice as one of the top quarterbacks to look out for. Anyone who likes to wager on NCAA football will have Alabama high in their list of challengers. A team that allows ...

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Source: http://www.rolltidebama.com/forum/showthread.php?257509-NCAA-Football-Quarterbacks-to-Watch-This-Year&goto=newpost

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Gay marriage: In states, a hodgepodge lies ahead (The Arizona Republic)

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Lawyer proposes deal for Snowden's voluntary return (CNN)

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Reports: Retired general target of leaks probe

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is under investigation for allegedly leaking classified information about a covert cyberattack on Iran's nuclear facilities, according to media reports.

Retired Marine Gen. James "Hoss" Cartwright has been told he is a target of the probe, NBC News and The Washington Post reported Thursday. A "target" is a person whom a prosecutor or grand jury has substantial evidence linking them to a crime and who is likely to be charged.

The Justice Department referred questions to the U.S. attorney's office in Baltimore, where a spokeswoman, Marcia Murphy, declined to comment.

The investigation of the leak about the Iran cyberattack is one of a number of national security leak investigations that have been started by the Obama administration, including ones involving The Associated Press and Fox News.

In June 2012, the New York Times reported that Cartwright was a crucial player in the cyber operation called Olympic Games, started under President George W. Bush.

Bush reportedly advised President Barack Obama to preserve Olympic Games.

According to the Times, Obama ordered the cyberattacks sped up, and in 2010 an attack using a computer virus called Stuxnet temporarily disabled 1,000 centrifuges that the Iranians were using to enrich uranium.

Congressional leaders demanded a criminal probe into who leaked the information, and Obama said he had zero tolerance for such leaks. Republicans said senior administration officials had leaked the details to bolster the president's national security credentials during the 2012 campaign.

The Times said Cartwright was one of the crucial players who had to break the news to Obama and Vice President Joe Biden that Stuxnet at one point had escaped onto the Internet.

An element of the program accidentally became public in the summer of 2010 because of a programming error that allowed it to escape Iran's Natanz plant and sent it out on the Internet, the Times reported. After the worm escaped onto the Internet, top administration officials met to consider whether the program had been fatally compromised.

Obama asked if the program should continue, and after hearing the advice of top advisers, decided to proceed.

Cartwright, a four-star general, was cleared in February 2011 of misconduct involving a young aide. An anonymous accuser had claimed Cartwright acted inappropriately during a 2009 overseas trip on which the aide traveled as a military assistant. Several sources confirmed that the former aide was a young woman.

The Pentagon inspector general quickly cleared Cartwright of the most serious allegations, which involved claims that he may have had an improper physical relationship with the woman. The report did find that Cartwright mishandled an incident in which the aide, drunk and visibly upset, visited his Tbilisi, Georgia, hotel room alone and either passed out or fell asleep on a bench at the foot of his bed. Cartwright denied any impropriety and was later cleared of all wrongdoing.

Cartwright, once considered the leading candidate to become Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, resigned from the military in August 2011.

NBC said Cartwright did not respond to request for comment and that his attorney, former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig, said he had no comment.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/reports-retired-general-target-leaks-probe-020959907.html

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Steam-on-a-chip for oil recovery: The role of alkaline additives in steam assisted gravity drainage

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New system uses low-power Wi-Fi signal to track moving humans -- even behind walls

June 28, 2013 ? The comic-book hero Superman uses his X-ray vision to spot bad guys lurking behind walls and other objects. Now we could all have X-ray vision, thanks to researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

Researchers have long attempted to build a device capable of seeing people through walls. However, previous efforts to develop such a system have involved the use of expensive and bulky radar technology that uses a part of the electromagnetic spectrum only available to the military.

Now a system being developed by Dina Katabi, a professor in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and her graduate student Fadel Adib, could give all of us the ability to spot people in different rooms using low-cost Wi-Fi technology. "We wanted to create a device that is low-power, portable and simple enough for anyone to use, to give people the ability to see through walls and closed doors," Katabi says.

The system, called "Wi-Vi," is based on a concept similar to radar and sonar imaging. But in contrast to radar and sonar, it transmits a low-power Wi-Fi signal and uses its reflections to track moving humans. It can do so even if the humans are in closed rooms or hiding behind a wall.

As a Wi-Fi signal is transmitted at a wall, a portion of the signal penetrates through it, reflecting off any humans on the other side. However, only a tiny fraction of the signal makes it through to the other room, with the rest being reflected by the wall, or by other objects. "So we had to come up with a technology that could cancel out all these other reflections, and keep only those from the moving human body," Katabi says.

Motion detector

To do this, the system uses two transmit antennas and a single receiver. The two antennas transmit almost identical signals, except that the signal from the second receiver is the inverse of the first. As a result, the two signals interfere with each other in such a way as to cancel each other out. Since any static objects that the signals hit -- including the wall -- create identical reflections, they too are cancelled out by this nulling effect.

In this way, only those reflections that change between the two signals, such as those from a moving object, arrive back at the receiver, Adib says. "So, if the person moves behind the wall, all reflections from static objects are cancelled out, and the only thing registered by the device is the moving human."

Once the system has cancelled out all of the reflections from static objects, it can then concentrate on tracking the person as he or she moves around the room. Most previous attempts to track moving targets through walls have done so using an array of spaced antennas, which each capture the signal reflected off a person moving through the environment. But this would be too expensive and bulky for use in a handheld device.

So instead Wi-Vi uses just one receiver. As the person moves through the room, his or her distance from the receiver changes, meaning the time it takes for the reflected signal to make its way back to the receiver changes too. The system then uses this information to calculate where the person is at any one time.

Possible uses in disaster recovery, personal safety, gaming

Wi-Vi, being presented at the Sigcomm conference in Hong Kong in August, could be used to help search-and-rescue teams to find survivors trapped in rubble after an earthquake, say, or to allow police officers to identify the number and movement of criminals within a building to avoid walking into an ambush.

It could also be used as a personal safety device, Katabi says: "If you are walking at night and you have the feeling that someone is following you, then you could use it to check if there is someone behind the fence or behind a corner."

The device can also detect gestures or movements by a person standing behind a wall, such as a wave of the arm, Katabi says. This would allow it to be used as a gesture-based interface for controlling lighting or appliances within the home, such as turning off the lights in another room with a wave of the arm.

Venkat Padmanabhan, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research, says the possibility of using Wi-Vi as a gesture-based interface that does not require a line of sight between the user and the device itself is perhaps its most interesting application of all. "Such an interface could alter the face of gaming," he says.

Unlike today's interactive gaming devices, where users must stay in front of the console and its camera at all times, users could still interact with the system while in another room, for example. This could open up the possibility of more complex and interesting games, Katabi says.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/computers_math/information_technology/~3/cHF_GAWaRds/130628092149.htm

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Fracking critics unhappy with Obama climate speech

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- President Barack Obama's speech this week on climate change forcefully rejected some key arguments made by opponents of natural gas fracking, upsetting some environmental groups that otherwise back his climate goals.

Obama, in his address Tuesday calling for urgent action to address climate change, praised what he called "cleaner-burning natural gas" and its role in providing safe, cheap power that he said can also help reduce U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.

Regulators in many states with heavy new drilling activity say fracking, a colloquial term for hydraulic fracturing, is being done safely and is essentially similar to the hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells that have been drilled all over the nation.

The drilling boom has reduced oil and gas imports and generated billions of dollars for companies and landowners. Many scientists and environmental groups also agree with Obama's main point: that while there are some negative effects from natural gas, burning coal is far worse for the environment and public health. There's no dispute that natural gas burns far cleaner than coal, but its main component, methane, is a potent heat-trapping gas.

Some environmental groups advocate a total rejection of all fossil fuels and an all-out effort to switch to renewables such as wind turbines and solar panels. They also say people living close to drilling operations have suffered from too much pollution.

"When it comes to natural gas, the president is taking the wrong path," Deb Nardone, the head of the Sierra Club's Beyond Natural Gas program, wrote in a blog post.

Robert Howarth, a Cornell University professor who argues that methane leaks from drilling negate other climate benefits of gas, said in an email to The Associated Press that he is "extremely disappointed in the President's position" and said the support for natural gas "is very likely to do more to aggravate global change than to help solve it."

Not so, Obama said.

Advances in drilling, the president said, have "helped drive our carbon pollution to its lowest levels in nearly 20 years," and "we'll keep working with the industry to make drilling safer and cleaner, to make sure that we're not seeing methane emissions."

"These critics seem to think that when we ask our businesses to innovate and reduce pollution and lead, they can't or they won't do it," Obama added, mentioning that taking lead out of gasoline and the phase-out of ozone-depleting gases were examples of the industry making needed changes.

The Sierra Club and some activists argue that fracking comes with unacceptable levels of air and water pollution and that "no state has adequate protections in place."

Obama disagreed.

"The old rules may say we can't protect our environment and promote economic growth at the same time," Obama said. "Don't tell folks that we have to choose between the health of our children or the health of our economy."

Critics have also claimed that the fracking boom just makes a few energy companies rich, and that average Americans get few benefits. But Obama responded by saying "The bottom line is natural gas is creating jobs. It's lowering many families' heat and power bills."

Some environmental groups agree with Obama's position that switching from coal-fired power to natural gas has helped reduce emissions and protect the environment.

The Breakthrough Institute, an Oakland, Calif., think tank, said in a report released Wednesday that despite problems and legitimate concerns over fracking, the gas industry has "a far smaller impact on mortality and disease, landscapes, waterways, air pollution, and local communities than coal mining and coal burning."

"Natural gas is a net environmental benefit at local, regional, national, and global levels," the Breakthrough report said.

One Pennsylvania Democrat jumped to endorse Obama's fracking plan. Gas from the Marcellus Shale formation there has led to a huge surge in drilling and production over the last five years.

Sen. Bob Casey said he plans to introduce legislation to place more natural gas fueling stations along Interstate highways. Casey said the plan could "help reduce emissions and create jobs."

But some other Democrats were silent. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is trying to decide whether to allow fracking to begin in a small part of his state and is facing heavy opposition from some groups.

Cuomo had no immediate comment Thursday about the speech but said his decision will be based on New York state's own health report and data from Pennsylvania's experience.

Industry groups welcomed Obama's strong support for gas.

"We are pleased to see that President Obama's climate action plan recognizes natural gas as a key component of America's clean energy future," Don Santa, the president the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, said in a statement.

At the core of Obama's plan are new controls on new and existing power plants that emit carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas blamed largely for global warming. Coal-fired power plants would be under the most pressure, since they emit far more pollution than ones that burn natural gas.

The program also will boost renewable energy production on federal lands, increase efficiency standards and prepare communities to deal with higher temperatures. Obama called for the U.S. to be a global leader in the search for solutions to climate change.

___

Follow Kevin Begos at https://twitter.com/kbegos

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fracking-critics-unhappy-obama-climate-194620419.html

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Actor James Gandolfini's funeral on Thursday

En esta imagen sin fecha difundida por HBO, el actor James Gandolfini en su papel de Tony Soprano, el jefe de una familia de mafiosos en Nueva Jersey en la serie "Los Soprano". El funeral de Gandolfini ser? el jueves 27 de junio del 2013 en la Catedral de San Juan el Divino en Nueva York. Gandolfini muri? el 19 de junio del 2013 en Italia. Ten?a 51 a?os. (AP Foto/HBO, Barry Wetcher, Archivo)

En esta imagen sin fecha difundida por HBO, el actor James Gandolfini en su papel de Tony Soprano, el jefe de una familia de mafiosos en Nueva Jersey en la serie "Los Soprano". El funeral de Gandolfini ser? el jueves 27 de junio del 2013 en la Catedral de San Juan el Divino en Nueva York. Gandolfini muri? el 19 de junio del 2013 en Italia. Ten?a 51 a?os. (AP Foto/HBO, Barry Wetcher, Archivo)

NEW YORK (AP) ? A funeral service for actor James Gandolfini is scheduled to take place in one of New York City's largest churches.

The ceremony at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine is planned for 10 a.m. Thursday. It comes after a private wake for the former star of "The Sopranos" on Wednesday in New Jersey.

The 51-year-old actor died of a heart attack last week while vacationing in Italy with his son.

Broadway theaters paid tribute by dimming their lights briefly Wednesday night. Gandolfini was nominated for a Tony Award in 2009 as an actor in "God of Carnage."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-06-27-Gandolfini%20Funeral/id-526a0bff15cf4f7ab74b6ded7656a0d7

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NIH Will Curb Research on Chimps

A new decision from the nation?s medical research agency will send most of its chimps into retirement

By Dina Fine Maron

Retirement More chimpanzees will be living a life of retirement thanks to a new NIH decision Image: Les_Stockton

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In a landmark decision, the National Institutes of Health announced today that it will drastically scale back its research on chimpanzees, humans? closest living relatives. The agency expects to retire about 310 chimps out of a population of 360 that it owns and has available for research.

The decision follows recommendations from an NIH advisory panel that said in January that the agency should curb research on chimps and instead ?emphasize the development and refinement of other approaches, especially alternative animal models,? and move all but approximately 50 of the chimps to sanctuaries. The NIH today accepted almost all of the recommendations from that independent panel after studying them along with more than 12,500 comments from the public. ?Chimpanzees have already taught us a great deal?but deserve special respect,? NIH Director Francis Collins says. The decision is a ?major milestone ushering in a new era, a compassionate era.?

The NIH has not funded new research involving chimps since December 2011, when the Institute of Medicine, a nonprofit that advises the government on health policy, issued a report establishing strict criteria for the use of chimps in biomedical and behavioral research. At the time, the IOM said, "...that research use of animals so closely related to humans should not proceed unless it offers insights not possible with other models and unless it is of sufficient scientific or health value to offset moral costs. We found very few cases that satisfy these criteria."

The IOM recommended that chimp research satisfy three principles: the knowledge gained would be necessary to advance the public?s health; there was no other research model available to obtain that information; and that the animals would be kept in their natural habitat or in environments that closely mimic it. The NIH today accepted those principles as the criteria for any future research on chimps that it owns or supports.

A number of medical breakthroughs have come about, thanks to chimp research, including vaccines against polio and hepatitis B. But recent developments, including computer modeling and the ability to experiment on isolated cells, have equipped scientists with viable alternatives to primate research. Under today?s decision, NIH will still keep up to 50 chimpanzees?drawing from the pool of those it owns and supports?for future research purposes. Those are expected to include prophylactic vaccines for hepatitis C as well as behavioral studies.

The remaining 50 chimps will not be bred in captivity, so over time the number of chimps available for research will dwindle. Observational or behavioral studies on chimps that occur in zoos or sanctuaries are considered noninvasive and will proceed. Current research that does not meet the IOM principles will be allowed to wind down, and the implementation of the decision will take place over several years. ?Everybody should understand this is not something that will happen quickly,? Collins says.

The challenge now will be trying to find money to pay for the maintenance and care of the chimps slated for retirement. Under the Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance and Protection (CHIMP) Act of 2000, a $30-million cap was put on spending for chimpanzees in sanctuaries. Collins today said that his agency is very close to hitting the $30-million limit and will probably hit it in the ?next few months.? The agency is asking Congress to amend the law to free up NIH funding so it will be able to support the more than 300 chimpanzees that are expected to eventually be placed into retirement. The NIH does not have an estimate for how much it will cost to maintain the chimps in sanctuaries or exact plans on where the chimps will retire. Existing sanctuaries can hold only 150 chimpanzees, according to the NIH. The agency will be taking care of the retirement of only those chimpanzees it owns.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/~r/sciam/biology/~3/lESgF5e-Uvo/article.cfm

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Heh: Bill Clinton praises those who fought tirelessly to overturn a law he signed into existence (Michellemalkin)

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People prefer 'carrots' to 'sticks' when it comes to healthcare incentives

June 26, 2013 ? To keep costs low, companies often incentivize healthy lifestyles. Now, new research suggests that how these incentives are framed -- as benefits for healthy-weight people or penalties for overweight people -- makes a big difference.

The research, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, shows that policies that carry higher premiums for overweight individuals are perceived as punishing and stigmatizing.

Researcher David Tannenbaum of the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles wanted to investigate how framing healthcare incentives might influence people's attitudes toward the incentives.

"Two frames that are logically equivalent can communicate qualitatively different messages," Tannenbaum explains.

In the first study, 126 participants read about a fictional company grappling with managing their employee health-care policy. They were told that the company was facing rising healthcare costs, due in part to an increasing percentage of overweight employees, and were shown one of four final policy decisions.

The "carrot" plan gave a $500 premium reduction to healthy-weight people, while the "stick" plan increased premiums for overweight people by $500. The two plans were functionally equivalent, structured such that healthy-weight employees always paid $2000 per year in healthcare costs, and overweight employees always paid $2500 per year in healthcare costs.

There were also two additional "stick" plans that resulted in a $2400 premium for overweight people.

Participants were more likely to see the "stick" plans as punishment for being overweight and were less likely to endorse them.

But they didn't appear to differentiate between the three "stick" plans despite the $100 premium difference. Instead, they seemed to evaluate the plans on moral grounds, deciding that punishing someone for being overweight was wrong regardless of the potential savings to be had.

The data showed that framing incentives in terms of penalties may have particular psychological consequences for affected individuals: People with higher body mass index (BMI) scores reported that they would feel particularly stigmatized and dissatisfied with their employer under the three "stick" plans.

Another study placed participants in the decision maker's seat to see if "stick" and "carrot" plans actually reflected different underlying attitudes. Participants who showed high levels of bias against overweight people were more likely to choose the "stick" plan, but provided different justification depending on whether their bias was explicit or implicit:

"Participants who explicitly disliked overweight people were forthcoming about their decision, admitting that they chose a 'stick' policy on the basis of personal attitudes," noted Tannenbaum. "Participants who implicitly disliked overweight people, in contrast, justified their decisions based on the most economical course of action."

Ironically, if they were truly focused on economic concerns they should have opted for the "carrot" plan, since it would save the company $100 per employee. Instead, these participants tended to choose the strategy that effectively punished overweight people, even in instances when the "stick" policy implied a financial cost to the company.

Tannenbaum concludes that these framing effects may have important consequences across many different real-world domains:

"In a broad sense, our research affects policymakers at large," says Tannenbaum. "Logically equivalent policies in various domains -- such as setting a default option for organ donation or retirement savings -- can communicate very different messages, and understanding the nature of these messages could help policymakers craft more effective policy."

Co-authors on this research include Chad Valasek of the University of California, San Diego; Eric Knowles of New York University; and Peter Ditto of the University of California, Irvine.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/NltV_68swwU/130626143118.htm

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A Map of the World As Plotted By Airports

Instead of using your typical cartography methods of mapping the world, James Davenport created a world map using just airports, runways and helicopter pads. That way you can see which countries are dotted and outlined with airports (hint: it's the rich ones) and which countries just disappear into the vapor (hint: it's the poor ones).

It's impressive that most of the continents are outlined enough to get a general shape (with North America, South America, Europe and Australia being more apparent) with the USA being almost excessively colored in. The map used a total of 45,132 runways to fill in the world.

See the full map here. [If We Assume via Fast Co Design]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/a-map-of-the-world-as-plotted-by-airports-592730526

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Chris Brown charged with misdemeanor hit-and-run

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The Los Angeles city attorney's office has charged singer Chris Brown with misdemeanor hit-and-run and driving without a valid license.

City attorney spokesman Frank Mateljan says the charges filed Tuesday involve a minor accident on May 21 in the San Fernando Valley.

If convicted, Brown would face up to one year in jail.

Arraignment is scheduled for July 15 at the Van Nuys courthouse, but an attorney can appear on Brown's behalf.

Mateljan says the county district attorney's office will be notified of the charges and it will be up to that office and the courts to determine if the case will have any effect on Brown's felony probation in the 2009 beating of singer Rihanna.

A call seeking comment from a Brown representative was not immediately returned Tuesday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chris-brown-charged-misdemeanor-hit-run-181636948.html

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Sky adding more on demand content, revamping Go apps for summer

Lounging around in the sun is great and all, but what to do on a rainy day? One option is to get some TV time in, and Sky's got a few updates to share that might tempt you in front of a screen on dreary afternoons. At some point this summer, shows from Fox, Universal and SyFy will be available on Sky's On Demand service, as well as content from Disney if you're signed up for the Entertainment Extra package. Mobile apps will be getting a makeover, with "enhanced navigation" and a new design including bigger thumbnails when cruising through the VOD library. The Sky Go Xbox 360 app will also be updated to bring it in line with Microsoft's UI style. Furthermore, Sky Multiroom subscribers will get access to Sky Go Extra, which allows you to download content in addition to streaming, at no extra cost in early July. Vitamin D's overrated anyways.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/26/sky-on-demand-go-apps-summer/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Supreme Court punts on affirmative-action case

The Supreme Court has surprised legal experts by declining to strike down the University of Texas' use of race in undergraduate admissions. On Monday, the justices sent the case back to a lower court for a rehearing, dodging a decision on whether affirmative-action policies at public colleges around the country are unconstitutional.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court's conservative-leaning swing vote, wrote the opinion for Fisher v. University of Texas, which was decided 7-1. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the court's liberal leader, dissented, arguing that the lower court's decision in favor of affirmative action should stand.

Kennedy said the federal Fifth Circuit must rehear the case to decide whether UT "offered sufficient evidence to prove that its admissions program is narrowly tailored to obtain the educational benefits of diversity." The court also requires the lower court to decide whether the college could use any "race neutral" means of creating a diverse campus before resorting to affirmative action, a slightly stricter standard than has been expressed by the court in the past.

"Strict scrutiny imposes on the university the ultimate burden of demonstrating, before turning to racial classifications, that available, workable race-neutral alternatives do not suffice," the justices wrote.

The decision comes as a surprise, since during oral arguments in the case in October, many of the conservative-leaning justices seemed poised to issue a broader ruling invalidating the use of race in admissions. Kennedy has also frequently expressed skepticism of affirmative-action programs.

"Affirmative action lives to see another day," Adam Winkler, a constitutional law expert at UCLA, told Yahoo News. "The Supreme Court seemed prepared to strike a real blow against affirmative action back in October. But the Fisher case reaffirms [previous] Supreme Court cases that allow universities to take race into account."

Abigail Noel Fisher brought suit against the University of Texas after she was denied admission in 2008. UT automatically admits Texans who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school classes, but fills its remaining seats by judging applicants on a combination of GPA, test scores, race and other factors. Fisher claimed she was discriminated against because she is white when she was denied admission. The college argued that Fisher's GPA and standardized test scores made her inadmissible regardless of her race and that using race as one factor in admission helps it maintain a diverse student body.

The Supreme Court established in 2003 in Grutter v. Bollinger that universities could use race as a factor in admissions as long as they did not use quotas (for example, that 10 percent of the class must be black). The justices said affirmative action was still necessary to create a diverse student body, which it ruled was a compelling state interest. The majority wrote that they believed that in 25 years, affirmative action would no longer be necessary and should be stopped. This "sunset" provision was skewered by the four dissenting justices.

Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas both wrote in concurring opinions that they would overrule Grutter on the grounds that it improperly allows publicly funded universities to discriminate on the basis of race. The conservative justices noted, however, that the plaintiffs in the Fisher case did not ask the court to overrule Grutter.

In a blistering dissent, Thomas wrote that universities' desire for a diverse student body is not necessary or pressing enough to justify affirmative action, which he describes as racial discrimination. Thomas compared the case for "racial tinkering" in admissions to arguments made by segregationists 60 years ago that "separate but equal" education would ultimately help black people. "The Constitution does not pander to faddish theories about whether race mixing is in the public interest," Thomas wrote. "The Equal Protection Clause strips States of all authority to use race as a factor in providing education."

The Fisher case was argued 10 months ago, and many legal experts were stumped as to why the justices were taking such an unusually long time to release an opinion. Winkler said he believes the 10-page opinion the justices ended up releasing "certainly did not take eight months to write," and that the court may have initially written a broader ruling that eventually fell apart due to internal court politics. The court has agreed to hear another case dealing with affirmative action next fall and may issue a broader decision then. That case deals with whether voters are allowed to ban affirmative action at state universities through ballot initiatives.

Justice Elena Kagan, a President Barack Obama appointee, recused herself from the case, most likely due to her work on it as solicitor general.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/supreme-court-punts-affirmative-action-case-141850745.html

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Snowden becomes 'tasty morsel' for spies

By Lidia Kelly

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Edward Snowden's disappearance from view has heightened speculation that the former U.S. spy agency contractor may be talking to Russian secret services, which see him as a "tasty morsel" that is too good to miss.

Even a flat denial by President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday is unlikely to end whispers that Snowden may have been interviewed by intelligence officers anxious to get their hands on whatever information he has not yet leaked.

Some experts say Russia might even try to hand him over to the United States in a Cold War-style exchange, although this seemed less likely after Putin ruled out his extradition to face espionage charges back home.

"He is a tasty morsel for any, any secret service, including ours. Any secret service would love to talk to him," said a Russian security source.

Snowden, charged with disclosing secret U.S. surveillance programs, left Hong Kong for Moscow on Sunday and the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy group said he was heading for Ecuador, where he wants political asylum.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Reuters. But a former officer of its Soviet predecessor, the KGB, said Russia was unlikely to miss out, assuming Snowden is willing to cooperate.

"It would be silly to pass on such an opportunity to get information that is very difficult, impossible or expensive to get in any other way," said the ex-officer, Lev Korolkov.

U.S. Senator John McCain, a Republican opponent of President Barack Obama, said Putin - also a former Soviet agent - would grab the chance. "He is ... an old KGB colonel apparatchik that has disdain for democracy and the things we stand for and believe in," McCain said on CNN on Tuesday. "If he sees a situation he'll take advantage of it."

Speculation about an FSB role in Snowden's arrival from Hong Kong began with the plane's touchdown on Sunday, when about two dozen plain-clothed security agents were spotted monitoring the transit zone, at times accompanied by uniformed policemen.

Ecuador's ambassador to Russia, Patricio Alberto Chavez Zavala, got to the transit zone soon after Snowden landed. Then the agents and police blocked the entrance to one of the lounges. Some remained all night and into the next day,

But there was no sign of Snowden, who Putin said on Tuesday was still in the transit area at Sheremetyevo airport.

Snowden has said he accepted a job as a systems administrator at contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, where he worked for about three months, to gain access to details of the U.S. National Security Agency's surveillance programs.

U.S. officials said intelligence agencies were concerned they did not know how much sensitive material Snowden had, and that he may have taken more documents than initially estimated which could get into the hands of foreign intelligence agencies.

ASSESSING SNOWDEN'S VALUE

Russian political analyst Pavel Salin suggested the Kremlin's near silence on Snowden for more than 36 hours after he arrived was a stalling tactic. "Now they are assessing how useful he may be. His value depends on the information he has," he said.

Korolkov said that is unclear. "We don't know what really is in his possession and how much of an interest he is. All that he can say could already be known," he said. "But he is of interest (to Russia) for a number of other reasons."

Analysts said Snowden could be useful for a Cold War-style spy swap or as a propaganda tool for Russia, which frequently accuses the United States of violating the principles of freedom and democracy that it tries to press on others.

Putin, asked on Tuesday about the U.S. request to hand Snowden over, questioned whether the American and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is also a fugitive from justice, should be treated as criminals and jailed.

Deputy parliament speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky has proposed Snowden be exchanged for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer whose jailing in the United States angered Moscow. The United States has refused Russian requests for his repatriation.

Korolkov, and the security service source who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Russia would follow a common international practice in using Snowden in negotiations over Bout. "This is how it is done in the world. It would be in the government's advantage not to give Snowden back," Korolkov said.

The source said: "Russia has some negotiating advantage here."

But there are risks for both countries in taking the dispute over Snowden too far.

"It's a very, very important moment for the entire U.S.-Russia relationship: We are really at a point that will define the relationship for the foreseeable future," said Dmitry Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center think-tank.

Korolkov predicted the Kremlin will tread carefully. "Russia is not at all interested in entering into a conflict with such a geopolitical opponent and political partner as the United States," he said.

(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, Thomas Grove and Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Timothy Heritage, Steve Gutterman and David Stamp)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russia-spies-may-chatting-tasty-morsel-snowden-202755572.html

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Seiki launches 39-inch 4K TV for $699, expects 65-inch model by fall

You thought Seiki's 50-inch 4K TV was affordable? You haven't seen anything yet. The company is releasing a 39-inch 4K set before the end of June for $699, with pre-orders at Sears starting on the 27th. The screen probably won't compete with top-tier rivals, but it's hard to disagree with the price -- we're really looking at a regular 1080p, 120Hz TV that happens to handle 4K, even if few can see the extra detail at this size. And don't worry if you think Seiki should be going larger. The company plans to ship a 65-inch 4K set by the fall, which should cover those who equate large resolutions with large screens.

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Series of bomb attacks in Iraq kill at least 42

BAGHDAD (AP) ? A series of evening bombings near markets in and around Baghdad and other blasts north of the capital killed at least 42 people and wounded dozens of others Monday in the latest eruption of bloodshed to rock Iraq.

The attacks were the latest in a wave of violence that has claimed more than 2,000 lives since the beginning of April. Militants, building on Sunni discontent with the Shiite-led government, appear to be growing stronger in central and northern Iraq.

The violence came as tens of thousands of Shiites poured into the holy city of Karbala, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad, for the annual festival of Shabaniyah, marking the anniversary of the birth of the ninth-century Shiite leader known as the Hidden Imam. Tight security measures were in force to try to prevent insurgent attacks on the worshippers.

One of the deadliest attacks came at night when two bombs placed near a market blew up less than a minute apart in Baghdad's mostly Shiite neighborhood of Husseiniyah, killing ten people and wounding 30 others.

Police said the second bomb went off among a group of people who had gathered at the scene to help the victims of the first blast.

Bassem Hazim, a merchant from Husseiniyah, said he was preparing for night prayers when he heard an explosion. He went out to see what happened.

"As we came near the blast site, a second bomb went off in the crowd. We helped carry some wounded people to the hospital. All the shops closed and all the shoppers fled, he said, but "government officials are busy with trips abroad and contracts while the country is bleeding."

Earlier, police said that two car bombs exploded within minutes on a commercial street in the mixed neighborhood of Jihad in western Baghdad, killing nine people and wounding 21 others, police said.

Also, four people were killed and nine others were wounded when a car bomb exploded near a line of shops in the Shiite-dominated area of al-Shurta al-Rabeaa.

Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan Ibrahim said that al-Qaida is avoiding direct confrontation with the security forces and instead are choosing civilian targets.

"By attacking soft targets like markets, al-Qaida wants to send a message that they are still active and still capable of striking anywhere in Iraq," he said.

Police said car bomb exploded near a supermarket on a main commercial street in the Shiite Karrada neighborhood, killing five people and wounding 16.

Just after sunset, police said a car bomb went off near an outdoor market in the Shiite suburb of Nahrawan, killing four civilians and wounding 15 others.

Minutes later, a car bomb went off near a market in the Shiite-majority neighborhood of New Baghdad. Police said that three people were killed and 10 others were wounded. Minutes later, a second car bomb hit a bus stop in the same neighborhood, killing two people and wounding eight others.

Also, two people were killed in a car explosion in the Christian-Shiite neighborhood of Garage al-Amana in southeastern Baghdad.

In the morning, a provincial police officer in Ninevah said a suicide attacker rammed his explosives-laden car into an army patrol in the city of Mosul, killing a soldier and a police officer. He said that seven people, including two civilians, were wounded. Mosul is 360 kilometers (220 miles) northwest of Baghdad.

Another officer said a second bomber blew set off his explosive-rigged belt inside a university campus in the city of Tikrit, killing a police officer. The city is 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad.

Two medical officials confirmed casualty figures. All spoke anonymously as they were not authorized to release information to reporters.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but security forces and Shiite residents are frequently targeted by al-Qaida's Iraq branch.

___

Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/series-bomb-attacks-iraq-kill-least-42-193647756.html

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Video: Doll: Summer 'Market Pause' Plays

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Get the world?s thinnest portable mobile charger in the Jackery Air

When I first saw the Jackery Air on Kickstarter , I thought it looked like every other portable charger. That is, until the picture of it side by side with the iPhone 5 came up. This charger is as thin as the iPhone 5 and looks to be nearly the same width and height as [...]

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Ohio air show crash leaves wing walker, pilot dead

Ohio air show crash: A Stearman aircraft crashed Saturday. at the Vectren Air Show near Dayton, Ohio.The crash killed the pilot and his wing walker.

By Ashley Thomas and Dan Sewell,?Associated Press / June 22, 2013

A wing walker performs at the Vectren Air Show just before crashing, Saturday, June 22, 2013, in Dayton, Ohio. The crash killed the pilot and the stunt walker instantly, authorities said.

(AP Photo/Thanh V Tran)

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A plane carrying a wing walker crashed at an air show and exploded into flames Saturday, killing the pilot and stunt walker, authorities said.

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The crash of the 450 HP Stearman happened at around 12:45 p.m. at the Vectren Air Show near Dayton in front of thousands of horrified spectators. No one else was hurt.

A video posted on WHIO-TV shows the plane turn upside-down as the performer sits on top of the wing. The plane then tilts and crashes to the ground, erupting into flames as spectators screamed.

Ian Hoyt, an aviation photographer and licensed pilot from Findlay, was at the show with his girlfriend. He told The Associated Press he was taking photos as the plane passed by and had just raised his camera to take another shot.

"Then I realized they were too low and too slow. And before I knew it, they hit the ground," he said.

He couldn't tell exactly what happened, but it appeared that the plane stalled and didn't have enough air speed, he said. He credited the pilot for steering clear of spectators and potentially saving lives.

"Had he drifted more, I don't know what would have happened," Hoyt said. He said he had been excited to see the show because he'd never seen the scheduled performer ? wing walker Jane Wicker ? in action.

On the video, the announcer narrates as the plane glides through the sky and rolls over while the stuntwoman perches on a wing.

"Now she's still on that far side. Keep an eye on Jane. Keep an eye on Charlie. Watch this! Jane Wicker, sitting on top of the world," the announcer said, right before the plane makes a quick turn and nosedive.

Federal records show that biplane was registered to Wicker, who lived in Loudon, Va. A man who answered the phone at a number listed for Wicker on her website said he had no comment and hung up.

One of the pilots listed on Wicker's website was named Charlie Schwenker. A post on Jane Wicker Airshows' Facebook page announced the deaths of Wicker and Schwenker and asked for prayers for their families.

A message left at a phone listing for Charles Schwenker in Oakton, Va., wasn't immediately returned.

Dayton International Airport spokeswoman Linda Hughes and Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Anne Ralston confirmed that a pilot and stunt walker had died but declined to give their names. The air show also declined to release their identities.

The show was canceled for the rest of the day, but organizers said events would resume Sunday and follow the previous schedule and normal operations. The National Transportation Safety Board said it is investigating the crash.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/QkEIPlxss54/Ohio-air-show-crash-leaves-wing-walker-pilot-dead

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Turkish police unleash water cannon on protests

Riot policemen shoot tear gas during clashes with protesters near Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, June 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Riot policemen shoot tear gas during clashes with protesters near Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, June 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Riot policemen prepare during clashes with protesters at Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, June 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Water canon sprays protesters during clashes at Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, June 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

A couple walks through cloud of tear gas when riot policemen clashed with protesters near Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, June 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Protester kicks away a tear gas canister during clashes with riot police near Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, June 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

ISTANBUL (AP) ? Turkish police used water cannon to disperse thousands gathered in Istanbul's Taksim Square on Saturday to observe a memorial for four people killed during recent anti-government protests. The officers later fired tear gas and rubber bullets, and in some cases beat people with batons, to scatter demonstrators who regrouped in side streets.

The police move came as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that foreign-led conspirators he alleges are behind the anti-government movement in his country also are fomenting the recent unrest in Brazil.

The protests in Turkey erupted three weeks ago after riot police brutally cracked down on peaceful environmental activists who opposed plans to develop Gezi Park, which lies next to Taksim. The demonstrations soon turned into expressions of discontent with what critics say is Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian and meddlesome ways.

Erdogan, who took power a decade ago, denies he is authoritarian and, as evidence of his popularity, points to elections in 2011 that returned his party to power with 50 percent of the vote and gave him a third term in office.

On Saturday, demonstrators converged in Taksim, where they laid down carnations in remembrance of at least three protesters and a police officer killed in the rallies. For about two hours, protesters shouted anti-government slogans and demanded that Erdogan resign before police warned them to leave the square.

Some demonstrators tried to give carnations to the security forces watching over the square, shouting: "Police, don't betray your people." But after their warnings to disperse were ignored, police pushed back protesters with water cannon, even chasing stragglers down side streets and apparently blocking entrances to the square.

An Associated Press journalist said police drove back protesters into side streets off Taksim ? including the main pedestrian shopping street Istiklal ? and later fired several rounds of tear gas and rubber bullets to scatter the crowds who refused to disperse. There were no immediate reports of any injuries.

Dogan news agency footage showed two police officers hitting protesters with batons and kicking them as they forced their way through Istiklal street. A few demonstrators threw rocks at a police water cannon, while other protesters tried to calm them down and prevent them from attacking police.

Police in the capital, Ankara, also sprayed tear gas and pressurized water to break up hundreds of protesters who gathered in two neighborhoods, wanting to march to the city's main square, Dogan reported.

Last week, police had used water cannon as well as tear gas and rubber bullets to clear Taksim and end an occupation of Gezi Park by activists. But the demonstrations had largely subsided in Istanbul in recent days, with many protesters using a new, more passive approach of airing their grievances: standing motionless.

Erdogan has faced fierce international criticism for his government's crackdown on the protests, but he has defended his administration's actions as well as the tough police tactics. He also has blamed the protests on unspecified foreign forces, bankers and foreign and Turkish media outlets he says want to harm Turkish interests.

Brazil, meanwhile, has been hit by mass rallies set off this month by a 10-cent hike in bus and subway fares in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere. The protests soon moved beyond that issue to tap into widespread frustration in the South American nation over a range of issues, including high taxes and woeful public services.

During an address to tens of thousands of his backers in the Black Sea coastal city of Samsun, the latest stop in a series of rallies he has called to shore up his political support, Erdogan declared that Brazil was the target of the same conspirators he claims are trying to destabilize Turkey.

"The same game is now being played over Brazil," Erdogan said. "The symbols are the same, the posters are the same, Twitter, Facebook are the same, the international media is the same. They (the protests) are being led from the same center.

"They are doing their best to achieve in Brazil what they could not achieve in Turkey. It's the same game, the same trap, the same aim."

___

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-06-22-Turkey-Protests/id-10f499ddb4e049d2b84969b81293aa23

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