It?s still troubling to see all those empty seats at BMO Field, once the gold standard in passionate MLS support.
Hopefully the fans who have abandoned TFC (or stashed their scarves for the time being) will recognize that a better product can be found these days along Exhibition Place, where Ryan Nelsen has the Reds organized and working hard for one another.
Unfortunately, Nelsen and his side still have miles to go in terms of getting the personnel where it needs to be, and in teaching the team how to manage matches and situations.
We saw it all there Saturday as TFC gave up an early goal, rallied to take a lead and held that margin until stoppage time. But a mistake in the back gave young Galaxy attacker Jose Villareal a chance to demonstrate his opportunism and his athleticism.
His late goal was the equalizer in a 2-2 draw at BMO Field.
Here are a few quick thoughts, followed by the highlights.
Richard Eckersley, once a right back, then a center back and then a right back again ? he?s now apparently a left back.
?We?ve mentioned before about how TFC still needs more quality in several areas, something club president Kevin Payne is presumably addressing. One is right I the middle of the park, where TFC were clearly outmanned over stretches Saturday. Juninho and Marcelo Sarvas ? good MLS midfield men, but not great ? mostly had their way through the center.
Donovan (pictured from Satruday)? Meh. Then again, what did we expect? Getting him on the field was about elevating his fitness, as much as anything.
(MORE: Landon Donovan back on field for LA Galaxy)
TFC was just not a bit creative for most of Saturday afternoon. Luis Silva?s second-half introduction helped (and a clever little something surely helped on TFC?s second goal), but the Reds need more imagination. So far, too many of the TFC goals tends to rise out of Robert Earnshaw?s opportunism.
Hard to say what TFC defender Darel Russell might have been thinking with a ?clearing? header that he put right back in front of his own goal in stoppage time. Anywhere else and the Reds probably get all three points. A draw against the champs, even at home, isn?t terrible for TFC. But conceding a late equalizer (losing two points in the process) is a real bummer, and surely feels like a loss for Nelsen and Co.
NEW YORK/BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina challenged a U.S. court over the weekend by proposing that "holdout" bond investors be repaid only about one sixth the money federal judges hearing the case say they are owed, setting the stage for a legal showdown in New York.
The terms offered by Argentina are the same as those accepted by bondholders who chose to participate in the country's 2010 sovereign bond restructuring. The holdouts rejected that restructuring and are holding out for full repayment.
Aside from the implications the case has for Argentina's finances, it could also have wide ramifications for the way future sovereign restructurings are carried around the world.
Argentina defaulted on $100 billion in sovereign debt in 2002 at the height of a financial crisis in Latin America's third largest economy. The bonds now under dispute were issued in New York, which is why the case is being heard in U.S. court.
Elliott Management affiliate NML Capital Ltd, one of the lead plaintiffs, has said that it will not accept 2010 terms They and other holdouts are sure to argue that Argentina's proposal does not respond to the court's request.
"The court said 'You owe the holdouts $1.3 billion. Tell us how you are going to pay that to them,'" said Josh Rosner, managing director at research firm Graham Fisher & Co in New York.
"Instead of answering how they will pay the full amount, Argentina responded with a plan for paying a much smaller amount," he said. "Argentina is flirting with technical default, which would take a serious toll its economy."
The specter of technical defaults comes from the fact that a U.S. District Court in New York has said that until the holdouts start getting paid, Argentina cannot make payments to holders of the restructured bonds.
Elliott stands currently to receive $720 million from Argentina following a New York judge's order in November, according to Argentina.
But the bonds NML could take had a market value of just $186.8 million before a major decision in the case last October favoring the holdouts, or $120.6 million as of March 1, the filing said. Argentina estimates NML paid about $48.7 million in 2008 for its stake in the bonds.
"The Republic is prepared to fulfill the terms of this proposal promptly upon Order by the Court by submitting a bill to Congress that ensures its timely implementation," Jonathan Blackman, Argentina's U.S. lawyer, wrote.
Around 92 percent of Argentina's defaulted bonds were restructured in 2005 and 2010, with bondholders receiving 25 cents to 29 cents on the dollar.
But holdouts led by NML Capital and Aurelius Capital Management have fought for years for full payment. Argentina calls these funds "vultures."
In October, the 2nd Circuit upheld a trial judge's ruling by finding Argentina had violated a so-called pari passu clause in its bond documents requiring it to treat creditors equally.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa in Manhattan subsequently ordered Argentina in November to pay the $1.33 billion owed to the bondholders into an escrow account by the time of its next interest payment to holders of the exchanged debt.
The 2nd Circuit heard an appeal of that order on February 27. Two days later, it directed Argentina to provide details of "the precise terms of any alternative payment formula and schedule to which it is prepared to commit."
BOND OPTIONS
In its 22-page submission late on Friday, Argentina said that under a so-called par bond option, the bondholders would receive new bonds due in 2038 with the same nominal face value of their current bonds. They would pay 2.5 percent to 5.25 percent a year, Argentina said.
Bondholders would also receive an immediate cash payment similar to what it provided under the 2010 debt swap, Argentina said. And they would receive derivative instruments that provide payments when the country's gross domestic product exceeds 3 percent a year.
The par option is restricted to small investors, unlike the discount option, the more applicable fit for big investors like NML and Aurelius.
Under the discount proposal, holdouts could receive new discount bonds due in 2033 that pay 8.28 percent annually. Argentina said the holdouts would also receive past due interest since 2003 in the form of bonds due in 2017 paying 8.75 percent a year, and GDP-linked derivative units.
Blackman, Argentina's lawyer, wrote that the proposal, unlike what he called the "100 cents on the dollar immediately" formula Griesa adopted, "is consistent with the pari passu clause, longstanding principles of equity, and the Republic's capacity to pay."
It was unclear on Saturday how the court might view Argentina's proposals. The same three-judge panel had said in October, though, that the holdouts "were completely within their rights" to reject prior debt swap offers.
Euginio Bruno, a lawyer and bond restructuring expert with the law firm Estudio Garrido Abogados in Buenos Aires, said the government's Friday proposal "was within expectations, considering the legal constraints on offering anything better than the terms of the 2010 restructuring."
Argentina has a "lock law" that keeps new governments from improving the terms of previous restructurings.
Earlier in the week, the holdouts scored a victory over Argentina when the 2nd Circuit denied a full court review of its October ruling on the equal treatment provision.
The United States had backed Argentina in seeking the review, contending the 2nd Circuit's decision ran "counter to longstanding U.S. efforts to promote orderly restructuring of sovereign debt.
Argentina and holders of its restructured bonds say granting the holdouts 100 cents on the dollar could complicate future sovereign restructurings around the world.
Argentine Vice President Amado Boudou repeated on Saturday that Argentina would continue repaying investors who participated in the restructuring no matter how the U.S. court case is resolved.
"One way or another, Argentina will pay," he said.
The case is NML Capital Ltd et al v. Republic of Argentina, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 12-105.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond; Additional reporting by Helen Popper, Alejandro Lifschitz and Guido Nejamkis in Buenos Aires; Editing by Todd Eastham, Will Dunham and Eric Beech)
CAIRO (AP) ? A popular television satirist known as Egypt's Jon Stewart has appeared before prosecutors after an arrest warrant was issued against him for allegedly insulting Islam and the country's leader.
Several dozen supporters gathered outside the public prosecutor's office Sunday as Bassem Youssef, the host of the weekly show "ElBernameg" or "The Program," arrived a day after the warrant was first reported in the media.
Government opponents said the warrant against such a high profile figure, known for lampooning President Mohammed Morsi and the new Islamist political class, was an escalation in a campaign to intimidate critics. It followed warrants for five prominent anti-government activists accused of instigating violence.
Youssef tweeted a series of quips from the prosecutor's office. "They asked me the color of my eyes. Really," one read.
Mar. 28, 2013 ? In some of the first results from a federally funded initiative to find new ways of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from coal-fired power plants, Rice University scientists have found that CO2 can be removed more economically using "waste" heat -- low-grade steam that cannot be used to produce electricity. The find is significant because capturing CO2 with conventional technology is an energy-intensive process that can consume as much as one-quarter of the high-pressure steam that plants use to produce electricity.
"This is just the first step in our effort to better engineer a process for capturing CO2 from flue gas at power plants," said George Hirasaki, the lead researcher of Rice's CO2-capture research team. The researchers hope to reduce the costs of CO2 capture by creating an integrated reaction column that uses waste heat, engineered materials and optimized components. Hirasaki's team was one of 16 chosen by the Department of Energy (DOE) in 2011 to develop innovative techniques for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
The team's first findings appear in two new studies that are available online this month in the International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control.
Power plants fired by coal and natural gas account for about half of the CO2 that humans add to the atmosphere each year; these power plants are prime candidates for new technology that captures CO2 before it goes up in smoke. Each of these plants makes electricity by boiling water to create steam to run electric turbines. But not all steam is equal. Some steam has insufficient energy to run a turbine. This is often referred to as "waste" heat, although the term is something of misnomer because low-grade steam is often put to various uses around a plant. Rice's new study found that in cases where waste is available, it may be used to capture CO2.
Hirasaki, Rice's A.J. Hartsook Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, said employing waste heat is just one example of a number of ways that Rice's team is looking to improve upon a tried-and-true technology for CO2 capture. That technology -- a two-phase chemical process -- has been used for decades to remove naturally occurring CO2 from natural gas.
In the first phase of the process, gas is piped upward through a vertical column while an ammonia-like liquid called amine flows down through the column. The liquid amine captures CO2 and drains away while the purified natural gas bubbles out the top of the column. In the second phase of the process, the CO2-laden amine is recycled with heat, which drives off the CO2.
"The CO2 that comes out of the ground with natural gas is under high pressure, while the CO2 at power plants is not," Hirasaki said. "There's also a greater volume of CO2 per unit mass at a power plant than at a natural gas well. For these reasons and others, the amine process must be re-engineered if it is to be cost-effective for CO2 capture at power plants."
A major challenge in adapting two-phase amine processing for power plants is the amount of heat required to recycle the amine in the second phase of the process. Using existing amine processing technology at power plants is impractical, because amine recycling would require as much as one-quarter of the high-pressure steam that could otherwise be used to drive turbines and make electricity, Hirasaki said. This phenomenon is known as "parasitic" power loss, and it will drive up the cost of electricity by lowering the amount of electricity a plant can produce for sale.
"It has been estimated that the use of current technology for CO2 capture would drive up the cost of electricity by 70 to 100 percent," said Rice graduate student Sumedh Warudkar, a co-investigator on the Rice University team. "In our study, we examined whether it would be possible to improve on that by using lower-value steam to run the amine recyclers."
To test this idea, Warudkar used a software package that's commonly used to model industrial chemical processes. One variable he tested was tailoring the chemical formulation of the liquid amine solution. Other variables included the type of steam used, and the size and pressure of the reactor -- the chamber where the flue gas flows past the amine solution.
"There's a great deal of optimization that needs to take place," Warudkar said. "The question is, What is the optimal amine formula and the optimal reactor design and pressure for removing CO2 with low-value steam? There isn't one correct answer. For example, we have developed a process in which the gas absorption and solvent heating occurs in a single vessel instead of two separate ones, as is currently practiced. We think combining the processes might bring us some savings. But there are always trade-offs. The Department of Energy wants us to investigate how our process compares with what's already on the market, and these first two studies are the first step because they will help us identify an optimal set of operating conditions for our process."
The results are encouraging. The research suggests that two elements of Rice's design -- optimized amine formulation and the use of waste heat -- can reduce parasitic power loss from about 35 percent to around 25 percent.
Additional research is under way to develop and test novel materials and a single integrated column that the team hopes can further economize CO2 capture by increasing efficiency and reducing parasitic power loss.
Study co-authors include Michael Wong, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and of chemistry, and Ken Cox, professor in the practice of chemical and biomolecular engineering. The research is supported by the Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Rice University. The original article was written by Jade Boyd.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal References:
Sumedh S. Warudkar, Kenneth R. Cox, Michael S. Wong, George J. Hirasaki. Influence of stripper operating parameters on the performance of amine absorption systems for post-combustion carbon capture: Part I. High pressure strippers. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 2013; DOI: 10.1016/j.ijggc.2013.01.050
Sumedh S. Warudkar, Kenneth R. Cox, Michael S. Wong, George J. Hirasaki. Influence of stripper operating parameters on the performance of amine absorption systems for post-combustion carbon capture: Part II. Vacuum strippers. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 2013; DOI: 10.1016/j.ijggc.2013.01.049
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Vail Resorts will mirror its Vail plans for summer recreation development at Breckenridge. On Friday the company submitted a second proposal to the Forest Service ? very similar to the plans it proposed for Vail last summer ? that would extend the Epic Discovery summer plan to Summit County?s Breckenridge ski area.
The Breckenridge proposal would add 14 miles of mountain bike trails, hiking zones, zip lines and rope courses with the same educational, interactive centers Vail Resorts plans for its Vail ski area. The plan also includes working with The Nature Conservancy to develop ?eco-discovery experiences? and Vail said it would contribute 1 percent of all summer lift ticket revenue to forest restoration.
Handout, Vail Resorts
Breckenridge hopes to develop summer activities that include trails, outdoor climbing walls, ropes courses and zip lines combined with interactive, educational programs.
The Breckenridge plan is the second resort proposal offered to the Forest Service under 2011?s federal Ski Area Recreational Opportunities Enhancement Act, which was designed to stir summer economies in resort communities.
?I authored the bipartisan Ski Area Recreational Opportunities Enhancement Act to drive job creation and tourism in Colorado?s mountain communities. I am thrilled this new law continues to benefit Colorado small businesses, resorts and towns, such as Breckenridge, which are eager to introduce Colorado?s forests to more individuals, groups and families,? said Senator Mark Udall, in a statement released by Vail Resorts on Friday. ?Colorado has the best public lands, open spaces and mountains in the world. I am glad my common-sense legislation will help our resorts continue to boost our mountain communities? economies throughout the year.?
If the Forest Service approves the Breckenridge plan, the company hopes to begin construction in 2015.
It's not quite a minivan fit for a technophile, despite the standard lineup of 2014 in-vehicle gadgets, such as HondaLink with a smartphone interface, HD Radio and an updated center stack. But Honda's 2014 Odyssey does ship with one very practical addition: a built-in HondaVAC, designed with assistance from the good folks at Shop-Vac. The integrated vacuum cleaner lets you tidy up around the van and outside as well, and with integrated power, it doesn't need to be plugged in for use. It can suck indefinitely when the engine's running, or for up to eight minutes with the car turned off. It's integrated within the rear cargo area, and includes a replaceable filter and a canister bag, for easy rubbish disposal. The Odyssey just made its debut at the New York Auto Show, and pricing and availability have yet to be announced. You can check it out for yourself this week in NYC, however, or take a closer look in the promo video embedded just past the break.
The Business Department at North York Central Library has a careers section that includes educational directories as well as directories that include scholarship opportunities.? The Business, Science and Technology Department at Toronto Reference Library also has an extensive collection of educational calendars and directories.
Searching the Library Website:
Suggested Subject headings/Keywords:
Scholarships--Canada--Directories
Student loans--Canada--Directories.
Endowment of research--Canada--Directories.
Suggested Titles:
Scholarships.com. - entrance awards directory which includes comprehensive information on Canadian scholarships and awards.
Assistantships and graduate fellowships in the mathematical sciences.
Scholarship: a handbook of scholarships, awards and financial assistance for Canadian high school graduates.
Canadian University Scholarship Handbook.
Guide to Canadian scholarships.
?
Using On-line Resources
Recommended Websites:
Canada: Student Loans, Grants and Scholarships:
CanLearn.ca - Browse through this section for tips on everything from financing your education to managing your loans.
The Canada Student Loans Program provides financial assistance in the form of loans and grants to post-secondary students who demonstrate financial need.
ScholarhipsCanada.com is an educational site for students to find scholarships, student awards, bursaries and grants.? Students can search for scholarships by name, school, field of study and scholarship provider.
Youth.ca will help youth learn about the various options available to help manage finances and pay for education.
Ontario: Student Loans, Grants and Scholarships:
Ontario Student Assistance Program - This is where you apply for OSAP or 30% off Ontario tuition.
Ontario Education and Training - Check out the Ontario Student Assistance Program? - a mix of grants and loans available for students.
Ontario Education and Training (loans grants and bursaries) - Where to find money that can help you pay for a college, university or apprenticeship program after high school.
Other:
The Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) administers a range of awards on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
Student Awards.com was established in 1998 and is a free scholarship matching service, devoted to helping Canadian high school, college, and university students by providing information about scholarships, bursaries, grants, fellowships and other forms of financial assistance.
World Wide Learn.com strives to provide students with up-to-date information about financial aid for online learning programs.?
Recommended Databases:
Career Cruising - includes in depth information on college and university programs
For further assistance contact:
Business Department - fourth floor, North York Central Library - 5120 Yonge Street - (416)-395-5613
or
Business, Science and Technology Department, third floor, Toronto Reference Library - 789 Yonge Street - (416)-393-7149
Cute Fruit is an adorable pregnancy app that compares the size of your baby with a fruit or vegetable for each new week of pregnancy. Each week, the photo will change to a new super cute drawing of the food item that your baby is similar in size with and state which week of your pregnancy you're in. You can also share the drawings to Facebook and Twitter.
Cute Fruit isn't like other pregnancy apps that provide a lot of information of what to expect during your pregnancy, but it's just too cute for words. Cute Fruit will send you notifications when you enter a new week in your pregnancy and also includes tasteful advertisements for a beautiful contraction timer, to like them on Facebook and Twitter, and to rate the app in the App Store.
From Left: Sophia Takal, Lawrence Levine, Caroline White, Alex Karpovsky, Jennifer Predger, Onur Tukel, Alex Ross Perry
Lawrence Levine and Sophia Takal, a young married filmmaking team, sit in the corner of a Brooklyn speakeasy, nursing a pair of elaborate mixed drinks filled to the brim of martini glasses. The order was expensive, but they feel OK indulging here and there; after several years of struggle, things are looking up. Their next film, a genre whodunit called Wild Canaries, will be their most expensive and ambitious to date, and several friends and colleagues in their orbit are hitting it big -- especially a once-unknown actress they gave a bit part in a movie four years ago named Lena Dunham.
Dunham is part of a small underground group of filmmakers who are carving a place in New York's proud indie film tradition, which spans from MartinScorsese and BrianDe Palma to Spike Lee and Darren Aronofsky. The city has invested billions in attracting big-budget productions, but this young, microbudget, art school community has used technology, pocket change and a willingness to do the dirty work to establish a sub-scene on its own.
The youth uprising has come without the support of deep-pocketed financiers or film studios, and now, like Dunham several years ago, many involved find themselves at what could be career-defining crossroads.
PHOTOS: Behind-the-Scenes of New York's New Indie Scene
During his time as a film student at NYU and for several years after, Alex Ross Perry worked behind the counter at East Village indie retail haunt Kim's Video. For all the nation-high tuition payments he sent the downtown hub of higher learning, it was the film archive-like store where he got his true education. There, Perry met people who were making their own films, which countered the school's emphasis on climbing the traditional Hollywood ladder in "a permission-based system."
Inspired, Perry recruited a handful of co-workers to help him make his first film, a $15,000 farce called Impolex, which he shot on 16mm film. After earning slots at festivals and modest attention, he put together $25,000 to make last year's black-and-white road-trip dramedy The Color Wheel.
"I was the only on-set producer who had any clue about the schedule," he says, beginning to rattle off his jack-of-all-trades list of responsibilities on that film's production. "I was the AD; the on-set producer, dealing with locations; the line producer; the writer-director; the actor; and the hospitality coordinator for transportation and lodging."
Had it been a disaster, the young filmmaker says he might have given up the dream; instead, Color Wheel proved to be his big break. It looks its budget, slightly grainy and colorless, but the storytelling shined through, earning an Indie Spirit Award nomination and critical kudos. Now, still just 28, Perry is developing his own dramedy series for HBO called The Traditions, while plotting to film another feature this summer.
STORY: Alex Karpovsky, Lena Dunham and a New Generation of Indie Filmmakers
Perry and his Traditions co-creator Kate Lyn Sheil, will join at HBO not just Dunham but their shared friend Alex Karpovsky, who has emerged as a favorite featured player on Girls. He first met Dunham at SXSW in 2009 and starred soon after as the quasi-love interest in Tiny Furniture. Karpovsky also plays Takal?sfiance in Supporting Characters, a well-reviewed new comedy by Dan Schechter and Tarik Lowe about two film editors and their romantic foibles. Lowe plays one half of the duo, and Schechter says Karpovsky basically acts as his substitute in the movie, as they're both "tall, a bit lanky and Jewish."
Dunham also has a small role in Characters as Karpovsky's bumbling assistant.
"We all know each other, we all see each other at the same festivals every year," Karpovsky says. "Making movies isn?t necessarily cheap, and you need to rely on favors and friends to help you through the process. Many times I?ve helped boom people?s movies in order to get a free camera from them or for them to act in my movie for a day."
There is a meta, self-reflexive nature to many of the movies that came out of the scene during the past four years; lo-fi and made on shoestring budgets, protagonists often were lost (and sometimes unlikable) millennials, skewering perceptions of an emotionally stunted generation. The films zeroed in on the absurdities of everyday existence, human blemishes and sexual discomfort, seeking to both commiserate with and challenge the audience.
Film Review: 'The Color Wheel'
On occasion, the projects were more sketch than fully realized features. They don?t carry the overt political and social charge of their rabble-rousing NYC predecessors and, like even Dunham's hits, have been called out for their narcissism and navel-gazing, as well as less-than-stellar production values. In some instances, the topical criticism certainly wouldn?t be entirely unfair, depending on the film. Then again, few major Hollywood films seek to tackle bigger issues, either.?
A writer-director himself, Karpovsky released two films in February. One was the semi-improvised road-trip comedy Red Flag, which was shot for $10,000 during a Southern swing for a screening tour the filmmaker was making to promote an earlier movie called Woodpecker. Nights were spent in fleabag motels that doubled as sets, and most tech work was done by castmembers, with plenty of snafus and post polish required. Red Flag and Karpovsky's other movie -- a drama called Rubberneck -- premiered at Lincoln Center, just a dozen blocks from the billboards touting bland big-budget studio adventures.
Red Flag, which earned solid critical reviews, also co-stars Schechter's girlfriend, Jennifer Prediger, as Karpovsky's slightly unhinged one-night stand. A former environmental journalist who turned to film after finding herself unable to handle working for George W. Bush?s EPA ("we visited a paper mill on Earth Day," she sighs), Prediger helped produce a 21-year-old Dunham?s first venture, a web series for Nerve.com back in 2007.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan attends U.S. President Barack Obama's State??In Tuesday's oral arguments over whether California's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, a few of the liberal Supreme Court justices took aim at one of the central arguments made by gay marriage opponents: that the ability to naturally procreate is key to the definition of marriage.
Charles Cooper, the attorney representing proponents of California's Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage, argued that allowing same-sex nuptials would fundamentally change the definition of marriage for the worse.
"The concern is that redefining marriage as a genderless institution will sever its abiding connection to its historic traditional procreative purposes, and it will refocus the purpose of marriage and the definition of marriage away from the raising of children and to the emotional needs and desires of adults," Cooper said.
Justice Elena Kagan, an appointee of President Barack Obama, pressed Cooper on that argument, asking him why then the government could not bar couples who are both over the age of 55 from marrying, on the assumption that they are infertile.
Cooper replied that it would violate the Constitution to ban older people from marrying.
"Your Honor, even with respect to couples over the age of 55, it is very rare that both couples?both parties to the couple are infertile," Cooper began, before he was interrupted by the audience in the courtroom erupting into laughter.
"I can just assure you, if both the woman and the man are over the age of 55, there are not a lot of children coming out of that marriage," Kagan retorted, provoking more laughter.
Justice Antonin Scalia jumped into the fray, joking that "Strom Thurmond was not the chairman of the Senate committee when Justice Kagan was confirmed."
Thurmond, the late South Carolina Republican senator, fathered children well into his 70s with his decades-younger wife. Kagan pointed out that in her hypothetical, both members of the couple would be over 55, not just the man.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg also cast doubt on the procreation aspect of Cooper's argument, reminding him that the Supreme Court has ruled in the past that prisoners have a right to marry even if they are locked up and unable to procreate with their new spouse. Cooper replied that even in that case, the prison was a co-ed facility and it's possible the prisoner would have had children.
Outside of this exchange, Cooper did not rely heavily on the natural procreation point in arguing the government should bar gay people from marrying. In his brief opening statement, Cooper urged the justices to allow Americans to engage in "an an earnest debate over whether the age-old definition of marriage should be changed to include same-sex couples" by not declaring from the bench that gay marriage bans are unconstitutional.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Sunday and said he told Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of his concern about Iranian flights over Iraq carrying arms to Syria.
Washington believes such flights and overland transfers take place nearly every day and help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his efforts to crush a two-year-old revolt against his rule, said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Kerry said he had told Maliki the Iranian flights through Iraqi airspace were "problematic".
"Anything that supports President Assad is problematic," Kerry told reporters. "I made it very clear to the prime minister that the overflights from Iran ... are in fact helping to sustain President Assad and his regime."
Speaking before the meeting, the U.S. official said the Iraqi government had inspected only two flights since last July and that Kerry would argue Iraq did not deserve a role in talks about neighboring Syria's future unless it tried to stop the suspected arms flow.
Iraqi officials denied allowing the transfer of weapons from Iran to Syria through Iraqi airspace. Abbas al-Bayati, a member of the Security and Defence parliamentary committee, said: "We have done our duty by randomly inspecting a number of Iranian flights and we did not find any leaked or smuggled weapons."
"If the U.S. is keen to push us to do more they have to give us the information that they have relating to this," he said.
More than a decade after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq still struggles with insurgents, sectarian friction and political feuds among Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish factions who share power in the government of Shi'ite premier Maliki.
Sunni Islamist insurgents linked to al Qaeda and invigorated by the war next door in Syria - where Sunni rebels are battling Assad, an ally of Shi'ite Iran - are regaining ground in Iraq and have stepped up attacks on Shi'ite targets in recent months in an attempt to provoke a wider sectarian confrontation.
Kerry held talks with representatives of all three communities, including Osama al-Nujaifi, the Sunni speaker of parliament.
He also spoke by telephone to Massoud Barzani, president of Iraq's Kurdish region, whose regional government is pressing ahead with plans to build an oil pipeline to Turkey that Washington fears could lead to the break-up of Iraq.
According to reporters at a picture-taking session at the start of Kerry's talks with Maliki, the U.S. diplomat appeared to joke that Hillary Clinton, his predecessor, had said Iraq would do whatever Washington asked.
"The Secretary told me that you're going to do everything that I say," Kerry said, according to the reporters.
"We won't do it," Maliki, also joking, replied, the reporters said.
SUICIDE BLASTS
In his talks with Maliki, Kerry also asked the Iraqi prime minister and his cabinet to reconsider a decision to postpone local elections in two Sunni-majority provinces, Anbar and Nineveh, the U.S. official said.
The Iraqi cabinet last week postponed the votes, which were due on April 20, for up to six months because of threats to electoral workers and violence there - a step Washington believes will only increase tensions.
While violence has fallen from the height of the sectarian slaughter that killed tens of thousands in 2006-2007, insurgents have carried out at least one major attack a month since U.S. forces left. Bombings and killings still happen daily, often aimed at Shi'ite areas and local security forces.
More than a dozen car bombs and suicide blasts tore through Shi'ite Muslim districts in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and other areas on Tuesday, killing nearly 60 people on the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam.
Further complicating security, thousands of Sunni protesters have rallied in Anbar against Maliki, whose Shi'ite-led government they accuse of marginalizing their minority sect since the fall of Sunni strongman Saddam.
(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Additional reporting by Suadad al-Salhy; Editing by Jason Webb)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The jackpot in the Florida Lotto game has grown to $13 million after no one matched the six winning numbers in the latest drawing, lottery officials said Sunday.
A total of 32 tickets matched five numbers to win $6,089.00 each; 2,336 tickets matched four numbers for $66 each; and 48,005 tickets matched three numbers for $5 each.
The winning Florida Lotto numbers selected Saturday: 6-11-13-24-35-53.
Congratulations, you've successfully made it to the end of yet another week. How about a little celebration? We have plenty of goodies to choose from. Take your pick from the Voyager's journey to the edge of the solar system, the first truly beautiful Android, why T-Mobile's LTE network could kick serious ass, the iDumbPhone, a stunningly accurate map of NCAA Fandom, 7 Galaxy S4 features you can have on your iPhone, and more. Check it all out below. More »
Keep informed this weekend by grabbing today's leading fresh app, Reuters, which brings wire news stories on a number of topics straight to your iOS devices. We've also got some great games for your off days ? Order & Chaos Duels, a card battle game based on the Gameloft massively multiplayer role-playing title, and Fetch, an interactive storybook-slash-point-and-click adventure title that's great for kids.
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Zinio put together a survival guide for magazine lovers, now that many magazine and newspaper publishers are embracing digital. Read about their counsel in this Guest Post.
What?s it about? News wire service Reuters brings stories from all over the country straight to your iOS device.
What?s cool? If you read news sites and newspapers, chances are you've read stories from Reuters. Like the Associated Press, it's a news wire service that has member agencies like newspapers, television networks and more all over the country and the world. That means you can get stories from a number of places on a number of topics wherever you are, as well as up-to-the-moment market data for those who keep an eye on stocks. You can read lots stories from a number of different topics and sections, and share stories through email, Facebook and Twitter.
Who?s it for? If you like reading news stories, Reuters has a ton of them, with a number of different topics available. News junkies, get all the info you need from all over the country and the world.
What?s it like? You might also check out the AP Mobile app, as well as BBC News.
What?s it about? Gameloft's beautiful World of Warcraft-like role-playing title Order & Chaos continues to spawn spinoffs, with its latest being a digital card battle game.
What?s cool?Like other card battle games, Order & Chaos Duels has players creating ?decks? of cards, each of which has different properties and stats to use in battle against another player and another deck. The game includes a single-player campaign mode in which you can work through a story, fighting a series of battles with your cards and earning new ones, and also lets you take on other players online with either live or asynchronous multiplayer battles.
Who?s it for? Fans of card battle games and Order & Chaos will find a new brand of strategy in this version of the franchise.
What?s it like? Check out the original Order & Chaos Online, as well as Rage of Bahamut for another fun card battle title.
Fetch (iPad) ($4.99)
What?s it about? The latest title from Big Fish Games, Fetch mixes adventure gameplay and storytelling with a bit of arcade action.
What?s cool? Fetch feels a bit like a hybrid of a number of genres, and it tells its story like an interactive e-book as much as an adventure game or an arcade title. It'll likely resonate best with younger audiences and their parents, telling the story of a boy searching for his stolen dog in a future filled with robots, aliens and other lighthearted dangers. Players can interact with lots of stuff on every screen to help tell the story, and there are the occasional puzzles to solve or waves of aliens to zap, but for the most part, Fetch is about interactive storytelling of the heartwarming, animated variety.
Who?s it for? Fetch will probably best appeal to kids and parents playing together, but there's a little something for everyone as well.
What?s it like? Try The Act for more interactive storytelling, and Puzzle Agent for an adventure game with lots of puzzles and a compelling (but more adult) story to tell.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? In an embarrassing twist to a coordinated cyberattack on six major South Korean companies this week, investigators said Friday they wrongly identified a Chinese Internet Protocol address as the source.
A joint team of government and private experts still maintains that hackers abroad were likely to blame, and many analysts suspect North Korea. But the error raises questions about investigators' ability to track down the source of an attack that shut down 32,000 computers Wednesday and exposed big Internet security holes in one of the world's most wired, tech-savvy countries.
South Korean investigators said Thursday that a malicious code that spread through the server of one of the hackers' targets, Nonghyup Bank, was traced to an IP address in China. Even then it was clear that the attack could have originated elsewhere because hackers can easily manipulate such data.
But the state-run Korea Communications Commission said Friday that the IP address actually belonged to a computer at the bank. The IP address was used only for the company's internal network and happened to be identical to a public Chinese address.
"We were careless in our efforts to double-check and triple-check," KCC official Lee Seung-won told reporters. He blamed the error on investigators' rush to give the public details on the search for a culprit.
Yonhap news agency, in an analysis Friday, called the blunder "ridiculous" and said the announcement is certain to undermine government credibility.
Yonhap criticized officials for failing to dispel public anxiety in a country where people's lives are closely interwoven with services provided by media and financial institutions.
An initial assumption that the attack came from abroad may have made investigators jump to conclusions, said Lee Kyung-ho, a cybersecurity expert at Seoul's Korea University.
"They rushed," he said. "They should've investigated by checking the facts step by step."
The investigation will take weeks. Investigators have said the attacks appeared to come from "a single organization" and suspect the hackers were from outside the country. Lee Seung-won, the KCC official, discounted the possibility that the attack could have come from within South Korea, but he didn't elaborate.
Lee Kyung-ho and many other South Korean experts suspect North Korea is behind the attack on broadcasters YTN, MBC and KBS, as well as Nonghyup and two other banks.
While there are many possible explanations, he said, including a homegrown hacker, the culprits are most likely to be North Koreans angry over ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills. Lee said Pyongyang is well aware that an attack on financial institutions and media companies would create lots of publicity and turmoil in South Korea's vibrantly capitalistic society.
North Korea has issued many threats against the South and the U.S. in recent days, but by Friday it had yet to mention the South Korean computer crashes in state-run media.
South Korean officials say they have no proof of Pyongyang's involvement. The country is preparing to deal with more possible attacks, presidential spokesman Yoon Chang-jung told reporters earlier Friday. He didn't elaborate.
Determining who's behind a digital attack is often difficult, but North Korea is a leading suspect for several reasons.
It has unleashed a torrent of threats against Seoul and Washington since punishing U.N. sanctions were imposed for Pyongyang's Feb. 12 nuclear test. It calls ongoing routine U.S.-South Korean military drills a threat to its existence. Pyongyang also threatened revenge after blaming Seoul and Washington for a separate Internet shutdown that disrupted its own network last week.
Seoul alleges six previous cyberattacks by North Korea on South Korean targets since 2009.
Wednesday's cyberattack did not affect South Korea's government, military or infrastructure, and there were no initial reports that customers' bank records were compromised. But it disabled cash machines and disrupted commerce.
All three of the banks that were hit were back online and operating regularly Friday. It could be next week before the broadcasters' systems have fully recovered, though they said their programming was never affected.
Duncan James from boy band Blue has opened up about his sexuality in a TV documentary and revealed that he previously dated a male dancer from the pop group.
The singer also said he was ?so frightened? when the News of the World revealed that he was bisexual ? he had to flee the country.
Speaking on ITV?s The Big Reunion, James?said he struggled to come to terms with his sexuality because of his religious upbringing. He said: ?Being brought up as a strict Catholic, the whole gay thing in my head was bad and wrong.
?And it wasn?t until I was in the band, being around other gay guys, understanding that actually you can be gay. It?s alright to like other guys.?
He also revealed he had a secret three year relationship with one of Blue?s male backing dancers.
James said: ?I actually really liked him and I couldn?t tell anybody.?
?We would meet up in secret places; hotels or wherever. I used to ring him up paranoid, ?Have you told anybody? Have you told anybody?? and he?d be like, ?I?m not going to tell anybody, I promise you??.
During this time?James was also having sexual relationships with women?? something which led to his lover?s heart being broken.
?I broke his heart to the point where he couldn?t be with me in that way any more and ended it?.
James added: ?And it was at that moment when he was gone out of my life, I realised about myself.?
In 2010, James revealed that he had previously struggled to come off anti-depressants after Blue?split.
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Greenberg Traurig?s Neil Oberfeld was appointed to the Law Conference Planning Committee of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) for its upcoming annual U.S. Shopping Center Law Conference. Oberfeld is involved in a number of non-profits, including National Commissioner and Regional Director for the ADL?s Rocky Mountain Region; Trustee of the Rose Community Foundation and chair of the Foundation?s Jewish Life Committee and Committee on Aging; and much more.
Many similar attorneys and real estate executives, from Avi Goldberg and Michael Levy to Ron Hershco and others are additional prominent executives in business and philanthropy.
Oberfeld will be pivotal in determining the direction and content of over 65 sessions for 1,200 legal professionals in the real estate industry attending the four-day conference, where attendees can gain specific industry knowledge and insight from some of the country?s leading legal authorities in areas that will impact shopping centers.
Bears tight end Evan Rodriguez didn?t want the attention that came with police questioning after an accident involving a car he was the passenger in, but probably cost himself a trip to jail because he lacked that internal timer that tells a person when it?s best to shut up.
(In other news, my wife just got a sharp pain in the back of her head and has no idea why.)
Sean Jensen of the Chicago Sun-Times obtained a copy of the police report from Rodriguez?s arrest in Miami Beach last night on charges of resisting without violence and disorderly intoxication.
According to the report, Rodriguez balked when an officer asked for his identification, saying ?For what? I don?t need this,? and then ?I?m an NFL player. I don?t need all the media stuff.?
When the officer told him the information was going into the passenger section of the traffic accident report, he gave the information but appeared upset. He then walked away, but returned when another officer was giving the driver of the car he was in a roadside sobriety test. He then walked into the middle of the road, was told to go back to the sidewalk, but returned. Asked again to go to the sidewalk, he replied: ?I?m hardheaded like that and I don?t have to listen.?
Told again to go the sidewalk, he replied: ?I don?t need this. I?m an NFL player.?
After continuing to pester the cops, a crowd gathered, and police reported Rodriguez ?slurred speech, blood shot watery eyes and a strong odor of alcoholic beverage emitting from his breath.?
Every indication in the report is that Rodriguez would have been ignored as nothing more than a passenger if he had been polite and minded his own business.
Now if you?ll excuse me, my phone?s ringing. It?s the wife.
Scientists create new tools for battling secondhand smokePublic release date: 21-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: John Cramer John.D.Cramer@dartmouth.edu 603-646-9130 Dartmouth College
Dartmouth researchers have taken an important step in the ongoing battle against secondhand tobacco smoke. They have pioneered the development of a breakthrough device that can immediately detect the presence of secondhand smoke and even third-hand smoke.
Smaller and lighter than a cellphone and about the size of a Matchbox car, the device uses polymer films to collect and measure nicotine in the air. A sensor chip then records the data on an SD memory card. The technology is described in a new study appearing in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research.
"We have developed the first ever tobacco smoke sensor that is sufficiently sensitive to measure secondhand smoke and record its presence in real time," says Professor of Chemistry Joseph BelBruno, whose Dartmouth lab conducted the research. "This is a leap forward in secondhand smoke exposure detection technology and can be considered the first step in reducing the risk of health effects."
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says children are especially vulnerable to environmental tobacco smoke. Its effects on the young can include an increased risk of pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. While many parents try not to smoke around their children, going to a different room or smoking out on the porch may not be going far enough. Now, for the first time, there is a prototype sensor that will let the parent see whether or not their precautions make a difference.
"The intent of the project isn't to make them stop smoking, but it is to make them stop exposing their children to smoke. On the other hand, if they are worried about their children, demonstrating these exposures may be an incentive for them to stop," BelBruno says.
Secondhand smoke comes from the burning end of a cigarette or from smoke exhaled by the smoker. Third-hand smoke, also a potential health hazard, according to the Mayo Clinic, is nicotine residue that remains on clothing, furniture, car seats, and other material after the air has cleared.
While the current device is a patent-pending prototype, BelBruno foresees the eventual availability of an affordable consumer version that will incorporate a computer processor, reusable polymer films, and a rechargeable battery. It may even incorporate an LED panel to provide instantaneous readouts.
In addition to its uses in safeguarding childhood health, there are commercial applications for these unique detectors. Installed in rental cars, hotel rooms, and restaurants, this device could help enforce owner and operator smoking bans through an alert system, much like existing, ceiling-mounted smoke detectors.
Before the secondhand smoke project, BelBruno's lab had been working on sensor development for problem molecules such as heavy metals and other toxins in the water and the air. BelBruno says that David Kotz, the Champion International Professor of Computer Science, was the catalyst for the secondhand smoke project.
"He knew that people at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth were interested in doing a study to try to reduce children's exposure to secondhand smoke, and he knew that we were working on sensors. He got us together, we talked, and this project came out of it."
Given the hundreds of compounds in cigarette smoke, BelBruno's group began with a plan for a multi-component sensor but found this approach unnecessarily complex. The sensor they came up with detects cigarette smoke alone, simply and efficiently.
The research team included Dartmouth chemistry graduate students Yuan Liu and Sadik Antwi-Boampong, and from the Geisel School of Medicine, Mardi Crane-Godreau (Department of Microbiology and Immunology) and Susanne Tanski (Department of Pediatrics and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center). Crane tested the device in a laboratory smoking chamber and Tanski plans to start clinical studies this summer.
###
This research was supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics Julius B. Richmond Center of Excellence, funded through the Flight Attendants Medical Research Institute, and by the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Scientists create new tools for battling secondhand smokePublic release date: 21-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: John Cramer John.D.Cramer@dartmouth.edu 603-646-9130 Dartmouth College
Dartmouth researchers have taken an important step in the ongoing battle against secondhand tobacco smoke. They have pioneered the development of a breakthrough device that can immediately detect the presence of secondhand smoke and even third-hand smoke.
Smaller and lighter than a cellphone and about the size of a Matchbox car, the device uses polymer films to collect and measure nicotine in the air. A sensor chip then records the data on an SD memory card. The technology is described in a new study appearing in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research.
"We have developed the first ever tobacco smoke sensor that is sufficiently sensitive to measure secondhand smoke and record its presence in real time," says Professor of Chemistry Joseph BelBruno, whose Dartmouth lab conducted the research. "This is a leap forward in secondhand smoke exposure detection technology and can be considered the first step in reducing the risk of health effects."
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says children are especially vulnerable to environmental tobacco smoke. Its effects on the young can include an increased risk of pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. While many parents try not to smoke around their children, going to a different room or smoking out on the porch may not be going far enough. Now, for the first time, there is a prototype sensor that will let the parent see whether or not their precautions make a difference.
"The intent of the project isn't to make them stop smoking, but it is to make them stop exposing their children to smoke. On the other hand, if they are worried about their children, demonstrating these exposures may be an incentive for them to stop," BelBruno says.
Secondhand smoke comes from the burning end of a cigarette or from smoke exhaled by the smoker. Third-hand smoke, also a potential health hazard, according to the Mayo Clinic, is nicotine residue that remains on clothing, furniture, car seats, and other material after the air has cleared.
While the current device is a patent-pending prototype, BelBruno foresees the eventual availability of an affordable consumer version that will incorporate a computer processor, reusable polymer films, and a rechargeable battery. It may even incorporate an LED panel to provide instantaneous readouts.
In addition to its uses in safeguarding childhood health, there are commercial applications for these unique detectors. Installed in rental cars, hotel rooms, and restaurants, this device could help enforce owner and operator smoking bans through an alert system, much like existing, ceiling-mounted smoke detectors.
Before the secondhand smoke project, BelBruno's lab had been working on sensor development for problem molecules such as heavy metals and other toxins in the water and the air. BelBruno says that David Kotz, the Champion International Professor of Computer Science, was the catalyst for the secondhand smoke project.
"He knew that people at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth were interested in doing a study to try to reduce children's exposure to secondhand smoke, and he knew that we were working on sensors. He got us together, we talked, and this project came out of it."
Given the hundreds of compounds in cigarette smoke, BelBruno's group began with a plan for a multi-component sensor but found this approach unnecessarily complex. The sensor they came up with detects cigarette smoke alone, simply and efficiently.
The research team included Dartmouth chemistry graduate students Yuan Liu and Sadik Antwi-Boampong, and from the Geisel School of Medicine, Mardi Crane-Godreau (Department of Microbiology and Immunology) and Susanne Tanski (Department of Pediatrics and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center). Crane tested the device in a laboratory smoking chamber and Tanski plans to start clinical studies this summer.
###
This research was supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics Julius B. Richmond Center of Excellence, funded through the Flight Attendants Medical Research Institute, and by the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
[ | 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.
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Public release date: 21-Mar-2013
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