Wait for Last-Minute Tickets to Make Better Use of Frequent Flier Miles

Frequent flier miles can add up pretty quickly, and while traditional wisdom might caution it's best to use those to book flights months in advance, The New York Times suggests it might be best to wait for last-minute tickets instead.

Airlines don't release all the awards seats right away, and often wait until the last minute to add in frequent flier flyer seats. So, if you're having trouble finding a flight that works with your miles, you might be best off waiting. The New York Times explains:

While many frequent fliers score seats by booking a year in advance, airlines don't release all award seats that early, which means you may have better luck with a last-minute trip. Mr. [Jay] Sorensen said his company tried booking award tickets 5 to 15 days in advance, and generally found better availability than searching months ahead. Except for holiday travel, my experience confirms that tip...

A drawback of last-minute awards: American, United and US Airways charge up to $75 for booking less than 21 days in advance, which may be waived if you have elite status. Delta doesn't charge a late fee.

While booking at the last minute certainly isn't ideal for everyone, it's worth considering if you have a lot of unused miles. Head over to the Times for a few more ideas on making better use of your miles and awards.

How to Get a Seat Out of Your Miles | The New York Times

Photo by Karl Baron.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/qHlRb8Mld2s/wait-for-last+minute-tickets-to-make-better-use-of-frequent-flier-miles

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Green Blog: Market for Bear Bile Threatens Asian Population

European Pressphoto Agency Bears await food on a farm in Fujian Province in China that is run by the pharmaceuticals maker Guizhentang. The company legally makes tonics from bear bile.

The six bears that arrived this month at Animals Asia, an animal rescue center in China, had the grisly symptoms of inhumane ?bile milking.? Greenish bile dripped from open fistulas used to drain gall bladders; teeth were broken and rotted from gnawing on the bars of tiny cages.

Four of the bears have since had surgery to remove gall bladders damaged by years of unhygenic procedures to extract their bile, which is coveted for its purported medicinal properties. One bear?s swollen gall bladder was the size of a watermelon.

The latest batch of bears was rescued from an illegal farm by the Sichuan Forestry Department and joins 279 other bears at the center, near Chengdu in southwestern China. With luck, these bears will recover at the sanctuary. But thousands on farms, both legal and illegal, continue to suffer in wretched conditions, and countless others living in the wild across Asia are threatened by poaching and their illegal capture.

Bear bile contains a chemical called ursedeoxycholic acid, long used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat gallstones, liver problems and other ailments. There are an estimated 10,000 farmed bears in China, 3,000 in Vietnam, at least 1,000 in South Korea and others in Laos and Myanmar.

Tigers, rhinos and elephants are notoriously poached to satisfy high demand in Asia for their parts, which are falsely assumed to have medicinal properties. Experts warn that sun bears and Asiatic black bears, known colloquially as ?moon bears,? are on a similar route to endangerment, although their plight draws less media attention. ?No bears are extinct, but all Asian ones are threatened,? said Chris Shepherd, a conservation biologist and deputy regional director of the wildlife trade group Traffic who is based in Malaysia.

To address the threat, the demand for bear bile must be sharply reduced, Dr. Shepherd, a conservation biologist told hundreds of researchers at the International Conference on Bear Research and Management, an annual event held recently in New Delhi.

Reducing demand would require a multi-pronged effort, experts say. That would mean enforcing existing laws, arresting and prosecuting violators, promoting synthetic and herbal alternatives, and closing illegal farms.

Chinese celebrities like the actor Jackie Chan and the athlete Yao Ming have both spoken out against the bear bile industry to raise public awareness about poaching and the inhumane conditions typically found on farms. Bears often live for years in coffin-like cages in which they are unable to stand or turn around.

The bile is extracted through catheters inserted into the abdomen, with needles or by bringing the gall bladder to the skin?s surface, where it will leak bile if prodded.

Legal farming was conceived as a way of increasing the supply of bile to reduce the motivation for poaching wild bears, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. But there is no evidence that it has done so, it noted in a resolution passed last September, and there is concern among conservationists that it ?may be detrimental.?

The resolution also called on countries with legal bear farms to close down the illegal ones, to ensure that no wild bears are added to farms; to conduct research into bear bile substitutes (there are dozens of synthetic and herbal alternatives) and to conduct an independent peer-reviewed scientific analysis on whether farming protects wild bears.

Some groups argue that the increased supply of farmed bile has only exacerbated demand. ?Because a surplus of bear bile is being produced, bile is used in many non-medical products, like bear bile wine, shampoo, toothpaste and face masks,? Animals Asia says. Since bear farming began in China in the early 1980?s, bear bile has been aggressively promoted as a cure-all remedy for problems like hangovers, the group added.

In mainland China and Japan, domestic sales of bear bile are legal and theoretically under strict regulation as prescription products. But such sales are illegal in Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and the international trade is illegal as well.

Yet a 2011 report from Traffic indicated that bear bile products were on sale in traditional medicine outlets in 12 Asian countries and territories.

Nonprescription bear bile products like shampoo or toothpaste are illegal in China yet are readily available for purchase, conservationists say. Tourists from South Korea, a country that has decimated its own wild bear population, are major buyers in China and Vietnam even though taking bear bile products across borders is illegal under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna.

?Farms have drawn in bile consumers by creating a huge market ? bile is cheap,? said David Garshelis, a research scientist at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources who is co-chairman of the I.U.C.N.?s bear specialist group.

In Vietnam, a milliliter of bile might sell for $3 to $6; about 100 milliliters can be extracted from a bear each day, according to Annemarie Weegenaar, bear and director of the veterinarian team at Animals Asia?s Vietnam center.

In four years, the I.U.C.N. is to issue a report on whether bear farms threaten wild populations. Meanwhile, demand appears to be spreading further afield in Asia and is now growing in Indonesia, largely as a result of demand from the Chinese and Korean communities there, said Gabriella Fredriksson, a conservation biologist based in Sumatra. A low-level poacher can sell a gall bladder from a bear caught in a simple snare and then killed for about $10.

So far the biggest threat to bears in Indonesia is loss of habitat from forest fires and the conversion of land to palm oil plantations. But in the last few years, poaching has increased, said Dr.
Fredriksson, who has been there 15 years.

She cautioned that bears in Indonesia could also become highly threatened. ?Fifty years ago, bears were doing well in Cambodia and Laos,? she said. ?Now there?s hardly any left.?

Source: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/market-for-bear-bile-threatens-asian-population/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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No more 'angry white men'

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

CHARLOTTE, N.C.?Republican National Committee members gathered here to re-elect Chairman Reince Priebus for a second term. But by week's end, that vote seemed secondary to the question of the party's long-term survival.

After three months of denial, anger, despair and depression over the results of a bruising national election that gave Democrats an edge in Congress and kept President Barack Obama in the White House, Republicans know they must adapt if they are to move forward.

They acknowledge that it's time for a serious gut check (or, as Haley Barbour put it in November, a "proctology exam").

Whatever bodily metaphor you choose, the fact remains that the election so jolted and shocked the party that it is taking real steps to change.

And change it will! As soon as it figures out how.

While Republicans in Virginia and other battleground states launched an effort this week to alter Electoral College rules so that votes are doled out proportionately?which would likely give the GOP at least a short-term edge?GOP leaders here discussed their party's own shortcomings and sought areas of internal improvement.

Almost every conversation in the bar of the Charlotte Westin Hotel this week involved a discussion about what the party must do to win the next elections. Floating through the air is a desire to recapture glorious days of the past, a challenge made difficult by a country that refuses to stand still. Demographics are changing, minorities are growing in political influence and views on social issues like gay marriage are drifting rapidly leftward. Something's got to give.

Bring in the Bobs

Enter the RNC's five-person "Growth and Opportunity" committee, an ethnically diverse cadre of political veterans and RNC members analyzing what the party must to do avoid another 2012-like drubbing. (Think of them as The Bobs from "Office Space," but with American flag lapel pins.)

The group includes Henry Barbour, a Mississippi committeeman and Haley Barbour's nephew; former George W. Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer; Florida strategist Sally Bradshaw; South Carolina committeeman Glenn McCall and Puerto Rico committeewoman Zori Fonalledas. They will submit a detailed report in March that looks back on the 2012 election and forward to 2014 and 2016.

"You're going to see a very renewed aggressive effort by this party to put on a different face," Bradshaw said on Thursday. "We've got to find a way to take our message to more people and get more votes. It's not a particularly complicated formula. We got beat; we have to change what we're doing."

The report is a work in progress, and only part of it will be made public, but The Bobs delivered an update on their findings on Thursday to the RNC members.

First, they said Republicans must work on improving their tone when taking their ideas to the American people. For example, when discussing immigration, maybe presidential candidates should avoid phrases like "self-deportation" (Mitt Romney) and "anchor babies" (Michele Bachmann).

Henry Barbour said some in the party can appear "hostile" to certain constituencies with the rhetoric they use. The party must increase communication training for candidates, he said.

"There are certainly too many times when we've had candidates who have come across as hostile, and that's not really helpful when you're trying to win elections," Barbour said.

Robert Bennett, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, was even more blunt.

"We need to understand that we can't come off as a bunch of angry white men," he said.

Minority 'engagement' a top priority

Making an honest effort to engage minorities was above anything else the main, yet unofficial, focus of party leaders this week.

On Thursday, committee members took part in a closed-door panel discussion on minority engagement. Edward Cousar, a black committeeman from South Carolina who sat on the panel, said white Republicans struggle in part because they spend too much time with other white Republicans. They have little idea how to speak or interact in a way that appears welcoming to outsiders who come from different ethnic and social backgrounds.

"People get set in their ways, and maybe they don't have a diverse set of friends and they say things," Cousar told Yahoo News in an interview before the panel. "It's not that they're being racist. They just don't know."

Cousar, who leads the Black Republican Political Action Committee, pointed to past Republican efforts to suppress early voting?"shameful," he said?and Romney's writing off of 47 percent of the country as unwinnable.

"I always thought Romney had better policies," Cousar, who is the only Republican in his family, said, comparing Romney and Obama. "But he was a horrible messenger."

In November, Obama won more than 70 percent of the Hispanic vote and more than 95 percent of black voters supported him. Single women also fled the Republican party on Election Day, with about two-thirds supporting the Democrat. It's a serious problem for Republicans, one they admit will take a lot of time to overcome.

"It's not going to happen overnight," said McCall, a black member of the study group. "But it can be done, and we're going to make that effort."

No more witches

Part of that effort relies heavily on recruiting quality candidates, many attendees said.

For the past four years, Republicans have faced a series of disappointing setbacks after mediocre candidates?often tea party favorites?have gone on to lose very winnable elections.

They include Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin, who lost a Missouri Senate race last year and forced Romney and other Republicans on the defensive over women's issues.

In 2010, Nevada's Sharron "Second Amendment Remedies" Angle and Delaware's Christine "I'm Not A Witch" O'Donnell lost Senate races Republicans had been expected to win.

The party hopes to take steps to avoid such catastrophes.

Republicans say if that means supporting a moderate candidate who can actually win over a hardline conservative who doesn't stand a chance, so be it. (You may have noticed that among the names that make up The Bobs, there isn't anyone who might be considered a "tea party leader.")

"If we're not nominating candidates that can win in the general election, what business are we in?" Barbour said. "We are in the business of winning elections."

There is one thing, however, that no one?not the committee members, elected officials or even The Bobs?seem interested in addressing, and that's whether core Republican ideas need to change.

Most here said they don't.

"The conservative message sells," said Saul Anuzis, the former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party. "We're on the right side of history, on the right side of the issues. We just haven't done a very good job on articulating the issues."

Anuzis' analysis is pretty universal in Republican circles. They see the true cause of their problems as merely poor presentations of otherwise good ideas.

That means a tricky rhetorical sleight of hand.

Don't believe women should have access to an abortion if they are raped or victims of incest? Try not to talk about it. Think the 47 percent of Americans who don't pay federal income taxes are "takers"? Please don't quote Ayn Rand in your stump speech. Support laws banning gay couples from legal rights guaranteed to straight couples? Keep it in the closet. And remember, when in doubt, pivot and talk about economic growth.

Barbour admitted his committee wasn't brought in to debate or change those policy ideas. Their task, he said, is to put Republicans on a path to win election?not a squishy exercise in lazy pontificating or a dorm room bull session about the proper role of government.

It's data driven.

It's going to hurt some feelings.

And most of all, it's damn serious.

"We did get whipped in the presidential election," Barbour said. "That's not something we take lightly."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/republicans-prepare-comeback-t-come-off-bunch-angry-180422999--election.html

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Rubio Refining Immigration Message | Center for Immigration Studies

Senator Rubio was on Mark Levin?s show Wednesday (view the YouTube video below right to listen), revising and extending his earlier remarks on amnesty to the Journal and the Times. He seems to be walking back some of what he said last week, asserting the need for ?triggers? to ?certify that, indeed, the workplace security thing is in place, the visa tracking is in place, and there?s some level of significant operational control of the border.? Whatever its superficial appeal, this trigger idea is an old gimmick used to reconcile the ?enforcement first? demand with amnesty. A big problem with it is defining a trigger ? past versions have involved a target level of appropriations or maybe certification by the four southern border governors that the border is secure. But even if there were a workable trigger, and I?ve never seen one, there would be irresistible political pressure on whoever was responsible to get the certifying over with so the amnesty could get under way.

A better approach is smaller confidence-building measures, like mandatory E-Verify in exchange for amnesty for illegals who came here as infants or toddlers. If either side welshes on the deal ? as the amnesty crowd did in willfully abandoning their 1986 insincere promise to support immigration enforcement in exchange for amnesty ? then the damage is contained. But if each side honors the deal, and we did get, say, full implementation of E-Verify and the most sympathetic of the DREAMers did get amnestied, then you could proceed to a further step.

And a further problem with the trigger approach is that it would require things that are already on the books. An exit-tracking system for foreign visitors, for instance, is vital to any serious immigration-control system (as Senator Rubio is now pointing out), but the requirement to implement one has been on the books for 17 years. Why would immigration hawks negotiate over something that was supposed to already be in place? The executive branch needs to keep its old promises before it starts making new ones.

Also on Levin?s show, Senator Rubio clarified his ?path to citizenship.? The illegals would all get amnesty immediately, of course, but they would only have a renewable work visa. After a time, they?d be able to apply for green cards (that could lead to citizenship) only through the existing immigration system by, say, marrying a citizen or what have you. Practically speaking, that would mean millions of the amnestied illegal aliens would remain in that work-visa status for the rest of their lives, creating a strong issue for Democrats: ?Vote for us and we?ll end the Jim Crow immigration status the evil Republicans have imposed on you!? We?d lose Hispanic market share with that kind of approach.

Finally Rubio seems to be calling for gigantic increases in legal immigration. He?s been stressing the need to increase share of legal immigrants who are selected based on their skills; currently, the employment-based categories account for only 13 percent of the 1 million-plus immigrants we take each year, and half of those are spouses and children of the immigrants selected for their skills, which is why he?s been saying only 6.5 percent of legal immigration is skill-based. But Rubio is also saying, as in this Spanish-language op-ed that?s being widely published, that ?None of this should lead us to abandon or weaken immigration based on family.? Well, to get that 6.5 percent skilled figure up to just 25 percent of the total immigration flow, without reducing family immigration (or the visa lottery or refugee resettlement) would require an annual legal immigration level of 1.9 million a year, almost double what we have now. If Rubio wants to double legal immigration, he needs to make that clear now.

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Source: http://www.cis.org/krikorian/rubio-refining-immigration-message

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Tuxedo Stan, cat who ran for mayor of Halifax battling kidney cancer

HALIFAX - A cat who gained world-wide fame when he ran for mayor of Halifax is battling a serious illness.

Owner Hugh Chisholm says Tuxedo Stan is resting at home after undergoing treatment for kidney cancer at a veterinary college in Charlottetown.

Chisholm says Tuxedo Stan was admitted to hospital this week after the discovery of a large mass in his abdomen, which turned out to be a cancerous tumour on his left kidney.

Chisholm says the 2 1/2 year old, black and white cat will continue treatment for renal lymphoma, a type of cancer that is not uncommon in older cats.

He says Tuxedo Stan is receiving hundreds of messages of support through his Facebook and website page from fans all over the world.

The black and white cat ran in last fall's municipal election to raise awareness about the plight of stray cats in the city, a campaign that was endorsed by talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and CNNs Anderson Cooper.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tuxedo-stan-cat-ran-mayor-halifax-battling-kidney-145244186.html

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Businesses want corporate income tax at below 23 percent ...

Vietnam Tax Consultancy Association related stories

VietNamNet Bridge ? A lot of business associations have proposed to set up the corporate income tax rate at lower than 23 percent, the threshold suggested in the draft tax law.

Sharper decreases, sooner validity wanted

The Ministry of Finance has finished the drafting of the Corporate Income Tax law, planning to slash the popular corporate income tax from 25 percent currently to 23 percent. Small and medium enterprises would be able to enjoy a lower tax rate of 20 percent.

The small and medium enterprises mean the ones with less than 200 workers and the annual revenue of VND20 billion.

According to the Vietnam Tax Consultancy Association, it would be more reasonable to apply the normal tax rate at 22 percent, or one percent lower than the suggested rate.

Over the last nine years, the corporate income tax rates have been adjusted several times. The 2003 Corporate Income Tax law, which took valid on January 1, 2004, decided the four percent tax rate decrease from 32 percent to 28 percent.

The 2008 law, applied since January 1, 2009, decided the three percent decrease, from 28 percent to 25 percent. And the Ministry of Finance this time plans a 9.2 percent decrease from 25 percent to 23 percent, before the tax rate would be lowered to 20 percent by 2020.

The tax consultancy association, while believing that the 20 percent tax rate by 2020 is suitable to the tax policy renovation process, still believes that the corporate income tax should be lowered by one more percent for the immediate time to encourage businesses to expand their investment and scale up production.

The plan by the finance ministry to offer preferential tax rate of 20 percent to small and medium enterprises has been applauded by business associations. However, they still argue about what ?small and medium enterprises? mean.

The Gia Lai provincial business association has proposed to loosen the requirements on enterprises to be recognized as small and medium businesses. These should be the enterprises using less than 300 full time workers and the annual revenue of no more than VND100 billion.

Not only wanting sharper tax rate decreases, businesses believe that the new tax rates should be taken valid sooner than initially planned, on July 1, 2013, instead of January 1, 2014.

No limitations on ad and marketing expenses?

The Ministry of Finance seems to please businesses when deciding to raise the ceiling expenses on marketing and advertisements from 10 percent to 15 percent of total expenses. This means that enterprises must not spend more than 15 percent of their total expenses on advertisements.

Meanwhile, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), which represents the business circle, has insisted that no limitation on businesses? spending should be set up. In principle, they should be given the right to decide how much to spend and on what they spend their money.

VCCI has found out from its survey that Vietnam is one of very few countries which set limitations on the expenses on ads and marketing. This makes businesses? actual expenses higher by 42-80 percent.

VCCI has also pointed out that in fact, most businesses spend more than they allowed on ads and marketing, especially newly set up businesses, which need to spend money to build up their brands. Meanwhile, businesses in different business fields and with different scales would have different advertisement plans with different budgets.

Pham Huyen

Corporate Income Tax related stories

Source: http://talkvietnam.com/2013/01/businesses-want-corporate-income-tax-at-below-23-percent/

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Filmmaker Sir David Attenborough Calls Humans a Plague

Sir David Attenborough, the famed British naturalist and television presenter, has some harsh words for humanity.

"We are a plague on the Earth," Attenborough told the Radio Times, as reported by the Telegraph. "It's coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so."

Attenborough went on to say that both climate change and "sheer space" were looming problems for humanity.

"Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now," he said.

Sir David is not the only naturalist who has warned of population growth outstripping resources. ?Paul Ehrlich, the president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University and author of "The Population Bomb" (Sierra Club-Ballantine, 1968) has long used language similar to Attenborough's. And in 2011, an analysis of species loss suggested that humans are beginning to cause a mass extinction on the order of the one that killed the dinosaurs.

When asked about Attenborough's comments on humanity as its own scourge, Ehrlich told LiveScience he "completely agree[d], as does every other scientist who understands the situation." [Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth]

Even so, that doesn't mean forceful measures must be taken. "Government propaganda, taxes, giving every sexually active human being access to modern contraception and backup abortion, and, especially, giving women absolutely equal rights and opportunities with men might very well get the global population shrinkage required if a collapse is to be avoided," Ehrlich said.

In fact, providing free, reliable birth control to women could prevent between 41 percent and 71 percent of abortions in the United States, according to a study detailed in the Oct. 4, 2012, issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Other scientists also agreed to some extent with the heart of Attenborough's message.

"It's clear that increasing population growth makes some of our biggest environmental challenges harder to solve, not easier," said from Jerry Karnas, population campaign director for the Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson, Ariz.

Karnas added, however, "What's needed is not population control but a real emphasis on reproductive rights, women's empowerment, universal access to birth control and education, so more freedom for folks to make better, more informed family planning choices."

And population numbers would matter less for the planet's health if clean renewable energy were widely adopted as well as planning laws, he told LiveScience during an interview.

Attenborough is famous for his "Life on Earth" series of wildlife documentaries, among other nature programming. In 2009, he became a patron of the Optimum Population Trust, a group that advocates voluntary population limitation. At the time, he released a statement saying, "I've seen wildlife under mounting human pressure all over the world and it's not just from human economy or technology ? behind every threat is the frightening explosion in human numbers."

Earth's population reached 7 billion people on or around Oct. 31, 2011, according to United Nations estimates.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?& Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/filmmaker-sir-david-attenborough-calls-humans-plague-193528212.html

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New venture 'to mine asteroids'

22 January 2013 Last updated at 11:39 ET By Paul Rincon Science editor, BBC News website

A new venture is joining the effort to extract mineral resources on asteroids.

The announcement of plans by Deep Space Industries to exploit the rare metals present in the space rocks turns asteroid mining into a two-horse race.

The other venture, Planetary Resources, went public with its proposals last year.

Advocates of asteroid mining hope it could turn into a trillion-dollar business, but some scientists are highly sceptical of the idea.

Deep Space Industries wants to send a fleet of asteroid-prospecting spacecraft out into the Solar System to hunt for resources.

These spacecraft, which the company has dubbed "Fireflies", would use low-cost CubeSat components and benefit from discounted delivery to space by ride-sharing on the launch of larger communications satellites.

The Fireflies would have a mass of about 55 lb (25 kg) and be launched for the first time in 2015 on journeys of two to six months.

The company then wants to launch bigger spacecraft - which it calls "Dragonflies" - for round-trip visits that bring back samples.

These expeditions would take two to four years, depending on the target, and would return 60 to 150 lbs of material from target asteroids.

"Using resources harvested in space is the only way to afford permanent space development," said the company's chief executive David Gump.

"More than 900 new asteroids that pass near Earth are discovered every year. They can be like the Iron Range of Minnesota was for the Detroit car industry last century - a key resource located near where it was needed. In this case, metals and fuel from asteroids can expand the in-space industries of this century."

Asteroids could yield precious minerals such as gold, platinum and rare-Earth metals. But some are also thought to harbour water ice, which could be used as a raw material for the manufacture of rocket propellant or even breathable air.

The other firm in the mining race, Planetary Resources, has backing from several billionaire investors, including Google's Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, software executive Charles Simonyi and filmmaker James Cameron.

That company wants to start by launching orbiting telescopes that would identify suitable asteroid targets for mineral exploitation.

However, some scientists struggle to see how cost-effective asteroid mining could be, even with the high value of gold and platinum.

They point out that an upcoming Nasa mission to return just 60g (two ounces) of material from an asteroid will cost about $1bn.

Paul.Rincon-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21144769#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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The Military Lobby in America ? Antiwar.com Blog

Interest groups have always tried to influence the state for their own unearned benefit. Despite what idealists in this country would like to believe, going back to the founding of the United States, immediately following the end of the Revolutionary War, everyone from farmers to manufacturers scrambled get theirs from the fledgling state(s) in the form of subsidies, tax breaks, and protectionist regulation.

The most pernicious and by far the most influential lobby nowadays is the military-industrial complex. The name itself denotes a recipe for big government and big business to collude in the worst ways of corruption and warfare. The military lobby is especially distinct, despite the utter normalcy it has acquired today.

Consider what American revolutionaries thought of what could arguably be deemed the country?s first military lobby. Historian Merrill Jensen, in The New Nation: A History of the United States During the Confederation, 1781-1789, describes the founding of the Society of Cincinnati:

Americans, partly as a result of their English Heritage, and partly as a result of their experience with British troops after 1763, had a healthy dislike of anything smacking of the professional military man. Revolutionary constitutions one after another forbade standing armies in peace time. The effort to create a permanent military force at the end of the Revolution was turned down. But many Americans who served during the Revolution as officers developed a keen desire to continue a military career.

?The founding of the Society of Cincinnati as the war ended was only further proof to many Americans that military men must be feared and controlled by civil power?The purpose behind the organization was partly political and partly social. Many officers felt that they must unite in order to be effective in their appeals to Congress and the states.

?As news of [the Society's founding] spread abroad it was denounced in the press, private letter and pamphlet. Not only was there popular opposition, but men in high places, like Jefferson, John Adams, Sam Adams, and John Jay thought it a threat to new-won liberties.

?The popular clamor was so great that legislature after legislature denounced the Society. In Massachusetts a committee of both houses declared that the Society was ?unjustifiable, and if not properly discountenanced, may be dangers to the peace, liberty and safety of the United States in general, and this commonwealth in particular.?

?In 1787, John Quincy Adams said that the Society was daily acquiring strength and ?will infallibly become a body dangerous, if not fatal to the Constitution.?

How far the culture and politics of America has devolved from this ?healthy dislike? of a military interest group. Last week was the 52nd anniversary of President Dwight Eisenhower?s farewell address, in which he famously warned of the creation of ?a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions? and the burgeoning ?defense establishment? that contains millions of interested parties.

?In the councils of government,? Eisenhower said, ?we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.?We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.?

But it has endangered them. The federal government spends more on national security than the rest of the world combined. ?Last year, in 2012,? wrote The American Prospect?s David Callahan earlier this month, ?the U.S. government spent about?$841 billion?on security?a figure that includes defense, intelligence, war appropriations, and foreign aid.? This means ?about?80 cents of every dollar collected in traditional federal income taxes? goes to the defense establishment. That is unwarranted influence without parallel.

In a?Boston Globe?review?conducted in 2010, it was found that ?750 of the highest ranking generals and admirals who retired during the last two decades? moved ?into what many in Washington call the ?rent-a-general? business.? ?From 2004-2008,? the report found, ?80 percent of retiring three- and four-star officers went to work as consultants or defense executives? in our massive military-industrial complex.

Besides facilitating the constant state of war the US has been in for decades, the military-industrial complex enriches itself at the expense of ordinary Americans; it bolsters government power, which in turn bolsters the military industry itself, in a perpetual feedback that results in a global military presence abroad, unnecessary wars, appalling domestic surveillance, and an embedded?martial culture.

In early America, as corrupt and immoral as the political and social culture was, the birth of a minor military lobby ?was a stench in the nostrils of good democrats,? Jensen writes. But today, hardly anyone notices. It is business as usual; a staple of the status quo that goes unquestioned by virtually everyone.

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Source: http://antiwar.com/blog/2013/01/21/the-military-lobby-in-america/

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Aviation technology advances, FAA tries to keep up

DALLAS (AP) ? After two separate and serious battery problems aboard Boeing 787s, it wasn't U.S. authorities who acted first to ground the plane. It was Japanese airlines.

The unfolding saga of Boeing's highest-profile plane has raised new questions about federal oversight of aircraft makers and airlines.

Some aviation experts question the ability of the Federal Aviation Administration to keep up with changes in the way planes are being made today ? both the technological advances and the use of multiple suppliers from around the globe. Others question whether regulators are too cozy with aircraft manufacturers.

Even as they announced a broad review of the 787 earlier this month, top U.S. transportation regulators stood side-by-side with a Boeing executive and declared the plane safe ? saying that they would gladly fly in one. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood repeated his endorsement Wednesday.

A few hours later, the FAA issued an emergency order grounding the planes.

Despite their concerns, many safety experts still believe that the current regulatory process works ? the 787s were grounded before any accidents occurred.

The Dreamliner is the first airliner whose structure is made mostly from composite materials rather than aluminum. The plane relies more than previous airliners on electrical systems rather than hydraulic or mechanical ones, and it's the first airliner to make extensive use of lithium-ion batteries to power cabin-pressurization and other key functions.

Such technological advances may force the FAA to re-examine the way it does its job.

"We've gone from aviation to aerospace products that are much more complex," said Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst with the Teal Group. "The FAA is equipped for aviation. Aerospace is another matter."

Former National Transportation Safety Board member Kitty Higgins said the FAA must consider whether changes in its certification process would have turned up the problems in the Dreamliner battery systems.

"They need to make sure the certification process stays current with the industry and the new technology," she said.

An FAA spokeswoman declined to comment for this article, referring instead to statements made during a news conference last week. Officials said then that the review of the 787 wouldn't be limited to the Dreamliner's batteries. FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said that the agency would "make sure that the approved quality control procedures are in place and that all of the necessary oversight is done."

The FAA has said that its technical experts logged 200,000 hours testing and reviewing the plane's design before certifying the plane in August 2011. Boeing defended the process and the plane.

"We are confident in the regulatory process that has been applied to the 787 since its design inception," said Boeing Co. spokesman Marc Birtel. "With this airplane, the FAA conducted its most robust certification process ever."

A week ago, FAA's Huerta and Transportation Secretary LaHood endorsed the Dreamliner's safety even as they ordered a new review of its design and construction following a fire in a lithium-ion battery on a 787 that had landed in Boston. Then, this past Wednesday, after a battery malfunction on a second plane resulted in an emergency landing, they grounded Dreamliner flights in the U.S.

In certifying new planes, the FAA relies heavily on information from the manufacturers. That system has worked ? the U.S. commercial airline fleet is safer than ever ? but it is coming under renewed scrutiny after the 787 incidents.

Experts say that FAA officials have no choice but to rely on information from aircraft manufacturers as key systems of the plane are designed and built.

"As a practical matter, they can't do the testing," said longtime aviation consultant Daniel Kasper of Compass Lexecon. "They don't have the expertise in aircraft design, and they don't have the budget ? it would be too costly. They would have to be involved in every step."

Thomas Anthony, director of the aviation-safety program at the University of Southern California, said many new planes have flaws that are only discovered once they go into service, and that the regulatory process worked the way it was supposed to with the Dreamliner.

"The FAA used to be accused of 'blood priority'" ? acting only after a disaster, Anthony said. "In this case, it's not true. The regulators are taking their job seriously. There were no accidents, there were no injuries, there were no fatalities."

That has not always been the case. In 1979, authorities grounded the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 for five weeks after an engine tore loose from the wing of an American Airlines plane, causing a crash that killed 273 in Chicago. And there were other incidents that occurred after the DC-10 was introduced in 1971, including cargo-door problems that forced one emergency landing and caused a Turkish Airlines crash that killed 346 in 1974.

Boeing, based in Chicago, is racing to find a fix to the Dreamliner's battery systems and get the planes back in the air. It is still producing 787s but has stopped delivering them to customers.

Bloomberg News reported that Boeing has tried to persuade FAA to end the groundings by proposing a variety of inspections and having pilots monitor electronic signals from the batteries to prevent fires. The FAA has been reluctant to approve those steps without a clear idea of what caused the defects and how they can be prevented.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement issued Sunday that its own investigation continues into the Jan. 7 fire aboard the Japan Airlines Boeing 787 at Boston's Logan International Airport. An NTSB statement said the lithium-ion battery that powered the auxiliary power unit had been disassembled and examined at an agency laboratory. It added that the battery was X-rayed and CT scans were generated and certain components would undergo further scrutiny.

It also said investigators have examined several other components taken from the plane, including wire bundles and battery management circuit boards, adding test plans were being developed for those and other components removed from the aircraft. According to the statement, several other components were sent for further examination at Boeing's facility in Seattle and the manufacture's facilities in Japan.

___

AP Airlines Writer Joshua Freed contributed to this story from Minneapolis.

Follow David Koenig at http://www.twitter.com/airlinewriter

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-20-Boeing-FAA/id-7482b32fb6a24a51b728e0ad43755e2a

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No. 9 Tennessee breezes past Alabama 96-69

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ? On the final day of a week honoring Pat Summitt, Tennessee paid tribute to its former coach by continuing a tradition she had started.

Beating Alabama.

Bashaara Graves had 21 points and eight rebounds as one of five Tennessee players to score in double figures Sunday as the ninth-ranked Lady Vols trounced Alabama 96-69 for their 39th consecutive victory over the Crimson Tide.

"They wanted to play this in honor of Pat," said Tennessee coach Holly Warlick, who played for Summitt and worked as an assistant on her staff for 27 seasons. "Hopefully Pat saw what she has built this program on, and that's hard work with a foundation of defense and rebounding."

Alabama hasn't beaten the Lady Vols since an 85-66 victory in the 1984 SEC tournament. Tennessee leads the all-time series 46-2 and has never lost to the Tide during the regular season.

Most of those Tennessee wins over Alabama came when Summitt was coaching the Lady Vols. Sunday marked the last day of the SEC's "We Back Pat" week to support former Summitt's foundation and its fight against Alzheimer's disease. During the game, Summitt received checks totaling $32,145 toward her foundation from Sam's Club, the SEC women's basketball officials and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

Warlick and each of her assistants wore orange "We Back Pat" T-shirts under their blazers for the game. Before the game, Tennessee's coaches and players crossed the width of the court to hug Summitt, who was seated in the front row at midcourt. The team watched videos honoring Summitt before taking the floor.

Summitt, 60, stepped down as Tennessee's coach in April after winning 1,098 games and eight national titles in 38 seasons. She was diagnosed in 2011 with early-onset dementia, Alzheimer's type. Summitt remains on staff as head coach emeritus, attends just about every practice and watches each home game from the stands.

"It was really emotional for all of us, to have a coach who's made such an impact on everybody's lives, including ours," Tennessee guard Meighan Simmons said. "It was a really emotional time, just to give her a hug, to feel her and to let her know, 'Coach, I appreciate you. We love you.' It was one of those things. She just told every single one of us, 'Let's go. Let's get ready.' We were able to refocus very well after that."

Simmons scored 16 points as the Lady Vols (15-3, 6-0 Southeastern Conference) earned their eighth straight win overall. Isabelle Harrison, Jasmine Jones and Taber Spani each added 14 points.

Daisha Simmons scored 19 points, Kaneisha Horn added 14 points and Shafontaye Myers had 12 points for Alabama (11-7, 1-4). Horn also had 10 rebounds.

"I think Holly's done a great job stepping into her role, especially stepping into Pat's footsteps," Alabama coach Wendell Hudson said. "She's done a great job and has them playing at a very high level."

Tennessee's 39-game winning streak over Alabama is tied for the second-longest active streak in any conference rivalry. Stanford has beaten Pac-12 rival Washington State 53 straight times. UCSB has 39 straight wins over Cal State Fullerton in the Big West.

Alabama's lack of success in this series didn't bother the Crimson Tide in the early going. The Tide capitalized on Daisha Simmons' hot shooting and Tennessee's turnover problems to pull ahead early. Simmons scored 12 points in the first seven minutes of the game.

Tennessee took the lead for good at 20-18 on Harrison's layup with 10:20 left in the first half, but the Crimson Tide didn't go away immediately. Alabama was within five points until the Lady Vols closed the half on a 14-5 run to take a 49-35 lead into the intermission.

Alabama just couldn't slow down Tennessee.

The Lady Vols shot 62.9 percent (22 of 35) in the first half. Harrison and Graves, who had shot a combined 3 of 15 Thursday in a 75-66 victory at Auburn, teamed up to shoot 10 of 10 and score 23 points in the first half.

"We just couldn't get our shots off (against Auburn) and it was just horrible for us," Graves said. "We wanted to come out the Alabama game and make up for that game. I think we did that."

Graves and Harrison stayed hot in the second half as Tennessee put the game out of reach. Graves ended up shooting 9 of 11, while Harrison was 4 of 7 from the field and 6 of 6 from the free-throw line. Tennessee's inside strength made up for the fact it shot just 1 of 11 from 3-point range.

"It was a big factor," Horn said. "They're really long. They were able to get some rebounds and putbacks. They were pretty good players. I respect them."

Tennessee opened the second half on a 15-5 run and never looked back. After that 15-5 spurt, the Lady Vols led by at least 20 points the rest of the way.

Alabama has given up over 90 points in three of its last five games. The Tide fell 91-52 at Texas A&M on Jan. 3 and 95-83 to Georgia on Jan. 10. And they had no answers Sunday for a red-hot Tennessee team motivated to honor its former coach.

"We just wanted to make sure we represented UT and Pat in the fashion that we needed to," Warlick said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/no-9-tennessee-breezes-past-alabama-96-69-204506801--spt.html

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On 2nd term eve, Obama cites commitment to service

President Barack Obama stains a bookshelf at Burrville Elementary School in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013, as the first family participated in a community service project for the National Day of Service, part of the 57th Presidential Inauguration. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Barack Obama stains a bookshelf at Burrville Elementary School in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013, as the first family participated in a community service project for the National Day of Service, part of the 57th Presidential Inauguration. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

National Day of Service Honorary Chair, Chelsea Clinton, participates service project with Addison Rose, 8, of Washington, on the National Mall as part of the Inaugural event Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013 in Washington,. The two made cards for the Sunshine Mail Foundation that sends the cards along with care packages to the ill and disadvantaged people. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

First lady Michelle Obama stains a bookshelf at Burrville Elementary School in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013, as the first family participated in a community service project for the National Day of Service as part of the 57th Presidential Inauguration. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

ADDS NAME - Vice President Joe Biden, center, fills care kits with necessities for deployed U.S. service members, wounded warriors, veterans and first responders, joining the National Day of Service as part of the 57th presidential inauguration in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013. Volunteer Nathan Fouse walks with a care kit at right. Army Capt. Cesar J. Visurraga, US Army Nurse Corps, is at left (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Jay Desai, of Washington, front and Ariel Timar, of Cherry Hill, N.J., center, paint a mural as they participate in the National Day of Service on the Mall as part of the 57th Presidential Inaugural festivities, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013, in Washington, . The two were working on the Greater DC care project that will place the murals in schools and fire stations to help promote volunteerism. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? On the brink of a second term, President Barack Obama invoked Martin Luther King Jr.'s commitment to service Saturday as inauguration-goers flocked to the capital city for a distinctly American celebration including an oath-taking as old as the republic, a splashy parade and partying enough to last four years.

"I think we're on the cusp of some really great things," Vice President Joe Biden predicted for a country still recovering from a deep recession.

Freshly built inaugural stands at the Capitol gleamed white in the sun, and hundreds of chairs for special guests were set out on the lawn that spills down toward the National Mall as the president and vice president began their inauguration weekend.

Julius Cherry, in town from Sacramento, Calif., brought his family to the foot of the Capitol to see the area where their official tickets will let them watch the public ceremonies on Monday.

"There were people who said they'd never vote for an African-American president," the 58-year-old lawyer said. "Now they've voted for him twice, and he won the popular vote and the electoral vote. That says something about his policies and his team."

"And the country," added Cherry's wife, Donna.

Said Erika Goergen, from the Midwest and attending college locally: "It's amazing to be here right now."

Officials estimated that as many as 800,000 people will attend Monday's public ceremonies. That's more than live in the city, if far fewer than the 1.8 million who were at Obama's first inauguration in 2009.

The president made only a glancing reference to race as he spoke at an elementary school not far from the White House after he and first lady Michelle Obama stained a bookcase as part of a national service event organized by the inaugural committee.

"We think about not so much the inauguration, but we think about this is Dr. King's birthday we're going to be celebrating this weekend," the president said.

"He said everybody wants to be first, everybody wants to be a drum major. But if you're going to be a drum major, be a drum major for service, be a drum major for justice, be a drum major for looking out for other people," Obama said of the civil rights leader whose birthday is celebrated as a national holiday on Monday.

Because the date for inauguration set in the Constitution, Jan. 20, falls on a Sunday this year, Obama and Biden were to be sworn in for second terms in separate, private ceremonies on Sunday.

The public ceremonies are set for Monday, when Obama will take the oath of office at noon, then deliver an inaugural address before a large crowd and a national television audience in the millions.

The traditional lunch with lawmakers in the Capitol follows, and the inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the White House. There, a reviewing stand was adorned with the presidential seal and equipped with seats enough for Obama and other dignitaries to watch in relative comfort as military units, marching bands, floats and thousands of participants go past. A pair of inauguration balls will cap the day, including one with a guest list that runs to 40,000 names.

A select few ? those who donated as much as $1 million to defray inauguration expenses ? received special access to public as well as invitation-only receptions and parties.

The second term begins in circumstances different in many ways from the first, but familiar in others.

The economy, then in the grip of a fierce and deepening recession, is now recovering slowly as unemployment recedes and stocks flirt with five-year highs. The health care legislation that Obama urged Congress to enact in his first inaugural address is the law of the land, courtesy of a split ruling by the Supreme Court.

Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is dead at the hands of U.S. special operations forces. But the organization he inspired is far from moribund, as demonstrated by the just-ended kidnapping episode Saturday at an Algerian natural gas complex that, according to the Algerian government, left at least 23 hostages dead. The U.S. on Friday acknowledged one American death.

When Obama took office in 2009, his Democratic allies held control of Congress.

Now, divided government rules, and Republicans who control the House lead the way in insisting the administration agree to spending cuts that will reduce soaring federal deficits. Obama has said he is ready to compromise on that.

At the outset of a second term, he also wants Congress to overhaul the nation's immigration laws and take steps to reduce gun violence in the wake of the shooting last month in Newtown., Conn., that left 20 elementary school children dead.

Yet for once, politics seemed to edge ever so slightly into the background in the most political of cities.

Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton headlined a National Day of Service gathering under a tent on the National Mall, where she said she had been inspired by her grandmother, as well as her famous parents. She urged her audience to become part of a "chain of service" by helping the less fortunate.

Biden and his wife, Jill, spent time at an armory pitching in as volunteers packed 100,000 care kits for deployed members of the military, wounded warriors, veterans and first responders.

Biden credited former President George H. W. Bush, a Republican, for starting the "Points of Light" program, which was a sponsor of the event. He said service was an antidote to "the coarsening of our culture. We've got to get back to reaching out to people."

In the evening, Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Biden hosted the Kids' Inaugural Concert, an event paying special tribute to military spouses and children.

Families invited to the event cheered Usher as he sang his hit "Yeah!" Katy Perry, who donned star and stripes for her song "Firework," told the audience, "I'm very proud to be here ... and to see the Obamas and the Bidens here for four more years."

___

Associated Press writers Darlene Superville, Laurie Kellman, Frederic J. Frommer and Jocelyn Noveck contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-01-19-US-Obama-Inauguration/id-e7e83a42723f42beaa781e391717f40a

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98% Brooklyn Castle

All Critics (45) | Top Critics (20) | Fresh (44) | Rotten (1)

"Brooklyn Castle" easily checkmates your inner cynic.

Katie Dellamaggiore's lively and affecting documentary introduces us to a cast of characters that's very winning (in both senses of the word).

It's not To Sir, With Love: It's fierce ambition, the channeling of emotion, and hours of drilling.

Enlightening, inspiring and expertly crafted.

An irresistibly uplifting doc.

Castle is suspenseful, funny and, particularly in its depiction of the challenging home lives of some of the kids, moving.

... a powerful and positive story about dedicated teachers helping kids succeed no matter what their circumstances

Like chess, not exactly a high-energy experience but seeing what these kids accomplish, seemingly against all odds is breathtaking all the same.

...provides a corrective to the popular image of American schools as obsessed with sports and popularity, and it makes the strongest possible case for funding after-school activities.

Chess, brilliant young students and great teachers potent mix.

The I.S. 318 team? A delightfully motley, vulnerable, multicultural bunch, whose addiction to chess has allowed them higher aspirations for top high schools and, eventually, college and careers. You will root for them like crazy.

We meet five of the team's members and several of their teachers; by its end, you'll be rooting for them all.

"BROOKLYN CASTLE is a compelling, engaging and inspiring Documentary, featuring Junior High kids that you can relate to. Even if you don't know the game of Chess all too well, it won't stop you from enjoying this pleasant film."

Brooklyn Castle provides a snapshot of indomitable American can-do attitude, and gives one hope.

The admirable Brooklyn Castle transcends its formula to become an optimistic look at extracurricular education and young people.

Great story, well-made, what's not to like?

It's clear that chess isn't just a game; for these students, it can also open doors.

No quotes approved yet for Brooklyn Castle. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/brooklyn_castle_2012/

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Panasonic Lumix DMC-G5

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-G5 ($799.99 direct with lens) is the latest in Panasonic's line of SLR-styled Micro Four Thirds camera bodies. The 16-megapixel shooter looks and handles a lot like a scaled-down D-SLR. It has an extremely sharp eye-level EVF, a vari-angle touch-sensitive LCD, shoots at 5.3 frames per second, and shoots excellent photos through ISO 6400. It's not without its flaws?even though it records 1080p60 video there is no external microphone input, and its kit lens is just a tad soft at its widest setting. Its pros outweigh its cons, earning the camera a 4.5 star rating and our Editors' Choice award for compact interchangeable lens cameras under $1,000. If the $800 asking price is too big of a pill to swallow, the previous winner, the?Sony Alpha NEX-F3, is still an excellent camera and is currently selling for less than its original $600 asking price.

Design and Features
The G5 looks like someone took a typical D-SLR and put it in front of Rick Moranis's shrink ray. The handgrip, eye-level viewfinder, and physical control buttons are all arranged just like they would be on an SLR?but it measures just 3.3 by 4.7 by 2.8 inches and weighs only 12.2 ounces without a lens. It's bigger than compact-styled compact interchangeable lens camera like the Olympus PEN E-PL5?that measures 2.5 by 4.4 by 1.1 inches?but smaller than a compact D-SLR like the 3.8-by-5-by-3.1-inch Nikon D3200.

It's bundled with the Lumix G Vario 14-42mm lens, which seems a bit big for the camera thanks to the included petal lens hood. In reality, it's got a wider diameter than the collapsible Olympus 14-42mm kit lens included with its line of Micro Four Thirds cameras, but is not that much deeper when the hood is reversed for storage. The lens is optically stabilized, while the Olympus is not?this is due to a different approach in stabilization. Panasonic builds stabilization into its lenses, while Olympus puts it into bodies. Even though you can use lenses from either manufacturer interchangeably on Micro Four Thirds cameras, you won't have any form of stabilization if you opt to use Olympus glass on a Panasonic body. This also comes into play when using older lenses from other camera systems via an adapter.

Top-mounted controls include a standard Mode dial, a button to activate the iAuto mode, a Record button for video, a programmable Function Lever (by default it controls zoom when a power zoom lens is attached, but adjusts Exposure Compensation when one is not), and power switch, and the shutter release button. Rear controls include buttons to adjust Focus/Exposure Lock, ISO, White Balance, the Focus Area, the Self Timer, and Drive Mode. There's also a dedicated Q. Menu button, which gives you quick access to many shooting functions via an on-screen menu?it can be navigated via touch or via the physical controls. One weak point of the camera is the quality of the rear pad. It feels just a little bit mushy when using it, a departure from the crisp feel that I'm used to getting from similar controls on other cameras.

You can frame and review images using the 1.4-million dot eye-level electronic viewfinder or via the vari-angle rear LCD?that's 3 inches in size with a 920k-dot resolution. The LCD EVF is sharp and bright, but it's not quite on the same level as the OLED finder that is built into the Sony Alpha NEX-6?it has more contrast and a resolution that is in excess of 2.5 million dots. If you use the EVF, the G5 will start to focus just as you bring your eye to the camera?this can help you capture a quick shot that you may have just missed as the camera will be focused on what is in front of it by the time your eye is up against the eyecup.

The rear LCD is extremely sharp, although it lags a bit behind the 610k-dot OLED on the back of the top-end Olympus OM-D E-M5, and is touch sensitive. You can touch it to select a focus point and fire the shutter, or to adjust shooting settings. During playback it's possible to scroll through photos by swiping, just as you would with an iPhone.

There are a number of art filters built into the camera, and Panasonic feels they are an important enough aspect of the design that it has reserved a spot on the Mode dial for them. Most of the seven options contained within deal with color?you can get saturated images using the Expressive setting, washed out ones with Retro, bright photos with High Key, and darker images with Low Key. There's also Sepia, Dynamic Monochrome (high-contrast black-and-white, essentially), and Impressive Art (high-contrast color). A High Dynamic Range mode brings out the detail in shadows and tries to suppress blown highlights, Cross Process gives you the same funky color palette you get when developing slide film in color negative chemicals, and the Toy Effect mimics the plastic lens of Lomo cameras and adds a dark vignette around the edges.

There's also a Miniature Effect that mimics a tilt-shift lens, a Soft Focus effect, a Star Filter which adds star points to bright lights in your photos, and a One Point Color mode that lets you highlight a specific color in your image, leaving the rest in black and white. You can preview each of these in real time, and they work for video recording as well as for stills?although shooting video of the processor-intensive Miniature Effect requires a lower frame rate that noticeably speeds up your footage, reducing the time of your overall clip dramatically?and you can't record video at all when the Star Filter or Soft Focus engaged.

The camera doesn't have built-in Wi-Fi. You're seeing this more and more on cameras, including compact interchangeable lens models like the Sony Alpha NEX-5R and NEX-6, as well as the Samsung NX line, including the entry-level NX1000.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/zhFerTRmYLA/0,2817,2414383,00.asp

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Simple blood test can help identify trauma patients at greatest risk of death

Jan. 18, 2013 ? A simple, inexpensive blood test performed on trauma patients upon admission can help doctors easily identify patients at greatest risk of death, according to a new study by researchers at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City.

The Intermountain Medical Center research study of more than 9,500 patients discovered that some trauma patients are up to 58 times more likely to die than others, regardless of the severity of their original injuries.

Researchers say the study findings provide important insight into the long-term prognosis of trauma patients, something not previously well understood.

"The results were very surprising," said Sarah Majercik, MD, an Intermountain Medical Center surgeon and trauma researcher, whose team discovered that a tool developed at Intermountain Medical Center, called the Intermountain Risk Score, can predict mortality among trauma patients.

Dr. Majercik will present the findings from the study on January 18 at the 27th annual Scientific Session of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma in Phoenix.

The Intermountain Risk Score is a computerized tool available to physicians that combines factors like age, gender, and common blood tests known as the complete blood count (CBC) and the basic metabolic profile (BMP) to determine an individual's mortality risk.

All of the components of the tool have been helpful in evaluating individuals with medical problems like heart failure or chronic pulmonary disease. But until now, the benefit of the tool had not been tested for trauma patients hospitalized due to an accident or traumatic injury, rather than an underlying condition.

"As surgeons, we don't often use all of the CBC results in evaluating a patient who needs surgery for a bleeding spleen or after a motor vehicle accident, said Dr. Majercik. "There are certain values, such as hemoglobin, hematocrit, and platelets that we scrutinize closely as part of good clinical care, but then other parts, such as the red blood cell distribution width (RDW) that we pay no attention to at all in the acute setting. These factors are generally overlooked, even though they are part of the CBC that every trauma patient gets when he or she arrives in the emergency room."

Date from the Intermountain Risk Score tool will allow physicians to take additional precautions with patients who are at greatest risk, and also give doctors important information to consider when talking about prognosis with patients and families.

Dr. Majercik and her colleague Benjamin Horne, PhD, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute, reviewed the cases of 9,538 patients who had been admitted to the hospital with trauma during a six-year period.

Using the tool, the Intermountain Medical Center categorized patients according to high, moderate, and low risk levels. Some surprising findings emerged:

• High-risk men were nearly 58 times more likely to die within a year than low-risk men. Men with a moderate risk were nearly 13 times more likely to die than those with low risk.
• High-risk women were 19 times more likely to die within a year than low-risk women. And women with moderate risk were five times more likely to die than those with low risk.

"Some risk factors will be already apparent for physicians, but others aren't intuitive," said Dr. Horne.

For example, a trauma patient may look completely healthy apart from his or her injury. But if the Intermountain Risk Score tool uncovers an irregular red blood cell distribution width -- a common sign of anemia -- that will increase his risk of dying.

"It's a standard part of the CBC test, but it's not usually taken into consideration when treating a patient with injuries," said Dr. Horne. "Based on the findings of our research, it's something that should be looked at as part of the care plan model."

Dr. Majercik and Dr. Horne believe their research will give physicians a simple, fast way to better understand their patients' condition, and may lead to new treatment approaches that could reduce the risk of death.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Intermountain Medical Center, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/EfCA9oFluRs/130118072250.htm

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How are you protecting your data? Online Backup or Files in a box ...

It?s easy to forget the purpose of cloud online backup services. In our hurry to check the box we don?t think about what it is and why it?s a better option than the alternatives. Original notions of backing up and the copying of documents date back to before the printing press, when copying something had to be done by hand and was very labour intensive. Not exactly a sustainable model.

Where it began

First of all it?s important to remember that the idea of ?backing up? records isn?t a new one by any stretch of the imagination. For many years records of all types of documents have been kept as copies in offsite locations in order to ensure the continuance of business but also to ensure the safety of the documents. Two sides of the same coin I think you?ll agree. For obvious reasons this type of paper backup and document storage was very expensive and could only be done for a relatively small number of high value documents. It became more feasible when the idea of the carbon copy became a reality in the 20th century but even at that it was never ?viable for many businesses.

After Paper

Next in our innovative frame came the microfiche a literal photographic copy of a document so it could be viewed and even reproduced but even this was an expensive system requiring specialist equipment.?Then we moved on to the taped backup. The first true backup system where documents could be backed up relatively cheaply and taken offsite for storage. This finally made document and data storage viable for small and medium sized businesses who want to implement business continuity and disaster recovery plans, although they might not have called them this at the time. A natural extension of this was portable hard-drive backup systems.

Revolution

The real revolution has come with the implementation of high bandwidth communications networks which have enabled the transfer of large amounts of data relatively quickly. And with this came the possibility of data transfer to offsite locations. Still data storage innovations took a while to catch up to make data storage relatively cheap and compact. So it is only during the last 6-8 years that online backup was become viable and cost effective. The development of cloud processes and technologies and an increase in efficiencies has reduced these costs still more.

Advantages of Cloud Backup

The advantages of the cloud online backup approach are obvious.

• It is relatively cheap
• Can be paid for by consumption
• Automatically brings data offsite
• Can be mirrored to multiple locations
• Can be automated so it doesn?t take up resources
• After initial backup only new or changed files are backed up reducing bandwidth costs

The cost savings are large and obvious to the extent that it now finally makes sense for almost any business to have an online backup of their business data.

Recent Developments

Other more recent developments are the ability to not only back up this data but to secure it both in transport and in the data centre itself. This can be done with encryption. As well as this automatic health checking and healing of data if it becomes corrupted is now possible, so your data files can be re-checked against the originals and if there are differences then the original is backed up again.

As you can see we?ve come a long way in how we keep our business data safe. Reducing costs and labour along the way. The main driver of cloud online backup is businesses themselves who are always looking for a more suitable and more cost effective solution to managing risk. As more and more business ask themselves the question ?Can we survive losing our data?? the answer is more and more that it?s a risk that you no longer have to take.

Tags: data storage, file storage, microfiche, ONline backup, taped backup

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2013 at 12:34 pm and is filed under Cloud Backup, Cloud Disaster Recovery, Cloud Online Backup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://www.savenetsolutions.ie/blog/how-are-you-protecting-your-data-online-backup-or-files-in-a-box/

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