The Xbox One isn?t Xbox?s first foray into the cloud. If you?ve played an Xbox 360 game long enough to pull up a save screen, you know that you can save your games not only locally on your system, but up into the electronic ether. The Xbox One is expanding that cloud strategy, incorporating full-bore cloud computing as well.
?In a nutshell, what we?re doing with cloud power is we?re allowing every game and application on this system to fully use cloud-compute resources,? says Chad Gibson, Xbox Live?s principal group program manager. ?We love in our developer conferences to ask the question to game developers, ?What would you do with unlimited cloud computing for your game?? There are a lot of transformative things that we want to do, such as allow large-scale systems to move to the cloud, such as artificial intelligence systems, allow more epic 100-person battles, allow more of this sort of concurrent permanent experience to happen in these games.?
The bottom line is that while Microsoft isn?t making any kind of always-on mandates, developers have access to cloud services that allow for expanded console-gaming experiences. As in Gibson?s example, a game could incorporate larger worlds than possible with current console hardware, featuring elements of persistence that aren?t available, either. It?s certainly nothing new to PC gamers, who have been exploring worlds like these since the early days of MMOs. It?s a relative novelty to console gaming, however, and the fact that it?s baked into the system means that it?s tech that developers can plan for from the outset instead.
Circling back to the current state of Xbox gaming, Microsoft says that saves will be uploaded to the cloud automatically ? no memory management required.?
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Visit our Xbox Reveal Headquarters for complete coverage of today's news.?
Clueful, the mobile privacy app Apple booted from its App Store for being too revealing -- or possibly because of its own behavior?-- is staging a comeback. This time around, Clueful's maker Bitdefender is targeting Android users instead, with plans to reveal what the apps on your phone are doing, and how your privacy may be compromised in the process.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama believes journalists shouldn't be prosecuted for doing their jobs, the White House said Tuesday, showing solidarity with First Amendment advocates alarmed by a pair of high-profile federal probes into national security leaks.
Although Obama believes leaking classified information violates the law, he also believes that a free press is critical ? and that questions being raised about the proper balance between those two concerns are entirely appropriate, said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
"I can't comment on the specifics of any ongoing criminal matter," Carney said. "But if you're asking me whether the president believes that journalists should be prosecuted for doing their jobs, the answer is no."
That was a departure from the day before, when Carney declined to answer a question about whether it's appropriate for a reporter who published classified information to be treated as a potential criminal. "I understand the question and I appreciate it, but I cannot comment," Carney said.
Concerns about the Justice Department's efforts to unearth reporters' confidential sources in leak investigations have put the White House in a difficult position, unable to defend itself against claims that the administration is encroaching on press freedoms without commenting on pending investigations ? a move the White House says would be wholly inappropriate. Making it tougher for Obama to weigh in is the fact that the Justice Department probes essentially amount to criminal investigations of officials within his own administration.
Shortly after The Associated Press reported last week that prosecutors had secretly subpoenaed phone records for its reporters, the White House endorsed the idea of reviving media shield legislation in the Senate, a gesture designed to show it takes protections for journalists seriously even if it can't say whether its own Justice Department acted appropriately. But tensions over the issue were ratcheted up Monday after developments in another case revealed that an investigator had declared that a journalist who discloses leaked information is committing a crime.
In that case, prosecutors got a search warrant for the private emails of Fox News reporter James Rosen and used State Department building security records to track his movements as they sought to identify his source in a story about North Korea. That case led to the indictment of an official for revealing classified information, but prosecutors declined to arrest or seek an indictment of Rosen.
Fox News would not comment Tuesday on Carney's remarks, pointing instead to comments a day earlier from its executive vice president of news, Michael Clemente. He called the Rosen case "downright chilling" and vowed to "unequivocally defend his right to operate as a member of what up until now has always been a free press."
The White House Correspondents' Association said Tuesday that taken together, the two cases raise serious questions about whether the government has gotten too aggressive in tracking and monitoring reporters.
"We stand in strong solidarity with our colleagues who have been scrutinized. And in terms of the administration, ultimately what will matter more in all of these cases is action not words," the association said in a statement released by its board members and its president, Fox News Channel correspondent Ed Henry.
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Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP
As part of their Nintendo Direct presentation that took place on Friday, May 17th, Nintendo discussed upcoming games for their Wii U video game console, including a partnership with a former rival.
During that presentation, it was announced by Nintendo that the company would be entering a partnership with former 1990s gaming rival, Sega, involving Sonic the Hedgehog.
Three Sonic games will be coming out of this partnership exclusively for Nintendo platforms.
One of these is Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. The fourth installment in the successful Mario & Sonic Olympic series, this Wii U game will be released on a date to be announced. The game will feature a variety of winter-themed sports such as curling, skiing and figure skating with favorite characters from both franchises.
The second game, Sonic Lost World, will be a new ?action platforming? game. More details on this game, coming to both Wii U and 3DS, will be released in or around the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). The third game in the partnership has yet to be announced.
More details on New Super Luigi U, a new set of levels for New Super Mario Bros. U, were also revealed. The game will support multiplayer, have over 80 updated levels, and two different purchasing options. For $20, gamers who have New Super Mario Bros. U will be able to download the expansion in June. In August, for $30, it will have its own separate, boxed retail release.
In a Tweet released the same day, Nintendo of America says they will discuss other anticipated games like the new 3D Mario game, the popular fighting franchise Smash Brothers and the fantasy racer Mario Kart in a future Nintendo Direct before the start of E3.
Waiting for a sign? Researchers find potential brain 'switch' for new behaviorPublic release date: 21-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jared Wadley jwadley@umich.edu 734-936-7819 University of Michigan
ANN ARBORYou're standing near an airport luggage carousel and your bag emerges on the conveyor belt, prompting you to spring into action. How does your brain make the shift from passively waiting to taking action when your bag appears?
A new study from investigators at the University of Michigan and Eli Lilly may reveal the brain's "switch" for new behavior. They measured levels of a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine, which is involved in attention and memory, while rats monitored a screen for a signal. At the end of each trial, the rat had to indicate if a signal had occurred.
Researchers noticed that if a signal occurred after a long period of monitoring or "non-signal" processing, there was a spike in acetylcholine in the rat's right prefrontal cortex. No such spike occurred for another signal occurring shortly afterwards.
"In other words, the increase in acetylcholine seemed to activate or 'switch on' the response to the signal, and to be unnecessary if that response was already activated," said Cindy Lustig, one of the study's senior authors and an associate professor in the U-M Department of Psychology.
The researchers repeated the study in humans using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures brain activity, and also found a short increase in right prefrontal cortex activity for the first signal in a series.
To connect the findings between rats and humans, they measured changes in oxygen levels, similar to the changes that produce the fMRI signal, in the brains of rats performing the task.
They again found a response in the right prefrontal cortex that only occurred for the first signal in a series. A follow-up experiment showed that direct stimulation of brain tissue using drugs that target acetylcholine receptors could likewise produce these changes in brain oxygen.
Together, the studies' results provide some of the most direct evidence, so far, linking a specific neurotransmitter response to changes in brain activity in humans. The findings could guide the development of better treatments for disorders in which people have difficulty switching out of current behaviors and activating new ones. Repetitive behaviors associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder and autism are the most obvious examples, and related mechanisms may underlie problems with preservative behavior in schizophrenia, dementia and aging.
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The study's other authors included William Howe, Martin Sarter, Anne Berry and Joshua Carp from U-M and Jennifer Francois, Gary Gilmour and Mark Tricklebank from Eli Lilly.
The findings appear in the current issue of Journal of Neuroscience.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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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.
Waiting for a sign? Researchers find potential brain 'switch' for new behaviorPublic release date: 21-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jared Wadley jwadley@umich.edu 734-936-7819 University of Michigan
ANN ARBORYou're standing near an airport luggage carousel and your bag emerges on the conveyor belt, prompting you to spring into action. How does your brain make the shift from passively waiting to taking action when your bag appears?
A new study from investigators at the University of Michigan and Eli Lilly may reveal the brain's "switch" for new behavior. They measured levels of a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine, which is involved in attention and memory, while rats monitored a screen for a signal. At the end of each trial, the rat had to indicate if a signal had occurred.
Researchers noticed that if a signal occurred after a long period of monitoring or "non-signal" processing, there was a spike in acetylcholine in the rat's right prefrontal cortex. No such spike occurred for another signal occurring shortly afterwards.
"In other words, the increase in acetylcholine seemed to activate or 'switch on' the response to the signal, and to be unnecessary if that response was already activated," said Cindy Lustig, one of the study's senior authors and an associate professor in the U-M Department of Psychology.
The researchers repeated the study in humans using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures brain activity, and also found a short increase in right prefrontal cortex activity for the first signal in a series.
To connect the findings between rats and humans, they measured changes in oxygen levels, similar to the changes that produce the fMRI signal, in the brains of rats performing the task.
They again found a response in the right prefrontal cortex that only occurred for the first signal in a series. A follow-up experiment showed that direct stimulation of brain tissue using drugs that target acetylcholine receptors could likewise produce these changes in brain oxygen.
Together, the studies' results provide some of the most direct evidence, so far, linking a specific neurotransmitter response to changes in brain activity in humans. The findings could guide the development of better treatments for disorders in which people have difficulty switching out of current behaviors and activating new ones. Repetitive behaviors associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder and autism are the most obvious examples, and related mechanisms may underlie problems with preservative behavior in schizophrenia, dementia and aging.
###
The study's other authors included William Howe, Martin Sarter, Anne Berry and Joshua Carp from U-M and Jennifer Francois, Gary Gilmour and Mark Tricklebank from Eli Lilly.
The findings appear in the current issue of Journal of Neuroscience.
[ | 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.
LONDON, May 18 (Reuters) - Manchester United's outgoing manager Alex Ferguson has criticised neighbours Manchester City for sacking Roberto Mancini. The Italian boss was sacked on Monday having failed to retain the Premier League title he won last season and after losing the FA Cup final to Wigan Athletic. Mancini took out a full-page advertisement in the Manchester Evening News on Saturday, thanking fans for their support during his time in charge. ...
Planting a new tree in your yard is half the work. The other half is ensuring that it grows and thrives where you planted it. That?s a task that won?t ever be completed as trees need regular maintenance including pruning and watering.
Cooperative Extension Service
Your nursery and your state?s cooperative extension service are excellent places to turn for information on how to maintain your newly planted tree. The first source sold you the tree and can advise you on its care. The second source can do likewise with both imparting care information that can help your tree not just survive, but thrive.
1. Water on schedule. New trees require regular watering as the root system must be given time to develop and spread. Figure that for the first two to three years following planting you will need to provide water, ensuring that the soil around the tree is moist, but not soaked through. Local soil conditions are a factor too as clay and silt surfaces need less water while sandy soil will require more.
2. Provide mulch. You have seen your neighbor apply mulch early every spring and building it up to a thick layer around the tree. There is a problem with this approach: too much mulch and too often. Mulch helps restrict grass and weed growth, and can help your trees avoid damage from your lawn mower or weed whacker. Remove the mulch every other year and replenish it with a three-inch layer.
3. Prune with care. Give your tree time to grow before bringing out the pruners and then prune with extreme care. You can remove dead or broken branches at any time, but otherwise allow your tree to become established before pruning. If you want to shape a shade tree, remove the lowest branches to encourage growth.
4. Remove assisting devices. Young trees are usually planted with wires and ties in place. As soon as possible remove these to help your tree stand on its own. Typically, three months after a tree has been planted, your tree should be able to stand erect. If upon removing a stake it leans over, then restake it and wait a few more months. You can also put in place a protective barrier to ring the tree in an effort to protect its trunk from lawn equipment and other hazards.
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view all types of trees
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5. Apply fertilizer and keep an eye out for pests. Homeowners may choose to fertilize a tree in a bid to increase its growth rate. Normally, fertilizer is not necessary as the tree gets enough nutrients from the surrounding soil. Check with your cooperative extension system office to determine how to fertilize and what to use. Learn how to apply nitrogen to encourage growth. You can also consult with your garden center or extension service for the best approach for handling pests.
Tree Considerations
The first two years of tree growth are the most intensive in its management. You will still need to employ regular maintenance and take a proactive approach to handling potential problems. With regular care your tree should provide the beauty that you want and even increase your home?s value while keeping it cool on those sultry summer days.
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Nintendo seems to have a knack for repeat performances. Nintendo DS? Quickly supplanted by the DS Lite -- and the DSi didn't last too long either before it was succeeded by the DSi XL. Even the 3DS saw a revision, when it was supersized last summer. These redesigns typically don't change more than the device's size, but when the 3DS XL was announced, some gamers were left wanting. Didn't the original 3DS get an accessory specifically to address the lack of a second analog pad? Why didn't Nintendo take the opportunity to add dual-analog controls? Well, if that happened, Nintendo couldn't release an encore Circle Pad Pro accessory, could it? Let's take a look at the 3DS XL Circle Pad Pro and see what's changed.
Wasim Bari says Pakistan will miss Afridi and Akmal in Champions Trophy - Cricket news
Pakistan?s former wicketkeeper/batsman, Wasim Bari, is not entirely satisfied with the national squad for the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 but feels that the Green Shirts are going to be a force in the mega event due to their unpredictable nature.
Pakistan have experimented with their squad for the all important tournament, leaving out Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal. All three of them have failed to live up to the expectations in recent past, which allowed the selectors to give exposure to some other players who have been doing well in domestic cricket of late.
In the absence of Afridi and Akmal, Wasim feels that Pakistan will struggle to achieve required run rates of more than eight runs per over. However, he believes that the onus is on Misbah and Shoaib Malik to deliver the goods under trying circumstances, being the two most senior players in the team.
"Shahid Afridi will surely be missed. His experience would certainly have helped Pakistan," the former wicketkeeper added. "Afridi/Razzaq/Umar Akmal will be missed when the rrr reaches 8 runs an over and there is nobody to play big shots. A lot will depend on Misbah and Malik. They are experienced and should lead from the front."
Champions Trophy is going to be played in England next month, with Australia looking to defend their title. Bari is optimistic about Pakistan?s chances in the tournament, although he believes that Misbah-ul-Haq and company lack power-hitting ability in the death overs of an innings.
He expressed, "Team Pakistan has the ability to cause a major upset in the Champions Trophy. Our team is not balanced, but unpredictable. We can beat any team on our day. We lack an anchor player and players who can up the scoring rate in the death overs."
Pakistan won their first One Day International (ODI) of the two-match series against Scotland yesterday by a margin of 96 runs at Edinburgh. Apart from Misbah however, none of the batsmen looked comfortable. The Green Shirts must deliver the goods consistently with the bat, in order to have any chance in the Champions Trophy.
Just a teaspoon of ground flaxseeds a day may protect against breast cancer.
In 1980 a new compound was discovered in human urine. Researchers called it compound X. Originally it was thought to be a new human hormone, but it was soon identified as part of a large group of fiber-associated compounds widely distributed in edible plants known as lignans.?Vegetarians have about twice the level of lignans circulating within their bodies given their greater intake of plant foods. Since population studies suggested that high intake of lignans reduces breast cancer risk, perhaps lignans are one of the reasons those eating plant-based diets have lower cancer rates.
Where are lignans found most in the diet? Seeds, whole grains, vegetables, fruits and berries. Since these are all really healthy foods in their own right, though, maybe lignan intake is just acting as a surrogate marker for whole plant food intake? (Like the fiber story I detail in Fiber vs. Breast Cancer). Well, in a petri dish lignans do directly suppress the proliferation of breast cancer cells but only after the plant lignans are converted into human lignans by the bacteria in our gut. (More detail in Flax and Fecal Flora).
That?s why we want to use antibiotics judiciously. A few days on antibiotics dramatically drops our body?s ability to make these anticancer compounds from the plants that we eat, and it can take weeks for our gut bacteria to recover. That may be why women with urinary tract infections have been found to be at higher risk for breast cancer. Every time they took a course of antibiotics they may have been stymying their good bacteria?s ability to take full advantage of all the plants they were eating.
In the above video I profile the National Cancer Institute study that provides the strongest evidence to date that there might indeed be something special about this class of phytonutrients for breast cancer prevention. They took a bunch of young women at high risk for breast cancer, meaning they had a suspicious breast biopsy showing either atypical hyperplasia or carcinoma in situ, or already had breast cancer in the other breast. They gave them a teaspoon of ground flaxseeds every day for a year before getting a repeat needle biopsy to see if there was any change.
Yes, there are lignans in sesame seeds, nuts, whole grains, legumes, certain fruits, and veggies, but they?re most concentrated in flax seeds. They could have instead asked women to eat ten cups of strawberries a day for a year, but they?d probably get better compliance with just a teaspoon of flax.
So what happened by the end of the year? The primary end point was the expression of a proliferation biomarker associated with cancer called ki-67. In 9 of the 45 women it went up, pictured in red in the video, but in the other 80% of the women it went down. And, indeed, on average they found less cellular proliferation in their breast tissue and fewer precancerous changes.
For those that don?t like the taste of flaxseeds, sesame seeds are also high in lignans. Even though flaxseeds have significantly more lignans than sesame, you appear to produce about the same amount of lignans from them. This was, however, comparing them whole. When people are fed whole flaxseeds, some may not be chewed up and can pass right through you. So ground flaxseed may be best overall. As I note in the Flaxseeds For Sensitive Skin video, ground flax stays fresh even at room temperature for at least a month.
What if you or a loved one has already been diagnosed with breast cancer? See my follow-up videos:
In health, Michael Greger, M.D.
PS: If you haven?t yet, you can subscribe to my videos here and watch my full 2012 year-in-review presentation?Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death.
Image credit: mimitalks, married w/children / Flickr
Related: What Should Women Eat to Live Longest? Prevent Breast Cancer by Any Greens Necessary Mushrooms For Breast Cancer Prevention
WASHINGTON -- The one thing no one has suspected Dzhokhar Tsarnaev of being is a closet essayist. The idea of this young Chechen/Dagestani/Khrgyz man who, with his brother is accused of the vicious Boston Marathon bombings, making notes on his ideas had not entered the bio.And yet, as I write, news sources are reporting new information about Dzhokhar. Lying helplessly in the landlocked boat he was hiding inside of, in the small Massachusetts town outside Boston where they had fled, he wrote several primitive but revealing thoughts on the hull of the bullet-pocked boat with a pen he found. ...
LONDON (Reuters) - An invitation from the White House robbed Emeli Sande on Thursday of the chance to celebrate the latest mark of her success in an unstoppable rise to the front ranks of British female singers.
The Scottish singer-songwriter's "Next To Me" single won both the best song and most performed work categories at Britain's 58th Ivor Novello awards for songwriting, putting her on a par with some of Britain's biggest music names.
Her co-writers accepting the award for her said she was in the United States, preparing to perform for President Barack Obama and talent show "American Idol", signs she is set for more success in the U.S. market.
"I spoke to Emeli yesterday and she is just preparing herself for performing at the White House," said Anup Paul, one of three co-writers accepting the award at the ceremony in London.
Sande, who performed on a global stage at the opening ceremony of the London 2102 Olympics, tweeted her excitement from the United States.
"Woke up to the best news!!!!! 2 Ivor Novellos!!!!!," she wrote on Twitter. "Wish I could have been there, that would have been one excited speech!"
Gavin Rossdale, frontman of the British band Bush, who won for the Ivor for international achievement, said Sande was on the point of winning the kind of recognition that he and Grammy award-winning British singer Adele already enjoy.
"If anyone is primed for that kind of success it would be her because she's pretty amazing," Rossdale told Reuters. "Adele has done such an incredible job to open the doors."
Sande's "Our Version Of Events" album in February 2012 kicked off a string of successes including her inclusion on the soundtrack for Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby", which opened the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday.
Besides that, and her opening and closing Olympic performances last year, Sande won two BRIT awards this year and smashed a chart record held by the Beatles for nearly 50 years.
Oasis founder Noel Gallagher was presented the outstanding song collection by Coldplay singer Chris Martin.
"It's great because it's for the thing that I do by myself," Gallagher said. "It's about the nuts and bolts."
Scottish DJ, singer and songwriter Calvin Harris won the songwriter of the year award that went to Adele last year and to rapper Plan B in 2011.
Other winners included Leeds-based indie rock quartet Alt-J for their album "An Awesome Wave"; indie rock band The Maccabees won best contemporary song for "Pelican"; Moody Blues singer Justin Hayward won for outstanding achievement and U.S. singer-songwriter Randy Newman was given a special international award.
The Ivor Novello Awards are presented by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and are regarded as the most important awards for British music writers.
Following is a full list of winners:
Best Contemporary Song
"Pelican" - Written by Sam Doyle, Rupert Jarvis, Orlando Weeks, Felix White and Hugo White - The Maccabees
PRS for Music Most Performed Work
"Next to Me" - Written by Hugo Chegwin, Harry Craze, Anup Paul and Emeli Sande
Best Television Soundtrack
"Lucian Freud: Painted Life" - Composed by John Harle
Inspiration Award
Marc Almond
Album Award
"An Awesome Wave" - Written by Thomas Green, Joe Newman, Gwilym Sainsbury and Augustus Unger-Hamilton - Alt-J
Classical Music Award
Errollyn Wallen
PRS for Music Award for Outstanding Achievement
Justin Hayward
Best Original Film Score
"Anna Karenina" - Composed by Dario Marianelli
Best Song Musically and Lyrically
"Next to Me" - Written by Hugo Chegwin, Harry Craze, Anup Paul and Emeli Sand?
Aimee Copeland, the woman who lost her hands, one leg and her other foot to flesh-eating bacteria after a zip-line accident last year, spoke with WXIA.com and "Today" about her new bionic hands, which are helping her return to a normal life.
Copeland, 24, is in the process of learning to use two state-of-the art prosthetic hands called iLimbs. A fast learner, she has the basics down and says she is looking forward to using them for more advanced tasks like driving, according to WXIA.
The site also reports that Copeland's prosthetic hands are among the most advanced available and cost $100,000 each. She received them for free because she's agreed to be a spokesperson for Touch Bionics, maker of iLimb, according to Today.com. Robert Kistenberg of Georgia Tech is helping Copeland learn how to use the iLimbs. Via Today.com:
Over time, Copeland is learning how to control her hands by flexing and contracting the muscles in her residual limbs. In time, she?ll learn not only how to move the hands and their fingers but also how to modulate how hard they grip.
"Each time we flex or contract a muscle, there is a chemical and an electrical reaction," Kistenberg explained to TODAY.com. "That electrical signal is very, very slight," he said. "But our electrodes are sensitive enough to pick it up through the skin."
The iLimb Ultra Revelation hands can be programmed and configured via an iPhone or iPod app using Bluetooth. But Aimee's limbs are still controlled by her muscles.
Copeland told WXIA.com that the new hands "feel amazing."
Copeland is working on completing her master's degree in psychology at the University of West Georgia. In an interview with the Augusta Chronicle earlier this month, Copeland explained how she's been able to stay so positive in the face of such a drastic change.
?I had the philosophy that in life we can?t really say what?s good and what?s bad. You can?t place a value on it,? she told the Augusta Chronicle. ?What seems terrible now could seem great later.?
Small business owners are concerned about the threat of rising fuel and energy costs. According to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce survey, 77 percent of them say that rising energy prices pose an immediate threat to their business. Small business owners are also worried about the lack of business opportunities in this sluggish economy. The Chamber?s survey shows that 80 percent feel that the administration is not doing enough to keep gas prices low, increase domestic energy sources, or develop an energy policy that supports American jobs. The federal government can do a number of things to ease these concerns but one in particular stands out from the rest.
The Keystone XL Pipeline, which would run from the tar sands of Alberta to the refineries of the American Gulf Coast, would go a long way toward addressing many of the challenges facing small business owners. But TransCanada Keystone LP, the company that?s trying to build the pipeline, can?t begin construction until it gets a permit from the State Department. There lies the debate, which focuses on whether the permit for the pipeline would ?serve the national interest.?
The term ?serve the national interest,? as it appears in the series of executive orders that govern the construction of pipelines, is not defined by the president?s orders or any statute, leaving the determination in the sole discretion of the State Department.
Considering the weak economy, it?s not hard to see what the ?national interest? is in this case. The pipeline would lower oil prices, create thousands of jobs, make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy, and help stabilize oil prices.
TransCanada?s initial proposal, made in 2008, called for the pipeline to travel through the Sandhills region of Nebraska. But, in the face of questions about the pipeline?s potential impact on the region, TransCanada submitted a new proposal rerouting the pipeline around Sandhills. From top to bottom, the project would have a minimal environmental impact.
Business and labor groups stand behind the Keystone XL Pipeline and the opportunities it promises to create. Sean McGarvey, of the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the United States, has remarked, ?We are tired of waiting and we believe the time has come to make the final decision on one of the most important projects to unlock the energy future for this country ? the Keystone XL Pipeline.? The pipeline is a $7 billion investment that is expected to create 20,000 jobs directly and another 22,000 jobs indirectly over the project?s construction period. The Canadian Energy Research Institute estimates that the pipeline will add $172 billion to America?s gross domestic product by 2035.?Even the State Department recently estimated that approximately 42,100 jobs would be created over the project construction period.
On Thursday, the Small Business Subcommittee on Agriculture, Energy and Trade, which I chair, is holding a hearing on the benefits of the Keystone XL Pipeline for small companies. While individual studies are not broken down into large vs. small business, TransCanada states it has contracts with more than 50 suppliers across the U.S. The majority of suppliers that do this type of work are small businesses.
A whopping 99.7% of the businesses in America are small businesses. Small business owners overwhelmingly favor aggressive energy exploration, as they believe it would boost the economy. The Keystone XL Pipeline is an economic catalyst that will serve the national interest at a pivotal moment. The administration should allow the project to move forward.
Rep. Scott Tipton, a Republican from Colorado, is the chairman of the Small Business Subcommittee on Agriculture, Energy and Trade.
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Listening to actor Simon Helberg talk about "The Big Bang Theory," you'd think his show was actually a nerdy nighttime soap. The actor, who plays aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz on the CBS sitcom, dropped a few hints about what to expect from Thursday night's season finale.
"This time, the adventure is for Leonard," Helberg revealed, referring to the experimental physicist played by Johnny Galecki. "Howard finds Stephen Hawking's crew is sending out an expedition to the North Sea, and he gets Leonard a job, going on a boat for four months."
But there's no easy scientific equation that can tell Leonard how to choose between the expedition and his street-smart girlfriend Penny, played by Kaley Cuoco.
"The obstacle is Penny and Leonard have never been better," Helberg continued. "So, is he really going to leave her for four months?"
And Penny isn't the only one who doesn't want to see Leonard go. His roommate, the perennially neurotic theoretical physicist Sheldon, played by Jim Parsons, doesn't want to be left alone.
There's also trouble for romance-challenged astrophysicist Raj, played by Kunal Nayyar, and his new love interest Lucy, played by Kate Micucci. Raj wants more from the relationship than Lucy may be able to give ? a major leap considering she has a habit of crawling out of restaurant bathroom windows on their dates.
To add to the nerd drama, there are science jealousies at play, too.
"Howard's a little competitive now that Leonard is getting the spotlight, (because) no one cared about Howard being an astronaut. So, it creates this sort of ripple effect."
In six seasons, "Big Bang" has more than doubled its debut-audience U.S. viewership, delivering its most-watched first-run episode ever this year, with more than 20 million tuning in. Add to that number, the millions who watch the show's reruns daily on local stations and on cable network TBS. The show is also a smash globally, with Canada, the U.K. and Brazil delivering some of its biggest ratings success stories.
The 32-year-old Helberg, who has a one-year-old daughter with actress-wife Jocelyn Towne, said he sees a long life for "Big Bang."
"I think we're all having a good time," he explained." And I think the show is far from being stale. It is kind of constantly ? not reinventing itself ? but just expanding on these characters. So, yeah, I think we're going strong for now, as long as people keep inviting us in."
The season-six finale of "The Big Bang Theory" airs Thursday night on CBS.
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May 16, 2013 ? A new window into the nature of the universe may be possible with a device proposed by scientists at the University of Nevada, Reno and Stanford University that would detect elusive gravity waves from the other end of the cosmos. Their paper describing the device and process was published in the physics journal Physical Review Letters.
"Gravitational waves represent one of the missing pieces of Einstein's theory of general relativity," Andrew Geraci, University of Nevada, Reno physics assistant professor, said. "While there is a global effort already out there to find gravitational waves, our proposed method is an alternate approach with greater sensitivity in a significantly smaller device.
"Our detector is complementary to existing gravitational wave detectors, in that it is more sensitive to sources in a higher frequency band, so we could see signals that other detectors might potentially miss."
Geraci and his colleague Asimina Arvanitaki, a post-doctoral fellow in the physics department at Stanford University, propose using a small, laser-cooled, tunable sensor that "floats" in an optical cavity so it is not affected by friction. Geraci is seeking funding to begin building a small prototype in the next year.
"Gravity waves propagate from the remote corners of our universe, they stretch and squeeze the fabric of space-time," Geraci said. "A passing gravity wave changes the physically measured distance between two test masses -- small discs or spheres. In our approach, such a mass experiences minimal friction and therefore is very sensitive to small forces."
While indirect evidence for gravity waves was obtained by studying the changing orbital period of a neutron star binary, resulting in the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics, gravity waves have yet to be directly observed.
"Directly detecting gravitational waves from astrophysical sources enables a new type of astronomy, which can give us "pictures" of the sky analogous to what we have by using telescopes," Geraci said. "In this way the invention of a gravitational wave detector, which lets us "see" the universe through gravity waves, is analogous to the invention of the telescope, which let us see the universe using light. Having such detectors will allow us to learn more about astrophysical objects in our universe, such as black holes."
The approach the authors describe can exceed the sensitivity of next-generation gravitational wave observatories by up to an order of magnitude in the frequency range of 50 to 300 kilohertz.
Their paper, "Detecting high-frequency gravitational waves with optically levitated sensors," appeared in Physical Review Letters, a publication of the physics organization American Physical Society.
Geraci also presented his research at the annual American Physical Society Meeting in Denver in April. The meeting is attended by particle physicists, nuclear physicists and astrophysicists to share new research results and insights.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bombs tore through markets in Baghdad and a suicide attacker blew himself up in a mosque in northern Iraq in violence across the country on Thursday that killed at least 25 people and extended a surge in sectarian-tinged bloodshed.
Attacks on Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim mosques, security forces and tribal leaders have spread since security forces raided a Sunni protest camp near Kirkuk a month ago, igniting clashes and fuelling fear of a slide back into all-out inter-communal war.
Iraq has grown more volatile as the civil war in neighboring Syria strains fragile relations between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims. Tensions are now at their highest since the last U.S. troops pulled out at the end of 2011.
On Thursday, a suicide bomber set off his explosives in a mosque in the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, killing at least eight among mourners gathered to pay respects to people killed in a bombing a day earlier.
A Reuters witness said pieces of flesh and torn clothing lay scattered among pools of blood on the mosque floor.
"I lost seven members of my family," said Munaf Hussein, one of the relatives, crying and striking the top of his head in a show of grief outside the mosque.
Earlier, three car bombs exploded in busy markets in eastern and northeastern Shi'ite districts of the Iraqi capital, killing at least 14 people and wounding 26, police said.
In a separate incident, assailants with silenced weapons shot dead a prominent Sunni tribal leader in his car in southern Baghdad and seriously wounded his driver, police said.
In the northern city of Mosul, another suicide car bomber attacked a military checkpoint, killing two soldiers and wounding three, and a separate car bomb wounded two soldiers on patrol.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the latest violence, which followed bombings that killed more than 35 people in Baghdad and the north on Wednesday.
According to the United Nations, April was Iraq's bloodiest month for almost five years, with 712 people killed.
The Iraqi government is embroiled in power struggles between majority Shi'ites, Sunnis and ethnic Kurds.
Minority Sunnis, who lost their dominance when the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, have been protesting for months against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Emboldened by the Sunni-led revolt in Syria, Iraqi Sunni insurgents, some linked to al Qaeda, have intensified attacks this year, threatening to drag Iraq back into communal strife.
(Reporting by Kareem Raheem and Mustafa Mahmoud in Kirkuk; Writing by Suadad al-Salhy; Editing by Patrick Markey and Mark Heinrich)
AAA??May. 15, 2013?9:26 AM ET Russia's FSB: Another alleged US spy expelled By NATALIYA VASILYEVA??By NATALIYA VASILYEVA
In this handout photo provided by the FSB, acronym for Russian Federal Security Service, a man claimed by FSB to be Ryan Fogle, a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, is detained in Moscow, early Tuesday, May 14, 2013. Russia's security services say they have caught a U.S. diplomat who they claim is a CIA agent in a red-handed attempt to recruit a Russian agent. Ryan Fogle, a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, was carrying special technical equipment, disguises, written instructions and a large sum of money when he was detained overnight, the FSB said in a statement Tuesday. Fogle was handed over to U.S. embassy officials, the FSB, said. (AP Photo/FSB Public Relations Center)
In this handout photo provided by the FSB, acronym for Russian Federal Security Service, a man claimed by FSB to be Ryan Fogle, a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, is detained in Moscow, early Tuesday, May 14, 2013. Russia's security services say they have caught a U.S. diplomat who they claim is a CIA agent in a red-handed attempt to recruit a Russian agent. Ryan Fogle, a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, was carrying special technical equipment, disguises, written instructions and a large sum of money when he was detained overnight, the FSB said in a statement Tuesday. Fogle was handed over to U.S. embassy officials, the FSB, said. (AP Photo/FSB Public Relations Center)
The U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul leaves Foreign Ministry headquarters in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, May 15, 2013. McFaul has been summoned by the Russian foreign ministry in connection with an alleged spy detention in Moscow. He entered the ministry's building in central Moscow Wednesday morning and left half an hour later without saying a word to journalists waiting outside the compound. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)
The U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul leaves Foreign Ministry headquarters in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, May 15, 2013. McFaul has been summoned by the Russian foreign ministry in connection with an alleged spy detention in Moscow. He entered the ministry's building in central Moscow Wednesday morning and left half an hour later without saying a word to journalists waiting outside the compound. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)
In this handout photo provided by the FSB, acronym for Russian Federal Security Service, a man claimed by FSB to be Ryan Fogle, a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, is detained in Moscow, early Tuesday, May 14, 2013. Russia's security services say they have caught a U.S. diplomat who they claim is a CIA agent in a red-handed attempt to recruit a Russian agent. Ryan Fogle, a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, was carrying special technical equipment, disguises, written instructions and a large sum of money when he was detained overnight, the FSB said in a statement Tuesday. Fogle was handed over to U.S. embassy officials, the FSB, said. (AP Photo/FSB Public Relations Center)
In this handout photo provided by the FSB, acronym for Russian Federal Security Service, wigs and spying gadgets carried by a man claimed by FSB to be Ryan Fogle, a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, when he was detained, are shown in the FSB offices in Moscow, early Tuesday, May 14, 2013. Russia's security services say they have caught a U.S. diplomat who they claim is a CIA agent in a red-handed attempt to recruit a Russian agent. Ryan Fogle, a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, was carrying special technical equipment, disguises, written instructions and a large sum of money when he was detained overnight, the FSB said in a statement Tuesday. Fogle was handed over to U.S. embassy officials, the FSB, said. (AP Photo/FSB Public Relations Center)
MOSCOW (AP) ? Russian state television has aired footage provided by Russia's security services claiming that another alleged American spy was expelled earlier this year.
Russia on Tuesday ordered a U.S. diplomat to leave the country after the FSB claimed to have caught him red-handed trying to recruit a Russian agent in Moscow. The FSB alleges that Ryan Fogle, a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy, works for the CIA.
In the footage aired Wednesday, a man identified only as an FSB operative and sitting in near darkness said a "CIA operative" was expelled in January.
LAS VEGAS (AP) ? His leg shackles rattling as he shuffled to the witness stand, a grayer, bulkier O.J. Simpson made his case for a new trial on armed robbery charges Wednesday, saying he was relying on the advice of his trusted attorney when he tried to reclaim mementos from his football glory days.
After more than four years in prison, Simpson seized the opportunity to recount how he and some friends confronted two sports memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2007, and how he believed he had the right to take back what he claimed had been stolen from him, including photos and footballs.
"It was my stuff. I followed what I thought was the law. My lawyer told me I couldn't break into a guy's room. I didn't break into anybody's room. I didn't try to muscle the guys. The guys had my stuff, even though they claimed they didn't steal it," the 65-year-old former NFL star and actor said.
Simpson did not testify when he was tried and convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping in 2008. He was sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison.
His fall from long-ago fame and fortune was demonstrated as he made his way to the stand with shackles around his ankles for a hearing on his claim that he was poorly represented by his attorney during the trial.
As his new lawyer, Patricia Palm, questioned him, he provided details that seemed to encompass every minute of a weekend that began with plans for a friend's wedding and ended with him under arrest.
He said he knew the memorabilia dealers, had no fear of them and certainly didn't need guns. "There was no talk of guns at all," he said. Simpson declared he never even saw guns during the confrontation.
During the trial, two former co-defendants who testified for the prosecution said they had guns.
Simpson's bid for freedom hinges on showing his lawyer badly represented him. He mentioned the lawyer, Yale Galanter, from the outset.
"He was my guy," he said of his long friendship and professional relationship with Galanter.
But he blamed Galanter's advice for getting him in trouble. He said Galanter told him he was within his rights to take back his possessions as long as there was no violence or trespassing.
Another Simpson attorney from the 2008 trial has said it was Galanter who pushed on Simpson a decision not to testify.
Simpson, dressed in a drab blue prison uniform, spoke clearly Wednesday as he recounted events leading to the hotel room where the dealers had the memorabilia. His voice cracked a bit as he recounted recognizing items on the bed, including framed photos that used to hang on the wall of his Los Angeles home.
"Look at this stuff. Some of the stuff I didn't really realize was gone. These were things I hadn't seen in 10 years," he said. "You know, you get a little emotional about it."
There is no jury in the hearing and Simpson's fate will be determined by District Judge Linda Marie Bell.
While Simpson's previous court cases, including his 1995 acquittal in the killings of his ex-wife and her friend Ron Goldman, were media events, there were empty seats in the courtroom for the first two days of the hearing.
But on Wednesday the courtroom was full, with Simpson family members and friends in the second row. A marshal turned people away, sending them to an overflow room where video was streamed live.
Still, the scene was much tamer than in the past.
"This is less hoopla than I expected. It's real toned down," said Wyatt Skaggs, a retired defense attorney visiting from Laramie, Wyo.
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Find Ken Ritter on Twitter: http://twitter.com/krttr
LAS VEGAS, NV - MAY 14: O. J. Simpson (R) talks to his defense attorney Patricia Palm during a break in an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court on May 14, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. ... more? LAS VEGAS, NV - MAY 14: O. J. Simpson (R) talks to his defense attorney Patricia Palm during a break in an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court on May 14, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison as a result of his October 2008 conviction for armed robbery and kidnapping charges, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial, claiming he had such bad representation that his conviction should be reversed. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) less?
WASHINGTON (AP) ? New Interior Secretary Sally Jewell is prepared to detail how she will move forward on issues affecting Native Americans and Alaska Natives.
Jewell is scheduled to testify Wednesday afternoon before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee chaired by Washington Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell.
Jewell's experience with Native American affairs is limited and she's not as well known among tribes as her predecessor, former Secretary Ken Salazar. But she has had a relationship with tribes in the committee chairwoman's home state.
Her appearance at the hearing comes as tribes have been watching for the effects of budget cuts on their programs, many that are very dependent on federal money. The Obama administration has won praise from tribes for work it has done on their behalf.
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Public release date: 21-May-2013
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