Toronto police say they have mayor drug video

TORONTO (AP) — Toronto police said Thursday they have obtained a video that appears to show Mayor Rob Ford smoking a crack pipe — a video that Ford had claimed didn't exist and has been at the core of a scandal that has embarrassed and gripped Canada for months.

Police Chief Bill Blair said the video, recovered after being deleted from a computer hard drive, did not provide grounds to press charges. Ford, a populist mayor who has repeatedly made headlines for his bizarre behavior, vowed not to resign.

Speaking outside the door his office, where visitors were free to check out the Halloween decorations, Ford said with a smile: "I have no reason to resign." He said he couldn't defend himself because the affair is part of a criminal investigation involving an associate, adding: "That's all I can say right now." Toronto police discovered the video while conducting a huge surveillance operation into a friend and sometimes driver suspected of providing Ford with drugs.

Ford faced allegations in May that he had been caught on video puffing from a glass crack pipe. Two reporters with the Toronto Star said they saw the video, but it has not been released publicly. Ford maintained he does not smoke crack and that the video did not exist.

The scandal has been the fodder of jokes on U.S. late night television and has cast Canada's largest city and financial capital in an unflattering light.

Ford was elected mayor three years ago on a wave of discontent simmering in the city's outlying suburbs. Since then he has survived an attempt to remove him from office on conflict-of-interest charges and has appeared in the news for his increasingly odd behavior. Through it all, the mayor has repeatedly refused to resign and pledged to run for re-election next year.

But the pressure ramped up on Thursday with all four major dailies in the city calling on Ford to resign.

Cheri DiNovo, a member of Ontario's parliament, tweeted: "Ford video nothing to celebrate Addiction is illness. Mayor please step down and get help?"

On Thursday, Blair said the video of the mayor "depicts images that are consistent with those previously reported in the press."

"As a citizen of Toronto I'm disappointed," Blair said. "This is a traumatic issue for citizens of this city and the reputation of this city."

Blair said the video will come out when Ford's associate and occasional driver, Alexander Lisi, goes to trial on drug charges. Lisi now also faces extortion charges for trying to retrieve the recording from an unidentified person. Blair did not say who owned the computer containing the video.

Blair said authorities believed the video is linked to a home in Toronto, referred to by a confidential informant as a "crack house" in court documents in Lisi's drug case.

The prosecutor in the Lisi case released documents Thursday showing they had rummaged through Ford's garbage in search of evidence of drug use. They show that they conducted a massive surveillance operation monitoring the mayor and Lisi following drug use allegations.

The documents show that friends and former staffers of Ford were concerned that Lisi was "fuelling" the Toronto mayor's alleged drug use.

The police documents, ordered released by a judge, show Ford receiving packages from Lisi on several occasions.

"Lisi approached the driver's side of the Mayor's vehicle with a small white gift bag in hand; he then walked around to the passenger side and got on board," reads one document dated July 30, 2013. "After a few minutes Lisi exited the Escalade empty handed and walked back to his Range Rover."

Another dated July 28 says Lisi "constantly used counter surveillance techniques" when he met with Ford that day.

On August 13 documents say Lisi and Ford met and "made their way into a secluded area of the adjacent woods where they were obscured from surveillance efforts and stayed for approximately one hour."

Ford recently vouched for Lisi in a separate criminal case, praising his leadership skills and hard work in a letter filed with the court. The letter was part of a report prepared by a probation officer after Lisi was convicted of threatening to kill a woman.

Ford said previously that he was shocked when Lisi was arrested earlier this month, calling him a "good guy" and saying he doesn't abandon his friends.

The documents also say that Ford met Lisi through Payman Aboodowleh, a volunteer football coach at Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School, where Ford coached the team while also serving as mayor. He told police he was "mad at Lisi because he was fuelling the mayor's drug abuse," the document says.

Ford's controversies range from the trivial to the serious: Walking face-first into a TV camera. Falling down during a photo op while pretending to play football. Being asked to leave an event for wounded war vets because he appeared intoxicated, according to the Toronto Star. Being forced to admit he was busted for marijuana possession in Florida in 1999, after repeated denials. Making rude gestures at Torontonians from his car.

Ford was fired earlier this year from his beloved volunteer job coaching football over disparaging remarks he made to a TV network about parents and their kids at the school.

"The mayor has said there wasn't a video," Toronto councilor Paula Fletcher said. "He has said there is a conspiracy against him. With Chief's Blair's press conference I think that's put to rest."

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/toronto-police-mayor-drug-video-182633271.html
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Sandia's Katherine Guzman receives national Hispanic award for technical contributions

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31-Oct-2013

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Contact: Mike Janes
mejanes@sandia.gov
925-294-2447
DOE/Sandia National Laboratories

LIVERMORE, Calif. The Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Corp. (HENAAC) recently named Sandia National Laboratories' Katherine Guzman one of its 2013 Luminary honorees. She received her award Oct. 5 at the 25th Anniversary HENAAC Conference in New Orleans.

"This is an incredible honor," said Guzman. "I remember going to the HENAAC awards ceremony as an undergraduate and looking up at the award winners with awe, never imagining that one day I might be considered for such an award."

Luminary honorees represent professionals in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics who initiate, collaborate, and lead key programs and research in their organizations. These individuals have made significant contributions to the Hispanic technical community as leaders and role models.

"Katherine truly embodies our core values," said Todd West, one of Guzman's managers at Sandia. "She consistently executes and leads high-quality work in the face of sometimes challenging and ambiguous environments. She manages effective teams and fosters an attitude of mutual respect. Her outreach activities are equally exemplary. In short, Katherine is an ideal role model for others considering a career in science, technology, engineering or math."

New tools, service and science

At Sandia, Guzman has distinguished herself with her work in the area of risk management. She played a key role in the development of SUMMIT (Standard Unified Modeling, Mapping, and Integration Toolkit), a new technology to enable emergency management personnel to seamlessly access information from diverse models and data coming from different sources. The creation of these tools is now enabling the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to rigorously plan for and exercise against highly complex disaster scenarios.

Guzman now leads a Sandia effort to better understand risk for DHS, work that could shape the way the nation understands and attempts to mitigate homeland security risk.

Guzman said science was part of her upbringing. "My father is a scientist and he raised me and my sisters the way he was raised to ask a lot of questions," she said "He spent a lot of time explaining to us the how and why of everything."

Her future in mechanical engineering became apparent at a young age. "I was always more interested in building furniture for my dolls than playing with the dolls themselves," said Guzman. "Making things was what fascinated me."

Guzman earned a B.S. at The University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. As both an undergraduate and graduate student, she found herself to be one of the few women and one of even fewer Hispanic women.

When it came time to consider where to begin her career, service was at the front of Guzman's mind. "My father served in the Peace Corps and my mother is a social worker, so I was raised with a very keen sense of making a contribution to the world," she said. "My dad is an agronomist and he felt that he, as part of a large community of scientists, was helping to solve world hunger through his work. That's a pretty noble cause to go to work for every day. So coming to Sandia was a natural choice because our work has true national impact."

Guzman is also driven by a personal passion to help minorities and women in science and engineering achieve their career dreams. As an undergraduate and graduate engineering student at two of the country's largest and most prestigious universities, she encountered very few female and minority role models and virtually no female minority role models. That is something she hopes to change with her work as a leader, mentor and keynote speaker.

Outside of work, Guzman stays busy with her husband and two young sons. "Balancing work with family and community is important to me," said Guzman. "I want to instill in my children the values I was raised with hard work, the value of education, the importance of community and respect for everyone."

###

Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies and economic competitiveness.

Sandia news media contact: Mike Janes, mejanes@sandia.gov, (925) 294-2447

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31-Oct-2013

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Contact: Mike Janes
mejanes@sandia.gov
925-294-2447
DOE/Sandia National Laboratories

LIVERMORE, Calif. The Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Corp. (HENAAC) recently named Sandia National Laboratories' Katherine Guzman one of its 2013 Luminary honorees. She received her award Oct. 5 at the 25th Anniversary HENAAC Conference in New Orleans.

"This is an incredible honor," said Guzman. "I remember going to the HENAAC awards ceremony as an undergraduate and looking up at the award winners with awe, never imagining that one day I might be considered for such an award."

Luminary honorees represent professionals in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics who initiate, collaborate, and lead key programs and research in their organizations. These individuals have made significant contributions to the Hispanic technical community as leaders and role models.

"Katherine truly embodies our core values," said Todd West, one of Guzman's managers at Sandia. "She consistently executes and leads high-quality work in the face of sometimes challenging and ambiguous environments. She manages effective teams and fosters an attitude of mutual respect. Her outreach activities are equally exemplary. In short, Katherine is an ideal role model for others considering a career in science, technology, engineering or math."

New tools, service and science

At Sandia, Guzman has distinguished herself with her work in the area of risk management. She played a key role in the development of SUMMIT (Standard Unified Modeling, Mapping, and Integration Toolkit), a new technology to enable emergency management personnel to seamlessly access information from diverse models and data coming from different sources. The creation of these tools is now enabling the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to rigorously plan for and exercise against highly complex disaster scenarios.

Guzman now leads a Sandia effort to better understand risk for DHS, work that could shape the way the nation understands and attempts to mitigate homeland security risk.

Guzman said science was part of her upbringing. "My father is a scientist and he raised me and my sisters the way he was raised to ask a lot of questions," she said "He spent a lot of time explaining to us the how and why of everything."

Her future in mechanical engineering became apparent at a young age. "I was always more interested in building furniture for my dolls than playing with the dolls themselves," said Guzman. "Making things was what fascinated me."

Guzman earned a B.S. at The University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. As both an undergraduate and graduate student, she found herself to be one of the few women and one of even fewer Hispanic women.

When it came time to consider where to begin her career, service was at the front of Guzman's mind. "My father served in the Peace Corps and my mother is a social worker, so I was raised with a very keen sense of making a contribution to the world," she said. "My dad is an agronomist and he felt that he, as part of a large community of scientists, was helping to solve world hunger through his work. That's a pretty noble cause to go to work for every day. So coming to Sandia was a natural choice because our work has true national impact."

Guzman is also driven by a personal passion to help minorities and women in science and engineering achieve their career dreams. As an undergraduate and graduate engineering student at two of the country's largest and most prestigious universities, she encountered very few female and minority role models and virtually no female minority role models. That is something she hopes to change with her work as a leader, mentor and keynote speaker.

Outside of work, Guzman stays busy with her husband and two young sons. "Balancing work with family and community is important to me," said Guzman. "I want to instill in my children the values I was raised with hard work, the value of education, the importance of community and respect for everyone."

###

Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies and economic competitiveness.

Sandia news media contact: Mike Janes, mejanes@sandia.gov, (925) 294-2447

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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/dnl-skg103013.php
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Scientists discover why newborns get sick so often

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31-Oct-2013

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Contact: Cody Mooneyhan
cmooneyhan@faseb.org
301-634-7104
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

New research published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology suggests that newborns lack the toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) which recognizes different viruses and mediates immune response to these viruses

Bethesda, MDIf you think cold and flu season is tough, trying being an infant. A new research finding published in the November 2013 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology sheds new light on why newborns appear to be so prone to getting sick with virusesthey are born without one of the key proteins needed to protect them. This protein, called "toll-like receptor 3" or "TLR3," is involved in the recognition of different viruses and mediates the immune response to them. Without this protein, newborn immune cells are not equipped to recognize and react appropriately to certain viruses, in particular, the herpes simplex virus known as HSV.

"This study helps to understand the molecular basis for the immaturity of the immune system of newborns, which we believe will contribute to development of therapeutic interventions to protect this vulnerable population group," said Lucija Slavica, a researcher involved in the work from the Department of Rheumatology and Inflammation Research at the University of Gothenburg in Gothenburg, Sweden.

To make this discovery, scientists compared cells from the cord blood of newborns with the same type of blood cells from adults. The cells from newborns did not contain the protein TLR3, which was present in adult cells. These cells rid the body of viral-infected cells, ultimately eliminating viral infections. When researchers treated both cell groups with a synthetic component mimicking a viral presence, the adult immune cells reacted by secreting substances involved in immune reaction against viruses (interferon-gamma) and killed cells infected with virus, while cells from newborns could not do this or were impaired in performing this function.

"This study adds to the growing body of research stemming from the Nobel-winning discovery in 2011 on how the immune system recognizes microbes by shedding light on how these pathways develop over time after birth," said John Wherry, Ph.D., Deputy Editor of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology. "This report is particularly important - as any new parent can attest, infants are particularly susceptible to infections and understanding which pathways are not yet functional could lead to novel therapies."

###

The Journal of Leukocyte Biology publishes peer-reviewed manuscripts on original investigations focusing on the cellular and molecular biology of leukocytes and on the origins, the developmental biology, biochemistry and functions of granulocytes, lymphocytes, mononuclear phagocytes and other cells involved in host defense and inflammation. The Journal of Leukocyte Biology is published by the Society for Leukocyte Biology.

Details: Lucija Slavica, Inger Nordstrm, Merja Nurkkala Karlsson, Hadi Valadi, Marian Kacerovsky, Bo Jacobsson, and Kristina Eriksson.

TLR3 impairment in human newborns. J Leukoc Biol. November 2013 94:1003-1011; doi:10.1189/jlb.1212617 ; http://www.jleukbio.org/content/94/5/1003.abstract

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31-Oct-2013

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Contact: Cody Mooneyhan
cmooneyhan@faseb.org
301-634-7104
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

New research published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology suggests that newborns lack the toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) which recognizes different viruses and mediates immune response to these viruses

Bethesda, MDIf you think cold and flu season is tough, trying being an infant. A new research finding published in the November 2013 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology sheds new light on why newborns appear to be so prone to getting sick with virusesthey are born without one of the key proteins needed to protect them. This protein, called "toll-like receptor 3" or "TLR3," is involved in the recognition of different viruses and mediates the immune response to them. Without this protein, newborn immune cells are not equipped to recognize and react appropriately to certain viruses, in particular, the herpes simplex virus known as HSV.

"This study helps to understand the molecular basis for the immaturity of the immune system of newborns, which we believe will contribute to development of therapeutic interventions to protect this vulnerable population group," said Lucija Slavica, a researcher involved in the work from the Department of Rheumatology and Inflammation Research at the University of Gothenburg in Gothenburg, Sweden.

To make this discovery, scientists compared cells from the cord blood of newborns with the same type of blood cells from adults. The cells from newborns did not contain the protein TLR3, which was present in adult cells. These cells rid the body of viral-infected cells, ultimately eliminating viral infections. When researchers treated both cell groups with a synthetic component mimicking a viral presence, the adult immune cells reacted by secreting substances involved in immune reaction against viruses (interferon-gamma) and killed cells infected with virus, while cells from newborns could not do this or were impaired in performing this function.

"This study adds to the growing body of research stemming from the Nobel-winning discovery in 2011 on how the immune system recognizes microbes by shedding light on how these pathways develop over time after birth," said John Wherry, Ph.D., Deputy Editor of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology. "This report is particularly important - as any new parent can attest, infants are particularly susceptible to infections and understanding which pathways are not yet functional could lead to novel therapies."

###

The Journal of Leukocyte Biology publishes peer-reviewed manuscripts on original investigations focusing on the cellular and molecular biology of leukocytes and on the origins, the developmental biology, biochemistry and functions of granulocytes, lymphocytes, mononuclear phagocytes and other cells involved in host defense and inflammation. The Journal of Leukocyte Biology is published by the Society for Leukocyte Biology.

Details: Lucija Slavica, Inger Nordstrm, Merja Nurkkala Karlsson, Hadi Valadi, Marian Kacerovsky, Bo Jacobsson, and Kristina Eriksson.

TLR3 impairment in human newborns. J Leukoc Biol. November 2013 94:1003-1011; doi:10.1189/jlb.1212617 ; http://www.jleukbio.org/content/94/5/1003.abstract

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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/foas-sdw103113.php
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Why We're Afraid of the Dark (and Why It's Good That We Are)

Most kids go through a stage in which they're afraid of the dark. Any creaking floorboard, rustling shutter, or random bump in the night fill them with terror. Good! Here's why, and why we should maybe never grow out of it.

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/NTdyPlr2N2M/why-were-afraid-of-the-dark-and-why-its-good-that-we-1448915260
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The Nexus 5 is official, available Nov. 1

Here comes Google and LG's next big thing

Today brings an end to all the rumors, leaks and speculation — the LG-made Google Nexus 5 is finally official and you'll be able to buy it tomorrow.

Here's the long and short of it: This year's Nexus handset is a 5-incher with a 1080p display, a 2.3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU and 2GB of RAM. Storage comes in 16 and 32GB configurations. The Nexus 5 is the first Nexus device to ship with an OIS (optical image stabilization) camera — an 8MP unit — which should compensate for hand motion in photos. It's also packing a 2300mAh battery and wireless charging capabilities.

Two Nexus 5 models will be offered, a North American version with CDMA support, 7-band WCDMA and 9-band LTE, and an international version with 6-band WCDMA and 6-band LTE. For a full list of radio bands and other technical info, check out our full Nexus 5 specs post.

Prices in the UK start at £295; in the U.S. it's $349 for 16GB and $399 for 32GB. It's available to order now on Google Play Store in several countries with 1-2 day shipping times; brick-and-mortar stores in the UK should have it tomorrow. post for The first thousand UK buyers who pick up a Nexus 5 from Carphone Warehouse on-contract can claim a free 16GB Nexus 7 (2012). Carphone's on-contract prices start at £32 per month on 3G and £37 on 4G, both from O2.

Naturally, the Nexus 5 runs the all-new Android 4.4 KitKat, which we're still in the process of learning about amid today's announcements. Stay tuned for additional info just as soon as we get it.

Keep it locked to Android Central for more on today's Nexus and Android 4.4 KitKat news as it breaks.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/NTqaDR1zIyY/story01.htm
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Android 4.4 KitKat lets you say 'OK Google' to activate touchless search

"Okay Google." Those Touchless Controls aren't just for the Moto X anymore -- they're now part and parcel of the Nexus 5. With today's unveiling of Google's (terribly leaked) Nexus 5, we're getting a first look at Android 4.4 KitKat on the handset, and that OS update comes with some significant ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/5Y29XccRA4M/
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Spirit Airlines mulls tying fees to flight demand

NEW YORK (AP) — The complex world of airlines fees might soon get even more confusing.

The fees fliers pay to check a suitcase or pick a more desirable seat might soon become much more complicated and costly.

Spirit Airlines is considering tying the fees passengers pay to check a suitcase or pick a more desirable seat to demand. On a peak travel day, for instance, the fees could be much higher. Passengers who booked a Spirit flight for this holiday season can relax however — the changes are months away, if they happen at all.

The changes could benefit passengers as well. Someone flying on a slow Tuesday afternoon, for example, might catch a break on price. Spirit did not say how much the fees could change.

Spirit's bag fees already vary in price depending on how early customers choose to pay: $30 for the first bag when buying a ticket online or prior to check-in, $35 starting 24 hours before the flight at online check-in or $45 at the airport.

CEO Ben Baldanza told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday that during peak days there sometimes isn't enough room in the belly of the plane for all the bags. Other days, there are only two or three checked suitcases. Clearly, he said, that shows the airline isn't pricing its extra services correctly.

"This is something we've been thinking about for a while," Baldanza said. "It's not a foregone conclusion."

The low-cost carrier based in Miramar, Fla. is one of the few airlines that charge a fee to select any seat — window, middle or aisle — in advance. It also charges extra for water, to place a bag in the overhead bin and to have an agent print a boarding pass at the airport.

Baldanza said lower prices for seat assignments on a slow day might induce more people to buy. It will also make the online seat map appear fuller, causing more passengers to pay extra to avoid middle seats near the back. "If you look at seat map that is empty, you are less likely to buy," Baldanza noted. The price might be lower, but Spirit could ultimately take in more revenue with a higher volume of sales.

Airlines have priced tickets this way for the past three decades. The more demand for a particular flight — say one on the Sunday after Thanksgiving — the higher the price will be. United Airlines and Delta Air Lines already price some seats with extra legroom at different levels based on the demand for that flight. No airline currently does that with luggage fees.

Baldanza said his company needs time, if it moves forward with the changes, to update its technology and inform passengers.

"It's not just something we can snap our fingers and do tomorrow," he said.

__

Scott Mayerowitz can be reached at http://twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott.

• Travel & Tourism
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/spirit-airlines-mulls-tying-fees-flight-demand-213157679--finance.html
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Fewer Americans seek unemployment aid for 3rd week

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell 10,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 340,000, a sign that employers are laying off very few workers.

The Labor Department said Thursday that the four-week average rose 8,000 to 356,250, the highest since April. The 16-day partial government shutdown and backlogs in California due to computer upgrades inflated the average.

Still, a government spokesman said those unusual factors did not affect last week's first-time applications, which appeared to be free of distortions for the first time in two months.

Applications are a proxy for layoffs. They have fallen for three straight weeks and are just above the pre-recession levels reached in August.

Fewer applications are typically followed by more job gains. But hiring has slowed in recent months, rather than accelerated.

The economy added an average 143,000 jobs a month from July through September. That's down from an average of 182,000 in April through June, and 207,000 during the first three months of the year.

"A larger concern remains over firms not willing to accelerate hiring as the lean workforce does not leave much room left for firing," said Yelena Shulyatyeva, an economist at BNP Paribas.

Nearly 3.9 million people received unemployment benefits in the week ended Oct. 12, the latest data available. That's about 40,000 more than the previous week. But a year ago, more than 5 million people were receiving unemployment aid.

Hiring likely weakened even further in October because of the shutdown, which ended on Oct. 16. In addition to government contractors, other companies also likely cut jobs, such as restaurants and hotels located near national parks, which were closed. Some economists are forecasting that job gains in October could be 100,000 or less.

Payroll provider ADP said Wednesday that businesses added just 130,000 jobs in October. That's down from ADP's estimate of 145,000 private-sector jobs added in September.

The government will release its October employment report on Nov. 8. The report was delayed a week because of the shutdown.

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that the economy is growing at a moderate pace but still needs its support. Fed policymakers decided to continue purchasing $85 billion a month in bonds. The bond purchases are intended to lower long-term interest rates and encourage more borrowing and spending.

In a statement, the Fed struck a slightly more optimistic tone about the economy. That suggests the Fed might pull back on its stimulus as early as December, economists said.

Most economists expect growth at an annual rate of between 1.5 percent and 2 percent in the July-September quarter, and about the same in the final three months of the year.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fewer-americans-seek-unemployment-aid-3rd-week-123805281--finance.html
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Watchdog: Syria destroyed chemical arms equipment

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria has destroyed critical equipment for producing chemical weapons and poison gas munitions, the global chemical weapons watchdog said Thursday as fierce clashes raged in the country's north, close to one of the sites where toxic agents are believed to be stored.

The announcement by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons came one day ahead of the Nov. 1 deadline set by The Hague-based organization for Damascus to destroy or "render inoperable" all chemical weapon production facilities and machinery for mixing chemicals into poison gas and filling munitions.

The completion of what is essentially the initial stage of destruction is a significant milestone in an ambitious timeline that aims to destroy all of Damascus' chemical weapons by mid-2014.

Destruction of the equipment means that Syria can no longer produce new chemical weapons.

However, Damascus still has to start destroying existing weapons and stockpiles. The country is believed to have around 1,000 metric tons of chemicals and weapons including mustard gas and the nerve agent sarin.

The announcement came as fighting raged Thursday in the town of Safira, which experts say is home to a chemical weapons production facility as well as storage sites, reported the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

President Bashar Assad's troops have been battling rebels, many of them linked to al-Qaida groups, in Safira for weeks. The Observatory said there were casualties on both sides Thursday but had no specifics.

The fighting underscored the dangers the chemical weapons' inspectors face as they race against tight deadlines in their mission to rid Syria of the toxic arsenal in the midst of an ongoing civil war.

A statement from the OPCW, which works closely with the United Nations, said its team was "now satisfied that it has verified — and seen destroyed — all of Syria's declared critical production and mixing/filling equipment." It added that, "no further inspection activities are currently planned."

Earlier this week, the inspectors said they had completed their first round of verification work, visiting 21 of 23 sites declared by Damascus. They were unable to visit two sites because of security concerns, the inspectors said.

On Thursday, OPCW said the two locations were, according to Syria, "abandoned and ... the chemical weapons program items they contained were moved to other declared sites, which were inspected."

It was not immediately clear if the facility in Safira was one of the two sites that OPCW inspectors were not able to visit.

Syria has submitted a plan for the total destruction of its chemical weapons that has to be approved next month by the OPCW's executive committee.

"I salute the fortitude and courage you've all demonstrated in fulfilling the most challenging mission ever undertaken by this organization," the watchdog's director-general, Ahmet Uzumcu, said in comments released by the OPCW.

Syria's conflict has killed more than 100,000 people and forced some 2 million more to flee the country. Now in its third year, the civil war pits the primarily Sunni Muslim rebels against Assad's government and its security forces, which are stacked with members of his Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

In other developments, the Observatory's chief Rami Abdurrahman said there had been a strong explosion Wednesday inside an air defense facility in Syria's coastal province of Latakia. The cause of the blast was not known, he said.

_____

Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-31-Syria/id-779e0f0a869c416bb9b80c8fdbc5730b
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Bryan Cranston narrates 'Big History' exploration

NEW YORK (AP) — Bryan Cranston has an authoritative voice, which all by itself would qualify him to narrate "Big History."

But there's another reason Cranston is a fine choice for this new docuseries, which pledges to reveal "one grand unified theory" for how every event in history (13.7 billion years of it) is intertwined by science. Cranston, after all, starred in the recently concluded drama "Breaking Bad" as Walter White, the nation's favorite psychotic former high-school chemistry teacher.

"Walt was a passionate teacher," Cranston says with a laugh, "and even through the dastardly deeds that he found himself doing later on, he was still a teacher: He taught Jesse the chemistry of cooking meth."

"Breaking Bad" is behind him, and now, in Cranston's current TV project, he is as much student as teacher as he confronts each script for the 16-episode-plus-finale series, which premieres Saturday at 10 p.m. EDT on the H2 network (an extension of the History channel).

"The series uses science and history to show how various things that we take for granted these days had their origins thousands of years ago," Cranston says by phone from the Los Angeles studio where he is busy taping his commentary.

Two half-hour episodes of "Big History" will air on premiere night.

"The Superpower of Salt" reveals its subject to be far more than the thing you cut down on if you have high blood pressure.

"New York City wouldn't be the city that it is without salt," Cranston declares in the episode. Moreover, salt helped determine the road system of America and beyond: It "has silently engineered our global map."

Salt's all-important role in animal life was demonstrated eons ago by the genesis of the egg, a portable container for salty water that allowed a creature to leave the sea for dry land to procreate there. (Even the amniotic sack in the womb serves as a personal ocean for the fetus, he notes.)

The second episode, "Horse Power Revolution," makes clear the noble equine's legacy goes deeper than pulling a plow and toting Paul Revere on his midnight ride.

It was early nomads in Central Asia some 6,000 years ago who first rode horses, Cranston reports.

Among many unexpected benefits the horse spurred was pants. Citizens of ancient Rome wore tunics, which were impractical for riding horses, as Roman soldiers must have realized anew while battling barbarian enemies who sported this sartorial innovation. The Roman cavalry soon got on board. From there, pants became the rage for clotheshorses the world over.

Prior to the H2 series, Big History began as a course developed to help students better understand the world by revealing "big picture" connections between different fields of study. A free, online version is available online.

"I love learning how a moment in history carries through to today's life," says Cranston.

Asked what kind of student he was during his school years, he recalls, "I was good when I wanted to be. And I could get enthused about any subject if a teacher made it come alive.

"That's what this series does. It describes the relationship we have to our history. It explains how and why this is important to ME. That's what's key!"

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore@ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier.

___

Online:

http://www.history.com/shows/h2

http://www.bighistoryproject.com

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bryan-cranston-narrates-big-history-exploration-140140112.html
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Angelina Jolie’s “Unbroken”: New Photos From the Set!

She’s been working hard on her next directorial project “Unbroken,” and Angelina Jolie just released new photos from the set via Entertainment Weekly.

The “Changeling” chick has been filming in Moreton Bay with stars Garett Hedlund, Finn Wittrock, Jai Courtney, CJ Valleroy, Domhnall Gleeson, and Jack O’Connell, and from the look of the pictures things are getting pretty intense.

Based on the New York Times bestselling book “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption,” “Unbroken” is slated to hit theaters on December 25th, 2014.

Per the synopsis, “The story follows the incredible life story of Olympian and war hero Louis Zamperini who, along with two other crewmen, survived in a raft for 47 days after a near-fatal plane crash in WWII—only to be caught by the Japanese Navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.”

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/unbroken/angelina-jolie%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cunbroken%E2%80%9D-new-photos-set-1074523
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Group: Japan's coastal sea hunts risk for species

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's hunts of smaller whales, dolphins and porpoises threaten some species with extinction, an environmental group said Thursday.

Catch quotas are based on data collected as much as 20 years ago and some species have been overhunted beyond the point of recovery, the Environmental Investigation Agency said in its report.

The lucrative market in live catches for aquariums, especially in China, poses another risk, the report said. Live animals can sell for between $8,400 and $98,000, sometimes more than the roughly $50,000 from sales of meat for a single bottlenose dolphin.

Japan set its catch limit for small cetaceans at 16,655 in 2013, far below the 30,000 caught annually before limits were set in 1993 but still the largest hunt in the world.

Japan's Fisheries Agency wouldn't comment on the EIA report because it hasn't seen it. Japan defends its coastal whaling as a longstanding tradition, source of livelihood and as necessary for scientific research.

The London-based independent conservation group said Japan is failing to observe its stated goal of sustainability and urged the country to phase out the hunts over the next decade.

"The government has a responsibility to restore and maintain cetacean species at their former levels," said Jennifer Lonsdale, a founding director of the EIA.

The small cetaceans are among a number of species facing severe declines in Japan. They include Japanese eels, a delicacy usually served roasted with a savory sauce over rice, and torafugu, or puffer fish.

The status of each species varies, depending on its range and hunting practices. Catch limits for Dall's porpoises are 4.7-4.8 times higher than the safe threshold, the report said.

For the striped dolphin, once the mainstay of the industry but now endangered and disappearing from some areas, catches have dropped from over 1,800 in the 1980s to about 100.

That is still four times the sustainable limit, the report said. It urged that the government update its data on the abundance of it and other species and stop transferring quotas from already overfished areas to areas that exceed their quotas.

Under a 1946 treaty regulating whaling, nations can grant permits to kill whales for scientific research.

In July, Japan defended its annual harpooning of hundreds of whales in the icy seas around Antarctica, insisting the hunt is legal because it gathers valuable scientific data that could pave the way to a resumption of sustainable whaling in the future.

Australia has appealed to the World Court to have the whaling outlawed.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-10-31-Japan-Whaling/id-56044db17c3b478e9c5c9fdcc3f85801
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Scary TV Shows & Specials to Put You in the Halloween Mood

With all the blood-chilling (or just slightly scary) offerings on TV this week, you'll have plenty of things to watch while you nibble on the Halloween candy you're supposed to be saving for trick-or-treaters.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/what-watch-scary-tv-shows-halloween-specials/1-a-550996?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Awhat-watch-scary-tv-shows-halloween-specials-550996
Category: kris jenner   downton abbey   Jane Addams  

More study urged on concussions in young athletes

FILE - This Aug. 4, 2012 file photo shows new football helmets that were given to a group of youth football players from the Akron Parents Pee Wee Football League, in Akron, Ohio. It's not just football. A new report says too little is known about concussion risks for young athletes, and it's not clear whether better headgear is an answer. The panel stresses wearing proper safety equipment. But it finds little evidence that current helmet designs, face masks and other gear really prevent concussions, as ads often claim. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

FILE - This Aug. 4, 2012 file photo shows new football helmets that were given to a group of youth football players from the Akron Parents Pee Wee Football League, in Akron, Ohio. It's not just football. A new report says too little is known about concussion risks for young athletes, and it's not clear whether better headgear is an answer. The panel stresses wearing proper safety equipment. But it finds little evidence that current helmet designs, face masks and other gear really prevent concussions, as ads often claim. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — No one knows how often the youngest athletes suffer concussions. It's not clear if better headgear is the answer, and it's not just a risk in football.

A new report reveals big gaps in what is known about the risk of concussion in youth sports, especially for athletes who suit up before high school.

The Institute of Medicine and National Research Council on Wednesday called for a national system to track sports-related concussions and start answering those questions.

Despite a decade of increasing awareness of the seriousness of concussions, the panel found young athletes still face a "culture of resistance" to reporting the injury and staying on the sidelines until it's healed.

"Concussion is an injury that needs to be taken seriously. If an athlete has a torn ACL on the field, you don't expect him to tape it up and play," said IOM committee chairman Dr. Robert Graham, who directs the Aligning Forces for Quality national program office at George Washington University.

"We're moving in the right direction," Graham added.

But the panel found evidence, including testimony from a player accused by teammates of wimping out, that athletic programs' attention to concussions varies.

Reports of sports concussions are on the rise, amid headlines about former professional players who suffered long-term impairment after repeated blows. Recent guidelines make clear that anyone suspected of having a concussion should be taken out of play immediately and not allowed back until cleared by a trained professional.

Although millions of U.S. children and teens play school or community sports, it's not clear how many suffer concussions, in part because many go undiagnosed.

But Wednesday's report said among people 19 and younger, 250,000 were treated in emergency rooms for concussions and other sports- or recreation-related brain injuries in 2009, up from 150,000 in 2001.

Rates vary by sport.

For male athletes in high school and college, concussion rates are highest for football, ice hockey, lacrosse and wrestling. For females, soccer, lacrosse and basketball head the list. Women's ice hockey has one of the highest reported concussion rates at the college level.

College and high school sports injuries are tracked, but there's no similar data to know how often younger children get concussions, whether on school teams or in community leagues, the IOM panel said.

"One thing that parents question is, 'Well, should I let my son or daughter play this sport they're asking me to play?'" said sports injury specialist Dawn Comstock of the University of Colorado, who reviewed the report. "If we don't have that type of data on the national level, it's very difficult" to know.

Could safety gear prevent kids' concussions?

Some equipment ads make that claim. But there's little scientific evidence that current sports helmet designs or other gear, such as face masks or headbands for soccer, really reduce the risk, the panel cautioned.

Still, it stressed that youngsters should wear helmets and other sport-appropriate safety gear, because they guard against other injuries, including skull fractures and face injuries.

"Parents deserve to know how safe their children's safety equipment really is," said Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., who is pushing legislation to curb false advertising and encourage improvements to sports equipment standards.

"While we can't reduce every risk, we should do everything we can to stop misleading advertising that gives parents a false sense of security."

The report found that every state except Mississippi has passed a concussion law since Washington started the trend in 2009, prompted by a 13-year-old who suffered permanent disability after returning to a football game despite a concussion.

The laws address such things as criteria for removal from play and standards for return-to-play decisions, but the report said most are in the early stages of being implemented.

It's not always easy to spot a concussion — symptoms might not be obvious right away — yet most young athletes practice and play without routine access to a professional trained to check them, the panel said. That can leave the decision to bench players up to coaches and parents.

That's especially true before high school and in community leagues, said Tamara Valovich McLeod with the National Athletic Trainers' Association, which long has pushed for concussion education.

Without training, people may not realize you can have a concussion without losing consciousness, or that you can still have symptoms despite a clean CT scan, she said.

Typically, youth athletes recover from a concussion within two weeks. But in 10 percent to 20 percent of cases, symptoms can persist for weeks, months, occasionally even longer, the report found. A second blow before full recovery is especially dangerous.

Nor is the concern only about physical activity.

The American Academy of Pediatrics this week said teachers may need to ease students back into learning after a concussion.

There's increasing evidence that too much mental activity can prolong recovery, too. Sensitivity to light, headaches or memory difficulties may require breaks or extra time on assignments when the student returns to class, the pediatricians' policy says.

The IOM report also said:

—Youths who've already had a concussion are at higher risk for subsequent ones.

—Calls for a "hit count" to limit the number of head impacts in a week or a season make sense, but there's no evidence to say what that number should be.

—Sports officials should examine if there are age-specific rules to make play safer, such as Canadian youth hockey's no-checking rule for the youngest players.

But the report shouldn't scare parents into pulling their kids out of sports, injury expert Comstock stressed.

"The positives of sports as a physical activity still far outweigh the negatives," she said. "We just need to make it as safe as possible."

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2013-10-30-Youth%20Concussions/id-ce0938cb9c6c4639b8c47c30d9ff012e
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Joe Sexton Full Part: Videograss "The Last Ones"

Posted by: Evan Litsios / added: 10.29.2013 / Back to What Up

Check out Joe Sexton's part from Videograss' "The Last Ones." Joe's been pushing the street game since his prolonged days as an Am for Stepchild. Now he's one of the leaders in street progression, and there's no wonder why. He has an unmistakable style, bringing simplicity to incredibly technical tricks. Note the switch nosepress bs 180 at 2:26. That, folks, is how it's done. 

Joe Sexton: The Last Ones from VIDEOGRASS on Vimeo.

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Nike bringing new features to original Fuelband on November 6th

Worried that your first generation Nike Fuelband would be left in the cold in favor of the revamped model? The sportswear company has announced that early adopters will get a firmware upgrade that'll provide better tracking algorithms, double-tap for the time and sessions support. Of course, since ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/W4Nb6VHHDPE/
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