Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/05/10/gravity-trailer/
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Saturday, May 11, 2013
'Gravity' Trailer Shows Off The Horror Of Outer Space
After what has literally been years of waiting, the trailer for Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity" has arrived. The film, which stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, is a terrifying sci-fi epic that Guillermo del Toro has promised will blow our minds, and now we can see why. The trailer for "Gravity" goes light on the plot [...]
Pakistanis vote in historic election even as violence looms
The vote will be the first in Pakistan's history from one elected government at the end of its term to another.
A voter signs a ballot with a thumb impression in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, during Saturday's election.
B.K. Bangash/AP
EnlargeDefying threats of violence, Pakistanis streamed to the polls Saturday for a historic vote pitting a former cricket star against a two-time prime minister and an unpopular incumbent. But militant attacks that killed 20 people underlined the risks many people took just casting their ballots.
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The violence was a continuation of what has been a bloody election season, with more than 130 people killed in bombings and shootings. Some are calling this one of the deadliest votes in the country's history.
Despite the violence, many see the election ? the country's first transition between an elected government fulfilling its term to another ? as a key step to solidify civilian rule in a country that has experienced three military coups.
With the Pakistani Taliban threatening to target political parties in the vote, the government deployed an estimated 600,000 security personnel across the country to protect polling sites and voters.
Many Pakistanis seemed determined to cast their ballots despite the violence.
"Yes, there are fears. But what should we do?" said Ali Khan, who was waiting to vote in the northwestern city of Peshawar, where one of the blasts took place Saturday. "Either we sit in our house and let the terrorism go on, or we come out of our homes, cast our vote, and bring in a government that can solve this problem of terrorism."
That exuberance seemed to be widespread. The secretary of the election commission, Ahmed Khan, told reporters in Islamabad that he expected the turnout to be "massive."
The election is being watched closely by the United States, which relies on the nuclear-armed country for help fighting Islamic militants and negotiating an end to the war in neighboring Afghanistan.
This vote is notable for more than just the historic handoff of power from one civilian government to another.
The rise of former cricket star Imran Khan has reshaped the Pakistani political scene, challenging the stranglehold of the country's two main parties and making the outcome of the vote very hard to call.
The 60-year-old Khan is facing off against the Pakistan Muslim League-N, headed by two-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and the Pakistan People's Party, led by President Asif Ali Zardari.
While Sharif has billed himself as the candidate of experience, Khan is trying to tap into the frustrations of millions of Pakistanis who want a change from the politicians who have dominated the nation's politics for years.
"I never voted for anyone in the past, but today my sons asked me to go to the polling station, and I am here to vote," said Mohammed Akbar in the northwestern city of Khar. "Imran Khan is promising to bring a good change, and we will support him."
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Friday, May 10, 2013
Amazing Lost 'Atlantis' Survives Beneath English Sea
The sharpest look yet at an underwater medieval town dubbed England's "Atlantis" reveals that the lost city was once almost as large as the modern City of London, a major district in central London.
Medieval Dunwich was a thriving port in the Middle Ages. Major storms beginning in the 1200s swept the city out to sea and silted up the Dunwich River, choking off the Dunwich harbor. By the 1400s, Dunwich lost its perch as a major port. The city was abandoned, and over the centuries, the ruins continued to slip into the sea as the coast eroded.
The ruins of the city now sit off the coast of the county of Suffolk, England. The lost village has been difficult to explore, as it sits beneath 10 feet to 33 feet (3 meters to 10 meters) of silty, muddy water. The ruins get their nickname from the mythological city of Atlantis that supposedly sank into the sea. [See Images of the Lost City of Dunwich]
Detailed new look
In 2008, researchers at the University of Southampton began an underwater survey of medieval Dunwich. In a new report, the team reveals the most detailed maps yet of the town's streets and buildings, including a chapel and a friary.
?The loss of most of the medieval town of Dunwich over the last few hundred years ? one of the most important English ports in the Middle Ages ? is part of a long process that is likely to result in more losses in the future," Peter Murphy, a coastal survey expert with the protection group English Heritage, said in a statement. "Everyone was surprised, though, by how much of the eroded town still survives under the sea and is identifiable."?
The researchers found that Dunwich's urban center once covered 0.7 square miles (1.8 square kilometers), an area about the size of the City of London. A defensive earthen wall, possibly made by Saxons, enclosed the town's central area.
The survey also revealed the ruins of multiple religious buildings: Blackfriars Friary, St. Peter's, All Saints Church, St. Nicholas Church and the Chapel of St. Katherine. Another large building appears to be a large house or town hall.
The northern part of the town seems to be commercial, with wooden structures probably linked to port activities.
Changing climate
The find is a reminder of how quickly coasts can change, said David Sear, the University of Southampton researcher who led the mapping study.
The storms that swept away Dunwich occurred during a period when climate was changing from a warm period into the little ice age, which ran from about 1350 to 1850.
"Global climate change has made coastal erosion a topical issue in the 21st century, but Dunwich demonstrates that it has happened before," Sear said in a statement.
Social and economic decisions also influence what happens when coastal cities are threatened.
"In the end, with the harbor silting up, the town partly destroyed, and falling market incomes, many people simply gave up on Dunwich," Sear said.
Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter?and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Source: http://news.yahoo.com/amazing-lost-atlantis-survives-beneath-english-sea-212543741.html
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IRS apologizes for targeting tea party groups
FILE - In this Aug. 2, 2012 file photo, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Douglas Shulman testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the House Oversight Committee. The Internal Revenue Service inappropriately flagged conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status, a top IRS official said Friday. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
FILE - In this Aug. 2, 2012 file photo, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Douglas Shulman testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the House Oversight Committee. The Internal Revenue Service inappropriately flagged conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status, a top IRS official said Friday. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney during his daily news briefing at the White House in Washington, Friday, May, 10, 2013. Carney responded on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, calling on top-to-bottom review of the Obama administration after the IRS admitted that it had targeted conservative groups during the 2012 election. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Internal Revenue Service apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status.
IRS agents singled out dozens of organizations for additional reviews because they included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their exemption applications, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups. In some cases, groups were asked for lists of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.
The agency ? led at the time by a Bush administration appointee ? blamed low-level employees, saying no high-level officials were aware. But that wasn't good enough for Republicans in Congress, who are conducting several investigations and asked for more.
"I call on the White House to conduct a transparent, government-wide review aimed at assuring the American people that these thuggish practices are not under way at the IRS or elsewhere in the administration against anyone, regardless of their political views," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
White House spokesman Jay Carney declared it was indeed inappropriate for the IRS to target tea party groups. But he brushed aside questions about whether the White House itself would investigate.
Instead, Carney said the administration expects a thorough investigation by the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration. The inspector general has been looking into the issue since last summer, and his report is expected to come out next week, the IG's office said Friday.
Carney said he did not know when the White House first learned that tea party groups were being targeted.
Lerner acknowledged it was wrong for the agency to target groups based on political affiliation.
"That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate. That's not how we go about selecting cases for further review," Lerner said at a conference sponsored by the American Bar Association.
"The IRS would like to apologize for that," she added.
Lerner said the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias. Agency officials found out about the practice last year and moved to correct it, the IRS said in a statement. The statement did not specify when officials found out.
About 75 groups were inappropriately targeted. None had their tax-exempt status revoked, Lerner said.
The IRS is an independent agency within the Treasury Department that enforces the nation's tax laws. Revelations that the agency was targeting political groups because they were affiliated with a movement that is critical of President Barack Obama could become a new headache for the White House.
"The admission by the Obama administration that the Internal Revenue Service targeted political opponents echoes some of the most shameful abuses of government power in 20th century American history," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
Many conservative groups complained during the campaign that they were being harassed by the IRS. They accused the agency of frustrating their attempts to become tax exempt by sending them lengthy, intrusive questionnaires.
The forms, which the groups have made available, sought information about group members' political activities, including details of their postings on social networking websites and about family members.
IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told Congress in March 2012 that the IRS was not targeting groups based on politics.
"There's absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people" who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman told a House Ways and Means subcommittee.
The IRS said senior leaders were not aware that specific groups were being targeted at the time of the hearing.
"While we acknowledged centralization of these applications last year, the IRS did not acknowledge the use of names as part of the process earlier because the details were not initially known to senior leadership and (the inspector general) has been reviewing the situation," the IRS said in a statement. "Their work is now far enough along that it was appropriate to address the issue when it came up during (Friday's) tax conference."
Shulman was appointed by President George W. Bush. His 6-year term ended in November. President Barack Obama has yet to nominate a successor. The agency is now being run by acting Commissioner Steven Miller.
Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., chairman of the Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, requested a trove of documents from the IRS on Friday, including all communications containing the words "tea party" and "patriot."
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., said Friday he will hold a hearing on the matter has not yet set a date.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee have also promised investigations.
There has been a surge of politically active groups claiming tax-exempt status in recent elections ? conservative and liberal. Among the highest profile are Republican Karl Rove's group, Crossroads GPS, and the liberal Moveon.org.
These groups claim tax-exempt status under section 501 (c) (4) of the federal tax code, which is for social welfare groups. Unlike other charitable groups, these organizations are allowed to participate in political activities but their primary activity must be social welfare.
That determination is up to the IRS.
Lerner said the number of groups filing for this tax-exempt status more than doubled from 2010 to 2012, to more than 3,400. To handle the influx, the IRS centralized its review of these applications in an office in Cincinnati.
Lerner said this was done to develop expertise among staffers and consistency in their reviews. As part of the review, staffers look for signs that groups are participating in political activity. If so, IRS agents take a closer look to make sure that politics isn't the group's primary activity.
As part of this process, agents in Cincinnati came up with a list of things to look for in an application. As part of the list, they included the words, "tea party" and "patriot," Lerner said.
"It's the line people that did it without talking to managers," Lerner told The AP. "They're IRS workers, they're revenue agents."
In all, about 300 groups were singled out for additional review, Lerner said. Of those, about a quarter were singled out because they had "tea party" or "patriot" somewhere in their applications.
The IRS statement said that once applications were chosen for review, they all "received the same, even-handed treatment."
Lerner said 150 of the cases have been closed and no group had its tax-exempt status revoked, though some withdrew their applications.
"Mistakes were made initially, but they were in no way due to any political or partisan rationale," the IRS said in a statement. "We fixed the situation last year and have made significant progress in moving the centralized cases through our system."
"I don't think there's any question we were unfairly targeted," said Tom Zawistowski, who until recently was president of the Ohio Liberty Coalition, an alliance of tea party groups in the state.
Zawistowski's group was among many conservative organizations that battled the IRS over what they saw as discriminatory treatment. The group first applied for nonprofit status in June 2009, and it was finally granted on Dec. 7, 2012, he said ? one month after Election Day.
"It is suspicious that the activity of these 'low-level workers' was unknown to IRS leadership at the time it occurred," said Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, which describes itself as the nation's largest tea party organization. "President Obama must also apologize for his administration ignoring repeated complaints by these broad grass-roots organizations of harassment by the IRS in 2012, and make concrete and transparent steps today to ensure this never happens again."
___
Associated Press writers Alan Fram in Washington and Steve Peoples in Boston contributed to this report.
___
Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap
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British gold medalist dies during America's Cup practice
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A 72-foot-long, high-tech catamaran sailboat capsized Thursday in San Francisco Bay while practicing for the America's Cup races this summer, killing an Olympic gold medalist from England and injuring another sailor, authorities said.
Artemis Racing said Andrew ''Bart'' Simpson died after the capsized boat's platform trapped him underwater for about 10 minutes shortly after 1 p.m.
Artemis and two other yacht teams, each outfitted with multimillion-dollar racing boats that can achieve speeds of 45 mph, are challenging defending champions Oracle Racing for the America's Cup, sailing's most prestigious trophy.
Simpson, 36, served as the Swedish team's strategist.
''The entire Artemis team is devastated by what happened,'' CEO Paul Cayard said in a statement on the team's website. ''Our heartfelt condolences are with Andrew's wife and family.''
Cayard didn't take questions during a brief news conference Thursday evening and didn't return telephone calls.
British newspapers reported that Simpson is survived by a wife and an infant.
Artemis Racing said doctors ''afloat'' with the team and on shore were unable to revive Simpson after he was freed from the wreckage. The other sailor suffered minor injuries, and the rest of the crew of about a dozen people was accounted for and taken back to their dock in Alameda.
Officials said winds were blowing between 15 and 20 knots (17 to 23 mph) when the boat capsized. The National Weather Service later issued a small-craft advisory, warning inexperienced mariners to stay off the bay and indicating winds of between 21 knots and 33 knots (up to 28 mph).
The Artemis boat flipped in winds of about 20 knots near Treasure Island, which is bisected by the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge. The armada of rescue boats and helicopters were visible from the roadway.
Simpson and the unidentified injured sailor were brought to shore as the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco, where paramedics performed CPR on Simpson. He was pronounced dead a short time later.
This is the second time a sailor has died during training for the America's Cup. In 1999, Martin Wizner of the Spanish Challenge died almost instantly when he was hit in the head by a broken piece of equipment.
No deaths have been recorded during the actual racing since its inception in 1851.
Simpson and his partner Iain Percy won an Olympic gold medal for England in 2008 in the Star class of sailing. The duo was expected to repeat in London in 2012 but was upset by a Swedish team and settled for silver.
Percy is Artemis' director and the boat's tactician. The team announced Feb. 23 that Simpson was joining Artemis to ''provide weather and tactics support'' to the crew.
A month later, Simpson tweeted: ''Moving the family to San Fran for 6 months is pretty hectic!!! The cup should be fun though!!''
Artemis Racing has had its share of upheaval in the buildup to the 34th America's Cup. Late last year, skipper Terry Huthinson of Annapolis, Md., was released. He was replaced by Nathan Outteridge of Australia, who won a gold medal at the London Olympics.
The team has had technical problems, as well. Last fall, Artemis said the front beam of its AC72 catamaran was damaged during structural tests, delaying the boat's christening. A year ago, Artemis' AC72 wing sail sustained serious damage while it was being tested on a modified trimaran in Valencia, Spain.
This also wasn't the first America's Cup boat to capsize on the hard-blowing San Francisco Bay. Oracle's $10 million boat capsized in 25-knot winds in October, and strong tides swept it four miles past the Golden Gate Bridge. No one was injured, but the rough waters destroyed the 131-foot wing sail, and the boat was sidelined until a new sail shipped from New Zealand was installed in February.
Stephen Barclay, CEO of the America's Cup Event Authority, said officials were investigating Thursday's accident. He said it was unclear what effect the death will have on the America' Cup races, which are scheduled to run from July to September.
It was too soon to answer questions about the safety of the high-tech boats on the San Francisco Bay, Barclay said.
''Obviously a catamaran is more prone to capsizing than a mono-hull,'' he said. ''Whether boats are safe or unsafe, we're not going to speculate on those things.''
In addition to sailors wearing crash helmets and life vests, chase boats carry doctors and divers, Barclay said.
''There are lots of precautions that are taken, and some of those are as a result of Oracle's mishap last year,'' he said.
The boats participating in the latest America's Cup more resemble a space craft than the traditional sloops that historically competed for the trophy.
Financed by billionaire Larry Ellison, Oracle Team USA won the 2010 cup and made several changes to the races this year in an attempt to make the staid competition more fan- and TV-friendly.
While much faster and more exciting than the sloops, the catamarans have proved hard to handle. The wing sail looks and acts like an airplane wing, improving the yacht's speed and maneuverability. The 7-ton boat's hulls are lifted out of the water and it skims along the waves on ''foils,'' reducing the drag on the boat and increasing speed dramatically.
Coast Guard Lt. Jeannie Crump said the agency did not know the extent of the damage to the Artemis boat. A commercial salvage boat would tow the vessel to Clipper Cove, between Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island, Crump said.
She added that Coast Guard officials weren't sure what caused the boat to capsize. The Swedish team has two boats, she said.
---
Associated Press writers Terry Collins, Sudhin Thanawala and Garance Burke contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/americas-cup-boat-capsizes-san-210048918--spt.html
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Thursday, May 9, 2013
An electronic nose can tell pears and apples apart
May 8, 2013 ? Swedish and Spanish engineers have created a system of sensors that detects fruit odours more effectively than the human sense of smell. For now, the device can distinguish between the odorous compounds emitted by pears and apples.
Researchers from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV, Spain) and the University of G?vle (Sweden) have created an electronic nose with 32 sensors that can identify the odours given off by chopped pears and apples.
"The fruit samples are placed in a pre-chamber into which an air flow is injected which reaches the tower with the sensors which are metal oxide semiconductors that detect odorous compounds such as methane or butane," explained Jos? Pelegr? Sebasti?, UPV researcher at the Gandia campus and co-author of the paper.
Next, software is used to gather real time data and the information is processed through classification algorithms. The results can be viewed on a 3D graph which distinguishes between the pear and apple scores.
This study, which is published in the 'Sensors and Actuators A' journal, is the starting point for new research the team is already involved in to develop multisensor systems that increase the capacity to differentiate complex mixtures of volatile substances.
"One example would be the wine making sector," Pelegr? commented, "where an electronic nose capable of distinguishing the quality or type of grape or recognising the vintage a wine belongs to would be very useful."
Other lines of research focus on the field of biomedicine. Some studies have shown that trained dogs can detect cancerous tumours, such as lung cancer, by smelling a person's breath.
If this is true, and an electronic nose can detect which substances the animals recognise, then we could diagnose the disease earlier and increase patients' survival rates.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/jHOnI0N0aN4/130508092827.htm
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Xerox's New Grading Copiers Will Finally Make Scantron Obsolete
Not content with having them only print, copy, collate, and staple, Xerox is adding a new trick to its photocopiers that promises to give teachers more time with their students. Custom software will actually let a school's photocopier not only grade papers, but also keep tabs on which students are struggling in certain subjects.
Automated systems for grading bubble sheet exams have of course existed for years, but Xerox's approach will actually be able to distinguish hand-written responses. And not just mathematical equations where the answers are either right or wrong, but essay-type responses too, providing notes on spelling and grammar like a word processor would.
But the biggest benefit will be for students, as the photocopier will be able to provide detailed reports on how individuals are performing, and where they might need more help to keep their grades up. It's like tracking stats for athletes, but when commercially available sometime in late 2013 or early 2014, it will have the ultimate goal of getting kids into college based on grades, not a sports scholarship. [Xerox via Popular Science]
Source: http://gizmodo.com/xeroxs-new-grading-copiers-will-finally-make-scantron-496164333
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