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Thursday, February 28, 2013
Egypt to widen probe into fatal balloon crash
CAIRO (AP) ? Egypt's lead investigator says countries of some of the victims of the deadly balloon crash in Luxor have asked to join the probe.
Walid el-Moqadem said Thursday that Hong Kong, Britain, Japan and Hungary will not be sending investigators so far. He says they have been granted an advisory role and will for now be appraised of progress through emails.
Nineteen foreign tourists died when their hot air balloon caught fire and plummeted about 1,000 feet to the ground on Tuesday in southern Egypt.
Initial reports say the balloon was in the process of landing when a cable got caught around a gas tube and a fire erupted.
He says Egyptian investigators are currently collecting and documenting data. A separate criminal investigation is under way to rule out foul play.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-widen-probe-fatal-balloon-crash-114237659.html
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MacBreak Weekly 339: Big Finger Friendly
Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and I discuss the latest Mac rumors, why you shouldn't buy the new MacBook Pro (if you just bought the last one), the big stockholder meeting coming up, and more.
Download and subscribe: TWiT.tv
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/aU3dk9daMEw/story01.htm
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Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Blackhawks' streak at 19 after OT win over Oilers
Chicago Blackhawks right wing Marian Hossa (81), of Slovakia, celebrates with teammates including Jonathan Toews (19) after scoring the winning goal during overtime of an NHL hockey game against the Edmonton Oilers, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, in Chicago. The Blackhawks won 3-2. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Chicago Blackhawks right wing Marian Hossa (81), of Slovakia, celebrates with teammates including Jonathan Toews (19) after scoring the winning goal during overtime of an NHL hockey game against the Edmonton Oilers, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, in Chicago. The Blackhawks won 3-2. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Chicago Blackhawks left wing Viktor Stalberg (25) stuff the puck in the net past Edmonton Oilers goalie Nikolai Khabibulin (35), of Russia, and Corey Potter for a goal during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, in Chicago. The Blackhawks won 3-2 in overtime. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Edmonton Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (93) is unable to get a rebound shot on Chicago Blackhawks goalie Ray Emery (30) during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Chicago Blackhawks center Patrick Sharp (10) battles Edmonton Oilers center Sam Gagner (89) for a loose puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Edmonton Oilers defenseman Jeff Petry (2) celebrates with center Lennart Petrell, of Finland, after his goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Chicago Blackhawks, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
CHICAGO (AP) ? Marian Hossa skated along the boards, pumping his right arm as the United Center roared its approval.
Go ahead and give two more points to the streaking Chicago Blackhawks.
Hossa scored 1:44 into overtime and the Blackhawks beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 on Monday night to stretch their NHL-record opening points streak to 19 games.
Patrick Sharp set up the winning goal with a quick turn along the boards and a drive to the goal that led to two stops by Nikolai Khabibulin. Hossa picked up the second rebound and was again stuffed by Khabibulin before he poked it in for his ninth goal of the season.
"It is a great feeling, obviously," Hossa said. "It doesn't matter who's scoring and lately we have a lot of different guys scoring. We try to enjoy the streak, keep playing a simple game and try to find a way to win."
Patrick Kane and Viktor Stalberg also scored for Chicago (16-0-3), which has won six straight and nine of 10. Ray Emery made 17 saves to remain unbeaten in eight starts this season.
The Blackhawks have earned 35 of 38 possible points so far this season.
"It was a great third period," Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. "We had the puck in overtime, too. Great pay by Sharpie going to the net, great patience and presence with Hossa to finish."
Nail Yakupov and Jeff Petry had the goals for Edmonton, which carried a 2-1 lead into the third period but couldn't hold on for its fourth consecutive victory over the Blackhawks. Khabibulin had 31 stops in the opener of the Oilers' franchise-record, nine-game road trip.
"Of course you feel pain, having the lead going into the third period," Edmonton coach Ralph Krueger said. "It's definitely something you dream and believe you can close it. But they are an amazingly powerful team. They are very strong on the puck and they never, never let up, at all."
Edmonton grabbed the lead for the last time in the second, taking advantage when Brandon Saad was sent off for high sticking. Yakupov, the No. 1 overall pick in last year's draft, one-timed a pass from Sam Gagner into the right side of the net at 14:17 for his fourth power-play goal and sixth overall.
Chicago looked listless for much of the second, but rebounded quickly in the third. Michal Rozsival was behind the net when he sent a pass in front to Stalberg, who poked the puck into the mouth of goal as Khabibulin went to his knees to try for the stop.
The call on the ice was no goal, but replays showed the puck crossed the line before Khabibulin could make the play and Stalberg was awarded his fifth goal of the season after a short review.
The pace picked up after the tying goal, and each team had a couple of solid chances to move in front. Yakupov shot off the post on one power-play opportunity, and Khabibulin stopped Hossa on a short-handed chance.
"I think for us it would have been a big statement game if we were able to break the streak," Gagner said. "But at the same time, once we didn't do that, we wanted to find a way to get it in overtime and were unable to do that as well. So it was unfortunate we kind of squandered the lead there."
Edmonton moved in front in the first period after Duncan Keith lost his footing and coughed up the puck deep in Chicago's end. Lennart Petrell picked it up and skated in all alone on Emery, who stopped his backhand attempt. The rebound went out to Petry, who sent it over the prone goalie at 4:28.
Just over a minute later, Kane skated to the middle of the ice and beat Khabibulin with a slick backhander for his 10th goal of the season. It was his first goal since Feb. 10 at Nashville, ending a six-game drought.
"We keep finding ways to win," said Sharp, who picked up his 400th career point on the assist in overtime. "That's important at any time of the year. Those one-goal games, we're on the right side of them. We were thankful to pull it out today."
NOTES: Chicago closed out a 6-0-1 homestand. ... Edmonton F Taylor Hall served the second of a two-game suspension for his hit on Minnesota's Cal Clutterbuck on Thursday. ... Blackhawks C Dave Bolland missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury. Chicago also scratched D Sheldon Brookbank and LW Brandon Bollig for the second straight night. ... Ds Ryan Whitney and Theo Peckham were the other scratches for the Oilers. ... The Blackhawks improved to 10-0-3 in one-goal games.
___
Jay Cohen can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jcohenap
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Dynamix7.com: Handling Negative Social Media Comments in ...
Posted by BullQuake on Tuesday, February 26, 2013 ? Leave a Comment?
As American Businesses Embrace Online Marketing and Social Media Strategies in Particular, Some Are Losing Sight on How to Deal With Negative Interactions on the Internet; Dynamix7.com, a Digital Training Service for Online Marketing, Offers Thoughts on This Common Problem
Filed under Tech Stock News ? Tagged with business, comments, Dynamix7.com, Finesse, handling, marketing, media, negative, Online, requires, social
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Joe Carnahan No Longer Attached to Death Wish
Joe Carnahan was brought in to write and direct the Death Wish remake, but, now, he's no longer directing the movie because he and the studios couldn't see eye-to-eye over who to cast for the lead role.
According to Deadline, Paramount and MGM wanted Bruce Willis to play the Paul Kersey character, but Carnahan wanted to go with Bryan Cranston.
We can see why the studio would want someone like Bruce Willis since he has more name recognition and is, let's face it, a bigger box office draw. Someone like Cranston, who is probably better for the movie, won't do it for their bottom line.
Carnahan is not someone who's afraid to walk away from a project if he doesn't like the direction it's going. He left Mission: Impossible III after spending a year and a half on it, after all. Since the studios are not giving him freedom to cast who he wants in the movie, he walked.
Now that Carnahan is free from Death Wish, he can move on to a number of projects he's attached to direct like Continue, Undying Love, Stretch, and White Jazz.
According to Frank Grillo, the Death Wish remake won't just be about the Paul Kersey character.
"[Joe Carnahan] is imagining it as a two hander, it's not just Bronson's [character], it's two brothers," Grillo said.
Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1926912/news/1926912/
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Samsung Video Discovery hands-on
Samsung's really playing up its media chops here at Mobile World Congress. In addition to demoing the new HomeSync Android box, the Korean company is showing off its recently announced service for finding and watching TV content. The product was originally called TV Discovery, but just five days later it's resurfaced under the moniker Video Discovery. This new name is more accurate, as the service does deliver content recommendations for both live programming and movies and TV shows on demand.
We saw Video Discovery demoed with a Galaxy Note 8.0 and a Samsung Smart TV. You'll need a device with an IR blaster to adjust the TV channel or volume, with the app serving as a touchscreen remote. There are several modes for browsing content, including a timeline view that looks almost identical to the standard TV guide menu. You can also browse by genre or view current programming across all channels. When we skimmed through live TV listings, we simply had to tap the large "Watch Now" button next to a listing for the show to turn up on screen a few seconds later.
Perhaps the most useful feature, at least for those of you who know what you want: type in a search, and you'll see results from several content providers, including Blockbuster and Netflix (in the US) in addition to cable channels. Samsung reps said Discovery will also deliver personalized recommendations based on viewing preference and history, but the trade show employees on hand didn't seem entirely confident on some of the features, so we'll have to play with the service a bit more after it launches in April to confirm final functionality. But why not take a look for yourself now? Hit up the hands-on video after the break.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Samsung
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/AIRSyod_mqI/
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SPIN METER: In budget fight, sky is falling again
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama and his officials are doing their best to drum up public concern over the shock wave of spending cuts that could strike the government in just days. So it's a good time to be alert for sky-is-falling hype.
Over the last week or so, administration officials have come forward with a grim compendium of jobs to be lost, services to be denied or delayed, military defenses to be let down and important operations to be disrupted. Obama's new chief of staff, Denis McDonough, spoke of a "devastating list of horribles."
For most Americans, though, it's far from certain they will have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day if the budget-shredder known as the sequester comes to pass. Maybe they will, if the impasse drags on for months.
For now, there's a whiff of the familiar in all the foreboding, harking back to the mid-1990s partial government shutdown, when officials said old people would go hungry, illegal immigrants would have the run of the of the land and veterans would go without drugs. It didn't happen.
For this episode, provisions are in place to preserve the most crucial services ? and benefit checks. Furloughs of federal workers are at least a month away, breathing room for a political settlement if the will to achieve one is found. Many government contractors would continue to be paid with money previously approved.
Warnings of thousands of teacher layoffs, for example, are made with the presumption that local communities would not step in with their own dollars ? perhaps from higher taxes ? to keep teachers in the classrooms if federal money is not soon restored. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says teacher layoffs have already begun, but he has not backed up that claim and school administrators say no pink slips are expected before May, for the next school year.
To be sure, the cuts are big and will have consequences. Knowing what they will be, though, is far from a precise exercise.
And there is a lot of improbable precision in administration statements about what could happen: more than 373,000 seriously ill people losing mental health services, 600,000 low-income pregnant women and new mothers losing food aid and nutrition education, 1,200 fewer inspections of dangerous work sites, 125,000 poor households going without vouchers, and much more.
"These numbers are just numbers thrown out into the thin air with no anchor, and I think they don't provoke the outrage or concern that the Obama administration seeks," said Paul Light, a New York University professor who specializes in the federal bureaucracy and budget. For all the dire warnings, he said, "It's not clear who gets hurt by this."
The estimates in many cases come from a simple calculation: Divide the proscribed spending cut by a program's per-person spending to see how many beneficiaries may lose services or benefits under the sequester.
But in practice, through all the layers of bureaucracy and the everyday smoke and mirrors of the federal budget, there is rarely a direct and measurable correlation between a federal dollar and its effect on the ground.
That has meant a lot of tenuous "could happen" warnings by the administration, not so much "will happen" evidence.
So it was in Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' letter to Congress laying out likely consequences of the spending cuts for her agency's operations. She said the sequester "could" compromise the well-being of more than 373,000 people who "potentially" would not get needed mental health services, which in turn "could result" in more hospitalizations and homelessness.
Duncan left himself less wiggle room. "This stuff is real," he said last week. "Schools are already starting to give teachers notices."
Asked to provide backup for Duncan's assertion, spokesman Daren Briscoe said it was based on "an unspecified call he was on with unnamed persons," and the secretary might not be comfortable sharing details.
Briscoe referred queries about layoffs to the American Association of School Administrators. Noelle M. Ellerson, an assistant director of the organization, said Monday that in her many discussions with superintendents at the group's just-completed annual meeting, she heard of no layoffs of teachers. While everyone is bracing for that possibility down the road, she said, "not a single one I spoke with had already issued pink slips."
Most school district budgets for the next school year won't be completed for two months, she said, meaning any layoff notices would come in early to mid-May. "No one had yet acted."
School districts in areas set aside for tribal lands or military bases count on Washington for a significant share of their budgets, and are to lose $60 million, or 5 percent of their federal payments, when the sequester starts. Nearly all money to run most of the nation's public schools comes from local sources such as property taxes that are not affected by the federal cuts.
As for the assertion that 600,000 women could be dropped from the Women, Infants and Children Program, that's not to say the rolls would be cut by that number. The actual number is likely to include women who are not enrolled in the program now and could be denied when seeking to join it. Federal officials say the true number will depend on how states can manage their caseloads.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has warned of impending furloughs of air traffic controllers, who may need to take one day off every two weeks, and said air-travel delays are likely across the country. Asked Friday why the airline lobby predicted no major impact on air travel from the sequester, he said, "I don't think they have the information we're presenting to them today."
"The idea that we're just doing this to create some kind of a horrific scare tactic is nonsense," LaHood said. But it's a pressure tactic nonetheless: "What I'm trying to do is to wake up members of the Congress on the Republican side to the idea that they need to come to the table."
However the cuts fall, Light at NYU says the Washington Monument ploy, also known as the Firemen First principle, is at work.
It goes like this: Put someone's budget at risk and the first thing you'll hear is a threat to close a cherished national symbol or lay off firefighters and police, when in fact there are other ways to cut spending.
It so happens the Washington Monument is already closed, for earthquake repair. But Obama indulged in the Firemen First principle quite literally.
He appeared at the White House in front of officers in blue uniforms to warn of the consequences of the sequester. "Emergency responders like the ones who are here today ? their ability to help communities respond to and recover from disasters will be degraded."
The law gives little flexibility to agencies to protect favored programs, except for big ones specifically exempted from the automatic cuts, such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans benefits. FBI and Border Patrol furloughs are expected. Still, the White House has directed agencies to avoid cuts presenting "risks to life, safety or health" and to minimize harm to crucial services.
In the partial government shutdown during his presidency, Bill Clinton and his officials told some tall tales and sketched dark scenarios that didn't come to pass, though some might have if the crisis had lasted weeks or months longer. The shutdown played out over two installments totaling 26 days from mid-November 1995 to early January 1996.
National park properties closed (yes, even the Washington Monument), passport and federal mortgage insurance processing were disrupted and toxic waste cleanup stalled as hundreds of thousands of federal workers went idle, paid retroactively later. But states, communities and private groups stepped up to tide over the neediest, keeping Meals on Wheels rolling with their own resources, for example, until Clinton found emergency money to cover the costs. Warnings that Medicare treatment would be withheld proved unfounded, and veterans got their care.
Contractors, who perform many key services for government, kept working for IOUs. A claim by the government that deportations "have virtually ended" was not so.
The Justice Department told the story of a Florida gas station rejecting the government-issued credit card of a drug-enforcement agent to illustrate the indignity of it all.
But the reality was humdrum: The card had merely expired.
___
Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Mary Clare Jalonick, Joan Lowy and Philip Elliott contributed to this report.
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2nd round of heavy snow in Plains, Midwest; 2 dead
Traffic moves on the I-40 service road Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. A blizzard packing 50 mph wind gusts and more than 11 inches of snow blasted Amarillo and Texas Panhandle Monday, making travel nearly impossible. Interstate 40 and many major highways in the Panhandle have been closed. (AP Photo/The Amarillo Globe News, Michael Schumacher)
Traffic moves on the I-40 service road Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. A blizzard packing 50 mph wind gusts and more than 11 inches of snow blasted Amarillo and Texas Panhandle Monday, making travel nearly impossible. Interstate 40 and many major highways in the Panhandle have been closed. (AP Photo/The Amarillo Globe News, Michael Schumacher)
Vehicles navigate along Interstate 27 during blizzard conditions in Lubbock, Texas, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. State troopers are unable to respond to calls for assistance and National Guard units are mobilizing as a winter storm blankets the central Plains with a foot of snow in some places. Roads are closed Monday throughout West Texas and the Panhandle. (AP Photo/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Zach Long)
Amarillo emergency personnel assist a stranded motorist on the I-40 service road Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. A blizzard packing 50 mph wind gusts and more than 11 inches of snow blasted Amarillo and Texas Panhandle Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, making travel nearly impossible. Interstate 40 and many major highways in the Panhandle have been closed. (AP Photo/The Amarillo Globe News,Michael Schumacher)
Cattle stand in blizzard conditions in Lubbock, Texas, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. State troopers are unable to respond to calls for assistance and National Guard units are mobilizing as a winter storm blankets the central Plains with a foot of snow in some places. Roads are closed Monday throughout West Texas and the Panhandle. (AP Photo/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Zach Long)
Chance Cain, from left, Simon Mourning and Nathan Talley walk towards a sledding hill near downtown Wichita, Kan. as a winter storm moves through the area on Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/The Wichita Eagle, Travis Heying) LOCAL TV OUT; MAGS OUT; LOCAL RADIO OUT; LOCAL INTERNET OUT
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) ? The nation's midsection again dealt with blizzard conditions Monday, closing highways, knocking out power to thousands in Texas and Oklahoma and even bringing hurricane-force winds to the Texas Panhandle. Two people have died.
Already under a deep snowpack from last week's storm, Kansas was preparing for another round of heavy snow Monday evening and overnight, prompting some to wonder what it could do for the drought.
"Is it a drought-buster? Absolutely not," National Weather Service meteorologist Victor Murphy said. "Will it bring short-term improvement? Yes."
The storm is being blamed for two deaths on Monday. In northwest Kansas, a 21-year-old man's SUV hit an icy patch on Interstate 70 and overturned. And in the northwest town of Woodward, Okla., heavy snow caused a roof to collapse, killing one inside the home.
Earlier on Monday, blizzard warnings extended from the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles into south-central Kansas. The blizzard warnings were dropped Monday evening for the far western portion of the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles.
Meanwhile to the east, lines of thunderstorms crossed Arkansas, Louisiana and Florida, bringing heavy rain and an occasional tornado warning.
As many as 10,000 people lost power in Oklahoma, as did thousands more in Texas.
"I have a gas cooking stove and got the oven going," said Ann Smith, owner of the Standifer House Bed and Breakfast in Elk City, Okla., late Monday afternoon. Her daughter and grandchildren had come over because they lost power.
"If it gets cold tonight, I guess we'll have to put pallets in the kitchen," Smith said with a laugh.
Colorado and New Mexico were the first to see the system Sunday night, with up to 2 feet falling in the foothills west of Denver.
As it moved into the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles Monday, the storm ground travel to a halt, closing miles of interstates and state highways.
Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Daniel Hawthorne said about a dozen motorists had to be rescued, but no one was injured. The National Weather Service in Lubbock reported at one point that as many as 100 vehicles were at a standstill on Interstate 27.
Extremely strong winds whipped around at least a foot or more of snow in the Texas Panhandle, and a hurricane-force gust of 75 mph was recorded at the Amarillo airport. Amarillo recorded the biggest snowfall total in Texas ? 19 inches, just short of the record of 19.3 ? while Fritch was second with 16.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol closed all highways in the Panhandle and much of the state's northwest because of blizzard conditions. Trooper Betsy Randolph said several dozen motorists have reported being stranded or have abandoned their vehicles.
Chris McBee, a storm chaser, got stuck outside Woodward in northwest Oklahoma in the mid-afternoon. By then, the city was leading Oklahoma's snow totals with 15 inches of snow.
"We were planning to go back to Oklahoma City tonight, but the road was just impassable," McBee told The Associated Press. "You couldn't see 50 feet in front of you." A man with a bulldozer dug out McBee's vehicle.
"He's just helping people," McBee said, adding he assumed the man was still out there. "We tried to pay him and he refused."
While the wintry precipitation is "a shot in the arm," National Drought Mitigation Center climatologist Mark Svoboda said, the drought in the Plains and Midwest is far from over. Svoboda, speaking from Lincoln, Neb., said 12 inches of snow is equivalent to about 1 inch of rain.
"We would need 2-4 feet of snow to just erase the October to present deficits," in Kansas, he said.
Jim Shroyer, a wheat specialist with Kansas State University Extension, said snow is more efficient than summer rain in replenishing soil moistures because rain tends to run off or evaporate during the summer months.
But it can take months or years for pastures and rangeland to recover to the point where there is good forage there for livestock.
"There is a lag coming out of drought where some of these impacts will linger on long after 'climatological drought' is gone," Svoboda said. "And there is always a sense of false security there."
Texas rancher Jay O'Brien warned the storm could be deadly for grazing cattle, with the wind pushing animals into a fenced corner where they could suffocate from the drifts.
"This type of snow is a cattle-killer," he said.
Parts of Kansas are bracing for anywhere from 8 to 24 inches of snow as the system moves through the state overnight. Wichita figures to take another hit after last week's storm that dumped about a foot and a half of snow.
In preparation, many Kansas school districts already have called off Tuesday classes, as has the University of Missouri-Columbia. And Kansas City, Mo., Mayor Sly James declared a state of emergency Monday, as another foot or more could fall, adding to last week's 10 or so inches.
"This one has the potential to be quite serious," James said at a news conference.
Through the day Tuesday, the storm is forecast to spin toward the upper Midwest, bringing snow to Chicago and eventually Detroit before heading toward Buffalo, N.Y, and northern New England in the middle of the week.
___
Associated Press writers Jill Zeman Bleed and Kelly P. Kissel in Little Rock, Ark., Daniel Holtmeyer in Oklahoma City, and Roxana Hegeman in Wichita, Kan., Bill Draper in Kansas City, Mo., and John Milburn in Topeka, Kan., contributed to this report.
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Monday, February 25, 2013
Egypt opposition leader calls for election boycott
CAIRO (AP) ? Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei called Saturday for a boycott of parliamentary elections, drawing immediate criticism from some within his movement who said it was a hasty decision.
The dispute showed the fragility of a fairly new opposition front forged after the deeply fragmented movement found little success at the polls since it led the 2011 uprising that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
Opposition infighting would only help ensure that the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group remains Egypt's dominant political force after the next vote.
"(I) called for parliamentary election boycott in 2010 to expose sham democracy. Today I repeat my call, will not be part of an act of deception," Nobel laureate ElBaradei, who leads the opposition National Salvation Front (NSF), wrote on his Twitter account.
The comment reiterated a frequently heard opposition sentiment that democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi is acting like Mubarak.
Elections under Mubarak's three-decade rule were widely rigged and parliament was dominated by members of his ruling party.
Morsi called for the elections in a decree late Thursday night ? a four-stage vote starting at the end of April and concluding in June.
On Friday, ElBaradei said holding elections during this time of deep political polarization "is a recipe for disaster."
Morsi's Brotherhood accused the opposition of running away from the challenge.
The deputy head of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, Essam el-Erian, responded to ElBaradei's call on his Facebook page.
"Running away from a popular test only means that some want to assume executive authority without a democratic mandate," he said of the opposition. "We've never yet known them to face any election or serious test."
The mutual recriminations reflected a new escalation in political tensions that could spill into even wider strikes and protests ahead of the elections.
The opposition has accused Morsi and his Brotherhood backers of using election wins to monopolize power in tactics similar to the former regime.
They accuse Morsi of reneging on a promise to form an inclusive government representative of the Christian minority, women, and liberals.
In the country's last major vote, a hotly disputed constitutional referendum in December, ElBaradei urged his supporters at the last minute to participate and vote "No" after a debate within the opposition over whether to boycott.
The referendum was mired in controversy and rights groups criticized unchecked voting irregularities.
The Islamists, accused of ramming the charter through a drafting panel that they dominated, won passage by more than 60 percent, but turnout was low around 30 percent. Critics said the document opened the way for imposing Islamic law more strictly in Egypt.
Tensions soared in the run-up to the vote, with violent clashes between pro- and anti-government protesters that led to bloodshed outside the presidential palace.
Almost immediately after ElBaradei's boycott call, rifts began to emerge in the opposition. Even members of his opposition bloc, the NSF, said the group had not yet decided on a boycott.
Some activists criticized the call, saying it would alienate the masses and allow the Brotherhood free rein over the lower house of parliament, which writes laws and is supposed to monitor the president.
The Brotherhood already has the most seats in the upper chamber of parliament, largely an advisory body currently serving as an interim parliament. And it also successfully fielded Morsi as its candidate for president.
In Egypt's first free elections in 2011, the Brotherhood won nearly half of seats in parliament and the more conservative Islamists known as Salafis won a quarter.
A splinter Salafi party has emerged since then and competition for seats is expected to be fierce, particularly in Egypt's vast rural areas and poor city slums.
Within months of being elected, the lower house of parliament was disbanded in June of last year after the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled that a third of the chamber's members were elected illegally.
The upcoming elections are to reinstate the legislature.
Liberal and secular parties have trailed significantly in all elections since Mubarak was toppled. Their outreach across Egypt, while growing, is still dwarfed by the Islamists' well organized network of charities and programs that assist the poor.
But at the same time, since Morsi's election as Egypt's first civilian and Islamist president last summer, his popularity has eroded.
Blogger and commentator Mahmoud Salem, a longtime activist who now opposes Morsi, said he disagreed with a boycott because it offers no real alternative to the political impasse.
"Where's ElBaradei's party, its plan, its economic vision? Let's say a boycott is the right answer. What will they do so that they can be competitive in the next election?" Salem said.
He accused ElBaradei of calling for a boycott in part because the opposition has been unable to win significantly at the polls.
"In reality, it will end up as a parliament composed of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafis, or members of the ex-regime," he said.
Others have said they may enter elections, but are criticizing Morsi's timing.
Shadi Taha, a leading figure of al-Ghad al-Thawra party led by former Mubarak rival Ayman Nour, told The Associated Press that the country should be focused first on more pressing issues like the economy, education and health care.
The party has not yet decided if it will boycott.
"The last thing we need is to enter a new cycle that further polarizes and splits the country," Taha said. "First there should be stability. ... Elections should have been delayed to deal with bigger priorities."
On the second anniversary of the Jan. 25 uprising this year, anger at police impunity for abuses and an array of other social woes spilled out onto the streets and violence again engulfed the nation.
About 70 people died in a wave of protests and riots since then ? more than half of them in the restive Suez Canal city of Port Said alone.
A civil disobedience campaign in Port Said entered its seventh day on Saturday. The protesters are demanding retribution for those killed during the recent unrest. There have also been near daily protests in Cairo and in the textile producing city of Mahalla.
Former lawmaker Mostafa al-Naggar, a centrist, said boycott calls will be ineffective unless there is unity among the opposition.
He wrote on Twitter that a boycott "will clear the arena for the ruling party and its allies to dominate the legislative and executive branches."
ElBaradei's opposition coalition, which was only formed late last year, had warned for weeks it could boycott if certain conditions were not met first.
The NSF said it wants a real national dialogue that leads to the formation of a more inclusive government, changes to the constitution and stability.
Egypt's new constitution, approved in late December, says that procedures for elections should begin within two months of the charter being ratified but does not set a deadline for the vote.
Egypt's Coptic Christians complained that elections start around Palm Sunday and Easter, prompting Morsi to review the timing of the vote. Minority Christians have consistently voted against the Brotherhood.
On Saturday, Morsi changed the start of voting to April 22 instead of April 28.
Morsi's supporters say that delaying elections, protesting and boycotting are affecting Egypt's ability to lure foreign investors and tourists again as the economy deteriorates.
Egypt's oldest opposition party, al-Wafd, steered clear of immediately supporting a boycott. Instead, the party said it will file a lawsuit against elections being announced before laws governing the vote are approved.
Former liberal lawmaker Amr Hamzawi , part of ElBaradei's NSF group, told the AP that a boycott might be a good option but ElBaradei's unilateral call may have come prematurely.
"I don't think we need to decide today. But we need to enter a process of collective reflection," he said. "It takes time" for any opposition to translate its movement into societal change and elections victories.
___
Mosaad el-Gohary in Port Said contributed to this story.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-opposition-leader-calls-election-boycott-140854316.html
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Sunday, February 24, 2013
Governors urge Congress to avoid automatic cuts
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, left, leads fellow Democratic Governors Associations members along the driveway of the West Wing of the White House in Washington, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, following their meeting with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. From left are, Shumlin, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Vermont Gov. Maggie Hassan, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, left, leads fellow Democratic Governors Associations members along the driveway of the West Wing of the White House in Washington, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, following their meeting with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. From left are, Shumlin, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Vermont Gov. Maggie Hassan, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, center, accompanied by fellow members of the Democratic Governors Associations, speaks outside the White House in Washington, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, following their meeting with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. From left are, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, Virgin Islands Gov. John De Jongh, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Hassan, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, center, accompanied by fellow members of the Democratic Governors Associations, looks up to the overcast sky, outside the White House in Washington, Feb. 22, 2013, following their meeting with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. From left are, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, Virgin Island Gov. John de Jongh, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Hickenlooper, New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The nation's governors are becoming prominent voices in the fight to cut the federal deficit, warning that Capitol Hill's latest budget stalemate is radiating fresh waves of uncertainty that threatens economic progress in their states.
Gathered in Washington for the annual meeting of the National Governors Association, Republican and Democratic state leaders joined on Friday to condemn massive spending cuts ? known as the "sequester" ? set to begin on March 1. White House officials warned that inaction could lead to widespread flight delays, shuttered airports, off-limit seashores and hundreds of thousands of furloughed employees spread across dozens of states.
"It is not helpful when Congress and the president and the administration have such partisan gridlock," said Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican and former member of Congress. "Because their gridlock has real repercussions on the families ... it has real repercussions on our states and our economies."
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, said the nation "cannot afford to put at risk jobs and the recovery."
"The only thing that's standing in the way of prosperity right now is the games being played by the Republicans in Congress," he said following a meeting between Democratic governors and President Barack Obama.
The governors are scheduled to meet through the weekend, with the discussion expected to turn to jobs and the economy, gun control and the implementation of the president's health care overhaul.
Some Republican governors have blocked the use of Medicaid to expand health insurance coverage for millions of the uninsured, while others have joined Democrats in a wholesale expansion as the new law allows.
But no issue carries the same level of urgency as the budget stalemate.
From their nearby offices on Capitol Hill, congressional leaders have indicated a growing willingness to let the automatic spending cuts take effect and stay in place for weeks if not much longer. The change would trim $85 billion in domestic and defense spending, triggering furloughs for hundreds of thousands of Transportation Department and Defense Department employees, among others. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has warned that the automatic cuts would harm the readiness of U.S. fighting forces.
Obama in recent days has intensified efforts to warn the public of the negative effects, while applying pressure on congressional Republicans who oppose his blend of targeted savings and tax increases to tackle federal deficits.
Republicans in Congress responded sharply to the president's fresh demand to include higher taxes as part of a compromise.
"Spending is the problem, spending must be the focus," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky declared: "There won't be any easy off-ramps on this one. The days of eleventh-hour negotiations are over."
But governors aren't yet resigned to the worst-case scenario.
"I think there should be limited government, but I don't like random changes. If you look at my budget, I didn't do across the board cuts," said Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican. "I think you should be more strategic."
Indeed, the package of domestic and military cuts now approaching was never supposed to happen. It was designed as a fallback, to take effect only in case a congressional "supercommittee" failed to come up with $1 trillion or more in savings from benefit programs.
While Washington Republicans blame the White House for creating the plan, they joined Democrats in voting it into law.
There was little Obama-bashing from Republican governors on Friday. But there was plenty of frustration.
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Castleford by-election winner in jobs pledge
By-election winner Richard Forster has pledged to tackle the problem of escalating long-term youth unemployment in Castleford.
Coun Forster, who held the Castleford Central and Glasshoughton Ward for Labour in Thursday?s Wakefield Council by-election, said he will be seeking to increase training opportunities for youngsters. The seat was left vacant after West Yorkshire?s newly-elected Police and Crime Commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson fulfilled his pledge to resign his seat as a councillor on Wakefield Council.
Mr Burns-Williamson, who was a Labour councillor for the Castleford and Glasshoughton ward for almost 15 years, announced his intention to resign after being elected as crime chief last November.
Coun Forster romped home for Labour in the by-election after winning 1,567 of the total 2,045 votes cast following a poor turn out of just 16.93 per cent.
UKIP candidate Nathan Garbutt won 349 votes while Conservative candidate Annemarie Glover recorded 95 votes and Liberal Democrat candidate Mark Goodair won just 33 votes.
Long-term youth unemployment across the Pontefract, Castleford and Hemsworth area has rocketed by up to 500 per cent in the last 12 months. Office for National Statistics figures show the number of youngsters out of work in Pontefract and Castleford increased from 35 in December 2011 to 190 in December last year.
Married father-of-two Coun Forster, 57, who works as a director of a housing association, said: ?I am going to try to increase the opportunities for training and make sure that schools link in with businesses in communities to make sure there are opportunities for work placements so children?s aspirations are going to be increased.
?They will have had the experiences in work placements that currently is quite limited. I want to work with small and medium-sized businesses to increase the opportunities for work placements for young people in schools.
?I want to make sure we have got a workforce that is trained and ready for any opportunities that we can bring in to the town.
Coun Forster added: ?I was born and have been bred in Castleford and I want to make Castleford a thriving town in the wider Wakefield district.?
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Acer Liquid E1 and Liquid Z2 smartphones hands-on
Last week, Acer got out in front of the Mobile World Congress madness by reintroducing its Liquid E1 smartphone and announcing the new Liquid Z2. Well, we're on the ground here in Barcelona and we just got to see them both in person. A quick recap for those who missed Acer's first Androids of 2013: the mid-range E1 runs Jelly Bean on a 4.5-inch 960 x 540 IPS display, has a dual-core 1GHz processor, a 5-megapixel camera and a 1,760mAh battery. The entry-level Z2 also runs Android 4.1, but has a 3.5-inch 480 x 320 screen, single-core 1GHz CPU, a 3-megapixel shooter and a 1,300 mAh cell. Both phones come in either black or white and can be had in single- or dual-SIM configurations. Peruse our galleries of photos below, won't you? Then join us after the break for a video and our full impressions.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Acer
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/ACmBZ-HuMOg/
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Don't just blame cats: Dogs disrupt wildlife, too
Though they seem so natural in our homes, cats and dogs are natural predators, too. Most will attack birds, lizards and smaller mammals when given the chance, and scientists have demonstrated how their explosive populations can upset ecosystems.
The scourge of domestic cats has been thrown into the spotlight recently. A campaign in New Zealand is pushing to get rid of cats, or at least keep them confined indoors, where they can't prey on kiwis and other native birds. And a study out last month attached some staggering figures to cats' carnage in the United States: it found that the felines kill between 1.4 billion and 3.7 billion birds and between 6.9 billion and 20.7 billion small mammals, such as meadow voles and chipmunks, each year.
But defensive cat lovers should rest assured ? a new study from researchers at the University of Oxford reminds us that domestic dogs are also killers and disease-spreaders that can pose conservation problems when they're allowed to roam free outdoors.
Generalizing the ecological impact of the world's estimated 700 million domestic dogs can be tricky since they are treated very differently across cultures ? some kept in handbags, others chained outside or left to stray. In any case, the researchers say that free-roaming dogs (ones without an owner or otherwise left to run free) are thought to account for about 75 percent of the global dog population, and their interactions with other animals can be problematic. [The 10 Most Popular Dog Breeds]
Oxford researchers Joelene Hughes and David W. Macdonald reviewed 69 studies on canine-wildlife relations in rural areas. All but three of these articles found that dogs had a negative impact, mostly due to predation.
Free-roaming dogs can especially cause harm on islands, where ecosystems tend to be vulnerable in the face of non-native predators like dogs. For instance, in the late 1980s, researchers found that a single German shepherd on the loose in New Zealand's Waitangi State Forest was responsible for killing up to 500 kiwis. The dog had a collar, but was unregistered, and its owner was not found.
In another example from 2006, 12 ownerless dogs were thought to be wiping out populations of the endangered Fijian ground frog on the tiny Viwa Island. The Fijian villagers' solution was to "befriend" the dogs by feeding them scraps of food. Ten of the canines were eventually tamed and shipped off the island and the remaining two were killed.
The researchers note that much of the scientific literature on the problems posed by dogs focuses not on conservation issues, but health risks to humans. While canine rabies has been eradicated in the United States, dogs are responsible for nearly all of the 55,000 rabies deaths that occur worldwide, mostly in Asia and Africa. And rabies can disrupt wildlife, too, the researchers said, noting that dogs have been blamed for spreading the disease among several other animal species in Africa, including the extremely rare Ethiopian wolf.
"Despite the increasing recognition of the potential problem dogs may create for wildlife, few solutions to conservation issues were offered by the literature reviewed, particularly to non-disease related problems," Hughes and Macdonald write. "Local people and authorities may be reluctant to undertake dog population management or control because of the close nature of dog-human relationships, aversion to the methods that may be used to remove dogs" ? like poisoning and shooting the feral ones ? "lack of adequate alternative care options, and perceived prohibitive costs of action."
Their research was detailed last month in the journal Biological Conservation.
Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?& Google+.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dont-just-blame-cats-dogs-disrupt-wildlife-too-020659115.html
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Saturday, February 23, 2013
The SciFri Book Club Visits "Gorillas in the Mist"
The book club regulars visit Gorillas in the Mist, Dian Fossey's memoir of her years studying mountain gorillas in a remote African rainforest. Gorilla expert Annette Lanjouw joins the club to give an update on how this endangered subspecies of gorilla is faring.
Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/02/22/172696696/the-scifri-book-club-visits-gorillas-in-the-mist?ft=1&f=1007
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HTC One vs. iPhone 5: Can 'UltraPixels' and a Revamped 'Sense' Topple Apple's Iconic Smartphone?
By I-Hsien Sherwood | i.sherwood@latinospost.com | First Posted: Feb 21, 2013 09:05 PM EST
(Photo : Reuters) HTC CEO, Peter Chou, speaks during the launch of the HTC One smartphone in London February 19, 2013.
The HTC One flagship smartphone has finally been revealed, after weeks of teaser pics and simultaneous launch events in London and New York.
But how does the aluminum unibody HTC One compare?to the smartphone to beat, the iPhone 5?
Display
The One is bigger by far than the iPhone 5 -- 4.7 inches to the iPhone's 4 inches. But bigger isn't always better, as people with small hands will attest. However, the One's screen is also more detailed. It boasts a 1920x1080, 468ppi display. The iPhone can only muster an 1136x640 screen at 326 ppi. But the bigger size comes at a cost; the HTC Once weighs a full ounce more than the iPhone 5.
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Processor
These are a bit harder to compare, as iPhones run Apple's proprietary chips. The A6 in the iPhone 5 is good. The 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 in the HTC One is better than most other Android phones.
Storage
$199 and a contract gets you a 16 GB iPhone 5. The same price will net you a 32 GB HTC One. Both are available in models up to 64 GB. Neither has an SD slot.
Operating System
The iPhone runs iOS 6.1, just like every other Apple mobile device in the world. The One comes with a totally revamped version of Sense, HTC's own Android skin. Sense is considered by most to be prettier and easier to use than other Android skins, and HTC has gone out of its way to integrate social media into this version. Of course, an elegant interface at the expense of some customizability is Apple's thing, so Sense is up against stiff competition. If you like Android but are unimpressed with Samsung's TouchWiz, you'll probably like Sense.
Camera
The iPhone has a a typical 8 megapixel camera. It's good. HTC is trying something new with the One. The camera is only 4 megapixels, but HTC has branded them "UltraPixels." They're larger than typical photo sensors, so HTC says they capture 300 percent more light than normal smartphone cameras, allowing photos in low-light conditions that otherwise would yield a gray blur. While the resolution suffers a bit, HTC is betting it will still be good enough for web or mobile viewing.
For now, the HTC One looks like a worthwhile competitor to the iPhone 5. But Apple will surely wow with it's next iteration of its standard-bearer, due out later this year.
? 2012 Latinos Post. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Source: http://www.latinospost.com/articles/12729/20130221/htc-one-vs-iphone-5-ultrapixels-revamped.htm
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Friday, February 22, 2013
Rover drills first sample of gray Martian rock
NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
This image from NASA's Curiosity rover shows the first tablespoon of powdered rock extracted by the rover's drill. The image was taken after the sample was transferred from the drill to the rover's scoop.
By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News
The scientists and engineers behind NASA's Curiosity rover say they're thrilled to see the first tablespoon of rock dust drilled from the interior of a rock on Mars?? and they're intrigued by the fact that it's gray, not red.
"We're seeing a new coloration for Mars here, and it's exciting for us," Joel Hurowitz, sampling system scientist for the Curiosity mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told reporters during a teleconference on Wednesday.
Things could get more exciting in the next few days, when Curiosity's sampling system drops dollops of the dust into the rover's onboard chemistry labs, known as CheMin (which stands for Chemistry and Mineralogy) and SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars). The main goal of the $2.5 billion mission is to find organic compounds on Mars, and scientists suspect that the gray interior of rocks could preserve those organics better than the red, highly oxidized surface.
"All things being equal, it's better to have a gray color than a red color," said Caltech's John Grotzinger, the mission's project scientist, "just simply because oxidation ... is something that we know destroys organic compounds."
The rover has spent several weeks at a rock formation known as John Klein in preparation for this first drilling operation, six months into what's expected to be a two-year primary mission. Some scientists and engineers have been working for years in anticipation of Wednesday's first sight of ground-up rock in Curiosity's sampling cup.
"For the sampling team, this is the equivalent of the landing team going crazy after the successful touchdown," said JPL's Scott McCloskey, drill systems engineer for the Curiosity mission.
The sample came from a 2.5-inch-deep hole that Curiosity drilled into the Martian bedrock on Feb. 8. One of McCloskey's colleagues at JPL, sample system chief engineer Louise Jandura, noted that this was the first time a rover has drilled samples out of a rock on another planet. Earlier missions have used grinders to scrape off the top layer of a Martian rock, but none has gone down as deeply as Curiosity did.
"In the five-decade history of the Space Age, this is indeed a rare event," she said.
Grotzinger said getting the samples represented the final milestone in the commissioning process for the rover. Last week marked the "passing of the keys to the rover" from the engineering team to the science team, he noted. "It's a real big turning point for us," Grotzinger said.?
NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
At the center of this image from NASA's Curiosity rover is the hole in a rock called "John Klein" where the rover conducted its first sample drilling on Mars. The drilling took place on Feb. 8. Several preparatory activities with the drill preceded this operation, including a test that produced the shallower hole on the right two days earlier.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
This image from October 2012 shows the location of a sieve screen on the Curiosity rover that is used to remove large particles from samples before delivery to science instruments. Scientists say problems that came to light on a test unit on Earth have led them to change their procedures for sifting Martian samples.
Going through glitches
It will take a few more days to start analyzing the ground-up rock: Some of the material in the cup is being used to clear out the plumbing in the rover's sample delivery system. Once scientists back on Earth see imagery confirming that everything is working as expected, they'll give the go-ahead for more of the material to be shaken through a sieve and then deposited into CheMin and SAM for analysis.
A software glitch delayed the sampling operation, McCloskey said, but the team found a work-around that allowed the task to continue with no loss of functionality. "It didn't end up being a significant roadblock to getting this done," he said.
Another concern arose when engineers found that the sieve on one of the test items back on Earth started coming loose after about 60 shaking operations, also known as "thwacks." That was a signal to the rover team that there was "reason to be cautious," said JPL's Daniel Limonadi, lead systems engineer for Curiosity's surface sampling and science system.
The team decided to reduce the shaking time from 60 minutes to 20 minutes at a time, which should be long enough for most samples. If it isn't, the rover will just keep shaking the stuff until the job is done, Limonadi said.
What the rocks may reveal
Hurowitz said the evidence so far suggests that Curiosity is looking at a sedimentary rock formation that was "more likely deposited in water." Veins of whitish material appear to consist of calcium sulfate, which could provide additional clues to the formation's aqueous origins. He said about 25 separate analyses have been conducted with Curiosity's Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer, more than 100 images have been recorded by the Mars Hand Lens Imager, and the ChemCam instrument has taken 12,000 laser shots at the rock.
The gray color of the rock dust suggests that the interior of Martian rocks may reflect ancient geological processes that are significantly different from the current weathering process on the Red Planet, Hurowitz told NBC News.
"This is something that the science team is really excited about ? the fact that the tailings from our drill operation aren't the typical rusty orange red that we associate with just about everything on Mars," he said. "You can probably bet that when things turn orange, it's because there's a rusting process of some kind going on that oxidizes the iron in the rock. So the fact that these rocks aren't that color may be telling us that these rocks didn't go through that process that usually turns things to rust on Mars. It may preserve some indication of what iron was doing in these samples without the effect of some later oxidative process."
Eventually, Curiosity will be commanded to retrace its route and head for a 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) mountain known as Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp. But Grotzinger emphasized that the mission was "discovery-driven"?? and that the rover team was in no hurry to have the rover make its mountain trek.
"We're going to take it one step at a time," Grotzinger said.
More about Mars:
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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With A Revenue Model In Sight, Crowdsourced News Service Blottr Raises $612K For Its Content Syndication Platform NewsPoint
Blottr, the crowd-sourced (or citizen journalism) news service, has raised an additional ?400,000 (~$612k) to help scale NewsPoint, its syndication platform that lets publishers/broadcaster purchase user-submitted content to help power their web sites and news rooms. It brings the total raised by the London, UK-headquartered company to ?1.4 million ($2.1m). This latest round was led by Kima Ventures, while existing investor Playfair Capital also participated.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/iIxUMSCyOck/
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