Friday, March 22, 2013

Feds raid 17 Calif. auto stores for nitrous oxide

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Hundreds of law enforcement officers on Friday raided Southern California auto parts shops and other businesses suspected of illegally selling nitrous oxide for use as a recreational drug, in one of the nation's largest such raids to date.

Four federal arrest warrants were also served during the 17 simultaneous raids in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties, and at least two people were arrested on misdemeanor charges of misbranding a drug in violation of the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Authorities said they expected more arrests to come.

The operation was the result of a year-and-a-half-long joint investigation dubbed "No Laughing Matter" by the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The FDA has recently focused on the illegal use of nitrous oxide, and this was its largest case to date, said special agent Lisa Hartsell. Though nitrous oxide has long been a rave phenomenon, it has recently grown into more mainstream use, propelled by the ease of social media to reach young people and spread the word.

"This is a very cheap drug, can be had very easily, it is not a controlled substance, so your big members of the law enforcement community don't have the ability to control it," Hartsell said.

The gas is legally used by dentists for anesthesia, to pressurize whipped cream canisters and to speed up race cars. But authorities say its illegal use has spurred fatal car accidents, rapes and teen deaths ? all in the name of a temporary high.

Los Angeles County sheriff's officials have zeroed in on the recreational use of the drug since September, cracking down on more than 350 illegal parties, nearly all of which were selling nitrous oxide, or "noz," spokesman Mike Parker said Thursday.

The operations are part of a new social media team set up by the Sheriff's Department over the last six months to monitor and identify such illegal activities around the clock. The team has found many public posts that advertise alcohol and illegal drugs such as nitrous oxide and that target teens.

"They're doing the social media equivalent of standing outside the front doors of a high school at 3 o'clock as school lets out with a megaphone announcing that there'll be drugs, noz and alcohol for children, and then handing out fliers to all the kids that are interested," Parker said.

These parties can be lucrative for those provisioning them. Sheriff's deputies have been tracking one distributor who is making more than $60,000 a month in the bulk sale of nitrous oxide, said Sgt. Glenn Walsh, who works in the Sheriff's Department's narcotics bureau.

Hartsell said the drugs have also spurred armed robberies as gangs steal tanks from each other in an effort to make easy money with light legal ramifications.

Sheriff's officials believe they have prevented a least 30 violent and sexual assaults in the last six months because of their efforts to shut down illegal nitrous oxide-related parties before they happen.

One party was forced to change locations three times in one night, before finally moving outside of the sheriff's jurisdiction, Parker said. But the department also notifies neighboring departments of the illegal parties when it spots them, Parker said.

Some of the hotspots are unincorporated Los Angeles County and the San Gabriel Valley, where parties are held primarily in homes and warehouses, Parker said.

Part of the problem for law enforcement officers going after the illegal use of nitrous oxide is that its distribution or use as a recreational drug is only a misdemeanor, officials said.

Sheriff's Lt. Rod Armalin said the department is working on legislation to increase the penalties.

Armalin supervises the team that responds to many of these illegal parties and tries to prevent them from happening.

"Over the past year we've seen an increase in incidents," Armalin said. "It seems like it's really taken off with young people. ... They're openly advertising, 'Hey we're going to sell nitrous oxide, and there are going to be children there,' and that's a concern."

Nitrous oxide isn't the only dangerous substance teens are turning to for a quick and cheap high. On Monday, a 14-year-old Los Angeles honors student died after inhaling computer keyboard dust cleaner, apparently to get high. Aria Doherty's sister found her in bed with a can of compressed air cleaning product attached to her mouth.

Earlier this month a 12-year-old San Bernardino County girl, Kristal Salcido, died after inhaling Freon from an air conditioner.

___

Tami Abdollah can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/latams .

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/feds-raid-17-calif-auto-stores-nitrous-oxide-225510584.html

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Chicago Public Schools will close 54 schools as part of plan to address $1 billion deficit

By Steve Keating ORLANDO, Florida, March 20 (Reuters) - Rory McIlroy's decision to skip the Arnold Palmer Invitational surprised the tournament host, who expressed his disappointment on Wednesday that the world number one was not at Bay Hill this week. The 83-year-old Palmer said he had jokingly suggested he might break McIlroy's arm if he did not show up but did not try to force the young Northern Irishman into making an appearance. "Frankly, I thought he was going to play, and I was as surprised as a lot of people when he decided he was not going to play," said Palmer. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chicago-public-schools-close-54-schools-part-plan-220036669.html

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Thursday, March 21, 2013

Cyprus' Plan B: What will happen if Moscow won't foot the bill?

Cypriot officials have now lingered in Moscow for a second day of talks regarding a potential bailout deal. Meanwhile, the government is also looking into internal options to drum up funds.

By Robert Marquand,?Staff writer / March 21, 2013

Cyprus? Central Bank chief Panicos Demetriades leaves after a meeting at the presidential palace in Nicosia Thursday. The European Central Bank says it will keep emergency aid for Cyprus' troubled banks in place at least until Monday, but will have to cut it off after that unless an international rescue program is drawn up.

Petros Karadjias/AP

Enlarge

The clock in Nicosia is ticking a lot louder: Tiny Cyprus has four days to come up with about 6 billion euros ($7.5 billion) or lose its current lender of last resort, the European Central Bank (ECB).

Skip to next paragraph Robert Marquand

Staff writer

Over the past three decades, Robert Marquand has reported on a wide variety of subjects for?The Christian Science Monitor, including American education reform,?the wars in the Balkans, the Supreme Court, South Asian politics, and the oft-cited "rise of China." In the past 15 years he has served as the Monitor's bureau chief in Paris, Beijing, and New Delhi.?

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Tensions and emotions are high after ECB officials declared on Thursday that Cyprus must guarantee a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout by Monday or forfeit and presumably go into default, with unknown consequences for the eurozone economy and beyond.

Cypriot officials are scrambling to conjure new sources of revenue ? a so-called ?Plan B? ? including a look at pension fund leveraging and sales of offshore gas exploration prospects. The finance minister and energy minister have now lingered in Moscow for a second day of talks regarding a potential bailout deal with Russia.?

Cypriot banks will remain closed this weekend even as bankers there worry about huge outflows of capital next week if some kind of deal, whether with the European Union or Moscow, is not in the offing. (Reportedly Russian officials yesterday told their EU counterparts they would not add to a current 2.5 billion euro ($3 billion) loan to Cyprus.)?

Cypriot lawmakers vowed Thursday that they would not raise again the idea of a levy or tax on private accounts. However, EU and ECB authorities continue to state that available resources are so limited that the Cyprus parliament will need to revisit the issue, perhaps in a smaller percentage.

Meanwhile, Reuters notes, EU officials?continue to up the ante and put pressure on Cyprus. "I cannot rule out a Cyprus insolvency," Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter told the newspaper Oesterreich. "A euro exit would not achieve anything. Cyprus must act now."?

The ECB hard deadline comes a day after Cypriot lawmakers rejected the controversial EU terms of the bailout, engineered mysteriously last week, which require a ?tax? allowing Cypriot authorities to reach into the accounts of private bank deposits and withdraw some 10 percent of funds in accounts over 100,000 euros ($130,000) and about 7 percent in those under that figure.

The idea of such a tax brings mingled perplexity and outrage in many parts of the world, but especially in Russia, which uses Cyprus as an offshore tax haven.

The Washington Post calculates?that:

Deposits in Cyprus?s banks were seven times the size of its economy at the end of 2012, an unusual situation fostered by low taxes and reputation for lax regulation. Many European policymakers suspect it is a hub for Russian money laundering. Cypriot banks hold $88 billion in deposits, of which $49 billion is in the form of deposits over $129,000, according to analysts? estimates.?

The Christian Science Monitor reports?that Moscow is playing ?hardball? with the Cypriot finance minister in order to protect its massive stake in Cyprus' banking system.

According to official Russian figures, more than $114 billion has flowed into Russia since 2007 from Cyprus, almost all of it in the form of dividends paid by Cyprus-registered holding companies. Big Russian firms, including most metals giants, the state-owned banks Sberbank and VTB, and the independent gas producer Novatek all have important holdings in Cyprus.

"The price of crisis in Cyprus is very high for Russia," says Igor Nikolayev, director of strategic planning for one of Russia's leading auditing firms.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/yndX9MZ1HYg/Cyprus-Plan-B-What-will-happen-if-Moscow-won-t-foot-the-bill

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New assault report similar to Steubenville case

Joan Toribio carries the ball during a game last fall (Torrington High School/Facebook)

On paper, it sounds awfully familiar.

Two high school football players are accused of sexual assault. Their fellow students take to social media to defend the pair, taunting and blaming the victims. An athletic director brushes aside the allegations?along with separate hazing, felony robbery and assault charges against the school's athletes?as "not any different than any other community." Administrators are reluctant to immediately address the accusations and make it appear like a cover-up. The online hacktivist group Anonymous pledges to expose the truth and publicly shame those who engage in cyberbullying and victim-blaming.

Except this isn't Steubenville, Ohio?it's Torrington, Conn., where two 18-year-olds, Edgar Gonzalez and Joan Toribio, stand accused of second-degree sexual assault of two 13-year-old girls. The investigation has led to the arrest of a 17-year-old male for an alleged assault on one of the 13-year-old girls last fall, police say, and more arrests could be forthcoming.

Gonzalez and Toribio, who live in the same Torrington apartment complex, were arrested last month on the sexual assault charges stemming from separate incidents that occurred around the same time period in February, a Torrington police official said on Wednesday. Both pleaded not guilty.

The investigation is ongoing, Torrington police say, and more arrests could be forthcoming.

"It's very involved," Torrington Police Lt. Mike Emanuel told reporters on Wednesday. "It's very difficult to follow, even for us."

The victims and their alleged attackers knew one another, Emanuel said. "The reason that this is a sexual assault is that there is more than a three-year age difference. That's what we have to keep in mind."

When asked if the sexual contact was consensual, Emanuel said, "Statutorily it is not consensual."

Joan Toribio and Edgar Gonzalez (Torrington Police)

Gonzalez, who had already been facing felony robbery charges related to a March 2012 incident, is being held at a New Haven correction center. Toribio, who was charged with two counts of second-degree sexual assault, was released on $100,000 bond and is being electronically monitored.

Sealed by a Litchfield court, the case had been kept under wraps by school officials until this week, when the Register Citizen reported that "dozens of athletes and Torrington High School students, male and female," taunted the victims on Twitter:

Students flocked to social media in the days surrounding the arrests of Gonzalez and Toribio, with several students offering support for the two football players and others blaming the victims for causing the incident. References included calling a 13-year-old who hangs around with 18-year-olds a ?whore,? and claiming the victims ?destroyed? the lives of the players.

"Even if it was all his fault," Mary J. Ramirez, whose Twitter handle is @LoryyRamirez, wrote, "what was a 13 year old girl doing hanging around 18 year old guys[?]"

?I wanna know why there?s no punishment for young hoes,? Twitter user @asmedick wrote, according to the paper.

Torrington school officials said on Wednesday that they would investigate the apparent cyberbullying.

"We?re doing everything we can to provide the safety [the alleged victims] need in schools,? Kenneth Traub, Torrington's Board of Education chairman, said on Wednesday.

As was the case in Steubenville, Anonymous has gotten involved, launching "Operation Raider," a reference to the nickname of the Torrington High School football team.

?#OpRaider is the new #OpRollRedRoll," the group tweeted late Wednesday. "Torrington better take note of #Steubenville because they?re about to go on blast. #endrapeculture"

Toribio and Gonzalez on the field last fall (Torrington High School/Facebook)

High school football takes on elevated importance in Torrington, a small town in northwest Connecticut. "Like Steubenville," Doug Barry wrote on Jezebel.com, the case in Connecticut "hinges in large part on the seemingly disproportionate influence a school?s football program has on the surrounding community."

Despite the felony robbery charges, Gonzalez was allowed to play football last fall.

?I reeled the kid in after that, and he walked the line," Dan Dunaj, Torrington's former head football coach, told the Register Citizen. "As a coach I was doing something right.?

Dunaj resigned in December amid an ongoing investigation into a hazing incident involving four football players last fall.

"If you think there's some wild band of athletes that are wandering around, then I think you're mistaken," Torrington High School Athletic Director Mike McKenna told the Register Citizen. "If you look at crime statistics, these things happen everywhere and we're not any different than any other community."

In an editorial published on Thursday, the Register Citizen blasted "the posture of denial and defensiveness" Torrington school officials have taken in response to the case:

The first step in recovering from this is admitting you have a problem. And after reading the social media accounts of average, "good" students at Torrington High School, it's clear that Torrington students need an urgent education about blaming the victim, bullying and harassment, what "consent" means, why statutory rape is rape, period, and where football should stand in relation to their education and the rest of life. Let's hope that starts today.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/torrington-steubenville-rape-assault-victim-twitter-163530296.html

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Despite pleas by Craigslist killer's mother, Ohio jury recommends death penalty

An Ohio jury convicts a man accused of luring job seekers to a remote farm where they were robbed and killed. WKYC's Sara Shookman reports.

By Thomas J. Sheeran, Associated Press

Begging to have jurors spare her son's life, the mother of a triple killer who lured his victims with Craigslist job offers testified Wednesday that he had a troubled childhood and suffered physical and sexual abuse.

"I love Richard with all my heart," a teary-eyed Carol Beasley testified during the sentencing phase of the trial of her son, 53-year-old Richard Beasley. He was convicted last week of killing three men and wounding a fourth, all lured with offers of farmhand jobs in southeast Ohio in 2011.

But despite the emotional plea, the jury on Wednesday evening recommended the death penalty for Beasely. Other options were life in prison without the chance of parole or life with a chance for parole after 25 or 30 years.

Judge Lynne Callahan, who has final say in Beasley's fate, said on Wednesday she will sentence him on March 26.

?

Beasley's co-defendant, then 16 years old, is too young to face the death penalty. Brogan Rafferty was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole on his conviction last year.

In an opening statement at the sentencing part on Wednesday, prosecutor Jonathan Baumoel said the "enormous" weight of Beasley's crimes should be considered in deciding on life or death.

The defense responded by calling witnesses to portray Beasley sympathetically. As his mother testified, Beasley slumped forward, his chin on his chest and his right hand covering his eyes.

She described a difficult childhood for her son, with a verbally and physically abusive stepfather whom Carol Beasley characterized as a mean drunk.

She testified that she learned only within the past year that her son had been sexually abused by neighborhood youngsters when he was a boy. She had known that the boys had forced him to remove his pants in a large drainage pipe but hadn't known about the abuse at the time, she said.

Phil Masturzo / AP file

Carol Beasley, mother of convicted murderer Richard Beasley, leaves the Summit County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 12, 2013, in Akron, Ohio. Richard Beasley was found guilty with aggravated murder in the killing two men from Ohio and one from Norfolk, Va. by luring them with Craigslist job offers.

"I always felt there was much more than he told me," she testified. Her son apparently kept the abuse secret out of fear he would be held responsible for it, the mother said.

Her first husband neglected Richard and her, Carol Beasley testified, and her second husband broke dishes and a window while drinking and whipped Richard as a toddler.

"Richard was very mistreated by him," she testified.

Carol Beasley testified that Richard and the couple's own two daughters would be put to bed early and sometimes were sent to relatives for the weekend to avoid contact with the father.

"Everybody was afraid when he came home," she said.

The defense also called a psychologist, John Fabian, who testified that Beasley suffers from depression, alcohol abuse, low self-esteem and a feeling of isolation, all possible results of a troubled, abusive childhood.

"These are all potential mitigating factors" in favor of leniency, Fabian testified.

Fabian said Beasley's issues should be considered in multi-generational terms involving him and his family life. "This is all his personality development," he said.

One of Beasley's victims was killed near Akron, and the others were shot at a southeast Ohio farm during bogus job interviews.

The slain men were Ralph Geiger, 56, of Akron; David Pauley, 51, of Norfolk, Va.; and Timothy Kern, 47, of Massillon.

The survivor, Scott Davis, testified that he heard the click of a gun as he walked in front of Beasley at the reputed job site. Davis, who was shot in an arm, knocked the weapon aside, fled into the woods and tipped police.

Beasley, who returned to Ohio from Texas in 2004 after serving several years in prison on a burglary conviction, testified that he met with Davis and Davis had pulled a gun in retaliation for Beasley serving as a police informant.

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/29cd819c/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C20A0C173897360Edespite0Epleas0Eby0Ecraigslist0Ekillers0Emother0Eohio0Ejury0Erecommends0Edeath0Epenalty0Dlite/story01.htm

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Microsoft lets companies buy Surface tablets in bulk

Microsoft lets companies buy Surface slates in bulk

As often as Microsoft pitches the Surface and Surface Pro as tablets for getting work done, corporate customers haven't had an easy way to order the devices by the bushel. We know that the process is now considerably smoother for eager large-scale adopters thanks to a ZDNet peek at a Commercial Order page. "Commercial customers" can spring for large quantities of either slate model, along with an Extended Hardware Service Plan that bumps support to three years for North American buyers. Microsoft isn't saying just who's eligible, although the order system is more likely to center on firms that are already comfortable buying all things Windows in volume. You'll know how far it reaches if there's a Surface at every cubicle on Monday morning.

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Via: ZDNet

Source: Microsoft

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/tZKbUY-XvVs/

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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

LG suspects Samsung of infringing its eye-tracking patents with the Galaxy S 4

Samsung's Galaxy S 4 isn't even available yet, but already it's being eyed for possible patent infringement. According to a report from Korea's Yonhap News, LG suspects the S 4 might violate eye-tracking patents used in the Optimus G Pro. At the crux of this squabble is Samsung's Smart Pause feature, which LG finds similar to its Smart Video technology. Chiefly, LG is focusing on a patent it applied for in 2009, though the company also plans to investigate whether Samsung infringed other eye-tracking patents dating back to 2005. So far, of course, Samsung has denied any wrongdoing, saying its eye-tracking tech is implemented differently and is based on proprietary technology. Given that the phone isn't even out yet, we'll leave it to LG to do its due diligence before accusing Samsung in court.

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Via: The Verge

Source: Yonhap News Agency

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/19/lg-suspects-samsung-of-infringing-its-eye-tracking-patents-in-galaxy-s-4/

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Spiral beauty graced by fading supernova

Mar. 20, 2013 ? About 35 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Eridanus (The River), lies the spiral galaxy NGC 1637. Back in 1999 the serene appearance of this galaxy was shattered by the appearance of a very bright supernova. Astronomers studying the aftermath of this explosion with ESO's Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile have provided us with a stunning view of this relatively nearby galaxy.

Supernovae are amongst the most violent events in nature. They mark the dazzling deaths of stars and can outshine the combined light of the billions of stars in their host galaxies.

In 1999 the Lick Observatory in California reported the discovery of a new supernova in the spiral galaxy NGC 1637. It was spotted using a telescope that had been specially built to search for these rare, but important cosmic objects [1]. Follow-up observations were requested so that the discovery could be confirmed and studied further. This supernova was widely observed and was given the name SN 1999em. After its spectacular explosion in 1999, the supernova's brightness has been tracked carefully by scientists, showing its relatively gentle fading through the years.

The star that became SN 1999em was very massive -- more than eight times the mass of the Sun -- before its death. At the end of its life its core collapsed, which then created a cataclysmic explosion [2].

When they were making follow up observations of SN 1999em astronomers took many pictures of this object with the VLT, which were combined to provide us with this very clear image of its host galaxy, NGC 1637. The spiral structure shows up in this image as a very distinct pattern of bluish trails of young stars, glowing gas clouds and obscuring dust lanes.

Although at first glance NGC 1637 appears to be a fairly symmetrical object it has some interesting features. It is what astronomers classify as a lopsided spiral galaxy: the relatively loosely wound spiral arm at the top left of the nucleus stretches around it much further than the more compact and shorter arm at the bottom right, which appears dramatically slashed midway through its course.

Elsewhere in the image the view is scattered with much closer stars and more distant galaxies that happen to lie in the same direction.

Notes

[1] The supernova was discovered by the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope, at Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, California.

[2] SN 1999em is a core-collapse supernova classified more precisely as a Type IIp. The "p" stands for plateau, meaning supernovae of this type remain bright (on a plateau) for a relatively long period of time after maximum brightness.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/EAOm1yVIDos/130320095212.htm

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GOP Issues Scathing Self-Analysis (WSJ)

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Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Roetzel Launches New Website and Brand to ... - Franchising.com

CLEVELAND - March 18, 2013 - (BUSINESS WIRE) - Roetzel is proud to announce the firm?s new corporate identity brand and updated website at www.ralaw.com, uniquely positioning the firm?s focus on innovative client services.

?Our positioning statement, ?Focused on what matters to you? is exactly how we serve our clients every day,? said Jeffrey J. Casto, the firm?s Chairman and CEO. ?Our challenge was to reflect how Roetzel, with more than 200 attorneys in 13 offices in Ohio and Florida, Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C., collectively helps our clients achieve these goals: to simplify their complex business issues and help them grow their business. We help them see the big picture, and we like to do things differently, so we also challenge the status quo.?

?Our new identity reflects what is important to our clients, and how we partner with them to create value. We are investing in our future, and the past year?s growth shows exactly how we are doing that when we attracted some of the industry?s top practice area leaders. We are excited to see the Roetzel brand evolve and grow as our firm grows,? said Mr. Casto, who recently took over the firm?s leadership in July 2012.

Since January 2012, 26 partners and associates have joined the firm, strengthening capabilities in key practices such as financial institutions, bankruptcy and creditors? rights, business litigation, intellectual property law and white collar criminal defense.

The website features the firm?s ?Great Work!? Labor & Employment Law Blog and ?Franchise Follow-Up!? Franchise Law Blog to communicate informative and timely industry news, along with newsletters featuring environmental, government, transportation and other industry updates. The firm?s Twitter feed @Roetzel_Andress also shares firm and industry news for clients to follow.

About Roetzel

Roetzel is a full-service law firm that provides comprehensive, integrated legal counsel to national and international clients. For more information, visit ralaw.com.

This press release is informational only and should not be construed as legal advice. ?2013 Roetzel & Andress LPA. All rights reserved.
For more information, please contact Roetzel?s Marketing Department at 330.849.6636.

Contact:

Roetzel
Amy L. Clark
Marketing Communications Specialist
330-849-6636
aclark@ralaw.com
www.ralaw.com

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Source: http://www.franchising.com/news/20130318_roetzel_launches_new_website_and_brand_to_reflect_.html

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Review: Ecovacs Winbot, a Window-Cleaning Robot

Review: Ecovacs Winbot, a Window-Cleaning Robot
The Winbot latches itself to your glass panes via a suction mechanism, then scoots around on its caterpillar feet to wash and dry your windows.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/RwDl9AAtjgk/

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GOP rolls out roadmap amid party divisions

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus gestures while speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, Monday, March 18, 2013. The RNC formally endorsed immigration reform on Monday and outlined plans for a $10 million outreach to minority groups _ gay voters among them _ as part of a strategy to make the GOP more "welcoming and inclusive" for voters who overwhelmingly supported Democrats in 2012. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus gestures while speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, Monday, March 18, 2013. The RNC formally endorsed immigration reform on Monday and outlined plans for a $10 million outreach to minority groups _ gay voters among them _ as part of a strategy to make the GOP more "welcoming and inclusive" for voters who overwhelmingly supported Democrats in 2012. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus leaves after speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, Monday, March 18, 2013. The RNC formally endorsed immigration reform on Monday and outlined plans for a $10 million outreach to minority groups _ gay voters among them _ as part of a strategy to make the GOP more "welcoming and inclusive" for voters who overwhelmingly supported Democrats in 2012. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus gestures while speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, Monday, March 18, 2013. The RNC formally endorsed immigration reform on Monday and outlined plans for a $10 million outreach to minority groups _ gay voters among them _ as part of a strategy to make the GOP more "welcoming and inclusive" for voters who overwhelmingly supported Democrats in 2012. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

(AP) ? This was to be a roadmap for a new, more inclusive GOP: attract minority voters, support immigration reform and embrace "welcoming and inclusive" attitudes on gay rights. But minutes after unveiling the proposal on Monday, the party chairman distanced himself from it, and some conservatives and tea partyers balked.

It all illustrated the GOP's precarious balance as it works to unite battling factions.

"This is not my report," Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus told reporters, describing the contents as simply recommendations by a five-person panel ? even though he was the person who had commissioned the self-audit after the party lost a second consecutive presidential election last fall. He made the comments immediately after declaring Monday "Day One" of the party's push to change perceptions the audit uncovered ? that the GOP is "narrow minded," ''out of touch" and "stuffy old men."

"The perception that we're the party of the rich unfortunately continues to grow," Priebus said as he released the report, drawn up by panelists with strong ties to "big-tent" Republicans who have long favored more inclusive policies opposed by ideological purists.

Conservative and tea party criticism was immediate, a sign that the prescriptions may end up widening existing divides rather than building new bridges in an evolving GOP.

"The idea that a major political party must accept the practice of homosexuality as normal so as to remain relevant will prove the contrary and lead to disaster," said John Horvat II, a Catholic scholar. And Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, faulted Washington GOP establishment leaders for the November losses, saying they strayed from the conservative message.

"Americans and those in the tea party movement don't need an 'autopsy' report from RNC to know they failed to promote our principles and lost because of it," she said.

Priebus, the party chairman, released the audit's findings two days after conservatives wrapped up an annual conference in which tea party favorites including Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas drew applause for their blunt critiques of the GOP as antiquated and sometimes unprincipled. At the weekend gathering, conservative pundits including Ann Coulter derided comprehensive immigration reform as a form of amnesty, and organizers initially blocked a group of gay Republicans from participating in the event.

The report also comes as Democrats work to capitalize on Republican fissures, with President Barack Obama courting GOP members of Congress in recent weeks in hopes of getting some to side with his party on major issues before Congress, and as divisions within the GOP are on full display. Several congressional Republicans are working with Democrats on a comprehensive immigration overhaul plan, and last Friday Ohio Sen. Rob Portman ? seen as a pillar of the party establishment ? became the latest high-profile Republican to announce his support for gay marriage.

Despite party disagreements, the 100-page audit recommended a $10 million minority outreach program designed to market the Republican brand to gay voters, women and racial minorities, a proposal that comes just months after those voting groups helped propel Obama to re-election. The audit also proposes the GOP take a harder line with corporate America, loosen political fundraising laws across the nation, and cut in half the number of candidate debates in a shortened 2016 presidential primary calendar.

Priebus described the recommendations as unprecedented in scope and ambition. He's trying change his party's tone on divisive issues that alienate the very voters the GOP wants to reach. But he's also being careful not to fully embrace the proposals out of a concern that he could enrage his most passionate voters by endorsing changes to underlying policies in the Republican platform that oppose both gay marriage and allowing illegal immigrants to achieve citizenship.

"There is not an easy path for this," said veteran Republican strategist Sally Bradshaw. "These are difficult recommendations."

A top adviser to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, she was among those on the panel that also included Ari Fleischer, White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, as well as Republican National Committee members Henry Barbour of Mississippi, Zori Fonalledas of Puerto Rico and Glenn McCall of South Carolina.

After November's losses, Priebus tapped the five, considered leaders in the party, to examine how the GOP could better talk with voters, raise money from donors and learn from Democrats' tactics. The group also examined how to better cooperate with independent groups such as super political action committees. They heard from 50,000 rank-and-file members about how to respond to the nation's shifting demographics.

The panel's report detailed the GOP's current challenges and included dozens of recommendations, some that the full RNC must approve and others that are simply recommendations for state parties to adopt if they choose.

To broaden its appeal, the party must reach out to minority voters and others, according to one recommendation in the report: "We must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform. If we do not, our party's appeal will continue to shrink," it said.

But Priebus refused to say whether "comprehensive immigration reform" should include a pathway to citizenship and distanced himself from the issue.

"There's not unanimity even among Hispanics as to what the exact immigration overhaul would look like," he said. "I think it's healthy for our party to have this discussion, but the details of that, and what that legislation looks like, is not something that the RNC chair does."

A bipartisan group of senators ? four Republicans among them ? is working to craft a comprehensive immigration bill by next month that would secure the border, improve legal immigration, crack down on employers and put the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country on a path to citizenship.

While he was not willing to endorse the pathway to citizenship, Priebus offered a message to prospective voters: "We welcome you with open arms. There's more that unites us than you know."

McCall cited Portman's leadership when asked about the report's recommendations that the party become more "welcoming and inclusive" on gay rights. But he would not say whether Portman's decision was the correct one. And McCall said the Republican Party should not change its platform to endorse gay marriage or immigration reform.

"To be a part of our party, you don't have to agree with us 100 percent. That's what the message should be on gay marriage or any other issue," McCall said, adding that Republicans need to speak about the sensitive issues in a way that is "caring for all people and understanding."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-18-Republicans/id-5c91ffef52684cd088b879ecaa05d4c0

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Playing an actual game with Oculus Rift: hands-on with Valve's Team Fortress 2 'VR Mode'

Playing an actual game with Oculus Rift handson with Valve's Team Fortress 2 'VR Mode'

Valve's free-to-play first-person shooter, Team Fortress 2, is getting Oculus Rift support with its VR Mode update in the coming weeks. Think of it as a large beta test -- Oculus Rift dev kits ship to Kickstarter backers and Team Fortress 2 players on PC can snag a free update, thus feeding Valve valuable feedback on how people play TF2 with VR. The only thing left to know is perhaps the most important: how does it play?

We found out just that on a recent visit to Valve's Bellevue, Wash., offices, where Valve programmer Joe Ludwig lead us through a hands-on demo of the game's VR Mode update, replete with a near-final build of the Oculus Rift dev kit (not quite the one shipping to backers, but far more advanced than the previous Oculus prototypes we've used). Follow us beyond the break for detailed impressions of playing an actual game (read: not just tech demos) with the Oculus Rift VR headset.

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Monday, March 18, 2013

Computer models show how deep carbon could return to Earth's surface

Mar. 18, 2013 ? Computer simulations of water under extreme pressure are helping geochemists understand how carbon might be recycled from hundreds of miles below Earth's surface.

The work, by researchers at the University of California, Davis, and Johns Hopkins University, is published March 18 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Carbon compounds are the basis of life, provide most of our fuels and contribute to climate change. The cycling of carbon through the oceans, atmosphere and shallow crust of Earth has been intensively studied, but little is known about what happens to carbon deep in the Earth.

"We are trying to understand more about whether carbon can be transported in the deep Earth through water-rich fluids," said coauthor Dimitri Sverjensky, professor of earth and planetary sciences at Johns Hopkins University.

There is plenty of water in the mantle, the layer of the planet extending hundreds of miles below Earth's crust, but little is known about how water behaves under the extreme conditions there -- pressures run to hundreds of tons per square inch and temperatures are over 2,500 F.

Experiments reproducing these conditions are very hard to do, said Giulia Galli, professor of chemistry and physics at UC Davis and co-author on the paper. Geochemists have models to understand the deep Earth, but they have lacked a crucial parameter for water under these conditions: the dielectric constant, which determines how easily minerals will dissolve in water.

"When people use models to understand the Earth, they need to put in the dielectric constant of water -- but there are no data at these depths," Galli said.

Galli and Sverjensky are collaborators in the Deep Carbon Observatory, supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which seeks to understand the role of carbon in chemistry and biology deep in the Earth.

Researchers have speculated that carbon, trapped as carbonate in the shells of tiny marine creatures, sinks to the ocean floor and gets carried into the mantle on sinking crustal plates then is recycled and escapes through volcanoes, Sverjensky said. But there has been no mechanism to explain how this might happen.

Ding Pan, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis, used computer simulations of water to predict how it behaves under extreme pressure and temperature. The simulations show that the dielectric constant changes significantly. By bringing that new factor into the existing models of water in the mantle, the researchers predict that magnesium carbonate, which is insoluble at Earth's surface, would at least partially dissolve in water at that depth.

"It has been thought that this remains solid, but we show that at least part of it can dissolve and could return to the surface, possibly through volcanoes," Sverjensky said. "Over geologic timescales, a lot of material can move this way."

Sverjensky said the new modeling work was a "first step" to understanding how carbon deep in the Earth can return to the surface.

Other authors on the paper are Leonard Spanu, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis now at the Shell Technology Center in Bangalore, India; and Brandon Harris, research assistant at Johns Hopkins.

Launched in 2009, the Deep Carbon Observatory aims to achieve a better understanding of the "deep carbon cycle," and a more complete understanding of the role of carbon on our planet.

The work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Sloan Foundation and by computational resources through the National Science Foundation.

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Sunday, March 17, 2013

Insert Coin semifinalist: Smart Knob puts a keypad lock on your door, we go hands-on

Smart Knob hands-on

The Smart Knob promises a smarter, more secure deadbolt lock that lets us issue time-limited unlock codes or give trusted visitors a way in. Thanks to some hands-on time here at Engadget Expand, we've learned that it's even more clever than we thought. The PIN-verified, phone-based code generation system cycles through a seemingly "infinite" range before it hands out a number; someone overstaying their welcome isn't likely to stumble across the new code by accident. And while some might be disappointed that there's no built-in Bluetooth or WiFi to get codes, that actually works to its advantage, according to the project's Clark Li and Merrick Macker. As Smart Knob doesn't need an internet connection, it could be useful even out in the woods.

As for the lock itself? Having had a look first-hand, we're more inclined to believe claims that it's easy to install. At least from what we've seen in the prototype, it really is just a keypad resting on top of the existing deadbolt. There isn't anything special that goes behind or through the door. To us, that makes it easier to justify the $99 price the Smart Knob team is targeting for the base hardware -- it's something you could put on your front door at home, not just at the office. The only added costs would be for ongoing notifications and similar services that would require a more extensive effort. We should know how well the Smart Knob works when it launches closer to the end of the year.

Zach Lutz contributed to this report.

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