Ever since joining Google+ early last year, The White House has become more and more involved with the social network. And with word spreading amongst Earthlings about the potential sighting of an asteroid (with its own moon, no less) sometime around 5:00PM ET, the executive mansion of the US couldn't have chosen a better day to discuss the topic. As part of its ongoing "We the Geeks" series on Google+, The White House will be hosting a Hangout today where it plans to talk about asteroid characterization, identification, resource utilization and more. As you'd expect, there will be a some knowledgeable people present to spark the conversation, including NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, former astronaut Ed Lu and, of course, Bill Nye. So, if you plan to fly swing by later, be sure to set a reminder for 2:00PM ET, as that's when the Hangout is expected to begin.
Barry Meier's A World of Hurt is being released by The New York Times Co. as an e-book.
The New York Times
Barry Meier's A World of Hurt is being released by The New York Times Co. as an e-book.
The New York Times
Prescription painkillers are among the most widely used drugs in America. In the decade since New York Times reporter Barry Meier began investigating their use and abuse, he says he has seen the number of people dying from overdoses quadruple ? an increase Meier calls "staggering."
"The current statistic is that about 16,000 people a year die of overdoses involving prescription narcotics. ... It's a huge problem. The number of people dying from these drugs is second only to the number of people that die in car accidents," he tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross.
Meier's new e-book, A World of Hurt: Fixing Pain Medicine's Biggest Mistake, is published by The New York Times Co. and explores opiate painkillers and the consequences of long-term use. He focuses in particular on OxyContin ? how it came to be prescribed for chronic pain, what the consequences have been, and how it became a street drug.
Meier explains how, in its initial form, OxyContin was designed as a time-released version of oxycodone ? meant to ease pain for many hours at a time without interruption. It became a street drug when people looking to get high found a way to get around the time-release design of the pill.
"All you needed to do was to crush it, chew it, grind it down," Meier says, "and basically the entire narcotic pain [reducing] load that was contained within the drug was released immediately, which is why it was [such a] powerful high and such an addictive drug when it was abused that way."
Meier's previous book, Pain Killer, was published in 2003. He explains that for patients, part of the danger when it comes to the long-term medical use of painkillers like OxyContin comes from the body's ability to develop a tolerance for it.
"Unlike many other types of medications where you can be prescribed a dosage and stay on that dosage for a long time," Meier says, "your body adapts to these drugs. "[Essentially], you require more of the [narcotic] to get the same ... effect. And what happens is a steady escalation in dosage, and it can keep going and going and going and going to the point where, after a year or two of treatment, you are on extremely high levels of these drugs."
That doesn't mean, however, that Meier is unilaterally opposed to these narcotics.
"There is no question that these drugs are extremely beneficial," he tells Gross. "They are valuable, vital drugs. There should be no hesitation in their use after conditions like surgery, or accidents, or cancer treatment or end-of-life use. ... [T]he question becomes: How effective are these drugs in long-term treatment of chronic pain?"
Interview Highlights
On the promotion of OxyContin for chronic pain relief
New York Times reporter Barry Meier was the first journalist to turn national attention to the dangers of OxyContin.
The New York Times
New York Times reporter Barry Meier was the first journalist to turn national attention to the dangers of OxyContin.
The New York Times
"The company that produces OxyContin ? Purdue Pharma ? launched ... an innovative and huge campaign to introduce drugs that had previously been used for cancer treatment into [use for the relief of] general pain. That involved training hundreds of doctors to go out and speak to their medical colleagues about the benefits of these drugs and, most importantly, the FDA allowed Purdue to make an unusual claim ... that because OxyContin was a time-release drug it would be less prone to causing addiction and less attractive to people who abuse drugs. This became part of a steady drumbeat that was sounded by not only the company, but by leading pain experts ? that, in fact, with this drug we had what was really a unique new weapon to deal with an age-old problem."
On the first signs of problems with OxyContin
"The first person who sounded the alarm about this was a doctor in Boston. Her name is Jane Ballantyne, and she was the head of pain treatment at Massachusetts General. In 2003 she had accepted that these drugs were beneficial. She was a soldier in this war on pain, and as she kind of walked around Mass General, she started seeing things that caught her attention. For example, chronic pain patients who were given these drugs started improving. They would improve for a while, and suddenly their improvement would stop. Their pain would return. They would lose function, or the improvement in function they had achieved would be lost, and she began to wonder why this was going on. That led her to start studying animal tests involving these drugs, and basically began to lead her to question whether these drugs were really beneficial for patients in the long term."
On the side-effect of becoming disengaged from life
"I had a doctor who I greatly respect who said, 'We thought the great problem with these drugs is addiction. What we didn't realize [was] that the people who take them would opt out of life.' And you see it across the spectrum: One of the more startling things is in the area of workplace injuries; things like back strains are very common problems. But what folks have discovered is the more patients ? workers ? who are treated with these drugs for back strain, the longer and longer and longer they stay away from work. In fact, we've kind of created a legion of chronically unemployed people who are dependent on these drugs."
On widespread use of OxyContin in Appalachia
"If you look at the atlas of how drugs are prescribed in different parts of the country, there usually is a pretty straight correlation between the use of narcotic painkillers and areas where you have physical labor jobs, like mining, farming, logging ? [places] where people get a lot of back problems and muscle injuries and things of that nature. In many of these areas you have doctors who are generalists; they're not specialists. So most folks are going to a general practitioner ? a family doctor ? and when they were told that OxyContin was a less abusable drug than drugs that had preceded it, they said, 'Great. This sounds like a good thing for my patients.' So they started prescribing it very heavily."
On the rise of pill mills
"You basically had these pain clinics [with] doctors that supposedly specialized in treating pain. These, in fact, were doctors who had no experience in treating pain. These are essentially clinics where you could walk in and the doctor would say, 'How do you feel?' 'I'm in pain. I think OxyContin would work for me.' And the doctor would write your prescription. You would pay cash for the appointment, and the cycle would start. And these ... proliferated throughout the U.S."
Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary Crawley on "Downton Abbey."
It's been three months since the third season of "Downton Abbey" came to a close, but for fans of the drama, the final scene still stings like it was yesterday. Matthew -- the heir to "Downton" and one true love of Lady Mary -- met his final fate.
Sniff!
What a shame. Matthew made it through his wartime engagement to Lavinia with just a temporary bout of paralysis. But his marriage to Mary? It proved fatal.
OK, technically it was a particularly unlucky joyride that proved fatal for Matthew, but his marriage to Mary didn't help things. After all, Lord Grantham's eldest daughter has a bit of a reputation.
Matthew wasn't Mary's first partner. Long before he entered her life, she was betrothed to another -- her cousin, Patrick. But of course, that engagement didn't end in a happily-ever-after either. That's because Patrick, who was the heir apparent to Downton at the time, sank into the icy depths of the North Atlantic Ocean along with the Titanic.
Coincidence? Well?
Things start to seem suspicious when the fate another man is considered. Kermal Pamuk, a Turkish diplomat who was a guest in Lord Grantham's home, seduced his way into Lady Mary's bed one night. But shortly after he and Mary hit the sheets, he suffered a heart attack and died on the spot.
You get the idea. Lady Mary's a black widow -- or at the very least, bad luck for the fellows. Either way, the men of the Roaring Twenties need to take care. When season four of "Downton Abbey" kicks off, she'll be single and (after she devotes an appropriate amount of time to mourning her lost love) ready to mingle.
According to the actress behind the widowed aristocrat, finding a new man only makes sense.
"She has the heir to Downton, she has baby George and she is under pressure to find someone," Michelle Dockery recently told the Los Angeles Times. "In that world, women had to find someone. It was all about marriage and who you'd spend the rest of your life with."
Or given Mary's track record, the man she'd spend the rest of his life with.
And there won't be any shortage of available men for Mary in the upcoming season. In addition to the also single and bereaved Branson (a match that would just be wrong, wrong, wrong), Lady Mary will be free to consider a few new faces. Lord Gillingham (Tom Cullen), an old friend of the family, will make an appearance. Another eligible option will be blue blood Charles Blake (Julian Ovenden). And if Mary isn't concerned about the upper-crust set anymore, there will even be a new easy-on-the-eyes jazz singer (Gary Carr) and valet (Nigel Harman) on the scene.
But those men better beware. Only one man offered himself to Mary and lived to tell the tale. Newspaper magnate Sir Richard Carlisle, who was briefly engaged to her back in season two, was left with a bitter, broken -- but still beating -- heart when they parted ways.
It will be a while before fans know for sure which man will tempt fate for Lady Mary. "Downton Abbey" isn't expected to return to PBS until winter of 2014.
A hurricane warning was issued as Tropical Storm Barbara approached southeastern Mexico on Wednesday.
By John Newland, Staff Writer, NBC News
Pacific Tropical Storm Barbara strengthened on Wednesday as it bore down on southern Mexico, prompting the government to issue a hurricane warning for coastal areas near Salina Cruz.
Just before 6:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, the storm was producing sustained 65 mph winds as it churned slowly northeastward through the Gulf of Tehuantepec, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
The storm, about 85 miles south of the shore, was gathering strength as it lumbered northeastward at 6 mph, according to the hurricane center.
A hurricane watch was also in effect from Puerto Angel in the north to Barra de Tonala in the south.
The center of the storm was expected to strike just east of Salina Cruz, the third-largest city in Oaxaca state, on Wednesday afternoon.
Sustained winds of potentially reaching hurricane force -- 74 mph and above -- with gusts of up to 85 mph were forecast.
The storm?s current track would carry it across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where it was expected to diminish significantly before reaching the Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane center said.
Its path was well southeast of the region?s largest cities, including Mexico City, though it had potential to bring heavy rains and gusty winds to the large port city of Coatzacoalcos in Veracruz state as it neared the Gulf of Mexico, according to forecast maps.
After 626 saves in 19 seasons, Mariano Rivera doesn?t have many firsts left. The Mets, however, tagged him with an unfortunate one Tuesday, collecting three straight hits off him in the ninth to overcome a 1-0 deficit and beat the Yankees 2-1.
It was the first time Rivera had ever taken a blown save or a loss in an appearance without recording an out. It was just the third time that he?s appeared in a game and failed to get an out.
The Mets were fortunate to have the right part of their order up against Rivera tonight. Daniel Murphy started the bottom of the ninth with a double the other way. David Wright then singled up the middle, plating Murphy and tying the game. When the throw home got away from catcher Chris Stewart, Wright moved up to second. He then raced around ahead of Ichiro Suzuki?s throw home on Lucas Duda?s game-winning single to right.
The only previous times Rivera had appeared and not gotten an out came on Sept. 26, 1995 and Aug. 10, 2008. In the first, he was making just his eighth career relief appearance. He allowed a single to the Brewers in the eighth inning and was immediately replaced by Rick Honeycutt. The latter appearance came in the ninth inning in a tie game against the Angels. Rivera entered with two on and gave up a game-winning single to the first batter he faced.
Rivera?s blown save and loss tonight were his first since April 6, 2012. The Yankees prevailed in his each of his previous 28 appearances, with Rivera picking up saves in 23 of those games.
The defeat tonight came after the Mets honored Rivera prior to the game and had him throw out the ceremonial first pitch.
Outdoor advertising is at least 5,000 years old (the ancient Egyptians used to hang papyrus notices advertising rewards for runaway slaves), and fears about how invasive it could be have been around nearly as long. For every glitzy video billboard you curse at today, know that your forbearers dreamed up much, much worse.
Apple's head honcho Tim Cook is chatting up Android's growth explosion, and it turns out he's not flustered. "Do I look at that? Of course, I don't have my head stuck in the sand," said Cook." But for us, winning has never been about having the most." Instead, he stands by the old Apple line of quality versus quantity. "Arguably, we make the best PC, but we don't make the most," he added. "We made the best music player, and we wound up making the most -- but we didn't initially."
Rather than focus on install base, Cupertino's chief turned to usage stats to illustrate their supremacy, noting that their slates are the most popular for browsing the web. "You can look at tablet web market share in North America," Cook said. "Almost every study I see has the iPad in the 80s (percentage)." Before even broaching the subject of Google's mobile OS, Cook cited NetApp figures that show 59 percent of worldwide web traffic from smartphones and tablets comes from iOS devices. We're sure the folks in Mountain View are content with quantity, though we'd hazard a guess they enjoy quality as well.
Update: We've slotted in a video clip of Tim Cook responding to the ballooning Android market share after the break.
The Colombian government and FARC peace negotiators announced an agreement on land reform this weekend, just days before the rebel group's 49th anniversary. Land issues are at the root of the conflict.
By Sibylla Brodzinsky,?Correspondent / May 28, 2013
Humberto de la Calle (r.) head of Colombia's government peace negotiation team, speaks to reporters during the peace talks with members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Havana, Cuba, Sunday.
Ramon Espinosa/AP
Enlarge
Six months after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Colombian government first sat down to try and negotiate an end to the country's half-century-long conflict, many citizens felt their hopes deflate. The talks were beginning to appear to be just another failed attempt at peace, and critics' voices were growing louder.
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But on Sunday came a major breakthrough. The FARC and the government made a joint announcement stating that they had reached an agreement for "radical transformations" in the Colombian countryside. Land rights have been a flash point of the conflict, and the FARC claim they are the reason they rose up against the state 49 years ago today. Over half of the farmland in this South American nation is held by 1 percent of landowners. The new agreement ?seeks to reverse the causes of the conflict,? according to a joint statement read in Havana, Cuba, where the negotiations are taking place.
Land is just one of five points on the negotiating agenda, and no single deal is final until the entire negotiation process draws to a close, according to negotiation rules. Few specifics on the land agreement have been released since the May 26 announcement, and the FARC?s chief negotiator said there are some land reform details that remain unresolved.
The fact that the two sides decided to announce the agreement nonetheless is an indication of the urgency negotiators felt to show the public they were making progress.
'Generate controversy'
Some Colombians gushed with enthusiasm and hyperbole at the news. "What just happened in Havana is the most important thing that has happened in the last 100 years in the country," said Senator Armando Benedetti, a member of the government coalition. ?"The issue of land is 60 percent of a peace agreement."
But critics continued to question the peace process. "Terrorist Farc kills our soldiers and policemen and the Santos government rewards them with a land agreement," tweeted former president Alvaro Uribe, a fierce critic of President Juan Manuel Santos. In another tweet he wrote: "It's unacceptable that the Santos government negotiate the model of the Colombian countryside with narco-terrorists."
Lead government negotiator Humberto de la Calle said criticism was welcome. "We know that these negotiations generate controversy and that's fine," he said. "But we ask for the debate to be sensible."
Many victims of the FARC remain skeptical that a peace deal is possible. "I doubt it. This is the same as the last time there were negotiations" which ended in 2002, says Sandra S?nchez, who was displaced by guerrillas in 2007 from her home in Vichada province after her son and daughter deserted from the rebel ranks. "They talk and talk and then the negotiations break off and we?re left with more war."
Doubts are understandable ? The FARC marked their anniversary by torching two trucks on a highway in the southern Cauca province ? and there are still many thorny issues to work out before a peace deal is a sure thing. But there may be reason for cautious hope, too: Never before has the FARC and government come so far on agreeing on anything, much less a very root cause of the conflict.?
One of the questions that?s come out of Microsoft?s Xbox One reveal last week is to what degree the console actually supports 4K content. When asked about 4K support, Microsoft?s Corporate Vice President of Marketing, Strategy and Interactive Entertainment Business Yusuf Mehdi, told Forbes that ?The video and interface portions, absolutely. Games developed for 1080p will run at 1080p, obviously.? It will support up to 4K at launch for things like Blu-ray, but what about later? ?There?s no hardware restriction there at all.?
The accuracy of that statement depends entirely on which hardware Mehdi was referring to. The Xbox One?s CPU and GPU are definitely powerful enough to handle 4K decode or 3D video display, but that?s only one link in the content chain. There are several current barriers which make 4K a dubious proposition on the Xbox One come launch day. We?ve highlighted whether these issues apply to the Xbox One, PS4, or both systems below.
Blu-ray compatibility (Xbox One and PS4):?As of this writing, there is no defined Blu-ray standard for content above 1080p and no decision is expected until the end of the year. That leaves Sony and Microsoft stuck with guessing. The simplest way for both companies to hedge their bets is to include BDXL drives in their consoles rather than standard BD-ROMs. BDXL drives can support up to 128GB discs; the current mass market standard is 50GB. (See:?Xbox One vs. PS4 vs. PC: How the hardware specs compare.)
Sony?s ?Remastered in 4K? films are 1080p films that?ve been converted from 4K originals. The company is also putting all extras and bonus content on separate discs in order to maximize the amount of video bandwidth available for the feature film. It?s clear that Blu-ray needs an upgrade to keep pace with content standards ? Peter Jackson?s The Hobbit was only released in 24 fps because there?s not enough room on a BD disc for the film and no formal definition for a 48 fps playback format.
No codec standard (Xbox One and PS4):?4K content could presumably use either H.264 or H.265 for encoding. H.264 is more compatible and already supported by the Blu-ray standard, which would make backwards compatibility easier to achieve, but it takes up twice as much storage space as the newer H.265. H.265 is a more efficient codec than H.264, but requires more CPU power for decoding. The PS4 and Xbox One will both use an AMD-based video decode engine for offloading this work, but it probably won?t support H.265; the standard is simply too new.
HDMI 1.4 output (Xbox One and PS4): HDMI 1.4 is the latest released version of the HDMI standard (version 2.0 won?t be released until later this year). HDMI 1.4 supports 3840?2160 output at 24p (24 fps, progressive) or 30p. That may not seem like much of a problem, but it means the Xbox One couldn?t display a hypothetical version of The Hobbit running at 48p on a new Blu-ray standard. 4K 3D, if it ever takes off, would also require HDMI 2.0.
As it stands, Sony hasn?t said anything about its own supported outputs ? but there?s nothing to suggest Sony has a trick up their sleeve on this one; HDMI 2.0 isn?t ready for market. This issue will almost certainly affect both consoles.
Stream size (Xbox One and PS4):?The last barrier to native 4K content has nothing to do with Microsoft or Sony. A 4K video contains 4x as much data as a 1080p video. Even if you use H.265 for streaming, you?ll end up with a stream twice the size. This is going to naturally slow the rate of 4K video adoption.
H.265 will shift this requirement substantially lower. Keep in mind, this graph shows 30 fps speeds ? if you want to stream at higher rates, the bitrate increases in any platform.
Forging the chain
The reason there?s so much uncertainty around 4K video is because the standards necessary to achieve it are actually less developed now than the HDTV standards were when the Xbox 360 and PS3 launched. Both consoles will be capable of outputting their own interfaces at 4K. Both are apparently designed to upscale 1080p video to 4K, though we expect 4K TVs to have their own upscale solutions as well. Both consoles should be able to handle decoding native 4K content in both H.264 and H.265, though the H.265 solution may be implemented in software.
We will be surprised if the launch versions of the Xbone and PS4 offer flawless support for a native 4K version of Blu-ray. Capabilities like 4K 3D will not be supported, due to limitations in the HDMI 1.4 standard. Local 4K file playback on the Xbox One may be hampered by the unit?s relatively small hard drive, though it?s not clear how easy it will be to move hypothetical 4K content from PC to Xbox in any case. (See:?8K UHDTV: How do you send a 48Gbps TV signal over terrestrial airwaves?)
The bottom line is this: Don?t expect perfect 4K compatibility out of the gate from either console. The standard is too young, and support is too scattered. If you love being on the cutting edge, and you?re planning to buy into 4K television and wondering when 3D content will be available in native formats, the answer is: ?A while.?
Bob Lewis looks over a field of crosses with names while participating in the College Point Memorial Day Parade in New York, Sunday, May 26, 2013. Lewis made the crosses, 137, for all the service members from College Point that were killed from the Civil War to the Vietnam War. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Bob Lewis looks over a field of crosses with names while participating in the College Point Memorial Day Parade in New York, Sunday, May 26, 2013. Lewis made the crosses, 137, for all the service members from College Point that were killed from the Civil War to the Vietnam War. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
A couple photograph themselves amongst a sea of flags on Boston Common in Boston, Sunday, May 26, 2013. The flags were placed by the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund in memory of every fallen Massachusetts service member from the Civil War to the present. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Joe Schulmann pauses in prayer over a cross bearing the name of his neighbor, Michael Wick, who was killed during the Vietnam War, at the College Point Memorial Day Parade in New York, Sunday, May 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
ATLANTA (AP) ? Americans planned to gather at cemeteries, memorials and monuments nationwide to honor fallen military service members on Memorial Day, at a time when combat in Afghanistan approaches 12 years and the ranks of World War II veterans dwindles.
President Barack Obama was expected to lay a wreath Monday at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington. Earlier in the morning, he and first lady Michelle Obama planned to host a breakfast at the White House with "Gold Star" families of service members who have been killed.
In one of several ceremonies honoring Americans killed in Afghanistan, the city of South Sioux City, Neb., planned to unveil a statue honoring Navy Petty Officer 1st Class John Douangdara, a dog handler for the SEALs killed in a 2011 helicopter crash. His service dog was also killed in the crash and is memorialized beside him in the statue.
At the American Airpower Museum on Long Island, N.Y., a program was planned to honor Women Air Service Pilots, or WASPs, who tested and ferried completed aircraft from factories to bases during World War II. Thirty-eight died during the war, including Alice Lovejoy of Scarsdale, N.Y., who was killed on Sept. 13, 1944, in a midair collision over Texas.
"It's very important that we recognize not only their contribution to American history, but women's history," said Julia Lauria-Blum, curator of the WASP exhibit at the museum. "These women really blazed a path; they were pioneers for women's aviation. And most important, they gave their lives serving their country and must be honored like anyone else on Memorial Day."
Another wreath-laying ceremony was planned at Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park on the southern tip of Roosevelt Island in New York City. The park is a tribute to President Roosevelt's famous speech calling for all people to enjoy freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear.
The holiday weekend also marked the traditional start of the U.S. vacation season. AAA, one of the nation's largest leisure travel agencies, expected 31.2 million Americans to hit the road over the weekend, virtually the same number as last year. Gas prices were about the same as last year, up 1 cent to a national average of $3.65 a gallon Friday.
The British Sky Broadcasting Group has removed their Android apps (Sky News, Sky Go, Sky+ and Sky Wi-Fi) from Google Play because of concerns that the Syrian Electronic Army has hacked the apps. Sky is advising users to delete the apps while they respond to the problem.
UPDATE: All Sky's Android apps were hacked and replaced... please uninstall it, And we will let you know when it will be available
The Syrian Electronic Army often targets news organizations like BBC, CBS, NPR and even The Onion, but seems to prefer spreading rumors and propaganda to malware. Still, without further information about the hack it makes sense to be cautious. [The Verge, The Next Web]
A hidden population of exotic neutron starsPublic release date: 23-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Megan Watzke mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu 617-496-7998 Chandra X-ray Center
Magnetars the dense remains of dead stars that erupt sporadically with bursts of high-energy radiation are some of the most extreme objects known in the Universe. A major campaign using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and several other satellites shows magnetars may be more diverse and common than previously thought.
When a massive star runs out of fuel, its core collapses to form a neutron star, an ultradense object about 10 to 15 miles wide. The gravitational energy released in this process blows the outer layers away in a supernova explosion and leaves the neutron star behind.
Most neutron stars are spinning rapidly a few times a second but a small fraction have a relatively low spin rate of once every few seconds, while generating occasional large blasts of X-rays. Because the only plausible source for the energy emitted in these outbursts is the magnetic energy stored in the star, these objects are called "magnetars."
Most magnetars have extremely high magnetic fields on their surface that are ten to a thousand times stronger than for the average neutron star. New observations show that the magnetar known as SGR 0418+5729 (SGR 0418 for short) doesn't fit that pattern. It has a surface magnetic field similar to that of mainstream neutron stars.
"We have found that SGR 0418 has a much lower surface magnetic field than any other magnetar," said Nanda Rea of the Institute of Space Science in Barcelona, Spain. "This has important consequences for how we think neutron stars evolve in time, and for our understanding of supernova explosions."
The researchers monitored SGR 0418 for over three years using Chandra, ESA's XMM-Newton as well as NASA's Swift and RXTE satellites. They were able to make an accurate estimate of the strength of the external magnetic field by measuring how its rotation speed changes during an X-ray outburst. These outbursts are likely caused by fractures in the crust of the neutron star precipitated by the buildup of stress in a relatively strong, wound-up magnetic field lurking just beneath the surface.
"This low surface magnetic field makes this object an anomaly among anomalies," said co-author GianLuca Israel of the National Institute of Astrophysics in Rome. "A magnetar is different from typical neutron stars, but SGR 0418 is different from other magnetars as well."
By modeling the evolution of the cooling of the neutron star and its crust, as well as the gradual decay of its magnetic field, the researchers estimated that SGR 0418 is about 550,000 years old. This makes SGR 0418 older than most other magnetars, and this extended lifetime has probably allowed the surface magnetic field strength to decline over time. Because the crust weakened and the interior magnetic field is relatively strong, outbursts could still occur.
The case of SGR 0418 may mean that there are many more elderly magnetars with strong magnetic fields hidden under the surface, implying that their birth rate is five to ten times higher than previously thought.
"We think that about once a year in every galaxy a quiet neutron star should turn on with magnetar-like outbursts, according to our model for SGR 0418," said Jos Pons of the University of Alacant in Spain. "We hope to find many more of these objects."
Another implication of the model is that the surface magnetic field of SGR 0418 should have once been very strong at its birth a half million years ago. This, plus a possibly large population of similar objects, could mean that the massive progenitor stars already had strong magnetic fields, or these fields were created by rapidly rotating neutron stars in the core collapse that was part of the supernova event.
If large numbers of neutron stars are born with strong magnetic fields then a significant fraction of gamma-ray bursts might be caused by the formation of magnetars rather than black holes. Also, the contribution of magnetar births to gravitational wave signals ripples in space-time would be larger than previously thought.
The possibility of a relatively low surface magnetic field for SGR 0418 was first announced in 2010 by a team with some of the same members. However, the scientists at that time could only determine an upper limit for the magnetic field and not an actual estimate because not enough data had been collected.
SGR 0418 is located in the Milky Way galaxy at a distance of about 6,500 light years from Earth. These new results on SGR 0418 appear online and will be published in the June 10, 2013 issue of The Astrophysical Journal. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.
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A hidden population of exotic neutron starsPublic release date: 23-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Megan Watzke mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu 617-496-7998 Chandra X-ray Center
Magnetars the dense remains of dead stars that erupt sporadically with bursts of high-energy radiation are some of the most extreme objects known in the Universe. A major campaign using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and several other satellites shows magnetars may be more diverse and common than previously thought.
When a massive star runs out of fuel, its core collapses to form a neutron star, an ultradense object about 10 to 15 miles wide. The gravitational energy released in this process blows the outer layers away in a supernova explosion and leaves the neutron star behind.
Most neutron stars are spinning rapidly a few times a second but a small fraction have a relatively low spin rate of once every few seconds, while generating occasional large blasts of X-rays. Because the only plausible source for the energy emitted in these outbursts is the magnetic energy stored in the star, these objects are called "magnetars."
Most magnetars have extremely high magnetic fields on their surface that are ten to a thousand times stronger than for the average neutron star. New observations show that the magnetar known as SGR 0418+5729 (SGR 0418 for short) doesn't fit that pattern. It has a surface magnetic field similar to that of mainstream neutron stars.
"We have found that SGR 0418 has a much lower surface magnetic field than any other magnetar," said Nanda Rea of the Institute of Space Science in Barcelona, Spain. "This has important consequences for how we think neutron stars evolve in time, and for our understanding of supernova explosions."
The researchers monitored SGR 0418 for over three years using Chandra, ESA's XMM-Newton as well as NASA's Swift and RXTE satellites. They were able to make an accurate estimate of the strength of the external magnetic field by measuring how its rotation speed changes during an X-ray outburst. These outbursts are likely caused by fractures in the crust of the neutron star precipitated by the buildup of stress in a relatively strong, wound-up magnetic field lurking just beneath the surface.
"This low surface magnetic field makes this object an anomaly among anomalies," said co-author GianLuca Israel of the National Institute of Astrophysics in Rome. "A magnetar is different from typical neutron stars, but SGR 0418 is different from other magnetars as well."
By modeling the evolution of the cooling of the neutron star and its crust, as well as the gradual decay of its magnetic field, the researchers estimated that SGR 0418 is about 550,000 years old. This makes SGR 0418 older than most other magnetars, and this extended lifetime has probably allowed the surface magnetic field strength to decline over time. Because the crust weakened and the interior magnetic field is relatively strong, outbursts could still occur.
The case of SGR 0418 may mean that there are many more elderly magnetars with strong magnetic fields hidden under the surface, implying that their birth rate is five to ten times higher than previously thought.
"We think that about once a year in every galaxy a quiet neutron star should turn on with magnetar-like outbursts, according to our model for SGR 0418," said Jos Pons of the University of Alacant in Spain. "We hope to find many more of these objects."
Another implication of the model is that the surface magnetic field of SGR 0418 should have once been very strong at its birth a half million years ago. This, plus a possibly large population of similar objects, could mean that the massive progenitor stars already had strong magnetic fields, or these fields were created by rapidly rotating neutron stars in the core collapse that was part of the supernova event.
If large numbers of neutron stars are born with strong magnetic fields then a significant fraction of gamma-ray bursts might be caused by the formation of magnetars rather than black holes. Also, the contribution of magnetar births to gravitational wave signals ripples in space-time would be larger than previously thought.
The possibility of a relatively low surface magnetic field for SGR 0418 was first announced in 2010 by a team with some of the same members. However, the scientists at that time could only determine an upper limit for the magnetic field and not an actual estimate because not enough data had been collected.
SGR 0418 is located in the Milky Way galaxy at a distance of about 6,500 light years from Earth. These new results on SGR 0418 appear online and will be published in the June 10, 2013 issue of The Astrophysical Journal. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.
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An example of a spoken search; the relevant date was spoken aloud.
Google has issued an update to its Chrome browser that lets you use everyday language like "how do I get there?" to interact with its search ? and lets the browser respond vocally as well. It's still an early form of what the search giant demonstrated on stage at Google I/O, but it's an indicator of features to come.
The live demonstration last week had Google's Johanna Wright planning an afternoon in Santa Cruz, asking about places to eat, things to see, and how long it would take to drive between them. And the catch was that not only was she only using voice, but she was using words like "there" and "it" instead of, for example, the name of the restaurant.
That's surprisingly difficult: Google has to "keep in mind" that the place you're talking about is the place you asked about earlier, and that words like "here" or "me" mean your actual current location. If you ask about a restaurant, and then follow up with "how far away is it?" Google has to infer the meaning of "it," and to what location the distance should be calculated. Easy for humans, but not for search engines.
Google
Finding directions is easy if you ask for them first, but using voice search wouldn't give any when the previous search was just for the location.
It's still pretty rough ? in our tests, it confused "where," "what," and "when" frequently, and often failed to include the object of the previous search in new ones. For instance, a spoken search easily found a nearby national park, but no query ("How do I get there?" "How far is it?" "Show me directions") would yield useful map data.
The voice responses could be handy for quick questions like "when was Julius Caesar born?" to which Google can respond quickly and verbally ? but for more complex queries and follow-ups, it might make sense to reach for the keyboard, or just click one of the links provided.
Not included in the update was the "hotwording" ability also shown at I/O that allows the voice-based search to launch without a click when the user says "OK Google."
Conversational search should be live in the Chrome desktop browser now, and should be coming soon in some form to both Android and iOS for mobile.
Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.
inSSIDer for Office is a Wi-Fi network discovery tool that has the functionality of the inSSIDer for home users, but with added features targeted more to IT and networking professionals. The software is available from Metageeks' website and also comes with Wi-Spy Mini?a device that acts like a tiny access point and connects to a USB port. With it, you can move freely about an area and capture, display, and calculate RF spectrum data. inSSIDer for Office is a great tool for determining the best location for deploying an access point, or for tweaking an existing Wi-Fi network. Home users and those with small networks can probably just get away with the free inSSIDer version, but if you need a more robust tool, inSSIDer for Office is worth its $199 price.
Requirements and Install inSSIDer for Office supports Windows Vista, 7, and Windows 8.It requires Microsoft's .NET framework, 1024 x 768 minimum screen resolution and at least 2GB of RAM. It's recommended that you install it on a client with a dual-band 802.11n wireless adapter (otherwise you won't be able to analyze the 5GHz band).
Launching the downloaded software opens a setup wizard, which is a breeze to run through: the whole installation process only takes a few seconds. inSSIDer for Office is actually the same as inSSIDer for home, until you pop in your Office version license key.
Once you do, the interface automatically switches from the free version to the Office version. The two UIs are not drastically different?a good choice by Metageek for consistency's sake? but you have more menu items in the Office version; more on that later.
After installing and registering, you then connect the tiny Wi-Spy device to a USB port and then you are ready to do some spectrum analyzing!
Features and Interface As mentioned the interface between the free and paid versions are very much the same. Both versions have fours views, each of which is accessed by clicking a menu option at the top of the screen. Both versions have a "Learn" view option?this is where you can access the user guide, lessons, and instructional webinars. "Networks" view is the same in both, also. This is you can see information about wireless networks such as signal strength, channel, security, and other details. If you drill down to a specific network you also can view other networks that are overlapping that network's channel and other useful information.
There are two additional views in the Office version. "Channels" provides details on networks' channel power, channel signal information, how many access points are operating on a specific channel, and so on.
I think the fourth view "Analyze," is my favorite. Clicking on this option showed me information about the network to which I was connected. Together, the Wi-Spy Mini and inSSIDer presented me with option to increase performance. One was to change my channel from 1 to 6 because there were so many networks in range using 6. Before I made the change in my router's interface I took note of my signal strength and Link Score?this is a compiled score by inSSIDer which shows how well (or poorly) your network is performing. My signal strength was at not such a great -66 dBm (the ideal is about -30 dBm) and my Link Score was 40. After changing the channel, my signal strength improved to -32 and my Link Score upped to 48.
I went back into the "Analyze" screen again. I was a little confused, because now the software was recommending I go back to channel 6. I wasn't sure if recommendations would keep appearing once you have your network optimized as much as it can be?that would be counterproductive. I posed the question to the Metageek team. They advised that if you have your network starred and perform tweaks based on recommendations in the Analyze view?that the software should not keep circling back through recommendations.
Now, inSSIDer, even the Office version is still a fairly lightweight spectrum analyzer and networking utility. Those deploying enterprise-level wireless networks will likely invest much more costly tools such as Airmagnet from Fluke Networks which allows for reporting, recording and playback, and real-time automated responses to RF interference?all critical troubleshooting tools for enterprise Wi-Fi.
For those managing wireless networks in the SMB, inSSIDer for Office is a handy tool especially when paired with the Wi-Spy Mini. inSSIDer for Office also relatively affordable (at $199) for a spectrum analyzer, and it's a great way for those starting their careers as networking professionals to get familiar with a wireless networking pro analyzer before moving onto more enterprise tools. inSSIDer for Office gets 4.5 out of 5 stars and an Editor's Choice for SMB networking utilities.
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Nigerian soldiers in the shade of a Mali-bound Nigerian Air Force C130 Hercules plane
VOICE OF NIGERIA 21 May, 2013 Abuja
The Nigerian troops sent to Mali for peacekeeping operations are to remain in Mali for now, contrary to speculations that they would be withdrawn to face the domestic crisis in the country. This was contained in a press statement by the Director Defence Information Brigadier General Chris Olukolade in Abuja.
There were media reports that Nigerian troops were being withdrawn from Mali to face the insurgency in some parts of Northern Nigeria is not true. ?The report therefore in a section of the press that Nigerian troops are to be withdrawn from Mali to face the ongoing insurgency is complete falsehood.??
?There is certainly no need for such action now as the human and material resources of the Armed Forces of Nigeria are being meticulously deployed and quite able to meet its present internal and external assignments.??
Rotation of troops
The story of troop withdrawal from Mali may have been brought about by the rotation of troops in various missions which is a normal practice in military circles, he said. The Defence spokesperson said this is a routine and should not be misunderstood or misrepresented to misinform Nigerians and the international community.
??As a matter of fact the normal and scheduled rotation of troops in various missions will continue.?? ??This routine should not be misunderstood or misrepresented to misinform Nigerians and the international community.??These times are too sensitive for anyone to engage in unnecessary sensation, speculation or rumour mongering on military affairs please.?? Nigerian troops are currently deployed for the African-led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA)
Brigadier General Chris Olukolade reassured Nigerians that the troops were capable of tackling the current challenge of insurgency in some parts of northern Nigeria.
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BEEG EAGLE -perspectives of an opinionated Nigerian male with a keen interest in Geopolitics, Defence and Strategic Studies
FILE - In this Nov. 15, 1979 file photo, United States Surgeon General Dr. Julius B. Richmond, at the microphones, kicks off the third annual "Smokeout" rally sponsored by the American Cancer Society in Washington, D.C. as a part of the "Great American Smokeout Day." (AP Photo)
MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- The American Cancer Society -- one of the nation's best known and influential health advocacy groups -- is 100 years old this week.
Back in 1913 when it was formed, cancer was a lesser threat for most Americans. The biggest killers then were flu, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and stomach bugs. At a time when average life expectancy was 47, few lived long enough to get cancer.
But 15 doctors and businessmen in New York City thought cancer deserved serious attention, so they founded the American Society for the Control of Cancer. The modern name would come 31 years later.
The cancer society's rise coincided with the taming of infectious diseases and lengthening life spans. "Cancer is a disease of aging, so as people live longer there will be more cancer," explained Dr. Michael Kastan, executive director of Duke University's Cancer Institute.
Cancer became the nation's No. 2 killer in 1938, a ranking it has held ever since. It also became perhaps the most feared disease -- the patient's own cells growing out of control, responding only to brutal treatments: surgery, radiation and poisonous chemicals.
The cancer society is credited with being the largest and most visible proponent of research funding, prevention and programs to help house and educate cancer patients.
Last year, the organization had revenues of about $925 million. It employs 6,000 and has 3 million volunteers, calling itself the largest voluntary health organization in the nation.
"The American Cancer Society really is in a league of its own," Kastan said. The rate of new cancer cases has been trending downward ever so slightly.
Some historical highlights:
1913 -- The American Society for the Control of Cancer is founded in New York City.
1944 -- The organization is renamed the American Cancer Society. The change is spurred by Mary Lasker, the wife of advertising mogul Albert Lasker.
1946 -- A research program is launched, built on $1 million raised by Mary Lasker. A year later, Dr. Sidney Farber of Boston announces the first successful chemotherapy treatment.
1948 -- The cancer society pushes the Pap test, which has been credited with driving a 70 percent decline in uterine and cervical cancer.
1964 -- Prodded by the cancer society and other groups, U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry issues a report irrefutably linking smoking to cancer.
1971 -- The cancer society helps lead passage of the National Cancer Act to ramp up research money. President Nixon declares a national "war on cancer," which becomes an extended effort derided by some as a "medical Vietnam."
1976 -- The cancer society suggests women 40 and older consider a mammogram if their mother or sisters had breast cancer.
1976 -- The cancer society hosts a California event to encourage smokers to quit for the day. A year later, the annual Great American Smokeout is launched nationally.
1988 -- Atlanta becomes headquarters for the society.
1997 -- The cancer society recommends yearly mammograms for women over 40.
2000 -- Dr. Brian Druker of Oregon reports the first success with "targeted" cancer therapy.
2003 -- The cancer society stops recommending monthly breast self-exams. But it continues to urge annual mammograms for most women over 40, even after a government task force says most don't need screening until 50.
2012 -- The cancer society reports the rate of new cancer cases has been inching down by about half a percent each year since 1999.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Movie Fashion
Clothes have a starring role at the Cannes Film Festival. (Photos)
Surprise Find
A tornado survivor finds an answer to prayer in the rubble. (Video)
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Public release date: 23-May-2013
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