contradictorily insightful: May 2013

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Cops: Prom party bus driver's blood-alcohol almost triple the legal ...

A party bus driver had a blood-alcohol content nearly three times the legal limit when he took a vehicle full of teens to their prom, DuPage County sheriff?s officials said Monday afternoon.

Richard L. Madison, 54, of Palos Hills was charged with DUI and reckless conduct, DuPage County state?s attorney spokesman Paul Darrah said. Madison?s blood-alcohol content measured at 0.22, authorities said.

Madison was the driver of a party bus taking 23 students to the Oswego East High School prom. Teens on the bus say they noticed Madison was driving erratically and they text messaged their parents. When they arrived at Abbington Banquets in unincorporated Glen Ellyn, the DuPage County Sheriff?s Department was waiting for Madison and he was given a breathalyzer test.

Madison was arrested and released about 11:30 p.m. Saturday after paying $100 on a $3,000 bond, Domrose said.

The party bus was operated by Limos Alive Party Bus, the sheriff?s office said. Limos Alive Party Bus representatives said they had no comment Thursday afternoon.

Madison could not be reached for comment.

The Chicago Tribune contributed to this report.

Source: http://wgntv.com/2013/05/13/cops-prom-party-bus-drivers-blood-alcohol-almost-triple-the-legal-limit/

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Obama dismisses Benghazi criticism (CNN)

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Syrian rebel's gruesome act caught on video, according to report

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A video of a Syrian rebel commander cutting the heart out of a soldier and biting into is emblematic of a civil war that has rapidly descended into sectarian hatred and revenge killings, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

The New York-based group said an amateur video posted on the Internet on Sunday shows Abu Sakkar, a founder of the rebel Farouq Brigade who is well known to journalists as an insurgent from Homs, cutting into the torso of a dead soldier.

The video has caused outrage among both supporters of President Bashar al-Assad and opposition figures.

"I swear to God we will eat your hearts and your livers, you soldiers of Bashar the dog," the man says to offscreen cheers of his comrades shouting "Allahu akbar (God is great)".

The Syrian conflict started with peaceful protests in March 2011, but when these were suppressed it gradually turned into an increasingly sectarian civil war which, according to one opposition monitoring group, has cost more than 80,000 lives.

Majority Sunni Muslims lead the revolt, while Assad - whose family have ruled for over four decades - gets his core support from his own Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch said that he had seen an original, unedited copy of the video and that Abu Sakkar's identity had been confirmed by rebel sources in Homs and by images of him in other videos wearing the same black jacket as in the latest clip and with the same rings on his fingers.

"The mutilation of the bodies of enemies is a war crime. But the even more serious issue is the very rapid descent into sectarian rhetoric and violence," said Bouckaert.

He said that in the unedited version of the film, Abu Sakkar instructs his men to "slaughter the Alawites and take their hearts out to eat them", before biting into the heart.

Abu Sakkar has been seen in previous videos firing rockets at Lebanese Shi'ite villages on the border and posing with the body of a soldier purportedly from the Lebanese Shi'ite militant Hezbollah group, which is helping Assad's forces.

Reuters cannot independently verify videos from Syria, where access is restricted by the government and security constraints.

(Reporting by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-rebel-bites-heart-dead-soldier-video-123803803.html

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Other astronauts who sent us over the moon

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield comes down from the International Space Station on Tuesday, having charmed countless earthlings with his social-media skills, guitar-strumming and bold facial hair.

We hope they make a movie about him, because William H. Macy could have a ball bringing him to life on the screen.

In the meantime, here are some astronauts from the annals of pop culture who also winged their way into our heart with more, ahem, traditional attributes.

NBCU Photo Bank

Pictured: (l-r) Larry Hagman as Anthony 'Tony' Nelson, Barbara Eden as Jeannie.

Larry Hagman in "I Dream of Jeannie": Forget Jeannie ? what female TV viewer didn't dream of Maj. Tony Nelson? Sure, he kept his emotions and his 2,000-year-old lady friend bottled up. But remember how good he looked in those dress blues? No wonder the genie spent five seasons trying to please her master.

Hulton Archive / Getty Images

Liv Tyler and Ben Affleck embrace in a scene from the film 'Armageddon', 1998.

Ben Affleck in "Armageddon": Roger Ebert once described the movie as "an assault on the eyes" but surely he wasn't talking about the actor who played A.J. Frost, the core-driller drafted to save the earth from an asteroid. Heck, Bruce Willis was so smitten that he took his spot on the suicide mission so Affleck could marry his daughter.

Archive Photos / Getty Images

Ed Harris as John Glenn in a scene from the film 'The Right Stuff', 1962.

Ed Harris in "The Right Stuff": With Dennis Quaid and Sam Shepard in the testosterone-fueled cast of the 1983 movie about the Mercury 7 astronauts, Harris has some tough-guy competition. But he stood up to the vice president and he cracked down on his philandering crew mates. Oh, and did we mention he was the first American to orbit the earth?

Universal Pictures / Getty Images

Kevin Bacon checking controls in a scene from the film 'Apollo 13', 1995.

Kevin Bacon in "Apollo 13": Another easy-on-the-eyes ensemble cast, but Ed Harris doesn't get two bites at the astronaut apple, so Bacon's Jack Swigert gets the nod. He's inexperienced and cocky and gets blamed for the accident that almost turns the crew into space junk. But he helps save the day and looks good doing it. Catch you on the flip side, Kevin.

7831 / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

The cast of "Space Cowboys": Have four senior citizens ever looked so good in jumpsuits and bomber jackets? Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garner may not have washboard abs or even all their hair in this 2000 flick, but they've got experience, courage and a lot of one-liners about getting old.?

Sony Pictures Classics

Sam Rockwell in a scene from 'Moon'.

Sam Rockwell in "Moon": It couldn't have been easy to eclipse the gorgeous sci-fi effects of this 2009 film, but somehow Rockwell managed. Nearing the end of a solo three-year stint on the lunar landscape, Rockwell's brooding character, Sam Bell, wakes up to find what appears to be a clone. Disturbing for him; double the treat for us.

NBC

Mix Dexter is Liz Lemon's "astronaut boyfriend" on the show "30 Rock." He doesn't really exist.

Mike Dexter from "30 Rock": We didn't get a look at Liz Lemon's imaginary man ? "My boyfriend, astronaut Mike Dexter, will be picking me up. On his motorcycle" ? until the fourth episode. Yet the fantasy spaceman was worth the wait. Chiseled good looks. Spiffy orange jumpsuit. And a way with words:??I hope you enjoyed the kissing followed by my genuine interest in that TV dance competition."

Source: http://entertainment.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/13/18234178-other-astronauts-who-sent-us-over-the-moon?lite

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Happy Mother's Day! A Tribute to Celebrity Moms!

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Monday, May 13, 2013

Project aims to track big city carbon footprints

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Every time Los Angeles exhales, odd-looking gadgets anchored in the mountains above the city trace the invisible puffs of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases that waft skyward.

Halfway around the globe, similar contraptions atop the Eiffel Tower and elsewhere around Paris keep a pulse on emissions from smokestacks and automobile tailpipes. And there is talk of outfitting Sao Paulo, Brazil, with sensors that sniff the byproducts of burning fossil fuels.

It's part of a budding effort to track the carbon footprints of megacities, urban hubs with over 10 million people that are increasingly responsible for human-caused global warming.

For years, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse pollutants have been closely monitored around the planet by stations on the ground and in space. Last week, worldwide levels of carbon dioxide reached 400 parts per million at a Hawaii station that sets the global benchmark ? a concentration not seen in millions of years.

Now, some scientists are eyeing large cities ? with LA and Paris as guinea pigs ? and aiming to observe emissions in the atmosphere as a first step toward independently verifying whether local ? and often lofty ? climate goals are being met.

For the past year, a high-tech sensor poking out from a converted shipping container has stared at the Los Angeles basin from its mile-high perch on Mount Wilson, a peak in the San Gabriel Mountains that's home to a famous observatory and communication towers.

Like a satellite gazing down on Earth, it scans more than two dozen points from the inland desert to the coast. Every few minutes, it rumbles to life as it automatically sweeps the horizon, measuring sunlight bouncing off the surface for the unique fingerprint of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases.

In a storage room next door, commercially available instruments that typically monitor air quality double as climate sniffers. And in nearby Pasadena, a refurbished vintage solar telescope on the roof of a laboratory on the California Institute of Technology campus captures sunlight and sends it down a shaft 60 feet below where a prism-like instrument separates out carbon dioxide molecules.

On a recent April afternoon atop Mount Wilson, a brown haze hung over the city, the accumulation of dust and smoke particles in the atmosphere.

"There are some days where we can see 150 miles way out to the Channel Islands and there are some days where we have trouble even seeing what's down here in the foreground," said Stanley Sander, a senior research scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

What Sander and others are after are the mostly invisible greenhouse gases spewing from factories and freeways below.

There are plans to expand the network. This summer, technicians will install commercial gas analyzers at a dozen more rooftops around the greater LA region. Scientists also plan to drive around the city in a Prius outfitted with a portable emission-measuring device and fly a research aircraft to pinpoint methane hotspots from the sky (A well-known natural source is the La Brea Tar Pits in the heart of LA where underground bacteria burp bubbles of methane gas to the surface.)

Six years ago, elected officials vowed to reduce emissions to 35 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 by shifting to renewable energy and weaning the city's dependence on out-of-state coal-fired plants, greening the twin port complex and airports and retrofitting city buildings.

It's impractical to blanket the city with instruments so scientists rely on a handful of sensors and use computer models to work backward to determine the sources of the emissions and whether they're increasing. They won't be able to zero in on an offending street or a landfill, but they hope to be able to tell whether switching buses from diesel to alternative fuel has made a dent.

Project manager Riley Duren of JPL said it'll take several years of monitoring to know whether LA is on track to reach its goal.

Scientists not involved with the project say it makes sense to dissect emissions on a city level to confirm whether certain strategies to curb greenhouse gases are working. But they're divided about the focus.

Allen Robinson, an air quality expert at Carnegie Mellon University, said he prefers more attention paid to measuring a city's methane emissions since scientists know less about them than carbon dioxide release.

Nearly 58 percent of California's carbon dioxide emissions in 2010 came from gasoline-powered vehicles, according to the U.S. Energy Department's latest figures.

In much of the country, coal ?usually as fuel for electric power ? is a major source of carbon dioxide pollution. But in California, it's responsible for a tad more than 1 percent of the state's carbon dioxide emissions. Natural gas, considered a cleaner fuel, spews one third of the state's carbon dioxide.

Overall, California in 2010 released about 408 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air. The state's carbon dioxide pollution is greater than all but 20 countries and is just ahead of Spain's emissions. In 2010, California put nearly 11 tons of carbon dioxide into the air for every person, which is lower than the national average of 20 tons per person.

Gregg Marland, an Appalachian State University professor who has tracked worldwide emissions for the Energy Department, said there's value in learning about a city's emissions and testing techniques.

"I don't think we need to try this in many places, but we have to try some to see what works and what we can do," he said.

Launching the monitoring project came with the usual growing pains. In Paris, a carbon sniffer originally tucked away in the Eiffel Tower's observation deck had to be moved to a higher floor that's off-limits to the public after tourists' exhaling interfered with the data.

So far, $3 million have been spent on the U.S. effort with funding from federal, state and private groups. The French, backed by different sponsors, have spent roughly the same.

Scientists hope to strengthen their ground measurements with upcoming launches of Earth satellites designed to track carbon dioxide from orbit. The field experiment does not yet extend to China, by far the world's biggest carbon dioxide polluter. But it's a start, experts say.

With the focus on megacities, others have worked to decipher the carbon footprint of smaller places like Indianapolis, Boston and Oakland, where University of California, Berkeley researchers have taken a different tack and blanketed school rooftops with relatively inexpensive sensors.

"We are at a very early stage of knowing the best strategy, and need to learn the pros and cons of different approaches," said Inez Fung, a professor of atmospheric science at Berkeley who has no role in the various projects.

___

Follow Alicia Chang at http://twitter.com/SciWriAlicia

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/project-aims-track-big-city-carbon-footprints-135809903.html

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Vending Machines For Pot Products Exist Now

Let's be real here, what could come from a URL like www.thedispensingsolution.com BUT a vending machine for pot? Medbox, the company that produces the $50,000 units, is ramping up and attempting to place them in dispensaries around the country. Consumers can't walk up to a Medbox and feed it their cash, but they can tell the clerk in a state-licensed dispensary what they want.

Victims count grows in New Orleans Mother's Day shooting

Lauren Mcgaughy / The Times-Picayune / Landov

Bystanders comfort a shooting victim while awaiting EMS at the intersection of Frenchmen and N. Villere Streets after gunfire injured at least a dozen people, including a child, at a Mother's Day second-line parade on Sunday, May 12, 2013.

By Andrew Rafferty, Staff Writer, NBC News

At least nineteen people in New Orleans, including two children, were injured on Sunday when multiple gunmen opened fire on a Mother?s Day parade, police said.

A 10-year-old boy and 10-year-old girl were grazed by bullets but are in good condition, New Orleans Police spokesman Garry Flot said in a statement. A woman and a man were in surgery Sunday evening, but there were no fatalities and most wounds were not life threatening, police said.

According to police, most victims were grazed by bullets.

Authorities saw three people running away from the scene after the shooting. At least one suspect was described as a man between the ages of 18 and 22.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said there may have been as many as three shooters, and that two different types of weapons were likely used.

The victims were marching in what is known as a second line parade, which are common in New Orleans: A brass band plays while marching in the streets, while a ?second line? of people follows the band, celebrating.

Police say the parade was just two blocks long.

?These are unusual circumstances. We have second lines which occur in the city of New Orleans virtually every weekend at this time of the year,? said Serpas. ??We had a full complement of police officers. It appears that these 2 or 3 people just for a reason unknown to us, started shooting at towards, or in the crowd. It was over in just a couple seconds.?

Detectives are conducting interviews and retrieving surveillance video from around the crime scene. A spokesman for the New Orleans Police Department said he is confident swift arrests will be made.

In front of reporters late Sunday, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu urged anyone with information about the shooting to come forward.

Second lines have been targets for violence in New Orleans in recent years. In the past, shooters have targeted a specific person in the crowd, which authorities say may have been the case Sunday as well. ?But Landrieu dismissed the notion of outlawing the Louisiana tradition.

?It?s not the second line that did the shooting,? he said. ?The cultural events are very important to us, it?s like calling for an end to Mardi Gras because someone takes an opportunity to shoot someone during one of our parades.? ?

?Second lines have been with us for a long, long time,? Landrieu added. ?They are an important part of our culture and our heritage.?

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2bd312f8/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A50C120C182136910Evictims0Ecount0Egrows0Ein0Enew0Eorleans0Emothers0Eday0Eshooting0Dlite/story01.htm

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AppleCare changes may extend in-store repair options to iOS devices

AppleCare changes may extend in-store repair options for iOS devices

For a long time, the only devices Apple has ever extensively serviced in-store have been Macs, with some requiring mail-out repairs. If recent rumors are to be believed as true, Apple plans on extending in-store repair options to iOS devices. According to a report by AppleInsider, Apple will begin actually repairing iPhones and iPads in-store instead of swapping them out for replacement refurbished devices in the very near future.

Anyone who has ever taken a broken or defective iPhone or iPad into Apple is already aware that as it stands now, you will be given a replacement device in place of your current one. The fee is based on whether or not you're in or out of warranty and whether the issue is caused by accidental damage. Tara Bunch, a vice president for Apple, spoke in a Town Hall meeting on Thursday discussing changes to these current policies. An employee in attendance summed up some of the biggest policy changes:

"The biggest announcement, was the way repairs for iPhones will be handled soon," the person, who asked not to be identified due to their active status as an Apple employee, told AppleInsider. "The way it is now, if almost anything is wrong with an iPhone, iPod, or iPad, the entire device is exchanged for a like-new re manufactured (sic) device, whether brought into an apple store or sent in for mail in repair. Now we are starting to actually repair the products and return the same device to the customer."

The rumored changes, according to the source, could result in $1 billion a year in savings for Apple. As it sits right now, Apple only does simpler repairs on iOS devices in-house which include back glass replacements for the iPhone 4/4S for $29, iPhone 3G/3GS screen replacements for $99, and a few others that include the vibrator assembly in the GSM variant of the iPhone 4 and battery replacements. The cost of these repairs could be an indicator as of what is to come.

Back in September of 2012, iMore heard Apple would replace iPhone 5 screens for $99. While that never seemed to come to light, a lot of it was probably due to part constraint and the difficulty of obtaining replacement assemblies as most of the manufactured stock was going to new and replacement devices. We were told they weren't sure when it would go into affect but eventually, it would.

According to AppleInsider, the new policies are set to go begin this fall with international rollouts following suit afterwards.

Would you be content if Apple offered more repair options in-store instead of swapping out your device for a new one, considering it would most likely have a lower price tag attached? Or do you prefer paying a little bit of a premium for a new, if not just like new, replacement?

Source: AppleInsider

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/v1g6jVC4At8/story01.htm

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Sunday, May 12, 2013

Die-off of southern right whales still a puzzler

G. Harris / Wildlife Conservation Society

A mother and calf pair of southern right whales in the waters of coastal Patagonia.

By Megan Gannon
LiveScience

Scientists still don't know why hundreds of baby southern right whales are turning up dead around Patagonia, a decade after observers first saw signs of the worst die-off on record for the species, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

With no evidence of infectious diseases or deadly toxins in whale tissue samples, scientists are scrambling to determine a cause of death. Some are even pointing a finger at blubber-eating birds.

The whales come to the peaceful Atlantic bays around Peninsula Valdes along Argentina's Patagonian Coast to give birth and raise their young. At least 605 dead right whales?have been counted in the region since 2003, WCS officials say. Of those, 538 were newborn calves. Last year, the mortality event was especially severe, with a record-breaking 116 whale deaths, 113 of them calves. [Whale Album: Giants of the Deep]

"In 2012 we lost nearly one-third of all calves born at the Peninsula," said Mariano Sironi, scientific director of the Instituto de Conservacion de Ballenas in Argentina. "Southern right whales have their first calf when they are 9 years old on average. This means that it won't be until a decade from now that we will see a significant reduction in the number of calves born, as all of the female calves that died will not be contributing any new offspring to the population," Sironi, who is also an adviser to the Southern Right Whale Health Monitoring Program, added in a statement.

Sironi and colleague Vicky Rowntree, who is co-director of the monitoring program, have studied a strange phenomena that could be stressing southern right whales. They say kelp gulls at Peninsula Valdes land on the backs of the cetaceans to eat their skin and blubber.

"The attacks are very painful and cause large, deep lesions, particularly on the backs of young 2-6 week-old calves," the researchers said in a statement from WCS. "This harassment can last for hours at a time. As a result, right whale mothers and their calves are expending much precious energy during a time of year when mothers are fasting and at a site where little to no food is available to replenish fat reserves."

The situation is discouraging for a species that had made a significant comeback since its population was depleted by the whaling industry.

"The southern right whale population is still only a small fraction of its original size, and now we have reason to worry about its recovery," Rowntree said.

Though the southern right whale is not listed as endangered, conservationists warn that the species' sister populations could go extinct if hit with a mysterious die-off on this scale. For instance, there are thought to be just about 500 North Atlantic right whales remaining.

Follow Megan Gannon on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook?and Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2bc24f83/l/0Lscience0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A50C10A0C1817330A50Edie0Eoff0Eof0Esouthern0Eright0Ewhales0Estill0Ea0Epuzzler0Dlite/story01.htm

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Saturday, May 11, 2013

Your own Air Force One for as little as $50k (cbsnews)

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Capitalism Kills Morality - And So Does Socialism, Say Economists

Do you support unions, a minimum wage, dislike business and hate child labor and then tell all of your friends on your iPhone?

People rationalize moral standards when it comes to their own lives, say economists writing in Science. It's easy to lament child labor and exploitation of the work force but if you are not willing to pay $2,000 for a phone, you are part of the problem and Tweeting about social issues on that phone helps precisely no one but corporate shareholders.

Markets are not about social justice, note?Professors Armin Falk from the University of Bonn and Nora Szech from the University of Bamberg, and so markets reduce moral concerns. They have found that,?in comparison to non-market decisions, moral standards are significantly lower if people participate in markets.?You're not more ethical if you buy one product, you are slightly less ethical if you buy anything at all.

"Our results show that market participants violate their own moral standards," says Falk.

In different experiments, several hundred people were confronted with the moral decision between receiving a monetary amount and killing a mouse versus saving the life of a mouse and foregoing the monetary amount.?In other words, they could kill a mouse or get paid.

The economists ironically invoke some moral superiority in their market choice to use the mice at all.? The animals involved in the study were "surplus mice" raised in laboratories - outside Germany, no German mice were harmed, they want us to know. Since the mice were no longer needed for research purposes, they would all have been killed. Hundreds of young mice that would otherwise all have died were saved, they note, which has to make 100 million dead laboratory mice per year a little jealous. If a person decided to save a mouse, the experimenters bought the animal to keep it in the lab.?

"To study immoral outcomes, we studied whether people are willing to harm a third party in exchange to receiving money. Harming others in an intentional and unjustified way is typically considered unethical," says Falk. ?

And a lot of people were.

Simple bilateral markets affect moral decisions

A subgroup of people decided between life and money in a non-market decision context (the individual condition). This condition allowed for eliciting moral standards held by individuals and was compared to two market conditions in which either only one buyer and one seller (bilateral market) or a larger number of buyers and sellers (multilateral market) could trade with each other.

If a market offer was accepted a trade was completed, resulting in the death of a mouse.

Compared to the individual condition, a significantly higher number of subjects were willing to accept the killing of a mouse in both market conditions.

Conclusion: markets result in an erosion of moral values. "In markets, people face several mechanisms that may lower their feelings of guilt and responsibility," explains Szech. In market situations, people focus on competition and profits rather than on moral concerns. Guilt can be shared with other traders. In addition, people see that others violate moral norms as well.?

"If I don't buy or sell, someone else will."

In addition, in markets with many buyers and sellers, subjects may justify their behavior by stressing that their impact on outcomes is negligible. "This logic is a general characteristic of markets," says Falk.

Excuses or justifications appeal to the saying, "If I don't buy or sell now, someone else will."

For morally neutral goods, however, such effects are of minor importance. Szech notes "For goods without moral relevance, differences in decisions between the individual and the market conditions are small. The reason is simply that in such cases the need to share guilt or excuse behavior is absent."?

Citation: Armin Falk and Nora Szech, 'Morals and Markets', Science 10 May 2013: 707-711. DOI:10.1126/science.1231566

Source: http://www.science20.com/news_articles/capitalism_kills_morality_and_so_does_socialism_say_economists-111691

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Friday, May 10, 2013

Social news reader Flipboard just updated its Android app with custom magazines you can build around

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://lifehacker.com/social-news-reader-flipboard-just-updated-its-android-a-498655582

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Muslim, Christian groups clash in NY libel suit

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) ? A Muslim group is accusing a Christian organization of defamation for publishing a book that accuses the Muslim collective of holding terrorist training in its enclaves.

The Christian Action Network refuses to back down, challenging Muslims of America Inc. to prove the allegations wrong in an upstate New York court.

The Muslim group has a community in Hancock, near Binghamton, N.Y., and others around the U.S. It calls the network's accusations deliberate and damaging lies.

Attorney Tahirah Amatul-Wadud said the Muslim group is seeking retractions and $18 million in damages, and a halt to further publication of network founder Martin Mawyer's 2012 book, "Twilight in America: the Untold Story of Terrorist Training Camps Inside America."

The group's residential communities are peaceful, Amatul-Wadud said.

"The property upstate has farms; it has gardens; it has buildings for work; it has little stores," she said. "It's a community of families and of individuals who are just trying to get by day to day."

Their common denominator is their faith, she said. "Everyone believes in one God and the Prophet Mohammed as his messenger."

The Christian group has denied the defamation allegations and asked U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy to dismiss the complaint. It hasn't withdrawn the book and continues to promote it on its website.

"The defendants intend vigorously defend this case in order to protect their right to free speech under the First Amendment," attorney Michael Grygiel said.

The Lynchburg, Va.-based network was founded in 1990 by Mawyer, former editor of the Rev. Jerry Falwell's "Moral Majority Report."

A scheduling conference is set for May 17 in Binghamton before a magistrate. Trial is expected next year.

The book claims both state and federal authorities "turn a blind eye" to the Islamic extremists trying to convert U.S. citizens in the communities, that Muslims of America is a front for the radical group Jamaat Al Fuqras and that it has held terrorist training at the rural enclaves.

In court papers, Muslims of America said it was founded around 1985 as a New York religious corporation whose principal place of worship is Hancock, where it bought 60 acres of rural property to provide a safe haven for inner city families. It now also has communities in Georgia, Michigan, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Texas, Canada and Trinidad.

The group said that it has always counseled members and residents to abide by U.S. laws and avoid criminal, immoral and antisocial behavior. The communities include doctors, engineers, nurses, teachers, tradesmen, farmers and business people, with workshops, seminars and interfaith outreach open to the public, it has said.

Its complaint said the Christian network harassed its communities in Red House, Va., and Commerce, Ga., and that the book presents false, defamatory and therefore libelous statements as fact, not just opinion. It cited this from the book's back cover: "These Islamic extremists convert our own citizens, then teach them how to kill."

In its court response, the network cited a host of defenses, including that lawsuits aren't allowed for damage to reputation because of expressions of opinion and rhetorical hyperbole, that statements were made "within the sphere of legitimate public interest" and that the published statements weren't made with either malice or reckless disregard of probable falsity.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/muslim-christian-groups-clash-ny-libel-suit-143525071.html

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Report: Ohio captive beaten until she miscarried

Ariel Castro appears in Cleveland Municipal court Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Cleveland. Castro was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape after three women missing for about a decade and one of their young daughters were found alive at his home earlier in the week. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Ariel Castro appears in Cleveland Municipal court alongside defense attorney Kathleen DeMetz, right, Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Cleveland. Castro was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape after three women missing for about a decade and one of their young daughters were found alive at his home earlier in the week. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Defense attorney Kathleen DeMetz, second from right, talks with Pedro Castro as Onil Castro, left, watches and Ariel Castro, right, looks down, in Cleveland Municipal court Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Cleveland. Ariel Castro was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. Pedro and Onil Castro, were held but faced no immediate charges. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

The house is shown where three women were held in Cleveland, Ohio, Thursday, May 9, 2013. Ariel Castro was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. Ariel Castro was charged while his brothers, Pedro and Onil Castro, were held but faced no immediate charges.(AP Photo/David Duprey)

A girl adds a balloon outside the home of Gina DeJesus Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Cleveland. Ariel Castro, the man accused of raping and kidnapping DeJesus and 2 other women, who were missing for about a decade before being found alive at his home, was ordered held Thursday on $8 million bail. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

CLEVELAND (AP) ? An Ohio prosecutor said Thursday he may seek the death penalty against Ariel Castro as investigators charged that he impregnated one of his captives at least five times and then starved her and punched her in the belly until she miscarried.

Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty said aggravated murder charges punishable by death could be filed related to pregnancies terminated by force.

Castro, a 52-year-old former school bus driver, is being held on $8 million bail under a suicide watch in jail, where he is charged with rape and kidnapping for allegedly abducting three women and holding them captive in his home for a decade.

A police report obtained by the news media said Castro threatened, starved and raped the women. Other chilling details in the report:

? Amanda Berry, who was 16 when she vanished in 2002, told officers that she was forced to give birth in a plastic kiddie pool in the house so it would be easier to clean up. Berry said she, her baby, now 6, and the two other rescued women had never been to a doctor during their captivity.

? Michelle Knight, now 32, said her five pregnancies ended after Castro starved her for at least two weeks and "repeatedly punched her in the stomach until she miscarried." She also said Castro forced her to help deliver Berry's baby under threat of death if the baby died. Knight said that when the newborn stopped breathing, she revived the child through mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

McGinty said that Castro would be charged for every single act of sexual violence, assault and other crimes committed against the women, suggesting the charges could number in the hundreds, if not thousands.

In court Thursday, authorities laid out more of their case against Castro, saying he lured the women into his car, beat them repeatedly over a decade and used them "in whatever self-gratifying, self-serving way he saw fit," as prosecutor Brian Murphy put it.

During his brief arraignment, Castro tried to hide his face, tucking his chin inside his collar. He appeared to close his eyes during the hearing and awkwardly signed documents while handcuffed. He did not speak or enter a plea.

Kathleen DeMetz, a public defender assigned to represent him at the hearing, didn't comment on his guilt or innocence or object when prosecutors recommended bail be set at $5 million. The judge, instead, ordered Castro held on $8 million.

Castro has been in custody since Monday, when Berry broke out of his run-down house and called 911. Police found the two other women inside. The women, now in their 20s and 30s, vanished separately between 2002 and 2004. At the time, they were 14, 16 and 20 years old.

Castro had lured each of them into his vehicle, according to court documents filed Thursday.

Investigators said that the women could recall being outside only twice in the past decade and that they were apparently bound with ropes and chains.

Berry, 27, and the third captive, Gina DeJesus, 22, went home with relatives on Wednesday. Knight, 32, was reported in good condition at a Cleveland hospital.

Castro's two brothers, who were arrested but later cleared of involvement in the kidnapping case, appeared in court on unrelated charges and were released. They left the courthouse without speaking to reporters.

Pedro Castro, 54, pleaded no contest to an open container charge, while two charges against Onil Castro, 50, were dismissed.

On Thursday, a musician who often practiced at Ariel Castro's house said he was there last week and heard noises, "like banging on the wall." Ricky Sanchez said he asked Castro about it, and he blamed it on the dogs. He also said Castro ? a bass guitarist in merengue and salsa bands ? liked to play his music loud inside.

On his most recent visit, Sanchez said, a little girl came out from the kitchen and stared at him but didn't say anything. He said he also noticed there were four or five locks on the outside door.

"When I was about to leave, I tried to open the door. I couldn't even, because there were so many locks in there," he said.

Ariel Castro's adult daughter, Arlene Castro, appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Thursday. She tearfully said she was embarrassed and devastated upon learning of her father's suspected role in the kidnappings. Arlene Castro was walking home from school with DeJesus in 2004 just before she disappeared.

"I would like to say I'm absolutely so, so sorry," she said. "I really want to see you, Gina, and I want you to meet my kids. I'm so sorry about everything."

___

Associated Press writers Mike Householder and freelance reporter John Coyne in Cleveland; and Dan Sewell in Cincinnati contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-09-Missing%20Women%20Found/id-221229212c464810b121991badb3171a

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Thursday, May 9, 2013

Death penalty for Ariel Castro? Official cites captives' miscarriages, 'torture'

Police reports say Ariel Castro forced miscarriages of one of three women he allegedly locked in a Cleveland house for about a decade. That may be grounds to seek death penalty, says an Ohio county prosecutor.

By Allison Terry,?Correspondent / May 9, 2013

Ariel Castro appears in Cleveland Municipal court Thursday, in Cleveland. Castro was arraigned Thursday morning, charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape.

Tony Dejak/AP

Enlarge

Prosecutors may seek the death penalty in the case against a Cleveland man accused of kidnapping and holding captive three young women for years, on the basis of police reports that he allegedly forced miscarriages during the women?s detainment, officials announced Thursday.

Skip to next paragraph Allison Terry

Correspondent

Allison Terry works on national news desk for the Christian Science Monitor. She also contributes to the culture section and Global News blog.

PFT: More surgery for Gronk? |? Out for opener?

Getty Images

As Jets quarterback Geno Smith prepares for his first series of NFL practice sessions at the team?s rookie minicamp, one of the guys who presided over the offensive practices at Smith?s most recent stop is defending Smith from criticism.

?I never got the sense he was a diva or pampered or anything in my involvement with him,? West Virginia offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson told Brian Costello of the New York Post. ?I never had one problem with him other than he watched too much film.?

Before the draft, Nolan Nawrocki of Pro Football Weekly skewered Smith.? After the draft, Yahoo! Sports and ESPN.com published critical quotes from anonymous sources regarding Smith.

?He?s going to play for a long time,? Dawson said this week. ?I think the Jets are going to be more than happy that they have him.? He?s going to work his [butt] off. It?s almost a positive for the Jets organization because if everything would have went smooth and he had been picked in the top five he probably wouldn?t be as motivated as he is right now.

?In my talks with him after the draft, he?s so fired up right now to prove this [jerk] wrong that he?s going to work and do it.?

Compounding Smith?s problems is that his camp didn?t launch an aggressive counterattack in response to Nawrocki?s scathing scouting report.? And with Smith firing his agents only days after the draft, he had no one in place to attempt to change the narrative and alter the perception arising from the Yahoo! Sports and ESPN reports.

Perception in this context is key.? His reported plan to leave the draft (ESPN reported it, Smith has denied it) after the first night fueled the perception that he can?t handle adversity, for those who already believed that.? His decision to fire his agents in the wake of the draft fueled the perception that he?s inclined to externalize blame.

In fact, we?ve (I?ve) been criticized, primarily by those who tend to look for reasons to criticize us (me), for pointing out the connection between Smith?s reported plan to leave the draft and the reaction from those who already have a dim view of him.

It?s a reasonable at worst, dead-on 100-percent accurate at best interpretation of the impact of the behavior on the opinions of those who believe the negative things reported about Smith.? Those who think I?m biased against Smith, who played college football at West Virginia University, apparently aren?t aware of my Mountaineer connection.? (I grew up in West Virginia, went to law school in Morgantown, live 30 miles from the school, and attended every home football game that I can.)

What I wrote about Smith after the first round of the draft contained the same advice I would have given Smith if he were my client, friend, cousin, nephew, or son.

Good advice is what he and every young player (and every young person) needs.? Here?s hoping that Geno Smith gets it from everyone around him, and that he heeds it.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/05/08/rob-gronkowski-needs-a-fourth-and-hopefully-last-arm-surgery/related/

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Senior Palestinian Authority Official Says They Would Nuke Israel If They Could?

Same Palestinian Authority Barack Obama ?unblocked? $500 million in US taxpayer dollars for.

Via INN:

A senior Palestinian Authority has praised the use of violence against Israel, asserting that if the PA had the military wherewithal to rise up against the Jewish state, it would not hesitate to do so.

?I swear that if we had a nuke, we?d have used it this very morning,? vowed Jibril Rajoub during an interview with the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen TV channel, as reported by the Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).

Jibril Rajoub is the Deputy Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee and Chairman of the PA Olympic Committee.

The interview was also published on Rajoub?s Facebook page on May 2, 2013.

According to PMW, two other senior PA officials also expressed open support for the murderer who killed Evyatar Borovsky, an Israeli who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist last week as he was waiting for a bus at the Tapuach junction in Samaria.

?We salute the heroic fighter, the self-sacrificing Salam Al-Zaghal,? said Abu Al-Einein, who was until recently an advisor holding the rank of minister to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Source: http://weaselzippers.us/2013/05/08/senior-palestinian-authority-official-says-they-would-nuke-israel-if-they-could/

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sovereign citizen devitoe farmer pleads guilty to ... - RealEstateRama

Memphis, TN ? May 8, 2013 ? (RealEstateRama) ? Devitoe Farmer, 46, of Memphis, TN, pleaded guilty yesterday to three counts of theft of government property, announced U.S. Attorney Edward L. Stanton III and Acting Special Agent in Charge Robert Anderson of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General (HUD-OIG).

?In the Mid-South, we have witnessed first-hand the potential threat posed by those claiming to be sovereign citizens,? said U.S. Attorney Stanton. ?Thanks to the hard work of our law enforcement partners, who worked diligently to bring this individual to justice, we are serving notice to anyone who chooses to defy the law for your own selfish gain that, ultimately, you will face serious consequences for your conduct.?

According to an indictment filed on March 21, 2012, and facts of the case revealed during the plea hearing, Farmer took possession of three HUD-owned properties in the city of Memphis during February and April of 2011. His scheme was discovered when employees with a property management firm contracted by HUD to care for the properties discovered that Farmer had filed quit claim deeds to himself with the Shelby County Register of Deeds Office on the properties and placed tenants in them. HUD-contracted real estate agents also noticed that ?for sale? signs had been removed from the properties and that locks had been changed.

One of the properties was rented to an individual, who supplied investigators with copies of the lease agreement made with Farmer. Another property was occupied by a relative of Farmer. When asked by Memphis Police Department officers for proof of his ownership of the properties, Farmer presented documents declaring that he was a sovereign citizen.

The combined value of the properties listed in the indictment was $172,000. Farmer will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge S. Thomas Anderson on August 13, 2013, at 1:30 p.m. He faces up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 for each count. There is no parole in the federal system.

?Devitoe Farmer?s guilty plea should send a strong message that the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General will aggressively investigate those
United States Attorney Edward L. Stanton III Western District of Tennessee who fail to exercise integrity in connection with HUD programs,? said Acting Special Agent in Charge Anderson of HUD-OIG.

This case was investigated by HUD-OIG and the Memphis Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian K. Coleman represented the government.

CONTACT:
RODNEY KING
PHONE: (901) 969-0344
www.usdoj.gov/usao/tnw
FAX: (901) 544-4230

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Tanning beds should carry skin cancer warnings, FDA proposes ...

May 7, 2013

Tanning beds should carry skin cancer warnings, FDA proposes

By Anna Edney Bloomberg News The Bluefield Daily Telegraph Tue May 07, 2013, 12:05 PM EDT

WASHINGTON ? Tanning beds would be forced to warn young people of the dangers of skin cancer and face tighter oversight under a proposal from U.S. regulators.

The Food and Drug Administration proposed Monday that sunlamp products be recommend against use by those younger than 18 years old and warn frequent users to regularly screen for cancer.

The proposed order would also require sunlamp products seek FDA clearance before sale, the agency said in a statement.

The risk of melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer, rises 75 percent in those exposed to ultraviolet radiation from indoor tanning, the FDA said. The agency has been reviewing its oversight of tanning beds since 2010. The beds are regulated as low-risk devices by the agency, similar to elastic bandages.

An estimated 76,690 people will develop melanoma this year in the U.S. and 9,480 will die from the disease, according to the National Cancer Institute.

The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2009 added ultraviolet radiation from tanning machines to a danger category of carcinogens that includes radon and plutonium.

The agency said it would accept public comments on the proposed order for 90 days.

Source: http://bdtonline.com/latest/x508494772/Tanning-beds-should-carry-skin-cancer-warnings-FDA-proposes

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Donkeys At Caravan Festival Of The Arts To Bear Message Of Peace

The Media Line:

CAIRO -- They may best be known as beasts of burden, but the donkey will soon be the star of the week-long Caravan Festival of the Arts opening here Friday. The festival is designed to spotlight efforts to achieve freedom and religious tolerance and demonstrate the fruits of the 2011 revolution.

Over 90 fiberglass donkeys on display will bear a message of peace and tolerance created by 45 artists from around the world. The festival will link Eastern and Western culture through the visual arts as well as literature, film and music, organizers said.

"Through this art initiative we are making a statement that the way forward in Egypt and its relationship with the rest of the world is 'In Peace and with Compassion,'" organizers said, citing the exhibition's theme.

Thus the peaceful donkey will be used to repair ties among Muslims and Christians in Egypt. There have been several recent clashes between the two groups in a country that was once the cradle for interfaith and religious peace.

Read the whole story at The Media Line

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/06/donkeys-at-caravan-festiv_n_3226101.html

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Don?t Miss Tonight?s ?On the Record? at 10 pm/ET and Join the Conversation on Twitter Using #greta !

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Thursday, May 2, 2013

Bulls will try again to finish off Nets

Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez (11), Chicago Bulls forward Carlos Boozer, center, and center Joakim Noah, right, compete for a loose ball in the first half of Game 5 of their first-round NBA basketball playoff series, Monday, April 29, 2013, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Brooklyn Nets guard Deron Williams (8) collides with Chicago Bulls guard Nate Robinson (2) as he drives toward the basket in the first half of Game 5 of their first-round NBA basketball playoff series, Monday, April 29, 2013, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

CHICAGO (AP) ? The Chicago Bulls had a chance to put away the Brooklyn Nets. Instead, they stumbled.

Their first-round series shifts back to Chicago for Game 6 on Thursday, and the Bulls look like a team that could be in trouble even though they lead 3-2.

That's because Kirk Hinrich was sidelined by a calf injury. Joakim Noah still seems limited by a foot problem, and instead of putting away the Nets on Monday, the Bulls got tripped up 110-91.

If the Bulls are still in the driver's seat, then the Nets at least have a hand on the wheel.

"I don't know," Noah said. "Every game is huge in the playoffs. You win, you feel great. Sky high. When you lose, you know you feel like (garbage). So it's on us to not take anything for granted and be ready for a big Game 6 at home."

A win on Thursday sends the Bulls to the second round, where LeBron James and the defending champion Miami Heat will be waiting. Otherwise, it's back to Brooklyn for Game 7 on Saturday, a scenario that seemed almost unthinkable just a few days ago.

The Nets appeared to be down and out after the Bulls rallied from 14 down in the closing minutes of regulation on the way to a triple-overtime win in Game 4 at the United Center.

It was a different outcome in Game 5, though. Brooklyn controlled the boards and outscored Chicago 15-1 at the finish to keep this series going. Brook Lopez dominated with 28 points and 10 rebounds, and Deron Williams scored 23 and contributed 10 assists.

"Our back's against the wall right now," Brooklyn's Gerald Wallace said. "We're in a fighting spirit. We're a fighting team. We're not ready to go home. We feel like we're better than this team. We just let some games slip away so we feel like we're good enough and a better team that we can come back and win three games in a row just like they did."

Nate Robinson got the start at point guard for Chicago and finished with 20 points and eight assists. But he wasn't able to provide the jolt he gave the Bulls off the bench in the previous game, when he carried them down the stretch.

His 34 points on Saturday were the most by a Bulls reserve in a playoff game, and all but five of them came after the third quarter. He shot the Bulls back into the game down the stretch in regulation and hit more big shots in the overtime periods.

On Monday, the offense didn't run as smoothly with a shoot-first point guard. Robinson couldn't stop Williams, either.

Hinrich could have helped in both areas, but he was wearing a walking boot and had a noticeable limp on Monday after bruising his left calf in Game 4. His status for the remainder of the series is in question.

It didn't help, either, that Noah remains hobbled by plantar fasciitis in his right foot that caused him to miss 15 games during the regular season, or that Taj Gibson is still fighting through a knee problem. That helped explain the Bulls getting outrebounded 44-33 and giving up 24 second-chance points.

As the series shifts back to Chicago, the Bulls are staggering a bit.

"Home court is not going to win it for us," coach Tom Thibodeau said. "We're going to have to play well. So the important thing is, it's good to be home, we have good support there, but we've got to put the work into the game to give our fans something to cheer about. So we can't get it clouded. We have to get things corrected."

It remains to be seen what adjustments ? if any ? the Bulls make. They could give Marco Belinelli more time at the point if Hinrich isn't available. Another option might be giving Richard Hamilton a look at shooting guard.

The veteran seems almost like a forgotten man at this point. He's played a grand total of seven minutes in this series after missing a big chunk of the regular season because of injuries.

Either way, the Bulls don't want to return to Brooklyn.

"It's a must win for us," Robinson said.