8 wounded, one critically, in Brooklyn party shooting

By Alastair Jamieson, Staff writer, NBC News

Eight people were shot and wounded, one of them critically, after a dispute at a house party in Brooklyn, New York, early Sunday, police said.

Four men and four women ? all adults ? were injured when shots rang out at the domestic celebration in the district?s East 57th Street shortly after 1 a.m. ET, a spokesman for the Deputy Commissioner for Public Information at the New York Police Department confirmed.

One of the victims has ?life-threatening? injuries, the DCPI said.

No arrests were made, and no suspects identified.

NBC New York's Marisa Kellogg contributed to this report.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663306/s/2dfd1249/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A60C30A0C192141880E80Ewounded0Eone0Ecritically0Ein0Ebrooklyn0Eparty0Eshooting0Dlite/story01.htm

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How To Take Care of Your Smartphone Battery the Right Way

Your smartphone is a minor miracle, a pocket-sized computer that can fulfill almost every whim. But none of its superpowers matter a bit if it runs out of juice. With removable batteries becoming more and more rare, you've got to take good care of the one you got. Fortunately, it's not to hard keep the lithium-ion powering your everything machine happy if you follow a few simple rules.

Obviously, the first rule for extending your battery life is not using up all your battery life playing candy crush and walking around with Wi-Fi and GPS enabled when you're not using either and really, really need your phone to last that extra hour. But aside from that, there are some basic rules for care and charging, and they're the simplest baseline for a healthy battery.

Top it off

You may vaguely recall hearing something about rechargeable batteries and the "memory effect." You know, that if you don't "teach" your rechargeable batteries their full potential by taking them from totally full to totally empty, they'll "forget" part of their capacity. Well forget all that. Right now. It's wrong.

Battery memory is a real thing, but it applies to nickel-based batteries; your trusty sidekick (literal Sidekick or otherwise) doubtlessly has a lithium-ion battery, and it needs to be treated a little differently. Specifically, it should be topped off whenever you get the chance.

To get the most out of a lithium-ion battery, you should try to keep it north of 50 percent as much as possible. For the most part going from all the way full to all the way empty won't help; in fact, it'll do a little damage if you do it too often. That said, it's smart to do one full discharge about once a month for "calibration," but don't do it all the time. Running the whole gamunt on a regular basis won't make your battery explode or anything, but it will shorten its lifespan.

But! You don't want to have it charging all the time either; lithium-ion batteries can get overheated. Luckily for you, your charger is smart enough to help with this, and will cut your phone off for a spell once it's full. And to complicate matters a little further your battery doesn't particularly like being all the way full either. In fact, your battery will behave the best if you take it off the charge before it hits 100 percent, and leaving it plugged when it's already full is going to cause a little degradation.

So if you're really particular about optimizing your battery's life, you should try to go from around 40 percent to around 80 percent in one go, and then back down whenever possible. A bunch of tiny charges isn't as bad as going from 100 down to zero all the time, but it's not optimal either.

Keep it cool

It's easy to worry about bad charging habits thanks to the training we've had from old rechargeable batteries, but lithium-ion batteries have a worse enemy: heat. Your smartphone's battery will degrade much much faster when it's hot, regardless of whether it's being used or just sitting around doing nothing.

At an average temperature of 32 degrees fahrenheit, a lithium-ion battery will lose six percent of its maximum capacity per year. At 77 degrees, that number jumps to 20 percent, and at 104 degrees it's a whopping 35. Sure, it's not exactly practical (or sane) to keep your phone in the fridge, but it's worth going out of your way to prevent long stays in hot cars and the like.

Avoid wireless charging

Wireless charging is can be incredibly convenient if your phone can do it, but it's not without its disadvantages. The inductive, wireless chargers out there today have this nasty habit of generating a fair bit of waste heat. And while wasted energy is just a bummer in general, that heat will also toast your battery in the process. That's no bueno. It's a little less convenient, but standard plug-in charging is going to keep your battery in better shape, especially if you're some place warm to begin with.

Never go to zero

Obviously, using your battery is going to make it degrade. But it's going to slowly die even if you just leave that iPad in the closet for a bit. There's a trick to minimizing that inevitable aging though: leave it a little bit of juice.

If you're going to be shelving any lithium-ion battery for a long time, try to leave it with at least 40 percent battery power to tide it over. Lithium-ion batteries don't hemmorage power at 30 percent a month like nickel-metal-hydride batteries do; they'll lose maybe five to ten percent of their charge each month.

And when lithium-ion batteries get too low?like, literally zero percent?they get seriously unstable, and dangerous to charge. To prevent explosion-type disasters if you do try to charge one, lithium-ion batteries have built-in self-destruct circuits that will disable (read: destroy) the battery for good, if it reaches rock bottom. And sure, that'll save you from a face full of battery-acid, but it'll also leave you short one battery.

Don't sweat it too much

It's easy to get protective of your battery, but it's also easy to get lazy. And that's fine, because as long as you're not a complete idiot, you'll be OK. Typically, a lithium-ion battery lasts for three to five years, and chances are you're going to want to swap out your gadgets sometime in that window anyway. The slight damage of a technically bad idea like leaving your phone plugged in all night every night, or using wireless charging, might be worth the convenience.

Still, it's pretty easy to keep your battery reasonably healthy just by avoiding particularly egregious torture like letting your phone discharge from full to zero every single day, or leaving it in a hot car all the time. And the next time you make it back home with power to spare, you'll thank yourself for it.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/how-to-take-care-of-your-smartphone-battery-the-right-w-513217256

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Southwest bakes in 115 to 120-degree heat

Mike Bouse of Henderson, Nev., shades himself with an umbrella as he floats in the waters along Boulder Beach at Lake Mead, Saturday, June 29, 2013 near Boulder City, Nev. Bouse and his wife planned to spend most of the day in and out of the water to escape the heat in the Las Vegas area where Saturday's daytime high was expected to reach 117 degrees, the city's all-time high. It was 108 at noon Saturday in Sin City. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Mike Bouse of Henderson, Nev., shades himself with an umbrella as he floats in the waters along Boulder Beach at Lake Mead, Saturday, June 29, 2013 near Boulder City, Nev. Bouse and his wife planned to spend most of the day in and out of the water to escape the heat in the Las Vegas area where Saturday's daytime high was expected to reach 117 degrees, the city's all-time high. It was 108 at noon Saturday in Sin City. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Tubers float down the Salt River on Saturday, June 29, 2013, in Phoenix. Excessive heat warnings will continue for much of the Desert Southwest as building high pressure triggers major warming in eastern California, Nevada, and Arizona. Temperature's are expected to get as high as 118 degrees. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

Families line the Salt River on Saturday, June 29, 2013, in Phoenix. Excessive heat warnings will continue for much of the Desert Southwest as building high pressure triggers major warming in eastern California, Nevada, and Arizona. Temperature's are expected to get as high as 118 degrees. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

From left, Subrina Madrid, Jennifer, Shackelford and Sarah Hudak, , all of North Las Vegas, Nev., sit in the shallow waters along Boulder Beach at Lake Mead, Saturday, June 29, 2013 near Boulder City, Nev. The three planned to spend the day at the lake to escape the heat in Las Vegas where Saturday's daytime high was expected to reach 117 degrees, which is the city's all-time high. It was 108 at noon Saturday in Sin City. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Graphic shows forecast heat wave temperatures for June 29 and compares to previous record highs.;

LAS VEGAS (AP) ? A man died and another was hospitalized in serious condition Saturday afternoon in heat-aggravated incidents as a heat wave blistered this sunbaked city and elsewhere in the Southwest.

Forecasters said temperatures in Las Vegas shot up to 115 degrees on Saturday afternoon, two degrees short of the city's all-time record.

Phoenix hit 119 degrees by mid-afternoon, breaking the record for June 29 that was set in 1994. And large swaths of California sweltered under extreme heat warnings, which are expected to last into Tuesday night ? and maybe even longer.

The forecast for Death Valley in California called for 128 degrees Saturday, but it was 3 degrees shy of that, according to unofficial reports from the National Weather Service. Death Valley's record high of 134 degrees, set a century ago, stands as the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth.

Las Vegas fire and rescue spokesman Tim Szymanski said paramedics responded to a home without air conditioning and found an elderly man dead. He said while the man had medical issues, paramedics thought the heat worsened his condition.

Paramedics said another elderly man suffered a heat stroke when the air conditioner in his car went out for several hours while he was on a long road trip. He stopped in Las Vegas, called 911 and was taken to the hospital in serious condition.

The heat wave has sent more than 40 other people to hospitals in Las Vegas since it arrived Friday, but no life-threatening injuries were reported.

"We will probably start to see a rise in calls Sunday and Monday as the event prolongs," Szymanski said in a statement. "People's bodies will be more agitated the longer the event lasts and people may require medical assistance."

The forecast for Death Valley called for 128 degrees, but temperatures topped at 125, according to unofficial reports from the National Weather Service. Death Valley's record high of 134 degrees, set a century ago, stands as the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth.

About 100 miles south in Baker, the temperature peaked at an unofficial 117 degrees in the road tripper's oasis in the Mojave Desert on Interstate 15. The strip of gas stations and restaurants between Los Angeles and Las Vegas is known by travelers for the giant thermometer that often notes temperatures in the triple digits.

Elsewhere in Southern California, Palm Springs peaked at 122 degrees while the mercury in Lancaster hit 111 ? a record.

To make matters worse, National Weather Service meteorologists John Dumas said cooling ocean breezes haven't been traveling far enough inland overnight to fan the region's overheated valleys and deserts.

In Northern California, record-breaking temperatures were recorded in Sacramento, where the high was 107 degrees; Marysville, which sweltered in 109 degrees; and Stockton, which saw 106.

Cooling stations were set up to shelter the homeless and elderly people who can't afford to run their air conditioners. In Phoenix, Joe Arpaio, the famously hard-nosed sheriff who runs a tent jail, planned to distribute ice cream and cold towels to inmates this weekend.

Officials said personnel were added to the Border Patrol's search-and-rescue unit because of the danger to people trying to slip across the Mexican border. At least seven people have been found dead in the last week in Arizona after falling victim to the brutal desert heat.

Temperatures are also expected to soar across Utah and into Wyoming and Idaho, with triple-digit heat forecast for the Boise area. Cities in Washington state that are better known for cool, rainy weather should break the 90s next week.

The heat was so punishing that rangers took up positions at trailheads at Lake Mead in Nevada to persuade people not to hike. Zookeepers in Phoenix hosed down the elephants and fed tigers frozen fish snacks. Dogs were at risk of burning their paws on scorched pavement, and airlines kept close watch on the heat for fear that it could cause flights to be delayed.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-06-30-West%20Heat%20Wave/id-06529db2e6064085865e160a8c8271fb

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Heat wave scorches Death Valley, America?s hottest of the hot

A dome of extreme hot weather is baking much of the West, but whether or not the moment is historic will be up to the thermometer at Death Valley?s Furnace Creek, where the world?s hottest temperature ? 134 degrees ? was recorded in 1913.

By Patrik Jonsson,?Staff Writer / June 29, 2013

The thermometer at the Furnace Creek resort is already at 120 degrees before noon in Death Valley National Park in Furnace Creek, Calif. Excessive heat warnings will continue for much of the Desert Southwest as building high pressure triggers major warming in eastern California, Nevada, and Arizona.

Chris Carlson/AP

Enlarge

Potential record temperatures are inching up across the American West as a high pressure dome slides across gauzy skylines and trembling desert canyons. But only one place can determine whether a new world heat record will be set this weekend: Death Valley, Calif.

Skip to next paragraph Patrik Jonsson

Staff Writer

Patrik Jonsson is the Atlanta-based correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor. He writes about national affairs from a decidedly Dixie frame of mind.

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Death Valley is a seared moon landscape that periodically blooms with fields of wildflowers. A thermometer near Furnace Creek recorded a 134 degree day in o July 10, 1913, which remains the hottest recorded air temperature on planet earth.

As heat warnings reverberate on Saturday from Phoenix to Las Vegas and hospitals gear up for a spike in heat exhaustion victims and perhaps worse, weather watchers are watching to see whether this heat wave breaks any records.

The heat wave is "a huge one," National Weather Service specialist Stuart Seto said, according to the AP. "We haven't seen one like this for several years, probably the mid- to late 2000s."

Phoenix was forecast to hit nearly 120 on Saturday. The record in that part of the world, Arizona?s Valley of the Sun, is 122.

Energy-sapping heat is expected to spread across Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah, potentially to dangerous levels. Las Vegas may see 117 degrees this weekend, which would mark only the third time the Nevada gambling capital got so hot. An average of 658 Americans die from heat-related causes every year, far more than are hurt or killed by tornadoes.

"This is the hottest time of the year, but the temperatures that we'll be looking at for Friday through Sunday, they'll be toward the top," weather service meteorologist Mark O'Malley tells the AP. "It's going to be baking hot across much of the entire West."

Forecasters say the temperature in Death Valley, meanwhile, could inch to 130, at least close to one of the earth?s most extreme weather moments. The world in 1913 was far less polluted and industry, cars, and planes emitted a fraction of modern-day carbon emissions, which many earth scientists today blame for climate change.

At any rate, Death Valley has been pretty hot in recent years. On July 12, 2012, nighttime temperatures dropped to only 107 degrees after a 128 degree day, tying a world record for highest daily low temperature set a few days earlier in Oman. That same day, the 24-hour mean temperature in Death Valley clocked in at 117.5 degrees. That 24-hour period was the hottest in recorded world history.

A federally protected subtropical desert and once a supplier of gold, silver and borax, Death Valley has a unique mix of landscape and weather that create what Chris Carlson, an AP photographer, described as ?unrelenting heat so bad it makes my eyes hurt, as if someone is blowing a hair dryer in my face.?

As air rises from the near plant-less valley floor, it cools as it gains elevation, eventually dropping back to the valley floor again, denser than before. As superheated localized air masses thus circulate, Death Valley becomes a convection oven.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/JRlqxG3Olq8/Heat-wave-scorches-Death-Valley-America-s-hottest-of-the-hot

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China Copper prices may witness new lows in Q4 2013: Barclays

LONDON (Commodity Online): Copper prices in China may witness new lows in the fourth quarter of this year on rising copper mine supply, recent liquidity tightening and lower base metals consumption, stated London based Barclays in its recent market analysis.

?Our economists have cautioned that implementation of the new government?s agenda of no stimulus, deleveraging and structural reform means there is an increasing downside that China could experience a temporary hard landing in the next three years,? the bank noted.

In the first quarter of 2013, world copper consumption is estimated to have declined by around 5.3% compared with that in the same period of 2012, according to International Copper Study Group (ICSG). Chinese apparent demand declined by 10% owing to a 46% decline in net imports of refined copper.

Excluding China, year-on-year world copper usage declined by around 1.7%. On a regional basis, usage is estimated to have declined by 7.8% in Africa, 1.8% in the Americas, 7.6% in Asia, 0.2% in Europe, and 14.3% in Oceania.

World mine production is estimated to have increased by almost 11% in the first three months of 2013 year-on-year basis mainly owing to a recovery in production levels from constrained output in early 2012.

Meanwhile, according to ICSG projections for 2013, the global copper market is expected to have a production surplus relative to demand.

World production of refined copper is expected to exceed demand for refined copper by about 415,000 t, as demand will lag behind the growth in production. For 2014, although a recovery in usage is anticipated, a higher surplus is expected with increased output from new and existing mines.

Freeport McMoRan has restarted open pit production at its Grasberg mine in Indonesia, and the company expects underground mining to resume shortly. Furthermore, the labour contract negotiations have yet to be restarted, a process that poses a further risk of disruptions, according to Barclays view.

Source: http://www.commodityonline.com/news/china-copper-prices-may-witness-new-lows-in-q4-2013-barclays-55190-3-55191.html

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What's in a middle name? For Snowden, a flight out

HONG KONG (AP) ? Edward Snowden's bespectacled and goateed face was almost unavoidable in Hong Kong last week. It stared out from newsstands, banners and giant TV screens on shopping malls and office buildings after it became known that the admitted leaker of U.S. secrets was in town and in hiding.

Still, when the U.S. asked the semiautonomous Chinese city for Snowden's provisional arrest, its response was essentially this: Who exactly do you mean?

Justice Secretary Rimsky Yuen said Hong Kong officials weren't sure who to look for because the U.S. government got Snowden's middle name wrong in documents filed to back its arrest request.

He said Hong Kong immigration records listed Snowden's middle name as Joseph, but the U.S. government used the name James in some documents and referred to him only as Edward J. Snowden in others.

"These three names are not exactly the same. Therefore, we believed that there was a need to clarify," Yuen said Tuesday.

Yuen said U.S. authorities also failed to provide Snowden's passport number. He said officials received the arrest request on June 15 and sent a request June 21 for clarification. Two days later, Snowden flew to Moscow.

"Up until the moment of Snowden's departure, the very minute, the U.S. Department of Justice did not reply to our request for further information. Therefore, in our legal system, there is no legal basis for the requested provisional arrest warrant," Yuen said. In the absence of such a warrant, the "Hong Kong government has no legal basis for restricting or prohibiting Snowden leaving Hong Kong."

U.S. officials don't buy Hong Kong's explanation, and neither do some legal experts in the city.

"It's not like he's some mystery figure. He revealed himself on TV," said Hong Kong University law professor Simon Young. "The whole world knows what he looks like."

Young and Hong Kong-based extradition lawyer Michael Blanchflower said authorities are able to exercise their discretion and use other methods to identify fugitives, who often use aliases.

"It may be in some cases that the person's name or passport number are not known, but for instance you could have a physical description accompanied by a photograph," said Blanchflower.

The decision to let Snowden go has raised tensions between the U.S. and Hong Kong. U.S. officials suggested that Beijing had a hand in letting Snowden leave Hong Kong, a former British colony that is now a semiautonomous region with its own legal system. But Hong Kong leaders say they were following the city's rule of law in processing the U.S. request.

The U.S. Justice Department said the government gave Hong Kong all the information that was required under the terms of their extradition treaty.

"The fugitive's photos and videos were widely reported through multiple news outlets. That Hong Kong would ask for more information about his identity demonstrates that it was simply trying to create a pretext for not acting on the provisional arrest request," a spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the department.

"It wasn't a pretext at all," Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying said Thursday. "We were just following the laws of Hong Kong."

Young, who specializes in criminal law, said that because of the "political sensitivities" involved in the case, authorities did not rush the case and had taken extra care.

"I think that the Hong Kong government was insisting on a fairly high standard of completeness, and that, I assume, is their practice. They know that our courts will look at these things very closely and they don't take shortcuts," he said.

Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor and ex-CIA employee, disclosed the broad scope of two highly classified counterterror surveillance programs to two newspapers. The programs collect vast amounts of Americans' phone records and worldwide online data in the name of national security.

He was expected to seek asylum in Ecuador, but it's unclear where he was Thursday. Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week that Snowden was in the transit area of Moscow's main airport, but a horde of reporters have found no trace of him.

The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks says one of its staffers is with Snowden, and said Wednesday on Twitter that he is well.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/whats-middle-name-snowden-flight-104658339.html

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Major changes needed for coral reef survival

June 28, 2013 ? To prevent coral reefs around the world from dying off, deep cuts in carbon dioxide emissions are required, says a new study from Carnegie's Katharine Ricke and Ken Caldeira. They find that all existing coral reefs will be engulfed in inhospitable ocean chemistry conditions by the end of the century if civilization continues along its current emissions trajectory.

Their work will be published July 3 by Environmental Research Letters.

Coral reefs are havens for marine biodiversity and underpin the economies of many coastal communities. But they are very sensitive to changes in ocean chemistry resulting from greenhouse gas emissions, as well as to coastal pollution, warming waters, overdevelopment, and overfishing.

Ricke and Caldeira, along with colleagues from Institut Pierre Simon Laplace and Stanford University, focused on the acidification of open ocean water surrounding coral reefs and how it affects a reef's ability to survive.

Coral reefs use a mineral called aragonite to make their skeletons. It is a naturally occurring form of calcium carbonate, CaCO3. When carbon dioxide, CO2, from the atmosphere is absorbed by the ocean, it forms carbonic acid (the same thing that makes soda fizz), making the ocean more acidic and decreasing the ocean's pH. This increase in acidity makes it more difficult for many marine organisms to grow their shells and skeletons, and threatens coral reefs the world over.

Using results from simulations conducted using an ensemble of sophisticated models, Ricke, Caldeira, and their co-authors calculated ocean chemical conditions that would occur under different future scenarios and determined whether these chemical conditions could sustain coral reef growth.

Ricke said: "Our results show that if we continue on our current emissions path, by the end of the century there will be no water left in the ocean with the chemical properties that have supported coral reef growth in the past. We can't say with 100% certainty that all shallow-water coral reefs will die, but it is a pretty good bet."

Deep cuts in emissions are necessary in order to save even a fraction of existing reefs, according to the team's results. Chemical conditions that can support coral reef growth can be sustained only with very aggressive cuts in carbon dioxide emissions.

"To save coral reefs, we need to transform our energy system into one that does not use the atmosphere and oceans as waste dumps for carbon dioxide pollution. The decisions we make in the next years and decades are likely to determine whether or not coral reefs survive the rest of this century," Caldeira said.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/vYe4Rj2O_NE/130628131023.htm

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PFT: Cops search Hernandez's uncle house

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If the Ravens? qualification for Super Bowl XLVII dusted off long-forgotten memories of the alleged involvement of Ray Lewis in a double murder, the Aaron Hernandez situation has sandblasted them.? And with the Patriots dumping Hernandez the moment he was arrested in connection with the death of Odin Lloyd, the contrast between the respective approaches of the two franchises to situation involving murder became as sharp as possible.

While many believe the Patriots must have had access to inside information about the Hernandez investigation at the time he was cut, the more accurate assumption would be that the Patriots decided early in the process, without the benefit of any specific intelligence about the case, that no employee arrested in connection with a murder investigation is fit to remain employed by the team.

The Ravens came to the exact opposite conclusion.? The man who coached the team at the time, Brian Billick, recently compiled an exhaustive explanation of the team?s reasoning and approach to the Lewis situation.

Billick explains that the team?s decision to rally around Lewis arose from their faith in his ?overall innocence.?? In so doing, Billick implies that the Patriots had no faith in Hernandez?s innocence.

But Lewis was hardly ?innocent.?? Lewis wouldn?t have been arrested, charged, and prosecuted based on no evidence.? Prosecutors routinely walk away from trying to secure a conviction under the very high standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt if they believe that the evidence, while pointing to the defendant?s guilt, nevertheless creates an opening for an ?if it doesn?t fit, you must acquit? concoction of enough doubt to secure an acquittal.? Moreover, judges don?t allow cases to go to trial absent the existence of enough evidence to allow a reasonable jury to conclude that the high bar of proof beyond a reasonable doubt had been met.

For Ray Lewis, the prosecutor eventually decided to cut a deal, and Lewis decided not to tell the prosecutor to pound sand/salt/whatever and force the trial to a verdict.? This wasn?t a case where the charges were dropped with no strings attached.? Lewis pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in order to escape the far more serious charge of murder.

The Ravens had no qualms about welcoming back to the team without suspension or other punishment (other than the $250,000 fine imposed by the league) a man who pleaded guilty to obstructing justice in a murder case.? New England?s swift and decisive action regarding Hernandez this week amounts to a clear statement that, even if Hernandez had simply lied to the police or concealed evidence regarding a murder, any alleged wrongdoing regarding a murder provides enough reason to move on.

Right or wrong, the Ravens treated Ray Lewis far differently than the Patriots treated Hernandez.? And while it seems that Billick may be trying in artful fashion to soften some of the harsh, inescapable realities the Ray Lewis case, the fact remains that the Ravens had no qualms about embracing and defending a man who clearly had enough involvement to result in a judge allowing a murder trial to proceed, and in Lewis eventually entering a guilty plea for a crime related to the killings.? The Patriots, in contrast, opted to have no further involvement with anyone who had done anything, actually or allegedly, that would get him arrested in connection with the intentional death of another human.

For each organization, it sets a precedent that they surely hope they?ll never have to use in a similar case.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/06/27/police-search-hernandezs-uncles-house/related/

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Anonymous Wants to Ruin North Korea's Korean War Anniversary

In what looks like to be a digital recreation of the Korean War on the 63rd anniversary of the day it began, several key North Korean websites went dark on Tuesday, shortly after their South Korean counterparts went down. And, yes, this fascinating sequence of cyberattacks appears to be the work of the hacker collective Anonymous, which has got bigger plans in store for its threats against the North.?But this is a kind of dual attack from somewhere, or maybe two places:?News reports from the region this morning report sites in both countries getting taken out, like those for South Korea's prime minister and its presidential Blue House, plus multiple North Korean propaganda sites.

RELATED: Nobody's Seen Kim Jong Un Publicly for Two Weeks

But what matter here is sequence, as NK News's James Pearson points out:?"South Korean hackers working under the 'Anonymous' collective appear to have staged a modern-day reconstruction of events by first hacking South Korean websites, then 'counter-attacking' North Korean websites," Pearson writes. ?Back on June 25, 1950, North Korea crossed the 38th?parallel into South Korea and walloped their enemies ? hence the South Korean sites getting hacked first. But the South eventually pushed back with the help of American forces, representing the North Korean sites getting taken out (probably by Anonymous, even if the group wasn't responsible for today's first strike).?

RELATED: Looks Like Kim Jong-un Enjoyed His Rocket Launch

So what got taken out in Pyonyang??The Associated Press reports?that the Northern sites included "those belonging to the national airline, Air Koryo, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the North's official Uriminzokkiri site and Naenara, the country's state-run Internet portal." Uriminzokkiri, you may remember was the site that?published that video envisioning a U.S. city engulfed in flames?to the tune of "We Are the World." And Rodong Sinmun is one of the North's official papers, and has printed?some of the best pro-Kim Jong-un puffery that the propaganda state has ever seen.?

RELATED: North Korea Loses Its Communist Decor

While obviously unconfirmed, this elaborate web of cyber-attacks appears to be at least partially the work of Anonymous, which has been targeting the Kim regime and sites like Uriminzokkiri since at least April. So the end game is the end of that fake cyber-mirrored war, on the North: Today's acknowledged operation is dubbed #opNorthKorea,?which has been circulating social media for weeks now. A purported list of websites hacked under the #opNorthKorea hashtag appears here (and above), and hackers affiliated with Anonymous say claim to have?compromised 250+ government sites?with ultimate goals that?include a "ninja gateway" that would give North Koreans global Internet access?and the?publishing of North Korean military documents today at midnight local time.?"Your major missile documentation and residents, military documents show [sic?] down is already in progress,"?reads the official warning from Anonymous. "We are partially sharing this information with the world."?

RELATED: Kim Jong Un Runs North Korea on the Cheap

June 25 in?North Korea isn't just the anniversary of the Korean War, it's also a super-special kind of we-really-hate-America day. On the state-run?Korean Central News Agency website, which is running pretty slowly?this morning, the propagandists are running stories with headlines like the "U.S., the Provoker of the Korean War"?and "DPRK History Society Brands U.S. Provoker of Korean War."?So, yes, there would be something deeply poetic about North Korea being fully embarrassed today.?

RELATED: Yes, Kim Jong-Un Is Married, But What About That New Amusement Park?

But it's closing in on June 26 in North Korea and the promised cache of military documents still hasn't made an appearance, though according to Hackers News Bulletin, a full leak may appear on WikiLeaks.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/anonymous-wants-ruin-north-koreas-korean-war-anniversary-131055882.html

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HBT: Dickey shuts out Rays in just over 2 hours

Well, technically, it was 2 hours and 10 minutes. Still, it was a breeze.

Toronto?s R.A. Dickey, finally throwing his knuckler with authority again, pitched a two-hitter Wednesday against the Rays for his first shutout and complete game of the season. Dickey entered with a 5.15 ERA in 16 starts. He had three shutouts and five complete games while winning NL Cy Young honors last season.

Largely due to a back injury, Dickey hasn?t been throwing his knuckleball as hard this year as he was previously. Today, though, he was often hitting 77-78 mph on the gun with the pitch, which is about what he averaged last year. And he was still getting great movement, obviously. He ended up striking out six and walking one.

Dickey threw just 93 pitches on the day, the second lowest total in a complete-game this season. The Nationals? Jordan Zimmermann threw 91 pitches in his one-hit shutout against the Reds on April 26.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/06/26/r-a-dickey-shuts-out-rays-in-no-time-flat/related/

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94% Room 237

All Critics (119) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (112) | Rotten (7) | DVD (1)

A curious and entertaining documentary.

The human brain is a marvellously suggestible organ.

[A] strange, frustrating, occasionally fascinating doc ...

"Room 237" evolves from an ode to movie love at its most delirious to a wry examination of the crackpot mind at work.

There's enough real evidence supporting the theory that Kubrick was a genius, and that's pretty entertaining all by itself.

It's about the human need for stuff to make sense - especially overpowering emotional experiences - and the tendency for some people to take that sense-making to extremes.

An intellectual exercise, and an entertaining one, especially for those who don't want to label The Shining as just a ghost story.

It has the same entertainment value as listening to a late-night radio host indulge his listeners on Roswell, Area 51 and 9/11. Everything sounds completely crackers, until it all makes crazy sense.

What emerges from Room 237 is not a denigration of conspiracies, but a kind of celebration of our ability to create patterns where (perhaps) none exist.

"Room 237" could become an essential companion piece to "The Shining" from now on. For those who see both, it will be impossible to think about one without the other.

...all about the work of criticism - finding fresh avenues of delight.

Watching it makes you feel like you're attending a really entertaining film class where your classmates confidently let their freak flags fly.

It's an essay about the human need to reject the notion of a random universe and find order and meaning in existence. These people are developing their own creation myths, with Kubrick the mastermind responsible for the Intelligent Design.

Termitic film nerds could chow down for years on the wood chips.

You know when "Room 237? starts getting really scary? When the people in the film start making sense.

Kubrick fans and movie geeks will want to check this film out as soon as possible

Kubrick fans will take 'Shining' to 'Room 237.'

The credibility of these theories ranges from faintly plausible to frankly ridiculous, but Ascher isn't interested in judging them; his movie is more about the joys of deconstruction and the special kind of obsession that movies can inspire.

Some of the interpretations seem more of a stretch than others but all are entertainingly presented by director Rodney Ascher. (The movie) serves as a testament to Stanley Kubrick's cinematic mastery.

As fascinating as it is frustrating

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/room_237_2012/

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Pleasure response from chocolate: You can see it in the eyes

June 24, 2013 ? The brain's pleasure response to tasting food can be measured through the eyes using a common, low-cost ophthalmological tool, according to a study just published in the journal Obesity. If validated, this method could be useful for research and clinical applications in food addiction and obesity prevention.

Dr. Jennifer Nasser, an associate professor in the department of Nutrition Sciences in Drexel University's College of Nursing and Health Professions, led the study testing the use of electroretinography (ERG) to indicate increases in the neurotransmitter dopamine in the retina.

Dopamine is associated with a variety of pleasure-related effects in the brain, including the expectation of reward. In the eye's retina, dopamine is released when the optical nerve activates in response to light exposure.

Nasser and her colleagues found that electrical signals in the retina spiked high in response to a flash of light when a food stimulus (a small piece of chocolate brownie) was placed in participants' mouths. The increase was as great as that seen when participants had received the stimulant drug methylphenidate to induce a strong dopamine response. These responses in the presence of food and drug stimuli were each significantly greater than the response to light when participants ingested a control substance, water.

"What makes this so exciting is that the eye's dopamine system was considered separate from the rest of the brain's dopamine system," Nasser said. "So most people- and indeed many retinography experts told me this- would say that tasting a food that stimulates the brain's dopamine system wouldn't have an effect on the eye's dopamine system."

This study was a small-scale demonstration of the concept, with only nine participants. Most participants were overweight but none had eating disorders. All fasted for four hours before testing with the food stimulus.

If this technique is validated through additional and larger studies, Nasser said she and other researchers can use ERG for studies of food addiction and food science.

"My research takes a pharmacology approach to the brain's response to food," Nasser said. "Food is both a nutrient delivery system and a pleasure delivery system, and a 'side effect' is excess calories. I want to maximize the pleasure and nutritional value of food but minimize the side effects. We need more user-friendly tools to do that."

The low cost and ease of performing electroretinography make it an appealing method, according to Nasser. The Medicare reimbursement cost for clinical use of ERG is about $150 per session, and each session generates 200 scans in just two minutes. Procedures to measure dopamine responses directly from the brain are more expensive and invasive. For example, PET scanning costs about $2,000 per session and takes more than an hour to generate a scan.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/sP3xYVux-9w/130624111014.htm

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Military Buildup s Environmental Takedown

By: Juliana Duran

Map of Guam, an unincorporated territory of the United States. Green portions of the map represent the military bases. With added military personnel, infrastructure issues will be magnified. Photo Credit: http://www.public.navy.mil/fcc-c10f/nctsguam/PublishingImages/Guam_Map.bmp

Guam, a US territory, is an island that is no stranger to war or military presence. It first came under US control after the Spanish-American war. However, during WWII, after Pearl Harbor was bombed, the Japanese invaded and occupied Guam.? Ultimately, American forces retook the island, and following the war Guam was once again under US control and became a territory. Since then, the US military has been present on the island (CSIS 2012). The military has been a large part of Guam?s recent history, and it continues to drive much of the decision making in the Guamanian government. Currently the Navy, Army and the Air Force each have forces on the island and all are expected to increase greatly in the next seven years.

In 2006 a policy decision dictated that 8,000 US troops would move from Japan to a new site to decrease the military footprint on Okinawa and Japan. Guam was chosen as one of the sites of relocation with 5,000 troops and 1,300 dependents scheduled to make the move (McAvoy 2010). However, there are those that feel that the small island is ill equipped to handle the influx of new residents. Due to aging infrastructure, the military buildup will greatly effect Guam?s environment and impact its people if nothing is done to mitigate this problem.

In 2010 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reviewed the military?s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). They found the DEIS to be unsatisfactory and recommended many changes (EPA 2010).

It is projected that by 2015, approximately 79,000 more people will move to Guam. ? Many of these new residents will be construction workers sent to work on military buildup projects. With the population of the island at 180,000 residents, that is an increase of approximately 44% (McAvoy 2010). The large immigration of people will have a huge impact on the island?s water supply, creating an estimated shortage of at least six million gallons per day. Even if the Department of Defense is able to drill 16 new wells to improve the water supply, there may still be a shortage of fresh water. However, because of the lack of funding this increase in new wells seems improbable, and the shortage will most likely reach 13 million gallons per day, which can lead to some serious health and environmental problems for the small island.? The shortage will decrease the water pressure on the island, which can cause sewage and storm water to seep into the drinking water. Drinking water contamination can cause water borne diseases, which will affect the lower income communities the most. Water shortage will also decrease the ability of fire fighters to put out fires, putting the safety of Guam?s residents at risk. In order to ensure the safety of Guam?s residents and the future military personnel, the infrastructure on the island needs to be updated drastically and the Department of Defense must take measures to do so (EPA 2010).

Construction near Apra Harbor, Guam. Construction threatens the diverse marine species that live in the harbor as well as creates more waste that has no place to be treated or disposed of. Photo credit: Laurie Raymundo http://www.wri.org/publication/reefs-at-risk-revisited/stories/guam

Wastewater is also a major issue as the infrastructure of Guam continues to deteriorate. The disposal of non-potable water can be an expensive and complex issue in most communities.? In a small space like Guam this problem is compounded by the red tape caused by government bureaucracy.

The EPA states that the Department of Defense (DoD) is directly responsible for the water supply in Guam, and it is responsible for providing the resources and support to address the water shortages. The EPA recommends that the plans for the improvements begin immediately because the influx of people will come as soon as construction begins. However, these recommendations were written three years ago in 2010, and no work to improve the water and sewage systems has been undertaken. Water structures required for an adequate system include wells, storage tanks, treatment facilities, and other facilities none of which have been built. Although the EPA not only commented on the DoD?s DEIS but also gave clear and specific suggestions, the DoD and Congress have failed to implement any of the EPA?s recommendations.

Along with most of the other aging infrastructure in Guam, transportation infrastructure is also in great need of updating. The problem is so apparent that the Department of Defense was forced to add a section in the DEIS specifically addressing off-base road projects. The report, however, is not specific and only includes general descriptions of the projects. The EPA suggests that the DoD better describe the specific construction activities necessary, including the equipment needed and the impact that the building projects will have on the environment. One of the more important suggestions that the EPA gives is to specifically analyze the resource information of each of the 58 sites. It is particularly important to analyze sites close to busy places like schools and hospitals, because the roads in those areas will have higher traffic. Analysis of the sites closer to sensitive biological spots such as wetlands and habitat areas are extremely important because the EPA and other agencies do not want the military construction to have a negative impact on the environment. The EPA also recommends that analysis be done in areas that are not affected by the construction directly but may be affected indirectly such as areas downstream of construction (EPA 2010).

With the additional military construction and presence there will also be additional waste created on Guam, 16,000 lbs. of which would be hazardous. Hazardous waste disposal will be an increasing problem as the island runs out of storage and no longer has an adequate way of handling and storing hazardous waste. The DEIS is not specific regarding the disposal and treatment of hazardous waste and the EPA recommends that the DEIS should include the types and quantity of the waste as well as the plan for the construction of the facilities required for hazardous waste management. One serious type of hazardous material that is already found in buildings in Guam is polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs. Because PCBs were in the paint and caulk used to build some of the buildings in Guam, many of these buildings that are over the limit set by the Toxic Substances Control Act and must be tested and demolished. Although this is a major infrastructure problem that needs addressing the DEIS does not deal with this issue (EPA 2010).

Unfortunately it appears as though congress has no plans to fund these infrastructure updates in the near future even though they are going through with the military relocation. It appears Senator John McCain is taking the lead in opposing the funding.? On March 14, 2013, Senator McCain proposed an amendment to the Consolidated and Continuing Approbations Act, which eliminated $120 million for the Guam civilian infrastructure projects. Unfortunately the amendment was passed by a voice vote much to the dismay of Guam delegate Madeleine Bordallo. She said she was ?appalled that Senator McCain continues to use funding for Guam projects as an example of ?pork barrel? spending?he dismissed water and wastewater improvements, which are already overburdened by our island?s existing civilian and military populations, as egregious and unnecessary.? Though disappointed, Bordallo plans to continue the struggle to secure this money in the next fiscal year (Losinio 2013).

Senator McCain cited budgetary pressures for the reason to cut the spending even though a Representative from his own state just proposed a bill that would approbate $200 million in the next fiscal year for technology in Arizona, an item that can easily be called ?pork barrel? spending. During the proceedings on the Senate floor, McCain brought up the military spending that President Obama cut. He used facts and data to explain just how inadequate the Department of Defense budget would be, including talking about how the so called ?pork-barrel? spending would effect each branch of the military. He compares the protectors of our country to the civilians of the territory, stating that money for infrastructure repair is not nearly important as other military projects. McCain says that it is premature to invest in civilian infrastructure for Guam because the operation has not yet been decided (McCain 2013). However, Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander of the US Pacific Command, gave a date for the transfer of troops. 5,000 troops and 1,300 dependents are set to move in 2020, and although McCain believes that we cannot spend money on infrastructure until all the details of the move are known, many environmentalist including the EPA know that is not the best move. They suggest that because basic infrastructure on the island is already outdated, Guam cannot wait until the military overburdens it to build new structures.

In a turn of events, North Korea nullified the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953. The country has increasingly become more hostile, which has made the United States military in the South Pacific become increasingly more important. The United States believes that this region of the world has become unstable with the abolishment of the armistice, so it is important for the US troops to be prepared. On March 21, 2013 North Korea threatened the US military stations on Japan as well as specifically mentioning the Andersen Air Force Base on Guam (Sang-Hung, Erlinger 2013). The Department of Defense assured Guam that they had missiles to combat anything North Korea would strike with. With this new development in North Korea?s action, the US will likely look to strengthen the forces in Guam and to give more attention to the infrastructure problems.

As the Federal government continues to use an island strategically placed in the Pacific Ocean as a military base and a deterrent to the hostile governments of the region, it does so without consideration for the environmental and sociological impacts on the island and the people that inhabit it.? This seems un-American since these people never invited the United States to use it as a fortress in the first place and they are in fact now American citizens.?? If the United States plans to use Guam as it has in the past, it should secure its future by providing appropriate funding and resources to ensure that the infrastructure will be in place to give the people of Guam the quality of life they deserve.? The environmental and human implications are too serious to leave to political in fighting between a candidate that ran for President and lost.? If Senator McCain is in fact the advocate for the military that he claims to be, he should step forward and be the champion for ensuring that Guam can continue to support the presence of the military for many years to come.

AUTHOR BIO: Juliana Duran is a sophomore in the Dornsife College of Arts and Letters majoring in Environmental Studies. She wishes to incorporate environmental science into the business world and ultimately open up a green business. She hopes this course will aid her in understanding other aspects of the environmental field.

Works Cited:

Losinio, Louella. ?US Senate Adopts McCain Amendment, Cuts Guam Funding.? Marianas Variety. 17 Mar. 2013. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.

McAvoy, Audrey. ?EPA Sharply Criticizes Military?s Guam Plan, Cites Water and Sewage Problems.? Los Angeles Times [Los Angles] 23 Feb. 2010. Print.

McCain, John. ?McCain Amendment: How It Went Down on the Senate Floor.? Http://www.pacificnewscenter.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=32391:mccain&catid=45:guam-news&Itemid=156. 15 Mar. 2013. Accessed 20 Mar. 2013.

Sang-Hung, Chloe, and Steven Erlanger. ?North Korea Threatens US Military Bases in Pacific.? New York Times. 21 Mar. 2013. Accessed 22 Mar. 2013.

Editor?s note: Scientific Research Diving at USC Dornsife is offered as part of an experiential summer program offered to undergraduate students of the USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences through the Environmental Studies Program.?? This course takes place on location at the USC Wrigley Marine Science Center on Catalina Island and throughout Micronesia. Students investigate important environmental issues such as ecologically sustainable development, fisheries management, protected-area planning and assessment, and human health issues. During the course of the program, the student team will dive and collect data to support conservation and management strategies to protect the fragile coral reefs of Guam and Palau in Micronesia.

Instructors for the course include Jim Haw, Director of the Environmental Studies Program in USC Dornsife, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies David Ginsburg, Lecturer Kristen Weiss, SCUBA instructor and volunteer in the USC Scientific Diving Program Tom Carr and USC Dive Safety Officer Gerry Smith of the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies.

Previously in this series:

The 2013 Guam and Palau Expedition Begins
A New Faculty Member on the Team
An Analysis of Sargassum Horneri Ecosystem Impact
Marine Protected Areas and Catalina Island: Conserve, Maintain and Enrich
Northern Elephant Seals: Increasing Population, Decreasing Biodiversity
The Relationship Between the Economy and Tourism on Catalina Island
Guam and Palau 2013: New Recruits and New Experiences
Bringing War to the ?Island of Peace? ? The Fight for the Preservation of Jeju-do
Dreading the Dredging: Military Buildup on Guam and Implications for Marine Biodiversity in Apra Harbor
Is the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Doing Enough?
The Status of Fisheries in China: How deep will we have to dive to find the truth?
The Philippines and Spratly Islands: A Losing Battle
The Effects of Climate Change on Coral Reef Health
The Senkaku/Diaoyu Island Dispute in the East China Sea
The UNESCO World Heritage Site Selection Process
Before and After the Storm: The Impacts of Typhoon Bopha on Palauan Reefs
An interconnected environment and economy- Shark tourism in Palau
A Persistent Case of Diabetes Mellitus in Guam
Homo Denisova and Homo Floresiensis in Asia and the South Pacific
Investigating the Effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas in Mexico Using Actam Chuleb as a Primary Example
Okinawa and the U.S. military, post 1945
Offshore Energy Acquisition in the Western Pacific: The Decline of the World?s Most Abundant Fisheries

Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=military-buildups-environmental-takedown

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Can An Old Massachusetts Fishing Port Light The World Again?

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick joined state officials, clean energy advocates and union representatives to break ground for the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal.

Jesse Costa/WBUR

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick joined state officials, clean energy advocates and union representatives to break ground for the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal.

Jesse Costa/WBUR

A shabby old fishing port on the South Coast of Massachusetts was once known as the City That Lit the World. Its whale oil powered candles and lamps around the country.

Now, the city is trying to rekindle that flame with an alternative form of energy: offshore wind.

A Distant History Of Wealth

New Bedford's glory days are long gone. The city suffers from a long list of woes ? high crime, persistent unemployment and poor public schools.

For generations, the sea was New Bedford's lifeblood. Now, the water is still there, but the wealth is gone.

You can see just a glimmer of New Bedford's old opulence shining through its cobblestone streets and the whaling captains' old mansions.

"On the eve of the Civil War, New Bedford was the wealthiest city per capita in the United States," says Mayor Jon Mitchell. "New Bedford was to whaling what Detroit was to automobiles."

Striving For New Opportunities

On a chilly May morning, Mitchell joined state officials and local union representatives to break ground on the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal.

The port is being described as the first of its kind in the country ? big enough to transport wind blades the length of a football field. Locals hope it will serve as the hub for the offshore wind industry and bring in jobs. New Bedford's current employment rate is among the worst in the state.

The Energy Department estimates that if the U.S. takes advantage of its wind potential by 2030, some 20,000 jobs could sprout up around the offshore wind industry.

A quarter of the nation's wind reserves lie just south of Martha's Vineyard, and New Bedford is the closest deep-water port. Mitchell says his city is sitting on the Saudi Arabia of wind.

"New Bedford is the biggest commercial fishing port in America," says Mitchell. "We know what we're doing out on the water."

Contagious Optimism

The mayor's optimism is rubbing off on Justin Silvia, who wakes up at 3:30 am to drive more than an hour to get to his job as a heavy equipment operator. He says he would love to find work closer to home so he could spend time with his three kids. He's trying to land himself a job on this port project.

"There's definitely a big buzz in the area as far as how many jobs it's going to create. I mean, the main focus is get as many New Bedford unemployed workers that are capable and trained properly," he says.

New Bedford is already working with Bristol Community College to secure grants that will train displaced workers.

Skepticism Remains ? On The Water And Off

But not all of the folks on the water think offshore wind is the solution to all the city's troubles. Fishermen have been struggling to find work in recent years as the government declared certain waters off limits.

Tony Alvernaz is a fisherman in New Bedford. He wonders how fishermen will be able to navigate around giant wind turbines to find healthy fish.

"New Bedford has been a seafaring city for how many years, how many centuries? And so let's do away with that; let's bring on the wind farm. Is that the answer? I don't think so," he says.

Matt Kaplan, a wind analyst for IHS Emerging Energy Research in Cambridge, says it's a big bet. "Offshore wind will have to be tied to creating jobs in order to really be successful here because of the premium cost."

Kaplan says the problem is that no matter how strong the wind gusts blow, local utility companies have to be willing to pay a premium for pricey offshore wind energy. For now, there are federal subsidies that help nudge development along, but there is no guarantee that the government's helping hand will always be there.

Still, Kaplan said it helps that New Bedford is first in designing an offshore wind-friendly port.

"But whether that's going to make New Bedford the one-stop shop moving forward forever, for being the only port for offshore wind, I think it's a really tough call just because of the need to really create local jobs in each state that has one of these projects," Kaplan says.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/06/24/190687185/can-an-old-massachusetts-fishing-port-light-the-world-again?ft=1&f=1007

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Studies find methane in Pa. drinking water

FILE - In this file photo from Oct. 14, 2011, a drilling rig is seen in Springville, Pa. State regulators blamed faulty gas wells drilled for leaking methane into the groundwater in nearby Dimock, Pa. It was the first serious case of methane migration said to be related to the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale gas field drilling boom. New research in this area of Pennsylvania demonstrates that it's hard to nail down how often natural gas drilling is contaminating drinking water. One study found high levels of methane in some water wells within a half-mile of gas wells, while another found some serious methane pollution occurring naturally, far away from drilling. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, FILE)

FILE - In this file photo from Oct. 14, 2011, a drilling rig is seen in Springville, Pa. State regulators blamed faulty gas wells drilled for leaking methane into the groundwater in nearby Dimock, Pa. It was the first serious case of methane migration said to be related to the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale gas field drilling boom. New research in this area of Pennsylvania demonstrates that it's hard to nail down how often natural gas drilling is contaminating drinking water. One study found high levels of methane in some water wells within a half-mile of gas wells, while another found some serious methane pollution occurring naturally, far away from drilling. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, FILE)

PITTSBURGH (AP) ? New research in Pennsylvania demonstrates that it's hard to nail down how often natural gas drilling is contaminating drinking water: One study found high levels of methane in some water wells within a half-mile of gas wells, while another found some serious methane pollution occurring naturally, far away from drilling.

The findings represent a middle ground between critics of the drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing who claim it causes widespread contamination, and an industry that suggests they are rare or nonexistent.

The contamination from drilling is "not an epidemic. It's a minority of cases," said Rob Jackson, a Duke University researcher and co-author of the study released Monday. But he added the team found that serious contamination from bubbly methane is "much more" prevalent in some water wells within 1 kilometer of gas drilling sites.

Methane is an odorless gas that is not known to be toxic, but in high concentrations it can be explosive and deadly.

The Duke paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is an expansion of a 2011 study that attracted widespread attention for its finding that drilling was polluting some water wells with methane. The new study includes results from 141 northeastern Pennsylvania water wells. It found methane levels were an average of six times higher in the water wells closer to drilling sites, compared with those farther away. Ethane, another component of natural gas, was 23 times higher in the homes closer to drilling.

Some of the methane was at dangerous levels. The study found 12 homes with levels above the recommended federal limit of 28 milligrams per liter, and 11 of those water wells were closer to gas drilling sites. Jackson said the researchers believe that faulty drilling can cause methane pollution, but that natural causes can, too. Eighty percent of all the water wells they tested contained some level of methane, including many with no nearby drilling.

In 2011, Pennsylvania strengthened rules for the steel casing and cement around the top of a gas well that are meant to protect water supplies from contamination, but some older wells weren't drilled to those standards.

There was some good news, Jackson said: The Duke researchers haven't found any evidence that chemicals from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have contaminated water wells.

"We're not seeing the things that people are most afraid of," Jackson said, referring to the chemicals used in fracking.

The research is important because gas drilling has recently boomed in large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia and is being closely studied by officials in New York, where there's a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing for gas.

To get at the natural gas trapped deep underground, drillers crack open rock with a high-pressure mix of water, fine sand and chemicals pumped into wells. The industry has brought a windfall of royalties and jobs to some communities, but also concerns about air and water contamination.

The situation is complicated because Pennsylvania has many layers of oil, gas, and coal-bearing rock as well as natural faults. All those can enable gas to seep naturally into water wells, even in areas without drilling.

One researcher who now consults for oil and gas companies and other clients questioned some of the Duke findings.

Fred Baldassare, who worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for 25 years, said the study doesn't present an accurate picture of the whole state because the Duke team went to areas where residents had complained about drilling contamination, rather than doing a random sample. Baldassare runs a research company called Eschelon Applied Geosciences.

Baldassare said that overall the Duke researchers "make a case for stray gas migration caused by gas well drilling activity."

The second water study was published online last week by the U.S. Geological Survey. It found that some Pennsylvania water wells in areas with no nearby drilling are naturally contaminated with high levels of methane. It also found that 85 percent of the samples had radon levels higher than federal safe limits.

One well sample, taken at a hunting club, had such high natural methane levels, it could have been flammable, said hydrologist Ronald Sloto.

"They knew they had a major water quality problem, they didn't know what it was," Sloto said.

The USGS took samples from 20 wells in Sullivan County, in northeastern Pennsylvania, in order to establish a pre-drilling baseline for water quality.

Sloto said his study and the Duke paper confirm that pre-drilling water testing is an absolute necessity for homeowners.

"Once you have drilling you can't get a baseline, it's too late" to determine if drilling caused water problems or if they were already there naturally, Sloto said.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group, had no direct comment on the Duke findings.

"Private water well quality and construction, as well as methane migration, is a longstanding public health issue in Pennsylvania, dating back decades," CEO Kathryn Klaber said in an email.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-06-24-Gas%20Drilling-Water/id-49a2c41e6841403a8e167b1e66bd9540

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Dear Lillie: Final Tour of our Townhome

Well, seeing how we spent the weekend moving out of our townhouse and tomorrow morning (Monday) will be moving into our new home I thought it would be a fitting time to give a final tour of our old home. When you first walked through our front door we had this tiny little space that kind of functioned as our entry area.

Directly next to the bench was our staicase. You can see the before here and how we very inexpensively made the frames here.


I am going to share a lot more living room photos this week as part of the One Room, Three Ways Series so for today will just share one and will come back and update it and add more once I post them. But this is how it last looked:

And here were the last photos I took of the dining room (although I ended up putting the chairs back in the family room):

And the ever-changing dining room chalkboard:

The dining room lead into the kitchen:

And the kitchen opens up to the family room:

And off the kitchen/family room is the back porch:

?When you head upstairs the first bedroom was Lillie's (and recently it became Lola's too once she moved into a "big girl bed").

And then there's Lola's room:

And lastly our room:

Well, that's it! We have made so many memories in this home and it is the only place Lillie and Lola have ever lived so it was sad to say good-bye to it but we are so excited about this next chapter in our lives!

***If you have any questions about where an item is from, paint colors or how something was made be sure to click here for our "Our Home" page that has all sorts of details,? here for our "Tutorials" page, or here for our "FAQ's" page. We don't have our internet hooked up yet at our new house so I will probably get pretty behind on responding to comments.

I'll be back Tuesday Morning with Day 1 of the my One Room, Three Ways!

Source: http://dearlillieblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/final-tour-of-our-townhome.html

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WikiLeaks: Snowden going to Ecuador to seek asylum

A TV screen shows a news report of Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, at a shopping mall in Hong Kong Sunday, June 23, 2013. The former National Security Agency contractor wanted by the United States for revealing two highly classified surveillance programs has been allowed to leave for a "third country" because a U.S. extradition request did not fully comply with Hong Kong law, the territory's government said Sunday. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

A TV screen shows a news report of Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, at a shopping mall in Hong Kong Sunday, June 23, 2013. The former National Security Agency contractor wanted by the United States for revealing two highly classified surveillance programs has been allowed to leave for a "third country" because a U.S. extradition request did not fully comply with Hong Kong law, the territory's government said Sunday. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Graphic shows key locations in the life and career of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden; 3c x 5 inches; 146 mm x 127 mm;

Journalists show passengers arriving from Hong Kong a tablet with a photo of Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, at Sheremetyevo airport, just outside Moscow, Russia, Sunday, June 23, 2013. The former National Security Agency contractor wanted by the United States for revealing two highly classified surveillance programs has been allowed to leave for a "third country" because a U.S. extradition request did not fully comply with Hong Kong law, the territory's government said Sunday. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

FILE - In this ?ug. 1, 2012 file photo, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, right, holds the hands of Christine Assange, the mother of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, during their meeting in Quito, Ecuador. Correa has embraced his role as a thorn in the side of Washington before, railing against imperialism in speeches and giving Julian Assange refuge in his embassy in London. But nothing he has done to infuriate the United States likely would rankle as much as granting the asylum being sought by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. WikiLeaks said Sunday, June 23, 2013 that Snowden formally requested asylum from Ecuador and the South American country's foreign minister confirmed receiving the request. The woman at center is a translator. (AP Photo/Martin Jaramillo, File)

FILE - In this June 21, 2013 file photo, a banner supporting Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, is displayed at Central, Hong Kong's business district. The Hong Kong government says Snowden wanted by the U.S. for revealing two highly classified surveillance programs has left for a "third country." The South China Morning Post reported Sunday, June 23, 2013 that Snowden was on a plane for Moscow, but that Russia was not his final destination. Snowden has talked of seeking asylum in Iceland. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Admitted leaker Edward Snowden took flight Sunday in evasion of U.S. authorities, seeking asylum in Ecuador and leaving the Obama administration scrambling to determine its next step in what became a game of diplomatic cat-and-mouse.

The former National Security Agency contractor and CIA technician fled Hong Kong and arrived at the Moscow airport, where he planned to spend the night before boarding an Aeroflot flight to Cuba. Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said his government received an asylum request from Snowden, and the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said it would help him.

"He goes to the very countries that have, at best, very tense relationships with the United States," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., adding that she feared Snowden would trade more U.S. secrets for asylum. "This is not going to play out well for the national security interests of the United States."

The move left the U.S. with limited options as Snowden's itinerary took him on a tour of what many see as anti-American capitals. Ecuador in particular has rejected the United States' previous efforts at cooperation, and has been helping WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, avoid prosecution by allowing him to stay at its embassy in London.

Snowden gave The Guardian and The Washington Post documents disclosing U.S. surveillance programs that collect vast amounts of phone records and online data in the name of foreign intelligence, but often sweep up information on American citizens. Officials have the ability to collect phone and Internet information broadly but need a warrant to examine specific cases where they believe terrorism is involved.

Snowden had been in hiding for several weeks in Hong Kong, a former British colony with a high degree of autonomy from mainland China. The United States formally sought Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong but was rebuffed; Hong Kong officials said the U.S. request did not fully comply with their laws.

The Justice Department rejected that claim, saying its request met all of the requirements of the extradition treaty between the U.S. and Hong Kong.

During conversations last week, including a phone call Wednesday between Attorney General Eric Holder and Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen, Hong Kong officials never raised any issues regarding sufficiency of the U.S. request, a Justice spokesperson said.

A State Department official said the United States was in touch through diplomatic and law enforcement channels with countries that Snowden could travel through or to, reminding them that Snowden is wanted on criminal charges and reiterating Washington's position that Snowden should only be permitted to travel back to the U.S.

Those officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case.

The Justice Department said it would "pursue relevant law enforcement cooperation with other countries where Mr. Snowden may be attempting to travel."

The White House would only say that President Barack Obama had been briefed on the developments by his national security advisers.

Russia's state ITAR-Tass news agency and Interfax cited an unnamed Aeroflot airline official as saying Snowden was on the plane that landed Sunday afternoon in Moscow.

Upon his arrival, Snowden did not leave Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. One explanation could be that he wasn't allowed; a U.S. official said Snowden's passport had been revoked, and special permission from Russian authorities would have been needed.

"It's almost hopeless unless we find some ways to lean on them," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.

The Russian media report said Snowden intended to fly to Cuba on Monday and then on to Caracas, Venezuela.

U.S. lawmakers scoffed. "The freedom trail is not exactly China-Russia-Cuba-Venezuela, so I hope we'll chase him to the ends of the earth, bring him to justice and let the Russians know there'll be consequences if they harbor this guy," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

With each suspected flight, efforts to secure Snowden's return to the United States appeared more complicated if not impossible. The United States does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, but does with Cuba, Venezuela and Ecuador. Even with an extradition agreement though, any country could give Snowden a political exemption.

The likelihood that any of these countries would stop Snowden from traveling on to Ecuador seemed remote. While diplomatic tensions have thawed in recent years, Cuba and the United States are hardly allies after a half century of distrust.

Venezuela, too, could prove difficult. Former President Hugo Chavez was a sworn enemy of the United States and his successor, Nicolas Maduro, earlier this year called Obama "grand chief of devils." The two countries do not exchange ambassadors.

U.S. pressure on Caracas also might be problematic given its energy exports. The U.S. Energy Information Agency reports Venezuela sent the United States 900,000 barrels of crude oil each day in 2012, making it the fourth-largest foreign source of U.S. oil.

"I think 10 percent of Snowden's issues are now legal, and 90 percent political," said Douglas McNabb, an expert in international extradition and a senior principal at international criminal defense firm McNabb Associates.

Assange's lawyer, Michael Ratner, said Snowden's options aren't numerous.

"You have to have a country that's going to stand up to the United States," Ratner said. "You're not talking about a huge range of countries here."

That is perhaps why Snowden first stopped in Russia, a nation with complicated relations with Washington.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is "aiding and abetting Snowden's escape," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

"Allies are supposed to treat each other in decent ways, and Putin always seems almost eager to put a finger in the eye of the United States," Schumer said. "That's not how allies should treat one another, and I think it will have serious consequences for the United States-Russia relationship."

It also wasn't clear Snowden was finished with disclosing highly classified information.

"I am very worried about what else he has," said Rep. Loretta Sanchez, a California Democrat who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she had been told Snowden had perhaps more than 200 sensitive documents.

Ros-Lehtinen and King spoke with CNN. Graham spoke to "Fox News Sunday." Schumer was on CNN's "State of the Union." Sanchez appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press." Feinstein was on CBS' "Face the Nation."

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Associated Press White House Correspondent Julie Pace and Associated Press writers Matthew V. Lee and Frederic J. Frommer in Washington, Lynn Berry in Moscow, Kevin Chan in Hong Kong and Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this report.

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Follow Philip Elliott on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/philip_elliott

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-23-NSA-Surveillance-Snowden/id-9d3ce0860ece48a1a22edd240e0e58a4

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