Bloomberg, mayor group to push gun control

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a staunch advocate of tougher gun control laws, will bankroll a $12 million national advertising campaign aimed at key members in the U.S. Senate, the mayor said in an interview with The New York Times published on Saturday.

The commercials to be run by Mayors Against Illegal Guns feature a hunter with a rifle, vowing to protect the right to bear arms and voicing support for comprehensive background checks "so criminals and the dangerously mentally ill can't buy guns."

The advertising campaign will run in 13 states to target specific members of the U.S. Senate during the upcoming Congressional recess, according to the organization, of which Bloomberg is a co-chairman.

Bloomberg, who leaves office in January after three terms as Mayor of New York, has championed gun control and been particularly outspoken since a gunman killed 20 students and six adults at a Newtown, Connecticut elementary school in December.

Last week, he appeared at City Hall with parents of some of the Newtown victims and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who is spearheading the Obama administration's efforts to curb gun violence.

The Times said Bloomberg, a self-made billionaire, would bankroll the ad campaign. A spokesman for the mayor could not be immediately reached to comment.

The ad campaign marks a push back against the National Rifle Association, the mayor said in the Times interview. "The N.R.A. has just had this field to itself," Bloomberg said. "It's the only one that's been speaking out. It's time for another voice."

The Senate is set to begin considering gun legislation when Congress returns from its Easter recess in the second week of April.

"These ads bring the voices of Americans - who overwhelmingly support comprehensive and enforceable background checks - into the discussion to move Senators to immediately take action to prevent gun violence," said Bloomberg in a statement released by Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

Targeted in the campaign are Arizona and Republican Senator Jeff Flake; Arkansas and Democrat Senator Mark Pryor; Georgia and Republican Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson; Indiana and Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly and Republican Senator Dan Coats; Iowa and Republican Senator Chuck Grassley; Louisiana and Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu; Maine and Republican Senator Susan Collins; New Hampshire and Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte; Nevada and Republican Senator Dean Heller; North Carolina and Democratic Senator Kay Hagan; North Dakota and Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp; Ohio and Republican Senator Rob Portman; and Pennsylvania and Republican Senator Pat Toomey, the group said.

(Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Todd Eastham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/york-mayor-bloomberg-fund-gun-control-ads-report-035620113.html

same day flower delivery valentines day cards hallmark grammy winners obama budget woolly mammoth belize resorts

Feds raid 17 Calif. businesses for nitrous oxide

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

Authorities served search warrants on 17 businesses and nine delivery vehicles during the simultaneous raids in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties, and three people were arrested on misdemeanor charges of misbranding a drug in violation of the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. A fourth person named in a federal warrant was being sought by authorities.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

___

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

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/feds-raid-17-calif-businesses-nitrous-oxide-001509842.html

calvin johnson calvin johnson festivus festivus nfl playoff picture nfl playoff picture Peter Billingsley

Newtown victim's parents meet Adam Lanza's father.

Nothing will bring Robbie and Alissa Parker's 6-year-old daughter back, but learning more about the shooter who took Emilie?s life at Sandy Hook Elementary might help ease their pain.

Emilie Parker (AP/Family)

That mission led the grieving parents to a recent face-to-face meeting with the gunman?s father.

"I felt strongly that I needed to tell him something, and I needed to get that out of my system," Alissa Parker told CBS News. "I felt very motivated to do it, and then I felt really good about it and prayed about it. And it was something that I needed to do."

Peter Lanza?s estranged son, Adam, shot and killed 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14. The 20-year-old gunman committed suicide as police were closing in. Adam also killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, at their home before going to the school. His parents had divorced in 2009 after a long separation.

Reported motives for the rampage have focused on Adam?s mental health, his obsession with violent video games and a fascination with mass killers.

The Parkers, who didn?t reveal what Peter Lanza shared with them during their emotional meeting, said there are still a lot of unknowns, but that they don?t hold him responsible.

?Were there missteps in the raising of his son? Possibly,? Alissa Parker told CBS News in the exclusive interview.

Some have pointed fingers at Nancy Lanza for reportedly not seeking more help in dealing with Adam?s social and psychological struggles and allowing him to be near guns.

?Looking from the outside in, it?s hard to not think that there were things that she could have seen,? Alissa Parker said. ?Do I think it was her fault? I?m sure that there were things that she?s going to have to be accountable for, but again, it?s not my burden to carry.?

The Parkers said they weren?t mad at Peter Lanza. Instead, they believe he holds the keys to preventing another similar tragedy.

Adam Lanza (AP)

?I wanted to tell him that there was a lot of hope and opportunity to gain from this,? Allisa Parker said. ?Because there was information and things to be learned from what happened, and without his cooperation, it would go nowhere.?

The day after his daugther?s death, Robbie Parker showed compassion for the shooter?s family, telling reporters, ?I can't imagine how hard this experience must be for you and I want you to know that our love and our support goes out to you as well."

A spokesman for Peter Lanza told Yahoo News that Robbie?s ?emotionally brave gesture? help set the tone for the parents to meet.

?There was a deep level of appreciation, that given the Parker family?s trauma, that they would still see fit to reach out to Peter,? said Errol Cockfield, the spokesman.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/newtown-victim-parents-seek-answers-adam-lanza-father-140137659.html

nhl all star game 2012 pollyanna samuel adams snowy owl one for the money 10 minute trainer sarah burke death

FCC Chairman Genachowski to step down

FILE - Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski testifies during his nominee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, in this June 16, 2009 file photo. The chairman of the Fe-deral Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski, on Friday, MArch 22, 2013, announced his resignation in the "coming weeks. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg, File)

FILE - Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski testifies during his nominee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, in this June 16, 2009 file photo. The chairman of the Fe-deral Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski, on Friday, MArch 22, 2013, announced his resignation in the "coming weeks. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski, on Friday announced his resignation in the "coming weeks."

The country's top telecommunications regulator told a staff meeting of his decision Friday morning. His impending departure was reported Thursday by several news outlets.

Genachowski, 50, was appointed in 2009 and has hewed a middle line between the desires of public-interest groups and the telecom industry, which hasn't enamored him to either side.

His tenure has seen continued adoption of broadband and ever higher Internet connection speeds, especially on the wireless side, but consumer groups saw the approval of Comcast's acquisition of NBC as a mistake, while AT&T Inc. suffered a severe blow when its acquisition of T-Mobile USA was blocked.

"For those of us who represent the public, Chairman Genachowski's term can best be described as one of missed opportunities," said public-interest group Public Knowledge. Genachowski should have done more to assert the FCC's authority over broadband, which is lightly regulated compared to the telephone, and to prevent consolidation in the industry, it said.

Rob Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a non-partisan think tank, commended Genachowski's FCC for its National Broadband Plan ? the first comprehensive federal plan to stimulate the availability and adoption of high-speed Internet access ? and for its efforts to put more radio spectrum to use wireless broadband.

"America's broadband economy is thriving, with record-setting private investment, unparalleled innovation in networks, device and apps, and renewed U.S. leadership around the world," Genachowski said Friday as he thanked the FCC's staff.

Genachowski's departure will follow that of Republican Robert McDowell, which leaves the five-member commission with a 2-1 Democratic majority until President Obama appoints a new chairman and commissioner.

Stifel Nicolaus analysts Christopher King and David Kaut said they believe the front-running candidate for next chairman is Tom Wheeler, a venture capitalist and former president of two major trade groups, for the cable and wireless industries.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-22-FCC%20Chairman/id-02edc18c32a04e0db03cd8cb82bef6ff

titanic ii babe ruth new jersey nets nba playoff schedule rondo morris claiborne mothers day gifts

Researchers use metamaterials to observe giant photonic spin hall effect

Friday, March 22, 2013

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have once again demonstrated the incredible capabilities of metamaterials ? artificial nanoconstructs whose optical properties arise from their physical structure rather than their chemical composition. Engineering a unique two-dimensional sheet of gold nanoantennas, the researchers were able to obtain the strongest signal yet of the photonic spin Hall effect, an optical phenomenon of quantum mechanics that could play a prominent role in the future of computing.

"With metamaterial, we were able to greatly enhance a naturally weak effect to the point where it was directly observable with simple detection techniques," said Xiang Zhang, a faculty scientist with Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division who led this research. "We also demonstrated that metamaterials not only allow us to control the propagation of light but also allos control of circular polarization. This could have profound consequences for information encoding and processing."

Zhang is the corresponding author of a paper describing this work in the journal Science. The paper is titled "Photonic Spin Hall Effect at Metasurfaces." Co-authors are Xiaobo Yin, Ziliang Ye, Jun Sun Rho and Yuan Wang.

The spin Hall effect, named in honor of physicist Edwin Hall, describes the curved path that spinning electrons follow as they move through a semiconductor. The curved movement arises from the interaction between the physical motion of the electron and its spin ? a quantized angular momentum that gives rise to magnetic moment. Think of a baseball pitcher putting spin on a ball to make it curve to the left or right.

"Light moving through a metal also displays the spin Hall effect but the photonic spin Hall effect is very weak because the spin angular momentum of photons and spin-orbit interactions are very small," says Xiaobo Yin, a member of Zhang's research group and the lead author of the Science paper. "In the past, people have managed to observe the photonic spin Hall effect by generating the process over and over again to obtain an accumulative signal, or by using highly sophisticated quantum measurements. Our metamaterial makes the photonic spin Hall effect observable even with a simple camera."

Metamaterials have garnered a lot of attention in recent years because their unique structure affords electromagnetic properties unattainable in nature. For example, a metamaterial can have a negative index of refraction, the ability to bend light backwards, unlike all materials found in nature, which bend light forward. Zhang, who holds the Ernest S. Kuh Endowed Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California (UC) Berkeley, where he also directs the National Science Foundation's Nano-scale Science and Engineering Center, has been at the forefront of metamaterials research. For this study, he and his group fashioned metamaterial surfaces about 30 nanometers thick (a human hair by comparison is between 50,000 and 100,000 nanometers thick). These metasurfaces were constructed from V-shaped gold nanoantennas whose geometry could be configured by adjusting the length and orientation of the arms of the Vs.

"We chose eight different antenna configurations with optimized geometry parameters to generate a linear phase gradient along the x direction," says Yin. "This enabled us to control the the propagation of the light and introduce strong photon spin-orbit interactions through rapid changes in direction. The photonic spin Hall effect depends on the curvature of the light's trajectory, so the sharper the change in propagation direction, the stronger the effect."

Since the entire metasurface sample measured only 0.3 millimeters, a 50-millimeter lens was used to project the transmission of the light through the metamaterial onto a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera for imaging. From the CCD images, the researchers determined that both the control of light propagation and the giant photonic spin Hall effect were the direct results of the designed meta-material. This finding opens up a wealth of possibilities for new technologies.

"The controllable spin-orbit interaction and momentum transfer between spin and orbital angular momentum allows us to manipulate the information encoded on the polarization of light, much like the 0 and 1 of today's electronic devices," Yin says. "But photonic devices could encode more information and provide greater information security than conventional electronic devices."

Yin says the ability to control left and right circular polarization of light in metamaterial surfaces should allow for the formation of optical elements, like highly coveted "flat lenses," or the management of light polarization without using wave plates.

"Metamaterials provide us with tremendous design freedom that will allow us to modulate the strength of the photonic spin Hall effect at different spatial locations," Yin says. "We knew the photonic spin Hall effect existed in nature but it was so hard to detect. Now, with the right metamaterials we can not only enhance this effect we can harness it for our own purposes."

###

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: http://www.lbl.gov

Thanks to DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 59 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127407/Researchers_use_metamaterials_to_observe_giant_photonic_spin_hall_effect

lightsquared david lee honduras prison fire do not call list sports illustrated westminster dog show 2012 words with friends

Three BBC Twitter accounts hacked

Nidhi Subbaraman , NBC News ? ? ? 2 hrs.

The BBC Weather Twitter account began posting some peculiar updates Thursday. You could argue that they were loosely weather themed, yes, but the tweets were a series of digs at countries and heads of state in the Middle East.

"Sorry about that, we were hacked. Normal service resumes," tweeted the account after a couple of hours of very strange behavior.

A group called the Syrian Electronic Army claims credit for the hack, as well as takeovers of BBC Twitter accounts @BBCarabicOnline and @bbcradioulster, which also apologized for being hacked.

A BBC spokesperson told NBC News: "We are aware that in the past few hours several BBC Twitter accounts have been hacked. We are actively working on this and expect it to be resolved shortly.?

On the BBC Weather site, the hackers wrote in nearly complete sentences, mostly devoid of typos. Aside from making a declaration of support for Syrian President Bashar-al-Assad, the hackers made topical jokes pertaining to various Middle East conflicts ? though mostly tasteless, a few were even snicker-worthy.

Possibly as a result, the account's follower count spiked by a few thousand, and at least one guy said he liked the hacked version more.

Pro-Assad hackers have attacked other media in the past year. In August 2012, the Reuters news service was hacked twice in 48 hours ? first on the Reuters blogging platform, then again on Twitter ? by a group that published fake, pro-Syria headlines.

In celebrating the hack, one of the official Twitter accounts of the hacker group Anonymous referred to @BBCWeather as a "Zionist mouthpiece."

BBC News itself ran a story about Thursday's Twitter hack.

Nidhi Subbaraman writes about technology and science. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/29d5b29e/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Ctechnolog0Cthree0Ebbc0Etwitter0Eaccounts0Ehacked0E1C8985284/story01.htm

atlantic city ocean city maryland Nexus 7 KDKA Pumpkin Carving Ideas Hurricane Sandy path opm

Scientists develop innovative twists to DNA nanotechnology

Mar. 21, 2013 ? In a new discovery that represents a major step in solving a critical design challenge, Arizona State University Professor Hao Yan has led a research team to produce a wide variety of 2-D and 3-D structures that push the boundaries of the burgeoning field of DNA nanotechnology.

The field of DNA nanotechnology utilizes nature's design rules and the chemical properties of DNA to self-assemble into an increasingly complex menagerie of molecules for biomedical and electronic applications. Some of the Yan lab's accomplishments include building Trojan horse-like structures to improve drug delivery to cancerous cells, electrically conductive gold nanowires, single molecule sensors and programmable molecular robots.

With their bio-inspired architectural works, the group continues to explore the geometrical and physical limits of building at the molecular level.

"People in this field are very interested in making wire frame or mesh structures," said Yan. "We needed to come up with new design principles that allow us to build with more complexity in three dimensions."

In their latest twist to the technology, Yan's team made new 2-D and 3-D objects that look like wire-frame art of spheres as well as molecular tweezers, scissors, a screw, hand fan, and even a spider web.

The Yan lab, which includes ASU Biodesign Institute colleagues Dongran Han, Suchetan Pal, Shuoxing Jiang, Jeanette Nangreave and assistant professor Yan Liu, published their results in the March 22 issue of Science.

The twist in their 'bottom up,' molecular Lego design strategy focuses on a DNA structure called a Holliday junction. In nature, this cross-shaped, double-stacked DNA structure is like the 4-way traffic stop of genetics -- where 2 separate DNA helices temporality meet to exchange genetic information. The Holliday junction is the crossroads responsible for the diversity of life on Earth, and ensures that children are given a unique shuffling of traits from a mother and father's DNA.

In nature, the Holliday junction twists the double-stacked strands of DNA at an angle of about 60-degrees, which is perfect for swapping genes but sometimes frustrating for DNA nanotechnology scientists, because it limits the design rules of their structures.

"In principal, you can use the scaffold to connect multiple layers horizontally," [which many research teams have utilized since the development of DNA origami by Cal Tech's Paul Rothemund in 2006]. However, when you go in the vertical direction, the polarity of DNA prevents you from making multiple layers," said Yan. "What we needed to do is rotate the angle and force it to connect."

Making the new structures that Yan envisioned required re-engineering the Holliday junction by flipping and rotating around the junction point about half a clock face, or 150 degrees. Such a feat has not been considered in existing designs.

"The initial idea was the hardest part," said Yan. "Your mind doesn't always see the possibilities so you forget about it. We had to break the conceptual barrier that this could happen."

In the new study, by varying the length of the DNA between each Holliday junction, they could force the geometry at the Holliday junctions into an unconventional rearrangement, making the junctions more flexible to build for the first time in the vertical dimension. Yan calls the backyard barbeque grill-shaped structure a DNA Gridiron.

"We were amazed that it worked!" said Yan. "Once we saw that it actually worked, it was relatively easy to implement new designs. Now it seems easy in hindsight. If your mindset is limited by the conventional rules, it's really hard to take the next step. Once you take that step, it becomes so obvious."

The DNA Gridiron designs are programmed into a viral DNA, where a spaghetti-shaped single strand of DNA is spit out and folded together with the help of small 'staple' strands of DNA that help mold the final DNA structure. In a test tube, the mixture is heated, then rapidly cooled, and everything self-assembles and molds into the final shape once cooled. Next, using sophisticated AFM and TEM imaging technology, they are able to examine the shapes and sizes of the final products and determine that they had formed correctly.

This approach has allowed them to build multilayered, 3-D structures and curved objects for new applications.

"Most of our research team is now devoted toward finding new applications for this basic toolkit we are making," said Yan. "There is still a long way to go and a lot of new ideas to explore. We just need to keep talking to biologists, physicists and engineers to understand and meet their needs."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Arizona State University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. D. Han, S. Pal, Y. Yang, S. Jiang, J. Nangreave, Y. Liu, H. Yan. DNA Gridiron Nanostructures Based on Four-Arm Junctions. Science, 2013; 339 (6126): 1412 DOI: 10.1126/science.1232252

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/7LrIL41HRLE/130321141448.htm

komen chrome for android hatchet leah messer freedom riders 9th circuit court of appeals gisele bundchen tom brady