http://www.discuss.org/forum/ Discuss your everyday topics and issues, debate with members and visitors alike on our very active and friendly community. You can participate in any discussion, read news, discuss everything, play online games as well as start your own blog, share your photos in our gallery as well our download section. en Thu, 23 May 2013 18:20:07 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.discuss.org/forum/images/styles/Skylight/misc/rss.png http://www.discuss.org/forum/ http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/idea-merit-local-supporters-watch-national-vote-ending-ban-gay-kiro-seattle-1628563.html Thu, 23 May 2013 17:32:56 GMT The Boy Scouts of America are voting Thursday whether to end the organization’s longtime ban on openly gay scouts, and local gay rights activists and... The Boy Scouts of America are voting Thursday whether to end the organization’s longtime ban on openly gay scouts, and local gay rights activists and opponents are watching closely to see what happens.
The vote has been a long time coming.  Quiet debate has been growing louder over the last few decades, but the U.S. Supreme Court set the stage about a dozen years ago, when it put the decision squarely in the hands of the organization, not the courts.  That’s when the pressure on the Boy Scouts increased, as several local United Way chapters threatened to pull funding if the Scouts continued the ban.
The vote is expected to happen sometime after 3 p.m. Pacific time, at the Boy Scouts of America’s annual National Council meeting in Grapevine, Texas. 
An opinion piece in Thursday’s USA Today may offer a clue as to how the vote will go.  The Boy Scouts’ President, Wayne Perry, wrote, “Let in gay boys” and  went on to say:  “our policies must be based on what is in the best interest of our nation’s children.” 
Perry notes that there is nothing in Thursday’s resolution that will allow gay adult scout leaders.  That ban would remain.
A local group that supports allowing openly gay scouts, Scouts for Equality, will be rallying in support at the Chief Seattle Council office on Rainier Avenue South. 
That rally will start at 3:30 p.m., about the time the results of the national vote are expected. 

]]> News Diablo http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/idea-merit-local-supporters-watch-national-vote-ending-ban-gay-kiro-seattle-1628563.html http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/reports-london-muslim-terrorists-were-already-known-uk-security-forces-fox-news-1628562.html Thu, 23 May 2013 17:32:56 GMT * Image: http://a57.foxnews.com/global.fncstatic.com/static/managed/img/660/371/londonattack12.jpg?ve=1 ...

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  May, 22, 2013: Police and forensic officers near the scene of an attack which has left one man confirmed dead and two people wounded near Woolwich barracks in London.AP
  
  

The two suspected Muslim terrorists involved in the savage daylight murder of a British soldier near a London barracks on Wednesday had been previously investigated by UK security sources for possible terrorist links, it is being reported.
The information was provided by a British government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the investigation.
Few details are known about the suspects but, according to the BBC, one of them is believed to be a 28-year-old Muslim convert, Michael Adebolajo. Reuters reported that the two men were British citizens of Nigerian descent
In a statement made outside his Downing Street office after having chaired a meeting of the British government's COBRA (Cabinet Office Briefing Room A) emergency committee, British Prime Minister David Cameron refused to comment about whether security forces had prior knowledge of the suspects. However, he firmly condemned the attacks in Churchillian terms, stating: “We will never give in to terror, or terrorism, in any of its forms.”
Additionally, the Conservative Prime Minister emphasized that “there is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act,” and that the fault lied solely with the “sickening individuals” who perpetrated the attack. He also noted that more Muslim lives have been lost in terrorist acts than any other religion.
Cameron also praised the bravery of Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, a cub scout leader and mother of two, who got off a bus and tried to reason with the attackers after she tried to help the victim lying on the street.
The 48-year-old tried to keep talking to the two attackers before police arrived at the scene near the Royal Artillery Barracks in the neighborhood of Woolwich.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Loyau-Kennett said that when one of the attackers told her that they wanted to start a war in London, she responded: "It is only you versus many people. You are going to lose."
Saying she wanted to stop one of the suspects from attacking anyone else, she asked him if he "did it" and what he wanted.
Loyau-Kennett said she saw a crashed car and the victim lying on the street and tried to help him since she had been trained in first aid. She had determined the man was dead by the time the attackers confronted her.
She said "a black guy with a black hat and a revolver in one hand and a cleaver in the other came over" and excitedly warned her to stay away from the body.
"I asked him why he had done what had had done," The Guardian quoted her as saying. "He said he had killed the man because he [the victim] was a British soldier who killed Muslim women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was furious about the British Army being over there."
She told The Daily Telegraph that the suspected terrorist was "in full control of his decisions" and did not appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
When the man told him he was going to kill police when they arrived, she asked him if that was reasonable and tried to keep him engaged.
Then she spoke to the other attacker, who she described as quiet and shy.
"I asked him if he wanted to give me what he was holding in his hand, which was a knife, but I didn't want to say that," she said. "He didn't agree and I asked him: `Do you want to carry on?' He said: `No, no, no.' I didn't want to upset him," she is quoted as saying in The Guardian.
Loyau-Kennett said she was not scared and that the armed men did not seem to be drunk or on drugs. She said she was trying to keep them occupied so they didn't get more agitated.
She re-boarded her bus shortly before police arrived, watching from the vehicle as police shot and wounded the two unidentified suspects, who are both receiving treatment in the hospital.
"The officers shot them in the legs, I think" she told The Guardian.
The British government's COBRA emergency committee met Thursday after Prime Minister David Cameron said there were "strong indications" it was an act of terrorism, and two other officials said there were signs the attack was motivated by radical Islam.
One of the attackers went on video to explain the crime -- shouting political statements, gesturing with bloodied hands and waving a meat cleaver.
Images from the scene showed a blue car that appeared to have been used in the attack, its hood crushed and rammed into a signpost on a sidewalk that was smeared with blood. A number of weapons -- including butchers' knives, a machete and a meat cleaver -- were strewn on the street.
Footage -- obtained by ITV news and The Sun newspaper -- showed a man in a dark jacket and knit cap walking toward a camera, clutching a meat cleaver and a knife. Speaking in English with a British accent, he apologized that female passers-by "have had to witness this" barbarity, saying that "in our land our women have to see the same."
He gave no indication what that land was as he urged people to tell the government to "bring our troops back." British troops are deployed in Afghanistan and recently supported the French-led intervention in Mali.
"We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you," the man declared. "We must fight them as they fight us." The camera then panned away to show a body lying on the ground.
Scotland Yard confirmed that counterterrorism officers were leading an investigation into the attack. Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said the two men had been arrested and urged Londoners to remain calm. Both men were hospitalized, one in serious condition.
Late Wednesday, riot police fanned out in Woolwich as about 50 men waving the flag of the far-right English Defense League gathered, singing nationalistic songs and shouting obscenities about the Quran.
Britain has been at the heart of several terror attacks or plots in recent years, the most deadly being the 2005 rush-hour suicide bombings when 52 commuters were killed. More recently, Parviz Khan was convicted in 2008 of plotting to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier in Birmingham.
Some extremists have lashed out at Britain's involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. Recently, groups have also criticized Britain's assistance in the French-led mission to Mali to root out Islamic extremists in the north.
Click here for more from The Daily Telegraph.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

]]> News Diablo http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/reports-london-muslim-terrorists-were-already-known-uk-security-forces-fox-news-1628562.html http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/mum-talked-down-woolwich-terrorists-who-told-her-we-want-start-war-telegraph-co-uk-1628561.html Thu, 23 May 2013 16:35:46 GMT Ingrid Loyau-Kennett Mrs Loyau-Kennett was a passenger on a number 53 bus which was travelling past the scene, and jumped off to check the soldier’s... ^{Ingrid Loyau-Kennett}
Mrs Loyau-Kennett was a passenger on a number 53 bus which was travelling past the scene, and jumped off to check the soldier’s pulse.
“Being a cub leader I have my first aid so when I saw this guy on the floor I thought it was an accident then I saw the guy was dead and I could not feel any pulse.
“And then when I went up there was this black guy with a revolver and a kitchen knife, he had what looked like butcher’s tools and he had a little axe, to cut the bones, and two large knives and he said 'move off the body’.
“So I thought 'OK, I don’t know what is going on here’ and he was covered with blood. I thought I had better start talking to him before he starts attacking somebody else. I thought these people usually have a message so I said 'what do you want?’
“I asked him if he did it and he said yes and I said why? And he said because he has killed Muslim people in Muslim countries, he said he was a British soldier and I said really and he said 'I killed him because he killed Muslims and I am fed up with people killing Muslims in Afghanistan they have nothing to do there.”
^{Police cordon off the street after the attack in Woolwich (AFP/Getty Images)}
Moments earlier, the killers had hacked at the soldier “like a piece of meat”, and when Mrs Loyau-Kennett arrived on the scene they were roaming John Wilson Street waiting for police to arrive so they could stage a final confrontation with them.
She said: “I started to talk to him and I started to notice more weapons and the guy behind him with more weapons as well. By then, people had started to gather around. So I thought OK, I should keep him talking to me before he noticed everything around him.
“He was not high, he was not on drugs, he was not an alcoholic or drunk, he was just distressed, upset. He was in full control of his decisions and ready to everything he wanted to do.
I said 'right now it is only you versus many people, you are going to lose, what would you like to do?’ and he said I would like to stay and fight.”
The suspect in the black hat then went to speak to someone else and Mrs Loyau-Kennett tried to engage with the other man in the light coat.
^{Ingrid Loyau-Kennett confronts one of the attackers (@dannymckiernan)}
She said: “The other one was much shier and I went to him and I said 'well, what about you? Would you like to give me what you have in your hands?’ I did not want to say weapons but I thought it was better having them aimed on one person like me rather than everybody there, children were starting to leave school as well.
Mrs Loyau-Kennett was not the only woman to show extraordinary courage. Others shielded the soldier’s body as the killers stood over them.
MPs praised the “extraordinary bravery” of the women and raised concerns about why it took armed police 20 minutes to arrive at the scene while people’s lives were at risk.
According to a security source the delay in the armed police response is “particularly surprising” because there is a heavily armed police presence at Woolwich Crown Court, which is just two and a half miles away.
Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the Home Affairs select committee, said: “We are all grateful for the local people who responded so quickly.
“I do want to pay tribute to them [members of the public] – I think what they have done is extraordinarily brave and courageous.
“It shows the spirit of London that people are just not prepared to allow an attack of this kind. I pay tribute to what they have done.”
Patrick Mercer MP, a former army officer and former shadow counter terrorism minister, paid tribute to the people who shielded the body of the soldier.
He said: “This is courage of the highest order, it sounds as if these members of the public are not soldiers, not policemen, not people whose duties demand this, they are extremely courageous people and that courage deserves to be recognised at the highest level.”
Robert Buckland, a Conservative member of the justice select committee, said: “If it is the case [that police took 20 minutes to arrive] it is very worrying. If there was any unwarranted delay then that that needs to be investigated.”

]]> News Diablo http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/mum-talked-down-woolwich-terrorists-who-told-her-we-want-start-war-telegraph-co-uk-1628561.html http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/hidden-population-exotic-neutron-stars-1628560.html Thu, 23 May 2013 16:35:46 GMT May 23, 2013 — Magnetars -- the dense remains of dead stars that erupt sporadically with bursts of high-energy radiation -- are some of the most... May 23, 2013 — Magnetars -- the dense remains of dead stars that erupt sporadically with bursts of high-energy radiation -- are some of the most extreme objects known in the Universe. A major campaign using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and several other satellites shows magnetars may be more diverse -- and common -- than previously thought.
When a massive star runs out of fuel, its core collapses to form a neutron star, an ultradense object about 10 to 15 miles wide. The gravitational energy released in this process blows the outer layers away in a supernova explosion and leaves the neutron star behind.
Most neutron stars are spinning rapidly -- a few times a second -- but a small fraction have a relatively low spin rate of once every few seconds, while generating occasional large blasts of X-rays. Because the only plausible source for the energy emitted in these outbursts is the magnetic energy stored in the star, these objects are called "magnetars."
Most magnetars have extremely high magnetic fields on their surface that are ten to a thousand times stronger than for the average neutron star. New observations show that the magnetar known as SGR 0418+5729 (SGR 0418 for short) doesn't fit that pattern. It has a surface magnetic field similar to that of mainstream neutron stars.
"We have found that SGR 0418 has a much lower surface magnetic field than any other magnetar," said Nanda Rea of the Institute of Space Science in Barcelona, Spain. "This has important consequences for how we think neutron stars evolve in time, and for our understanding of supernova explosions."
The researchers monitored SGR 0418 for over three years using Chandra, ESA's XMM-Newton as well as NASA's Swift and RXTE satellites. They were able to make an accurate estimate of the strength of the external magnetic field by measuring how its rotation speed changes during an X-ray outburst. These outbursts are likely caused by fractures in the crust of the neutron star precipitated by the buildup of stress in a relatively strong, wound-up magnetic field lurking just beneath the surface.
"This low surface magnetic field makes this object an anomaly among anomalies," said co-author GianLuca Israel of the National Institute of Astrophysics in Rome. "A magnetar is different from typical neutron stars, but SGR 0418 is different from other magnetars as well."
By modeling the evolution of the cooling of the neutron star and its crust, as well as the gradual decay of its magnetic field, the researchers estimated that SGR 0418 is about 550,000 years old. This makes SGR 0418 older than most other magnetars, and this extended lifetime has probably allowed the surface magnetic field strength to decline over time. Because the crust weakened and the interior magnetic field is relatively strong, outbursts could still occur.
The case of SGR 0418 may mean that there are many more elderly magnetars with strong magnetic fields hidden under the surface, implying that their birth rate is five to ten times higher than previously thought.
"We think that about once a year in every galaxy a quiet neutron star should turn on with magnetar-like outbursts, according to our model for SGR 0418," said Josè Pons of the University of Alacant in Spain. "We hope to find many more of these objects."
Another implication of the model is that the surface magnetic field of SGR 0418 should have once been very strong at its birth a half million years ago. This, plus a possibly large population of similar objects, could mean that the massive progenitor stars already had strong magnetic fields, or these fields were created by rapidly rotating neutron stars in the core collapse that was part of the supernova event.
If large numbers of neutron stars are born with strong magnetic fields then a significant fraction of gamma-ray bursts might be caused by the formation of magnetars rather than black holes. Also, the contribution of magnetar births to gravitational wave signals -- ripples in space-time -- would be larger than previously thought.
The possibility of a relatively low surface magnetic field for SGR 0418 was first announced in 2010 by a team with some of the same members. However, the scientists at that time could only determine an upper limit for the magnetic field and not an actual estimate because not enough data had been collected.
SGR 0418 is located in the Milky Way galaxy at a distance of about 6,500 light years from Earth. These new results on SGR 0418 appear online and will be published in the June 10, 2013 issue of The Astrophysical Journal. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.
For Chandra images, multimedia and related materials, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/chandra
For an additional interactive image, podcast, and video on the finding, visit: http://chandra.si.edu

]]> News EmptyNest http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/hidden-population-exotic-neutron-stars-1628560.html http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/hubble-reveals-ring-nebula%92s-true-shape-1628559.html Thu, 23 May 2013 16:35:46 GMT May 23, 2013 — The Ring Nebula's distinctive shape makes it a popular illustration for astronomy books. But new observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of the glowing gas shroud around an old, dying, sun-like star reveal a new twist.
"The nebula is not like a bagel, but rather, it's like a jelly doughnut, because it's filled with material in the middle," said C. Robert O'Dell of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. He leads a research team that used Hubble and several ground-based telescopes to obtain the best view yet of the iconic nebula. The images show a more complex structure than astronomers once thought and have allowed them to construct the most precise 3-D model of the nebula.
"With Hubble's detail, we see a completely different shape than what's been thought about historically for this classic nebula," O'Dell said. "The new Hubble observations show the nebula in much clearer detail, and we see things are not as simple as we previously thought."
The Ring Nebula is about 2,000 light-years from Earth and measures roughly 1 light-year across. Located in the constellation Lyra, the nebula is a popular target for amateur astronomers.
Previous observations by several telescopes had detected the gaseous material in the ring's central region. But the new view by Hubble's sharp-eyed Wide Field Camera 3 shows the nebula's structure in more detail. O'Dell's team suggests the ring wraps around a blue, football-shaped structure. Each end of the structure protrudes out of opposite sides of the ring.
The nebula is tilted toward Earth so that astronomers see the ring face-on. In the Hubble image, the blue structure is the glow of helium. Radiation from the white dwarf star, the white dot in the center of the ring, is exciting the helium to glow. The white dwarf is the stellar remnant of a sun-like star that has exhausted its hydrogen fuel and has shed its outer layers of gas to gravitationally collapse to a compact object.
O'Dell's team was surprised at the detailed Hubble views of the dark, irregular knots of dense gas embedded along the inner rim of the ring, which look like spokes in a bicycle wheel. These gaseous tentacles formed when expanding hot gas pushed into cool gas ejected previously by the doomed star. The knots are more resistant to erosion by the wave of ultraviolet light unleashed by the star. The Hubble images have allowed the team to match up the knots with the spikes of light around the bright, main ring, which are a shadow effect. Astronomers have found similar knots in other planetary nebulae.
All of this gas was expelled by the central star about 4,000 years ago. The original star was several times more massive than our sun. After billions of years converting hydrogen to helium in its core, the star began to run out of fuel. It then ballooned in size, becoming a red giant. During this phase, the star shed its outer gaseous layers into space and began to collapse as fusion reactions began to die out. A gusher of ultraviolet light from the dying star energized the gas, making it glow.
The outer rings were formed when faster-moving gas slammed into slower-moving material. The nebula is expanding at more than 43,000 miles an hour, but the center is moving faster than the expansion of the main ring. O'Dell's team measured the nebula's expansion by comparing the new Hubble observations with Hubble studies made in 1998.
The Ring Nebula will continue to expand for another 10,000 years, a short phase in the lifetime of the star. The nebula will become fainter and fainter until it merges with the interstellar medium.
Studying the Ring Nebula's fate will provide insight into the sun's demise in another 6 billion years. The sun is less massive than the Ring Nebula's progenitor star, so it will not have an opulent ending.
"When the sun becomes a white dwarf, it will heat more slowly after it ejects its outer gaseous layers," O'Dell said. "The material will be farther away once it becomes hot enough to illuminate the gas. This larger distance means the sun's nebula will be fainter because it is more extended."
In the analysis, the research team also obtained images from the Large Binocular Telescope at the Mount Graham International Observatory in Arizona and spectroscopic data from the San Pedro Martir Observatory in Baja California, Mexico.

]]> News EmptyNest http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/hubble-reveals-ring-nebula%92s-true-shape-1628559.html http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/supersonic-laminar-flow-tests-continue-nasas-f-15b-1628558.html Thu, 23 May 2013 16:35:46 GMT May 23, 2013 — NASA Dryden Flight Research Center's F-15B Research Testbed aircraft has been busy this spring, flying an experimental test fixture in partnership with Aerion Corporation of Reno, Nevada.
Called the Supersonic Boundary Layer Transition, Phase II, or SBLT-II, the experiment consists of flying a small test airfoil, or wing section, attached underneath the F-15B. This allows NASA and Aerion engineers to continue investigating the extent and robustness of natural laminar flow over the test section at supersonic speeds.
Conducting the experiment in actual supersonic flight conditions with the F-15B enables engineers to capture data in a real-world flight environment, allowing for more precise refining of supersonic natural laminar flow airfoil design.
"The objective of the flight series is to investigate the extent and robustness of smooth, or laminar, airflow over the specially-designed test airfoil," said Brett Pauer, NASA Dryden's deputy High Speed Project manager. "Then, researchers will work to better understand when imperfections in the airfoil's surface cause the air to transition from laminar to rough, turbulent flow. The greater the extent of laminar airflow over a wing, the less aerodynamic drag there is, which reduces fuel consumption," Pauer said.
It is believed that significant laminar flow has never been achieved on any production supersonic aircraft before, so this research and the data being collected from the SBLT-II test fixture may help provide some of the data that might enable the design of supersonic aircraft in the future that have wings that produce laminar flow at supersonic cruise conditions.
One of the goals of NASA's High Speed Project, which utilizes the F-15B and other high performance jets, is reducing the fuel consumption and efficiency of future supersonic aircraft.
Project flights of the SBLT-II experiment began on the F-15B earlier this year. So far, four data-gathering flights have been flown, with six more planned.

]]> News EmptyNest http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/supersonic-laminar-flow-tests-continue-nasas-f-15b-1628558.html http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/stitching-defects-into-world%92s-thinnest-semiconductor-1628557.html Thu, 23 May 2013 16:35:46 GMT May 23, 2013 — In pioneering new research at Columbia University, scientists have grown high-quality crystals of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), the... May 23, 2013 — In pioneering new research at Columbia University, scientists have grown high-quality crystals of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), the world's thinnest semiconductor, and studied how these crystals stitch together at the atomic scale to form continuous sheets. Through beautiful images of strikingly symmetric stars and triangles hundreds of microns across, they have uncovered key insights into the optical and electronic properties of this new material, which can be either conducting or insulating to form the basic "on-off switch" for all digital electronics.
The study is published in the May 5, 2013, issue of Nature Materials.
"Our research is the first to systematically examine what kinds of defects result from these large growths, and to investigate how those defects change its properties," says James Hone, professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia Engineering, who led the study. "Our results will help develop ways to use this new material in atomically thin electronics that will become integral components of a whole new generation of revolutionary products such as flexible solar cells that conform to the body of a car."
This multidisciplinary collaboration by the Energy Frontier Research Center at Columbia University with Cornell University's Kavli Institute for Nanoscale Science focused on molybdenum disulfide because of its potential to create anything from highly efficient, flexible solar cells to conformable touch displays. Earlier work from Columbia demonstrated that monolayer MoS2 has an electronic structure distinct from the bulk form, and the researchers are excited about exploring other atomically thin metal dichalcogenides, which should have equally interesting properties. MoS2 is in a class of materials called transition metal dichalcogenides, which can be metals, semiconductors, dielectrics, and even superconductors.
"This material is the newest in a growing family of two-dimensional crystals," says Arend van der Zande, a research fellow at the Columbia Energy Frontier Research Center and one of the paper's three lead authors. "Graphene, a single sheet of carbon atoms, is the thinnest electrical conductor we know. With the addition of the monolayer molybdenum disulfide and other metal dichalcogenides, we have all the building blocks for modern electronics that must be created in atomically thin form. For example, we can now imagine sandwiching two different monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides between layers of graphene to make solar cells that are only eight atoms thick -- 20 thousand times smaller than a human hair!"
Until last year, the majority of experiments studying MoS2 were done by a process called mechanical exfoliation, which only produces samples just a few micrometers in size. "While these tiny specimens are fine for scientific studies," notes Daniel Chenet, a PhD in Hone's lab and another lead author, "they are much too small for use in any technological application. Figuring out how to grow these materials on a large scale is critical."
To study the material, the researchers refined an existing technique to grow large, symmetric crystals up to 100 microns across, but only three atoms thick. "If we could expand one of these crystals to the thickness of a sheet of plastic wrap, it would be large enough to cover a football field -- and it would not have any misaligned atoms," says Pinshane Huang, a PhD student in the David Muller lab at Cornell and the paper's third lead author.
For use in many applications, these crystals need to be joined together into continuous sheets like patches on a quilt. The connections between the crystals, called grain boundaries, can be as important as the crystals themselves in determining the material's performance on a large scale. "The grain boundaries become important in any technology," says Hone. "Say, for example, we want to make a solar cell. Now we need to have meters of this material, not micrometers, and that means that there will be thousands of grain boundaries. We need to understand what they do so we can control them."
The team used atomic-resolution electron microscopy to examine the grain boundaries of this material, and saw lines of misaligned atoms. Once they knew where to find the grain boundaries, and what they looked like, the team could study the effect of a single grain boundary on the properties of the MoS2. To do this, they built tiny transistors, the most basic component in all of electronics, out of the crystals and saw that the single, defective line of atoms at the grain boundaries could drastically change the key electronic and optical properties of the MoS2.
"We've made a lot of progress in controlling the growth of this new 'wonder' nanomaterial and are now developing techniques to integrate it into many new technologies," Hone adds. "We're only just beginning to scratch the surface of what we can make with these materials and what their properties are. For instance, we can easily remove this material from the growth substrate and transfer it on to any arbitrary surface, which enables us to integrate it into large-scale, flexible electronics and solar cells."
The crystal synthesis, optical measurements, electronic measurements, and theory were all performed by research groups at Columbia Engineering. The growth and electrical measurements were made by the Hone lab in mechanical engineering; the optical measurements were carried out in the Tony Heinz lab in physics. The structural modeling and electronic structure calculations were performed by the David Reichman lab in chemistry. The electron microscopy was performed by atomic imaging experts in the David Muller lab at Cornell University's School of Applied and Engineering Physics, and the Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science.
The study was sponsored by the Columbia Energy Frontier Research Center, with additional support provided by the National Science Foundation through the Cornell Center for Materials Research.

]]> News EmptyNest http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/stitching-defects-into-world%92s-thinnest-semiconductor-1628557.html http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/thunderstorms-slow-oklahoma-tornado-abc-news-1628556.html Thu, 23 May 2013 15:32:53 GMT A band of thunderstorms battered the Oklahoma City area Thursday, slowing cleanup operations in the suburb where a tornado killed 24 people and... A band of thunderstorms battered the Oklahoma City area Thursday, slowing cleanup operations in the suburb where a tornado killed 24 people and destroyed thousands of homes this week.
The first of the funerals, for a 9-year-old girl killed at a Moore elementary school that took a direct hit in Monday's storm, was scheduled for Thursday morning. A family photo showed the girl, Antonia Candelaria, beaming with a big smile and wearing a white sun hat.
Early estimates indicate the tornado caused more than $2 billion of damage in Moore. Whole subdivisions in the fast-growing community of 56,000 people were destroyed. Authorities estimated that as many as 13,000 homes were damaged or destroyed and 33,000 people were affected — an especially traumatic toll for a city that had already suffered three other tornados since 1998.
Two elementary schools were hit — one was leveled — by Monday's tornado. Candelaria was one of seven children who perished at the Plaza Towers Elementary School, a one story building with barely a wall left standing. Altogether, 10 children were killed in the storm, including two infants.


The medical examiner reported that six of the children who died at Plaza Towers suffocated after being buried under a mass of bricks, steel and other materials as the building collapsed. A seventh child who died there, 8-year-old Kyle Davis, was killed instantly by an object — perhaps a large piece of stone or a beam — that fell on the back of his neck.
Thursday's thunderstorms produced hail, heavy rain and high winds in the morning. A flash flood warning was also in effect. The National Weather Service said more severe storms were forecast for late afternoon and at night, and that more tornados were a possibility.
The weather was hampering cleanup and recovery efforts that had just begun to accelerate now that all of the missing have been accounted for. Residents were only formally allowed back into the damage zone on Wednesday afternoon, where they picked through enormous piles of debris.
Shayne Patteson was among them, moving around the ruins of his three-bedroom home. All that was left was the tiny area where his wife hunkered down under a mattress to protect their three children when a tornado packing winds of at least 200 mph slammed through his neighborhood.
Patteson vowed to rebuild, likely in the same place, but said next time he will have an underground storm shelter.
"That is the first thing that will be going into the design of the house, is the storm shelter and the garage," he said as he looked around piles of bricks and plywood where their home once stood.
Moore Mayor Glenn Lewis said Wednesday he would propose an ordinance in the next couple of days to require all new homes to have storm shelters.
The city already has some. After a massive tornado tore a near-identical path in 1999, city authorities provided incentives such as federal grant dollars to help residents cover the costs of safe rooms. This time, though, Lewis thinks it is necessary to compel people to include them in all new construction.
———
Associated Press writer Tim Talley contributed to this report.

]]> News Diablo http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/thunderstorms-slow-oklahoma-tornado-abc-news-1628556.html http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/london-attack-suspects-probed-past-investigations-official-says-cbs-news-1628555.html Thu, 23 May 2013 15:32:53 GMT Updated at 9:07 a.m. ET *This story contains video that some viewers may find graphic.* LONDON Two men accused of butchering a British soldier had... Updated at 9:07 a.m. ET
This story contains video that some viewers may find graphic.
LONDON Two men accused of butchering a British soldier had featured in previous investigations by security services, a British official said Thursday, as investigators searched several locations and tried to determine whether the men were part of a wider plot to instill terror on the streets of London.
The men, suspected of hacking the off-duty soldier to death while horrified bystanders watched, boasted of their exploits and warned of more violence in images recorded on witnesses' mobile phones. Holding bloody knives and a meat cleaver, they waited for the arrival of police, who shot them in the legs, according to a passerby who tried to save the dying soldier.
Play Video
British soldier savagely killed in London machete attack

21 Photos
Shocking attack in England

Prime Minister David Cameron vowed that Britain would not be cowed by the horrific violence, and that it would reject "the poisonous narrative of extremism on which this violence feeds." Indeed, there were few signs of alarm in the capital city, which has been hit by terrorist attacks during a long confrontation with the Irish Republican Army and more recently by al Qaeda-inspired attacks.
"It's hateful, it's horrific and upsetting. But it doesn't seem to have made much of a difference," Christian White, 43, said at King's Cross station, close to the site of a subway bomb in July 2005. "Londoners are used to living in a city where life is complicated."
Even so, security was increased at military barracks and installations in the capital, with extra armed guards added in many cases. Wednesday's attack took place near a military barracks in the Woolwich area of south London.
There was little hard information available about the wounded suspects. Police gave no details of their injuries or conditions.
They did confirm that the victim was a serving British soldier. His family has asked that his name not be immediately released.
After the killing, one of the attackers was recorded on numerous amateur videos making threats, explaining the reason for the crime, and shouting political slogans while gesturing with bloodied hands and waving a meat cleaver.
Play Video
Graphic video: Man dead in "truly shocking" London attack

"We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you," the man declared, complaining about British troops fighting Muslims. "We must fight them as they fight us."
The camera then panned away to show a body lying on the ground. This video, with its venomous threats, may provide the lasting image of the tragedy.
A British government official said both suspects were part of previous security services investigations for possible terror links.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the investigation, said he could not provide other details because the suspects may face trial. Investigations by Britain's domestic security service, MI5, can include undercover surveillance, phone tapping and communications intercepts.
Police in the county of Lincolnshire in eastern England said a property was being searched in connection to the attack in Woolwich. Police said a search warrant had been obtained but would not provide details about the search. Police were also scouring the attack site for further clues.
The incident unfolded Wednesday afternoon when officers responded to reports of an assault just a few blocks from the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich.
Fred Oyat, 44, who lives in a high-rise nearby, said he heard four gunshots and went straight to the window.
"I saw one man lying there bleeding, another lying on the pavement being disarmed. A policeman was pointing a gun at him. A third man was lying further up the street. ... He was bleeding profusely," Oyat said. "There were four knives on the ground — big kitchen knives. The knives were very bloody."
Witnesses recounted seeing the suspects — armed with meat cleavers and possibly a firearm — rushing toward police when officers arrived on the scene. Police then opened fire.
Images from the scene showed a blue car that appeared to have been used in the attack, its hood crushed and rammed into a signpost on a sidewalk that was smeared with blood. A number of weapons — including butchers' knives, a machete and a meat cleaver — were strewn on the street.
Other images showed the second suspect clutching a long knife as he engaged in conversation with a woman who British media said tried to intervene to prevent further bloodshed.
The Daily Telegraph identified the woman as Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, 48, and said she confronted the attackers, telling them: "It is only you versus many people. You are going to lose."
Britain has been at the heart of several terror attacks or plots in recent years, the most deadly being the 2005 rush-hour suicide bombings when 52 commuters were killed. More recently, Parviz Khan was convicted in 2008 of plotting to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier in Birmingham.
Late Wednesday, riot police fanned out in Woolwich as about 50 men waving the flag of the far-right English Defense League gathered, singing nationalistic songs and shouting obscenities about the Quran.
Muslim religious groups and charities were quick to condemn the attack and urged police to calm tensions. The Muslim Council of Britain called it a "barbaric act that has no basis in Islam," adding that "no cause justifies this murder."

]]> News Diablo http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/london-attack-suspects-probed-past-investigations-official-says-cbs-news-1628555.html http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/secret-lives-deaths-neurons-1628554.html Thu, 23 May 2013 15:32:53 GMT May 23, 2013 — As the human body fine-tunes its neurological wiring, nerve cells often must fix a faulty connection by amputating an axon -- the... May 23, 2013 — As the human body fine-tunes its neurological wiring, nerve cells often must fix a faulty connection by amputating an axon -- the "business end" of the neuron that sends electrical impulses to tissues or other neurons. It is a dance with death, however, because the molecular poison the neuron deploys to sever an axon could, if uncontained, kill the entire cell.
Researchers from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine have uncovered some surprising insights about the process of axon amputation, or "pruning," in a study published May 21 in the journal Nature Communications. Axon pruning has mystified scientists curious to know how a neuron can unleash a self -destruct mechanism within its axon, but keep it from spreading to the rest of the cell. The researchers' findings could offer clues about the processes underlying some neurological disorders.
"Aberrant axon pruning is thought to underlie some of the causes for neurodevelopmental disorders, such as schizophrenia and autism," said Mohanish Deshmukh, PhD, professor of cell biology and physiology at UNC and the study's senior author. "This study sheds light on some of the mechanisms by which neurons are able to regulate axon pruning."
Axon pruning is part of normal development and plays a key role in learning and memory. Another important process, apoptosis -- the purposeful death of an entire cell -- is also crucial because it allows the body to cull broken or incorrectly placed neurons. But both processes have been linked with disease when improperly regulated.
The research team placed mouse neurons in special devices called microfluidic chambers that allowed the researchers to independently manipulate the environments surrounding the axon and cell body to induce axon pruning or apoptosis.
They found that although the nerve cell uses the same poison -- a group of molecules known as Caspases -- whether it intends to kill the whole cell or just the axon, it deploys the Caspases in a different way depending on the context.
"People had assumed that the mechanism was the same regardless of whether the context was axon pruning or apoptosis, but we found that it's actually quite distinct," said Deshmukh. "The neuron essentially uses the same components for both cases, but tweaks them in a very elegant way so the neuron knows whether it needs to undergo apoptosis or axon pruning."
In apoptosis, the neuron deploys the deadly Caspases using an activator known as Apaf-1. In the case of axon pruning, Apaf-1 was simply not involved, despite the presence of Caspases. "This is really going to take the field by surprise," said Deshmukh. "There's very little precedent of Caspases being activated without Apaf-1. We just didn't know they could be activated through a different mechanism."
In addition, the team discovered that neurons employ other molecules as safety brakes to keep the "kill" signal contained to the axon alone. "Having this brake keeps that signal from spreading to the rest of the body," said Deshmukh. "Remarkably, just removing one brake makes the neurons more vulnerable."
Deshmukh said the findings offer a glimpse into how nerve cells reconfigure themselves during development and beyond. Enhancing our understanding of these basic processes could help illuminate what has gone wrong in the case of some neurological disorders.

]]> News EmptyNest http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/secret-lives-deaths-neurons-1628554.html http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/first-successful-treatment-pediatric-cerebral-palsy-autologous-cord-blood-awoken-persistent-vegetative-state-1628553.html Thu, 23 May 2013 15:32:53 GMT May 23, 2013 — Bochum's medics have succeeded in treating cerebral palsy with autologous cord blood. Following a cardiac arrest with severe brain damage, a 2.5 year old boy had been in a persistent vegetative state -- with minimal chances of survival. Just two months after treatment with the cord blood containing stem cells, the symptoms improved significantly; over the following months, the child learned to speak simple sentences and to move.
"Our findings, along with those from a Korean study, dispel the long-held doubts about the effectiveness of the new therapy," says Dr. Arne Jensen of the Campus Clinic Gynaecology. Together with his colleague Prof. Dr. Eckard Hamelmann of the Department of Paediatrics at the Catholic Hospital Bochum (University Clinic of the RUB), he reports in the journal Case Reports in Transplantation.
The parents searched the literature for treatment options
At the end of November 2008, the child suffered from cardiac arrest with severe brain damage and was subsequently in a persistent vegetative state with his body paralysed. Up to now, there has been no treatment for the cause of what is known as infantile cerebral palsy. "In their desperate situation, the parents searched the literature for alternative therapies," Arne Jensen explains. "They contacted us and asked about the possibilities of using their son's cord blood, frozen at his birth."
"Threatening, if not hopeless prognosis"
Nine weeks after the brain damage, on 27 January 2009, the doctors administered the prepared blood intravenously. They studied the progress of recovery at 2, 5, 12, 24, 30, and 40 months after the insult. Usually, the chances of survival after such a severe brain damage and more than 25 minutes duration of resuscitation are six per cent. Months after the severe brain damage, the surviving children usually only exhibit minimal signs of consciousness. "The prognosis for the little patient was threatening if not hopeless," the Bochum medics say.
Rapid recovery after cord blood therapy
After the cord blood therapy, the patient, however, recovered relatively quickly. Within two months, the spasticity decreased significantly. He was able to see, sit, smile, and to speak simple words again. Forty months after treatment, the child was able to eat independently, walk with assistance, and form four-word sentences. "Of course, on the basis of these results, we cannot clearly say what the cause of the recovery is," Jensen says. "It is, however, very difficult to explain these remarkable effects by purely symptomatic treatment during active rehabilitation."
In animal studies, stem cells migrate to damaged brain tissue

In animal studies, scientists have been researching the therapeutic potential of cord blood for some time. In a previous study with rats, RUB researchers revealed that cord blood cells migrate to the damaged area of ]]> News EmptyNest http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/first-successful-treatment-pediatric-cerebral-palsy-autologous-cord-blood-awoken-persistent-vegetative-state-1628553.html http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/flat-spray-optical-lens-created-1628552.html Thu, 23 May 2013 15:32:53 GMT May 23, 2013 — A University of British Columbia engineer and a team of U.S. researchers have made a breakthrough utilizing spray-on technology that... May 23, 2013 — A University of British Columbia engineer and a team of U.S. researchers have made a breakthrough utilizing spray-on technology that could revolutionize the way optical lenses are made and used.
Kenneth Chau, an assistant professor in the School of Engineering at UBC's Okanagan campus, is a key investigator among colleagues at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland. Their work -- the development of a flat lens -- is published in the May 23 issue of the journal Nature.
Nearly all lenses -- whether in an eye, a camera, or a microscope -- are presently curved, which limits the aperture, or amount of light that enters.
"The idea of a flat lens goes way back to the 1960s when a Russian physicist came up with the theory," Chau says. "The challenge is that there are no naturally occurring materials to make that type of flat lens. Through trial and error, and years of research, we have come up with a fairly simple recipe for a spray-on material that can act as that flat lens."
The research team has developed a substance that can be affixed to surfaces like a glass slide and turn them into flat lenses for ultraviolet light imaging of biological specimens.
"Curved lenses always have a limited aperture," he explains. "With a flat lens, suddenly you can make lenses with an arbitrary aperture size -- perhaps as big as a football field."
While the spray-on, flat lens represents a significant advancement in technology, it is only an important first step, Chau says.
"This is the closest validation we have of the original flat lens theory," he says. "The recipe, now that we've got it working, is simple and cost-effective. Our next step is to extrapolate this technique further, explore the effect to the fullest, and advance it as far as we can take it."
The technology could change the way imaging devices like cameras and scanners are designed.

]]> News EmptyNest http://www.discuss.org/forum/news/flat-spray-optical-lens-created-1628552.html http://www.discuss.org/forum/electronic-computer-news/t-nabs-samsung-galaxy-s4-exclusively-red-cnet-1628551.html Thu, 23 May 2013 15:32:53 GMT AT&T, and only AT&T, will sell the premium Android smartphone in a shade that's zingier than black and white.
Soon, you can buy Samsung's Galaxy S4 in AT&T in white, black, and red.
(Credit: AT&T)
AT&T's rivals could start seeing red over the carrier's exclusive lock on the Samsung Galaxy S4's latest hue.
The Aurora Red shade of the 16GB Galaxy S4 goes on sale to AT&T customers starting June 14, though pre-orders begin May 24.
AT&T seems to have a special affinity for red shades; just about a year ago it also scored exclusive U.S. rights to sell the GS4 predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S3, in a shade of red. Later, that color and others became available globally.
Samsung's Galaxy S4 starts off with a 5-inch HD display, a 13-megapixel camera, an integrates TV remote control option, and a fast processor for better gameplay. Read all about Samsung's superphone in our full Galaxy S4 review.
Samsung's Galaxy S4 powerhouse

]]> Electronic and Computer News admin http://www.discuss.org/forum/electronic-computer-news/t-nabs-samsung-galaxy-s4-exclusively-red-cnet-1628551.html http://www.discuss.org/forum/electronic-computer-news/chevy-spark-ev-lease-highlights-electric-car-price-cuts-los-angeles-times-1628550.html Thu, 23 May 2013 15:32:53 GMT General Motors... General Motors is joining the electric-car price war with a lease deal on the Chevrolet Spark EV at $199 a month.
The deal, announced this morning, follows the recent offerings of $199 leases on Nissan’s Leaf – a big price drop after two years of slow sales – and the newly released Fiat 500e.
The Spark EV will be available at select dealers in California and Oregon starting in mid-June, according to Chevrolet. The growing number of EVs and the price competition should help all automakers sell more cars in the segment, said Kevin Kelly, GM's spokesman on electrictrification technology.
"We welcome more entrants into this space as it only helps everyone when more options are available for the consumer to consider," Kelly said.
First drive: Chevrolet's tiny Spark
Expect more cheap lease deals as automakers seek to comply with California clean-air regulations by selling zero-emissions cars that most consumers have so far rejected as too expensive.
“They’re all going to do it – it’s the only way they’re going to move them,” said John O’Dell, who analyzes the green car market for auto information company Edmunds.com. “It’s affordable to the buyers, but only because the cars are being heavily subsidized by the automakers.”
That’s in addition to the subsidies from taxpayers, including a rebate of up to $2,500 from California and a federal tax credit of up to $7,500. In electric car leases, the company typically keeps the federal credit but California consumers still get the state rebate.
The leases have become essential to growing the tiny plug-in car market segment, said Mike Ferry, transportation programs manager for the California Center for Sustainable Energy. The nonprofit center manages the state’s clean-car rebate programs for the California Air Resources Board.
The leases allow consumers to take “full and immediate” advantage of the federal tax credit, Ferry said, rather than waiting to claim it on their taxes. The lease also removes the risk for some buyers that their tax situation will preclude them from collecting the full $7,500.
About 40% of plug-in vehicles, including hybrids, are currently leased, according to the center’s data. But that proportion is expected to rise with the slate of new and cheaper lease deals, Ferry said.
It all adds up to tantalizing offers for consumers on the automakers’ dime, O’Dell said. “If you’re looking at $199 a month, and you look at what other cars lease for that, certainly they’re not making a profit,” he said.
The rush to sell the new slate of electrics, even at a loss, results from a complex set of regulatory and market incentives.
California’s regulations essentially require automakers to sell a zero-emissions car and awards them zero emissions vehicle, or ZEV, credits for each sale. Automakers can then use the credits to satisfy state regulatory obligations related to their sales of gas-powered cars, or they can sell the credits to other automakers that need to meet the state requirements.
Telsa Motors takes environmental credits to the bank
The Air Resources Board has set a goal that zero-emissions vehicles will account for 15 percent of all new cars sales in the state by 2025.
Moreover, automakers are competing to establish brands in the burgeoning market for plug-in cars – in markets here and overseas – and to hone their research and development efforts, O’Dell said.
“They cry and moan about it, but they have to have this technology,” O’Dell said.
Automakers must be prepared, O'Dell said, if the electric car pans out as a mass-market vehicle, even if that’s far from certain now. He drew a parallel to the early 1970s, when U.S. car companies got caught flat-footed by the oil crisis and ceded the economy car market to Japanese automakers.
Right now, sales of electric cars, not including hybrids, represent less than one percent of the U.S. car market. Chevrolet sees the Spark as very much a niche product sold in just two states, at least for now. But it also has international ambitions. 
"We picked California and Oregon not only because of the regulation related issues, but because both of these states are at the forefront when it comes to infrastructure deployment," Kelly said. "We have also announced the vehicle will be available in Canada, Korea and Europe."
The Chevy Spark lease runs for 36 months and requires a $999 down payment on a car with a sticker price of $27,495. It includes a limit of 12,000 miles annually, after which drivers would pay 25 cents a mile.
That tracks closely to the deals recently promoted by Nissan and Fiat. Nissan dropped the entry-level price on the Leaf to by $6,400 to $28,800, and paired that with a $199-a-month lease and a $1,999 down payment. 
The lease on the new Fiat 500e, which stickers at $32,500, is $199 a month with a $999 down payment. 
brian.thevenot@latimes.com
@LAThevenot on Twitter
ALSO:
Spark EV claims efficiency crown
Tesla pays off U.S. Department of Energy loan
"Charge" dramatizes electric motorcycle race


]]> Electronic and Computer News admin http://www.discuss.org/forum/electronic-computer-news/chevy-spark-ev-lease-highlights-electric-car-price-cuts-los-angeles-times-1628550.html http://www.discuss.org/forum/electronic-computer-news/microsoft-turns-siri-against-apple-hilarious-new-windows-8-ad-pcworld-1628549.html Thu, 23 May 2013 15:32:53 GMT Image: http://zapt4.staticworld.net/images/article/2013/05/ipadvswindows8-100038798-gallery.png Windows 8 Professional...
Windows 8 Professional

• Windows 8 Professional$84.99Windows 8 isn't for everyone. If you're mostly a desktop PC user comfortable with Windows 7, upgrading to Windows 8 is probably not worthwhile. If you're a mobile user who needs easy access to the...

After coming out swinging a few days back with a Surface ad that focused on Office, Microsoft has a new ad that confronts the iPad head-on. And here’s the crazy part: it’s surprisingly amusing.
The commercial is a takeoff of Apple’s iPad Mini piano commercial. In the Microsoft version—entitled “Windows 8: Less talking, more doing”—the company pokes fun at Apple’s personal digital assistant Siri, all the while showing off the advantages of a Windows 8 tablet over the iPad.


Ian Paulian@ianpaul.net, PCWorld

Ian is an independent writer based in Tel Aviv, Israel. His current focus is on all things tech including mobile devices, desktop and laptop computers, software, social networks, Web apps, tech-related legislation and corporate tech news.
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