Singapore police to webcam users: Keep your clothes on; it's a scam

Alex Johnson , NBC News ? ? ? 18 hrs.

Police in Singapore have warned men to be more careful regarding to whom they talk using webcams, reporting an alarming increase in the number of men who've been lured into nude conversations with "foreign" women, only to be blackmailed with video-chat recordings.

In terms of sheer numbers, the increase isn't much ? from 11 incidents in 2011 to more than 50 last year ? but it suggests a burgeoning scam that could ensnare many more men in the future, the national police force said in a bulletin that was first reported by Singapore's Straits Times newspaper.

Police singled out Facebook and Tagged as especially popular vehicles for the extortion scheme, in which "female foreign suspects ... would commence a webcam conversation with the victims and initiate cybersex by undressing themselves first before persuading the male victims to appear nude or perform sexual acts in front of the webcams."

"Unknown to the victims, the suspects had recorded the acts," police said. "These suspects would then threaten to circulate compromising photographs and videos of the victims to extort money from them."

The spike in cases was first noted halfway through last year, leading Crimewatch, a joint program of the national police and the National Crime Prevention Council, to "re-create" the scam in a (safe for work but entertainingly cheesy) video in June.

Graham Cluley, a consultant with the Internet security firm Sophos, reported the bulletin Monday on the company's appropriately named Naked Security blog and warned of another potential hazard:

You can imagine how a man, believing he is being seduced online by a sexy woman, might be all too eager to click on a link she suggests or run a malicious program on his computer. Before he knows it, his computer could be under the control of a hacker.

Police offered these tips to keep your money in your wallet:

• Be wary of messages from unknown people who want to befriend you.
  
• Do not accede to any request that may put you in vulnerable positions, such as performing compromising acts in front of the webcam, or giving personal details about yourself when interacting with other internet users.
  
• If anyone attempts to extort money from you or should you become a victim of such an attempt, call the police immediately.
  
• Do not remit or transfer money.
  

Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/singapore-police-webcam-users-keep-your-clothes-its-scam-1C8417251

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7+ Taskbar Tweaker Adds Tons of Extra Taskbar Settings to Windows 7 and 8

Windows: Ever wish you could tweak the taskbar's shortcuts, or add other features Microsoft forgot about? 7+ Taskbar Tweaker adds a ton of extra settings and shortcuts to the Windows taskbar, and it works in Windows 7 and 8.

We highlighted this program back when it was called 7 Taskbar Tweaker and only had a few options, but since then it's grown into something much more. Not only is it compatible with Windows 8 (hence the name change), but it has a ton of new options. In the program, you have the ability to:

• Bring up the standard window menu instead of a jump list when you right-click on an icon
• Middle-click an icon to switch to it, minimize it, or close it
• Show a list, tooltip, or nothing when you hover over a button
• Reorder thumbnails in the preview that pops up
• Change how taskbar icons group together
• Use the mouse wheel to cycle between buttons
• Much, much more

You can install the program on your system or, if you're a fan of portable apps, use the installer to extract a portable version to your desktop. Hit the link to check it out.

7+ Taskbar Tweaker | via SRChiP

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/pPSwwdO8i40/7%252B-taskbar-tweaker-edits-tons-of-extra-taskbar-settings-in-windows-7-and-8

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In West Bank, a space for tutus and pirouettes

Ramallah Ballet Center owner Shyrine Ziadeh decided not to leave the West Bank to study dance, but instead opened a space to cultivate talent and hope among local youth.

By Chelsea Sheasley,?Contributor / February 4, 2013

Shyrine Ziadeh leads one of her three classes at the Ramallah Ballet Center, which she opened in December 2011 with the help of her family.

Christa Case Bryant/The Christian Science Monitor

Enlarge Photos

The Ramallah Ballet Center, where girls in white tights and pink tutus twirl in front of a long mirror, seems a world away from the street below, where butchered lambs hang for sale, resentment lingers from the last intifada, and horns blare as cars snake dangerously close to each other in the narrow streets.?

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?Doesn?t the music make you feel so peaceful?? asks studio owner Shyrine Ziadeh, as she surveys her students. ?That?s one of my favorite things about dancing.??

Ms. Ziadeh?s dance studio is the first to open in Ramallah and the only one she knows of in the West Bank, following years of foreign instructors teaching lessons out of their homes or in local schools. (Read more about female entrepreneurs in the West Bank here.)

Ziadeh, who grew up in Ramallah, planned to leave the West Bank to study dance abroad after graduating from Birzeit University four years ago. But she changed her mind after she opened the studio last year and saw how popular her classes are. If she leaves, she fears no one will be there for the students.

?The kids here, they have many talents but no one to support them,? she says. ?So when I find a talented girl, I support her with all my heart.? Ziadeh says part of her motivation was the fact that when people around the world think of the Palestinian territories, they don?t see hope or talent, but violence.

Ziadeh sees her studio as place where local kids ? she teaches between 30 and 40 students a month ? can come to have fun in a safe place.

?I want to show the world that as Palestinians, we have talent and can defend our land not only in violence, but in the arts.?

Ziadeh sees the studio as a success, though it?s not yet profitable. She charges 200 shekels (about $55) a month for two classes a week, but some parents can?t afford to pay. The Orthodox Church that owns the studio space has so far allowed her to pay rent late when needed and she?s still repaying a loan her parents gave her.?

Some Israelis who heard about her business offered to give funding, something she?s so far declined in the hopes that Palestinians will be the ones to provide support.

In a region where the political conflict is reflected in so much of society Ziadeh says Israeli-Palestinian politics have complicated her business. She can?t get the costumes she needs because West Bank stores don?t sell them and she doesn?t have a permit to travel 15 miles to Jerusalem to buy them. Instead, she goes to Amman, Jordan to buy the outfits necessary for performances, or has them made by hand.

Hoping for more boys

Another challenge Ziadeh hopes to overcome is gender. Her classes have been predominately female, but she thinks it?s important to involve boys as well because of the impact dance can have on them. She hopes that boys will start to enroll if she offers hip-hop classes.

?The problem is not with the Arab culture,? she says, citing a friend who teaches more boys than girls in the Egyptian royal ballet. ?I think it?s here, the boys want to be more tough.?

Being ready for an intifada is a prominent part of how boys are raised, she says. ?[They say] ?how can I dance when I have to defend my country?? But they can defend the country by dancing,? Ziadeh says.

Fadia Othman, the mother of one of Ziadeh?s students, says the classes help her 6-year-old daughter to be calmer in school.

Hadeel Kamil, a German-Palestinian gum surgeon who also has a daughter in the class, praises the decision of people like Ziadeh who stay in the Palestinian territories, sharing their talents locally instead of moving to a potentially easier and more lucrative life abroad.

"Palestine deserves people who know how to think," Ms. Kamil says.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/3ipoxDPwvUw/In-West-Bank-a-space-for-tutus-and-pirouettes

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Dubai's Nakheel in talks to extend $2.2 billion loan: report

(Reuters) - Developer Nakheel is in talks to extend 8 billion dirhams ($2.18 billion) in loans due in 2015, the indebted company's chairman was quoted as saying in a local newspaper on Sunday.

Ali Rashid Lootah dismissed concerns over Nakheel's ability to repay its debts, which also include a 3.8-billion dirham sukuk, or Islamic bond, due in August 2016, Abu Dhabi-based newspaper, The National, reported.

The government-owned builder agreed a $16 billion debt restructuring in 2011 and has scaled back grandiose plans such as building a one-kilometer high tower after becoming a high profile corporate casualty of the Dubai property crash.

Debts held by Nakheel, owned at the time by flagship conglomerate Dubai World helped trigger the emirate's 2009 debt crisis. A last-minute bailout by Abu Dhabi helped Dubai avert a bond default on a Nakheel bond in December 2009.

"We are talking to financial institutions to restructure our loan, which is a normal part of business because the original tenure is very short," Lootah said.

"We have time but we are talking to them from now and engaging them from now to get a longer term. We are not worried about the sukuk. Our strategy first will be deal with the lenders. The sukuk is a secondary issue to that."

The bank loans under consideration are thought to be debt restructured under the 2011 agreement. This includes 6.76 billion dirhams in secured facilities provided by, among others, Dubai's biggest bank Emirates NBD as well as 470 million dirhams in unsecured facilities, all due in 2016, according to Nakheel's sukuk prospectus and estimates by Exotix Limited.

"This is all previously restructured bank debt. They (Nakheel) are trying to refinance all of this debt before the majority falls due in 2016," said Gus Chehayeb, director, Middle East and Africa Corporate Research at Exotix, in Dubai.

Nakheel reported a 57-percent rise in annual profit in January. It also made interest and profit payments of around 800 million dirhams to lenders last year and has paid around 10 billion dirhams to various trade creditors and contractors since the start of its debt restructuring.

"We have sorted all the old issues, most of the old issues," Lootah told the newspaper.

But he ruled out re-starting work on Palm Jebel Ali, one of three man-made islands in the shape of palm fronds that Nakheel planned to build off the Dubai coast. Of these, only one - Palm Jumeirah - has been completed.

"Nakheel will grow and grow and grow in a more careful manner and with a more well-studied strategy and plan," Lootah said. "Tourism is booming in Dubai so people are looking for more options, so we are looking at that."

Last week, Dubai gave the go-ahead for a $1.6 billion artificial island, not connected to Nakheel, as it resumes extravagant developments, despite several stalled or abandoned projects commissioned during the previous decade's boom.

(Reporting by Matt Smith and Mala Pancholia; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dubais-nakheel-talks-extend-2-2-billion-loan-083745584--sector.html

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Missouri?s Plane Gate Scandal Grounded for Now

Despite a Republican veto-proof supermajority in the Missouri General Assembly, the state GOP won't admonish Gov. Jay Nixon for approving the purchase of a $5.6 million plane used for executive travel. State Rep. Mark Parkinson, R-St. Charles, wanted an amendment to open records legislation that would have prevented Nixon from using the new plane, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch . After the amendment lost support, Parkinson withdrew his request.

* The move was the latest in a contentious standoff between Nixon and his penchant for lots of intrastate travel and the General Assembly's moves to try to curtail state spending. Some media outlets such as Missouri News Horizon have referred to spending for the new plane as "Plane Gate."

* Parkinson told the Post-Dispatch, "A lot of the members of [the house] don't have the stomach to hold the executive [branch] ... accountable."

* Fellow Republican state Rep. Kevin Engler of Farmington told the newspaper he thought it was "stupid that we bought the plane. ... The fact that we have it but would not use it would be further abuse."

* House Bill 256 , to which Parkinson's amendment was attached, extended the state's Sunshine Law pertaining to public records until 2016. The Post-Dispatch states one approved amendment included making the governor's flight logs a public document without Sunshine Law requests.

* The legislation passed a committee vote. The full house votes on the measure sometime later this week. The senate still needs to approve the bill before heading to Nixon's desk.

* State Rep. Jeff Roorda, D-Barnhart, accused Republicans of trying to "pull the governor's pants down" with the plane log amendment. The bill's sponsor, state Rep. Caleb Jones, R-California, said he wanted to ensure Missourians know where their taxpayer dollars are going, according to the Post-Dispatch.

* In late January, Republicans delayed the governor's nomination of Doug Nelson to a key administrative post. Nelson, a Nixon adviser, made the final decision to approve purchase of the plane in December. The move was done without the knowledge or authority of the General Assembly, which angered lawmakers. Missouri News Horizon reveals the plane was the latest tug-of-war between the executive branch's spending and the legislative branch's authority to limit state spending.

* In 2012, Missouri Auditor Thomas Schweich published a report that Nixon spent more than $2.3 million in travel from 2009 to 2011. Of that, $1.7 million was billed to other state agencies instead of coming from the governor's allocated travel budget. In other words, the governor's travel expenses exceeded the allowance from the General Assembly's approved budget.

* The same audit revealed Nixon would have saved the state money had he traveled commercially. Missouri News Horizon has a graphic that shows 121 public school teachers could be hired for one year in Missouri for the same cost as the new $5.6 million plane. With the loss of Parkinson's amendment, "Plane Gate" is grounded for now.

William Browning is a research librarian specializing in U.S. politics.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/missouri-plane-gate-scandal-grounded-now-152700081.html

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'A drop of ink on the luminous sky:' Wide Field Imager snaps cosmic gecko

Feb. 11, 2013 ? This part of the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer) is one of the richest star fields in the whole sky -- the Large Sagittarius Star Cloud. The huge number of stars that light up this region dramatically emphasise the blackness of dark clouds like Barnard 86, which appears at the centre of this new picture from the Wide Field Imager, an instrument mounted on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile.

This object, a small, isolated dark nebula known as a Bok globule [1], was described as "a drop of ink on the luminous sky" by its discoverer Edward Emerson Barnard [2], an American astronomer who discovered and photographed numerous comets, dark nebulae, one of Jupiter's moons, and made many other contributions. An exceptional visual observer and keen astrophotographer, Barnard was the first to use long-exposure photography to explore dark nebulae.

Through a small telescope Barnard 86 looks like a dearth of stars, or a window onto a patch of distant, clearer sky. However, this object is actually in the foreground of the star field -- a cold, dark, dense cloud made up of small dust grains that block starlight and make the region appear opaque. It is thought to have formed from the remnants of a molecular cloud that collapsed to form the nearby star cluster NGC 6520, seen just to the left of Barnard 86 in this image.

NGC 6520 is an open star cluster that contains many hot stars that glow bright blue-white, a telltale sign of their youth. Open clusters usually contain a few thousand stars that all formed at the same time, giving them all the same age. Such clusters usually only live comparatively short lives, on the order of several hundred million years, before drifting apart.

The incredible number of stars in this area of the sky muddles observations of this cluster, making it difficult to learn much about it. NGC 6520's age is thought to be around 150 million years, and both this star cluster and its dusty neighbour are thought to lie at a distance of around 6000 light-years from our Sun.

The stars that appear to be within Barnard 86 in the image above are in fact in front of it, lying between us and the dark cloud. Although it is not certain whether this is still happening within Barnard 86, many dark nebulae are known to have new stars forming in their centres -- as seen in the famous Horsehead Nebula, the striking object Lupus 3 (eso1303) and to a lesser extent in another of Barnard's discoveries, the Pipe Nebula. However, the light from the youngest stars is blocked by the surrounding dusty regions, and they can only be seen in infrared or longer-wavelength light.

[1] Bok globules were first observed in the 1940s by astronomer Bart Bok. They are very cold, dark clouds of gas and dust that often have new stars forming at their centres. These globules are rich in dust that scatters and absorbs background light, so they are almost opaque to visible light.

[2] This quotation comes from E. E. Barnard, Dark Regions in the Sky Suggesting an Obscuration of Light, Yerkes Observatory, Nov 15 1913.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/astronomy/~3/FBUs8Ko5NX0/130213082424.htm

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Travelin' Joe's five favorite baseball spring-training tracks

Courtesy of Innisbrook

Tour players such as Ernie Els love Innisbrook Resort?s Copperhead Course.

1. Innisbrook Resort (Copperhead), Palm Harbor, Fla.
Ernie Els called Copperhead ?the best course the PGA Tour visits in Florida.? Carolina-style pines and elevation changes, liberally sprinkled lakes and fiercely trapped greens will have you agreeing with the Big Easy. While Innisbrook is normally reserved for resort guests, it's worth a stay, especially since the Philadelphia Phillies' Bright House Field is only a 15-minute drive to the south.

2. PGA National Resort & Spa (Champion), Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
Current home of the PGA Tour's Honda Classic and a former site of the PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup, this watery Tom and George Fazio/ Jack Nicklaus spread is a terror when the March winds blow, most alarmingly at the ?Bear Trap? holes of 15-17. Fans of the St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins have but a 13-minute commute to Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter.

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Talking Stick puts you close to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

?

3. Talking Stick Golf Club, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Both the North and South courses are flat, tribally owned Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw designs with artfully sculpted bunkers and strategic holes, such as the North's par-5 2nd. The South displays more trees, but from either course, the ride is a mere five minutes across Highway 101 to Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, which serves as home to the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.

4. The Raven Golf Club, Phoenix, Phoenix, Ariz.
Less than a 10-minute drive from Tempe Diablo Stadium, where the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim spend their spring, this memorable Gary Panks/David Graham design is pure parkland in the middle of the desert. Thousands of pine trees frame challenging but playable holes. Only the mountain backdrops serve to remind you that you're not teeing it up in the North Carolina Sandhills.

5. Streamsong Resort, Streamsong, Fla.
Granted, it's not right around the corner from venerable Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, where the Detroit Tigers hold court in March. But the 27 miles of rural driving are worth the trek when the dazzling destination is the new Streamsong Resort, with its Coore/ Crenshaw?designed Red and Tom Doak/ Renaissance?designed Blue. Both courses are magnificent and weave in and out of massive scrub-covered sand piles, playing as firm and fast as many Open Championship venues.
?

Source: http://rss.golf.com/courses-and-travel/best-golf-courses-near-mlb-spring-training-stadiums-arizona-florida

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Amanuensis Monday ? Charlena Fay Isgrigg ... - Family Tree Writer

Obituary ? Charlena Faye Isgrigg
Book ?Obituaries ? Argonia Kansas and Vicinity?
Volume IV
Freda Deen Earles

Charlena Faye Isgrigg, daughter of Frank and Susan Kline Holt was born October 19, 1915 in Bluejacket, Oklahoma.

She moved to Milan, Kansas with her parents at the age of 10 and lived in the Milan and Argonia communities until the time of her passing

On October 29, 1937 she married Earl Isgrigg and to that union was born one daughter, Connie Hodson.

She was preceded in death by both her mother and father, one brother, Olin Holt and one sister, Bessie Edwards.

She leaves to mourn her passing, her husband, Earl; her daughter, Connie Hodson and grandson, Brad Hodson of West Allis, Wisconsin; two sisters, Mrs. Mildred Carrico, Commerce, Oklahoma, and Mrs. Lola Blackett, Wichita, and one brother, Virgil Holt, Milan.

( Sherry?s Note: ?The obituary did not state the date of death, but according to www.findagrave.com, Find A Grave Memorial# 38953421?Charlena passed away on?26 Jul 1971.)

Source: http://www.familytreewriter.com/2013/02/amanuensis-monday-charlena-fay-isgrigg-obituary/

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USPS cuts Saturdays. Mail delivery ends Aug. 1

USPS cuts Saturdays and will end weekend mail delivery Aug. 1 in order to trim costs. The USPS will continue package delivery six days a week.?

By Pauline Jelinek,?Associated Press / February 6, 2013

The entrance of a United States Post Office is seen in Manhasset, New York last August. The USPS cuts Saturdays, beginning in August.

Shannon Stapleton/Reuters/File

Enlarge

The USPS will cut Saturdays?but continue to deliver packages six days a week under a plan aimed at saving about $2 billion, the financially struggling agency says.

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In an announcement scheduled for later Wednesday, the postal service is expected to say the?Saturday?mail cutback would begin in August.

The move accentuates one of the agency's strong points ? package?delivery?has increased by 14 percent since 2010, officials say, while the?delivery?of letters and other mail has declined with the increasing use of email and other Internet use.

Under the new plan, mail would still be delivered to post office boxes on?Saturdays. Post offices now open on?Saturdays?would remain open on?Saturdays.

Over the past several years, the Postal Service has advocated shifting to a five-day?delivery?schedule for mail and packages ? and it repeatedly but unsuccessfully appealed to Congress to approve the move. Though an independent agency, the service gets no tax dollars for its day-to-day operations but is subject to congressional control.

It was not immediately clear how the service could eliminate?Saturday?mail without congressional approval.

But the agency clearly thinks it has a majority of the American public on its side regarding the change.

Material prepared for the Wednesday press conference by Patrick R. Donahoe, postmaster general and CEO, says Postal Service market research and other research has indicated that nearly 7 in 10 Americans support the switch to five-day?delivery?as a way for the Postal Service to reduce costs.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/XfcXrBAKpNU/USPS-cuts-Saturdays.-Mail-delivery-ends-Aug.-1

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Tiny marine creature spreading through ocean, stabilizing reefs and islands with calcareous shells

Feb. 6, 2013 ? The climate is getting warmer, and sea levels are rising -- a threat to island nations. As a group of researchers led by colleagues from the University of Bonn found out, at the same time, tiny single-cell organisms are spreading rapidly through the world's oceans, where they might be able to mitigate the consequences of climate change. Foraminifera of the variety Amphistegina are stabilizing coastlines and reefs with their calcareous shells.

The study's results have now appeared in the international online journal PLOS ONE.

Countless billions of tiny, microscopic shelled creatures known as foraminifera inhabit the oceans of our planet: some of which look like little stars, others like Swiss cheese, and yet others like tiny mussels. They are extremely plentiful and exceptionally diverse in shape. Most of the approximately 10,000 foraminifera species live on the bottom of tropical and sub-tropical oceans, are surrounded by a calcareous shell, and do not even reach the size of a grain of sand. And yet, these tiny organisms are capable of enormous tasks. "Foraminifera are ecosystem engineers," says Prof. Dr. Martin Langer from the Steinmann-Institut f?r Geologie, Mineralogie und Pal?ontologie at the University of Bonn. "With their shells, these protozoa produce up to two kilograms of calcium carbonate per square meter of ocean floor. This often makes them, after corals, the most important producers of sediment in tropical reef areas."

About 9,000 kilometers along the coast

Together with their colleagues from the Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, the University of Trier and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (USA), the scientists from the University of Bonn studied the range of Amphisteginid foraminifera. Amphisteginids are among the most conspicuous and ubiquitous foraminifera on coral reefs and tropical carbonate environments and often have been referred to as living sands. Over the past years, Prof. Langer has been capturing the range in which Amphisteginids occur along the about 9,000 kilometer-long coastline off Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia, and Angola. "The range of Amphistegina is essentially governed by ocean temperature and nutrient content of the waters," the micro-paleontologist explains. These protozoa need a water temperature of at least 14 degrees Celsius.

By 2100, the protozoa will have spread almost 300 kilometers closer to the poles

Using the data from biogeographic terrain analyses, the researchers developed a species distribution model for calculating where Amphisteginid foraminifera occur under certain environmental conditions. Based on climate models, the researchers then forecast the future range of these calcareous shell protozoa. "Amphistegina are among those profiting from the rising temperatures as a result of climate change," summarizes Prof. Langer. According to the models, the calcareous protozoa will spread 180 km (or 1.6 degrees of latitude) closer to the poles through the warming oceans by 2050. By 2100, average ocean temperatures will increase by about 2.5 degrees Celsius according to conservative estimates. Accordingly, Amphisteginid foraminifera will progress another almost 300 kilometers -- about 2.5 degrees of latitude -- closer to the poles.

Ocean acidification -- survival of the fittest

"Our models are forecasting rates of spread of up to eight kilometers per year," says doctoral student Anna Weinmann from the Steinmann-Institut at the University of Bonn. Corals can spread into new territories at similarly high rates. They do, however, have problems with the acidification of the oceans that accompanies the increasing carbon dioxide rate in the atmosphere. The skeletons of corals consist of aragonite and are thus much more sensitive to acids than the fora-minifera's calcite shell. "Amphisteginids and other foraminifera are increasingly taking over calcium carbonate production from corals, thus occupying their ecological niche. This is a role reversal in process," reports Prof. Langer.

Calcium carbonate producers are stabilizing the coastlines and reefs

The rapid range extension and proliferation of amphisteginid and other tropical foraminifera will characterize tropical ocean floors of the future. There also is abundant evidence from the past to support this hypothesis; especially since these calcite protozoa have been inhabiting the oceans for about 600 million years already. "The fossil record shows that whenever during the history of Earth the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere was considerably higher and the oceans were clearly warmer, foraminifera were among the most frequently occurring carbonate producers in tropical oceans," says the micropaleontologist. The capability to rapidly expand their biogeographic territory under changing climate conditions, and their prolific production of calcium carbonate, will make them key ecosystem engineers for the stabilization of reefs, beaches and islands. Island nations are already pointing to the rising ocean levels and increasing damage to their coasts today. Prof. Langer, "Amphisteginids and other foraminifera will rapidly spread in the decades to come and will contribute substantially to future tropical reef island resilience."

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Journal Reference:

1. Martin R. Langer, Anna E. Weinmann, Stefan L?tters, Joan M. Bernhard, Dennis R?dder. Climate-Driven Range Extension of Amphistegina (Protista, Foraminiferida): Models of Current and Predicted Future Ranges. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (2): e54443 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0054443

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/~3/LNurDBE25z8/130206190628.htm

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Aviary Continues To Solidify Its Position As The Go-To Photo Editing Solution With Photobucket Partnership

Photo editing focused company Aviary has had the best six months ever in the tech space, snatching partnership deals with companies like Yahoo! and Flickr and most recently Twitter. What is becoming apparent is that there is an absolute need for a solid photo editing experience in many apps, and Aviary’s tools are there to serve the need. That’s a really good place to be in. It’s much more than just “filters.” Today, Photobucket announced a partnership with Aviary to bring those tools to its users, which have uploaded over 10 billion photos. If you remember, Photobucket is the company that parted ways with Twitter as it set out to do its own photo service along with Aviary. Additionally, Aviary announced a new CEO in late December, Tobias Peggs, and the company doesn’t seem to be missing a beat. It says it currently has over 2,500 partners, 25 million-plus monthly users and 2 billion edited photos. In a blog post, this is how Aviary described the partnership with Photobucket, as far as which tools it would be integrating: Photobucket turned to Aviary to provide robust and consistent cross-platform photo editing capabilities for its users. We carefully design our SDKs to be native to each platform we offer — iOS, Android, Windows Phone, HTML5 — so the product is strong, the deployment is simple, and users get a seamless and intuitive photo editing experience no matter where they are. Today, you?ll find Aviary on Photobucket?s website, and soon, on its iOS and Android apps. Its previous CEO, Avi Muchnick, told me in December that the company is trying very hard to “democratize creativity.” Aviary’s new CEO sat down with us to speak about how the transition is going and how the Photobucket deal came about: TC: How have you settled into your new role, was the transition pretty seamless? Tobias Peggs: The transition seems to have gone very well. I’ve known co-founders Avi and Iz for a while, and we’ve always enjoyed thinking through business issues or product problems together – so that helps a lot. Plus they had put a fantastic team together in NYC, which made things even easier for me when I joined. And, of course, Aviary has got tremendous momentum right now – crazy growth, big-name partner announcements, etc. So my job has really been to transition in and simply try to help everyone in the company

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/J1yuv5B3a5Q/

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Boy Scouts on edge as they await decision on gays

Jacquelyn Martin / AP

Pascal Tessier, 16, center left, a Scout, and his brother Lucien Tessier, 20, who had earned the rank of Eagle Scout, pose for a portrait with their parents, Oliver Tessier, left, and Tracie Felker, at their home in Kensington, Maryland, on Monday. The two Tessier boys enjoyed Cub Scouts, progressed to Boy Scouts, and continued to thrive there even as many in their troop became aware that each boy was gay.

By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

Published at 4:45 a.m. ET: Special prayers have been urged, petitions handed in, phone calls placed and pleas for a delay made, all over a decision on an issue that has rocked one of America?s most popular youth organizations: whether or not gays can join the Boy Scouts.

A decision by national Scout leaders is expected Wednesday. Some fear an unwanted new era, while others are welcoming what they believe is an overdue change that comes amid other recent gains for the LGBT rights movement nationwide.

President Barack Obama has twice weighed in on the issue, earlier this week affirming his support for including gays in the Boy Scouts of America, while former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has called for an end to what he labelled the ?war on Scouts.?

?The Boy Scouts are a fundamental part of this nation?s moral bedrock and they are one of our great cultural institutions. We have trusted them to grow and develop our young men for over a century,? Zach Wahls, an Eagle Scout and son of a lesbian couple campaigning for gays to be included, said Tuesday. ?They?re a big deal, and that is why this proposed change is so critically important.?

Advocates on both sides of the issue have stepped up their campaigns ahead of the BSA's final decision: They?ve encouraged their backers to?make their voices heard through a phone-in and email deluge. A conservative group, the Family Research Council, said that it and 41 other groups ran a newspaper ad on Monday asking the BSA not to change the policy, and some conservative religious groups have urged their supporters to join in prayer to ask the board not to accept gays.

Related:?'Gravely distressed': Religion looms large over Boy Scouts decision on gays?

John Makely / NBC News file

Ryan Andresen had recently completed the requirements to earning his Eagle Scout award, including his final project of building a "tolerance wall" for victims of bullying like himself, but his Scoutmaster would not sign off on honoring him with the Boy Scouts' highest ranking because he is gay, his mother said. Here, Ryan holds an Eagle Scout pin that was sent to him from a supporter.

A coalition of Boy Scouts councils representing some 540,000 youth -- or 20 percent of the organization?s 2.6 million active Scouts -- asked the national organization on Monday to delay a decision on ending the controversial policy, saying it was concerned ?about the pace at which such actions are being taken,? according to a statement posted on the website of the Utah-based Great Salt Lake Council. ??

Roger ?Sing? Oldham, spokesman for the conservative Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, said the outpouring of feedback on the issue came as no surprise to him since his group felt the BSA had not allowed opponents of the change to weigh in on the proposal, which?was announced just a little more than one week ago?and was being reviewed by national leaders.

Oldham said he had spoken with some troop leaders, pastors and parents who have expressed concern about the way forward if gays are allowed, particularly those units that will try to maintain the ban locally as would be permitted under the proposal.?For more than two-thirds of Scouting groups affiliated with religious bodies, faith plays a large role in the private youth organization.

?When local chapters begin realizing the financial liability that they face if they exercise the local option then ? they?re going to have to say we either fall into step or we have just to end the relationship,? he said. ?There?ll be attrition over time and, you know, the Scouts will have permanently altered the face of who they are into the future.?

'Feeling of shame'
Some have said they will even leave the organization over the issue.

Angela Russell, who has an 11-year-old in the Boy Scouts and a 9-year-old in the Cub Scouts, said that if the BSA allows gays, particularly as leaders, they would be ?breaking their own highly held codes to be ?morally straight? and to commit to such principles via oaths and promises.?

If the ban is lifted, ?I must remove my boys from this program. My heart truly aches to think of it,? Russell, of Auburn, Wash., wrote in a letter she emailed to NBC News.??However, to leave them in a program that goes against its own teachings would be worse.?

But another mother, of a Boy Scout and two Cub Scouts, said she had ?been torn for years? over the policy since her own mother is a lesbian and allowing gays would be a relief.

?I am very happy about the things my children have learned and the tools they have been given from the program,? Gina Beaudry, 37, of Raleigh, N.C., who will be the Cub Scoutmaster for her sons pack this year, wrote in an email to NBC News.?

?To have this ban lifted would take away some of the feeling of shame I feel for the organization that has been so beneficial to my children.?I would hate to see any child or parent not feel like they were welcome in the program.?

Related:?After years of heartache, gay Scouts and supporters react warily over proposal to lift ban

The proposed policy change comes just seven months after the BSA said it was sticking with its ban following a confidential two-year review.

That review was announced months after Jennifer Tyrrell was dismissed from her post as leader of her son?s Tiger Cubs den because she is a lesbian, and a few months before California teen Ryan Andresen was denied his Eagle award because he is gay.

Both cases made national headlines, roiling the private youth organization. Some critics pointed to declining membership numbers as a sign that families were being turned off over the issue. The controversy also prompted a few hundred Eagle Scouts to turn in their hard-earned regalia in protest of the ban, which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in 2000.

Wahls believes the Boy Scouts will lift the exclusion of gays and rejects the idea it will cause any ?mass exodus.?

?We don?t think that that?s going to be a problem at all and think that this move will definitely bolster Scouting for future generations,? he said, later adding, ?Our generation has embraced LGBT rights, and like all things, Scouting should not be playing catch up, it should be blazing the trail.?

Related:?

Gay teen denied Eagle Scout: 'Change is happening' over Boy Scouts anti-gay policy

Eagle Scouts return badges to protest policy banning gays

Boy Scouts: We're keeping policy banning gays?

If you are a current or former member of the Boy Scouts and would like to share your thoughts on how your troop, pack or council is handling the possibility of a change in the membership policy, you can email the reporter at miranda.leitsinger@msnbc.com. We may use some comments for a follow-up story, so please specify if your remarks can be used and provide your name, hometown, age, Boy Scout affiliation and a phone number.

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/06/16859099-boy-scouts-on-edge-as-they-await-decision-on-gays?lite

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Robert De Niro cements place in Hollywood movies

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Double Oscar winner Robert De Niro cemented his place in acting history on Monday by placing his hands and feet in concrete in front of Hollywood's historic Chinese Theatre.

De Niro, 69, gave a short thank you speech with a few punchlines of his own.

"(Actor) Joe Pesci always said I'd end up with my feet in cement. I don't think this is what he had in mind," said De Niro, referring to the many gangster movies he has filmed over his 40-year career.

"They say everyone in the film industry has three homes - the home where they live, the home where their first wife lives, and Hollywood. I love New York, and I'm proud to be a citizen of Hollywood. Thank you for this honor and thank you for making me feel at home here," he said.

De Niro, who founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002 in a bid to revive lower Manhattan after the September 11, 2001, attacks, is in the running for a third Oscar this month for his supporting role in comedy "Silver Linings Playbook."

Billy Crystal, who played therapist to De Niro's insecure mob boss in the 1999 film "Analyze This," praised the New York actor for his ability to bridge comedies like "Meet the Parents" and dramas such as "GoodFellas" and "Taxi Driver."

"Even in his darkest performances, even in 'Raging Bull' ... he could make you laugh, and that he did in spades in 'Analyze This.' ... I'm not used to playing straight for anybody, but it was a thrill of a lifetime to be on the opposite side of that genius," Crystal said.

"Silver Linings Playbook" director David O. Russell praised De Niro's sensitivity in taking on the role of the father of a bipolar son in the movie.

"When we first read the script together he cried because he has known people who struggled with PTSD or bipolar disorder. ... Many families are no stranger to these challenges and they have to find the magic and the love that Bob brought in his soul, and he did bring his soul to this movie," Russell said.

De Niro won Oscars for his lead role in "Raging Bull" and his supporting turn in "The Godfather: Part II."

His handprints and footprints in the courtyard of the Chinese Theatre are near those of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Brad Pitt and George Clooney.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Xavier Briand)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/robert-niro-cements-place-hollywood-movies-032519143.html

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Gay, Latino groups forge immigration alliance

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? As a gay Mexican immigrant living in the United States illegally, Alex Aldana acutely understands his double-minority status. Not only does he fear deportation, he can't seek citizenship by marrying a partner because the federal government doesn't recognize same-sex marriages.

He and other gay activists are hoping the new immigration debate at the top of Washington's agenda will change that, and they are betting on a newly forged but still fragile alliance between a pair of voting blocs considered critical to President Obama's re-election: Latinos and the gay community.

The gay rights movement is working to make sure bi-national same-sex couples are included in immigration reform legislation making its way toward Congress, a tricky task for a constituency at the nexus of two hot-button social issues. So far, it has done so with strong backing from its liberal Latino partners.

Groups such as the League of United Latin American Citizens, the National Council de la Raza and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund ? all of which endorsed same-sex unions last year ? reiterated this week that married gays should be part of a reform plan that provides a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S.

Both Obama and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus have included bi-national gay couples in their immigration reform blueprints. The framework that eight leading Democratic and Republican senators unveiled this week did not.

Republicans John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, two of the senators working to hammer out a bipartisan immigration bill, already have rejected the idea that gay immigrants have a place in the coming debate.

"I'm telling you now, if you load this up with social issues and things that are controversial, then it will endanger" the endeavor, said McCain, whose wife and daughter support marriage rights for same-sex couples. He does not.

Aldana, 26, is torn. He encourages Hispanic groups to include gay rights in their struggle, but reminds gay activists that immigration rights go far beyond just fighting for legal residency for foreigners in same-sex marriages.

"The reality is that immigration is not just about married couples. That's a middle-class concern. It's a privilege I support, but it's not something that will benefit all our immigrant communities," Aldana said.

Rep. Mike Honda, a California Democrat and vice-chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus, plans to reintroduce stand-alone legislation next week in hopes of getting its provisions incorporated in any overarching immigration bill that reaches the Republican-controlled House.

"In the bow of the ship is immigration reform, and the big iceberg out there is reuniting families with bi-national couples," Honda said. "They cannot be excluded from the definition of family. Otherwise, we can't call it comprehensive."

Another factor is the U.S. Supreme Court's consideration in late March of the federal law that currently bars U.S. citizens in same-sex marriages from sponsoring their foreign-born partners for permanent legal residency. If justices uphold the Defense of Marriage Act, gay-friendly lawmakers would have less leverage to press the issue.

Gay rights leaders have focused attention on building strategic coalitions with ethnic and racial minority groups since the passage in 2008 of California's constitutional ban on same-sex marriages. Exit polling showed that about seven of 10 black voters and more than half of Latinos supported Proposition 8 on the same day Obama first won the White House, revealing a gap between gay groups that were seen as white and privileged and minority communities that were viewed as inherently anti-gay.

Ari Gutierrez, chairwoman of the Latino Equality Alliance, a Los Angeles-based group of gay, lesbian and transgender Hispanics, said important inroads have been made since the election. Gay contingents now participate in the immigrant rights marches held every May Day. Last week, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force sponsored the first daylong workshop at its annual organizing conference devoted to working in Latino communities.

"There is work that still needs to be shored up, but I think it's pretty much understood that, if it's legal for one, it should be legal for the other," Gutierrez said.

A survey by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released in October, just before Latino and gay voters were credited with key roles in Obama's re-election, found support for gay marriage rising quickly among Latinos, with 53 percent favoring allowing gay and lesbian couples to wed. When the same survey was conducted in 2006, 56 percent of Latinos opposed same-sex unions.

Ultimately, though, decisions about whose needs are addressed and whose are left for another day lies with lawmakers and the White House, not the good intentions of advocacy groups, said Frank Gilliam, dean of the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"If I were a Democratic Senate aide and this (issue) was a discussion in our staff meeting, I would tell our member that this is something you better be prepared to give up," Gilliam said. "We are talking politics. We are not talking about what the right thing to do is."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gay-latino-groups-forge-immigration-alliance-193804667.html

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GameStick wraps up successful Kickstarter run with nearly $650K

With a sum totaling around six times what the folks at PlayJam initially requested, the GameStick Kickstarter campaign can certainly be called a success. The project ended today just shy of $650K ($647,658 to be precise), resulting in its successful funding. Now all the folks at PlayJam have to do is deliver on the promise of their Kickstarter: produce and ship around 5,500 GameStick's by April (not to mention the Dock, and various special edition versions of the GameStick itself). A tall order, but one no doubt assisted by an infusion of cash six times what PlayJam expected to be working with. The model seen above is the final controller design, remodeled based on feedback from the backers that brought GameStick to life. It's the final model backers will see when their unit arrives this April.

Filed under: Gaming, HD

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/01/gamestick-kickstarter-end/

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Video: Protesters, police clash outside presidential palace

>> >>> we have developing news and protesters in cairo converged on the presidential palace there. they're throwing molotov cocktails and stones at the palace for hours. we have images showing what's going on. you see there morsi issued a statement condemning the violence. his spokesperson is now warning security forces will fight back to protect state property . joining me now from cairo, nbc news foreign correspondent aman mohadene. what's the latest there?

>> reporter: good afternoon. for several hours now, police pushing protesters back outside the presidential palace . let's try to set the scene a little bit. because it's really all about the timing that surprised so many people. earlier today, there were calls for large protests, demonstrations as we have seen all week long and called for by major political forces and called on to be peaceful and no violence whatsoever. when they arrived, the police was not on the outside of the palace walls. no military there and relatively peaceful protest and then all of a sudden they started to throwing molotov cocktails . a portion of the presidential palace we could see did catch on fire. that was extinguished. shortly after that, riot police pushed out of the presidential palace and started firing teargas at the protesters and the scene around it remains very chaotic. tremendous amount of mayhem there. dozens of protesters injured but a lot of political forces condemning the violence and questions as to how the peaceful protest once again turned violent. it's also triggered spontaneous outbursts of protests behind us here in downtown cairo . another march under way. expected to be a long night across the capital.

>> a spokesperson for morsi warning that security forces will fight back to protect state property . what options or what does that specifically mean in pushing back? we know certainly the anger and hostility especially at morsi and any pushback from him could turn this from violence seeing now to something far more explosive and fightening.

>> absolutely. you know, there's a growing sense of frustration among many egyptians angered by how violent many of the protests are. so the police today have been asked by not only the presidency but other political forces to use force. egypt's police force is notorious for using brutal techniques, sometimes live ammunition, killing protest earls as we saw in the revolution. the fear is that the police because they're not well equipped, not well trained when they use statements like that coming out of the presidential palace they'll use decisive force, it could mean more bloodshed. it scares a lot of people across the country. right now the police using teargas, rubber bullets to keep the protesters at bay but we have seen it does violent and deadly very quickly sometimes.

>> thank you very much, ayman.

>>> coming up, nate silver applauded for his accuracy of the presidential election but what does he say about the big game sunday? that's just one of the things we thought

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/newsnation/50670182/

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No Chemical Arms in Syrian Convoy Hit by Israel Airstrike, Source Suggests

A Syrian military transport vehicle struck by Israeli fighter planes close to the Lebanese border on Wednesday is not believed to have been transporting chemical weapons, an anonymous source told Reuters.

Sources said the airstrike occurred on the Syrian side of the boundary line with Lebanon. It follows closely threats made by Tel Aviv of its readiness to use military force to prevent Hezbollah and other regional nonstate actors from acquiring Syrian chemical warfare materials.

"The target was a truck loaded with weapons, heading from Syria to Lebanon," an anonymous Western envoy told Reuters, continuing that the vehicle could have been transporting antiaircraft missiles.

A different source affiliated with Syrian opposition forces said the truck was likely transporting antiaircraft and antitank missiles, though not chemical arms. Israel "attacked trucks carrying sophisticated weapons from the [Bashar Assad] regime to Hezbollah," the source said.

A locally based defense source described the incident as essentially "a warning by Israel to Syria and Hezbollah not to engage in the transfer of sensitive weapons. Assad knows his survival depends on his military capabilities and he would not want those capabilities neutralized by Israel -- so the message is this kind of transfer is simply not worth it."

When asked about the airstrike on Wednesday, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told journalists, "I don't have any comment for you at all on those reports."

The Israeli government has declined to discuss the airstrike.

Source: http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/no-chemical-arms-syrian-convoy-hit-israel-air-strike-sources/

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LG Spirit 4G arrives on MetroPCS, delivers 4.5-inch display and ICS to the budget-minded crowd

We are definitely no strangers to seeing MetroPCS bring well-priced, decently-specced Android handsets to market, and we have a feeling that's something potential and current subscribers certainly appreciate. Because, well, who doesn't like choice? With today's LG Spirit 4G launch, MetroPCS continues to expand its LTE-at-a-bargain ideals, announcing a smartphone that carries some pretty decent specs for being contract-free and costing a mere 269 bucks. Naturally, the 4.5-inch display is among the Spirit's main highlights, but there's also an unspecified 1.2GHz, dual-core CPU, a 5-megapixel rear shooter capable of 1080p video, and Ice Cream Sandwich, to boot. The carrier's quick to point out that its newly introduced slab is a follow-up to that LG Motion 4G we saw last year, and that it's compatible with those LTE plans which were unveiled earlier this month. It's worth noting that while the LG Spirit 4G's official MSRP is $269, MetroPCS will have it up for grabs, starting today, at the cheaper price of $199 -- that, of course, after a beloved mail-in rebate and for "a limited time" only. You'll find a couple more press shots after the break, and be sure to hit the source link if you're interested in grabbing one of these for yourself.

Gallery: LG Spirit 4G arrives on MetroPCS

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Source: MetroPCS

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Judge Koh finds Samsung infringement of Apple patents was not willful, won't triple damages

Judge Lucy Koh has decided on several post-trial motions from Samsung and Apple in their long running patent case, overturning one key element of the jury's ruling while upholding several others. What was overturned was the jury's ruling that Samsung's acts of patent infringement were willful, which meant Judge Koh could have tripled some parts of the $1 billion+ in damages granted to Apple. On the other hand, she also rejected Samsung's request for a new trial, and invalidated two claims a wireless patent it holds. AppleInsider posted the decision to Scribd, which you can find embedded after the break, hit the source links for a few other looks at the ruling and what this means going forward. Naturally of course, it's not over yet (it's never over) as each company can still appeal elements of the ruling, and other appeals in the case are already ongoing.

Orders on Motions for Judgment as Matter of Law by Mikey Campbell

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple, Samsung

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Source: Apple Insider, FOSS Patents, The Verge

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/29/apple-samsung-willful-infringement/

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US regulator asks Boeing for full battery history

FILE - In this Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013 photo provided by the Japan Transport Safety Board shows the distorted main lithium-ion battery, left, and an undamaged auxiliary battery of the All Nippon Airways' Boeing 787 which made an emergency landing on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013 at Takamatsu airport in Takamatsu, western Japan. Japan's transport safety agency says a lithium ion battery on a Boeing 787 that overheated during an All Nippon Airways flight earlier this month, prompting an emergency landing, was not overcharged. (AP Photo/Japan Transport Safety Board) EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES

FILE - In this Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013 photo provided by the Japan Transport Safety Board shows the distorted main lithium-ion battery, left, and an undamaged auxiliary battery of the All Nippon Airways' Boeing 787 which made an emergency landing on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013 at Takamatsu airport in Takamatsu, western Japan. Japan's transport safety agency says a lithium ion battery on a Boeing 787 that overheated during an All Nippon Airways flight earlier this month, prompting an emergency landing, was not overcharged. (AP Photo/Japan Transport Safety Board) EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES

FILE - In this Friday, Jan. 18, 2013 file photo, an All Nippon Airways' Boeing 787 "the Dreamliner" parks on the tarmac as a Japan Airlines' Boeing 767 airplane takes off at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. ANA and JAL said they replaced lithium-ion batteries in their Boeing 787 Dreamliners on multiple occasions before a battery overheating incident led to the worldwide grounding of the jets. ANA said Wednesday, Jan. 30, it replaced batteries on its 787 aircraft some 10 times because they failed to charge properly or showed other problems, and informed Boeing about the swaps. JAL said it had also replaced lithium-ion batteries on its 787 jets but couldn't immediately give details. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File)

TOKYO (AP) ? U.S. regulators said Wednesday they asked Boeing Co. to provide a full operating history of lithium-ion batteries used in its grounded 787 Dreamliners after Japan's All Nippon Airways revealed it had repeatedly replaced the batteries even before overheating problems surfaced.

National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson said the agency made the request after recently becoming aware of battery problems at ANA that occurred before a Jan. 7 battery fire in a 787 parked at Boston's Logan International Airport. Boeing has already collected some of the information, he said.

ANA said it had replaced batteries on its 787 aircraft some 10 times because they failed to charge properly or showed other problems, and informed Boeing about the swaps. Japan Airlines also said it had replaced 787 batteries. It described the number involved as a few but couldn't immediately give further details.

All 50 of the Boeing 787s in use around the world remain grounded after an ANA flight on Jan. 16 made an emergency landing in Japan when its main battery overheated.

Lithium-ion batteries are prone to overheating and require additional safeguards to prevent fires. However, ANA spokeswoman Megumi Tezuka said the airline was not required to report the battery replacements to Japan's Transport Ministry because they did not interfere with flights and did not raise safety concerns.

Having to replace batteries on aircraft is not uncommon and was not considered out of the ordinary, she said.

Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, said in Washington that the agency was checking whether the previous battery incidents had been reported by Boeing.

With 17 of the jets, ANA was Boeing's launch customer for the technologically advanced airliner. The airline has had to cancel hundreds of flights, affecting tens of thousands of people, but has sought to minimize disruptions by switching to other aircraft as much as possible.

The battery problems experienced by ANA before the emergency landing were first reported by The New York Times.

Japanese and U.S. investigators looking into the Boeing 787's battery problems shifted their attention this week from the battery-maker, GS Yuasa of Kyoto, Japan, to the manufacturer of a monitoring system. That company, Kanto Aircraft Instrument Co. makes a system that monitors voltage, charging and temperature of the lithium-ion batteries.

On Tuesday, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it was conducting a chemical analysis of internal short circuiting and thermal damage of the battery that caught fire in Boston.

The probe is also analyzing data from flight data recorders on the aircraft, the NTSB said in a statement on its website.

___

Joan Lowy reported from Washington.

___

Follow Elaine Kurtenbach on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ekurtenbach

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-30-Japan-Boeing%20787/id-d1e65f3720e241dda6226e462fd4b08e

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High-tech cargo airship being built in California

The Aeroscraft airship, a high-tech prototype airship, is seen in a World War II-era hangar in Tustin, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013. Work is almost done on a 230-foot rigid airship inside a blimp hangar at a former military base in Orange Co. The huge cargo-carrying airship is has shiny aluminum skin and a rigid, 230-foot aluminum and carbon fiber skeleton. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

The Aeroscraft airship, a high-tech prototype airship, is seen in a World War II-era hangar in Tustin, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013. Work is almost done on a 230-foot rigid airship inside a blimp hangar at a former military base in Orange Co. The huge cargo-carrying airship is has shiny aluminum skin and a rigid, 230-foot aluminum and carbon fiber skeleton. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Leonel Cruz pulls down the flab on the Aeroscraft airship, a high-tech prototype airship, in a World War II-era hangar in Tustin, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013. Work is almost done on a 230-foot rigid airship inside a blimp hangar at a former military base in Orange Co. The huge cargo-carrying airship is has shiny aluminum skin and a rigid, 230-foot aluminum and carbon fiber skeleton. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

The Aeroscraft airship, a high-tech prototype airship, is seen in a World War II-era hangar in Tustin, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013. Work is almost done on a 230-foot rigid airship inside a blimp hangar at a former military base in Orange Co. The huge cargo-carrying airship is has shiny aluminum skin and a rigid, 230-foot aluminum and carbon fiber skeleton. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Bradley Hasemeyer, the host of AOL's Trasnlogic show, uses his smartphone to photograph the Aeroscraft airship, a high-tech prototype airship, outside a World War II-era hangar in Tustin, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013. Work is almost done on a 230-foot rigid airship inside the blimp hangar at a former military base in Orange Co. The huge cargo-carrying airship is has shiny aluminum skin and a rigid, 230-foot aluminum and carbon fiber skeleton. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

The Aeroscraft airship, a high-tech prototype airship, is seen in a World War II-era hangar in Tustin, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013. Work is almost done on a 230-foot rigid airship inside a blimp hangar at a former military base in Orange Co. The huge cargo-carrying airship is has shiny aluminum skin and a rigid, 230-foot aluminum and carbon fiber skeleton. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

TUSTIN, Calif. (AP) ? The massive blimp-like aircraft flies but just barely, hovering only a dozen feet off a military hangar floor during flight testing south of Los Angeles.

Still, the fact that the hulking Aeroscraft could fly for just a few minutes represents a step forward in aviation, according to the engineers who developed it. The Department of Defense and NASA have invested $35 million in the prototype because of its potential to one day carry more cargo than any other aircraft to disaster zones and forward military bases.

"I realized that I put a little dot in the line of aviation history. A little dot for something that has never been demonstrated before, now it's feasible," said flight control engineer Munir Jojo-Verge.

The airship is undergoing testing this month at Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin, and must go through several more rounds of flight testing before it could be used in a disaster zone or anywhere else. The first major flight test took place Jan. 3.

The biggest challenge for engineers is making sure the airship will be able to withstand high winds and other extreme weather conditions, Jojo-Verge said.

Worldwide Aeros, the company that developed the aircraft, said it also must secure more funding for the next round of flight testing, but is hopeful the Defense Department and others will step in again as investors.

The company says the cargo airship's potential to carry more cargo more efficiently than ever before would provide the U.S. military with an advantage on the battlefield and greater capacity to save more lives during natural disasters.

The lighter-than-air vehicle is not a blimp or a zeppelin because it has a rigid structure made out of ultra-light carbon fiber and aluminum underneath its high-tech Mylar skin. Inside, balloons hold the helium that gives the vehicle lift. Unlike hydrogen, the gas used in the Hindenburg airship that crashed in 1937, helium is not flammable.

The airship functions like a submarine, releasing air to rise and taking in air to descend, said Aeros mechanical engineer Tim Kenny. It can take off vertically, like a helicopter, then change its buoyancy to become heavier than air for landing and unloading.

"It allows the vehicle to set down on the ground. And then when we want to become lighter than air, we release that air and then the vehicle floats and we can allow it to take off," Kenny said.

The project has set abuzz the old hangars at the Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin. The structures were built to hold blimps during World War II. Now workers zip around in cherry-pickers, and the airship's silvery surface shines against the warm tones of the aging wood of the walls.

"You could take this vehicle and go to destinations that have been destroyed, where there's no ports, no runways, stuff like that. This vehicle could go in there, offload the cargo even if there's no infrastructure, no landing site for it to land on, this vehicle can unload its whole payload," said Kenny.

Next, Aeros wants to build a full-size 450-foot-long vehicle that can carry 66 tons of payload.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-01-30-Military%20Airship/id-c706e74aece54dd6a306115a15881937

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