Google Keyboard (for Android)

Perhaps taking a page from Apple's playbook, Google has incorporated the ideas pioneered first by Swype and then SwiftKey and rolled outtheir own keyboard app. The app includes Swype-sorry, "gesture typing," predictive text, multiple language and keyboard support, and a unique feature: Floating Preview. While Google's low-cost (free) alternative keyboard is perfectly serviceable, it left me wanting more.

Starting Up
Unless it was shipped standard on your Android device (as is the case for several Samsung phones), you'll have to configure any keyboard app once you download it from Google Play. Google Keyboard walks you through the process, and the typically clean Google-esque screens make short work of it.

Google deserve some credit for making a single app that works on both tablets and phones?SwiftKey has separate apps for phones and tablets.

During set up, activating multiple languages in Google Keyboard confused me. First, I had to uncheck "use device language," and then select others from a list of 56 languages which was otherwise greyed out. These appear to be non-Latin text keyboards, though it was unclear to me.

Further customization is found in the Settings, which you access by tapping the app's desktop shortcut. Settings covers the normal gamut of options, though was notably missing multiple keyboard skins and had no alternative keyboard layouts like SwiftKey's split keyboard.

Also missing was a social integration component. With SwiftKey or Swype, you can let the app scan your Twitter, email, or Facebook to pick out words and patterns of speech unique to you.

I did like that Google Keyboard not only builds a custom dictionary of words, but allows you to add words from within the app. Other keyboard apps don't allow you to directly interact with your dictionary, except through the keyboard itself. Google makes this process much easier.

Perhaps in a swipe (pun?) at Apple, Google Keyboard does the double-space-bar-as-a-period trick.

You can also add alternate dictionaries from a list of 25 languages and formats. Again, I was confused about the dictionary/non-Latin keyboard dichotomy, which the other keyboard apps handle better. Also, both Swype and SwiftKey support over 60 languages, and SwiftKey was particularly well set up for switching seamlessly between languages.

Writing With Google Keyboard
There's little aesthetically different between Google's keyboard and the stock Android keyboard you see on most phones, with thick white letters on generously spaced chiclet keys. SwiftKey's default keyboard uses longer, distinctively shaped keys that stand out among other drab keyboards.

Taking a page from SwiftKey, Google Keyboard shows three suggested words above the keyboard as you type. Also like SwiftKey, Google Keyboard shows three next word suggestions, intended to save you the trouble of typing. This can speed up your typing quite a bit, but it didn't feel as smart as SwiftKey. Google Keyboard didn't appear to adapt to my writing, and the company does not list it as a feature of the app. That's disappointing, since I was really impressed with SwiftKey's adaptive language learning.

Google Keyboard cleverly includes a much larger list of possible words, which you access by tapping and holding an ellipses symbol below the center word suggestion. I liked this much better than Swype's ribbon of possible words.

Google Keyboard also supports "gesture typing," more commonly known as Swyping, where you drag your finger between letters to spell out words. SwiftKey called this feature Flow, and included it in their last major update. I actually thought Google's gestures felt tighter, and more responsive than other keyboard apps.?

As you move your thumb between letters, a thick Google-blue trail follows in your digit's wake. Once you release your thumb, the center word is placed in the text. To start over without adding text, simply drag your thumb off the keyboard. While Swyping, Google Keyboard displays its top three suggestions, though you can only select them as corrections after the fact.

Floating Preview is Google's main innovation with Swype-style input. While moving across the keyboard, a grey window hovers near your thumb showing the word Google thinks you want. Since my eye generally follows my thumb, I always knew what to expect and this was a big improvement over Swype and SwiftKey which often felt like blind luck typing.

Swype came pre-bundled with their Dragon dictation software as well as a handwriting recognition option. Google ignores handwriting, and its presence is not missed, though it does include a button to activate its built-in dictation software.

Google Does Good, Not Great
I think that Google sees Swype-style input as a major differentiator between Android and a radically changing iOS. If this is a flag-ship feature, Google probably wants to make sure every single Android user can get a hold of it. That's why they've brought this free, good-not-great app to market in the first place. Expect it to be standard in future versions of the OS.

And frankly, that's a good thing. Though it seems strange at first, Swyping (or whatever you want to call it) is a great way to interact with your phone and feels like the first major innovation in smartphone user design since pinch and zoom.

Android users should absolutely down some kind of keyboard app. Google's free offering is perfectly fine if you don't need extra features. Swype is feature laden, and even includes a mobile version of Dragon Dictate and cloud syncing for your dictionaries. SwiftKey puts big emphasis on adaptive learning, and felt better suited for users who frequently use multiple languages. Choose your weapon.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/fvKq5Xt0gZI/0,2817,2421136,00.asp

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US Lab to Reduce Biomedical Testing on Chimpanzees (Voice Of America)

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The Internet Chooses the Movies at This Clever Stoop Cinema

We've seen loads of pop-up urbanism over the past few years, from parks to libraries, all designed to turn dead urban space into lively ones. But how do you stop people from immersing themselves in their phone screens in public? By building a larger screen, where they can be immersed together!

A group of designers in Auckland?who go by the name Oh No Sumo?installed this tiny theater on a street corner that they describe as a "hardscape," where "members of the public retreat individually into the media offered on their mobile phones." The timber-and-fabric tent is designed to counteract that innocuous behavior: YouTube videos and short films, playing on the screen from a projector above the entrence of the building, give people a reason to stop by and hang out.

Who chose the videos? The public, via the internet, of course. People could suggest videos and films online, and the Oh No Sumo team would add them to the playlist. "Short movies previously shared online, are projected for the public to enjoy, offering similar media to that sought out on their phones," explain the designers. "A community must be linked not only virtually but also physically." This particular pop-up theater is now a thing of the past, but keep your eyes peeled?this seems to be a trend. [CollabCubed]

Photo by Simon Devitt.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/the-internet-chooses-the-movies-at-this-clever-stoop-ci-602564034

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PFT: Photo shows Hernandez with gun in '09

AP

At at time when the authorities and the Patriots have taken stunning and decisive action against Aaron Hernandez, the National Football League has done nothing.

The NFL will continue to do nothing, until it has a reason to do something.

?NFL clubs were advised today that if Aaron Hernandez enters into a player contract prior to the resolution of the charges pending against him, the contract will not be approved or take effect until Commissioner Roger Goodell holds a hearing,? the league said in a statement forwarded to PFT by NFL spokesman Greg Aiello.? ?The purpose of the hearing would be to determine whether Hernandez should be suspended or face other action prior to the charges being resolved.?

The league?s position makes sense.? Why suspend a guy who is unemployed, and currently unemployable?? The league?s stance makes teams even less likely to be interested in Hernandez, since it makes clear that, if anyone tries to give the guy a job, they?ll first have to deal with persuading Goodell to let them employ Hernandez.

As a result, Hernandez?s status won?t be relevant unless and until he is cleared on murder charges.? And things could get interesting if he?s acquitted in an O.J. Simpson-style outcome, where half of the country or more believes that, even though he was found not guilty, he still did it.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/06/26/photo-emerges-of-hernandez-posing-with-glock-in-2009/related/

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Sneak Peek at the Damage a Nerf N-Strike Elite Centurion Blaster Does

This is very stupid.

So Nerf sent us a gigantic rail gun, essentially, and we're going to, you know, review it. But not before going up to the roof and testing it out on humans. Ashley, who is a jerk, shot me in the ear.

It hurts.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/sneak-peek-at-the-damage-a-nerf-n-strike-elite-centurio-597642250

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Al-Qaida said to be changing its ways after leaks

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. listens to testimony on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 18, 2013, by National Security Agency (NSA) Gen. Keith B. Alexander during the committee's hearing regarding NSA surveillance. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. listens to testimony on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 18, 2013, by National Security Agency (NSA) Gen. Keith B. Alexander during the committee's hearing regarding NSA surveillance. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? U.S. intelligence agencies are scrambling to salvage their surveillance of al-Qaida and other terrorists who are working frantically to change how they communicate after a National Security Agency contractor leaked details of two NSA spying programs. It's an electronic game of cat-and-mouse that could have deadly consequences if a plot is missed or a terrorist operative manages to drop out of sight.

Two U.S. intelligence officials say members of virtually every terrorist group, including core al-Qaida, are attempting to change how they communicate, based on what they are reading in the media, to hide from U.S. surveillance ? the first time intelligence officials have described which groups are reacting to the leaks. The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak about the intelligence matters publicly.

The officials wouldn't go into details on how they know this, whether it's terrorists switching email accounts or cellphone providers or adopting new encryption techniques, but a lawmaker briefed on the matter said al-Qaida's Yemeni offshoot, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, has been among the first to alter how it reaches out to its operatives.

The lawmaker spoke anonymously because he would not discuss the confidential briefing by name.

Shortly after Edward Snowden leaked documents about the secret NSA surveillance programs, chat rooms and websites used by like-minded extremists and would-be recruits advised users how to avoid NSA detection, from telling them not to use their real phone numbers to recommending specific online software programs to keep spies from tracking their computers' physical locations.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said there are "changes we can already see being made by the folks who wish to do us harm, and our allies harm."

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said Tuesday that Snowden "has basically alerted people who are enemies of this country ... (like) al-Qaida, about what techniques we have been using to monitor their activities and foil plots, and compromised those efforts, and it's very conceivable that people will die as a result."

At the same time, NSA and other counterterrorist analysts have been focusing their attention on the terrorists, watching their electronic communications and logging all changes, including following which Internet sites the terrorist suspects visit, trying to determine what system they might choose to avoid future detection, according to a former senior intelligence official speaking anonymously as a condition of discussing the intelligence operations.

"It's frustrating. You have to start all over again to track the target," said M.E. "Spike" Bowman, a former intelligence officer and deputy general counsel of the FBI, now a fellow at the University of Virginia's Center for National Security Law. But the NSA will catch up eventually, he predicted, because there are only so many ways a terrorist can communicate. "I have every confidence in their ability to regain access."

Terror groups switching to encrypted communication may slow the NSA, but encryption also flags the communication as something the U.S. agency considers worth listening to, according to a new batch of secret and top-secret NSA documents published last week by The Guardian, a British newspaper. They show that the NSA considers any encrypted communication between a foreigner they are watching and a U.S.-based person as fair game to gather and keep, for as long as it takes to break the code and examine it.

Documents released last week also show measures the NSA takes to gather foreign intelligence overseas, highlighting the possible fallout of the disclosures on more traditional spying. Many foreign diplomats use email systems like Hotmail for their personal correspondence. Two foreign diplomats reached this week who use U.S. email systems that the NSA monitors overseas say they plan no changes, because both diplomats said they already assumed the U.S. was able to read that type of correspondence. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss their methods of communication publicly.

The changing terrorist behavior is part of the fallout of the release of dozens of top-secret documents to the news media by Snowden, 30, a former systems analyst on contract to the NSA.

The Office of the Director for National Intelligence and the NSA declined to comment on the fallout, but the NSA's director, Gen. Keith Alexander, told lawmakers that the leaks have caused "irreversible and significant damage to this nation."

"I believe it will hurt us and our allies," Alexander said.

The leaks revealed that the NSA was scanning the worldwide use of nine U.S.-based Internet service providers, including Google, Yahoo, Skype and YouTube.

"After the leak, jihadists posted Arabic news articles about it ... and recommended fellow jihadists to be very cautious, not to give their real phone number and other such information when registering for a website," said Adam Raisman of the SITE Intelligence Group, a private analysis firm. They also gave out specific advice, recommending jihadists use privacy-protecting email systems like TOR, also called The Onion Router, to hide their computer's IP address, and to use encrypted links to access jihadi forums, Raisman said. While TOR originally was designed to help dissidents communicate in countries where the Internet is censored, it is facing legal difficulties because criminals allegedly have used it as well.

"Criminals are doing well without things like TOR," said Karen Reilly, a spokeswoman for TOR. "If TOR disappeared tomorrow they would still have secure, anonymous access to the Internet. ... Their victims would not."

Other analysts predicted a two-track evolution away from the now-exposed methods of communication: A terrorist who was using Skype to plan an attack might stop using that immediately so as not to expose the imminent operation, said Ben Venzke of the private analysis firm IntelCenter.

But if the jihadi group uses a now-exposed system like YouTube to disseminate information and recruit more followers, they'll make a gradual switch to something else that wasn't revealed by Snowden's leaks ? moving slowly in part because they'll be trying to determine whether new systems they are considering aren't also compromised, and they'll have to reach their followers and signal the change. That will take time.

"Overall, for terrorist organizations and other hostile actors, leaks of this nature serve as a wake-up call to look more closely at how they're operating and improve their security," Venzke said. "If the CIA or the FBI was to learn tomorrow that its communications are being monitored, do you think it would be business as usual or do you think they would implement a series of changes over time?"

The disclosure that intelligence agencies were listening to Osama bin Laden drove him to drop the use of all electronic communications.

"When it leaked that bin Laden was using a Thuraya cellphone, he switched to couriers," said Jane Harman, former member of the House Intelligence Committee and now director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center. "The more they know, the clearer the road map is for them."

It took more than a decade to track bin Laden down to his hiding place in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by following one of those couriers.

___

Follow Kimberly Dozier on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kimberlydozier

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-06-26-US-NSA-Surveillance-Al-Qaida/id-2a49d23069b04a11919499f59860bde9

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'Roam if you want to' - EU lowers mobile fees for summer

By Claire Davenport

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Checking email or surfing the Web on a mobile phone while travelling in the European Union will be a third cheaper from Monday under roaming cuts enforced by the EU's regulator in time for the summer holiday season.

The European Union has been eager to show its relevance to EU citizens with measures to cut the cost of consumer goods such as flights and roaming fees, with mobile charges a particularly popular step over the past several years.

"The EU has to be relevant to people's lives," the EU's telecoms regulator, Neelie Kroes, said on Thursday as she announced the 36 percent reduction in roaming fees.

Kroes wants to completely eliminate the fees across the 27-nation EU, but there are doubts about whether that can be achieved in the 18 months left in her mandate.

This summer's caps were announced in March last year, but the Commission typically trumpets the lower rates ahead of the summer holidays, when they take effect.

EU regulators have been chipping away at the charges since 2007. The latest cut marks an 80 percent decline since then.

From July 1, the cost of using the Internet while abroad falls to 45 cents per megabyte from 70 cents.

Making calls declines to 24 cents per minute from 29 cents, and receiving calls to 7 cents per minute from 8 cents.

The cost of sending text messages will also go down, to 8 cents from 9 cents. Mobile users don't pay for receiving text messages while travelling in the bloc.

All of costs will fall again on July 1 next year.

"The latest price cuts put more money in your pocket for summer, and are a critical step towards getting rid of these premiums once and for all," Kroes said in a statement.

The cuts will also mean very substantial reductions in charges in Croatia, a popular summer holiday destination. The country is joining the European Union on Monday, raising the total number of member states to 28.

The Commission said mobile Internet use in Croatia will be nearly 15 times cheaper than at present, and text messages and voice calls to another EU country would cost 10 times less from next week.

(Reporting By Claire Davenport; editing by Luke Baker)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/roam-want-eu-lowers-mobile-fees-summer-135224611.html

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Salmonella infection is a battle between good and bad bacteria in the gut

June 26, 2013 ? The blockbuster battles between good and evil are not just on the big screen this summer. A new study that examined food poisoning infection as-it-happens in mice revealed harmful bacteria, such as a common type of Salmonella, takes over beneficial bacteria within the gut amid previously unseen changes to the gut environment. The results provide new insights into the course of infection and could lead to better prevention or new treatments.

"We're trying to tease apart a largely unknown area of biology," said systems biologist Josh Adkins and team lead at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "Infection changes the populations of bacteria in the gut with resulting inflammation. We want to understand the interplay between these events."

Out this week in PLOS ONE, the study shows that Salmonella Typhimurium might use the sugar fucose either as a sign that it has found a good place to reproduce or use fucose to sustain itself during infection, or both. This was the first time researchers saw fucose as an important player during Salmonella infection.

"We were taken completely by surprise with the fucose results," said Adkins. They also saw other sugars that normally are eaten by resident bacteria going untouched. "By knowing what the bacteria eat, we can try to promote the good bacteria and throw off the battle."

The Mice

Food poisoning caused by Salmonella bacteria hits more than 40,000 people every year. One of the common types that infect people, Salmonella Typhimurium, doesn't usually get mice sick, so Adkins and colleagues used mice uniquely sensitive to Salmonella infection. After infecting mice with the disease-causing bacteria orally, the researchers could follow the course of the illness by analyzing what came out of the other end of the mice.

"In most studies, researchers clear out the resident bacteria with antibiotics before introducing infectious bacteria," said microbiologist Brooke Deatherage Kaiser. "In this study, we could watch Salmonella knock out the commensal organisms and then watch them come back. Following the interactions through time is not something we've been able to do before."

The story they put together shows how Salmonella usurps microbes that normally populate the gut. Known as commensal bacteria, resident bugs perform important functions such as breaking down carbohydrates and sugars that people and mice can't. Using advanced instruments and techniques, the researchers identified which populations of bacteria dominated as infection progressed and mice recovered, as well as changes in the gastrointestinal tract, such as the presence of inflammation and available nutrients. Some of the experiments were performed in EMSL, the DOE's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory on PNNL's campus.

The Sugars

While many events the team witnessed were expected, such as infection causing inflammation in the gut, some were not. One unexpected change was in the kinds of sugars available for bacteria to eat. A handful of sugars that good bacteria normally chow down on lay around the gut untouched.

This stockpile of unusual sugars likely occurred because the good bacteria had, by that point, been overtaken by Salmonella and another bacterial variety, Enterococci. Enteroccoci are normally found in the gut, but can take advantage of opportunities to overgrow their welcome.

Unexpectedly, several lines of evidence suggested that Salmonella might use the sugar fucose as a food source. This study showed that the bacteria produced proteins that specifically help it digest fucose, which was the first time these researchers observed fucose proteins during Salmonella infection.

Although additional research will be needed to flesh out the role of fucose in the infectious cycle of Salmonella Typhimurium, this observation may help to control or prevent gastrointestinal infection in the future by a better understanding of nutrient sources and signals in the gut.

Overall, the study allowed the PNNL researchers to follow the rise and fall of the infecting bacteria, the fall and rise during recovery of the commensal bacteria, and changes to the gut as the mice fended off the infection. Future research will focus on what happens in other areas of the intestine to get a handle on the difference between the type of illness this study represented, acute gastrointestinal disease, and more systemic infection.

This work was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/qykLA4Mup3c/130626183927.htm

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High court voids key part of Voting Rights Act

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A deeply divided Supreme Court on Tuesday halted enforcement of the federal government's most potent tool to stop voting discrimination over the past half century, saying it does not reflect racial progress.

In a 5-4 ruling, the court declared unconstitutional a provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act that determines which states and localities must get Washington's approval for proposed election changes.

President Barack Obama, the nation's first black chief executive, issued a statement saying he was "deeply disappointed" with the ruling.

The decision effectively puts an end to the advance approval requirement that has been used, mainly in the South, to open up polling places to minority voters in the nearly half century since it was first enacted in 1965, unless Congress can come up with a new formula that Chief Justice John Roberts said meets "current conditions" in the United States.

Roberts, writing for a conservative majority, said the law Congress most recently renewed in 2006 relies on 40-year-old data that does not reflect racial progress and changes in U.S. society.

"The coverage formula that Congress reauthorized in 2006 ignores these developments, keeping the focus on decades-old data relevant to decades-old problems, rather than current data reflecting current needs," Roberts said.

Obama was sharply critical of the ruling and called on Congress to reinvigorate the law.

"While today's decision is a setback, it doesn't represent the end of our efforts to end voting discrimination," the president said. "I am calling on Congress to pass legislation to ensure every American has equal access to the polls."

That task eluded Congress in 2006 when lawmakers overwhelmingly renewed the advance approval requirement with no changes in the system by which states and local jurisdictions were chosen for coverage. And Congress did nothing in response to a high court ruling in a similar challenge in 2009 in which the justices raised many of the same concerns.

Tuesday's decision means that a host of state and local laws that have not received Justice Department approval or have not yet been submitted will be able to take effect. Prominent among those are voter identification laws in Alabama and Mississippi.

Going forward, the outcome alters the calculus of passing election-related legislation in the affected states and local jurisdictions. The threat of an objection from Washington has hung over election-related proposals for nearly a half century. At least until Congress acts, that deterrent now is gone.

That prospect has upset civil rights groups which especially worry that changes on the local level might not get the same scrutiny as the actions of state legislatures.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by her three liberal colleagues, dissented from Tuesday's ruling.

"Hubris is a fit word for today's demolition" of the law, Ginsburg said.

She said no one doubts that voting discrimination still exists. "But the court today terminates the remedy that proved to be best suited to block that discrimination," she said in a dissent that she read aloud in the packed courtroom.

Ginsburg said the law continues to be necessary to protect against what she called subtler, "second-generation" barriers to voting. She identified one such effort as the switch to at-large voting from a district-by-district approach in a city with a sizable black minority. The at-large system allows the majority to "control the election of each city council member, effectively eliminating the potency of the minority's votes," she said.

Justice Clarence Thomas was part of the majority, but wrote separately to say again that he would have struck down the advance approval requirement itself.

Civil rights lawyers condemned the ruling.

"The Supreme Court has effectively gutted one of the nation's most important and effective civil rights laws. Minority voters in places with a record of discrimination are now at greater risk of being disenfranchised than they have been in decades," said Jon Greenbaum, chief counsel for the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. "Today's decision is a blow to democracy. Jurisdictions will be able to enact policies which prevent minorities from voting, and the only recourse these citizens will have will be expensive and time-consuming litigation."

Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said, "This is like letting you keep your car, but taking away the keys."

The decision comes five months after Obama started his second term in the White House, re-elected by a diverse coalition of voters.

The high court is in the midst of a broad re-examination of the ongoing necessity of laws and programs aimed at giving racial minorities access to major areas of American life from which they once were systematically excluded. The justices issued a modest ruling Monday that preserved affirmative action in higher education and will take on cases dealing with anti-discrimination sections of a federal housing law and another affirmative action case from Michigan next term.

The court warned of problems with the voting rights law in a similar case heard in 2009. The justices averted a major constitutional ruling at that time, but Congress did nothing to address the issues the court raised. The law's opponents, sensing its vulnerability, filed several new lawsuits.

The latest decision came in a challenge to the advance approval, or preclearance, requirement, which was brought by Shelby County, Ala., a Birmingham suburb.

The lawsuit acknowledged that the measure's strong medicine was appropriate and necessary to counteract decades of state-sponsored discrimination in voting, despite the Fifteenth Amendment's guarantee of the vote for black Americans.

But it asked whether there was any end in sight for a provision that intrudes on states' rights to conduct elections, an issue the court's conservative justices also explored at the argument in February. It was considered an emergency response when first enacted in 1965.

The county noted that the 25-year extension approved in 2006 would keep some places under Washington's oversight until 2031 and seemed not to account for changes that include the elimination of racial disparity in voter registration and turnout or the existence of allegations of race-based discrimination in voting in areas of the country that are not subject to the provision.

The Obama administration and civil rights groups said there is a continuing need for it and pointed to the Justice Department's efforts to block voter ID laws in South Carolina and Texas last year, as well as a redistricting plan in Texas that a federal court found discriminated against the state's large and growing Hispanic population.

Advance approval was put into the law to give federal officials a potent tool to defeat persistent efforts to keep blacks from voting.

The provision was a huge success because it shifted the legal burden and required governments that were covered to demonstrate that their proposed changes would not discriminate. Congress periodically has renewed it over the years. The most recent extension was overwhelmingly approved by a Republican-led Congress and signed by President George W. Bush.

The requirement currently applies to the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. It also covers certain counties in California, Florida, New York, North Carolina and South Dakota, and some local jurisdictions in Michigan. Coverage has been triggered by past discrimination not only against blacks, but also against American Indians, Asian-Americans, Alaska Natives and Hispanics.

Towns in New Hampshire that had been covered by the law were freed from the advance approval requirement in March. Supporters of the provision pointed to the ability to bail out of the prior approval provision to argue that the law was flexible enough to accommodate change and that the court should leave the Voting Rights Act intact.

On Monday, the Justice Department announced an agreement that would allow Hanover County, Va., to bail out.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/high-court-voids-key-part-voting-rights-act-141637132.html

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Oregon put on probation, loses scholarship

The NCAA has taken away a scholarship for each of the next three seasons and placed Oregon's football program on probation for three years for recruiting violations under previous coach Chip Kelly.

The NCAA's Division I Infractions Committee released a report on Wednesday that found Kelly and the university failed to monitor the program.

The NCAA has been looking into Oregon's recruiting practices since questions arose over a 2010 payment of $25,000 to Willie Lyles and his Houston-based recruiting service, Complete Scouting Services. Lyles had a connection with an Oregon recruit.

Oregon will lose one initial scholarship, from a maximum of 25, in each of the next two academic years and had its total number of scholarships reduced by one from a maximum of 85 each of the next three seasons.

The NCAA also reduced Oregon's official paid visits from 56 to 37 for the next three academic years, reduced its evaluation days for each of the next three seasons and banned the program from using recruiting services during the probation period. Oregon must also disassociate itself from Lyles' recruiting service.

It also placed an 18-month show-cause order for Kelly, which would require schools wishing to hire him to appear before the infractions committee to determine if the school should be subject to the show-cause procedures. Kelly left Oregon this year to become the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.

The infractions committee found that Lyles provided cash and free lodging to a prospect, and engaged in impermissible calls and off-campus contact with prospects, their families and high school coaches.

It also said the football program allowed staff members to engage in recruiting activity, exceeding coaching limits.

The NCAA said Kelly was unaware of Lyles' involvement in recruiting, but the committee noted it is the head coach's responsibility to know the rules and ensure staff and coaches comply with them.

Under Kelly, the Ducks appeared in four straight BCS bowl games ? including a bid for the national championship against Auburn in 2011. Oregon finished 12-1 last season, capped by a victory over Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl.

He was replaced by offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich, who will make his debut as head coach on Aug. 31.

Oregon was previously penalized by the NCAA in 2004 for a major violation involving the improper recruitment of a junior college player by an assistant coach. The university was put on probation for two years and the unidentified assistant coach was suspended without pay for a week and restricted from some recruiting activities.

The Ducks remained eligible for postseason play and did not lose any scholarships because of that violation, which occurred in 2003.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-26-Oregon-NCAA/id-3de469aba7c94fcbb10cfd4ac955f128

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Page Not Found - Yahoo!

Please check the URL for proper spelling and capitalization. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Yahoo!, try visiting the Yahoo! homepage or look through a list of Yahoo!'s online services.

Please try Yahoo Help Central if you need more assistance.

Source: http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/oddlyenough

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US consumer confidence at five-year high in June

In this Wednesday, May 15, 2013 photo, pedestrians walk in and out of the Walgreens flagship store in the Empire State Building, in New York. The private Conference Board reports on consumer confidence for June, on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

In this Wednesday, May 15, 2013 photo, pedestrians walk in and out of the Walgreens flagship store in the Empire State Building, in New York. The private Conference Board reports on consumer confidence for June, on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Americans' confidence in the economy rose to its highest level in more than five years, bolstered by a more optimistic outlook for hiring.

The Conference Board, a New York-based private research group, said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index jumped to 81.4 in June. That's the best reading since January 2008. And it is up from May's reading of 74.3, which was revised slightly downward from 76.2.

Consumers' confidence in the economy is watched closely because their spending accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity.

The report shows consumers are more positive about current economic conditions and have a more optimistic view of the economy and job market in the next six months.

Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at the Conference Board, said that "suggests the pace of growth is unlikely to slow in the short-term, and may even moderately pick up."

Employers added 175,000 jobs in May, nearly matching the average monthly gain for the past year. That's enough to slowly lower the unemployment rate. The rate ticked up to 7.6 percent last month but has fallen 0.6 percentage points in the past year.

More Americans see signs of hiring taking place. Nearly 12 percent describe the number of jobs available as "plentiful," the most since September 2008.

And nearly 20 percent of consumers expect there will be more jobs in six months, while only 16.1 percent expect fewer jobs. That's the first time those expecting more jobs have outnumbered those expecting fewer since February 2012.

Rising home prices are also likely making Americans feel wealthier and more confident about spending. Home prices jumped 12.1 percent in April compared with a year ago, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index, also released Tuesday.

Slightly more consumers said they planned to buy a car in the next six months. The percentage saying they planned to buy a home also ticked up.

Americans have been resilient this year, despite tax increases and steep government spending cuts. Consumer spending rose at the fastest pace in two years in the first three months of the year. That helped the overall economy grow at a 2.4 percent annual pace during the January-March quarter.

Economists forecast that overall economic growth is slowing to a 2 percent annual pace in the April-June quarter, in part because they expect consumers have eased up on spending from the robust first-quarter pace.

Despite the recent gains, the confidence index remains well below the 90 reading that indicates a healthy economy ? a level it hasn't reached since the Great Recession began in December 2007.

So far, reports on consumer spending for the second quarter have been mixed. In April, consumer spending fell as income was unchanged. But spending appears to have rebounded in May, based on a preliminary report on retail sales. Americans spent more on cars, home improvements and sporting goods, boosting retail sales 0.6 percent.

The Commerce Department will release a more complete report on May consumer spending and income on Thursday.

The Conference Board survey is conducted in the first half of the month. So the June report didn't capture the impact of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments last week after the Fed's policy meeting.

Bernanke said the Fed could begin to slow its bond purchases by the end of the year. Since then, stocks have plunged and interest rates have spiked.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-06-25-US-Consumer-Confidence/id-b58d7b0f298147b89ad83b92d5072083

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UFO: Britain releases documents explaining closure of military UFO desk

UFO Britain:?The National Archives has been releasing declassified Ministry of Defense files on?UFOs in the UK?for the past five years.?

By Cassandra Vinograd,?Associated Press / June 21, 2013

Stonehenge, seen here during a meteor shower, is the site of reported UFO sightings, as revealed in newly declassified files from Britain's Ministry of Defense.

Kieran Doherty/Reuters/File

Enlarge

Newly declassified files from?Britain's?Ministry of Defense shed further light on why the military shut down its?UFO?desk nearly three years ago: despite a surge in reported sightings, the expensive operation just had no defense benefit.

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The National Archives has been releasing declassified Ministry of Defense files on?UFOs?for the past five years. The 10th and final tranche released Friday covers the work carried out during the final two years of the Ministry of Defense's?UFO?desk, from late 2007 to November 2009.

The 25 files detail reports of alien abductions, sightings, offers to develop weapons to shoot?UFOs?out of the sky ? and the reason for the?UFO?desk's shutdown.

Among the documents ? spread out over 4,400 pages ? was a memo to then-Defense Minister Bob Ainsworth in November 2009, saying that the?UFO?operation was "consuming increasing resource, but produces no valuable defense output."

In more than 50 years, no?UFO?sighting report "has ever revealed anything to suggest an extraterrestrial presence or military threat to the U.K.," the memo said.

The records show that 2009 saw 600?UFO?sightings and reports ? triple the number of the previous year and the largest ever number of?UFO?sighting reports since 1978, the year "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" was released in cinemas.

Whatever the reason behind the surge ? some files suggest the popularity of releasing Chinese lanterns at weddings was behind it ? the decision was taken to close the desk.

"The level of resources diverted to this task is increasing in response to a recent upsurge in reported sightings, diverting staff from more valuable defense-related activities," the documents said, with one saying the desk "merely encourages the generation of correspondence."

A great deal of that correspondence is contained in the latest release of the declassified files ? with a wide variety of examples of sighting reports and the?UFO?desk's always polite and often entertaining responses.

One child wrote in, with a drawing of an alien waving from a?UFO?? to ask if there were living things outside of Earth got a nice letter ? and bag of Royal Air Force goodies ? from the Ministry of Defense.

"It's an interesting question and we remain totally open-minded about it, but we don't know of any evidence to prove life exists in outer space," the?UFO?desk replied in 2009. "We do look at reports of 'unidentified flying objects' but only to see if the country's airspace might have been affected but we haven't had any evidence of this so far."

The files also contained letters sent to officials ranging from former Prime Minister Gordon Brown to Queen Elizabeth II voicing concerns that the government was ignoring the threat of unidentified flying objects and even offering technological guidance on how to shoot down?UFOs.

Among the sightings were reports of?UFOs?seen hovering opposite the Houses of Parliament and near Stonehenge. The files show the desk also took hotline calls about alleged contact with aliens ? from a man who claimed in 2008 that he had been "living with an alien for some time" to another saying a?UFO?had stolen his dog, car and tent while was camping in 2007.

The desk sent the man a response, explaining that the defense ministry does not investigate each sighting unless there is evidence of a potential threat to the U.K. from an external source. But the message, sent in January 2008, added: "you informed us that your dog and possessions were abducted. Abduction, kidnap and theft are criminal offences and therefore would be a matter for the civilian police."

When the?UFO?desk did check into a reported sighting, explanations varied.

In response to one email sent in August 2009, an unidentified Ministry of Defense staffer suggested that "everyone who has seen" attached photos of a reported sighting thinks that two look like stunt kites, and "the third looks like a seagull head on.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/hZTMHqmTVwk/UFO-Britain-releases-documents-explaining-closure-of-military-UFO-desk

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Indiana explosion: What caused the fatal explosion?

Indiana explosion: A man was killed in an explosion at an Indiana grain elevator today. OSHA says explosions in grain-handling facilities across the nation have killed 180 people and injured more than 675 over the last 35 years.?

By Associated Press / June 24, 2013

Emergency personnel respond to a grain elevator explosion that killed an employee on Monday, June 24, at the Union Mills Co-Op in Union Mills, Ind.

Robert Franklin / South Bend / AP

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Indiana explosion: An explosion Monday inside a grain elevator killed a worker at a sprawling northwestern Indiana farm co-op, authorities said.

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The cause of the blast at the Union Mills Co-op remained unknown Monday evening several hours after the blast. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firms and Explosives and the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration were among the agencies sending investigators to the scene.

It wasn't clear where the victim, James Swank, 67, of Union Mills, was at time of the blast, but he might have been loading grain into train cars with two other workers, Maj. John Boyd of the LaPorte County Sheriff's Department said.

"At this point we're just not sure," Boyd said.

All other employees were accounted for and no other injuries were reported.

Swank died from multiple blunt force trauma, Coroner John Sullivan said. It may have been a grain dust explosion, he said.

"Neighbors reported a large, concussion-like explosion that shook their homes, followed by a large amount of white smoke," Sullivan said.

Purdue University farm safety expert Steve Wettschurack said grain dust is highly volatile, and a small spark, even from someone using a hammer, can set off a blast, Wettschurack said.

"It'll shake the countryside. There's a lot of power to it. But there's not really a lot of fire to it," he said.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration website says more than 500 explosions in grain-handling facilities across the nation over the last 35 years have killed 180 people and injured more than 675. Grain dust is the main source of fuel for explosions in grain handling, the website said.

Shawn Lambert, safety manager for Avon, Indiana-based co-op owner Co-Alliance, says the explosion occurred inside a grain elevator with several connected silos.

Boyd said the co-op property covers several acres and includes storage for hazardous material, including fertilizers and anhydrous ammonia, elsewhere on the site. The property is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Chicago.

The Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration has no record of any inspections at the co-op, spokesman Bob Dittmer said.

Co-Alliance is a farmer-owned supply and marketing cooperative serving rural communities in Indiana, Ohio and southern Michigan.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/UtYuzO_rUUE/Indiana-explosion-What-caused-the-fatal-explosion

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NRL receives Navy Acquisition Excellence Award for global weather prediction model

Public release date: 24-Jun-2013
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Contact: Daniel Parry
nrlpao@nrl.navy.mil
202-767-2541
Naval Research Laboratory

WASHINGTON--The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Marine Meteorology Division and Space Science Division have been awarded the Department of the Navy Acquisition Excellence Technology Transition Award presented by Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, Sean J. Stackley, May 14, 2013.

Recognizing individuals and teams for outstanding contributions in promoting competition and innovation in the Navy and Marine Corps acquisition process, the NRL team receives the award for a new generation atmospheric global prediction system.

The Navy Global Environmental Model (NAVGEM) is a high-resolution global weather prediction system representing a significant milestone in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) system development introducing a semi-Lagrangian/semi-implicit (SL/SI) dynamical core with advanced moisture and ozone physical parameterization schemes.

"The greatest improvement is in the use of this new SL/SI method that enables the high-resolution needed for modern NWP systems while it still meets the operational scheduling requirement '" said Dr. Melinda Peng, head, Atmospheric Dynamics and Prediction Branch and NAVGEM team lead. "This results in the most significant Navy global numerical weather prediction advancement over the past 20 years."

The SL method is to find the trajectory of the fluid motion that starts at the previous time step and ends up at the NAVGEM grid point location. The SL integration removes the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) limitation, required in the Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System (NOGAPS), using the conventional Eulerian integration of the dynamical equations. The remaining issue of high-speed gravity waves in the wind divergence is mitigated by incorporating a SI method into the SL integration, where the terms responsible for the gravity waves are identified and treated in an implicit manner and rendering small time steps unnecessary.

Replacing the existing NOGAPS, introduced in 1982, NAVGEM allows for much higher model resolutions and excludes the need for small time steps (Currently, NAVGEM allows for 50 vertical levels in place of the 42 levels in NOGAPS and an increase of horizontal resolution from 42 kilometers to 37 kilometers.) to include cloud liquid water, cloud ice water, and ozone as fully predicted constituents.

NAVGEM contains new moisture, solar radiation and longwave-radiation parameterizations and upgrad1es to the data assimilation component to complete the 180-hour forecast in the allotted operation window.

NAVGEM was delivered to the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) on September 30, 2012, and entered official operation in March 2013. NAVGEM is part of the global modeling 'bridging strategy' where the Navy and the National Weather Service (NWS) jointly develop a national global forecasting system named Earth System Prediction Capability (ESPC) that will be fielded in the 2020 timeframe.

###

The Office of Naval Research (ONR), Oceanographer of the Navy (OPNAV N2N6E) and Department of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition Program Executive Officer (PEO-C4I/PMW-120) provided funding for NAVGEM development.

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 24-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Daniel Parry
nrlpao@nrl.navy.mil
202-767-2541
Naval Research Laboratory

WASHINGTON--The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Marine Meteorology Division and Space Science Division have been awarded the Department of the Navy Acquisition Excellence Technology Transition Award presented by Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, Sean J. Stackley, May 14, 2013.

Recognizing individuals and teams for outstanding contributions in promoting competition and innovation in the Navy and Marine Corps acquisition process, the NRL team receives the award for a new generation atmospheric global prediction system.

The Navy Global Environmental Model (NAVGEM) is a high-resolution global weather prediction system representing a significant milestone in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) system development introducing a semi-Lagrangian/semi-implicit (SL/SI) dynamical core with advanced moisture and ozone physical parameterization schemes.

"The greatest improvement is in the use of this new SL/SI method that enables the high-resolution needed for modern NWP systems while it still meets the operational scheduling requirement '" said Dr. Melinda Peng, head, Atmospheric Dynamics and Prediction Branch and NAVGEM team lead. "This results in the most significant Navy global numerical weather prediction advancement over the past 20 years."

The SL method is to find the trajectory of the fluid motion that starts at the previous time step and ends up at the NAVGEM grid point location. The SL integration removes the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) limitation, required in the Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System (NOGAPS), using the conventional Eulerian integration of the dynamical equations. The remaining issue of high-speed gravity waves in the wind divergence is mitigated by incorporating a SI method into the SL integration, where the terms responsible for the gravity waves are identified and treated in an implicit manner and rendering small time steps unnecessary.

Replacing the existing NOGAPS, introduced in 1982, NAVGEM allows for much higher model resolutions and excludes the need for small time steps (Currently, NAVGEM allows for 50 vertical levels in place of the 42 levels in NOGAPS and an increase of horizontal resolution from 42 kilometers to 37 kilometers.) to include cloud liquid water, cloud ice water, and ozone as fully predicted constituents.

NAVGEM contains new moisture, solar radiation and longwave-radiation parameterizations and upgrad1es to the data assimilation component to complete the 180-hour forecast in the allotted operation window.

NAVGEM was delivered to the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) on September 30, 2012, and entered official operation in March 2013. NAVGEM is part of the global modeling 'bridging strategy' where the Navy and the National Weather Service (NWS) jointly develop a national global forecasting system named Earth System Prediction Capability (ESPC) that will be fielded in the 2020 timeframe.

###

The Office of Naval Research (ONR), Oceanographer of the Navy (OPNAV N2N6E) and Department of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition Program Executive Officer (PEO-C4I/PMW-120) provided funding for NAVGEM development.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/nrl-nrn062413.php

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Smithfield drops Paula Deen as spokeswoman

NEW YORK (AP) ? Paula Deen lost another part of her empire on Monday: Smithfield Foods said it was dropping her as a spokeswoman.

The announcement came days after the Food Network said it would not renew the celebrity cook's contract in the wake of revelations that she used racial slurs in the past.

Smithfield sold Paula Deen-branded hams in addition to using her as a spokeswoman. In a statement, the company said it "condemns the use of offensive and discriminatory language and behavior of any kind. Therefore, we are terminating our partnership with Paula Deen."

QVC also said it was reviewing its deal with Paula Deen Enterprises to sell the star's cookbooks and cookware.

"QVC shares the concerns being raised around the unfortunate Paula Deen situation," QVC said in a statement. "We are closely monitoring these events and the ongoing litigation. We are reviewing our business relationship with Ms. Deen, and in the meantime, we have no immediate plans to have her appear on QVC."

Sears said the company "is currently exploring next steps as they pertain to Ms. Deen's products." Wal-Mart, which sells Deen's cookware, was expected to have a statement later Monday.

The rapid downfall came after revelations that 66-year-old Food Network star admitted using racial slurs in the past in a deposition in a discrimination lawsuit. Deen was asked under oath if she had ever used the N-word. "Yes, of course," 66-year-old Deen said, though she added, "It's been a very long time."

Deen insisted she and her family do not tolerate prejudice, and in a videotaped apology, she asked fans and critics alike for forgiveness. It had been posted online for about an hour when the Food Network released a terse statement that it "will not renew Paula Deen's contract when it expires at the end of this month." The network refused to comment further.

Las Vegas-based Caesars Entertainment Corporation, which has Deen's restaurants in some of its casinos, said Friday that it "will continue to monitor the situation." Publisher Ballantine, which has a new Deen book scheduled to roll out this fall, used similar words.

Earlier Monday, NBC's Matt Lauer said Deen would appear Wednesday on "Today." Last week she abruptly canceled on the morning show before posting her videotaped apologies.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/smithfield-drops-paula-deen-spokeswoman-184711870.html

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Obama to unveil climate plan in Tuesday speech

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is preparing to unveil his long-awaited national plan to combat climate change in a major speech, he announced on Saturday.

"There's no single step that can reverse the effects of climate change," Obama said in an online video released by the White House. "But when it comes to the world we leave our children, we owe it to them to do what we can."

People consulting with White House officials on Obama's plan, to be unveiled Tuesday at Georgetown University, say they expect him to put forth regulations on heat-trapping gases emitted by existing coal-fired power plans. They were not authorized to disclose details about the plan ahead of the announcement and requested anonymity.

Environmental groups have been pleading with Obama to take that step, but the administration has said it's focused first on controls on new power plants. The Environmental Protection Agency, using its authority under the Clean Air Act, has already proposed controls on new plants, but the rules have been delayed ? to the chagrin of states and environmental groups threatening to sue over the delays.

An administration official said last week that Obama was still weighing whether to include existing plants in the climate plan. The official wasn't authorized to comment by name and requested anonymity.

The White House wouldn't disclose any details Saturday about what steps Obama may call for. But his senior energy and climate adviser, Heather Zichal, said last week that controls on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants would be a major focus. She also said the plan would boost energy efficiency of appliances and buildings, plus expand renewable energy.

Putting a positive spin on a contentious partisan issue, Obama said the U.S. is uniquely poised to deal with the serious challenges posed by climate change. He said American scientists and engineers would have to design new fuels and energy sources, and workers will have to adapt to a clean energy economy.

"We'll need all of us, as citizens, to do our part to preserve God's creation for future generations," Obama said.

Environmental groups have for months been pushing Obama to make good on a threat he issued to lawmakers in February in his State of the Union address: "If Congress won't act soon to protect future generations, I will." Obama's move to take the matter into his own hands appears to reflect a growing consensus that opposition in Congress is too powerful for any meaningful, sweeping climate legislation to pass anytime soon.

"They shouldn't wait for Congress to act, because they'll be out of office by the time that Congress gets its act together," Rep. Henry Waxman, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in an interview.

Environmental groups applauded the announcement that Obama was finally releasing a plan for executive action, but made clear they want to see firm proposals ? including controls for existing power plants.

"Combating climate change means curbing carbon pollution ? for the first time ever ? from the biggest single source of such dangerous gases: our coal-fired power plants," said Frances Beinecke, president of the National Resources Defense Council. "We stand ready to help President Obama in every way we can."

Another key issue hanging over the announcement ? but unlikely to be mentioned on Tuesday ? is Keystone XL, a pipeline that would carry oil extracted from tar sands in western Canada to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast. A concerted campaign by environmental activists to persuade Obama to nix the pipeline appears to be an uphill battle. The White House insists the State Department is making the decision independently.

Obama's speech on Tuesday will come the day before he leaves for a weeklong trip to three African nations.

___

Online:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcL3_zzgWeU

___

Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-22-US-Obama-Climate-Change/id-f720b89da85949c8a69abe7bac2e11fd

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Whale of a win: Environmental victory protects whales from noise pollution

Michael Jasny, director of the?NRDC?Marine Mammal Project, contributed this article to LiveScience's?Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

By Michael Jasny,?Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) / June 20, 2013

A gray whale attracts attention by blowing air out of its blowhole as it cruises just off the shore of Washington State, Wednesday, June 19, 2013. A landmark case will protect whales from the painfully loud blasts used in oil exploration.

Alan Berner / The Seattle Times / AP

Enlarge

Here?s a recipe for an environmental train wreck: Take one of the world's most powerful industries, allow it to conduct harmful activities for years without obtaining the basic authorizations required by law, and produce a wealth of science making it plain that those harmful activities are putting endangered and vulnerable species at risk.

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Today (June 20, 2013), a number of conservation groups, including my own,?announced a landmark agreement?that may prevent one such train wreck ? this one in the already scarred Gulf of Mexico.

The underlying problem is airguns.?To search for deep deposits of oil, companies troll the ocean with high-volume airguns that, for weeks or months on end, regularly pound the water?with sound louder than virtually any other man-made source, save explosives. We now know that these surveys can have?a vast environmental footprint, disrupting feeding, breeding and communication for whales and other species over literally thousands of square miles.

It's the sort of activity that ordinarily requires approval under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Endangered Species Act, and other federal laws. And yet the government has allowed it to proceed without authorization in the Gulf of Mexico, a body of water that may well be the most heavily prospected on the planet.

Industry runs dozens of exploration surveys each year in the northern Gulf, and many of them make use of large airgun arrays. For more than a decade now, the problem has languished, even as the threat posed by airgun exploration has loomed larger and larger.

Our alliance of conservation groups sued over the government's failure. In the end, we reached agreement with both federal officials and industry representatives that will help protect marine mammals while a comprehensive environmental review is underway.?

Among other things, our settlement puts biologically important areas off-limits to high-energy exploration, expands protections to additional at-risk species and requires the use of listening devices to help prevent injury to endangered sperm whales. Our agreement is also forward-looking, requiring industry to develop and field-test an alternative to airguns known as marine vibroseis, which could substantially reduce many of the impacts. Over the long term, the hope is that working together stands a better chance of saving species in the Gulf's biologically compromised, politically heated environment.

Marine conservation in the Gulf isn't like conservation in other places. Among other difficulties, the disruptive activities NRDC is concerned about are affecting the same populations still suffering from the?Deepwater Horizon?disaster.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/8mdPQNNuIAw/Whale-of-a-win-Environmental-victory-protects-whales-from-noise-pollution

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