Zebrafish made to grow pre-hands instead of fins








































PERHAPS the little fish embryo shown here is dancing a jig because it has just discovered that it has legs instead of fins. Fossils show that limbs evolved from fins, but a new study shows how it may have happened, live in the lab.













Fernando Casares of the Spanish National Research Council and his colleagues injected zebrafish with the hoxd13 gene from a mouse. The protein that the gene codes for controls the development of autopods, a precursor to hands, feet and paws.












Zebrafish naturally carry hoxd13 but produce less of the protein than tetrapods - all four-limbed vertebrates and birds - do. Casares and his colleagues hoped that by injecting extra copies of the gene into the zebrafish embryos, some of their cells would make more of the protein.












One full day later, all of those fish whose cells had taken up the gene began to develop autopods instead of fins. They carried on growing for four days but then died (Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2012.10.015).












"Of course, we haven't been able to grow hands," says Casares. He speculates that hundreds of millions of years ago, the ancestors of tetrapods began expressing more hoxd13 for some reason and that this could have allowed them to evolve autopods.


















































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Youths have similar ideals to govt, says ESM Goh






SINGAPORE: Singapore youths generally have the same ideals as that of the government, observed Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong at the end of a national conversation session at the Marine Parade constituency.

Mr Goh said this will make it easier for the government to work together with the generation of the future.

"Supposing they come up with very different ideals from what we think should be for the prosperity and stability of Singapore. It's going to be very troublesome," he said.

"Supposing they had all argued about welfare state and so on, then that's very troublesome for us because we know that without resources, without economic growth and so on, a welfare state will lead us to ruins."

Some of the goals set by participants during the conversation with Marine Parade residents included a more cohesive society and more sustainable economic growth.

The 45 participants comprised youths and working adults.

Mr Goh felt that the society has, in recent years, been drifting without a clear sense of direction.

He added that having the same ideals does not mean goals can be reached if the society is divided.

Mr Goh said Singapore has never been more politically divided, so the Singapore Conversation is a very serious effort to build a new compact between the people and the government.

"The worry is as we emphasise more freedom for the people, (society) becomes more cosmopolitan, takes in more foreigners, immigrants and so on, (and) our society begins to loosen as a result of these new trends," he said.

"The old (generation) is getting smaller in proportion. The young (generation) is getting bigger, with different experiences... and if they don't get a new sense of bonding in working as a group, can you imagine how we move into the future?"

Mr Goh also pointed out even though ideals may be similar, young Singaporeans may disagree with the processes and priorities in policy-making.

Youths felt that at this stage of the conversation, ideals that surface would naturally be similar to the government. But they believed there is still space for disagreements.

"When the conversation is couched in very generic themes and terms, of course, we have the same broad general ideals and there is a consensus," said Chris Lim, a participant at the session.

"But when the minute details of policies are discussed, that's when differences will start to appear, in the ways of how we do it. This is a question that remains to be answered in the course of our national conversation."

This is the first time Mr Goh has attended the national conversation session.

He has been conducting several community conversations with his residents at Marine Parade.

Mr Goh explained that these conversations were more unstructured, where residents could discuss policy issues.

Lawrence Wong, committee member of Our Singapore Conversation, said he is satisfied with the progress and outreach, three months after the initiative started.

Mr Wong was also present at the session in Marine Parade.

He said: "We've been trying to reach out to as broad spectrum of society as possible, and I think we've had very good representation of people who come enthusiastically to share, and we've got very good ideas. There's certainly more that we can do."

Separately, at a session of Our Singapore Conversation held with the Malay Muslim community at Bukit Batok East, participants raised the issue of cultivating patriotism in every Singaporean, especially the younger generation.

"What is important to me also is that they talk about patriotism, which is something I did not find in the other conversations," said Minister of State for Social and Family Development Halimah Yacob.

"In this conversation, they say it is important within the context of building a strong national identity, reinforcing multi-culturalism, multi-racialism, that we are patriotic Singaporeans and how we continue to project that."

- CNA/xq



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Google's Ray Kurzweil hire could yield some good returns



Ray Kurzweil signing copies of his book, "The Singularity"



(Credit:
Dan Farber)


Google has brought on futurist and artificial intelligence expert Ray Kurzweil as director of engineering, and there could be some real returns on the company's high-profile hire.



In a statement, Kurzweil confirmed that he'd be joining Google. He noted that his interest in reading technology, artificial intelligence, driving
cars and those other things from the Jetsons lines up nicely with Google's efforts.



He said:



Google has demonstrated self-driving cars, and people are indeed asking questions of their
Android phones. It's easy to shrug our collective shoulders as if these technologies have always been around, but we're really on a remarkable trajectory of quickening innovation, and Google is at the forefront of much of this development.


Will Kurzweil be more than just a figurehead? Probably. Google will get some returns on its investment in Kurzweil for sure. Here are some of the positive side effects from Google's latest hire.



Talent and recruiting engineers. There aren't enough engineers to keep tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Apple and others happy. Saying you report to a futurist---even indirectly---will have credibility beyond stock options for most engineers.


Data centers, networks and algorithms need machine learning. Kurzweil's ideas get noticed because he's ahead of the curve and he focuses on simple practical systems. However, machine learning has implications for the network, Google's algorithms and the data center. Look no further than IBM and Watson for examples of how machine learning can have broad implications. Should Kurzweil boost machine learning, Google is likely to be able to draw a straight line between its infrastructure and its high-profile hire.


Language processing has big mobile implications. Kurzweil's knowhow could on reading and talking machines could easily make its way into Android, which is already becoming very helpful on many fronts.


Google's buzz-o-meter. Kurzweil's work can easily be applied to the company's efforts for self-driving cars and its high-tech glasses that could become popular at some point. Kurzweil gives Google some science fiction becomes reality cred. The buzz is hard to measure, but it's certainly not a bad perk for the company.


In his book, "The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology," Kurzweil offered his view of how science fiction becomes reality:


"In this new world, there will be no clear distinction between human and machine, real reality and virtual reality. We will be able to assume different bodies and take on a range of personae at will. In practical terms, human aging and illness will be reversed; pollution will be stopped; world hunger and poverty will be solved. Nanotechnology will make it possible to create virtually any physical product using inexpensive information processes and will ultimately turn even death into a soluble problem."


Kurzweil expects that artificial intelligence will develop far beyond the human mind in a few decades, leading to what he calls "The Singularity," in which technology changes profoundly alter human history. "The implications include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal software-based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in the universe at the speed of light," he wrote.


This story first appeared on ZDNet. Additional reporting by Dan Farber.


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Space Pictures This Week: Frosty Mars, Mini Nile, More

Photograph by Mike Theiss, National Geographic

The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, illuminates the Arctic sky in a recent picture by National Geographic photographer Mike Theiss.

A storm chaser by trade, Theiss is in the Arctic Circle on an expedition to photograph auroras, which result from collisions between charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere and gaseous particles in Earth's atmosphere.

After one particularly amazing show, he wrote on YouTube, "The lights were dancing, rolling, and twisting, and at times looked like they were close enough to touch!" (Watch his time-lapse video of the northern lights.)

Published December 14, 2012

Read More..

School Shooting: Officials Seek Details on Gunman













The FBI is in at least three states interviewing relatives and friends of the elementary school gunman who killed 20 children, seven adults and himself, trying to put together a better picture of the shooter and uncover any possible explanation for the massacre, ABC News has learned.


The authorities have fanned out to New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts to interview relatives of Adam Lanza, 20, and his mother, who was one of Lanza's shooting victims.


CLICK HERE for full coverage of the tragedy at the elementary school.


The victims died Friday when Lanza invaded Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and sprayed staff and students with bullets, officials said. Lanza also was found dead in the school.


Lt. Paul Vance said 18 children died in the school and two more died later in a hospital.


Six adults also were slain, bringing the total to 26. Among them was the school's principal, Dawn Hochsprung, multiple sources told ABC News. Another adult victim was teacher Vicki Soto, her cousin confirmed.


In addition to the casualties at the school, Lanza's mother, Nancy Lanza, was killed in her home, federal and state sources told ABC News.


According to sources, Lanza shot his mother in the face, then left his house armed with at least two semi-automatic handguns, a Glock and a Sig Sauer, and a semi-automatic rifle. He was also wearing a bulletproof vest.


READ: Connecticut Shooter Adam Lanza: 'Obviously Not Well'








Newtown Teacher Kept 1st Graders Calm During Massacre Watch Video











Newtown School Shooting: What to Tell Your Kids Watch Video





Lanza then drove to the elementary school and continued his rampage, authorities said.


It appeared that Lanza died from what was believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The rifle was found in his car.


"Evil visited this community today," Gov. Dan Malloy said at a news conference Friday evening.


CLICK HERE for more photos from the scene.


In the early confusion surrounding the investigation, federal sources initially identified the suspect as Adam's older brother Ryan Lanza, 24. Identification belonging to Ryan Lanza was found at the shooting scene, federal sources told ABC News.


Ryan Lanza soon took to Facebook to say he was alive and not responsible for the shooting. He later was questioned by police.


During the rampage, first-grade teacher Kaitlin Roig, 29, locked her 14 students in a class bathroom and listened to "tons of shooting" until police came to help.


"It was horrific," Roig said. "I thought we were going to die."


She said that the terrified kids were saying, "I just want Christmas. ... I don't want to die. I just want to have Christmas."


A tearful President Obama said Friday that there was "not a parent in America who doesn't feel the overwhelming grief that I do."


The president had to pause to compose himself after saying these were "beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10."


As he continued with his statement, Obama wiped away tears from each eye. He has ordered flags flown as half staff.


It is the second worst mass shooting in U.S. history, exceeded only by the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 when 32 were killed before the shooter turned the gun on himself. The carnage in Connecticut exceeded the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in which 13 died and 24 were injured.


Friday's shooting came three days after masked gunman Jacob Roberts opened fire in a busy Oregon mall, killing two before turning the gun on himself.


The Connecticut shooting occurred at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, which includes 450 students in grades K-4. The town is located about 12 miles east of Danbury, Conn.


The massacre prompted the town of Newtown to lock down all its schools and draw SWAT teams to the school, authorities said.






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Satellite upgrade should let planes slash emissions









































A CONSTELLATION of next-generation communications satellites has a surprise in store for the environment. When Iridium Communications begins launching replacement orbiters in 2015, it will do much more than upgrade its satphone services. Piggybacking on the satellites will be a set of transmitters that could revolutionise long-haul flight, save airlines billions of dollars worth of fuel and prevent millions of tonnes of carbon emissions.












For the first time, these devices, known as ADS-B transponders, will enable air traffic controllers to locate aircraft that are far out over oceans, remote deserts or the poles where there is no radar coverage. On top of the greater safety this offers airlines if a plane gets into trouble, say, it will also let controllers pack planes in closer together along optimal flight paths, which will cut carbon emissions.












The ADS-B radio transmitting system is designed to replace expensive, unreliable and low-range radar tracking. It bundles an aircraft's call sign, GPS position, speed and altitude into 112-bit digital packets, which are broadcast continually from the aircraft to the control stations.












But like today's radar, ADS-B radio packets have limited range. "If you're way out in the Pacific or over the North Pole no one's going to pick it up," says Dan Mercer of Iridium Communications. So the transponders piggybacking on the new satellites will pick up those signals and beam them back down to Earth. "For the first time, they'll have total vision of the aircraft at all times," Mercer says.












To avoid potential collisions, planes on long-haul routes out over the oceans currently have to fly quite a long way apart. And only some planes can fly in air lanes with kind tailwinds, while others have to push through less-favourable air currents. "If air traffic control can see where aircraft are precisely, they can fly them all closer together and on the most efficient routes. So they will save fuel and cut emissions," says Mercer.


















A study commissioned by Iridium found that between the service's proposed start in 2017 and 2030, the technology should save airlines about $7 billion on fuel and cut carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions by 35 million tonnes. Another projection that looked at just North Atlantic flights says orbital ADS-B will save airlines $110 million in fuel and 300,000 tonnes in emissions in 2018 alone.












The system can "improve the efficiency of oceanic air traffic management by reducing aircraft separation distances and allowing greater route optimisation", says Pauline Lamb, operations director of National Air Traffic Services in Prestwick, UK. She adds that her organisation is working to fully understand the benefits it will provide.












Meanwhile, one of the world's largest air traffic management firms, Nav Canada of Ottawa, Ontario, has formed Aireon, a joint venture with Iridium. Aireon will operate and sell the transponder service to airlines and air traffic control providers. In combination with other measures - such as use of lighter carbon fibre planes and more efficient engines - Iridium's move should help aviation fight its environmental corner.




















































If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.









































































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Two dead, 10 missing after South Korea barge capsizes






SEOUL: Two construction workers were confirmed killed late Friday and 10 others missing after a barge carrying a crane capsized off South Korea's southeast coast, the coastguard said.

The 2,600-ton barge sank off the city of Ulsan after the 80-metre (264-foot) crane collapsed, Yonhap news agency quoted coastguard officials as saying.

Twelve people have so far been rescued with two others confirmed dead, and a search is underway for the 10 missing workers.

The accident happened during construction of a new port.

- AFP/lp



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Get a Sceptre 42-inch HDTV for $299 shipped



It was almost two years ago to the day that I wrote about a 32-inch TV selling for $299 (a Sceptre, in fact), and what a big deal that was.


Now you can get a significantly larger screen for exactly the same price: For a limited time, and while supplies last, Walmart has the Sceptre X425BV-FHD 42-inch LCD HDTV for $299, plus sales tax where applicable. Shipping is free, or you can opt for free in-store pickup. Either way, you're assured of getting it on or before Dec. 24.


(Note: This deal started yesterday, and I don't know when it's scheduled to expire, so I apologize in advance if it suddenly disappears today. It's been known to happen.)


As you might expect given the price point, this is a lower-end TV, with a 60Hz refresh rate and a standard (i.e. non-LED) LCD. The refresh rate doesn't bother me in the slightest; I actually prefer it to most of the 120Hz and 240Hz models I've seen, which invariably produce that hideous soap-opera effect.


As for the rest of the specs, they're about what you'd expect: three HDMI inputs, a 5ms response time, and, um, a remote. So, yeah, pretty basic. If you want to "smarten" this TV, you'll need to plug in a Roku box,
Apple TV, or the like. (Roku deal of the day: the refurbished Roku 2 XS for $59.99 shipped. The same model sells new for $99.99.)


When you're looking at an off-brand TV like this one, it's always a good idea to peruse the user reviews. Fortunately, Walmart has lots of them -- over 400 -- and the vast majority rated the Sceptre four or five stars. The general consensus: this model delivers considerable bang for the buck.


And, hey, it's Walmart, so it's easy enough to return the unit if you're not happy with it. Contrast that with buying from a place that's strictly mail-order, where you're probably on the hook for return shipping. Just saying.


I've had very good luck with off-brand models like this. Your mileage may vary, of course, but if you're looking for a decent-size TV for a crazy-good price, have a look.


Bonus deal: And if you're looking for a decent-size monitor for a crazy-good price, today only, OfficeMax has the AOC E2460SWD 24-inch for $119.99 shipped (plus sales tax where applicable). That's one of the lowest prices I've ever seen for a monitor of this size, meaning it will likely sell out quickly.


Bonus deal No. 2: I continue to be a huge fan of Ebates, which pays you back a percentage of pretty much everything you buy online. And the site is currently offering double cash back from various stores -- including Walmart, which is now at two percent. And you can get 3 percent back on OfficeMax purchases. It may not seem like much, but believe me, it adds up. If you haven't yet signed up for Ebates, you can do so for free right here.


Bonus deal No. 3: Do you own an
iPad and dislike pigs? (I know, the two seem to go hand-in-hand.) For a limited time, all the Angry Birds games for iPad (including Star Wars, Seasons, Rio, and Bad Piggies) are on sale for 99 cents each. They're usually $2.99 each.


Deals found on The Cheapskate are subject to availability, expiration, and other terms determined by sellers.


Curious about what exactly The Cheapskate does and how it works? Read our FAQ.


Read More..

Global Checkup: Most People Living Longer, But Sicker


If the world's entire population went in for a collective checkup, would the doctor's prognosis be good or bad? Both, according to new studies published in The Lancet medical journal.

The vast collaborative effort, called the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2010, includes papers by nearly 500 authors in 50 countries. Spanning four decades of data, it represents the most comprehensive analysis ever undertaken of health problems around the world.

It reveals that, globally, we're living longer but coping with more illness as adults. In 1990, "childhood underweight"—a condition associated with malnutrition, measles, malaria, and other infectious diseases—was the world's biggest health problem. Now the top causes of global disease are adult ailments: high blood pressure (associated with 9.4 million deaths in 2010), tobacco smoking (6.2 million), and alcohol use (4.9 million).

First, the good news:

We're living longer. Average life expectancy has risen globally since 1970 and has increased in all but eight of the world's countries within the past decade.

Both men and women are gaining years. From 1970 to 2010, the average lifespan rose from 56.4 years to 67.5 years for men, and from 61.2 years to 73.3 years for women.

Efforts to combat childhood diseases and malnutrition have been very successful. Deaths in children under five years old declined almost 60 percent in the past four decades.

Developing countries have made huge strides in public health. In the Maldives, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Iran, and Peru, life expectancy has increased by more than 20 years since 1970. Within the past two decades, gains of 12 to 15 years have occurred in Angola, Ethiopia, Niger, and Rwanda, an indication of successful strategies for curbing HIV, malaria, and nutritional deficiencies.

We're beating many communicable diseases. Thanks to improvements in sanitation and vaccination, the death rate for diarrheal diseases, lower respiratory infections, meningitis, and other common infectious diseases has dropped by 42 percent since 1990.

And the bad:

Non-infectious diseases are on the rise, accounting for two of every three deaths globally in 2010. Heart disease and stroke are the primary culprits.

Young adults aren't doing as well as others. Deaths in the 15 to 49 age bracket have increased globally in the past 20 years. The reasons vary by region, but diabetes, smoking, alcohol, HIV/AIDS, and malaria all play a role.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is taking a toll in sub-Saharan Africa. Life expectancy has declined overall by one to seven years in Zimbabwe and Lesotho, and young adult deaths have surged by more than 500 percent since 1970 in South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

We drink too much. Alcohol overconsumption is a growing problem in the developed world, especially in Eastern Europe, where it accounts for almost a quarter of the total disease burden. Worldwide, it has become the top risk factor for people ages 15 to 49.

We eat too much, and not the right things. Deaths attributable to obesity are on the rise, with 3.4 million in 2010 compared to 2 million in 1990. Similarly, deaths attributable to dietary risk factors and physical inactivity have increased by 50 percent (4 million) in the past 20 years. Overall, we're consuming too much sodium, trans fat, processed meat, and sugar-sweetened beverages, and not enough fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, fiber, calcium, and omega-3 fatty acids.

Smoking is a lingering problem. Tobacco smoking, including second-hand smoke, is still the top risk factor for disease in North America and Western Europe, just as it was in 1990. Globally, it's risen in rank from the third to second leading cause of disease.

To find out more and see related charts and graphics, see the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which led the collaboration.


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Critics Faulted Rice's Work on Benghazi, Africa













United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice removed herself from possible consideration as secretary of state after becoming yet another player in the divide between the left and right.


Rice, who withdrew her name Thursday, has faced months of criticism over how she characterized the Sept. 11 attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. She also has come under fire for her approach to dealing with African strongmen.


Rice became a target for conservatives when she went on Sunday morning current affairs shows such as ABC News' "This Week" following the Benghazi attack and failed to characterize it as a pre-meditated act of terror. Instead, she said it was a spontaneous response to an anti-Islam film produced in the United States and cited in the region as an example of anti-Islamicism in the West.


After it became clear that Rice's assertions were untrue and elements of the Obama administration may have known that to be the case, Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham, John McCain and Kelly Ayotte said they would do whatever they could to block Rice's possible nomination to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.








Susan Rice Withdraws From Consideration for Secretary of State Watch Video









GOP Senators 'Troubled' After Meeting With Ambassador Rice Watch Video









President Obama to Senator McCain: 'Go After Me' Watch Video





"This is about the role she played around four dead Americans when it seems to be that the story coming out of the administration -- and she's the point person -- is so disconnected to reality, I don't trust her," Graham said. "And the reason I don't trust her is because I think she knew better. And if she didn't know better, she shouldn't be the voice of America."


Members of the administration defended Rice. At his testimony before Congress, Gen. David Petraeus, the former CIA director, said Rice was speaking from unclassified talking points given to her by the CIA.


Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., reiterated what Petraeus said outside his closed-door hearing before the Senate.


"The key is that they were unclassified talking points at a very early stage. And I don't think she should be pilloried for this. She did what I would have done or anyone else would have done that was going on a weekend show," Feinstein said. "To say that she is unqualified to be secretary of state, I think, is a mistake. And the way it keeps going, it's almost as if the intent is to assassinate her character."


Minutes after she announced her withdrawal from the process, Graham tweeted, "I respect Ambassador Rice's decision."


McCain's office released a paper statement saying, "Senator McCain thanks Ambassador Rice for her service to the country and wishes her well. He will continue to seek all the facts surrounding the attack on our consulate in Benghazi that killed four brave Americans."


Over the last few weeks, criticism of Rice had grown beyond her response to Benghazi to include a closer scrutiny of her work in Africa, where she had influence over U.S. policy during the Clinton administration.


Critics of her Africa dealings were not partisan -- but included human rights workers, journalists and some Africans themselves.


Among the most serious critiques was the accusation that she actively protected Rwandan President Paul Kagame and senior members of his government from being sanctioned for funding and supporting the rebels that caused Eastern Congo's recent violence.






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Welcome to the personal drone revolution


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US retail sales rebound in November






WASHINGTON: US retail sales rebounded in November, reversing October's decline as auto sales surged, the Commerce Department said on Thursday.

Retail sales rose 0.3 percent after a 0.3 percent drop the prior month.

Excluding automobile sales, up 1.4 percent after a 1.9 percent tumble in October, retail sales were unchanged from October.

The Commerce Department said that Hurricane Sandy, which wreaked havoc on the Northeast in late October and early November, had both positive and negative effects on the two months' data.

The data, which is not adjusted for price changes, showed a mixed performance across sectors in November.

Sales gains for automobiles, furniture and home furnishings, building materials, electronics and other sectors were offset by a sharp drop in gasoline sales.

Year-over-year growth in retail sales was 3.7 percent, unchanged from October.

The retail sales data, which includes restaurant and bar sales, is a key indicator of consumer spending that accounts for about 70 percent of US economic activity.

The modest rise in the headline number masked the true direction of consumer demand, said Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors.

"Gasoline prices were down sharply over the month and if you exclude them, spending increased sharply," he said.

- AFP/de



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Crazy like a fox? McAfee admits to playing 'the crazy card'



Software founder John McAfee, pictured yesterday, was released from detention in Guatemala and flew to the U.S.



(Credit:
CBS News)

The antics of security software founder John McAfee may have seemed pretty insane, but he now says that at least some of his actions were a ruse.

McAfee, speaking with ABC News after arriving in the U.S., said he faked an illness to avoid being sent back to Belize from Guatemala, and he also thanked the media for closely covering his story.

"It was a deception but who did it hurt? I look pretty healthy, don't I?," he said during an interview with ABC at a Miami Beach hotel.

"What's a better story, millionaire mad man on the run. You [the media] saved my ass. Because you paid attention to the story. As long as you are reporting, it is hard to whack somebody that the world is watching," McAfee added.

The antivirus pioneer, who founded the security company McAfee, was living in Belize, where police sought him for questioning after his neighbor Gregory Faull was discovered shot dead. He illegally crossed the border into Guatemala in an attempt to seek asylum, but the country denied his request.

After McAfee received word he would be sent back to Belize, he complained about chest pains and said he had two mild heart attacks -- an incident he now says was fake.

McAfee has publicly stated his innocence in his blog, which he has been updating frequently while on the run and while detained.

During his interview with ABC, McAfee continued to deny any involvement in his neighbor's death and said that he's now penniless and has no idea what he'll do next.

McAfee says he left all of his possessions in Belize, including $20 million in investments and about 15 properties. He's now focused on getting his 20-year-old and 17-year-old girlfriends out of Belize, he said.

"I have nothing now," McAfee told ABC. "I've got a pair of clothes and shoes, my friend dropped off some cash."

Read More..

Hubble Discovers Oldest Known Galaxy


The Hubble space telescope has discovered seven primitive galaxies formed in the earliest days of the cosmos, including one believed to be the oldest ever detected.

The discovery, announced Wednesday, is part of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field campaign to determine how and when galaxies first assembled following the Big Bang.

"This 'cosmic dawn' was not a single, dramatic event," said astrophysicist Richard Ellis with the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Rather, galaxies appear to have been formed over hundreds of millions of years.

Ellis led a team that used Hubble to look at one small section of the sky for a hundred hours. The grainy images of faint galaxies include one researchers determined to be from a period 380 million years after the onset of the universe—the closest in time to the Big Bang ever observed.

The cosmos is about 13.7 billion years old, so the newly discovered galaxy was present when the universe was 4 percent of its current age. The other six galaxies were sending out light from between 380 million and 600 million years after the Big Bang. (See pictures of "Hubble's Top Ten Discoveries.")

Baby Pictures

The images are "like the first ultrasounds of [an] infant," said Abraham Loeb, a specialist in the early cosmos at Harvard University. "These are the building blocks of the galaxies we now have."

These early galaxies were a thousand times denser than galaxies are now and were much closer together as well, Ellis said. But they were also less luminous than later galaxies.

The team used a set of four filters to analyze the near infrared wavelengths captured by Hubble Wide Field Camera 3, and estimated the galaxies' distances from Earth by studying their colors. At a NASA teleconference, team members said they had pushed Hubble's detection capabilities about as far as they could go and would most likely not be able to identify galaxies from further back in time until the James Webb Space Telescope launches toward the end of the decade. (Learn about the Hubble telescope.)

"Although we may have reached back as far as Hubble will see, Hubble has set the stage for Webb," said team member Anton Koekemoer of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. "Our work indicates there is a rich field of even earlier galaxies that Webb will be able to study."


Read More..

Mall Shooter Quit Job, Was Hawaii Bound













In the days before he stole a semiautomatic weapon and stormed into an Oregon shopping mall, killing two people in a shooting spree, Jacob Roberts quit his job, sold his belongings and began to seem "numb" to those closest to him.


Roberts' ex-girlfriend, Hannah Patricia Sansburn, 20, told ABC News today that the man who donned a hockey mask and opened fire on Christmas shoppers was typically happy and liked to joke around, but abruptly changed in the week before the shooting.


Roberts unleashed a murderous volley of gunfire on the second floor of the Clackamas Town Center on Tuesday while wearing the mask and black clothing, and carrying an AR-15 semiautomatic weapon and "several" magazines full of ammunition. He ended his barrage by walking down to the first floor of the mall and committing suicide.


READ: Why Mass Shooters Wear Masks


"I don't understand," Sansburn said. "I was just with him. I just talked to him. I didn't believe it was him at all. Not one part of me believed it."


She said that in recent weeks, Roberts quit his job at a gyro shop in downtown Portland and sold all of his belongings, telling her that he was moving to Hawaii. He had even purchased a ticket.


She now wonders if he was really planning to move.








Oregon Mall Shooting: Gunman Identified as Jacob Tyler Roberts Watch Video









Oregon Mall Shooting: Suspect Jacob Tyler Roberts Identified Watch Video









Oregon Mall Shooting: 2 Dead in Clackamas Town Center Watch Video





"He was supposed to catch a flight Saturday and I texted him, and asked how his flight went, and he told me, 'oh, I got drunk and didn't make the flight,'" she said. "And then this happens... It makes me think, was he even planning on going to Hawaii? He quit his job, sold all of his things."


Roberts described himself on his Facebook page as an "adrenaline junkie," and said he is the kind of person who thinks, "I'm going to do what I want."


Roberts, who attended Clackamas Community college, posted a picture of himself on his Facebook page firing a gun at a target. His Facebook photo showed graffiti in which the words "Follow Your Dreams" were painted over with the word "Cancelled."


Sansburn said the pair had dated for nearly a year but had broke up over the summer. Throughout their relationship, she had never seen him act violently or get angry.


"Jake was never the violent type. He didn't go out of his way to try to hurt people or upset people. His main goal was to make you laugh, smile, make you feel comfortable. I never would have guessed him to do anything like this ever," she said.


"You can't reconcile the differences. I hate him for what he did, but I can't hate the person I knew because it was nothing like the person who would go into a mall and go on a rampage. I would never associate the two at all."


The last time she saw him, which was last week, he "seemed numb," and she didn't understand why, she said.


"I just talked to him, stayed the night with him, and he just seemed numb if anything. He's usually very bubbly and happy, and I asked him why, what had changed, and said 'nothing.' He just had so much he had to do before he went to Hawaii that he was trying to distance himself from Portland," Sansburn said.


Sansburn said the last message she sent Roberts was a text, asking him to stay, and saying she didn't want him to leave. He replied "I'm sorry," with a sad face emoticon.


Police are still seeking information about what Roberts was doing in the days leading up to the shooting. They said today they believe Roberts stole the gun he used in the rampage from someone he knew. They have searched his home and his car for other clues into his motive.


Read ABC News' full coverage of the Oregon Mall Shooting


Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts said earlier today on "Good Morning America" that he believes Roberts went into the mall with the goal of killing as many people as he could.


"I believe, at least from the information that's been provided to me at this point in time, it really was a killing of total strangers. To my knowledge at this point in time he was really trying, I think, to kill as many people as possible."


Sansburn said she has not talked to police.






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Slaloming robot minicopter learns from its mistakes



Sandrine Ceurstemont, editor, New Scientist TV






A pro skier is likely to have practised for years, and endured a few falls, before winning a slalom race. Now a minicopter is taking inspiration from this approach by learning from its mistakes to perfect a route through an obstacle course.






Developed by Angela Schoellig and colleagues from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, the drone initially flies between a series of poles by following a pre-computed path. But because of real-world inconsistencies, such as unpredictable aerodynamics, it will deviate slightly from the prescribed trajectory. To help it zigzag more accurately, cameras track its motion and provide feedback. "It's similar to what humans do intuitively," says Schoellig. "If a tennis player plays a ball too short, he knows that he must hit harder the next time."



By using this approach, a minicopter typically masters any obstacle course within 10 tries. Since its full trajectory is updated after each trial, several previously unknown effects can be incorporated instead of only considering a single type of error. In future versions of the system, the drone may not need to start each flight from scratch. "It would be interesting to investigate if the quadrocopter can use information obtained from learning one slalom course to start off better when learning a different course," says Schoellig.



As drones become more sophisticated, we'll be able to trust them to perform a range tasks, from flying next door to borrow a cup of sugar to decommissioning a nuclear reactor. For more about how flying robot servants will change our lives, check out our full-length feature, "Welcome to the personal drone revolution".



If you enjoyed this post, watch flying robots team up to juggle or see a swarm of minicopters perform the James Bond theme.





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Fed likely to expand QE with economy still slow






WASHINGTON: Economists expect the Federal Reserve (Fed) to add to its stimulus efforts with an expanded bond-buying program Wednesday when it concludes its last policy board meeting of 2012 amid still-slow growth.

With the US economy still sluggish despite two years and hundreds of billions of US dollars of quantitative easing (QE) operations, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is expected to stick to its guns at the end of its two day meeting.

Gathering just before its "Twist" asset-swap operation expires at year-end, signs are that the FOMC will replace it with more outright bond purchases aimed at lowering interest rates to encourage businesses to invest and hire.

With unemployment still stubbornly high, inflation low, and politicians still battling over averting the looming fiscal cliff, the FOMC has all the reason it needs to expand its QE operations.

But by how much depends on just how weak or strong the Fed's top officials judge economic growth to be.

Data released on Friday showed US unemployment rates falling to 7.7 per cent in November, which while still unhealthy seems to confirm the slow but steady downtrend in the rate.

Some economists say the figure is innately weak -- and so justifying more Fed easing -- because it has fallen in a large part because of a rise in labour market dropouts, rather than from job creation.

But others argue that, having continued to fall even after the devastating Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on the northeast US economy in November, the jobless rate represents a tightening of the labour market, a sign of economic resilience.

How the Fed interprets the data will be clear when it releases its policy conclusions at and its economic forecasts.

With its benchmark interest rate already at a bare-bottom 0-0.25 per cent since December 2008, the Fed's main policy tool is its bond and mortgage-backed security purchases, through which it has been holding down long-term interest rates.

The cutoff of Operation Twist, which involves swapping about US$45 billion a month in short-term assets with long-term ones, will leave the Fed with only its open-ended QE3 bond purchases in place, worth US$40 billion a month.

Public comments from a number of individual Fed officials, and the minutes of the last FOMC meeting, show support for expanding those purchases to ensure liquidity remains easy.

A wild card in all this is the Washington battle over the fiscal cliff, the automatic tax hikes and sharp spending cuts that could send the country back into recession if politicians cannot compromise.

With a deadline at the end of the year, the White House and congressional Republicans appeared still far apart on an alternative deficit reduction plan that could avert the cliff.

The Fed's Beige Book survey of regional economies, compiled to help FOMC members decide their direction, showed widespread worry among businesses over the standoff.

And in late November Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke warned that the cliff's US$500 billion crunch on the economy starting from January 1 "would pose a substantial threat to the recovery."

Asked what the central bank could do, he replied: "I don't think the Fed has the tools to offset that."

That aside, economists differ on how much new QE the Fed could add: US$45 billion a month to match the value of the Twist swaps, or less if the FOMC sees the economy gaining.

"We see some risk that the new purchase program will be somewhat smaller than the US$45 billion per month widely expected," said Jim O'Sullivan of High Frequency Economics.

"The continued downtrend in the unemployment rate is a key reason we think officials might not fully replace the amount of long-term purchases under operation Twist."

The US dollar has steadily weakened since Monday ahead of the FOMC decision, losing more than one cent to the euro to US$1.3036 early Wednesday.

But David Song, a forex markets analyst at Daily FX, was bullish on the greenback.

"It seems as though the central bank is nearing the end of its easing cycle as Chairman Ben Bernanke holds an improved outlook for 2013. In light of the more broad-based recovery in the world's largest economy, Chairman Bernanke may strike a more neutral tone for monetary policy, and a shift in central bank rhetoric may pave the way for a US dollar rally."

- AFP/jc



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Get an iPod Shuffle bundle for $39



MP3 players don't get much smaller than the iPod Shuffle.

MP3 players don't get much smaller than the iPod Shuffle.



(Credit:
Apple)


iPhones, iPads, and
iPod Touches get all the attention, but let us not forget the humble iPod Shuffle, the tiny clip-on MP3 player that's hard to beat for hiking, biking, running, and the gym.


Apple sells the Shuffle for $49, but for a limited time, Walmart has the 4th-generation iPod Shuffle 2GB and accessory kit for $39, plus sales tax where applicable. Shipping adds about $3, but you can avoid that charge by choosing store pickup or padding your cart to at least $45.


I should note that three of the seven available color choices are already out of stock; as of 9:30 a.m. ET, your remaining options are blue, black, silver, and yellow.


The Shuffle can hold hundreds of songs, and its integrated clip allows you to adhere it pretty much anywhere on your person: shorts, shirt, sleeve, coat, etc. It can play for about 15 hours before needing recharging.


The Ematic accessory kit comes with six items of varying usefulness, including an audio splitter, a
car charger, and a stereo patch cable (for plugging the Shuffle into, say, your home or car stereo). The cleaning cloth? Uh, yeah, I'll save that for my iPhone.


Needless to say, the Shuffle would make a great gift item, and if you're able to save $10 or so and grab some extra goodies, so much the better.


Bonus deal: Just now I had a
Kindle Fire HD in my Amazon shopping cart, and at checkout I was offered a year of Amazon Prime for $59, instead of the usual $79. Your mileage may vary, of course, and I'm not sure if this promotion appears only with Kindle Fire purchases or what. If you're buying from Amazon today and you see the offer as well, hit the comments and let your fellow cheeps know the details.

Bonus deal No. 2: Looking for a great gift for the sports nut in your life? Our very own CNET has the award-winning ESPN Films "30 for 30" Collector's Set on Blu-ray for $27.99 shipped. It lists for $99.99 and sells elsewhere for at least $60, so this really is a spectacular deal. But act fast: it ends tomorrow.

Deals found on The Cheapskate are subject to availability, expiration, and other terms determined by sellers.

Curious about what exactly The Cheapskate does and how it works? Read our FAQ.

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Best Space Pictures of 2012: Editor's Picks

Photograph courtesy Tunç Tezel, APOY/Royal Observatory

This image of the Milky Way's vast star fields hanging over a valley of human-made light was recognized in the 2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition run by the U.K.’s Royal Observatory Greenwich.

To get the shot, photographer Tunç Tezel trekked to Uludag National Park near his hometown of Bursa, Turkey. He intended to watch the moon and evening planets, then take in the Perseids meteor shower.

"We live in a spiral arm of the Milky Way, so when we gaze through the thickness of our galaxy, we see it as a band of dense star fields encircling the sky," said Marek Kukula, the Royal Observatory's public astronomer and a contest judge.

Full story>>

Why We Love It

"I like the way this view of the Milky Way also shows us a compelling foreground landscape. It also hints at the astronomy problems caused by light pollution."—Chris Combs, news photo editor

Published December 11, 2012

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Mall Gunman Wanted to Kill 'Total Strangers'













The masked gunman who opened fire in the crowded Clackamas Town Center mall in suburban Portland, Ore., killing two and seriously injuring a third before killing himself, was trying to "kill as many people as possible."


The shooter, wearing a white hockey mask, black clothing and a bullet proof vest, tore through the mall just before 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, entering through a Macy's store and heading to the food court and public areas spraying bullets, according to witness reports.


Police have identified the gunman, but have not released his name, Sheriff Craig Roberts told "Good Morning America."


"We have been able to identify the shooter over this last night," Roberts said. "I believe, at least from the information that's been provided to me at this point in time, it really was a killing of total strangers. To my knowledge at this point in time he was really trying, I think, to kill as many people as possible."


Police have not released the names of the shooter's victims. Clackamas County Sheriff's Department Lt. James Rhodes said authorities are in the process of notifying victims' families.


The injured victim, identified by hospital officials as Kristina Shevchenko, has been taken to a hospital, according to Roberts.


PHOTOS: Oregon Mall Shooting






Craig Mitchelldyer/Getty Images











Oregon Mall Shooting: 'Killing of Total Strangers' Watch Video









Oregon Mall Shooting: Woman on Macy's Employee's Heroism Watch Video









Oregon Mall Shooting: At Least 3 People Dead Watch Video





Nadia Telguz, who said she was a friend of Shevchenko, told ABC News affiliate KATU-TV in Portland that the woman was expected to recover.


"My friend's sister got shot," Teleguz told KATU. "She's on her way to (Oregon Health and Science University Hospital). They're saying she got shot in her side and so it's not life-threatening, so she'll be OK."


Witnesses from the shooting rampage said that a young man who appeared to be a teenager, ran through the upper level of Macy's to the mall food court, firing multiple shots, one right after the other, with what is believed to be a black, semi-automatic rifle.


By 4:40 p.m., police reported finding a group of people hiding in a storeroom. In a surreal moment, even the mall Santa was seen running for his life.


"I didn't know where the gunman was, so I decided to kind of eased my way out," said the mall Santa, who the AP identified as 68-year-old Brance Wilson.


More than 10,000 shoppers were at the mall during the day, according to police. Roberts said that officers responded to the scene of the shooting within minutes, and four SWAT teams swept the 1.4 million-square-foot building searching for the shooter. He was eventually found dead, an apparent suicide.


"I can confirm the shooter is dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound," Rhodes said. "By all accounts there were no rounds fired by law enforcement today in the mall."


Roberts said more than 100 law enforcement officers responded to the shooting, and the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are working with local agencies to trace the shooter's weapon.


Cell phone video shot at the scene shows the chaos soon after the shooting. When police arrived they were met head on by terrified shoppers, children and employees streaming out. Customers, even a little girl, were being lead out with their hands up.


"I think a variety of things happened that I think this could have been much, much worse," Roberts told "GMA." "And to give you some ideas, we got the call at 3:29, we had someone on scene within a minute, 30 seconds.






Read More..

War of words: The language paradox explained


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US trade gap widens in October as exports fall






WASHINGTON - The US trade deficit widened in October as exports fell sharply from the prior month amid a slowing global economy, government data released Tuesday showed.

The trade gap increased to US$42.2 billion from a revised US$40.3 billion in September, the Commerce Department said.

Exports fell by 3.6 percent, while imports fell by 2.1 percent.

The decline in exports was the sharpest since January 2009, led by a 4.8 percent drop in goods exports.

"Trade looks to contribute slightly to US GDP growth again in the current quarter, but pronounced weakness in exports and imports says all there is to say about the US economy's momentum," said Sal Guatieri at BMO Capital Markets.

The politically sensitive trade shortfall with China, one of the United States' biggest trading partners, expanded to a record US$28.1 billion, bringing the year's 10-month total to US$245.5 billion.

The three-month average trade deficit rose to US$41.7 billion in October from US$41.5 billion in September.

- AFP/ir



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WiLAN sues RIM over BlackBerry Bluetooth technology



Research In Motion has been hit with a new lawsuit from WiLAN.


WiLAN, which derives its revenue from licensing patents to vendors, says that it filed the patent infringement claim against RIM in the Southern District of Florida. The company says that RIM is violating Patent No. 6,260,168 related to Bluetooth technologies.


WiLAN has a long history of initiating litigation to get companies to license its patents. Founded in 1992, the firm calls itself a "leading technology innovation and licensing company." According to the firm, it currently licenses its intellectual property to over 260 companies around the world that offer a range of products, including "3G and 4G handsets, Wi-Fi enabled laptops, [and] Wi-Fi and broadband routers." All told, WiLAN has over 3,000 issued or pending patents.



The Bluetooth patents, however, have proven to be one of the more popular ways for WiLAN to target vendors. In 2010, the company sued nearly 20 of the tech industry's largest companies, including Apple and Sony, for alleged infringement of Bluetooth patents.


Last year, WiLAN launched several more lawsuits against Apple, HP, Dell, and others, over their alleged violation of patents related to CDMA, HSPA, Wi-Fi, and LTE.


The new patent infringement claim against RIM claims that the handset maker's violations extend across a wide array of products, including the BlackBerry Bold and Torch. RIM's defunct BlackBerry PlayBook
tablet is also included in the filing.


WiLAN hasn't said how much it's seeking in damages.


CNET has contacted RIM for comment on the lawsuit. We will update this story when we have more information.


Read More..

U.K. Dash for Shale Gas a Test for Global Fracking

Thomas K. Grose in London


The starting gun has sounded for the United Kingdom's "dash for gas," as the media here have dubbed it.

As early as this week, a moratorium on shale gas production is expected to be lifted. And plans to streamline and speed the regulatory process through a new Office for Unconventional Gas and Oil were unveiled last week in the annual autumn budget statement by the chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne.

In the U.K., where all underground mineral rights concerning fossil fuels belong to the crown, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, could unlock a new stream of government revenue as well as fuel. But it also means that there is no natural constituency of fracking supporters as there is in the United States, birthplace of the technology. In the U.S., concerns over land and water impact have held back fracking in some places, like New York, but production has advanced rapidly in shale basins from Texas to Pennsylvania, with support of private landowners who earn royalties from leasing to gas companies. (Related: "Natural Gas Stirs Hope and Fear in Pennsylvania")

A taste of the fight ahead in the U.K. came ahead of Osborne's speech last weekend, when several hundred protesters gathered outside of Parliament with a mock 23-foot (7-meter) drilling rig. In a letter they delivered to Prime Minister David Cameron, they called fracking "an unpredictable, unregulatable process" that was potentially toxic to the environment.

Giving shale gas a green light "would be a costly mistake," said Andy Atkins, executive director of the U.K.'s Friends of the Earth, in a statement. "People up and down the U.K. will be rightly alarmed about being guinea pigs in Osborne's fracking experiment. It's unnecessary, unwanted and unsafe."

The government has countered that natural gas-fired power plants would produce half the carbon dioxide emissions of the coal plants that still provide about 30 percent of the U.K.'s electricity. London Mayor Boris Johnson, viewed as a potential future prime minister, weighed in Monday with a blistering cry for Britain to "get fracking" to boost cleaner, cheaper energy and jobs. "In their mad denunciations of fracking, the Greens and the eco-warriors betray the mindset of people who cannot bear a piece of unadulterated good news," he wrote in the Daily Telegraph. (Related Quiz: "What You Don't Know About Natural Gas")

Energy Secretary Edward Davey, who is expected this week to lift the U.K.'s year-and-a-half-old moratorium on shale gas exploration, said gas "will ensure we can keep the lights on as increasing amounts of wind and nuclear come online through the 2020s."

A Big Role for Gas

If the fracking plan advances, it will not be the first "dash for gas" in the U.K. In the 1980s, while Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher battled with mining unions, she undercut their clout by moving the nation toward generating a greater share of its electricity from natural gas and less from coal. So natural gas already is the largest electricity fuel in Britain, providing 40 percent of electricity. (Related Interactive: "World Electricity Mix")

The United Kingdom gets about 10 percent of its electricity from renewable energy, and has plans to expand its role. But Davey has stressed the usefulness of gas-fired plants long-term as a flexible backup source to the intermittent electricity generated from wind and solar power. Johnson, on the other hand, offered an acerbic critique of renewables, including the "satanic white mills" he said were popping up on Britain's landscape. "Wave power, solar power, biomass—their collective oomph wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding," he wrote.

As recently as 2000, Great Britain was self-sufficient in natural gas because of conventional gas production in the North Sea. But that source is quickly drying up. North Sea production peaked in 2000 at 1,260 terawatt-hours (TWH); last year it totaled just 526 TWh.

Because of the North Sea, the U.K. is still one of the world's top 20 producers of gas, accounting for 1.5 percent of total global production. But Britain has been a net importer of gas since 2004. Last year, gas imports—mainly from Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands—accounted for more than 40 percent of domestic demand.

The government hopes to revive domestic natural gas production with the technology that has transformed the energy picture in the United States—horizontal drilling into deep underground shale, and high-pressure injection of water, sand, and chemicals to create fissures in the rock to release the gas. (Related Interactive: "Breaking Fuel From the Rock")

A Tougher Road

But for a number of reasons, the political landscape is far different in the United Kingdom. Britain made a foray into shale gas early last year, with a will drilled near Blackpool in northwest England. The operator, Cuadrilla, said that that area alone could contain 200 trillion cubic feet of gas, which is more than the known reserves of Iraq. But the project was halted after drilling, by the company's own admission, caused two small earthquakes. (Related: "Tracing Links Between Fracking and Earthquakes" and "Report Links Energy Activities To Higher Quake Risk") The April 2011 incident triggered the moratorium that government now appears to be ready to lift. Cuadrilla has argued that modifications to its procedures would mitigate the seismic risk, including lower injection rates and lesser fluid and sand volumes. The company said it will abandon the U.K. unless the moratorium is soon lifted.

A few days ahead of Osborne's speech, the Independent newspaper reported that maps created for Britain's Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) showed that 32,000 square miles, or 64 percent of the U.K. countryside, could hold shale gas reserves and thus be open for exploration. But a DECC spokeswoman said "things are not quite what it [the Independent story] suggests." Theoretically, she said, those gas deposits do exist, but "it is too soon to predict the scale of exploration here." She said many other issues, ranging from local planning permission to environmental impact, would mean that some tracts would be off limits, no matter how much reserve they held. DECC has commissioned the British Geological Survey to map the extent of Britain's reserves.

Professor Paul Stevens, a fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, said the U.K. is clearly interested in trying to replicate America's shale gas revolution. "That's an important part of the story," he said, but trying to use the American playbook won't be easy. "It's a totally different ballgame." In addition to the fact that mineral rights belong to the crown, large expanses of private land that are commonplace in America don't exist in England. Just as important, there is no oil- and gas-service industry in place in Britain to quickly begin shale gas operations here. "We don't have the infrastructure set up," said Richard Davies, director of the Durham Energy Institute at Durham University, adding that it would take years to build it.

Shale gas production would also likely ignite bigger and louder protests in the U.K. and Europe. "It's much more of a big deal in Europe," Stevens said. "There are more green [nongovernmental organizations] opposed to it, and a lot more local opposition."

In any case, the U.K. government plans to move ahead. Osborne said he'll soon begin consultations on possible tax breaks for the shale gas industry. He also announced that Britain would build up to 30 new natural gas-fired power plants with 26 gigawatts (GW) of capacity. The new gas plants would largely replace decommissioned coal and nuclear power plants, though they would ultimately add 5GW of additional power to the U.K. grid. The coalition government's plan, however, leaves open the possibility of increasing the amount of gas-generated electricity to 37GW, or around half of total U.K. demand.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that Europe may have as much as 600 trillion cubic feet of shale gas that could be recovered. But Stevens said no European country is ready to emulate the United States in producing massive amounts of unconventional gas. They all lack the necessary service industry, he said, and geological differences will require different technologies. And governments aren't funding the research and development needed to develop them.

Globally, the track record for efforts to produce shale gas is mixed:

  • In France, the EIA's estimate is that shale gas reserves total 5 trillion cubic meters, or enough to fuel the country for 90 years. But in September, President Francois Hollande pledged to continue a ban on fracking imposed last year by his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy.
  • Poland was also thought to have rich shale gas resources, but initial explorations have determined that original estimates of the country's reserves were overstated by 80 percent to 90 percent. After drilling two exploratory wells there, Exxon Mobil stopped operations. But because of its dependence on Russian gas, Poland is still keen to begin shale gas production.
  • South Africa removed a ban on fracking earlier this year. Developers are eyeing large shale gas reserves believed to underlie the semidesert Karoo between Johannesburg and Cape Town.
  • Canada's Quebec Province has had a moratorium on shale gas exploration and production, but a U.S. drilling company last month filed a notice of intent to sue to overturn the ban as a violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
  • Germany's Environment Ministry has backed a call to ban fracking near drinking water reservoirs.
  • China drilled its initial shale gas wells this year; by 2020, the nation's goal is for shale gas to provide 6 percent of its massive energy needs. The U.S. government's preliminary assessment is that China has the world's largest "technically recoverable" shale resources, about 50 percent larger than stores in the United States. (Related: "China Drills Into Shale Gas, Targeting Huge Reserves")

This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.


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Closing Tax Loopholes Not Enough to Avert 'Cliff'?













Closing "corporate tax loopholes" sure sounds good to the average, non-corporate American -- so good, in fact, that politicians talk about it all the time.


House Speaker John Boehner's fiscal-cliff proposal purports to raise $1.6 trillion in revenue by "clos[ing] special-interest loopholes and deductions while lowering rates."


The White House, meanwhile, has complained that Boehner hasn't offered specific loopholes to cut.


On the other side of the aisle, House Democrats have repeatedly offered up "closing overseas tax loopholes" as a means to pay for spending bills -- a plan Republicans routinely reject. In the last two and a half years, President Obama has often been heard griping about writeoffs for corporate jets.


For both Republicans and Democrats, "corporate tax loopholes" are an old saw. But, like most things in politics, raising revenue from "loopholes" gets a bit stickier when the specifics are hashed out.


A misconception about tax "loopholes," some experts say, is that they're loopholes -- gaps in the tax law that corporations have exploited against the law's intent.






Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo; Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo















Fiscal Cliff Battle: President Obama vs. Speaker John Boehner Watch Video





"Most of these proposals were not 'loopholes,' these were incentives," said Eric Toder, co-director of the left-leaning Tax Policy Center.


For example, take the research-and-development tax credit. During the campaign, both Obama and Mitt Romney suggested making it permanent.


"One wouldn't call the research credit a loophole," Toder said.


Cashing in by closing the biggest "loopholes" could be a politically fraught endeavor. To generate meaningful revenue, House Republicans would have to sign off on measures that raised it from taxing the overseas profits of multinational corporations, from ending immediate writeoffs of equipment purchases, or from ending a credit for domestic manufacturing.


When the Joint Committee on Taxation scored some of these provisions, as part of a tax-reform bill pushed by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden and then-GOP-senator Judd Gregg, it found the government could save significantly:


Savings Over 10 Years: 2011-2021


Taxing Overseas Profits of Multinational Corps: $582.7 billion. In other words, the "overseas tax loophole" Democrats are fond of trashing. While most countries with large economies tax only profits made at home, the U.S. code taxes all income everywhere. To offset the different, U.S. multinational corporations receive credits to prevent double taxing. They also can defer paying any tax on foreign income, until they transfer the money back to the United States.


Taxing that profit could generate significant revenue. But this could be controversial, and large corporations would fight it. A senior aide to one business lobbying group said ending foreign-income deferral would amount to double-taxing U.S. companies and put them at a disadvantage to foreign competitors; one supporter of ending deferral suggested U.S. companies have been able to hide profits overseas, avoiding taxes altogether.






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Doha summit launches climate damage aid









































The latest summit to stop climate change, held in Doha, Qatar, over the past two weeks has been roundly slammed. Little was agreed to curb greenhouse gas emissions and the latest modelling, carried out by the Climate Action Tracker consortium shows global averages temperatures are still set to rise by at least 3 °C above pre-industrial levels.












There was one breakthrough: developing countries won a promise from developed ones that they would compensate them for losses and damage caused by climate change. The deal offers the promise of large amounts of climate aid. But first, science will have to catch up with politics.











All countries will suffer from climate change. There will be consequences even if humanity slashed its emissions and stopped temperatures rising more than 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, the stated goal of the UN negotiations. In actual fact, with emissions rising faster than ever, a 3 or 4 °C rise is likely this century.












The consequences will be manifold. Deserts will spread and lethal heatwaves become more frequent. Changes in rainfall will bring droughts, floods and storms, while rising seas will swamp low-lying areas, obliterating valuable territory. Food production will fall.













Before Doha kicked off, the charities ActionAid, CARE International and WWF released a report arguing that rich countries should compensate poor countries for such damages. Tackling the Limits to Adaptation points out that climate change will cost countries dearly, both economically and in less tangible ways such as the loss of indigenous cultures.











Two-pronged approach













So far, climate negotiations have taken a two-pronged approach to the problem. On the one hand, they have sought to create incentives or imperatives to cut emissions. On the other, they have established a pot of money for poor countries to pay for measures that will help them fend off the unavoidable consequences of climate change – such as sea walls and irrigation systems.












That, according to some, leaves a third element missing. Helping those who suffer the consequences of climate change is a moral obligation and must be part of any treaty on climate change, says Niklas Höhne of renewable energy consultancy Ecofys. The idea of climate compensation has been around since the early 1990s, when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was negotiated.












In Doha, a coalition including China, the Alliance of Small Island States and the G77 group of developing countries pushed for it to revived.












They proposed a scheme that would decide when countries had suffered climate harms, and compensate them. It would be a form of insurance, and the greatest international aid scheme ever. The idea gained momentum after Typhoon Bopha struck the Philippines last week, and that country's negotiator Naderev "Yeb" Saño broke down in tears during a speech. And, although developed nations had little incentive to agree, the conference concluded with a promise to set something up next year.












Compensation poses a fundamental challenge to climate science, which still struggles to work out if trends and events are caused by greenhouse gases or would have happened anyway. "We can't say that an individual event was caused by climate change," says Nigel Arnell of the University of Reading, UK. "What we can do is say that the chance of it happening was greater."











Systematic tests












Some climatologists are now running systematic tests to decide whether extreme weather events are caused by climate change. They run climate models with and without humanity's emissions. If the odds of a particular event are different, it suggests it was at least partially driven by emissions. By this measure, the 2003 European heatwave and 2011 Texas drought were both made more likely by human emissions.












But this science is in its infancy. We can confidently attribute large-scale trends and temperature changes, says Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. But changes in rainfall, and short-term events like hurricanes, are harder because we do not really understand them. Trenberth speculates that superstorm Sandy would not have flooded the New York subwaysMovie Camera without climate change, but says it's not possible to prove.













Arnell says that might prove unworkable. Gradual changes – such as rising sea levels, melting glaciers and ocean acidification – are easy to attribute to climate change but their consequences difficult to cost; sudden events are easy to cost but difficult to attribute.












There may be another possibility. Rather than examining individual events, climate models could predict the extra climate-related costs each country would experience, allowing regular payouts. "That would be a way round it," says Arnell. Delegates at next year's conference will have to consider these questions.











Positive step













Harjeet Singh of ActionAid in New Delhi, India, calls the Doha deal "a positive step forward". But it is only an agreement in principle: no money was committed, and even a promise to do so in the future was left out of the final text. Edward Davey, the UK's secretary of state for energy and climate change, said it was "far too early" to talk about committing money. "We aren't saying there should be compensation," he said.












Singh says the developed world would save money by cutting emissions now, rather than letting temperatures rise and then paying compensation. Small island states were keen to get an agreement on loss and damage because emissions cuts are going so slowly, making dangerous climate change almost certain. The Doha agreement is a first step towards dealing with the consequences of that failure.




















On 'other business'






Aside from agreeing to make compensation available for loss and damage, the Doha summit achieved little. Nearly two decades ago, the world's governments set out to agree a binding deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Doha included some baby steps towards a deal in 2015, but that is not guaranteed and in any case will come too late to stop dangerous climate change. Only Lebanon and the Dominican Republic made new emissions pledges.










The talks were bogged down in rows over financing. In a deal that was separate to the adaptation fund, developed countries had promised in 2009 to deliver $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poor nations prepare for climate change. Between 2009 and 2012 they allocated $10 billion a year. In Doha they refused to say how they would scale that up, simply promising to "continue" – leaving developing countries unsure if or when they would get more.








The Kyoto protocol was renewed until 2020, but its global effect is likely to be limited. Its value is partly symbolic, to show that binding agreements can be reached, and as one of many small and medium-scale projects to cut emissions.










































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