The NSA wields its legal authority to collect phone call data from American telecom providers, but the CIA apparently doesn't even need to apply pressure. The New York Times claims that the agency has a years-old voluntary agreement with AT&T that lets it obtain the call records of foreign suspects; ...![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 7-Nov-2013
ShareContact: Barbara Wankerl
barbara.wankerl@tum.de
49-892-892-2562
Technische Universitaet Muenchen
In developing countries millions of new residents stream into megacities
often building "informal" neighborhoods where new generations will be
born. Official responses have typically been like efforts to hold back the
tide. With the expected influx of another two billion low-income migrants
by 2050, this challenge is being reframed, with a focus on exploring more
constructive approaches that channel the energy, creativity, and
resourcefulness of the new city dwellers.
Researchers at the forefront of this worldwide movement are converging on Munich from November 20 to 23 for a symposium hosted by the Technische Universitt Mnchen (TUM). The interdisciplinary symposium "Metropolis Nonformal Anticipation" assumes that collaboration, not prevention, offers the only path toward sustainable living in the megacities of the future.
The second such meeting of the minds arranged under the auspices of the TUM Institute for Advanced Study, this symposium also marks a new beginning: the official launch of a United Nations Habitat Hub on Informal Urbanism.
Journalists interested in covering the event need to register and should also contact the TUM Corporate Communications Center (presse@tum.de).
###
Symposium program and further information:
http://www.tum-ias.de/metropolis-nonformal-symposium/
Contact:
Juliane Schneegans
Scientific Assistant, Landscape Architecture and Public Space
Technische Universitt Mnchen
T: +49 (0)8161 71 4166
E: juliane.schneegans@wzw.tum.de
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.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 7-Nov-2013
ShareContact: Barbara Wankerl
barbara.wankerl@tum.de
49-892-892-2562
Technische Universitaet Muenchen
In developing countries millions of new residents stream into megacities
often building "informal" neighborhoods where new generations will be
born. Official responses have typically been like efforts to hold back the
tide. With the expected influx of another two billion low-income migrants
by 2050, this challenge is being reframed, with a focus on exploring more
constructive approaches that channel the energy, creativity, and
resourcefulness of the new city dwellers.
Researchers at the forefront of this worldwide movement are converging on Munich from November 20 to 23 for a symposium hosted by the Technische Universitt Mnchen (TUM). The interdisciplinary symposium "Metropolis Nonformal Anticipation" assumes that collaboration, not prevention, offers the only path toward sustainable living in the megacities of the future.
The second such meeting of the minds arranged under the auspices of the TUM Institute for Advanced Study, this symposium also marks a new beginning: the official launch of a United Nations Habitat Hub on Informal Urbanism.
Journalists interested in covering the event need to register and should also contact the TUM Corporate Communications Center (presse@tum.de).
###
Symposium program and further information:
http://www.tum-ias.de/metropolis-nonformal-symposium/
Contact:
Juliane Schneegans
Scientific Assistant, Landscape Architecture and Public Space
Technische Universitt Mnchen
T: +49 (0)8161 71 4166
E: juliane.schneegans@wzw.tum.de
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.
Showing the fashion world that it has nothing on her, the irresistibly sexy Kate Upton posed for a nude body paint photo shoot for Sports Illustrated Magazine.
Looking perfect, and showing off her signature curves without the burdens of clothing, the 21-year-old said at the beginning of the shoot, "The day here is perfect. The weather is amazing, and I'm happy to take off my clothes just for a little warm weather!"
The sensual supermodel sported an intricately painted bikini, which acted as a throwback to the cover of the swimsuit edition's 2000 model, Daniela Pestova.
"I definitely feel naked," the GQ covergirl said during the shoot. "Because I am. It's just paint! She posed in several different stances, and her artists gave a brief description of how difficult and elaborate her painted swimsuit was to create. Watch below!
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, talks to reporters after the Senate cleared a major hurdle and agreed to proceed to debate a bill that would prohibit workplace discrimination against gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Nov. 4, 2013. The bipartisan vote increases the chances that the Senate will pass the bill by week's end, but its prospects in the Republican-led House are dimmer. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, talks to reporters after the Senate cleared a major hurdle and agreed to proceed to debate a bill that would prohibit workplace discrimination against gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Nov. 4, 2013. The bipartisan vote increases the chances that the Senate will pass the bill by week's end, but its prospects in the Republican-led House are dimmer. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate approved legislation outlawing workplace discrimination against gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, demonstrating the nation's quickly evolving attitude toward gay rights nearly two decades after Congress rejected same-sex marriage.
Fifty-four members of the Democratic majority and 10 Republicans voted Thursday for the first major gay rights bill since Congress repealed the ban on gays in the military three years ago. The vote in favor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act was 64-32.
Two opponents of a similar measure 17 years ago, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, the presidential nominee in 2008, and Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, backed the measure this time.
"We are about to make history in this chamber," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine and a chief sponsor of the bill, said shortly before the vote.
The enthusiasm of the bill's supporters was tempered by the reality that the Republican-led House, where conservatives have a firm grip on the agenda, is unlikely to even vote on the legislation. Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, maintains his longstanding opposition to the measure, arguing that it is unnecessary and certain to create costly, frivolous lawsuits for businesses.
Outside conservative groups have cast the bill as anti-family.
President Barack Obama welcomed the vote and urged the House to act.
"One party in one house of Congress should not stand in the way of millions of Americans who want to go to work each day and simply be judged by the job they do," Obama said in a statement. "Now is the time to end this kind of discrimination in the workplace, not enable it."
Gay rights advocates hailed Senate passage as a major victory in a momentous year for the issue. The Supreme Court in June granted federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples, though it avoided a sweeping ruling that would have paved the way for same-sex unions nationwide. Illinois is on the verge of becoming the 15th state to legalize gay marriage along with the District of Columbia.
Supporters called the bill the final step in a long congressional tradition of trying to stop discrimination, coming nearly 50 years after enactment of the Civil Rights Act and 23 years after the Americans with Disabilities Act.
"Now we've finished the trilogy," Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a chief sponsor of the disabilities law, said at a Capitol Hill news conference.
The first openly gay senator, Democrat Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, called the vote a "tremendous milestone" that she will always remember throughout her time in the Senate.
Democrats echoed Obama in pushing for the House to act, with Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois reminding the GOP leader of the history of his party.
"The Republican Party in the United States of America came into being in the 1980s over the issue of slavery, and the man who embodied the ideals of that Republican Party was none other than Abraham Lincoln, who gave his life for his country to end discrimination," Durbin said. "Keep that proud Republican tradition alive."
In the Senate, opponents of the legislation remained mute through three days of debate, with no lawmaker speaking out. That changed on Thursday, as Republican Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana said the legislation would force employers to violate their religious beliefs, a direct counter to rights embodied in the Constitution.
"There's two types of discrimination here we're dealing with, and one of those goes to the very fundamental right granted to every American through our Constitution, a cherished value of freedom of expression and religion," Coats said.
The Senate rejected an amendment sponsored by Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania that would have expanded the number of groups that are covered under the religious exemption. Opponents argued that it would undermine the core bill.
If the House fails to act on the bill, gay rights advocates are likely to press Obama to act unilaterally and issue an executive order barring anti-gay workplace discrimination by federal contractors.
Backers of the bill repeatedly described it as an issue of fairness.
"It is well past time that we, as elected representatives, ensure that our laws protect against discrimination in the workplace for all individuals, that we ensure ... some protections for those within the LGBT community," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who described the diversity in her state.
Murkowski's support underscored the generational shift. Seventeen years ago, when a bill dealing with discrimination based on sexual orientation failed by one vote in the Senate, the senator's father, Frank, voted against it. That was the same year that Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act.
Current federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, race and national origin. But it doesn't stop an employer from firing or refusing to hire workers because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
The bill would bar employers with 15 or more workers from using a person's sexual orientation or gender identity as the basis for making employment decisions, including hiring, firing, compensation or promotion. It would exempt religious institutions and the military.
By voice vote Wednesday, the Senate approved an amendment from Republican Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire that would prevent federal, state and local governments from retaliating against religious groups that are exempt from the law.
Likely Senate approval of the overall bill reflects the nation's growing tolerance of gays and the GOP's political calculation as it looks for support beyond its core base of older voters. A Pew Research survey in June found that more Americans said homosexuality should be accepted rather than discouraged by society by a margin of 60 percent to 31 percent. Opinions were more evenly divided 10 years ago.
Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia have approved laws banning workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and 17 of those also prohibit employers from discriminating based on gender identity.
About 88 percent of Fortune 500 companies have adopted nondiscrimination policies that include sexual orientation, according to the Human Rights Campaign. About 57 percent of those companies include gender identity.
Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., did not vote.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-11-07-Gay%20Rights-Senate/id-a127626cfdca475c9f0281003988fe43PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 7-Nov-2013
ShareContact: Tanya Klein
973-596-3433
New Jersey Institute of Technology
For nearly 20 years, Professor Eric Fortune has studied glass knifefish, a species of three-inch long electric fish that lives in the Amazon Basin. In his laboratory he tries to understand how their tiny brains control complex electrical behaviors. But he could not help but be intrigued by the special "ribbon fin" that knifefish use to swim back and forth. The fin oscillates at both ends, allowing the fish to move forward or backward. Biologists have long wondered why an animal would produce seemingly wasteful forces that directly oppose each other while not aiding its movement.
But in the Nov. 4-8 online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Fortune and a multi-disciplinary team of researchers report that these opposing forces are anything but wasteful. Rather, they allow animals to increase both stability and maneuverability, a feat that is often described as impossible in engineering textbooks.
"I read a Navy flight training manual that had a full page dedicated to the inherent tradeoff between stability and maneuverability, says Fortune, an associate professor of biology at NJIT. "Apparently the knifefish didn't read that manual, since the opposing forces surprisingly make the fish simultaneously more stable and more maneuverable."
When an animal or vehicle is stable, it resists changes in direction. On the other hand, if it is maneuverable, it has the ability to quickly change course. Generally, engineers assume that a system can rely on one property or the otherbut not both. Yet some animals prove an exception to the rule.
"Animals are a lot more clever with their mechanics than we often realize," said Noah Cowan, a professor of mechanical engineering at The Johns Hopkins University and the senior author of the multi-disciplinary research team. "By using just a little extra energy to control the opposing forces, animals seem to increase both stability and maneuverability when they swim, run or fly."
And Fortune suspects that the study will inspire young engineers to approach mechanical design in novel ways. "Despite the fact that the knifefish break a traditional rule of engineering," says Fortune, "they nevertheless achieve better locomotor performance than current robotic systems."
To conduct its study, the team used a combination of careful observations of the fish, mathematical modeling and an analysis of a swimming robot. Working in his NJIT lab with students and in collaboration with his colleagues at Johns Hopkins, Fortune used slow-motion video to film the fish to study its fin movements: What the videos revealed was startlingly counterintuitive.
"It is immediately obvious in the slow-motion videos is that the fish constantly move their fins to produce opposing forces," says Fortune. "One region of their fin pushes water forward, while the other region pushes the water backward. This arrangement is rather counter-intuitive, like two propellers fighting against each other."
A mathematical model designed by Shahin Sefati, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins and a lead author of the research project, showed that this odd arrangement generates stabilizing forces. But the model also suggested that the opposing forces simultaneously improved the ability of the animal to change its velocity, thereby making the animal more maneuverable. The team then tested this model using a robot in the laboratory of Malcolm MacIver at Northwestern University; the robot mimicked the fish's fin movements.
One exciting implication of study is its possible application to robotics systems, including the design of sophisticated robots and aircraft. Designers and engineers might make simple changes to propulsion systems, such as tilting engines or motors so that some of the thrusts oppose each other. Such an arrangement might waste some energy, but this cost may be more than offset by making a robot or aircraft simpler to operate and thus safer.
Fortune joined the NJIT faculty last year as part of a university initiative to increase interdisciplinary research.
"This study is a good example of how engineers can look to nature with the tools of biology to inspire new approaches to solving fundamental design challenges in engineering," says Fortune. "In the other direction, biologists benefit from the application of the analytic tools and quantitative approaches that are routine in engineering. NJIT, with its focus on interdisciplinary research, is just the ecosystem we need to translate these ideas into new technologies."
###
NJIT, New Jersey's science and technology university, enrolls approximately 10,000 students pursuing bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in 120 programs. The university consists of six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, College of Architecture and Design, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, College of Computing Sciences and Albert Dorman Honors College. U.S. News & World Report's 2012 Annual Guide to America's Best Colleges ranked NJIT in the top tier of national research universities. NJIT is internationally recognized for being at the edge in knowledge in architecture, applied mathematics, wireless communications and networking, solar physics, advanced engineered particulate materials, nanotechnology, neural engineering and e-learning. Many courses and certificate programs, as well as graduate degrees, are available online through the Division of Continuing Professional Education.
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.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 7-Nov-2013
ShareContact: Tanya Klein
973-596-3433
New Jersey Institute of Technology
For nearly 20 years, Professor Eric Fortune has studied glass knifefish, a species of three-inch long electric fish that lives in the Amazon Basin. In his laboratory he tries to understand how their tiny brains control complex electrical behaviors. But he could not help but be intrigued by the special "ribbon fin" that knifefish use to swim back and forth. The fin oscillates at both ends, allowing the fish to move forward or backward. Biologists have long wondered why an animal would produce seemingly wasteful forces that directly oppose each other while not aiding its movement.
But in the Nov. 4-8 online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Fortune and a multi-disciplinary team of researchers report that these opposing forces are anything but wasteful. Rather, they allow animals to increase both stability and maneuverability, a feat that is often described as impossible in engineering textbooks.
"I read a Navy flight training manual that had a full page dedicated to the inherent tradeoff between stability and maneuverability, says Fortune, an associate professor of biology at NJIT. "Apparently the knifefish didn't read that manual, since the opposing forces surprisingly make the fish simultaneously more stable and more maneuverable."
When an animal or vehicle is stable, it resists changes in direction. On the other hand, if it is maneuverable, it has the ability to quickly change course. Generally, engineers assume that a system can rely on one property or the otherbut not both. Yet some animals prove an exception to the rule.
"Animals are a lot more clever with their mechanics than we often realize," said Noah Cowan, a professor of mechanical engineering at The Johns Hopkins University and the senior author of the multi-disciplinary research team. "By using just a little extra energy to control the opposing forces, animals seem to increase both stability and maneuverability when they swim, run or fly."
And Fortune suspects that the study will inspire young engineers to approach mechanical design in novel ways. "Despite the fact that the knifefish break a traditional rule of engineering," says Fortune, "they nevertheless achieve better locomotor performance than current robotic systems."
To conduct its study, the team used a combination of careful observations of the fish, mathematical modeling and an analysis of a swimming robot. Working in his NJIT lab with students and in collaboration with his colleagues at Johns Hopkins, Fortune used slow-motion video to film the fish to study its fin movements: What the videos revealed was startlingly counterintuitive.
"It is immediately obvious in the slow-motion videos is that the fish constantly move their fins to produce opposing forces," says Fortune. "One region of their fin pushes water forward, while the other region pushes the water backward. This arrangement is rather counter-intuitive, like two propellers fighting against each other."
A mathematical model designed by Shahin Sefati, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins and a lead author of the research project, showed that this odd arrangement generates stabilizing forces. But the model also suggested that the opposing forces simultaneously improved the ability of the animal to change its velocity, thereby making the animal more maneuverable. The team then tested this model using a robot in the laboratory of Malcolm MacIver at Northwestern University; the robot mimicked the fish's fin movements.
One exciting implication of study is its possible application to robotics systems, including the design of sophisticated robots and aircraft. Designers and engineers might make simple changes to propulsion systems, such as tilting engines or motors so that some of the thrusts oppose each other. Such an arrangement might waste some energy, but this cost may be more than offset by making a robot or aircraft simpler to operate and thus safer.
Fortune joined the NJIT faculty last year as part of a university initiative to increase interdisciplinary research.
"This study is a good example of how engineers can look to nature with the tools of biology to inspire new approaches to solving fundamental design challenges in engineering," says Fortune. "In the other direction, biologists benefit from the application of the analytic tools and quantitative approaches that are routine in engineering. NJIT, with its focus on interdisciplinary research, is just the ecosystem we need to translate these ideas into new technologies."
###
NJIT, New Jersey's science and technology university, enrolls approximately 10,000 students pursuing bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in 120 programs. The university consists of six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, College of Architecture and Design, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, College of Computing Sciences and Albert Dorman Honors College. U.S. News & World Report's 2012 Annual Guide to America's Best Colleges ranked NJIT in the top tier of national research universities. NJIT is internationally recognized for being at the edge in knowledge in architecture, applied mathematics, wireless communications and networking, solar physics, advanced engineered particulate materials, nanotechnology, neural engineering and e-learning. Many courses and certificate programs, as well as graduate degrees, are available online through the Division of Continuing Professional Education.
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.
Now that anyone (well, anyone with an invitation) with a spare $1,500 can get their very own Google Glass, the folks in Mountain View have thoughtfully released a software update for the famous wearable. We're frankly surprised Glass owners weren't able to do this before, but you can now look up ...
Google Drive for iOS has received a fairly significant update, adding support for single sign-in, multiple accounts and proper iOS 7 support. Single sign-in lets you sign in to a Google app just by selecting your account if you're signed in to another Google app already installed on your device. This has been rolling out slowly across Google's suite of iOS apps, and is particularly convenient for those of us using many different Google services.
Multiple account support lets you switch between personal, work, and other accounts as well, all within the same app. This update also has better printing support, letting you print files with either Google Cloud Print or AirPrint.
This free update is available now on the App Store. Is Google Drive your cloud storage portal of choice?
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By Scott Malone
BOSTON (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors on Thursday asked a judge to sentence convicted Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger to two consecutive life sentences plus five years, arguing that the man who was convicted of 11 murders "deserves no mercy."
U.S. District Judge Denise Casper next week is due to sentence Bulger. The former leader of Boston's Winter Hill gang was convicted in August after a trial that featured graphic accounts of gang members machine-guning rivals, beating up extortion victims and burying bodies in the dirt-floored basement of a South Boston home.
"Bulger's horrific crimes and sadistic behavior (e.g., shooting Bucky Barrett in the back of the head at close range after hours of interrogation and then lying down on the couch to relax as his gang buried Barrett) demonstrate that he deserves no mercy at the time of sentencing," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo filed on Thursday.
Prosecutors called Bulger one of the "most violent and despicable criminals in Boston history."
Relatives of many of Bulger's murder victims are expected to testify in the sentencing hearing scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday about the emotional impact of his crimes.
During the trial, defense lawyers conceded that the 84-year-old Bulger was a violent "organized criminal" and focused much of their efforts on denying a government claim that Bulger served as an informant to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. While being an FBI informant was not a crime, it was such a severe breach of Bulger's underworld code that it motivated several of the murders he carried out.
Bulger ultimately was convicted of 31 of 32 criminal counts in a sprawling indictment that charged him with racketeering, extortion and 11 murders, including strangling the girlfriend of fellow gang member Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, who testified at the trial.
The heated trial was interrupted several times when Bulger swore at witnesses and former gang mates swore back at him.
The Winter Hill criminal gang ruled ruthlessly over the Boston underworld in the 1970s and '80s thanks in part to a relationship between Bulger and a corrupt FBI agent that was later the subject of the Hollywood feature film "The Departed." The agent shared Bulger's Irish ethnicity and South Boston upbringing, and turned a blind eye to his crimes in exchange for information the bureau could use against the Italian-American Mafia.
A tip from that agent allowed Bulger to flee Boston in 1994 shortly before he was due to be arrested. Bulger spent 16 years on the lam before the FBI caught up with him in 2011 in a seaside apartment in Santa Monica, California, where he was living.
Bulger declined to testify during his trial, at one point telling the judge, "This is a sham and do what you want with me."
(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and David Gregorio)
Re-usable water bottles
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