NEW YORK, Jan. 30, 2013 ? San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich will coach the Western Conference All-Stars for the 2013 NBA All-Star Game, to be played on Sunday, Feb. 17 (8 p.m. ET), at the Toyota Center in Houston. This marks the third time Popovich has earned the honor, having also coached the West in the 2005 and 2011 games.
Popovich secured the distinction following San Antonio?s 102-78 win tonight against the Charlotte Bobcats, ensuring the Spurs (37-11, .771) will have the best record in the West through games played Feb. 3. The Oklahoma City Thunder?s Scott Brooks was not eligible to coach in this year?s midseason classic by virtue of having coached the West team in last year?s game.
Popovich, in his 17th season as San Antonio?s head coach, has led the Spurs to four NBA championships (1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007), and owns a 924-410 (.693) regular-season record. His 924 wins with the same team rank second all-time in NBA history behind Jerry Sloan (1,127). A two-time NBA Coach of the Year (2003 and 2012), Popovich is 1-1 in All-Star Game competition. He guided the West to a 148-143 win in the 2011 All-Star Game in Los Angeles, and was on the West sideline in Denver in 2005 when the East scored a 125-115 victory.
The East All-Star coach will be determined by the best record in the conference through games played Sunday, Feb. 3. The Chicago Bulls? Tom Thibodeau coached the East squad last season and is therefore ineligible for the honor this year.
The 62nd NBA All-Star Game will be played at the Toyota Center in Houston on Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013 (8 p.m. ET), televised exclusively on TNT and broadcast exclusively on ESPN Radio in the U.S. The All-Star Game will reach fans in 215 countries and territories in 47 languages.
Audio titan THX has released its very first mobile app, and it's aimed at helping folks fine tune their home theater experience. Dubbed "THX tune-up," the app slings videos, photos and test patterns to televisions and projectors to guide users through gauging and adjusting their kit's aspect ratio, brightness, color, contrast and tint. The solution isn't comprehensive, but it promises to work with hardware of any brand. If you don't have an AirPlay setup or cables to pipe content from your iDevice to a larger screen, the application also lends a hand when it comes to tweaking color and tint by leveraging a device's camera and a baked in color filter. As for audio, the app includes a pair of sound tests to make sure speakers are in phase and pump out the right output. THX tune-up won't be available on Android until this Spring, but it's currently up for download on Cupertino's App Store for free -- until it gets slapped with a $1.99 price tag after February 4th, that is. Hit the bordering source link to give it a spin.
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THX LAUNCHES ITS FIRST MOBILE iOS APP TO HELP CONSUMERS PROPERLY ADJUST AND GET THE MOST FROM THEIR TV, PROJECTOR AND SPEAKERS
THX tune-up[TM] is Available Free for One Week Worldwide, then Will be Offered at $1.99 in Select Countries
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. - January 29, 2013 - THX Ltd. today announced its first mobile app, THX tune-up[TM], which is now available in the iTunes App Store. THX tune-up is an easy-to-use, interactive app that lets the general consumer use an iOS device to adjust their TVs, projectors and speakers, to get the best performance and enjoyment from their entertainment system - regardless of brand and price.
THX tune-up arrives just in time for this year's Big Game. According to research conducted by the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association, more than 7.5 million viewers are expected to buy a new television specifically for the game.1 To help all home viewers get on a level playing field and enjoy their new or existing TVs on this big day, THX is offering the app worldwide for free for the first week of its release (January 29 - February 4, 2013). THX tune-up will then be available at its regular price of U.S. $1.99 in select countries.2
"By using the THX tune-up app, sports fans, movie enthusiasts, gamers and even reality show addicts can confirm their TV and sound system are set up correctly. THX tune-up guides consumers simply and easily through picture and sound adjustments to get the best possible entertainment experience from their home system," said Sandra Benedetto, director of product management, THX Ltd. "We also included fun stuff, like links to THX cinema trailers and our signature "THX(R) Deep NoteTM" sound that are bound to evoke envy on a newly 'tuned-up' system."
THX tune-up features Using specifically custom designed video patterns and audio tests, THX tune-up allows consumers to check that video equipment settings are optimized based on the consumer's equipment capabilities and lighting environment, and external speakers are working in phase and are connected properly. For instance, color and tint settings are often complicated to adjust properly without special glasses or other unique equipment. THX tune-up uses the iPad or iPhone camera and a special, THX-designed built-in color filter to help consumers easily ensure colors are accurate and skin tones appear natural.
The interactive app provides users step-by-step instructions via narration and text, as well as a detailed guide on how to use all of its features, walking consumers through the following tests:
Video adjustments Aspect ratio - ensures your TV displays shapes and sizes correctly Brightness - makes certain shadow details and night scenes are clearly visible Contrast - ensures that white detail is distinct on your television Color - make sure colors are bright and vibrant but not overly saturated or cartoonish Tint - ensures skin tones appear natural and are not too green or red
Audio adjustments Speaker assignment - ensures that speakers are connected to the correct audio video receiver (AVR) output and intended sound is coming from the correct speaker Speaker phase - confirms that positive and negative speaker wires are connected correctly and all speakers are in phase
The THX tune-up app is not intended to provide full calibration capabilities. For home theater enthusiasts, calibrators or installers that want a higher level of control and ability to fine-tune their system, THX has a THX Calibrator Blu-ray Disc which is given to graduates from any THX Education class, and is also available in limited quantities at industry tradeshows and events in which THX participates.
Bonus features THX tune-up is not all about settings - THX added a number of its classic cinema features to the app that can be appreciated over and over again: · "THX Deep Note" - the sound that made THX famous is available at the push of a button in 5.1 surround sound · "THX Trailers" - extraordinary THX trailers (just like the ones in THX Certified Cinemas) are available in HD for users to show off their newly tuned TV and sound systems to friends and family · "Moo Can" - users can tilt their iPhone or iPad to hear the classic "moo" sound from a popular THX cinema trailer · "Ask Tex" - provides consumers with an easy way to get answers to any questions they might have for THX about their home theater equipment and setup process
THX and future apps With the launch of THX tune-up, THX is laying the groundwork for partner involvement with future applications that can provide a competitive differentiator and feature enhancements for mass consumer products. With a rich history born out of George Lucas' desire to improve cinema video and audio capabilities, THX hopes to help bridge the inherent hardware capability of smart devices, TVs, speakers and overall home theater systems with content creators' creative intent to improve the home entertainment experience.
Supported devices THX tune-up is available now for Apple iOS devices only, including the iPad 2, 3 and 4 with iOS version 5.1.1 or later; the iPad Mini with version 6.0 or later; the iPhone 4, 4S and 5 with iOS version 5.1.1 or later; and the iPod Touch, generation 4 or later with iOS version 5.1.1 or later. THX plans to release an Android version in Spring 2013.
An Apple Digital AV adapter or Lightning Digital AV adapter and HDMI cable, or Apple TV is needed to connect the iPhone or iPad to your system.
1. More than 179 Million Football Fans Gearing Up for the Big Game, According to Retail Advertising and Marketing Association. National Retail Federation research, January 24, 2013. 2. Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom and United States.
Microsoft is testing a new Web-based service that will allow parents to control their children's online activity and block access to sites that are not appropriate for kids.
Several Microsoft-watcher blogs, such as Liveside.net and Neowin.net have reported that a service called Windows Live Family Safety Settings is currently in beta. The service allows parents to monitor, control and filter online activity by creating specific accounts for their children, according to an e-mail invitation to the beta of the service posted on Neowin.net.
In this Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013 photo, an Italian soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops walks at the compound of NATO's head quarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, the top commander of the ISAF troops in Afghanistan, has expressed confidence that Afghan security forces will be able tackle the insurgency when they take the lead in the 11-year-old war against the Taliban this spring, and will be able to hold their own against the Taliban on the battle field without the presence of foreign troops fighting on the front line. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
In this Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013 photo, an Italian soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops walks at the compound of NATO's head quarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, the top commander of the ISAF troops in Afghanistan, has expressed confidence that Afghan security forces will be able tackle the insurgency when they take the lead in the 11-year-old war against the Taliban this spring, and will be able to hold their own against the Taliban on the battle field without the presence of foreign troops fighting on the front line. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
In this Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013 photo, U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S.- and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops in Afghanistan, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Kabul, Afghanistan. Allen expressed confidence that Afghan security forces will be able tackle the insurgency when they take the lead in the 11-year-old war against the Taliban this spring, and will be able to hold their own against the Taliban on the battle field without the presence of foreign troops fighting on the front line. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
In this Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013 photo, U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S.- and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops in Afghanistan, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Kabul, Afghanistan. Allen expressed confidence that Afghan security forces will be able tackle the insurgency when they take the lead in the 11-year-old war against the Taliban this spring, and will be able to hold their own against the Taliban on the battle field without the presence of foreign troops fighting on the front line. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
KABUL (AP) ? The top commander of U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan believes government security forces have improved faster than expected and will be ready to take the lead in the 11-year-old war against the Taliban when foreign combat forces take a back seat this spring.
Marine Gen. John Allen told The Associated Press that the main job over the next two years for the International Assistance Force ? as the NATO-led troops in Afghanistan are called ? will be to advise, train and build the capabilities needed for Afghan forces to go it completely alone.
They will face their first test when the fighting season gets under way in the late spring and summer. During the harsh Afghan winter, snow often blocks roads and fighting dies down.
The Afghan security forces, which have nearly reached their full strength of 352,000, still need much work to become an effective and self-sufficient fighting machine, but a vast improvement in their abilities was behind a decision to accelerate the timetable for putting them in the lead nationwide, Allen said.
President Barack Obama announced earlier this month that the Afghans would take over this spring instead of late summer ? a decision that could allow the speedier withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.
The Afghan troops "are further along in their capabilities than we had anticipated, and I'm very comfortable frankly with their being in the lead in 2013," Allen said in a recent interview ahead of his departure. "This is an acknowledgment of their capabilities."
The general, who has led the military coalition for 19 months, is leaving Afghanistan on Feb. 10. The White House said it would nominate him to become the head of NATO forces in Europe after he was exonerated in a Pentagon investigation of questionable email exchanges with a Florida woman linked to the sex scandal that led his predecessor, David Petraeus, to resign as CIA director.
Allen, 59, of Warrenton, Virginia, said the investigation was troublesome, but he was confident that the process would clear him.
"I'll make no secret that it was on my mind, but my number one goals were the interests of the troops, the coherence of the campaign and doing all I could obviously to further our combined interests here," he said. "But it does weigh on you, and while it weighed on me it really weighed on my family, it really weighed on my family, and the findings ultimately were announced and I continue to move on."
If confirmed by the Senate, Allen would succeed Navy Adm. James Stavridis in the NATO post.
He would not comment on how quickly the remaining 66,000 U.S. troops would return home, or how many American soldiers will remain after the end of 2014, when all foreign combat troops are to leave Afghanistan ? saying Obama will make that decision.
"We are advising now, and for the foreseeable future and until the latter part of the spring we will be advising at the battalion level," Allen said, adding that the advising would progressively move up to larger formations until the work was completed. "This is in conjunction with the drawdown of our own forces and in a very measured way, in a way that the Afghans are familiar with and we are able to predict we will eventually move up to the corps level."
Afghan troops already have taken the lead for security on territory holding 85 percent of the country's population of around 30 million.
"In many respects they are already leading operations, 80 percent of operations across the country are being led by the Afghans right now. So I am confident that in this coming fighting season, where technically they will be in the lead across the country operationally, that they are ready and we will be in support of them," Allen said. "I think they are going to do fine this year and we will stay with them. There is much work still to be done."
The Afghan lead in fighting has already become apparent in the casualty figures.
U.S. troop deaths declined overall from 404 in 2011 to 295 in 2012. More than 2,000 U.S. troops and nearly 1,100 coalition troops have died here since the U.S. invasion in late 2001. Last year many of those deaths were at the hands of the Afghan forces they were partnered with or training. Deaths from so-called insider attacks ? Afghan police and troops killing foreign allies ? surged to 61 in 45 attacks last year compared with 2011, when 35 coalition troops were killed in 21 attacks
By comparison, more than 1,200 Afghan soldiers died in 2012 compared to more than 550 in 2011, according to data compiled by the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
Many are concerned that the Afghan forces will not be up to the task of securing the country after 2014. The size of the force will also have to be reduced after coalition forces leave because much of the funding for it will have dried up. At its summit in Chicago last May, NATO agreed on a fundraising goal to underwrite a force of about 230,000 that would cost about $4.1 billion annually.
When Allen took over from Petraeus in July 2011, the war was in full force. But the tide was turning, and public opinion in the United States and in coalition countries was tiring of a lengthy conflict that was widely seen as propping up a corrupt and thankless Afghan government.
In mid-2010, the United States had more than 100,000 troops and coalition forces totaled close to 150,000. The U.S. was spending billions of dollars on a costly counterinsurgency strategy that had all the hallmarks of nation-building. The Afghan army and police were rapidly growing thanks to a mostly U.S.-funded program that cost more than $20 billion, but their combat abilities did not match their numbers.
"When I got here we had virtually no battalion level operations under way, and the brigade level operation was only an ambition. Today, every day, there are brigade and corps level operations going on across Afghanistan," Allen said. He said those operations were being planned, carried out and often supplied by the Afghans, with foreign troops there in a mostly advisory role.
The improvements allowed Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai to announce the spring handover date earlier this month.
Allen said the decision was made after the withdrawal last September of the 33,000 U.S. troops who were part of a surge announced by Obama in December 2009. In early 2012, Allen said he was grappling with the question of how many combat brigades he could carve out of the 68,000 troops that would remain in Afghanistan after the withdrawal, but the drawdown actually provided an opportunity to thrust Afghan forces in the lead.
"The term that I used was they were better than we thought, more importantly they were better than they thought," he said.
But the Afghan forces still need work and to build up key capabilities, including their ability to sustain themselves on the battlefield ? from medical evacuations to fuel and ammunition ? and to carry out combined arms operations.
"The building of their capabilities will take time," Allen said, adding that he was "comfortable that our plan to do both these things is on track over time."
The Afghan military will have to make do without requested weapons such as heavy tanks and F-16 fighter jets, but Allen said the equipment that they will receive should give them considerable firepower. They include converting MI-17 transport helicopters to gunships and providing Afghan combat units at all levels with mortars.
He said the Afghans had to get used to the idea that they will not have the same air support in the future as they have today. Currently the coalition can provide air support to troops on the ground anywhere in Afghanistan within 12 minutes of a request.
"They have to get used to their own resources being the firepower necessary," he said.
___
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When it comes to fighting cancer, ?get it out? is a common and understandable response. It?s what prompts some women with early-stage breast cancer to choose mastectomy, an operation to remove the entire affected breast. Results from the largest-ever observational study offers reassurance to women who choose a more conservative approach?removal of just the tumor and some tissue around it (lumpectomy) followed by radiation therapy. In fact, the new study suggests that in a group of 112,000 women, those who had lumpectomy plus radiation therapy survived longer than those who underwent mastectomy.
In describing a study like this, details matter. So bear with me for a moment. The study included 112,514 women diagnosed with and treated for early-stage breast cancer between 1990 and 2004?55% chose lumpectomy and radiation, 45% chose mastectomy. All of the women were listed in the California Cancer Registry, which collects information on almost all Californians diagnosed with cancer. Researchers followed the women for an average of nine years after their diagnosis and treatment.
Over the course of the study, 31,416 of the women died, 39% from breast cancer and the rest from other causes. As a group, women who chose lumpectomy plus radiation had lower death rates from breast cancer and all causes than women who chose mastectomy. The women who appeared to reap the biggest survival benefit from lumpectomy plus radiation therapy were those over age 50 with estrogen-positive breast cancer, with 13% lower mortality from breast cancer and 19% lower for all causes. The results were reported online today in the journal Cancer.
Supporting choices
Back in 1990, a National Institutes of Health consensus panel concluded that lumpectomy followed by radiation is as good as mastectomy for early-stage breast cancer. For personal and medical reasons, many women choose to have the bigger procedure. And the number of women having mastectomies has risen recently. For early-stage breast cancer, mastectomy has been proven to cure or at least retard the disease. It?s a reasonable and understandable choice, especially given how well breast surgeons today can reconstruct a breast.
For women who choose to have lumpectomy plus radiation therapy, the new study provides yet more scientific reassurance that this approach is at least as good as mastectomy.
The results must be taken with a small grain of salt. This was not a randomized trial, the gold standard of medical research, in which women were randomly assigned to one treatment or the other. Instead, each woman and her doctor decided on the treatment strategy. It?s possible that women who chose mastectomy were less healthy or at higher risk of having an aggressive type of cancer, and that?s why women who chose lumpectomy plus radiation seemed to do better.
Lumpectomy plus radiation therapy isn?t the best choice for all women with early-stage breast cancer. Reasons to opt for mastectomy include:
A breast tumor that is between 4 and 5 centimeters in diameter. This is close to the upper size for an early-stage cancer.
Being at high risk for developing complications from radiation or the inability to undergo radiation therapy
A strong family history of breast cancer or presence of a known genetic mutation that significantly increases the risk of developing breast cancer again.
It?s great to have choices for treating early-stage breast cancer. And more advances are sure to come. But having options can sometimes be stressful. For a woman newly diagnosed with breast cancer, it pays to take some time thinking about your options and talking with your doctor and other trusted individuals about them.
Jan. 29, 2013 ? Getting people to think about morality as a matter of objective facts rather than subjective preferences may lead to improved moral behavior, Boston College researchers report in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
In two experiments, one conducted in-person and the other online, participants were primed to consider a belief in either moral realism (the notion that morals are like facts) or moral antirealism (the belief that morals reflect people's preferences) during a solicitation for a charitable donation. In both experiments, those primed with moral realism pledged to give more money to the charity than those primed with antirealism or those not primed at all.
"There is significant debate about whether morals are processed more like objective facts, like mathematical truths, or more like subjective preferences similar to whether vanilla or chocolate tastes better," said lead researcher Liane Young, assistant professor of psychology at Boston College. "We wanted to explore the impact of these different meta-ethical views on actual behavior."
Ideas have previously been advanced on the subject, but Young and her former research assistant A.J. Durwin, now a law student at Hofstra University, are the first to directly investigate the question.
In one experiment, a street canvasser attempted to solicit donations from passersby for a charity that aids impoverished children. Participants in one set were asked a leading question to prime a belief in moral realism: "Do you agree that some things are just morally right or wrong, good or bad, wherever you happen to be from in the world?" Those in a second set were asked a question to prime belief in moral antirealism: "Do you agree that our morals and values are shaped by our culture and upbringing, so there are no absolute right answers to any moral questions?" Participants in a control set were not asked any priming question.
In this experiment, participants primed with realism were twice as likely to be donors, compared to those primed with antirealism or not primed at all.
A second experiment, conducted online, yielded similar results. Participants asked to donate money to a charity of their choice who were primed with realism reported being willing to give more than those primed with antirealism or not primed at all.
"Priming participants to consider the notion that morals are like facts increased decisions to donate in both experiments, revealing the potential impact of meta-ethical views on everyday decision-making," said Young. "Simply asking participants to consider moral values, as we did with the antirealism prime, did not produce an effect," she said, "so priming morality in general may not necessarily lead to better behavior. Considering the existence of non-negotiable moral facts may have raised the stakes and motivated participants to behave better."
Since "real" moral stakes may be accompanied by "real" consequences -- whether good (e.g., helping others, enhanced self-esteem) or bad (e.g., retribution), priming a belief in moral realism may in fact prompt people to behave better, in line with their existing moral beliefs, the researchers say.
The researchers note that priming a belief in moral realism may enhance moral behavior under certain conditions -- such as when the right thing to do is relatively unambiguous (e.g., it is good to be generous). A different outcome could be possible when subjects are faced with more controversial moral issues, they say.
Liane Young's research frequently focuses on the psychology and neuroscience of moral judgment and behavior. In 2012, she was awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and was named a Dana Neuroscience Scholar by the Dana Foundation, which also awarded her a three-year grant to support her study of brain activity and moral decision-making in individuals with autism, a project that will provide a valuable research opportunity for BC undergraduates. In addition, she received the 2011 Early Career Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Social Neuroscience from the Society for Social Neuroscience, among other honors.
Her research on attributions of responsibility to groups (e.g., corporations) versus members of groups was published in the journal Psychological Science in 2012; she is also co-author of a study of moral judgments in adults with autism that was reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Journal Reference:
Liane Young, A.J. Durwin. Moral realism as moral motivation: The impact of meta-ethics on everyday decision-making. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2013; 49 (2): 302 DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2012.11.013
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama thinks his health care law makes states an offer they can't refuse.
Whether to expand Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor and disabled, could be the most important decision facing governors and legislatures this year. The repercussions go beyond their budgets, directly affecting the well-being of residents and the finances of critical hospitals.
Here's the offer:
If states expand their Medicaid programs to cover millions of low-income people now left out, the federal government will pick up the full cost for the first three years and 90 percent over the long haul.
About 21 million uninsured people, most of them adults, eventually would gain health coverage if all the states agree.
Adding up the Medicaid costs under the law, less than $100 billion in state spending could trigger nearly $1 trillion in federal dollars over a decade, according to the nonpartisan Urban Institute.
"It's the biggest expansion of Medicaid in a long time, and the biggest ever in terms of adults covered," said Mark McClellan, who ran Medicare and Medicaid when George W. Bush was president.
"Although the federal government is on the hook for most of the cost, Medicaid on the whole is one of the biggest items in state budgets and the fastest growing. So there are some understandable concerns about the financial implications and how implementation would work," McClellan said.
A major worry for states is that deficit-burdened Washington sooner or later will renege on the 90-percent deal. The regular Medicaid match rate averages closer to 50 percent. That would represent a significant cost shift to the states.
Many Republicans also are unwilling to keep expanding government programs, particularly one as complicated as Medicaid, which has a reputation for being inefficient and unwieldy.
Awaiting decisions are people such as Debra Walker of Houston, a part-time home health care provider. She had a good job with health insurance until she got laid off in 2007.
Walker was recently diagnosed with diabetes, and she's trying to manage by getting discounted medications through a county program for low-income uninsured people.
Walker estimates she earned about $10,000 last year, which means she would qualify under the income cutoff for the Medicaid expansion. But that could happen only if Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, reconsiders his opposition.
"I think that would be awesome if the governor would allow that program to come into the state," Walker said. "That would be a help for me, robbing Paul to pay Peter for my medicines."
She seems determined to deal with her diabetes problem. "I don't want to lose a limb later on in life," said Walker, 58. "I want to beat this. I don't want to carry this around forever."
As Obama's law was originally written, low-income people such as Walker would not have had to worry or wait. Roughly half the uninsured people gaining coverage under the law were expected to go into Medicaid. The middle-class uninsured would get taxpayer-subsidized private coverage in new insurance markets called exchanges.
But last year the Supreme Court gave states the right to opt out of the Medicaid expansion. The court upheld the rest of the law, including insurance exchanges and a mandate that virtually everyone in the United States have health coverage, or face a fine.
The health care law will go into full effect next Jan. 1, and states are scrambling to crunch the numbers and understand the Medicaid trade-offs.
States can refuse the expansion outright or indefinitely postpone a decision. But if states think they'll ultimately end up taking the deal, there's a big incentive to act now: The three years of full federal funding for newly eligible enrollees are only available from 2014 through 2016.
So far, 17 states and the District of Columbia have said they'll take it. That group includes three Republican-led states, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer was prominent among GOP leaders who had tried get the law overturned.
An additional 11 states, all led by Republicans, say they want no part of it. Perry says it tramples states' rights.
The remaining states are considering options.
In some cases, GOP governors are trying to persuade balky legislatures led by Republicans. Hospitals treating the uninsured are pressing for the expansion, as are advocates for the poor and some chambers of commerce, which see an economic multiplier from the infusion of federal dollars. Conservative foes of "Obamacare," defeated at the national level, want to hold the line.
The entire debate is overshadowed by some big misconceptions, including that the poor already have Medicaid.
Many of them do, but not all. Medicaid generally covers low-income disabled people, children, pregnant women and some parents. Childless adults are left out in most states.
The other misconception is that Medicaid is so skimpy that people are better off being uninsured.
Two recent studies debunked that.
One found a 6 percent drop in the adult death rate in states that already have expanded Medicaid along the lines of the federal health care law. A second looked at Oregonians who won a lottery for Medicaid and compared them with ones who weren't picked and remained uninsured. The Medicaid group had greater access to health care, less likelihood of being saddled with medical bills, and felt better about their overall health.
Skeptics remain unconvinced.
Louisiana's health secretary, Bruce D. Greenstein, is concerned that the Medicaid expansion could replace private insurance for many low-wage workers in his state, dragging down quality throughout the health care system because the program pays doctors and hospitals far less than private insurance. He says the Obama administration and Congress missed a chance to overhaul Medicaid and give states a bigger say in running the program.
"Decisions are made by fiat," he said. "There is not any sense of a federal-state partnership, what this program was founded on. I don't feel in any way that I am a partner." The Obama administration says it is doing its best to meet state demands for flexibility.
But one thing the administration has been unwilling to do is allow states to partly expand their Medicaid programs and still get the generous matching funds provided by the health care law.
That could have huge political implications for states refusing the expansion, and for people such as Walker, the diabetes patient from Houston.
These numbers explain why:
Under the new law people making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line, about $15,400 for an individual, are eligible to be covered by Medicaid.
But for most people below the poverty line, about $11,200 for an individual, Medicaid would be the only option. They cannot get subsidized private coverage through the new health insurance exchanges.
So if a state turns down the Medicaid expansion, some of its low-income people still can qualify for government-subsidized health insurance through the exchanges. But the poorest cannot.
In Texas, somebody making a couple of thousand dollars more than Debra Walker still could get coverage. But Walker would be left depending on pay-as-you-go charity care.
"It's completely illogical that this has happened," said Edwin Park, a health policy expert with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which advocates for low-income people.
Federal officials say their hands are tied, that Congress intended the generous federal matching rate solely for states undertaking the full expansion. States doing a partial expansion would have to shell out more of their own money.
"Some people are going to be between a rock and a hard spot," said Walker.
?No subject has lately excited more curiosity and general interest among geologists and the public than the question of the Antiquity of the Human Race?[]? Lyell 1863
The debate over the age of the earth generated an even more intriguing question: how old is humankind? Written records date back some thousands of years, but geological evidence and the fossil record show us that earth must be millions of years old. Some authors tried to reconcile this discrepancy by assuming a succession of worlds, each destroyed by a global catastrophe. Therefore the ?age or reptiles? could be very ancient, the ice age mammals more recent and the final catastrophe, creating the human world, happened probably only some thousands of years ago. This succession of worlds seemed to be in accordance both with the geological record as with the biblical chronology. Therefore the discovery of stone tools made by humans in layers also containing fossils of extinct animals ? and therefore inhabitants of a world older than the supposed biblical deluge ? was meet with incredulity.
In 1837 the French physician Casimir Picard (1806-1841) excavated various fossil sites near his hometown of Abbeville, where he recovered stone tools and bones of antediluvian beasts. He published his discoveries in 1838-1840, just shortly before his death. Another amateur ? Jacques Boucher de Perthes (1788-1868) ? continued Picard?s work and discovered the jaw of a fossil elephant near a man-made flint-axe. Most authors dismissed these discoveries arguing that this association was the result of taphonomic processes, as bones and tools became mixed together by agents like water, animals or even modern humans. Some authors even considered all the discovered human fossils as fakes. The most compelling evidence to support the antiquity of man was collected in 1858 during excavations in Windmill Hill Cave near the city of Brixham (Devonshire, England) by William Pengelly (1812-1894), a self-educated archaeologist. The cave was found untouched, the entrance sealed off by debris and stalagmites, proof that no living thing had entered the cave for thousands of years. Most important, the excavations were done by geologists, following the principles of the young science of stratigraphy.
Every uncovered layer of the floor of the cave was carefully mapped and the location of the fossils (bones of elephant, lion, bear and reindeer) and stone tools registered.
In the same period similar discoveries were made in France. In 1867, during the universal exposition in Paris , ?douard Lartet (1801-1871), a French lawyer, presented stone tools found in sediments and caves of the valley of the V?z?re. The most intriguing artifacts were bones with engravings of ice age animals ? evidence that prehistoric men meet these animals.
Fig.1. Ancient rock carving, collection of the museum in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, valley of the V?z?re.
Finally in 1861, influenced by Charles Darwin?s explanation of the natural origin of all species on earth (including humans), eminent geologist Charles Lyell will publish ?The Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man?[]? and establish the ancient origin of humankind as scientific fact.
Bibliography:
COHEN, C. (1998): Charles Lyell and the evidences of the antiquity of man. In: BLUNDELL, D.J. & SCOTT, A.C. (eds) Lyell: the Past is the Key to the Present. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 143: 83-93 LYELL (1863): The Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man, with Remarks on Theories of the Origin of Species by variation. PRESTWICH, J. (1860): On the occurrence of flint implements, associated with the remains of extinct mammalia, in undisturbed beds of the late geological period. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 10: 50-59 RUDWICK, M.J.S. (2008): Worlds before Adam ? The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Reform. The University of Chicago Press: 614
Jan. 27, 2013 ? Rice University scientists have taken an important step toward the creation of two-dimensional electronics with a process to make patterns in atom-thick layers that combine a conductor and an insulator.
The materials at play -- graphene and hexagonal boron nitride -- have been merged into sheets and built into a variety of patterns at nanoscale dimensions.
Rice introduced a technique to stitch the identically structured materials together nearly three years ago. Since then, the idea has received a lot of attention from researchers interested in the prospect of building 2-D, atomic-layer circuits, said Rice materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan. He is one of the authors of the new work that appears this week in Nature Nanotechnology. In particular, Ajayan noted that Cornell University scientists reported an advance late last year on the art of making atomic-layer heterostructures through sequential growth schemes.
This week's contribution by Rice offers manufacturers the possibility of shrinking electronic devices into even smaller packages. While Rice's technical capabilities limited features to a resolution of about 100 nanometers, the only real limits are those defined by modern lithographic techniques, according to the researchers. (A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.)
"It should be possible to make fully functional devices with circuits 30, even 20 nanometers wide, all in two dimensions," said Rice researcher Jun Lou, a co-author of the new paper. That would make circuits on about the same scale as in current semiconductor fabrication, he said.
Graphene has been touted as a wonder material since its discovery in the last decade. Even at one atom thick, the hexagonal array of carbon atoms has proven its potential as a fascinating electronic material. But to build a working device, conductors alone will not do. Graphene-based electronics require similar, compatible 2-D materials for other components, and researchers have found hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) works nicely as an insulator.
H-BN looks like graphene, with the same chicken-wire atomic array. The earlier work at Rice showed that merging graphene and h-BN via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) created sheets with pools of the two that afforded some control of the material's electronic properties. Ajayan said at the time that the creation offered "a great playground for materials scientists."
He has since concluded that the area of two-dimensional materials beyond graphene "has grown significantly and will play out as one of the key exciting materials in the near future."
His prediction bears fruit in the new work, in which finely detailed patterns of graphene are laced into gaps created in sheets of h-BN. Combs, bars, concentric rings and even microscopic Rice Owls were laid down through a lithographic process. The interface between elements, seen clearly in scanning transmission electron microscope images taken at Oak Ridge National Laboratories, shows a razor-sharp transition from graphene to h-BN along a subnanometer line.
"This is not a simple quilt," Lou said. "It's very precisely engineered. We can control the domain sizes and the domain shapes, both of which are necessary to make electronic devices."
The new technique also began with CVD. Lead author Zheng Liu, a Rice research scientist, and his colleagues first laid down a sheet of h-BN. Laser-cut photoresistant masks were placed over the h-BN, and exposed material was etched away with argon gas. (A focused ion beam system was later used to create even finer patterns, down to 100-nanometer resolution, without masks.) After the masks were washed away, graphene was grown via CVD in the open spaces, where it bonded edge-to-edge with the h-BN. The hybrid layer could then be picked up and placed on any substrate.
While there's much work ahead to characterize the atomic bonds where graphene and h-BN domains meet and to analyze potential defects along the boundaries, Liu's electrical measurements proved the components' qualities remain intact.
"One important thing Zheng showed is that even by doing all kinds of growth, then etching, then regrowth, the intrinsic properties of these two materials are not affected," Lou said. "Insulators stay insulators; they're not doped by the carbon. And the graphene still looks very good. That's important, because we want to be sure what we're growing is exactly what we want."
Liu said the next step is to place a third element, a semiconductor, into the 2-D fabric. "We're trying very hard to integrate this into the platform," he said. "If we can do that, we can build truly integrated in-plane devices." That would give new options to manufacturers toying with the idea of flexible electronics, he said.
"The contribution of this paper is to demonstrate the general process," Lou added. "It's robust, it's repeatable and it creates materials with very nice properties and with dimensions that are at the limit of what is possible."
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Journal Reference:
C. Drexler, S. A. Tarasenko, P. Olbrich, J. Karch, M. Hirmer, F. M?ller, M. Gmitra, J. Fabian, R. Yakimova, S. Lara-Avila, S. Kubatkin, M. Wang, R. Vajtai, P. M. Ajayan, J. Kono, S. D. Ganichev. Magnetic quantum ratchet effect in graphene. Nature Nanotechnology, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2012.231
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
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New look at cell membrane reveals surprising organizationPublic release date: 28-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Anne Stark stark8@llnl.gov 925-422-9799 DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
LIVERMORE, CALIF. A new way of looking at a cell's surface reveals the distribution of small molecules in the cell membrane, changing the understanding of its organization.
A novel imaging study by researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the University of Illinois and the National Institutes of Health revealed some unexpected relationships among molecules within cell membranes.
Their findings provide a new way of studying cell structure and ultimately its function.
Led by Mary Kraft of the University of Illinois, Peter Weber of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Joshua Zimmerberg of the National Institutes of Health, the team published their findings in the online version of the Jan. 28 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Cells are enveloped in a semi-permeable membrane that acts as a barrier between the inside and outside of the cell. The membrane is mainly composed of a class of molecules called lipids, which are small and easily perturbed when tracked.
"Lipids have multiple functions serving as both membrane structure and signaling molecules, so they regulate other functions inside the cell," Kraft said. "Therefore, understanding how they're organized is important. You need to know where they are to figure out how they're performing these regulatory functions."
Previous cell membrane research suggested that lipids in the membrane assemble into patches, called domains, which differ in composition. But the challenge of direct observation has limited research into how lipids are organized in the membrane, and how that organization affects cell function.
In the new study, the team used an advanced, molecule-specific imaging method developed at Lawrence Livermore that allowed the researchers to look at the membrane itself and map a particular type of lipid on mouse cell membranes. The researchers at University of Illionoi fed lipids labeled with rare stable isotopes to the cells and then imaged the distribution of the isotopes with high-resolution imaging mass spectrometry at LLNL.
Called sphingolipids (sfing-go-lipids), these molecules are thought to associate with cholesterol to form small domains about 200 nanometers across. The direct imaging method revealed that sphingolipids do form domains, but not in the way the researchers expected.
The domains were much bigger than results from prior experiments. The 200-nanometer domains clustered together to form much larger, micrometer-sized patches of sphingolipids in the membrane.
"We were amazed when we saw the first images of the patches of sphingolipids across the cell surface," said Peter Weber, who directed the team at Lawrence Livermore. "At the start, we weren't sure if our imaging mass spectrometry method would be sensitive enough to detect the labeled lipids, let alone what we would see."
When the researchers looked at cells that were low on cholesterol thought to play a key role in lipid aggregation they were surprised to find that the lipids still formed domains. But disruption to the cell's structural scaffold seemed to dissolve the lipid clusters.
"We found that the presence of domains was somewhat affected by cholesterol but was more affected by the cytoskeleton the protein network underneath the membrane," Kraft said. "The central issue is that the data is suggesting that the mechanism that's responsible for these domains is much more complicated than initially expected."
In addition, the new study found that sphingolipid domains were incompletely associated with a marker protein that researchers have long assumed lived where sphingolipids congregated. This means that data collected with imaging techniques that target this protein are not as accurate in representing sphingolipid distribution as previously thought.
"Our data is showing that if you want to know where sphingolipids are, look at the lipid, don't infer where it is based on other molecules," Kraft said, "and now there's a way to directly image them."
The researchers plan to use the direct-imaging method in conjunction with other more conventional methods, such as fluorescence, to further determine the organization of different kinds of molecules in the membrane, their interactions and how they affect the cell's function. They plan to begin by targeting cholesterol.
"Cholesterol abundance is important. You change that, you tremendously change cell function," Kraft said.
###
Other Livermore researchers include Ian Hutcheon and Kevin Carpenter.
The LLNL Laboratory Directed Research and Development program, National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund supported this work. Co-author Joshua Zimmerberg directed research at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health.
Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory provides solutions to our nation's most important national security challenges through innovative science, engineering and technology. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
New look at cell membrane reveals surprising organizationPublic release date: 28-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Anne Stark stark8@llnl.gov 925-422-9799 DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
LIVERMORE, CALIF. A new way of looking at a cell's surface reveals the distribution of small molecules in the cell membrane, changing the understanding of its organization.
A novel imaging study by researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the University of Illinois and the National Institutes of Health revealed some unexpected relationships among molecules within cell membranes.
Their findings provide a new way of studying cell structure and ultimately its function.
Led by Mary Kraft of the University of Illinois, Peter Weber of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Joshua Zimmerberg of the National Institutes of Health, the team published their findings in the online version of the Jan. 28 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Cells are enveloped in a semi-permeable membrane that acts as a barrier between the inside and outside of the cell. The membrane is mainly composed of a class of molecules called lipids, which are small and easily perturbed when tracked.
"Lipids have multiple functions serving as both membrane structure and signaling molecules, so they regulate other functions inside the cell," Kraft said. "Therefore, understanding how they're organized is important. You need to know where they are to figure out how they're performing these regulatory functions."
Previous cell membrane research suggested that lipids in the membrane assemble into patches, called domains, which differ in composition. But the challenge of direct observation has limited research into how lipids are organized in the membrane, and how that organization affects cell function.
In the new study, the team used an advanced, molecule-specific imaging method developed at Lawrence Livermore that allowed the researchers to look at the membrane itself and map a particular type of lipid on mouse cell membranes. The researchers at University of Illionoi fed lipids labeled with rare stable isotopes to the cells and then imaged the distribution of the isotopes with high-resolution imaging mass spectrometry at LLNL.
Called sphingolipids (sfing-go-lipids), these molecules are thought to associate with cholesterol to form small domains about 200 nanometers across. The direct imaging method revealed that sphingolipids do form domains, but not in the way the researchers expected.
The domains were much bigger than results from prior experiments. The 200-nanometer domains clustered together to form much larger, micrometer-sized patches of sphingolipids in the membrane.
"We were amazed when we saw the first images of the patches of sphingolipids across the cell surface," said Peter Weber, who directed the team at Lawrence Livermore. "At the start, we weren't sure if our imaging mass spectrometry method would be sensitive enough to detect the labeled lipids, let alone what we would see."
When the researchers looked at cells that were low on cholesterol thought to play a key role in lipid aggregation they were surprised to find that the lipids still formed domains. But disruption to the cell's structural scaffold seemed to dissolve the lipid clusters.
"We found that the presence of domains was somewhat affected by cholesterol but was more affected by the cytoskeleton the protein network underneath the membrane," Kraft said. "The central issue is that the data is suggesting that the mechanism that's responsible for these domains is much more complicated than initially expected."
In addition, the new study found that sphingolipid domains were incompletely associated with a marker protein that researchers have long assumed lived where sphingolipids congregated. This means that data collected with imaging techniques that target this protein are not as accurate in representing sphingolipid distribution as previously thought.
"Our data is showing that if you want to know where sphingolipids are, look at the lipid, don't infer where it is based on other molecules," Kraft said, "and now there's a way to directly image them."
The researchers plan to use the direct-imaging method in conjunction with other more conventional methods, such as fluorescence, to further determine the organization of different kinds of molecules in the membrane, their interactions and how they affect the cell's function. They plan to begin by targeting cholesterol.
"Cholesterol abundance is important. You change that, you tremendously change cell function," Kraft said.
###
Other Livermore researchers include Ian Hutcheon and Kevin Carpenter.
The LLNL Laboratory Directed Research and Development program, National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund supported this work. Co-author Joshua Zimmerberg directed research at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health.
Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory provides solutions to our nation's most important national security challenges through innovative science, engineering and technology. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Brooke Humphries (owner, Acme F&B/Barcadia Bar & Grill/It?ll Do/Barcadia Bar) will open the doors at Mudsmith this coming Monday, January 28th. Mudsmith promises to deliver a unique coffee shop experience serving celebrated Four Barrel coffee out of San Francisco.
Located on Greenville Avenue, across from the future site of Trader Joe?s, Mudsmith?baristas will be using Chemex and V-60 machines for slow pour over methods and two custom made Stradas by La Marzocco for specialty espresso drinks. French press will be the house coffee. All coffee drinks will be carefully made with the Four Barrel beans and specific technique.??Eight craft beers and four wines on tap will rotate frequently.??Fresh pastries baked in-house and a selection of sandwiches such as the jalapeno meatloaf with redneck cheddar and guava BBQ sauce and a ham and cheese with raisin chutney also made in-house with local and organic ingredients will be offered. Three Happy Cows yogurt, Roots Juices and several other local companies? product will fill the shelves of the coolers.
Humphries explains, ?I wanted to create a coffee shop experience reminiscent of New York, Portland or San Francisco that combines the?underground elements of local craft beer with craft coffee in an environment that?s hip yet rustic and modern.?
With metal and steelwork provided by Steve Mabry of Rusty Buffalo and the interior designed by Ryan Chaney of Chaney 44, Mudsmith evokes a feeling of comfortable community in a rustic, reclaimed modern space with ?old school? design elements.
About Four Barrel Coffee?(source:?www.fourbarrelcoffee.com)
As with everything we do at Four Barrel, sourcing the highest quality green coffee requires a relationship built on mutual respect and a passion for quality. Sourcing coffee the way we do is time consuming, expensive and plain hard work. But, it is the only way we can vouch for the quality of our coffees, firsthand. And, it?s the only way we can uphold our end of our most important relationships?the ones with our farmers.
We are old-fashioned about roasting. We rely on highly trained people, not machines, to see through the intention of our roasting style: to highlight the intrinsic qualities of a coffee that drove us to buy it in the first place: cleanness, sweetness, acidity, complexity. We roast on a hulking beast of a vintage German roaster?one that was made to hold consistent heat and let air flow through in simple ways controlled by a person.
Mudsmith is located at 2114 Greenville Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75206. Website:?www.mudsmithdallas.com?Phone: 214.370.9535
Tagged as: coffee, Dallas, four barrel coffee, greenville avenue, mudsmith
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The attack of Sept. 11, 2001, has been so pervasive a theme in American politics in the years since that at times we scarcely notice its influence even though it explains so much of what came after that day.
Gary Cameron / Reuters
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) questions Senator John Kerry (Not Pictured) during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing on Kerry's nomination to be secretary of state, on Capitol Hill in Washington, January 24, 2013.
Sometimes almost forgotten, 9/11 is an experience some Americans may recall only when they travel and must undergo screening from a select few of the army of 45,000 screeners that was created by the actions of 19 suicidal hijackers.
So it was remarkable that three times in the space of two Senate hearings on Wednesday and Thursday, the 9/11 attack percolated through the discussion.
Testifying Thursday morning at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to be secretary of state, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., voiced his regret that one effect of that fateful day has been to make people abroad see American policy simply in terms of killing individual al Qaida leaders and pre-empting terrorist threats.
America?s foreign policy must not be ?defined by drones and deployments alone,? Kerry warned. ?We cannot allow the extraordinary good we do to save and change lives to be eclipsed entirely by the (counterterrorism) role we have had to play since September 11th, a role that was thrust upon us.?
A day before, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in her testimony about the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, used the 2001 attack to make the case for continued robust American involvement in North Africa.
She warned of the risks of a 9/11-style attack from the group Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
?People say to me all the time, well, AQIM hasn't attacked the United States. Well, before 9/11, 2001, we hadn't been attacked on our homeland since, I guess, the War of 1812 and Pearl Harbor. So you can't say, well, because they haven't done something they're not going to do it,? she said.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tells the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Mali's "progress on democracy" was disrupted by the Kaddafi-supported militant and al-Qaeda loyalists, warning that we must not let the region become a haven for terrorists.
But a bit later Clinton came under assault from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who used 9/11 as his rhetorical theme.
?Ultimately with your leaving (the State Department), you accept the culpability for the worst tragedy since 9/11, and I really mean that,? Paul told Clinton. Democrats on the committee recoiled in anger at what they saw as a cheap exploitation of 9/11.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told Clinton, ?I think if some people on this committee want to call the tragedy in Benghazi the worst since 9/11, it misunderstands the nature of 4,000 Americans-plus lost over 10 years of war in Iraq, fought under false pretenses. It was fought under false pretenses, but it was also fought, I think, because we had a misunderstanding of what we could do and what we could manage in that region for what was under our control.?
Murphy, first elected to the House in 2006 as part of the voter backlash against the Iraq war, didn?t mention that Clinton herself, serving in the Senate in 2002, voted for the congressional resolution authorizing President George W. Bush to invade Iraq.
Her vote was one liability during her bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination ? a liability which Barack Obama, a state senator when Congress voted on the Iraq invasion, didn?t have.
The 9/11 attack created the political environment which made possible, and perhaps even inevitable, the congressional vote authorizing Bush to use military force against Iraq.
In his Oct. 7, 2002, speech making the case for using force, Bush repeatedly invoked 9/11. To those American who wondered ?why do we need to confront it (the threat of Saddam Hussein) now?? Bush said, ?There?s a reason. We have experienced the horror of Sept. 11. We have seen that those who hate America are willing to crash airplanes into buildings full of innocent people.? And America?s enemies would be eager ?to use a biological or chemical, or a nuclear weapon.?
Four days later, the Senate voted for the Iraq war authorization, with Kerry, Clinton and then-Sen. Joe Biden among the 77 voting for it.
Just as Murphy had argued at Wednesday?s Senate hearing that Iraq was ?fought under false pretenses,? so, too, Democrats back in 2004 argued that Kerry, Clinton, Biden, then-Sen. Chuck Hagel and the other members of Congress who?d voted for the Iraq war resolution had been deceived.
But some antiwar Democrats argued that ? deception or not ? their party could never beat Bush in 2004 with a candidate who was compromised by having voted for the Iraq war resolution.
It?s impossible to know the answer to that question ? would Howard Dean or Sen. Bob Graham (who voted ?no? on the Iraq war resolution) have defeated Bush in 2004?
We do know that Bush held his party?s 2004 convention in New York City, a target of the 9/11 attack and defeated Kerry in the election.
His second term was an unhappy one for many reasons, but it was Bush ? not Kerry ? who got to the fill the next two vacancies on the Supreme Court.
And 9/11?s effect is also still directly felt in the current wrestling over fiscal policy. As Obama and congressional leaders try to figure out how to pay for ever-growing entitlement programs and reduce budget deficits, Republicans in Congress, but many Democrats, too, are reluctant to significantly reduce a $630 billion Defense Department budget that grew massively in the years after Sept. 11, 2001.
This screen shot shows the website of the U.S. Sentencing Commission after it was hijacked by the hacker-activist group Anonymous, early Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, to avenge the death of Aaron Swartz, an Internet activist who committed suicide. The website of the commission, an independent agency of the judicial branch, was replaced with a message warning that when Swartz killed himself two weeks ago "a line was crossed." (AP Photo)
This screen shot shows the website of the U.S. Sentencing Commission after it was hijacked by the hacker-activist group Anonymous, early Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, to avenge the death of Aaron Swartz, an Internet activist who committed suicide. The website of the commission, an independent agency of the judicial branch, was replaced with a message warning that when Swartz killed himself two weeks ago "a line was crossed." (AP Photo)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The hacker-activist group Anonymous says it hijacked the website of the U.S. Sentencing Commission to avenge the death of Aaron Swartz, an Internet activist who committed suicide.
The website of the commission, an independent agency of the judicial branch, was taken over early Saturday and replaced with a message warning that when Swartz killed himself two weeks ago "a line was crossed."
The hackers say they've infiltrated several government computer systems and copied secret information that they now threaten to make public.
Family and friends of Swartz, who helped create Reddit and RSS, say he killed himself after he was hounded by federal prosecutors. Officials say he helped post millions of court documents for free online and that he illegally downloaded millions of academic articles from an online clearinghouse.
Editor's Note: Some reviews and information aggregated from?Moviefone.
Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters?
Mark Glass, Patch blogger:?Of all the classic fairy tales stretched or twisted into feature films, this is one of the least likely...and less successful. H & G (Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton) survived the witch and her candy-coated honey trap of a hovel, then grew up to become itinerant witch slayers in a vaguely Medieval era.?
They are summoned to one imperiled hamlet after nearly a dozen children have been abducted. They soon realize that a coven or two of evildoers is apparently massing in the adjacent forbidding forest for some major event. So much for the plot. The rest is all about the f/x, as H & G do their thing with an arsenal of anachronistically advanced weapons, which they need because these witches show some mad Ninja skills to go with their magical powers. The fights are more fast and furious than the auto races in a certain series of flicks that traded on those terms. Full Review
Have you seen this movie? Write a review by posting a blog on Patch!
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Parker
Have you seen this movie??Write a review by posting a blog on Patch!
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Quartet
Mark Glass, Patch blogger:?Every "mature" viewer who enjoyed last year?s?The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel?can confidently line up for this ticket. What you?ll get is another gentle comedy among the retirement set showcasing a fine ensemble cast of actors from Great Britain. Both include Maggie Smith. This one also features Pauline Collins, Billy Connolly, Michael Gambon and Tom Courtenay, under the direction of Dustin Hoffman.??
The intrigue here is whether some of the members of a once-lauded operatic quartet can get past some old wounds and newer anxieties for a reunion performance on the birthdate of Giuseppe Verdi (as Victor Borge noted, Joe Green, in English).
The music is pleasing; the actors are still in fine fettle. Hoffman steers them at a pace that evokes empathy without milking the sentimental side. The reliable old pros on both sides of the camera deliver another first-rate product. Anglophiles and trivia buffs who recall a 1981 film with the same title starring Smith and Alan Bates should be advised that there?s no other relation between the two stories. Full Review
Have you seen this movie??Write a review by posting a blog on Patch!
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Broken City
Mark Glass, Patch blogger:?This urban political/crime drama is surprisingly well-scripted, with more than its fair share of twists and turns. Mark Wahlberg plays a hardnosed New York cop, who is stripped of his badge early in the film over a controversy about his shooting an alleged rapist. Although the mayor (Russell Crowe) understands and approves of what he did, public outrage over what may have been excessive force compels The Brass to throw Wahlberg under the proverbial bus.
Brian Tucker?s script is particularly impressive for a rookie. Director Allen Hughes? experience in the genre helps, with the pacing and mostly non-glamorous settings well-suited to the material. The rating comes more from violence than sexual content, and is relatively restrained. Wahlberg, Crowe and Jeffrey Wright (the police chief) add solid performances.
This is Crowe?s second role in less than a month as a distinctly unlikable character, following his Inspector Javert in?Les Miserables. Could he be trying to supplant Mel Gibson as everyone?s least-favorite Australian actor??Full Review
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Gangster Squad
Run Time: 113 mins.
Starring: Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin
Director:?Ruben Fleischer
Review from Patch blogger Mark Glass:?Movie Review: Gangster Squad
Austin Chronicle: "Despite the unrelenting action and the terrific cast, Gangster Squad comes up more scattered than successful." Austin Chronicle.?Full Review
A.O. Scott of The New York Times: "His (Fleischer) first feature, "Zombieland," was a half-witty genre parody. This one might be described as genre zombie-ism: the hysterical, brainless animation of dead clich?s reduced to purposeless, compulsive killing. Too self-serious to succeed as pastiche, it has no reason for being beyond the parasitic urge to feed on the memories of other, better movies."?Full Review
Ann Hornaday of Washington Post: "Slick, sick, self-consciously stylish and defiantly shallow, Gangster Squad is one of those movies you can't talk about without invoking other (often better) movies. A lot of movies."?Full Review
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Zero Dark Thirty
Running Time: 157 mins.
Starring: Joel Edgerton, Jessica Chastain, Edgar Ramirez
Director:?Kathryn Bigelow
Review from Patch blogger Mark Glass:?Movie Review: Zero Dark Thirty
The Guardian: "Telling a nearly three-hour story with an ending everyone knows, Bigelow and Boal have managed to craft one of the most intense and intellectually challenging films of the year."?Full Review
Alison Willmore of Movieline: "Zero Dark Thirty makes you feel every step of Maya's journey, but it's her impressive achievement and that of the film itself that we're left contemplating, not her humanity - a stunningly well-realized whole with few soft spots to latch onto."?Full Review
Andrew O'Hehir of Salon.com: "A sweeping and magnificent work of cinematic craft, by far the best film of Bigelow's career."?Full Review
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Fig.1. Ancient rock carving, collection of the museum in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, valley of the V?z?re.![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 28-Jan-2013
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Credit: Joy Zhang 
