One of our favorite travel photogs, Austin Mann, snapped up an iPhone 5 and flew to Iceland last year in order to pit Apple's latest flagship against its prior king in a bitterly cold camera test. This year, Mr. Mann hopped a flight down to Patagonia in order to pit the iPhone 5s' sensor against that of the 5. One of the more remarkable findings was the dynamic exposure applied to panoramas with the 5s; in his testing, pans that involved dark and light subjects were accounted for properly without the use of HDR. The result was a far more evenly lit panoramic image, whereas prior iPhone cameras tended to blow out a portion of the image to compensate for another portion.
The 5s also demonstrated dynamic range that was said to be "remarkably better" than on the 5. In post-processing, images taken with the 5s maintained integrity far better than the 5 when using Snapseed to recover details lost in shadows. Not surprisingly, shutter lag has gone from impressive to "nonexistent," and he noted that the 5s' burst mode is intensely useful for action shooters who need to quickly grab a litany of shots (say, of a lion pouncing on its next meal) and select the one with just a few swipes.
The iPhone 5's camera was certainly no slouch, but Apple's tweaking seems to have produced a markedly superior camera on the 5s. Interestingly, in a gallery of side-by-side comparison shots, the 5s displayed results that were a bit flatter with less noticeable contrast. According to Mann, "photographers will liken this to a RAW image, which doesn't look as nice off the bat, but has a lot more flexibility for editing on the backend." For more comparisons -- including a look at the 120FPS Slo Mo mode -- point your browser of choice right here.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — At first glance, the paperwork ordering the release of two convicted murderers serving life sentences in a Florida prison looked legitimate.
So the guards at Franklin Correctional Institution in the Florida Panhandle put one of the men on a bus and opened the gates for the other to ride away with family. Authorities now say prison officials were duped by the court documents, which included a fake motion from a prosecutor and a judge's forged signature.
As prison officials, prosecutors and courts across the state scrambled to make sure no one else had been mistakenly released, police were searching for the two men who already had a head start. Joseph Jenkins was let out Sept. 27, and Charles Walker was freed Oct. 8.
Prisoners have had varying success trying to use bogus documents to escape. Many forgeries are discovered early, but there have been cases where inmates walk free.
In the Florida case, Chief Circuit Judge Belvin Perry said Thursday there were several red flags that should have attracted the attention of the court clerk's office or the Corrections Department. Namely, it's rare for a judge to order a sentence reduction, and even more uncommon for the request to come from prosecutors.
"One of the things we have never taken a close look at is the verification of a particular document to make sure it's the real McCoy," said Perry, whose name was forged on the paperwork. "I knew that that was always a possibility, but you never want that possibility occurring in the way that it did."
Jenkins, 34, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the 1998 killing and botched robbery of Roscoe Pugh, an Orlando man.
State Attorney Jeffrey Ashton said he learned Jenkins had been released when Pugh's family contacted his office. They reviewed the paperwork and found that it was a fake, then notified law enforcement. Later, they discovered Walker's release documents were also bogus. The paperwork also forged prosecutors' signatures, Ashton said.
It wasn't clear exactly who dummied up the paperwork or if the two cases were connected.
Upon hearing of Jenkins' release, his former attorney, Bob Wesley, said he was sure "it wasn't a cunning master plan."
Wesley, now the public defender for metro Orlando, recalled his client's crime and said Jenkins broke into a home of someone he knew and was "not smart enough to pull his ski mask down."
Walker was convicted of second-degree murder in a 1999 slaying in Orange County. He told investigators that 23-year-old Cedric Slater was bullying him and he fired three shots intending to scare him.
Walker's then-defense attorney, Robert LeBlanc, now a judge in Orlando, refused to comment.
Department of Corrections spokeswoman Misty Cash didn't know which prisoner had been dropped off at the bus station, but said officials routinely work with inmates who are getting out.
"If they need a bus ticket, we'll provide that for them," she said.
In a statement, Corrections Secretary Michael Crews said his agency was reviewing records to make sure no other inmates had been released in a similar fashion. The agency said later Thursday it verified the prisoners' release information with the clerk's office, though this could have been done by checking the court's website or contacting the office directly. The statement didn't say which one the agency did.
Ashton said another man serving a life sentence for attempting to kill a law enforcement officer was also scheduled to be released using forged documents, but an investigator discovered the scheme in the spring before he was freed.
Other inmates have escaped with fake paperwork. In 2010, a Wisconsin killer forged documents that shortened his prison sentence and he walked free. He was captured a week later. In 2012, a prisoner in Pennsylvania was let out with bogus court documents and the mistake wasn't discovered until more than three months later.
Florida state Rep. Darryl Rouson, the Democratic ranking member of the House Justice Appropriations Subcommittee, said the Legislature should hold hearings to examine the agency's procedures.
"This is unconscionable, almost unthinkable," said Rouson, a St. Petersburg lawyer.
Republican Gov. Rick Scott said he was focused on the manhunt.
"The first thing you do when something like this happens is solve the problem you have at hand," he said. "We need to apprehend these individuals and that's what we're doing."
In both cases, the forged paperwork included motions from prosecutors to correct "illegal" sentences, accompanied by orders allegedly filed by Perry within the last couple of months. The orders granted a 15-year sentence. Perry is best known for presiding over the Casey Anthony murder trial in 2011.
Leesa Bainbridge, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Clerk of Courts, said the office moves thousands of pages of court documents a day and currently has no way of authenticating those that pass through to other agencies.
"We're kind of like the post office," Bainbridge said. "It comes in and we move it along."
Bainbridge said officials in the clerk's office plan to talk about what measures, if any, can be put in place to make sure something similar doesn't happen again.
"This is something we take very seriously," she said. "We don't find this funny."
Perry said changing the type of paper orders are printed on, or requiring a phone call to the judge's office could help. More technologically advanced measures may have to be implemented as Florida's court system finishes transitioning into a paperless system, he said.
"I think this will open that discussion," Perry said.
___
Farrington reported from Tallahassee.
___
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Environmental Defense Fund launches toolkit to help fishermen and managers
Public release date: 17-Oct-2013 [
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Contact: Rahel Marsie-Hazen rmarsie-hazen@edf.org 415-293-6105 Environmental Defense Fund
Manuals, guides and reports to design sustainable and profitable fisheries, including those with limited data
(SAN FRANCISCO, CA October 17, 2013) Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) today launched the world's most comprehensive toolkit for designing and implementing management systems that can restore the resiliency, sustainability and profitability of fisheries around the world. Visit http://www.fisherytoolkit.edf.org.
"Global overfishing is a 21st century problem that people have been trying to fix with 20th century solutions," said Kate Bonzon, Director of EDF's Catch Share Design Center. "Our toolkit provides low cost, cutting-edge and highly replicable solutions to help fishermen and fishery managers achieve economic and ecological recovery, even in fisheries lacking adequate data."
According to a recent study in Science, 80% of global fisheries lack important data for stock assessments, a critical first step toward sustainable fisheries. EDF's toolkit includes a guide dedicated to bridging this gap, providing fishermen and managers with key resources and expertise.
Developed in conjunction with more than 80 global experts, the toolkit reflects the experience of successful and diverse fisheries around the world. It highlights pragmatic solutions to pressing problems and provides guidance that fishermen and managers can use to navigate the administrative hurdles they often face.
"Each year, poor governance costs the global fishing industry as much as $50 billion," said Michael Arbuckle, Senior Fisheries Specialist for the World Bank. "EDF has developed a valuable tool that can help fisheries managers create economic and social benefits for the many fishers and communities dependent on the resource for their future."
The toolkit includes more than a dozen design, planning and educational features:
An updated Catch Share Design Manual that guides fishermen and fishery managers through a step-by-step process to design catch shares, an approach to managing fisheries that allocates secure areas or shares of the catch to participants
A dedicated volume on designing Cooperative Catch Shares, which includes in-depth guidance on effective co-management of fisheries
A dedicated volume on designing Territorial Use Rights for Fishing (TURFs), including new concepts for addressing the unique challenges of nearshore fisheries
Guides on science-based management for fisheries that have limited data and transferable effort share programs, a form of rights-based management that has served as a stepping stone towards more effective, long-term management solutions
More than a dozen in-depth reports on fisheries, from Samoa to Spain, that have customized catch shares to meet their goals
A searchable database of global catch share fisheries, accessed through an interactive map
"What's the Catch?," an online game that allows players to captain their own vessel and experience the ups and downs of commercial fishing
For decades, EDF has worked alongside fishermen and fishery managers to end overfishing by developing proven fishery management solutions.
"I needed advice on how to suggest management decisions for the Prawn fishery in Sweden and the design manual has been my guide," said Peter Olsson, a Swedish fisherman who catches Norwegian lobster and herring out of Smgen, Sweden.
"We believe access to helpful, easy-to-use tools is key to developing sustainable and profitable fisheries," said Amanda Leland, Vice President for EDF's Oceans Program. "And we want to ensure these tools are readily available to managers and fishermen around the world."
###
Environmental Defense Fund (edf.org), a leading nonprofit organization, creates transformational solutions to the most serious environmental problems. EDF links science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships. Connect with us on our Oceans Twitter and Facebook, and follow our EDFish blog.
Environmental Defense Fund's Catch Share Design Center is a diverse team of global fishery experts who are dedicated to providing research-driven insight on improving fisheries management. From data to design, the center equips fisheries stakeholders with the tools and resources needed to create and maintain sustainable and profitable fisheries.
[
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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.
Environmental Defense Fund launches toolkit to help fishermen and managers
Public release date: 17-Oct-2013 [
| E-mail
| Share
]
Contact: Rahel Marsie-Hazen rmarsie-hazen@edf.org 415-293-6105 Environmental Defense Fund
Manuals, guides and reports to design sustainable and profitable fisheries, including those with limited data
(SAN FRANCISCO, CA October 17, 2013) Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) today launched the world's most comprehensive toolkit for designing and implementing management systems that can restore the resiliency, sustainability and profitability of fisheries around the world. Visit http://www.fisherytoolkit.edf.org.
"Global overfishing is a 21st century problem that people have been trying to fix with 20th century solutions," said Kate Bonzon, Director of EDF's Catch Share Design Center. "Our toolkit provides low cost, cutting-edge and highly replicable solutions to help fishermen and fishery managers achieve economic and ecological recovery, even in fisheries lacking adequate data."
According to a recent study in Science, 80% of global fisheries lack important data for stock assessments, a critical first step toward sustainable fisheries. EDF's toolkit includes a guide dedicated to bridging this gap, providing fishermen and managers with key resources and expertise.
Developed in conjunction with more than 80 global experts, the toolkit reflects the experience of successful and diverse fisheries around the world. It highlights pragmatic solutions to pressing problems and provides guidance that fishermen and managers can use to navigate the administrative hurdles they often face.
"Each year, poor governance costs the global fishing industry as much as $50 billion," said Michael Arbuckle, Senior Fisheries Specialist for the World Bank. "EDF has developed a valuable tool that can help fisheries managers create economic and social benefits for the many fishers and communities dependent on the resource for their future."
The toolkit includes more than a dozen design, planning and educational features:
An updated Catch Share Design Manual that guides fishermen and fishery managers through a step-by-step process to design catch shares, an approach to managing fisheries that allocates secure areas or shares of the catch to participants
A dedicated volume on designing Cooperative Catch Shares, which includes in-depth guidance on effective co-management of fisheries
A dedicated volume on designing Territorial Use Rights for Fishing (TURFs), including new concepts for addressing the unique challenges of nearshore fisheries
Guides on science-based management for fisheries that have limited data and transferable effort share programs, a form of rights-based management that has served as a stepping stone towards more effective, long-term management solutions
More than a dozen in-depth reports on fisheries, from Samoa to Spain, that have customized catch shares to meet their goals
A searchable database of global catch share fisheries, accessed through an interactive map
"What's the Catch?," an online game that allows players to captain their own vessel and experience the ups and downs of commercial fishing
For decades, EDF has worked alongside fishermen and fishery managers to end overfishing by developing proven fishery management solutions.
"I needed advice on how to suggest management decisions for the Prawn fishery in Sweden and the design manual has been my guide," said Peter Olsson, a Swedish fisherman who catches Norwegian lobster and herring out of Smgen, Sweden.
"We believe access to helpful, easy-to-use tools is key to developing sustainable and profitable fisheries," said Amanda Leland, Vice President for EDF's Oceans Program. "And we want to ensure these tools are readily available to managers and fishermen around the world."
###
Environmental Defense Fund (edf.org), a leading nonprofit organization, creates transformational solutions to the most serious environmental problems. EDF links science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships. Connect with us on our Oceans Twitter and Facebook, and follow our EDFish blog.
Environmental Defense Fund's Catch Share Design Center is a diverse team of global fishery experts who are dedicated to providing research-driven insight on improving fisheries management. From data to design, the center equips fisheries stakeholders with the tools and resources needed to create and maintain sustainable and profitable fisheries.
[
| 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.
Mention "Duck Dynasty," and the first things that come to mind are likely the Robertson family's giant, bushy beards and camouflage gear. Yet in a 2001 photo obtained by Life & Style, the stars of A&E's hit show look more like Abercrombie & Fitch models than the scruffy guys viewers have come to know.
Courtesy of Life & Style
Gone is the backwoods look. Instead, from left, Willie, Alan, Ms. Kay, Jase and Jep are sporting clean-shaven faces, healthy tans, nice 'dos and no camo. In fact, they look much more like the multi-millionaires that they are — thanks to their family-run duck-call business — than they do on their hit show. (Dare we say that Willie even resembles "Chicago Fire" star Taylor Kinney?)
Granted, the photo was taken eight years before their first show, Outdoor Channel's "Duck Commander," but the change in appearance over 12 years (and a hit cable program) is pretty astounding. Even cooler, mom Kay, 62, actually looks younger now.
Art Streiber / A&E
From left, Si, Ms. Kay, Jase, Korie, Willie and Phil Robertson.
This photo taken on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013 shows the house in Maryville, Missouri that was burned while Melinda Coleman was trying to sell it. A 14-year-old girl who says she was raped by an older boy from her school could get another chance to bring the case to court after a prosecutor criticized for his handling of the case asked that a special prosecutor review the allegations. The girl's mother, Melinda Coleman, claims justice was denied when prosecutor Robert Rice dropped felony charges in March 2012, two months after she says her daughter was plied with alcohol, raped, then dumped on the family's front porch in sub-freezing temperatures. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger)
This photo taken on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013 shows the house in Maryville, Missouri that was burned while Melinda Coleman was trying to sell it. A 14-year-old girl who says she was raped by an older boy from her school could get another chance to bring the case to court after a prosecutor criticized for his handling of the case asked that a special prosecutor review the allegations. The girl's mother, Melinda Coleman, claims justice was denied when prosecutor Robert Rice dropped felony charges in March 2012, two months after she says her daughter was plied with alcohol, raped, then dumped on the family's front porch in sub-freezing temperatures. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger)
This photo taken on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013 shows the house in Maryville, Missouri that was burned while Melinda Coleman was trying to sell it. A 14-year-old girl who says she was raped by an older boy from her school could get another chance to bring the case to court after a prosecutor criticized for his handling of the case asked that a special prosecutor review the allegations. The girl's mother, Melinda Coleman, claims justice was denied when prosecutor Robert Rice dropped felony charges in March 2012, two months after she says her daughter was plied with alcohol, raped, then dumped on the family's front porch in sub-freezing temperatures. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger)
Melinda Coleman listens to a question during an interview in her home in Albany, Mo., Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013. Coleman says justice was denied when charges were dropped against the boys that her 14-year-old daughter said sexually assaulted her and a 13-year-old friend. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)
County prosecutor Robert Rice, left, and Sheriff Darren White, back, hold a news conference outside the Nodaway County Court House in Maryville, Mo., Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013. Rice announced that he's asking for a special prosecutor to look at the case of a 14-year-old girl who says she was plied with alcohol and raped by a 17-year-old acquaintance. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)
County prosecutor Robert Rice, right, and Sheriff Darren White hold a news conference outside the Nodaway County Court House in Maryville, Mo., Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)
MARYVILLE, Mo. (AP) — The case of a 14-year-old girl who says she was raped by an older boy from her Missouri high school and left passed out on her porch in freezing temperatures is expected to get a fresh start under a special prosecutor.
A special prosecutor will be able to launch his own investigation, interview witnesses and work independently from the local prosecutor who's faced intense scrutiny for dropping felony charges in the case last year, experts said Thursday.
"The idea is really to have a third party who is removed from the process, who can bring the appearance of objectivity and neutrality," said Richard Reuben, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Law. "At the end of the day they would look like a prosecutor who is truly independent."
The new prosecutor's final decision carries high stakes: It could settle the debate over whether Rice was right to drop the charges, or validate the accusers' outrage by pushing the case toward a trial.
Nodaway County prosecutor Robert Rice filed a motion Thursday for a judge to appoint a special prosecutor in the case, which has gained new attention after The Kansas City Star published results of a seven-month investigation.
The case and the publicity has shaken the small college town of Maryville, where the girl's mother, Melinda Coleman, said her family was forced to move after being harassed over the allegations. Her house in Maryville burned down while the family was trying to sell it, but a cause hasn't ben determined.
Coleman, was outraged when Rice dropped felony charges in March 2012, two months after she says her daughter was plied with alcohol, raped, then dumped on the family's front porch. She said her daughter's 13-year-old friend was raped by another boy the same evening.
"I think it's really good that we have a chance to have someone listen objectively," Coleman said Thursday. "That brings a lot of healing in itself."
Rice insists the initial investigation collapsed after the Colemans became uncooperative with investigators — something Coleman has denied.
Anchored by Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville may be best known as a football town, illustrated by the giant "bearcat" paw prints painted on Fourth Street and leading the way to the university's football stadium. Signs in the windows of local shops and bars support the Bearcats, whose annual game against rival Pittsburg State University is so big it's played at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City and dubbed the Fall Classic.
Since the Star's story was published, the town has been deluged with negative reactions, most of it coming from people on social media who have condemned the town for seemingly abandoning sexual assault victims. The case now is the talk of the town, and locals are anxious for a resolution.
"I have some friends who get together, but since this has been going on, they have to sit and argue their opinions," said Kyle Ponder, a 22-year-old lifelong Maryville resident. "This is splitting the town in two."
Few have disputed the central facts of the case. Daisy Coleman was 14 on the night in January 2012 she and 13-year-old friend drank alcohol they stashed in a closet, sneaked out of the Colemans' Maryville home and met with three boys, including two 17-year-olds.
Daisy's mother says one of the older boys sexually assaulted her daughter while the girl was passed out, while the 15-year-old boy forced the 13-year-old to have sex in a different room. The second 17-year-old was accused of recording the incident involving Daisy on his cellphone.
The two older boys were initially charged as adults with felonies, while the younger boy's case was handled in the juvenile system. Months later, Rice dropped all the charges against the older boys, saying the victims had invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The boys have insisted the sex act involving Daisy Coleman was consensual.
Authorities say the cellphone video had been deleted and investigators at the regional forensics lab in Kansas City could not recover it from the cellphone.
The Associated Press does not generally name victims of sexual assault but is naming the Colemans because they have been granting public interviews about the case. The AP is not naming the accused boys because there are no active charges against them.
Rice says he's asking for a special prosecutor only because media stories have questioned the integrity of the county's justice system. He stands by claims that the case fell apart only after the Colemans and the other girl refused to answer questions.
A special prosecutor could seek to interview the original prosecutor as a witness in the case but would conduct an entirely separate investigation. A special prosecutor would investigate if there's been a crime and would have the authority to bring charges, said Reuben, the professor at the University of Missouri.
Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said special prosecutors are used often in Missouri. Zahnd, who has asked for special prosecutors and has also served as a special prosecutor, said the designation in Nodaway County could be given to any other lawyer in the state, including another county prosecutor or someone from the Missouri Attorney General's Office.
About a block off of Maryville's town square, Fred Robertson was cutting hair Thursday at his barbershop when the case came up. Robertson said it's sad that the town has been caught up in the media spotlight for something most people had nothing to do with.
"You can work all your life to have something good, and something like this can tear it up in a short time," he said. "There are no winners."
___
Maria Sudekum contributed to this report from Kansas City, Mo.
House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., walks to a meeting with House Republicans on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 in Washington. Senate leaders announced last-minute agreement Wednesday to avert a threatened Treasury default and reopen the government after a partial, 16-day shutdown. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., walks to a meeting with House Republicans on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 in Washington. Senate leaders announced last-minute agreement Wednesday to avert a threatened Treasury default and reopen the government after a partial, 16-day shutdown. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., walk to a news conference after voting on a measure to avert a threatened Treasury default and reopen the government after a partial, 16-day shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013. The bill moves next to the Republican-controlled House. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional budget negotiators aren't guaranteeing success as they begin talks aimed at solving the nation's budget problems.
Republican and Democratic leaders of a joint House-Senate committee met for breakfast Thursday morning as they started talks.
The committee was formed as part of a deal to reopen the government and extend the government's ability to borrow money.
Both GOP Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state are promising to search for common ground.
But Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama is cautioning against raising expectations, and Democratic. Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland says just talking doesn't guarantee success. But Van Hollen notes that not talking guarantees failure.
Building an IT startup in the Gaza Strip isn't simple: Electricity is sporadic, there's no mobile 3G and even if you can sell your app outside Gaza's tightly controlled borders, it's difficult to get paid. Still, IT has some advantages in Gaza, and the possibilities have fostered a crop of devout entrepreneurs. At a first-of-its kind session to win seed money this week, Gazan entrepreneurs pitched, among other things, an app that uses music to help colorblind people dress well, a sports social network and 3-D printing for the masses.
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.
Building an IT startup on the Gaza Strip isn't simple: electricity is sporadic, there is no 3G network. You can sell your product outside Gaza's tightly controlled borders, but it can be difficult to move the money back into Gaza. Nonetheless, half a dozen entrepreneurs from Gaza recently pitched their ideas for consideration in a unique program, one that could catapult their businesses into the global marketplace.
NPR's Emily Harris reports.
EMILY HARRIS, BYLINE: Lina Shamia is a soccer fan. Real Madrid is her favorite team, and she and friends gather at a cafe or apartment in Gaza City to watch televised games whenever they can. She noticed that a lot of people in Gaza do the same.
LINA SHAMIA: After the end of the game, they have a social talk, discussing the game itself and analyzing it, and sharing their opinions of it. So we thought about translating this idea into an online world.
HARRIS: Specifically, an online social network centered around sports. Lina co-founded Datrios, a Gaza startup that just won $14,000 in seed funding from Oasis500, a Jordanian firm. Salwa Katkhuda is Oasis' investment manager.
SALWA KATKHUDA: There are several sports networks. But this specific company has certain unique selling points, like the Arabic interface, like allowing crowdsourcing, which is something that these networks don't have.
HARRIS: Another just-funded Gaza startup is developing an app to help people who are colorblind choose clothes. Color Vision takes a picture of what you want to wear, then tells you the colors using text, or music.
MANAL SLEEM: Every color has tune of a piano. So when red, do.
(SOUNDBITE OF A TONE)
HARRIS: Manal Sleem came up with this idea thanks to a friend who is colorblind, and uses a stand-alone device to help her distinguish between colors.
SLEEM: But this device is too expensive. It's from Germany. Yeah, but I get the same solution by one point nine nine dollars.
HARRIS: One dollar ninety nine cents.
SLEEM: One dollar - $1.99.
HARRIS: And even though it's hard for Manal herself to travel outside of the Gaza Strip, her app could be sold anywhere.
One hundred sixty four Gazan entrepreneurs applied for a chance to pitch their ideas to the Jordanian investment firm. Seven got a shot. Three, so far, have been chosen for funding. Salwa Katkhuda of Oasis500 says she's looking forward to working with these groups from Gaza.
KATKHUDA: They are hungry to start their own business. They are ready to work really hard. They are ready to beat the odds and they have that culture embedded in them.
HARRIS: In addition to the $14,000, each startup will participate in several months of intensive training then have a chance to pitch other investors for a lot more money. This business accelerator is a partnership with the humanitarian aid organization Mercy Corps.
John Ross directs Mercy Corps Digital Economy Program. He wants to build a blueprint from this experience in Gaza.
JOHN ROSS: A model that can be replicated in other countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa; we're looking at Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Iraq, West Bank and Gaza.
HARRIS: Young IT entrepreneurs in Gaza hope this recent chance to pitch outside investors won't be their last.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
Two recent operations in Libya and Somalia offer a vivid example of how members of U.S. Special Operations are being deployed around the world to go after terrorists. Renee Montagne talks to author Jeremy Scahill about his newest book, Dirty Wars, which is about the rise of special forces.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For government workers who have been out of work for nearly two weeks during the partial shutdown of the U.S. government, reduced paychecks have meant scrambling to talk to creditors and find ways to pay for basic expenses.
Last Friday was the first payday of the shutdown for hundreds of thousands federal workers, and the furloughed employees were not paid for nearly half of a two-week period after many government operations shut down as the new fiscal year began on October 1.
Among those furloughed was Sam Nevarez, a human resources trainer for the U.S. Forest Service in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who said he is very concerned about upcoming bills.
"It's been very hard because based on when we were furloughed and the pay period, it's about half my check, and that doesn't pay the bills," Nevarez told Reuters.
"I've been trying to work with my creditors and the mortgage company to try to see if I can push back payments without penalties, and that doesn't seem to be working."
Government workers' checks are likely to be miniscule on the next Friday payday, this week, even if the shutdown ends as expected with congressional votes on a deal late Wednesday.
What is now the third-longest government shutdown in U.S. history began after Republicans in the House of Representatives sought to tie government funding measures to a plan to delay or defund President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law.
Democrats refused to negotiate on "Obamacare," and the impasse expanded to include a debate about avoiding default by raising the country's looming debt ceiling.
U.S. Treasury data show $2.66 billion in federal salary payments for October 11, down from about $3 billion the Treasury usually pays out for federal salaries every other Friday.
Most civilian government agencies get paid on this biweekly schedule, which reflects the first five days of the shutdown. The General Services Administration, the Department of the Interior and parts of the Department of Defense issued payments on Friday.
As of Friday, the Treasury had paid out a total of $4.92 billion in federal salaries for its most recent fiscal year, which began October 1. As of the same Friday last year, the total stood at $6.78 billion, Treasury data show.
The Senate deal to end the shutdown includes a plan to restore missed pay to furloughed workers once the government reopens, but it's unclear when those payments would be made.
'NOTHING' IN NEXT CHECK
Nevarez, president of the local unit of the National Federation of Federal Employees union, said he was looking for loans to pay his mortgage and "to cover the cost of basically living."
Nevarez said he has worked for the federal government for seven years and never expected an extended furlough.
"The next check is going to be nothing, because there's no hours to put in," he explained.
"I'm at this time looking at loans, (and) I'm trying to get loans just to survive. It's completely unfair because we're public servants."
He added that he has heard of other federal workers who applied unsuccessfully for unemployment benefits.
Jessica Mahalingappa, a furloughed federal worker, said she applied for unemployment benefits in Maryland. Her husband's pay has not been jeopardized because he is not a federal employee.
But Mahalingappa said she has been cutting back on shopping, and cooking at home more. She also said her time off work was "frustrating" because if she had known she would be furloughed this long she might have gone to visit family out of town or started some household projects.
She said she is worried that the furloughs will demoralize federal employees. "Public-sector employees tend to be motivated by a sense of mission," she said.
Nevarez painted a starker picture.
"Tomorrow I'm going to go into the human services office to apply for food stamps because that's going to help me offset some costs," he said this week. "In all my life I've never had to ask for any kind of assistance."
"It's that or look for another job, basically."
(Reporting by Gabriel Debenedetti in Washington and Cezary Podkul in New York; Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria in Washington; Editing by David Lindsey and Cynthia Osterman)
>> SQUARE CASH: The money is in the email, by Walt Mossberg: "Say you want to send $47.12 to your sister. You just compose an email with her email address in the 'To' field and, in the 'CC' field, you enter 'cash@square.com.' In the subject field, you enter the amount you're sending -- in this case, '$47.12.'... If this is your first time using the service, Square will email you a link to its service, where you'll be asked to enter your debit-card information.... Your sister will receive two emails: The one from you and a second from Square saying you're sending her the money. If she accepts the payment and it's her first time using the service, she will be asked to click a link to Square and enter her debit-card information. Once that's verified, the transfer is made, and the money will show up in her bank account in one to two days.... No other account setup is required. You never need to create, or enter, a login or password. And the money goes straight from bank to bank." AllThingsD
>> NYSE TICKER TWTR: Twitter doubled revenue, saw deeper losses in Q3, by Martyn Williams: "The company's highly anticipated IPO will take place on the New York Stock Exchange... revenue in the three-month period was US$169 million, just over double that achieved during the same period a year earlier and a quarterly record for the fast-growing company. But just as revenue climbed, losses were also sharply higher. Twitter racked up a net loss of $64 million in the three-month period... the company saw its average monthly users climb to 231.7 million, up from 167.1 million in the same period of 2012." PCWorld
>> BIG DATA ENGINE: Apache Software Foundation unveils Hadoop 2, replacing MapReduce with YARN, by Loek Essers: "The Apache Software Foundation unveiled its latest release of its open source data processing program, Hadoop 2... Most notable is the addition of YARN, (Yet Another Resource Negotiator), which is a successor to Hadoop's MapReduce... YARN sits on top of the HDFS (Hadoop Distributed File System) and serves as a large-scale, distributed operating system for big data applications, enabling multiple applications to run simultaneously for more efficient support of data throughout its entire lifecycle." InfoWorld >>>> Hadoop 2.0 goes GAZDNet
>> FOR THE WIN: Intel meets estimates, posts third quarter revenue of $13.5 billion: "The company generated approximately $5.7 billion in cash from operations, paid dividends of $1.1 billion, and used $536 million to repurchase 24 million shares of stock." Electronista >>>> Intel's Bay Trail chips to hit 10 tablets, hybrids next monthInfoWorld >>>> Intel says hardware bargains to multiply this fall: $99 tablets, $299 Haswell laptops, $349 2-in-1 hybridsVentureBeat >>>> Intel delays 14-nm Broadwell chips for PCs and hybrids to early 2014PCWorld
>> VIRTUAL LAND GRAB: VMware expands management of Amazon, Microsoft, OpenStack clouds, by Brandon Butler: "VMware has rolled out expanded support for non-VMware workloads in its management tools, including the added ability to manage OpenStack clouds, and providing better visibility into Amazon and Microsoft clouds." NetworkWorld >>>> VMware looks to UK for launch of European public cloud "Hybrid cloud strategy could cause lock-in problems for customers." Computerworld UK
>> WORKS FOR POLITICIANS: Microsoft's Google-bashing TV campaign is actually working, by Alex Kantrowitz: "The Scroogled ads, negative to the core, are a rarity for consumer tech. Even the mean-spirited 'I'm a Mac, I'm a PC' variety featured a product comparison at least. But while the tactics may be ugly, the ads are working, according to two ad effectiveness firms, and research commissioned by Microsoft, which finds the ads are tarnishing Google's image in the eyes of viewers and putting Microsoft products -- including underdogs such as Bing -- into the consideration set." AdAge >>>> Scroogled my assInfoWorld
>> NOT CHEAP ENOUGH: Apple and China, by John Gruber: "When the iPhone 5C came out last month and was not 'low cost', many took it as a sign that Apple was somehow ignoring China. I would say it's just the opposite: they're skating to where the puck is heading, not where it is, and positioning their products to thrive as China's upper class grows. From Apple's perspective, there's no such thing as an 'emerging market'. There are certainly cultural differences between consumers in different countries, but the bottom line is that there are people who can afford iPhones and iPads, and people who can't. The class of people who can afford Apple products is growing faster in China than it is anywhere else." Daring Fireball >>>> Apple said to be trimming iPhone 5C production while increasing 5S ordersThe Verge >>>> As iPhone 5C fades, Firefox OS and Android square off in emerging marketsReadWrite
>> STAT DU JOUR: Top 10 most pirated movies of the week, by Jerry Brito, Eli Dourado, Matt Sherman: "Do people turn to piracy when the movies they want to watch are not available legally? Over the past 3 weeks, 53% of the most-pirated movies have been available legally in some digital form. Over the same period, only 20% have been available for rental or streaming. In addition, 0% have been available on a legal streaming service." Mercatus Center/GWU >>>> Can digital rentals block piracy? New site gathers the dataArs Technica
>> ESCAPE VELOCITY: Greenwald exits Guardian for new Omidyar media venture, by Mark Hosenball: "Glenn Greenwald, who has made headlines around the world with his reporting on U.S. electronic surveillance programs, is leaving the Guardian newspaper to join a new media venture funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidya.... Greenwald, who is based in Brazil and was among the first to report information provided by one-time U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden.... Omidyar, who is chairman of the board at eBay Inc but is not involved in day-to-day operations at the company." Reuters
>> BUMPING ALONG: Earnings and revenue down -- Yahoo delivers on expected lackluster third quarterAllThingsD >>>> Alibaba earnings more than double on surging e-commerce "Yahoo, which owns about 24 percent of [Alibaba], said yesterday that the maximum number of shares it's required to sell in an Alibaba IPO fell to 208 million from 261.5 million." BloombergBusinessweek
>> DEPARTURE LOUNGE: Steve Ballmer is right, and I was wrong, by Joe Wilcox: "For all Microsoft's CEO might have done wrong, he was right about something dismissed by many -- and I among them: Google. Ballmer started treating the search and information company as a competitive threat about a decade ago. Google as Microsoft competitor seemed simply nuts in 2003. How could search threaten Windows, particularly when anyone could type a new web address to change providers? Ballmer was obsessed, chasing every Google maneuver, often to a fault. Execution could have been better, but his perception was right." Beta News
>> NEOMONEY: Chinese Internet giant Baidu now accepts Bitcoin, by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai: "Baidu, also known as the 'Google of China,' is now accepting Bitcoin payments for Jiasule, its anti-DDoS (distributed denial of service) and firewall security product.... For Bitcoin, this partnership comes at a crucial time. After the feds busted the online drug bazaar Silk Road and seized all its Bitcoins -- roughly 5% of the total in circulations -- some speculated that it was the end of the virtual currency. But after dropping dramatically, Bitcoin's price has recovered, reaching a five-month high." Mashable
>> LIBERTY & JUSTICE: A court order is an insider attack, by Ed Felten: "Commentators on the Lavabit case, including the judge himself, have criticized Lavabit for designing its system in a way that resisted court-ordered access to user data. They ask: If court orders are legitimate, why should we allow engineers to design services that protect users against court-ordered access? The answer is simple but subtle: There are good reasons to protect against insider attacks, and a court order is an insider attack." Freedom to Tinker
>> SHOT: HTC rumored to be making the Amazon phoneTechHive
>> CHASER: HTC gives up on budget phones "Jeff Gordon, HTC's marketing boss, told CNET UK that the company isn't going to suddenly shift its strategy to become a budget smartphone maker. 'Competing against Huawei, ZTE, and eventually Amazon, for low end, razor-thin margins is a fool's game.'" CNet Asia
>> Irish budget proposes an end to Apple tax shelterThe Street
>> 5 new and improved tools for Exchange and Office 365InfoWorld
T-Mobile USA doesn't do anything by half measures, apparently -- it just launched four devices that address many of its budget- and data-conscious subscribers in one fell swoop. We'll break it down for you. To start, the company is now shipping its promised Alcatel One Touch Evolve, a 4-inch Android ...
Mayo Clinic psychiatrist: Taking guns away from mentally ill won't eliminate mass shootings
Public release date: 16-Oct-2013 [
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Contact: Nick Hanson newsbureau@mayo.edu 507-284-5005 Mayo Clinic
ROCHESTER, Minn. A string of public mass shootings during the past decade-plus have rocked America leaving policymakers and mental health experts alike fishing for solutions to prevent these heinous crimes. A Mayo Clinic physician, however, argues that at least one proposal won't stop the public massacres: restricting gun access to the mentally ill. J. Michael Bostwick, M.D., a Mayo Clinic psychiatrist and author of the editorial published online in Mayo Clinic Proceedings today, argues several points including that mass shootings are carefully planned often spanning weeks or months. There is plenty of time for a meticulous planner and determined killer to get a gun somewhere in that time, he argues.
Dr. Bostwick's editorial is a commentary on an essay in the same issue of Proceedings titled "Guns, Schools, and Mental Illness: Potential Concerns for Physicians and Mental Health Professionals." The authors focus on recent mass shootings and argue that these actions were not and could not have been prevented by more restrictive gun legislation. They further contend that a diagnosis of mental illness does not justify stripping Second Amendment rights from all who carry such a diagnosis, most of whom will never commit violent acts toward others.
Before reading the essay Dr. Bostwick who is generally in favor of gun control expected to disagree with its contents. Instead, he agreed.
"We physicians generally do not know enough about firearms to have an informed conversation with our patients, let alone counsel them about gun safety," says Dr. Bostwick. "We also tend to ignore the reality that as long as the Second Amendment is the law of the land, the right to bear arms and therefore personal gun ownership, whether of long guns for hunting or handguns for personal protection, will be an integral part of the American scene."
A few points Dr. Bostwick argues:
Even if every mentally ill person in the country were registered, the system isn't prepared to handle them and only about half of the states require registration.
Only about 10 percent of mentally ill people are registered and these are people who have been committed, they've come to attention in a way that requires court intervention.
Literature says the vast majority of people who do these kinds of shootings are not mentally ill or it is recognized after the fact.
The majority of mentally ill people aren't dangerous.
Mentally ill people in a country with gun rights, still have rights.
Mass shootings are not just an American phenomenon they have and are occurring in countries that have strong gun control.
"It is important to note that mass shooting are very different from murder and suicide," Dr. Bostwick says. "These conclusions should not be extrapolated either to other forms of murder often crimes of passion in which there is typically only a single victim or to suicide, a phenomenon that is more than twice as common as homicide in the United States and frequently an impulsive act. Research shows gun restriction among suicidal people works."
###
About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life. For more information, visit http://www.mayoclinic.com and http://www.mayoclinic.org/news.
Journalists can become a member of the Mayo Clinic News Network for the latest health, science and research news and access to video, audio, text and graphic elements that can be downloaded or embedded.
MULTIMEDIA ALERT: For audio and video of Dr. Bostwick talking about the editorial, visit the Mayo Clinic News Network.
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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.
Mayo Clinic psychiatrist: Taking guns away from mentally ill won't eliminate mass shootings
Public release date: 16-Oct-2013 [
| E-mail
| Share
]
Contact: Nick Hanson newsbureau@mayo.edu 507-284-5005 Mayo Clinic
ROCHESTER, Minn. A string of public mass shootings during the past decade-plus have rocked America leaving policymakers and mental health experts alike fishing for solutions to prevent these heinous crimes. A Mayo Clinic physician, however, argues that at least one proposal won't stop the public massacres: restricting gun access to the mentally ill. J. Michael Bostwick, M.D., a Mayo Clinic psychiatrist and author of the editorial published online in Mayo Clinic Proceedings today, argues several points including that mass shootings are carefully planned often spanning weeks or months. There is plenty of time for a meticulous planner and determined killer to get a gun somewhere in that time, he argues.
Dr. Bostwick's editorial is a commentary on an essay in the same issue of Proceedings titled "Guns, Schools, and Mental Illness: Potential Concerns for Physicians and Mental Health Professionals." The authors focus on recent mass shootings and argue that these actions were not and could not have been prevented by more restrictive gun legislation. They further contend that a diagnosis of mental illness does not justify stripping Second Amendment rights from all who carry such a diagnosis, most of whom will never commit violent acts toward others.
Before reading the essay Dr. Bostwick who is generally in favor of gun control expected to disagree with its contents. Instead, he agreed.
"We physicians generally do not know enough about firearms to have an informed conversation with our patients, let alone counsel them about gun safety," says Dr. Bostwick. "We also tend to ignore the reality that as long as the Second Amendment is the law of the land, the right to bear arms and therefore personal gun ownership, whether of long guns for hunting or handguns for personal protection, will be an integral part of the American scene."
A few points Dr. Bostwick argues:
Even if every mentally ill person in the country were registered, the system isn't prepared to handle them and only about half of the states require registration.
Only about 10 percent of mentally ill people are registered and these are people who have been committed, they've come to attention in a way that requires court intervention.
Literature says the vast majority of people who do these kinds of shootings are not mentally ill or it is recognized after the fact.
The majority of mentally ill people aren't dangerous.
Mentally ill people in a country with gun rights, still have rights.
Mass shootings are not just an American phenomenon they have and are occurring in countries that have strong gun control.
"It is important to note that mass shooting are very different from murder and suicide," Dr. Bostwick says. "These conclusions should not be extrapolated either to other forms of murder often crimes of passion in which there is typically only a single victim or to suicide, a phenomenon that is more than twice as common as homicide in the United States and frequently an impulsive act. Research shows gun restriction among suicidal people works."
###
About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life. For more information, visit http://www.mayoclinic.com and http://www.mayoclinic.org/news.
Journalists can become a member of the Mayo Clinic News Network for the latest health, science and research news and access to video, audio, text and graphic elements that can be downloaded or embedded.
MULTIMEDIA ALERT: For audio and video of Dr. Bostwick talking about the editorial, visit the Mayo Clinic News Network.
[
| 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.
The famous sober coach who was tagging along with Joe Jonas last week fueling rumors that possible substance abuse may have caused the band to teeter on the edge of breaking up resurfaced last night with the boys.
TMZ broke the story ... Mike Bayer -- the CEO and founder of Cast Recovery Services -- left Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood with Kevin Jonas, after Bayer met with the entire band.
As we reported, Bayer is known for dealing with "crisis situations," and it appears the band is in crisis after cryptically cancelling 19 concerts a week ago.
We got Kevin at LAX earlier in the day and he was mum on everything.
ALMA probes mysteries of jets from giant black holes
Public release date: 16-Oct-2013 [
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Contact: Richard Hook rhook@eso.org 49-151-153-73591 ESO
There are supermassive black holes -- with masses up to several billion solar masses -- at the hearts of almost all galaxies in the Universe, including our own galaxy, the Milky Way. In the remote past, these bizarre objects were very active, swallowing enormous quantities of matter from their surroundings, shining with dazzling brilliance, and expelling tiny fractions of this matter through extremely powerful jets. In the current Universe, most supermassive black holes are much less active than they were in their youth, but the interplay between jets and their surroundings is still shaping galaxy evolution.
Two new studies, both published today in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, used ALMA to probe black hole jets at very different scales: a nearby and relatively quiet black hole in the galaxy NGC 1433 and a very distant and active object called PKS 1830-211.
"ALMA has revealed a surprising spiral structure in the molecular gas close to the centre of NGC 1433," says Franoise Combes (Observatoire de Paris, France), who is the lead author of the first paper. "This explains how the material is flowing in to fuel the black hole. With the sharp new observations from ALMA, we have discovered a jet of material flowing away from the black hole, extending for only 150 light-years. This is the smallest such molecular outflow ever observed in an external galaxy."
The discovery of this outflow, which is being dragged along by the jet from the central black hole, shows how such jets can stop star formation and regulate the growth of the central bulges of galaxies [1].
In PKS 1830-211, Ivan Marti-Vidal (Chalmers University of Technology, Onsala Space Observatory, Onsala, Sweden) and his team also observed a supermassive black hole with a jet, but a much brighter and more active one in the early Universe [2]. It is unusual because its brilliant light passes a massive intervening galaxy on its way to Earth, and is split into two images by gravitational lensing [3].
From time to time, supermassive black holes suddenly swallow a huge amount of mass [4], which increases the power of the jet and boosts the radiation up to the very highest energies. And now ALMA has, by chance, caught one of these events as it happens in PKS 1830-211.
"The ALMA observation of this case of black hole indigestion has been completely serendipitous. We were observing PKS 1830-211 for another purpose, and then we spotted subtle changes of colour and intensity among the images of the gravitational lens. A very careful look at this unexpected behaviour led us to the conclusion that we were observing, just by a very lucky chance, right at the time when fresh new matter entered into the jet base of the black hole," says Sebastien Muller, a co author of the second paper.
The team also looked to see whether this violent event had been picked up with other telescopes and were surprised to find a very clear signal in gamma rays, thanks to monitoring observations with NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The process that caused the increase of radiation at ALMA's long wavelengths was also responsible of boosting the light in the jet dramatically, up to the highest energies in the Universe [5].
"This is the first time that such a clear connection between gamma rays and submillimetre radio waves has been established as coming from the real base of a black hole's jet," adds Sebastien Muller.
The two new observations are just the start of ALMA's investigations into the workings of jets from supermassive black holes, near and far. Combes's team is already studying other nearby active galaxies with ALMA and the unique object PKS 1830-211 is expected to be the focus of much future research with ALMA and other telescopes.
"There is still a lot to be learned about how black holes can create these huge energetic jets of matter and radiation," concludes Ivan Marti-Vidal. "But the new results, obtained even before ALMA was completed, show that it is a uniquely powerful tool for probing these jets -- and the discoveries are just beginning!"
###
Notes
[1] This process, called feedback, may explain the mysterious relationship between the mass of a black hole at the centre of a galaxy and the mass of the surrounding bulge. The black hole accretes gas and grows more active, but then produces jets that clear out gas from the surrounding regions and stop star formation.
[2] PKS 1830-211 has a redshift of 2.5, meaning that its light had to travel for about 11 billion years before reaching us. The light we see was emitted when the Universe was just 20% of its current age. By comparison the light from NGC 1433 takes only about 30 million years to reach the Earth, a very short time in galactic terms.
[3] Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that light rays will be deflected as they pass a massive object such as a galaxy. This effect is called gravitational lensing and, since the first find in 1979, numerous such gravitational lenses have been discovered. The lensing can create multiple images as well as distort and magnify the background light sources.
[4] The infalling material could be a star or a molecular cloud. Such an infalling cloud has been observed at the centre of the Milky Way (eso1151 - http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1151/, eso1332 - http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1332/).
[5] This energy is emitted as gamma rays, the shortest wavelength and highest energy form of electromagnetic radiation.
More information
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded in Europe by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), in North America by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC) and in East Asia by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan. ALMA construction and operations are led on behalf of Europe by ESO, on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), which is managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) and on behalf of East Asia by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.
These research projects are presented in two papers, "ALMA observations of feeding and feedback in nearby Seyfert galaxies: an AGN-driven outflow in NGC1433", by F. Combes et al. and "Probing the jet base of the blazar PKS 1830−211 from the chromatic variability of its lensed images: Serendipitous ALMA observations of a strong gamma-ray flare", by I. Marti-Vidal et al. Both papers are appeared in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
The first team is composed of F. Combes (Observatoire de Paris, France), S. Garcia-Burillo (Observatorio de Madrid, Spain), V. Casasola (INAF-Istituto di Radioastronomia, Bologna, Italy), L. Hunt (INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Florence, Italy), M. Krips (IRAM, Saint Martin d'Here, France), A. J. Baker (Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, USA), F. Boone (CNRS, IRAP, Toulouse, France), A. Eckart (Universitat zu Koln, Germany), I. Marquez (Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Granada, Spain), R. Neri (IRAM), E. Schinnerer (Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Heidelberg, Germany) and L. J. Tacconi (Max-Planck-Institut fur extraterrestrische Physik, Garching bei Munchen, Germany).
The second team is composed of I. Marti-Vidal (Chalmers University of Technology, Onsala Space Observatory, Onsala, Sweden), S. Muller (Onsala), F. Combes (Observatoire de Paris, France), S. Aalto (Onsala), A. Beelen (Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, Universite Paris-Sud, France), J. Darling (University of Colorado, Boulder, USA), M. Guelin (IRAM, Saint Martin d'Here, France; Ecole Normale Superieure/LERMA, Paris, France), C. Henkel (Max-Planck- Institut fur Radioastronomie [MPIfR], Bonn, Germany; King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia), C. Horellou (Onsala), J. M. Marcaide (Universitat de Valencia, Spain), S. Martin (ESO, Santiago, Chile), K. M. Menten (MPIfR), Dinh-V-Trung (Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam) and M. Zwaan (ESO, Garching, Germany).
ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 15 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world's largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey
Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is the European partner of a revolutionary astronomical telescope ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. ESO is currently planning the 39-metre European Extremely Large optical/near-infrared Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky".
###
Links
* Research papers: Combes et al. & Marti-Vidal et al.
* Photos of the ALMA array - http://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/category/alma/
Contacts
Franoise Combes
Observatoire de Paris, LERMA
Paris, France
Tel: +33 1 4051 2077
Email: francoise.combes@obspm.fr
Ivan Mart-Vidal
Chalmers University of Technology
Onsala Space Observatory, Onsala, Sweden
Tel: +46 31 772 5557
Email: ivan.marti-vidal@chalmers.se
Richard Hook
ESO, Public Information Officer
Garching bei Mnchen, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6655
Cell: +49 151 1537 3591
Email: rhook@eso.org
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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.
ALMA probes mysteries of jets from giant black holes
Public release date: 16-Oct-2013 [
| E-mail
| Share
]
Contact: Richard Hook rhook@eso.org 49-151-153-73591 ESO
There are supermassive black holes -- with masses up to several billion solar masses -- at the hearts of almost all galaxies in the Universe, including our own galaxy, the Milky Way. In the remote past, these bizarre objects were very active, swallowing enormous quantities of matter from their surroundings, shining with dazzling brilliance, and expelling tiny fractions of this matter through extremely powerful jets. In the current Universe, most supermassive black holes are much less active than they were in their youth, but the interplay between jets and their surroundings is still shaping galaxy evolution.
Two new studies, both published today in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, used ALMA to probe black hole jets at very different scales: a nearby and relatively quiet black hole in the galaxy NGC 1433 and a very distant and active object called PKS 1830-211.
"ALMA has revealed a surprising spiral structure in the molecular gas close to the centre of NGC 1433," says Franoise Combes (Observatoire de Paris, France), who is the lead author of the first paper. "This explains how the material is flowing in to fuel the black hole. With the sharp new observations from ALMA, we have discovered a jet of material flowing away from the black hole, extending for only 150 light-years. This is the smallest such molecular outflow ever observed in an external galaxy."
The discovery of this outflow, which is being dragged along by the jet from the central black hole, shows how such jets can stop star formation and regulate the growth of the central bulges of galaxies [1].
In PKS 1830-211, Ivan Marti-Vidal (Chalmers University of Technology, Onsala Space Observatory, Onsala, Sweden) and his team also observed a supermassive black hole with a jet, but a much brighter and more active one in the early Universe [2]. It is unusual because its brilliant light passes a massive intervening galaxy on its way to Earth, and is split into two images by gravitational lensing [3].
From time to time, supermassive black holes suddenly swallow a huge amount of mass [4], which increases the power of the jet and boosts the radiation up to the very highest energies. And now ALMA has, by chance, caught one of these events as it happens in PKS 1830-211.
"The ALMA observation of this case of black hole indigestion has been completely serendipitous. We were observing PKS 1830-211 for another purpose, and then we spotted subtle changes of colour and intensity among the images of the gravitational lens. A very careful look at this unexpected behaviour led us to the conclusion that we were observing, just by a very lucky chance, right at the time when fresh new matter entered into the jet base of the black hole," says Sebastien Muller, a co author of the second paper.
The team also looked to see whether this violent event had been picked up with other telescopes and were surprised to find a very clear signal in gamma rays, thanks to monitoring observations with NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The process that caused the increase of radiation at ALMA's long wavelengths was also responsible of boosting the light in the jet dramatically, up to the highest energies in the Universe [5].
"This is the first time that such a clear connection between gamma rays and submillimetre radio waves has been established as coming from the real base of a black hole's jet," adds Sebastien Muller.
The two new observations are just the start of ALMA's investigations into the workings of jets from supermassive black holes, near and far. Combes's team is already studying other nearby active galaxies with ALMA and the unique object PKS 1830-211 is expected to be the focus of much future research with ALMA and other telescopes.
"There is still a lot to be learned about how black holes can create these huge energetic jets of matter and radiation," concludes Ivan Marti-Vidal. "But the new results, obtained even before ALMA was completed, show that it is a uniquely powerful tool for probing these jets -- and the discoveries are just beginning!"
###
Notes
[1] This process, called feedback, may explain the mysterious relationship between the mass of a black hole at the centre of a galaxy and the mass of the surrounding bulge. The black hole accretes gas and grows more active, but then produces jets that clear out gas from the surrounding regions and stop star formation.
[2] PKS 1830-211 has a redshift of 2.5, meaning that its light had to travel for about 11 billion years before reaching us. The light we see was emitted when the Universe was just 20% of its current age. By comparison the light from NGC 1433 takes only about 30 million years to reach the Earth, a very short time in galactic terms.
[3] Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that light rays will be deflected as they pass a massive object such as a galaxy. This effect is called gravitational lensing and, since the first find in 1979, numerous such gravitational lenses have been discovered. The lensing can create multiple images as well as distort and magnify the background light sources.
[4] The infalling material could be a star or a molecular cloud. Such an infalling cloud has been observed at the centre of the Milky Way (eso1151 - http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1151/, eso1332 - http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1332/).
[5] This energy is emitted as gamma rays, the shortest wavelength and highest energy form of electromagnetic radiation.
More information
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded in Europe by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), in North America by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC) and in East Asia by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan. ALMA construction and operations are led on behalf of Europe by ESO, on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), which is managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) and on behalf of East Asia by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.
These research projects are presented in two papers, "ALMA observations of feeding and feedback in nearby Seyfert galaxies: an AGN-driven outflow in NGC1433", by F. Combes et al. and "Probing the jet base of the blazar PKS 1830−211 from the chromatic variability of its lensed images: Serendipitous ALMA observations of a strong gamma-ray flare", by I. Marti-Vidal et al. Both papers are appeared in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
The first team is composed of F. Combes (Observatoire de Paris, France), S. Garcia-Burillo (Observatorio de Madrid, Spain), V. Casasola (INAF-Istituto di Radioastronomia, Bologna, Italy), L. Hunt (INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Florence, Italy), M. Krips (IRAM, Saint Martin d'Here, France), A. J. Baker (Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, USA), F. Boone (CNRS, IRAP, Toulouse, France), A. Eckart (Universitat zu Koln, Germany), I. Marquez (Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Granada, Spain), R. Neri (IRAM), E. Schinnerer (Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Heidelberg, Germany) and L. J. Tacconi (Max-Planck-Institut fur extraterrestrische Physik, Garching bei Munchen, Germany).
The second team is composed of I. Marti-Vidal (Chalmers University of Technology, Onsala Space Observatory, Onsala, Sweden), S. Muller (Onsala), F. Combes (Observatoire de Paris, France), S. Aalto (Onsala), A. Beelen (Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, Universite Paris-Sud, France), J. Darling (University of Colorado, Boulder, USA), M. Guelin (IRAM, Saint Martin d'Here, France; Ecole Normale Superieure/LERMA, Paris, France), C. Henkel (Max-Planck- Institut fur Radioastronomie [MPIfR], Bonn, Germany; King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia), C. Horellou (Onsala), J. M. Marcaide (Universitat de Valencia, Spain), S. Martin (ESO, Santiago, Chile), K. M. Menten (MPIfR), Dinh-V-Trung (Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam) and M. Zwaan (ESO, Garching, Germany).
ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 15 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world's largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey
Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is the European partner of a revolutionary astronomical telescope ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. ESO is currently planning the 39-metre European Extremely Large optical/near-infrared Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky".
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Links
* Research papers: Combes et al. & Marti-Vidal et al.
* Photos of the ALMA array - http://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/category/alma/
Contacts
Franoise Combes
Observatoire de Paris, LERMA
Paris, France
Tel: +33 1 4051 2077
Email: francoise.combes@obspm.fr
Ivan Mart-Vidal
Chalmers University of Technology
Onsala Space Observatory, Onsala, Sweden
Tel: +46 31 772 5557
Email: ivan.marti-vidal@chalmers.se
Richard Hook
ESO, Public Information Officer
Garching bei Mnchen, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6655
Cell: +49 151 1537 3591
Email: rhook@eso.org
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