US Patent And Trademark Office Denies Apple's iPad Mini Trademark Application, Deemed ?Merely Descriptive?

Right after it launched the iPad mini, Apple filed a trademark application for the name with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). As Patently Apple noticed earlier today, however, the USPTO has now refused Apple’s trademark filing because, the reviewer argues, “the applied-for mark merely describes a feature or characteristic of applicant?s goods.” The refusal was mailed to Apple on January 24, but only made public in the last few days. “The applied-for mark merely describes a feature or characteristic of applicant?s goods.” The word ‘mini,’ the reviewer argues, just describes that the iPad mini is indeed “a small sized handheld tablet computer” and just describes the mini’s features. It is not, the reviewing attorney says, “a unitary mark with a unique, incongruous, or otherwise nondescriptive meaning in relation to the goods and/or services.” The USPTO would only grant apple the trademark to the full iPad mini name if the company coulhow that the word ‘mini’ has now acquired a “distinctiveness.” In addition, Patently Apple also notes, the reviewer also denied the application because Apple should have provided the USPTO with a specimen other than its own product website, even though Apple always uses these for its trademark applications and this was never a reason for a denial before. The reviewer also believes that there is a “likelihood of confusion” between Apple’s existing iPad trademarks and this new iPad? mini application, which, to be honest, doesn’t make a lot of sense. Here is the letter the USPTO sent to Apple in January: USPTO Refuses Apple’s iPad mini Trademark Application

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/xL16BBltNvs/

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Crude oil leaks in Arkansas suburb after ExxonMobil pipeline ruptures

Isolde Raftery , NBC News ? ? ? 4 hrs.

An ExxonMobil pipeline rupture near Little Rock, Ark., Friday evening has resulted in a ?major oil spill,? according to the Environmental Protection Agency -- and ignited further debate over the transportation of crude oil in the U.S.

Up to 10,000 barrels sprang from the pipeline, according to an incident report filed to the National Response Center by ExxonMobil early Saturday morning. Twenty-two residents were evacuated from their homes, according to a statement on the ExxonMobil website.

Mayflower, Ark., Chief of Police Bob Satkowski told Channel 7 News in Little Rock that those residents had to leave their homes because of health risks from the crude oil fumes and possible fires.

In a statement on the company website, ExxonMobil downplayed the environmental concerns, saying that the air quality doesn?t likely present a human health risk, ?with the exception of high-pooling areas.?

KARK, an NBC affiliate station in Little Rock, reported that part of the pipeline runs through a water source that provides drinking water to nearly 400,000 residents in central Arkansas. The 20-inch wide pipeline goes through Lake Maumelle.

The pipeline, officially known as the Pegasus pipeline, transports heavy Canadian crude oil from Patoka, Ill. down to the Sunoco Logistics Nederland terminal in Texas, which feeds into Houston area refiners, according to the Exxon website. The pipeline, which can carry more than 90,000 barrels a day, was stopped Friday. ExxonMobil did not say when it would reopen.

EPA officials said the cleanup would be long and expensive, according to KARK. It was not reported who would pay for the cleanup.

The leak was first reported at 5 p.m. Friday, when someone called the National Response Center to report a drop in pipeline pressure.

Two hours later, a caller reported that there was a ?significant amount of material release.? The caller said the oil leak lasted about three hours.

An updated report early Saturday said up to 10,000 barrels were discharged and that the product had been released ?into flume pipes and into a pond, a tributary of Lake Conway.?

Friday?s spill prompted immediate response from critics of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport about 800,000 barrels per day of Canadian crude oil to the Gulf Coast for refining.

Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey took to Facebook to lash out against Canadian crude oil.

?This latest pipeline incident is a troubling reminder that oil companies still have not proven that they can safely transport Canadian tar sands oil across the United States without creating risks to our citizens and our environment,? Markey said. He is the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee.

?Tar sands oil is already the dirtiest, riskiest oil around, and should not be getting a free ride across America,? he continued. ?It?s time that we recognize the real effects producing and burning this oil will have on our climate, and the real world damage it can cause when it is spilled in our neighborhoods.?

This has been a bad week for crude oil public relations. On Wednesday, according to Reuters, a train carrying crude oil derailed in Minnesota and spilled up to 30,000 gallons.

Last week, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration recommended fining ExxonMobil Pipeline Company $1.7 million for how the company responded to a crude oil pipeline failure in the Yellowstone River in Montana.

The Mayflower spill may be 10 times more significant than the Montana spill, which leaked 1,509 barrels.

The 1989 Exxon Valdez spill poured 260,000 to 750,000 gallons into Alaskan waters.

These spills pale in comparison, however,to the 2010 Deep Water Horizon oil spill, the most significant oil spill in the U.S., which leaked 4.9 million barrels into the Gulf Coast.

Reuters contributed reporting.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/2a311db4/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Ccrude0Eoil0Eleaks0Earkansas0Esuburb0Eafter0Eexxonmobil0Epipeline0Eruptures0E1C91550A11/story01.htm

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South African official: Mandela better from pneumonia

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? A South African official says Nelson Mandela is breathing "without difficulty" after having a procedure to clear fluid in his lung area that was caused by pneumonia.

South African presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said Saturday that 94-year-old Mandela that the fluid had been "tapped," allowing the former president to breathe more easily.

Maharaj described the fluid problem as a "pleural effusion."

He said Mandela is suffering from pneumonia, using a different term for his ailment. Officials have previously said Mandela, who was taken to a hospital on Wednesday night, has a recurring lung infection.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/safrican-official-mandela-better-pneumonia-122925761.html

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A Sculpture Made of 10,000 Balloons Redefines Balloon Art

Jason Hackensworth is a balloon artist, but not the kind that wears oversized shoes and has been the villain in a 1990 horror movie. He's known for his balloon sculptures of biological forms and creatures, like this anemone-like sculpture, currently on display in the Grand Gallery of the National Museum of Scotland as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/pVy9rd2pf6s/a-sculpture-made-of-10000-balloons-redefines-balloon-art

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Why Apple Doesn't Own the iPad Mini Trademark

Apple is usually very protective of their intellectual property, so they're probably pretty pissed that a trademark officer rejected their application to own the phrase "iPad Mini." They wield patents like lightsabers and are not afraid to chop off the hands of people they feel are infringing on their intellectual empire. But the United States Patent and Trademark Office's reviewing attorney didn't think Apple made enough of a case to own the "mini" name.?

RELATED: Bus Line or iPad Mini Line?

Patently Apple discovered Apple's rejection letter was just released over the last few days, even though Apple was informed of the denial on January 24, 2013. There's no reason provided for the delay releasing the letter, but we do know why Apple was denied the trademark: "the applied-for mark merely describes a feature or characteristic of applicant?s goods," the reviewer writes. The USPTO attorney makes the case that the iPad mini doesn't have a "a unitary mark with a unique, incongruous, or otherwise nondescriptive meaning in relation to the goods and/or services." It's just small, he says.

RELATED: Apple Is Pulling an October Surprise with the iPad Mini

Additionally, Apple usually forwards their product website address instead of providing "a?specimen," in this case a real life iPad Mini, with their application. But this reviewer didn't appreciate that and said as much in his rejection letter.?

RELATED: All of Apple's New Small Stuff: iPad Mini and a Slimmer iMac

So, this seems to be a funny little formality more than anything. Apple can still earn the trademark if they can better explain how the iPad mini is different and unique from the larger, normal-sized iPad, besides the size deficiency, which shouldn't be a problem for Apple's team of stormtroopers lawyers. This seems like the case of one stickler trying to stick it to an evil empire over some details more than anything. Maybe the lawyers who wrote the initial application got lazy. Maybe the reviewer is a diehard Samsung fan.?

RELATED: Prepare for an iPad Mini This Month

Here's the decision, via TechCrunch:?

RELATED: The iPad Mini Did Not Break a Weekend Sales Record

USPTO Refuses Apple's iPad mini Trademark Application

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/why-apple-doesnt-own-ipad-mini-trademark-184542047.html

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Google?s ?Babble? cross-platform messaging service gets detailed in purported leak

By Martyn Herman LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) - Whether by design, necessity, self-interest or because of all three, nurturing youngsters has become fashionable for England's elite with no expense spared in the hunt for the new Wayne Rooney or Steven Gerrard. The length and breadth of the country, scouts from top clubs are hoovering up promising footballers barely old enough to tie their bootlaces in a bid to unearth the 30 million pounds ($45.40 million) treasures of the future. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/google-babble-cross-platform-messaging-gets-detailed-purported-163745009.html

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New EPA gas rules could add up at pump

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Reducing sulfur in gasoline and tightening emissions standards on cars beginning in 2017, as the Obama administration is proposing, would come with costs as well as rewards. The cost at the pump for cleaner air across the country could be less than a penny or as high as 9 cents a gallon, depending on who is providing the estimate.

An oil industry study says the proposed rule being unveiled Friday by the administration could increase gasoline prices by 6 cents to 9 cents a gallon. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates an increase of less than a penny and an additional $130 to the cost of a vehicle in 2025.

The EPA is quick to add that the change aimed at cleaning up gasoline and automobile emissions would yield billions of dollars in health benefits by 2030 by slashing smog- and soot-forming pollution. Still, the oil industry, Republicans and some Democrats have pressed the EPA to delay the rule, citing higher costs.

Environmentalists hailed the proposal as potentially the most significant in President Barack Obama's second term.

The so-called Tier 3 standards would reduce sulfur in gasoline by more than 60 percent and reduce nitrogen oxides by 80 percent, by expanding across the country a standard already in place in California. For states, the regulation would make it easier to comply with health-based standards for the main ingredient in smog and soot. For automakers, the regulation allows them to sell the same autos in all 50 states.

The Obama administration already has moved to clean up motor vehicles by adopting rules that will double fuel efficiency and putting in place the first standards to reduce the pollution from cars and trucks blamed for global warming.

"We know of no other air pollution control strategy that can achieve such substantial, cost-effective and immediate emission reductions," said Bill Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies. Becker said the rule would reduce pollution equal to taking 33 million cars off the road.

But the head of American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, Charles Drevna, said in an interview Thursday that the refiners' group was still unclear on the motives behind the agency's regulation, since refining companies already have spent $10 billion to reduce sulfur by 90 percent. The additional cuts, while smaller, will cost just as much, Drevna said, and the energy needed for the additional refining actually could increase carbon pollution by 1 percent to 2 percent.

"I haven't seen an EPA rule on fuels that has come out since 1995 that hasn't said it would cost only a penny or two more," Drevna said.

A study commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute estimated that lowering the sulfur in gasoline would add 6 cents to 9 cents a gallon to refiners' manufacturing costs, an increase that likely would be passed on to consumers at the pump. The EPA estimate of less than 1 cent is also an additional manufacturing cost and likely to be passed on.

A senior administration official said Thursday that only 16 of 111 refineries would need to invest in major equipment to meet the new standards, which could be final by the end of this year. Of the remaining refineries, 29 already are meeting the standards because they are selling cleaner fuel in California or other countries, and 66 would have to make modifications.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the rule was still undergoing White House budget office review.

___

Follow Dina Cappiello on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dinacappiello

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/epa-taking-aim-auto-emissions-sulfur-gas-071021486--finance.html

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Morocco's rebel rapper released from prison

CASABLANCA, Morocco (AP) ? A Moroccan rapper known for his protest songs said Friday after completing a yearlong prison sentence that he will be concentrating on his studies and improving his music and is unsure about further activism.

Mouad Beghouat's angry rap songs excoriating the gaps between rich and poor in Morocco provided the soundtrack to the North African kingdom's Arab Spring protest movement in 2011 that called for social justice and greater democracy.

But while Belghouat, known as El-Haqed or "the enraged," was in prison, the February 20 movement, as it was known, faded away as popular ire with the state was defused by a string of reforms promulgated by the king.

"I will concentrate more on my studies ? I have my high school exams to pass in June," said a pale, subdued 26-year-old Belghouat to journalists and activists, showing only occasional flashes of his trademark irreverent sense of humor. "I played around a lot before, and in prison I discovered the importance of reading more."

The rapper appeared in glasses, which supporters say he now needs because of how his health deteriorated in prison where he said he experienced harassment and even went on hunger strike at one point to protest conditions.

Belghouat was convicted in May for insulting a public official over his song "Dogs of the State," which was addressed to the police. An online video accompanying the song portrayed a police officer with a donkey's head prompting the lawsuit by authorities.

"You are paid to protect the citizens, not to steal their money," said one lyric. The song then asks the police to arrest the wealthy businessmen who have divided the country up for themselves.

Morocco, a popular tourist destination for Europeans, has one of the highest discrepancies between rich and poor in the Arab world, according to international development agencies.

"It was a huge relief when he was released," said Abdullah Abaakil, an activist with the February 20 movement that introduced the rapper at the news conference. He emphasized that Belghouat was key for the movement to reach out to young people, especially in the country's myriad slums. "He suffered for all of us... he more than did his part."

As the protests died away, dozens of activists from the February 20 movement have been arrested and imprisoned. A statement by 18 local non-governmental organizations in December said at least 58 activists were in prison.

Belghouat, who described in an Associated Press interview last year how he would go to poor neighborhoods to raise people's awareness about the injustices in the country, said that now he was unsure about further activism.

"I am just out of prison, and I'm still tired, so I need a bit of time to answer this question about how I will assess the situation of the February 20 in the country," he said, though he didn't rule out staying involved. "And if tomorrow there was a demonstration for February 20, I might well join, why not?"

___

Associated Press reporter Smail Bellaoualli contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/moroccos-rebel-rapper-released-prison-184724070.html

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A Hot Topic: Climate Change Coming To Classrooms

For the first time, new federal science standards recommend teaching K-12 students about climate change.

iStockphoto.com

For the first time, new federal science standards recommend teaching K-12 students about climate change.

iStockphoto.com

By the time today's K-12 students grow up, the challenges posed by climate change are expected to be severe and sweeping. Now, for the first time, new nationwide science standards due out this month will recommend that U.S. public school students learn about the climatic shift taking place.

Mark McCaffrey of the National Center for Science Education says the lessons will fill a big gap.

"Only 1 in 5 [students] feel like they've got a good handle on climate change from what they've learned in school," he says, adding that surveys show two-thirds of students say they're not learning much at all about it. "So the state of climate change education in the U.S. is abysmal."

We all learn the water cycle. But how many can draw a picture of the carbon cycle? It would include plants taking in carbon to grow, then dying, and eventually turning into fossil fuels like coal and oil, which then put carbon back into the atmosphere when burned.

Even when this is taught, McCaffrey says, climate is often sidelined. Why take Earth science, when what you need to get into college is biology and chemistry? A recent report on climate literacy recommends sweeping changes to address such issues.

Political Pressure

On top of this, there's the political battle over how climate change is taught. Last month, Colorado became the 18th state in recent years ? including seven this year ? to consider an "Academic Freedom Act."

"The bill will go toward creating an atmosphere of open inquiry," Joshua Youngkin of the Discovery Institute told state lawmakers. The institute is the same group that's long questioned evolution and the way it's taught. Now it has crafted suggested legislation that also targets global warming, although Youngkin testified that the aim is not to ban teaching about climate change.

"It just gives teachers a simple right," he told lawmakers, "to know that they can teach both sides of a controversy objectively, and in a scientific manner, in order to induce critical thinking in their student body."

But critics point out there is no controversy within science: Climate change is happening, and it's largely driven by humans. So far, only Tennessee and Louisiana have passed legislation meant to protect teachers who question this.

Still, educators say the politicization of climate change has led many teachers to avoid the topic altogether. Or, they say some do teach it as a controversy, showing Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth one day, and the British documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle the next. The end result for students? Confusion.

The new science guidelines could provoke more push back.

"To the extent that these standards do paint a picture that I think runs counter to the scientific evidence, we're going to make sure that we point that out," says James Taylor, a senior fellow with the Heartland Institute. The free-market think tank is working on its own curriculum questioning humans' role in global warming.

Raising Difficult Issues

The new science standards are voluntary, but 26 states helped develop them, and about 40 say they're likely to adopt them.

"There was never a debate about whether climate change would be in there," says Heidi Schweingruber of the National Research Council, which created the framework for the standards. "It is a fundamental part of science, and so that's what our work is based on, the scientific consensus."

Schweingruber says a lot of thought did go into how to deliver what can be crushingly depressing information, without freaking kids out. For instance, while students will learn that humans cause global warming, they'll also be taught what kinds of actions can have a positive impact in helping to reduce it.

McCaffrey, of the National Center for Science Education, says many teachers will need training themselves on climate science. He'd also like to see them prepared for the pressures that come with teaching it.

"We've heard stories of students who learn about climate change," he says. "Then they go home and tell their parents, and everybody's upset because the parents are driving their kids to the soccer game, and the kids are feeling guilty about being in the car and contributing to this global problem."

McCaffrey says this raises all kinds of psychological and social issues that are difficult to grapple with, yet essential for this generation of students to take on.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/03/27/174141194/a-hot-topic-climate-change-coming-to-classrooms?ft=1&f=1007

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Timeline: Key dates and milestones in the S&P 500's history

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Standard & Poor's, initially known as the Standard Statistics Company, created its first stock market index in 1923. It consisted of the stocks of 233 companies and was computed weekly.

Three years later, it developed a 90-stock composite price index computed daily. That was expanded over the years.

On March 4, 1957, the Standard & Poor's 500 <.inx><.spx> was introduced.

The S&P 500 index has became synonymous with the term "U.S. stock market." It is one of the leading benchmarks for the market, even though others, including the Russell and Wilshire indexes, are broader measures of the market. Still, investors use the S&P 500 as the main index to measure their portfolios' performance against, with about $5.58 trillion benchmarked to the S&P 500.

The S&P's 500 companies represent the U.S. market more broadly than the Dow Jones industrial average, which includes the stocks of only 30 companies.

American Telephone and Telegraph was the heaviest-weighted stock in the index in 1957. The company, now known as AT&T , is the 11th-largest company in the S&P 500 index.

Today the S&P 500 index has a total market cap of $14.6 trillion. Sixty-nine of the 500 original companies remain in the S&P 500 today.

Below are some key dates and milestones in the history of the S&P 500.

1923: Standard Statistics Company, as S&P was formerly known, develops its first stock market index consisting of the stocks of 233 U.S. companies, computed weekly.

1926: Standard Statistics creates a 90-stock composite price index computed daily.

March 4, 1957: The Standard & Poor's 500 index is introduced, tracking the performance of the stocks of 500 leading U.S. companies. With a total market capitalization of $172 billion, the S&P 500 followed the performance of 425 industrial, 15 rail and 60 utility stocks.

1958: S&P 500 ends the year up 38.06 percent, its best year in terms of percentage gain.

June 4, 1968: S&P 500 closes above 100 for the first time.

August 31, 1976: Vanguard introduces the first retail index mutual fund, the Vanguard First Index Investment Trust, which tracks the S&P 500, allowing individual investors for the first time to buy into the broad market with a single purchase. The fund, now known as the Vanguard 500 Index Fund , has $125 billion in assets.

April 21, 1982: The Chicago Mercantile Exchange begins trading futures based on the S&P 500.

July 1, 1983: Options contracts based on the S&P 500 index begin trading on the Chicago Board Options Exchange.

Oct 19, 1987: S&P 500 registers its worst daily percentage loss, falling 20.47 percent. The one-day crash, known as "Black Monday," was blamed on program trading and those using a hedging strategy known as portfolio insurance. Despite the losses, the S&P 500 still ended up that year.

January 22, 1993: State Street's Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts, or the SPDR S&P 500 , an exchange-traded fund that tracks the S&P 500's performance, begins trading on the American Stock Exchange. It was the first ETF to trade in the United States. The first SPDR and the many variations that followed are commonly referred to as the "spiders." The fund currently has about $133.8 billion in assets, making it the largest exchange-traded fund in terms of assets.

September 9, 1997: CME introduces the S&P E-mini futures, which is valued at $50 multiplied by the price of the S&P 500, or one-fifth of the size of the "big" S&P futures contract. It has since become the most heavily traded futures contract on the CME.

February 2, 1998: S&P 500 closes above 1,000 for the first time.

March 24, 2000: The S&P 500 index reaches an all-time intraday high of 1,552.87 during the dot-com bubble.

March 24, 2004: Trading begins in futures on the VIX <.vix>, the CBOE Volatility Index measuring implied volatility of S&P 500 index options. The VIX is known as the market's "fear gauge." It tends to rise when stocks fall. It recently fell to levels not seen since April 2007.

March-September 2005: The index is transitioned from simply market-value weighted to float adjusted, where the market capitalization is calculated using only the number of shares available for public trading.

October 9, 2007: Index closes at a record high of 1,565.15.

October 11, 2007: S&P 500 hits intraday record high of 1,576.09.

Oct 13, 2008: S&P 500 marks its best daily percentage gain, rising 11.58 percent. It also registers its largest single-day point increase of 104.13 points.

2008: For the year, S&P 500 falls 38.49 percent - its worst yearly percentage loss. In September 2008, Lehman Brothers collapsed as the financial crisis spread.

March 9, 2009: S&P 500 closes at 676.53, its closing low after the onset of the 2008 financial crisis and the Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy.

August 20, 2012: Apple becomes the biggest U.S. company and takes over as market capitalization leader in the S&P 500, pushing Exxon Mobil into the No. 2 spot. Since then, Exxon and Apple have gone back and forth between the two spots, but Apple is currently No. 1 with a market cap of about $416 billion. Exxon has a market cap of $404 billion.

March 28, 2013: S&P 500 ends above 1,569 - setting a record closing high and surpassing the previous milestone set in 2007.

Sources: S&P Dow Jones Indices Senior Index Analyst Howard Silverblatt, the Standard & Poor's book, "Innovation & Evolution, The S&P 500," CME, CBOE, Vanguard Group Inc, State Street Global Advisors, Thomson Reuters.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/timeline-key-dates-milestones-p-500s-history-222131451--sector.html

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Cache of weapons found in Newtown gunman's home

FILE - In this Dec. 18, 2012 file photo, a police cruiser sits in the driveway and crime scene tape surrounds the home of Nancy Lanza in Newtown, Conn. Nancy Lanza was killed in the home by her son Adam Lanza before he forced his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn, killing 26 people. Search warrants released Thursday, March 28, 2013, revealed that an arsenal of weapons including guns, more than a thousand rounds of ammunition, a bayonet and several swords was seized in the Lanza home. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

FILE - In this Dec. 18, 2012 file photo, a police cruiser sits in the driveway and crime scene tape surrounds the home of Nancy Lanza in Newtown, Conn. Nancy Lanza was killed in the home by her son Adam Lanza before he forced his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn, killing 26 people. Search warrants released Thursday, March 28, 2013, revealed that an arsenal of weapons including guns, more than a thousand rounds of ammunition, a bayonet and several swords was seized in the Lanza home. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

FILE - This undated file photo circulated by law enforcement and provided by NBC News, shows Adam Lanza, who authorities said Lanza killed his mother at their home and then opened fire inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Friday, Dec. 14, 2012. Search warrants released Thursday, March 28, 2013, revealed that an arsenal of weapons including guns, more than a thousand rounds of ammunition, a bayonet and several swords was seized in the Lanza home. (AP Photo/NBC News, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 14, 2012 file photo provided by the Newtown Bee, a police officer leads two women and a child from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., shortly after Adam Lanza opened fire, killing 26 people, including 20 children. State's Attorney Stephen Sedensky III asked a judge in Danbury Superior Court, Wednesday, March 27, 2013 to limit the information to be made public from warrants in Newtown school shooting, due to be released Thursday. (AP Photo/Newtown Bee, Shannon Hicks, File) MANDATORY CREDIT: NEWTOWN BEE, SHANNON HICKS

FILE - In this Friday, Dec. 14, 2012 file photo provided by the Newtown Bee, Connecticut State Police lead a line of children from the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. after Adam Lanza opened fire, killing 26 people, including 20 children. State's Attorney Stephen Sedensky III asked a judge in Danbury Superior Court, Wednesday, March 27, 2013 to limit the information to be made public from warrants in Newtown school shooting, due to be released Thursday. (AP Photo/Newtown Bee, Shannon Hicks, File) MANDATORY CREDIT: NEWTOWN BEE, SHANNON HICKS

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) ? A cache of weapons including guns, more than a thousand rounds of ammunition, a bayonet and several swords was found in the home of the gunman who carried out the Newtown school shooting, according to search warrants released Thursday.

Adam Lanza killed 26 people inside Sandy Hook Elementary School and took his own life within five minutes of shooting his way into the building, State's Attorney Stephen J. Sedensky III said in a statement accompanying the release of the warrants in the Dec. 14 massacre. Lanza was found dead in the school wearing military-style clothing.

The arsenal seized from Lanza's home and the car he drove to carry out the massacre provided glimpses into the world of a troubled young man, but it does not answer the question of what could have motivated the attack. Investigators say it will take until June or later to complete the investigation.

Sedensky said Lanza killed all 26 victims inside Sandy Hook Elementary School with a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle before taking his own life with a Glock 10 mm handgun. He said Lanza had another loaded handgun with him inside the school as well as three, 30-round magazines for the Bushmaster.

Sedensky said 154 spent .223 casings were recovered at the scene. A loaded 12-gauge Saiga shotgun was found in the Honda Civic Lanza drove to the school and the warrants said there were two magazines containing a total of 70 shotgun rounds. The warrant does not offer further explanation, and authorities did not respond to questions, but some Saiga shotguns can be fitted with magazines that hold up to 30 rounds.

Mark Barden, whose 7-year-old son, Daniel, was killed at Sandy Hook, said he was not surprised by the details released Thursday.

"Most of this is pretty high-level stuff that we were aware of already and it just reminds me of what happened, that a gunman stormed his way into an elementary school and shot to death 26 people, 20 of which were first-grade boys and girls," Barden said.

At the Lanza house, investigators found books about autism and Asperger's syndrome as well as a National Rifle Association guide to pistol shooting, the warrants said. The NRA said Lanza and his mother were not members. Another book found at the home with tabbed pages is titled: "Train Your Brain to Get Happy."

Writings and journals that belonged to Lanza were seized by police and turned over to the FBI for analysis. They also found three photos containing images of what appears to be a dead person covered with plastic and blood.

Police said they found a smashed computer hard drive and a gaming console in the house. An unnamed person told investigators that Lanza was an avid gamer who played "Call of Duty" and other games and rarely left his home.

Investigators found a holiday card containing a check made out to Lanza for the purchase of a firearm, authored by his mother, Nancy Lanza. Adam Lanza shot and killed his mother in their Newtown home before driving to the school to carry out the massacre.

Documents indicate authorities found a gun safe with shotgun shells in the house and numerous boxes of bullets. In a bedroom closet, they found ear plugs, a handwritten note regarding ammunition and magazines, paperwork on guns and a metal bayonet.

In a top drawer of a filing cabinet, they found paper targets. In a duffel bag, they found ear and eye protection, binoculars, numerous paper targets and an NRA certificate that belonged to Adam Lanza.

Authorities found numerous knives, including samurai swords. They found a military-style uniform in Lanza's bedroom and handwritten notes containing the addresses of local gun shops. The guns found at the home included a .323-caliber Enfield Albian bolt-action rifle, a .22-caliber Savage Mark II rifle, a BB gun and a .22-caliber Volcanic starter pistol.

Among the items seized was a news article on a 2008 school shooting at Northern Illinois University.

A judge's order to seal the warrants expired on Wednesday, and a Danbury Superior Court judge granted a request by Sedensky to withhold some details. Sedensky asked to redact the name of a witness, saying the person's safety might be jeopardized if the name were disclosed. He also asked that the release not include other information such as telephone numbers, serial numbers on items found and a few paragraphs of an affidavit.

Until now, prosecutors had made few details of the Newtown investigation available, despite pressure to do so from the governor, who criticized leaks to the press and lawmakers who clamored for more details as they craft legislation on mental health and gun control.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced last week that additional information would be released at his request. He expressed concern that some information about the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook reportedly disclosed by a top state police commander at a recent law enforcement seminar in New Orleans was leaked.

In his statement, Sedensky said he ordered a stop to any presentations involving evidence in the case to prevent such disclosures. He said the investigation is ongoing.

"No conclusions have been reached and no final determinations have been made," Sedensky said.

Senate President Donald E. Williams Jr. said this week that legislative leaders are eager to review the search warrant documents before finishing work on a bipartisan bill that addresses gun control and other issues related to the massacre.

___

Associated Press writers Dave Collins and Michael Melia in Hartford contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-28-US-Connecticut-School-Shooting/id-00437ea9def1415a97ac165f544347f9

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New way to lose weight? Changing microbes in guts of mice resulted in rapid weight loss

Mar. 27, 2013 ? Scientists at Harvard may have new hope for anyone who's tried to fight the battle of the bulge.

New research, conducted in collaboration with researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, has found that the gut microbes of mice undergo drastic changes following gastric bypass surgery. Transfer of these microbes into sterile mice resulted in rapid weight loss. The study is described in a March 27 paper in Science Translational Medicine.

"Simply by colonizing mice with the altered microbial community, the mice were able to maintain a lower body fat, and lose weight -- about 20% as much as they would if they underwent surgery," said Peter Turnbaugh, a Bauer Fellow at Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Center for Systems Biology, and one of two senior authors of the paper.

But as striking as those results were, they weren't as dramatic as they might have been.

"In some ways we were biasing the results against weight loss," Turnbaugh said, explaining that the mice used in the study hadn't been given a high-fat, high-sugar diet to increase their weight beforehand. "The question is whether we might have seen a stronger effect if they were on a different diet."

"Our study suggests that the specific effects of gastric bypass on the microbiota contribute to its ability to cause weight loss and that finding ways to manipulate microbial populations to mimic those effects could become a valuable new tool to address obesity," said Lee Kaplan, director of the Obesity, Metabolism and Nutrition Institute at MGH and the other senior author of the paper.

"We need to learn a good deal more about the mechanisms by which a microbial population changed by gastric bypass exert its effects, and then we need to learn if we can produce these effects -- either the microbial changes or the associated metabolic changes -- without surgery," Kaplan, an associate professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, added. "The ability to achieve even some of these effects without surgery would give us an entirely new way to treat the critical problem of obesity, one that could help patients unable or unwilling to have surgery."

While the results were exciting, Turnbaugh warned that it may be years before they could be replicated in humans, and that such microbial changes shouldn't be viewed as a way to lose those stubborn last 10 pounds without going to the gym. Rather, the technique may one day offer hope to dangerously obese people who want to lose weight without going through the trauma of surgery.

"It may not be that we will have a magic pill that will work for everyone who's slightly overweight," he said. "But if we can, at a minimum, provide some alternative to gastric bypass surgery that produces similar effects, it would be a major advance."

While there had been hints that the microbes in the gut might change after bypass surgery, the speed and extent of the change came as a surprise to the research team.

In earlier experiments, researchers had shown that the guts of both lean and obese mice are populated by varying amounts of two types of bacteria, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. When mice undergo gastric bypass surgery, however, it "resets the whole picture," Turnbaugh said.

"The post-bypass community was dominated by Proteobacteria and Proteobacteria, and had relatively low levels of Firmicutes," he said. What's more, Turnbaugh said, those changes occurred within a week of the surgery, and weren't short-lived -- the altered gut microbial community remained stable for months afterward.

While the results may hold out the hope for weight loss without surgery, both Turnbaugh and Kaplan warned that future studies are needed to understand exactly what is behind the weight loss seen in mice.

"A major gap in our knowledge is the underlying mechanism linking microbes to weight loss," Turnbaugh said. "There were certain microbes that we found at higher abundance after surgery, so we think those are good targets for beginning to understand what's taking place."

In fact, Turnbaugh said, the answer may not be the specific types of microbes, but a by-product they excrete.

In addition to changes in the microbes found in the gut, researchers found changes in the concentration of certain short-chain fatty acids. Other studies, Turnbaugh said, have suggested that those molecules may be critical in signaling to the host to speed up metabolism, or not to store excess calories as fat.

Going forward, Turnbaugh and Kaplan hope to continue to explore those questions.

"We think such studies will allow us to understand how host/microbial interactions in general can influence the outcome of a given diet," Kaplan said. "To some degree, what we're learning is a comfort for people who have an issue with their weight, because more and more we're learning that the story is more complicated than just how much you exercise and how much you eat."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Harvard University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. A. P. Liou, M. Paziuk, J.-M. Luevano, S. Machineni, P. J. Turnbaugh, L. M. Kaplan. Conserved Shifts in the Gut Microbiota Due to Gastric Bypass Reduce Host Weight and Adiposity. Science Translational Medicine, 2013; 5 (178): 178ra41 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3005687

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/55s2_HYwLsA/130327144124.htm

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Idaho gas prices dip, remain below national rate

BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- Idaho motorists are enjoying a bit of a break at the pump.

AAA Idaho reported Tuesday that the average price per gallon is $3.43, a penny less than a month ago and 23 cents below the national average.

AAA Idaho Spokesman Dave Carlson says it's too soon to say if petrol prices have peaked for the spring. He says there is a backlog of refinery maintenance to deal with and the costs tied to switching to summer-blend fuels.

Last year at this time, Idahoans were paying $3.74 per gallon.

Idaho's current price still ranks higher compared to neighboring states. Motorists in Wyoming are paying an average of $3.33 cents per gallon, while Montana drivers are dishing out $3.36 per gallon.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/idaho-gas-prices-dip-remain-154458671.html

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Osborne defends mortgage help scheme

Mar 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $3,787,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,154,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 11. Keegan Bradley $1,274,593 12. Charles Howell III $1,256,373 13. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 14. Brian Gay $1,171,721 15. Justin Rose $1,155,550 16. Jason Day $1,115,565 17. Chris Kirk $1,097,053 18. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/osborne-defends-mortgage-help-scheme-162418566--finance.html

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A marine animal to feed your eco-car

Mar. 25, 2013 ? The marine animal tunicate can be used both as biofuel and fish food, according to research from Norway. On the ocean floor, under the pier, and on ship ropes -- that's where the tunicates live. Tunicates are marine filter feeders that serve as bacteria eaters and as a foodstuff in Korea and Japan. But in the future they may become more prevalent.

Five researchers at the University of Bergen (UiB) and Uni Research have found that a certain type of tunicate -- ascidiacea -- can be used as a renewable source of biofuel and fish food. This is particularly good news for the growing aquaculture industry, which for years has struggled to find enough quality feed for its fish. There also is the prospect of reducing emissions from traffic.

Usable as fuel

It is the cellulose, the protein, and the Omega-3 fatty acids in the ascidiacea that is the cause for its many uses.

"Its mantle consists of cellulose, which is a collection of sugars. When cellulose is cleaved, one can obtain ethanol. And ethanol can be used for biofuel in cars. The animal's body consists of large amounts of protein and Omega-3. This can be used for fish feed," says Professor Eric Thompson at UiB's Department of Biology.

Thompson and his colleagues have spent years looking into the many possible uses of the ascidiacea.

Commercial potential

At the innovation conference GROW in March 2013, arranged by Business Region Bergen, the researchers received a prize for innovative research and were awarded NOK 300,000 for their discoveries. Regional bank Sparebanken Vest and Bergen Teknologioverf?ring (BTO) sponsor the prize. The researchers plan to use the prize money to create commercially viable products based on their research. They have already acquired a patent for biofuel and have a patent application pending for the cultivation of ascidiacea as fish feed.

Why are tunicates particularly suited for use as biofuel?

"The bioethanol used today is unsustainable as it comes from foods already used for human consumption. That is why there has been a move towards using cellulose from the timber industry to produce bioethanol," says Dr. Sc. Christofer Troedsson of Uni Research's Molecular Ecology Group and head of the research at UiB's Marine Development Biology and the tunicate research project.

"However, it is quite complicated to break down the cellulose in trees and convert it into ethanol. This is because the wood contains a substance called lignin, which is hard to separate from the cellulose. Tunicates contain no lignin. Their cellulose is also low in crystals and is more efficiently converted into ethanol," he says.

More environmentally friendly

Troedsson also points out that using ascidiacea rather than trees is more environmentally friendly, because this does not occupy large tracts of land which could otherwise be used for other purposes, such as growing food.

Another important point is that the ascidiacea are not in the food chain, probably because of their protective mantle. So there are no creatures dependent on the ascidiacea to survive. They also grow very quickly. 4-6 months after "birth" they are ready for harvesting. Tunicates are also found in all oceans, with an enormous growth potential that exceeds most land-based feedstock.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Bergen. The original article was written by Solrun Dregelid; Translation by Sverre Ole Dr?nen.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/8EPGtEvbTCc/130325101431.htm

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Missing San Jose infant found safe in stolen SUV

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) ? An infant from East San Jose became the subject of an Amber Alert on Monday after a woman allegedly stole an SUV with the baby inside, but authorities located the missing child inside the abandoned vehicle several hours later.

San Jose police said 11-month-old Gabriela Quintero was seated but not strapped into her car seat when her mother, Graciella Quintero, saw someone driving away in the SUV at about 6:45 a.m. The Jeep Liberty had been parked in the family's driveway with the keys in the ignition, and Quintero had gone into the house briefly to grab some things she wanted to bring with her.

More than four hours into the search that briefly shut down Highway 101 and involved a police airplane and a Santa Clara County auto theft unit, a man reported seeing a Jeep parked in the alleyway of an apartment complex about six miles from where Gabriela lived and said he heard a baby crying. Officers found the child there uninjured, although she was taken to a hospital for a checkup and to be reunited with her mother.

"In a critical event like this, we don't spare any resources," Officer Albert Morales said.

Authorities were searching for the child's abductor. They didn't know if the baby was taken intentionally or if she was taken accidentally with the car as the target.

Both Quintero and a neighbor told police they saw a woman standing near the SUV before it was driven away.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/missing-san-jose-infant-found-safe-stolen-suv-015527152.html

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Cyprus bailout plan puts eurocrisis back on the front page

The plan to levy a tax on Cypriot deposit holders is sending a chill around the continent, particularly in nations like Spain and Italy that already have troubled banks.

By Robert Marquand,?Staff writer / March 19, 2013

A man walks by graffiti, reading 'troika out' in Greek, in the old city of Nicosia, Cyprus, today. The Cypriot bailout plan, which was backed by the so-called 'troika' of the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank, has been met with fury in Cyprus and has sent jitters across financial markets.

Petros Karadjias/AP

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The tiny divided sun-dappled Mediterranean island of Cyprus rarely rides above the radar in European thinking ? but is now suddenly raising a five-alarm panic in the European Union, just as financial crisis talk there was starting to abate.

Skip to next paragraph Robert Marquand

Staff writer

Over the past three decades, Robert Marquand has reported on a wide variety of subjects for?The Christian Science Monitor, including American education reform,?the wars in the Balkans, the Supreme Court, South Asian politics, and the oft-cited "rise of China." In the past 15 years he has served as the Monitor's bureau chief in Paris, Beijing, and New Delhi.?

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Cyprus desperately needs a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout, and to do so the EU has engineered a plan, now being voted on by the Cypriot parliament, to guarantee an EU loan with ? and here is the kicker ? money secured from the banking accounts of private depositors.

Accounts with more than 100,000 euros ($130,000) would be taxed 9.9 percent; those under that marker would be taxed at 6.7 percent. The idea is to raise 5.8 billion euro ($7.5 billion) to ensure against a catastrophic default.

Since the EU in Brussels must approve the plan, and since Germany is on board, this is a fateful example that is sending a chill around the continent, particularly in nations like Spain and Italy that have troubled banks that have been unable to climb out of the pit of debt and exposure.

Whether one calls this measure a tax, a levy, a ?dip? into bank accounts, or a seizure of funds to avert a national disaster, ordinary Europeans interpret the plan as a major Rubicon that has been crossed: Their private accounts can be invaded by the public sector.

?The damage is done,? Louise Cooper, who heads the financial research firm CooperCity in London, told the Associated Press. ?Europeans now know that their savings could be used to bail out banks.?

Though some dispute that the decision entails a realistic threat to American and European bank accounts. In a statement sent to EU correspondents, Andriy Bodnaruk, an assistant professor of finance at the University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business, wrote that ?While Cyprus' proposed tax on deposit holders sets a precedent, there is little reason for depositors in Europe or the US to lose sleep."

"...It is highly unlikely (if not improbable) that such policy could ever be forced on depositors in any other EU country, as it would be politically suicidal. Cyprus is a different animal as it is effectively an off-shore area within Europe," he wrote.

The president of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, told his nation on Sunday that he supported the plan as ?the least painful option,? saying that, ?Cyprus is in a tragic situation ? and I bear the political cost for this, in order to limit as much as possible the consequences for the economy and for our fellow Cypriots.?

Michael Steininger wrote yesterday in The Christian Science Monitor that: ??for the first time, at the insistence of the German government, private account holders were being asked to shoulder a part of that [Cyprus] bailout, around 5.8 billion euros ($7.5 billion), through a special levy on their savings."

?The German taxpayer is willing to help Cyprus,? says Michael Fuchs, a member of Parliament for Chancellor Angela Merkel?s Christian Democrats. ?But the Cypriots have to help themselves and pay a tax on their deposits.?

With large Russian offshore accounts in Cyprus, President Vladimir Putin in Moscow called the new tax ?dangerous.?

Banking columnist Peter Gumbel of Time magazine pointed out that:

At the insistence of both the E.U. and the IMF, Cyprus would only receive a bailout if as much as $6 billion of the money could be recouped from bank depositors. That solution was aimed primarily at the Russians and other wealthy depositors, with more than $130,000 in their accounts. But under the terms of the agreement finalized on Friday night, all depositors will take a hit. A one-time levy of 9.9% will be charged on deposits over $130,000, and accounts with less will be charged 6.75%.

A new plan being voted on today in Cyprus would exempt depositors with less than 20,000 euro ($26,000) in their accounts.

Since the advent of what has been called the ?eurocrisis? several years ago ? which has caused a number of governments to fall and occasionally spun the global economy downward ? Europeans have become adroit at halting panic and crisis just as it seems ready to bring a full-scale meltdown.

The crisis was originally sparked by public debt and bad accounting in Greece. But it spread across Europe ? most prominently in Ireland, Portugal, Italy, and Spain ? as bond markets attacked what appeared to be weakness in those economies, due to their inability to devaluate under the single currency.

But the European Central Bank showed this summer and fall that it would go so far as to sidestep its own rules and charter to protect the euro by lending trillions to troubled banks.

Still, as the Associated Press put it in a report today:

?Down the road, the Cyprus precedent, even if quickly reversed, could come back to haunt eurozone policy makers by making depositors less sure about the safety of their money in case of trouble. It could also complicate creation of an EU-wide system of bank deposit insurance, part of long-term efforts to create a more robust financial system and prevent future crises.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/lMS0a1VcR7g/Cyprus-bailout-plan-puts-eurocrisis-back-on-the-front-page

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UK police search Berezovsky property

LONDON (AP) ? British police said Sunday that experts in hazardous materials are searching a property after the death of Boris Berezovsky, the self-exiled Russian tycoon who went from Kremlin kingmaker to fiery critic after a bitter falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Police said a 67-year-old "believed to be" Berezovsky was found dead at the property in Ascot, a town 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of London on Saturday. Thames Valley police say his death is being treated as "unexplained."

Police said Sunday they have set up a cordon and that officers are conducting the search "as a precaution" and there is no risk to neighbors. The BBC described the site as Berezovsky's home.

"It is important we take all necessary measures to ensure a full and thorough investigation can be carried out," Supt. Stuart Greenfield said in a statement.

Berezovsky ? who had survived a number of assassination attempts ? amassed a fortune through oil and automobiles during Russia's chaotic privatization of state assets following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

Once a member of Russian President Boris Yeltsin's inner circle, Berezovsky fell out with Yeltsin's successor, Putin, and fled Britain in the early 2000s to escape fraud charges that he said were politically motivated.

He became a strident and frequent critic of Putin, accusing the leader of ushering in a dictatorship, and accused the security services of organizing the 1999 apartment house bombings in Moscow and two other Russian cities that became a pretext for Russian troops to sweep into Chechnya for the second war there in half a decade.

In recent years, the one-time Kremlin powerbroker-turned-thorn in Putin's side fended off legal attacks that often bore political undertones ? and others that bit into his fortune.

Russia repeatedly sought to extradite on Berezovksy on a wide variety of criminal charges, and the tycoon vehemently rejected allegations over the years that he was linked to several deaths, including that of slain journalist Anna Politkovskaya and ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko.

Berezovsky won a libel case in 2010 against a Kremlin-owned broadcaster that aired a show in which it was suggested he was behind the poisoning of Litvinenko, who had fled Russia with Berezovsky's help after accusing officials there of plotting to assassinate political opponents.

He took a hit with his divorce from Galina Besharova in 2010, paying what was at the time Britain's largest divorce settlement. The figure beat a previous record of 48 million pounds ($73.1) and was estimated as high as 100 million pounds, though the exact figure was never confirmed.

Last year, Berezovsky lost a multibillion-pound High Court case against fellow Russian Roman Abramovich and was ordered to pay 35 million pounds ($53.3 million) in legal costs.

Berezovsky had claimed that Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, cheated him out of his stakes in the oil group Sibneft, arguing that he blackmailed him into selling the stakes vastly beneath their true worth after he lost Putin's good graces.

But a judge threw out the case in August, ruling that Berezovsky was a dishonest and unreliable witness, and rejected Berezovsky's claims that he was threatened by Putin and Alexander Voloshin, a Putin ally, to coerce him to sell his Sibneft stake.

It also recently emerged that Berezovsky ran up legal bills totaling more than 250,000 pounds in just two months of a case against his former partner, Elena Gorbunova, with whom he had two children and who claimed the businessman owed her millions.

Earlier this week, The Times of London newspaper reported that Berezovsky was selling property ? including an Andy Warhol portrait of the former Soviet Union leader Vladimir Lenin ? to settle his debts and pay expenses owed to lawyers.

______

Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-police-search-berezovsky-property-095924976--finance.html

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Turn an Old Pizza Box Into a Solar Pizza Oven

If you want to reheat some old pizza outdoors, you can turn any pizza box into a makeshift solar oven.

This tip is admittedly a little silly, but it still looks like a ton of fun. The video above will walk you through the entire process, but basically you'll be cutting a transparent window into your box, and reflecting sunlight into it with a flap of aluminum foil. It won't get hot enough to cook raw food, but you could use it to reheat anything that was pre-cooked, or even to melt cheese or marshmallows.

Certainly, there are easier ways to heat up pizza you're at home (I'd recommend a skillet), but I could see this coming in handy at a tailgate, or on your next camping trip.

How to Turn a Pizza Box into a Solar Oven | Howcast via Serious Eats

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/S9EGoUcM1ko/turn-an-old-pizza-box-into-a-solar-pizza-oven

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More an immigrant holiday, St. Patrick's Day has come home to Ireland (+video)

Writer Jason Walsh in Dublin says he cannot recall the modern-day holiday hoopla in the Ireland of his youth.?

By Jason Walsh,?Correspondent / March 17, 2013

Children dressed as St. Patrick in a St. Patrick's Day parade in Limerick, Ireland.

Peter Morrison/AP

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Half a million people will parade in Dublin today to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but since when did Irish people celebrate this holiday?

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March 17 has always meant a lot to the Irish diaspora, particularly those who themselves had left the country seeking a better life abroad. It was a day to celebrate Irishness, to reminisce about home, and to stand together in solidarity. Public gatherings, and particularly parades, have always been part of the annual celebration of Irishness.

In recent years, though, St. Patrick's Day has come home: The Irish, the actual Irish in Ireland, now celebrate St. Patrick's Day with as much enthusiasm as their cousins in the US and Britain. Half a million people will take to the streets of Dublin today to watch the parade.

In fact, it's not just St. Patrick's Day, it's now a week-long?St. Patrick's Festival. Slick branding, float parades, giant green foam hands, buildings lit in green, fun fairs, stand-up comedy, and street performers: This is not how I remember things.

As a child in Belfast, Northern Ireland during the 1980s, St. Patrick's Day was little more than one of many days of religious observance. Church-goers went to church and wore shamrocks on their lapels, and Irish republicans paraded, much to the chagrin of pro-British unionists. My family was not religious so we didn't do much, though we did pin shamrocks to our jackets.

Later, but still a child, in the Republic of Ireland it was much the same, though the parades were less politically-charged state affairs.

In neither case did leprechaun hats, green beer, and the rest of the tidal wave of Paddywhackery feature. Of course, memory is notoriously?faulty, but I think it's unlikely I mistook pious Mass-goers with hard-partying fun-seekers. Difficult as it is to believe, in Ireland St. Patrick's Day was once a day of temperance, with the only overindulgence being in sugary-sweets as a kind of cheating break from severe Lenten fasting.

Reportedly things weren't much different in rural Ireland. My colleague Cian Ginty grew-up in Mayo in the west of Ireland and the parades he remembers were not slick affairs.

"Tractors. That's my memory of St Patrick's Day. You get tractors, or at least used to in parades in the country down here," he says.

It's not that I'm a killjoy. If people want to have a New York-style parade, floats and all, through Dublin and then head to an Irish pub, authentic or otherwise, it's no skin off my nose. Headlines such as St. Paddy's Day FAILS: Beer, Booze And Barfing?get on my nerves, but that's life. If I was to react to everything that irked me I'd have had an embolism years ago.

Nor am I a Catholic seeking a return to the true meaning of St. Patrick's Day. After all, what is the meaning of St. Patrick's Day? He didn't drive snakes out of Ireland and his explanation of the Trinity using a shamrock is a romantic fabrication from the eighteenth century.?Patrick the man, if his confession is anything to go by, cut a pious and stern figure, arguably closer to Protestant Rev. Ian Paisley than the green-festooned and cheery miter-wearing?bishop that we Irish tend to portray him as.

Bernie Whelan, second-generation Irish living in Britain, says she remembers when St. Patrick's Day had real meaning to the London Irish. Today, though, the Irish are just like everyone else.

?"The Irish community in North London has dispersed. I was an advice worker in the London Irish women's center in Stoke Newington until it closed. To be honest couldn't justify funding any more," she says.

As Ireland has modernized, the ongoing economic crisis notwithstanding, the idea of a unique Irish ethnicity has come to look increasingly threadbare. There is, no doubt, such a thing as Irish culture, but Ireland is also part of the modern, developed world and shares a universal culture with the rest of Europe, the US, and other countries. Irish identity, at least the version long defined by political oppression and poverty makes less sense than ever.

This hasn't stopped the marketing, though. In fact, the absence of bombs and bullets makes Irishness much easier to sell, abroad and at home, even if the beer-soaked mawkishness is now harder to explain. And so, on St. Patrick's Day we're told that everyone has a bit of Irish in them. Actually, they don't. Don't take it as an insult, it's just a fact. Besides, despite the attempt to turn Irishness into some kind of universal character trait, it's really just a nationality and, like all nationalities, means less than we tend to ascribe to it.

One thing, though: It's Paddy's day, not Patty. Patty is a female name, and don't start on the Patrick doesn't contain the letter "d". The Irish-language (Gaelic to you) P?draic does.

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day if you like. Have fun. Just don't for a moment think it's authentic.

As for me? ?I'll be celebrating that we're just like everyone else.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/SuIz4lgX7pU/More-an-immigrant-holiday-St.-Patrick-s-Day-has-come-home-to-Ireland-video

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