WASHINGTON (AP) -- Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Tuesday he will delay final decisions on about 20 applications to export liquefied natural gas until he reviews studies by the Energy Department and others on what impact the exports would have on domestic natural gas supplies and prices.
Moniz, who was sworn in Tuesday as the nation's new energy chief, said he promised during his confirmation hearing that he would "review what's out there" before acting on proposals to export natural gas. Among the things Moniz said he wants to review is whether the data in the studies are outdated.
A study commissioned by the Energy Department concluded last year that exporting natural gas would benefit the U.S. economy even if it led to higher domestic prices for the fuel.
Senate Energy Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and other critics have said the DOE study was flawed and relied on old data and unrealistic market assumptions.
Moniz, speaking to reporters after a brief speech to a forum on global energy efficiency, said he wants to complete his review as quickly as possible.
"Right now we have no plans of commissioning new studies, but everything's on the table until I have done my analysis," he said. "That's my commitment to Chairman Wyden."
Many U.S. energy companies are hoping to take advantage of an ongoing natural gas boom by exporting liquefied natural gas, or LNG, to Europe and Asia, where prices are far higher. About 20 applications to export LNG to countries that do not have free trade agreements with the United States are pending before the Energy Department.
Business groups support LNG exports as a way to create thousands of jobs and spur more U.S. production.
Consumer advocates and some manufacturers that use natural gas as a raw material or fuel source oppose exports, saying they could drive up domestic prices and increase manufacturing costs. Many environmental groups also oppose LNG exports because of fears that increased drilling could lead to environmental problems.
Natural gas results in fewer global warming emissions than other fossil fuels such as coal or oil, and Moniz has backed natural gas as a bridge fuel to reduce carbon dioxide and other pollutants that contribute to global warming. Environmental groups worry that drilling techniques such as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, could harm drinking water supplies or cause other problems.
Moniz replaces Steven Chu, who served as energy secretary in President Barack Obama's first term. Moniz served as an energy undersecretary in the Clinton administration. He joked Tuesday that his return to government was like a second marriage, "where you place hope over experience."
In an email to Energy Department employees, Moniz said he looks forward to advancing Obama's all-of-the-above energy strategy, as well as promoting innovation in clean energy technology, boosting nuclear security and cleaning up nuclear waste left over from the Cold War.
"I believe we can, and must, commit ourselves to the highest standards of management excellence, delivering results for the American people as efficiently and effectively as possible and enhancing our capacity to succeed in our critical missions," Moniz said.
___
Follow Matthew Daly on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC
Actresses like Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Alba are pursuing new careers as lifestyle gurus.
By Chris Gaylord,?Staff writer / May 22, 2013
Gwyneth Paltrow: the queen bee of a new generation.
Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
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Both Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey have watched their media empires dwindle. But in their place has risen a new breed of celebrity homemaker ? semiretired actresses enjoying a second career as lifestyle gurus.
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Jessica Alba has not appeared in a live-action, widely released movie since 2011. In that time, she?s launched a line of eco-friendly baby products and published a new book, ?The Honest Life,? about her organic lifestyle.
Blake Lively?s big role in the teen hit ?Gossip Girl? has come to an end and her would-be summer blockbusters ? ?The Green Lantern? and ?Savages? ? fizzled at the box office. Now, the actress has grabbed headlines for taking cooking lessons at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and installing a massive kitchen in her new home.
But the queen bee of this new era has been Gwyneth Paltrow. During a slow period in her career, she kicked off the online news-letter Goop. While critics mock the website for its casual excess ($100 shirts for babies and four-figure handbags), Goop has secured a place among the big style and parenting blogs. In April, Ms. Paltrow released her second health-minded cookbook, ?It?s All Good.?
?In the ?90s, when celebrities wanted to resuscitate their careers, they would create a perfume,? says Deborah Jaramillo, assistant professor of film and television at Boston University. ?Now, they are taking a more domestic route. They?re positioning themselves as a Martha or Oprah for their own generation.?
Ms. Alba and Ms. Lively are not the first stars to trade in low-cut outfits for aprons. In the 1940s and ?50s, under the constant watch of the moralistic Motion Picture Production Code, Hollywood studios would arrange for sexier, edgier stars to appear in magazines talking about their homes and offering parenting tips.
Today?s tastemakers may be more concerned with demographics. As Alba and Lively have gotten older, so has their key audience. Alba?s new book spends several chapters talking directly to young mothers, the exact group that Ms. Stewart and Ms. Winfrey have had trouble reaching. Throughout those pages, ?The Honest Life? adopts a strong theme of generational responsibility ? a Millennial push to curb the use of chemicals in food and body products.
?I?m intrigued by this idea that we?ve moved into a time when women are portrayed as being more socially conscious and not just fixated on babies and cooking,? says Ms. Jaramillo. ?Whether you agree or disagree with organic foods and organic lifestyles, there is something positive about the message, even if it is still consumer based.?
Mayo Clinic: How gold nanoparticles can help fight ovarian cancerPublic release date: 21-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Bob Nellis newsbureau@mayo.edu 507-284-5005 Mayo Clinic
ROCHESTER, Minn. Positively charged gold nanoparticles are usually toxic to cells, but cancer cells somehow manage to avoid nanoparticle toxicity. Mayo Clinic researchers found out why, and determined how to make the nanoparticles effective against ovarian cancer cells. The discovery is detailed in the current online issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
"This study identifies a novel mechanism that protects ovarian cancer cells by preventing the cell death or apoptosis which should occur when they encounter positively charged nanoparticles," say the senior authors of this study, Priyabrata Mukherjee, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic molecular biologist, and Y.S. Prakash, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic anesthesiologist and physiologist.
Why Cancer Cells Survived
Gold nanoparticles can have many medical uses, from imaging and aiding diagnoses to delivering therapies. In this case, using a special preparation to put positive ionic charges on the surface, the nanoparticle is intended to act as a targeted destructor of tumor cells while leaving healthy cells alone. The nanoparticles are supposed to kill cells by causing cellular calcium ion levels to increase. But researchers discovered that a regulatory protein in the mitochondria essentially buffers the rising calcium by transporting it into the mitochondria, thus subverting cell death. Cancer cells have an abundance of this transporter and may thus be protected from nanoparticle toxicity.
The research team discovered that if they inhibit calcium uptake into the mitochondria, sufficient cellular stress builds up, making the gold nanoparticles more effective in destroying cancer cells.
The researchers say that understanding how mitochondrial transport mechanisms work will help in the design of targeted therapies against cancer. They called for nanoparticle developers to integrate this new mechanistic knowledge into their processes for designing nanoparticle properties to be used in therapy.
###
The study was a team effort between researchers at Mayo Clinic including Mayo authors Rochelle Arvizo, Ph.D., Sounik Saha, Ph.D., Michael Thompson, and Resham Bhattacharya, Ph.D.; and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst including Daniel Moyano and Vincent Rotello, Ph.D.
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.org/about 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.
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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: How gold nanoparticles can help fight ovarian cancerPublic release date: 21-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Bob Nellis newsbureau@mayo.edu 507-284-5005 Mayo Clinic
ROCHESTER, Minn. Positively charged gold nanoparticles are usually toxic to cells, but cancer cells somehow manage to avoid nanoparticle toxicity. Mayo Clinic researchers found out why, and determined how to make the nanoparticles effective against ovarian cancer cells. The discovery is detailed in the current online issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
"This study identifies a novel mechanism that protects ovarian cancer cells by preventing the cell death or apoptosis which should occur when they encounter positively charged nanoparticles," say the senior authors of this study, Priyabrata Mukherjee, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic molecular biologist, and Y.S. Prakash, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic anesthesiologist and physiologist.
Why Cancer Cells Survived
Gold nanoparticles can have many medical uses, from imaging and aiding diagnoses to delivering therapies. In this case, using a special preparation to put positive ionic charges on the surface, the nanoparticle is intended to act as a targeted destructor of tumor cells while leaving healthy cells alone. The nanoparticles are supposed to kill cells by causing cellular calcium ion levels to increase. But researchers discovered that a regulatory protein in the mitochondria essentially buffers the rising calcium by transporting it into the mitochondria, thus subverting cell death. Cancer cells have an abundance of this transporter and may thus be protected from nanoparticle toxicity.
The research team discovered that if they inhibit calcium uptake into the mitochondria, sufficient cellular stress builds up, making the gold nanoparticles more effective in destroying cancer cells.
The researchers say that understanding how mitochondrial transport mechanisms work will help in the design of targeted therapies against cancer. They called for nanoparticle developers to integrate this new mechanistic knowledge into their processes for designing nanoparticle properties to be used in therapy.
###
The study was a team effort between researchers at Mayo Clinic including Mayo authors Rochelle Arvizo, Ph.D., Sounik Saha, Ph.D., Michael Thompson, and Resham Bhattacharya, Ph.D.; and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst including Daniel Moyano and Vincent Rotello, Ph.D.
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.org/about 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.
[ | 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.
Study reveals how fishing gear can cause slow death of whalesPublic release date: 21-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Media Relations Office media@whoi.edu 508-289-3340 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Using a "patient monitoring" device attached to a whale entangled in fishing gear, scientists showed for the first time how fishing lines changed a whale's diving and swimming behavior. The monitoring revealed how fishing gear hinders whales' ability to eat and migrate, depletes their energy as they drag gear for months or years, and can result in a slow death.
The scientists in this entanglement response suction-cupped a cellphone-size device called a Dtag to a two-year-old female North Atlantic right whale called Eg 3911. The Dtag, developed at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), recorded Eg 3911's movements before, during, and after at-sea disentanglement operations.
Immediately after Eg 3911 was disentangled from most of the fishing gear, she swam faster, dove twice as deep, and for longer periods. The study, by scientists at WHOI, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and NOAA Fisheries, was published online May 21 in the journal Marine Mammal Science.
"The Dtag opened up a whole new world of Eg 3911's life under water that otherwise we weren't able to see," said Julie van der Hoop, lead author of the study and a graduate student in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography.
North Atlantic right whales were nearly eradicated by whaling and remain endangered today, with a population of 450 to 500. About 75 percent bear scars of fishing lines that cut into their flesh.
Born in 2009, Eg 3911 was first sighted entangled and emaciated by an aerial survey team on Christmas Day 2010, near Jacksonville, Florida. Fishing gear was entangled around her mouth, wrapped around both pectoral fins, and trailed about 100 feet behind her tail.
Teams aboard boats attempted to cut away the fishing gear on Dec. 29 and 30, 2010, but were not successful because the whale was evasive. A multiagency team tried again on Jan. 15, 2011. First, they applied a Dtag. Then they administered a carefully calculated sedative with a dart gun developed for large whale drug delivery by Paxarms NZ in collaboration with Dr. Michael Moore, director of the Marine Mammal Center at WHOI and a marine mammal veterinarian. The becalmed whale allowed the team to approach and remove nearly all the fishing gear.
The Dtag measured 152 dives that Eg 3911 took over six hours. There were no significant differences in depth or duration of dives after sedation, but "the whale altered its behavior immediately following disentanglement," the scientists reported. "The near-complete disentanglement of Eg 3911 resulted in significant increases in dive duration and depth."
"Together, the effects of added buoyancy, added drag, and reduced swimming speed due to towing accessory gear pose many threats to entangled whales," the scientists wrote. Buoyant gear may overwhelm animals' ability to descend to depths to forage on preferred prey. Increased drag can reduce swimming speeds, delaying whales' timely arrival to feeding or breeding grounds. "Most significant, however, is the energy drain associated with added drag," they said.
To calculate that drain, the scientists, in a separate experiment, towed three types of fishing gear from a skiff, using tensiometers to measure the drag forces acting on Eg 3911. They then calculated how much more energy whales would require to compensate for the drag. The results: Entangled whales have significantly higher energy demands, requiring 70 to 102 percent more power to swim at the same speed unentangled; or alternatively, they need to slow down their swimming speed by 16 to 20.5 percent.
The study provides the first data on the behavioral impacts of sedation and disentanglement and the energetic cost of entanglement in fishing gear due to drag.
On Feb. 1, 2011, an aerial survey observed Eg 3911 dead at sea.
"She didn't make it," van der Hoop said. The whale was towed ashore for a necropsy. "We showed up on the beach that night. I remember walking out there and seeing this huge whale, or what I thought was huge. She was only 10 meters long. She was only two years old. And all these people who had been involved in her life at some point, were there to learn from her what entanglement had caused."
The necropsy showed that effects of the chronic entanglement were the cause of death.
"No fisherman wants to catch a whale, and I wish no fisherman a hungry day," said Moore. "There needs to be a targeted assessment of how the fishery can still be profitable while deploying less gear so we can reduce the risk of marine mammals encountering fishing gear in the first place. At WHOI, we have hosted workshops talking with fisheries managers and fishermen about what might change so that they can continue to catch fish and stop catching whales."
A dedicated network of scientists, veterinarians, and emergency responders support the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program (MMHSRP), which was formally established under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, is coordinated by NOAA Fisheries Service and coordinates the Atlantic Large Whale Entanglement Response Program. WHOI scientists have been long-standing contributors to the MMHSRP and routinely participate in rescues for marine mammals that are stranded, injured or entangled. Response efforts by the network for endangered species, such as North Atlantic right whales, are authorized by NOAA/NMFS Permit No. 932-1905-MA-009526 issued to the MMHSRP.
###
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Mass., dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is to understand the ocean and its interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the ocean's role in the changing global environment.
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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.
Study reveals how fishing gear can cause slow death of whalesPublic release date: 21-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Media Relations Office media@whoi.edu 508-289-3340 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Using a "patient monitoring" device attached to a whale entangled in fishing gear, scientists showed for the first time how fishing lines changed a whale's diving and swimming behavior. The monitoring revealed how fishing gear hinders whales' ability to eat and migrate, depletes their energy as they drag gear for months or years, and can result in a slow death.
The scientists in this entanglement response suction-cupped a cellphone-size device called a Dtag to a two-year-old female North Atlantic right whale called Eg 3911. The Dtag, developed at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), recorded Eg 3911's movements before, during, and after at-sea disentanglement operations.
Immediately after Eg 3911 was disentangled from most of the fishing gear, she swam faster, dove twice as deep, and for longer periods. The study, by scientists at WHOI, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and NOAA Fisheries, was published online May 21 in the journal Marine Mammal Science.
"The Dtag opened up a whole new world of Eg 3911's life under water that otherwise we weren't able to see," said Julie van der Hoop, lead author of the study and a graduate student in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography.
North Atlantic right whales were nearly eradicated by whaling and remain endangered today, with a population of 450 to 500. About 75 percent bear scars of fishing lines that cut into their flesh.
Born in 2009, Eg 3911 was first sighted entangled and emaciated by an aerial survey team on Christmas Day 2010, near Jacksonville, Florida. Fishing gear was entangled around her mouth, wrapped around both pectoral fins, and trailed about 100 feet behind her tail.
Teams aboard boats attempted to cut away the fishing gear on Dec. 29 and 30, 2010, but were not successful because the whale was evasive. A multiagency team tried again on Jan. 15, 2011. First, they applied a Dtag. Then they administered a carefully calculated sedative with a dart gun developed for large whale drug delivery by Paxarms NZ in collaboration with Dr. Michael Moore, director of the Marine Mammal Center at WHOI and a marine mammal veterinarian. The becalmed whale allowed the team to approach and remove nearly all the fishing gear.
The Dtag measured 152 dives that Eg 3911 took over six hours. There were no significant differences in depth or duration of dives after sedation, but "the whale altered its behavior immediately following disentanglement," the scientists reported. "The near-complete disentanglement of Eg 3911 resulted in significant increases in dive duration and depth."
"Together, the effects of added buoyancy, added drag, and reduced swimming speed due to towing accessory gear pose many threats to entangled whales," the scientists wrote. Buoyant gear may overwhelm animals' ability to descend to depths to forage on preferred prey. Increased drag can reduce swimming speeds, delaying whales' timely arrival to feeding or breeding grounds. "Most significant, however, is the energy drain associated with added drag," they said.
To calculate that drain, the scientists, in a separate experiment, towed three types of fishing gear from a skiff, using tensiometers to measure the drag forces acting on Eg 3911. They then calculated how much more energy whales would require to compensate for the drag. The results: Entangled whales have significantly higher energy demands, requiring 70 to 102 percent more power to swim at the same speed unentangled; or alternatively, they need to slow down their swimming speed by 16 to 20.5 percent.
The study provides the first data on the behavioral impacts of sedation and disentanglement and the energetic cost of entanglement in fishing gear due to drag.
On Feb. 1, 2011, an aerial survey observed Eg 3911 dead at sea.
"She didn't make it," van der Hoop said. The whale was towed ashore for a necropsy. "We showed up on the beach that night. I remember walking out there and seeing this huge whale, or what I thought was huge. She was only 10 meters long. She was only two years old. And all these people who had been involved in her life at some point, were there to learn from her what entanglement had caused."
The necropsy showed that effects of the chronic entanglement were the cause of death.
"No fisherman wants to catch a whale, and I wish no fisherman a hungry day," said Moore. "There needs to be a targeted assessment of how the fishery can still be profitable while deploying less gear so we can reduce the risk of marine mammals encountering fishing gear in the first place. At WHOI, we have hosted workshops talking with fisheries managers and fishermen about what might change so that they can continue to catch fish and stop catching whales."
A dedicated network of scientists, veterinarians, and emergency responders support the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program (MMHSRP), which was formally established under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, is coordinated by NOAA Fisheries Service and coordinates the Atlantic Large Whale Entanglement Response Program. WHOI scientists have been long-standing contributors to the MMHSRP and routinely participate in rescues for marine mammals that are stranded, injured or entangled. Response efforts by the network for endangered species, such as North Atlantic right whales, are authorized by NOAA/NMFS Permit No. 932-1905-MA-009526 issued to the MMHSRP.
###
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Mass., dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is to understand the ocean and its interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the ocean's role in the changing global environment.
[ | 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.
LONDON (AP) ? More than a decade ago, British parents refused to give measles shots to at least a million children because of now discredited research that linked the vaccine to autism. Now, health officials are scrambling to catch up and stop a growing epidemic of the contagious disease.
This year, the U.K. has had more than 1,200 cases of measles, after a record number of nearly 2,000 cases last year. The country once recorded only several dozen cases every year. It now ranks second in Europe, behind only Romania.
Last month, emergency vaccination clinics were held every weekend in Wales, the epicenter of the outbreak. Immunization drives have also started elsewhere in the country, with officials aiming to reach 1 million children aged 10 to 16.
"This is the legacy of the Wakefield scare," said Dr. David Elliman, spokesman for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, referring to a paper published in 1998 by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues that is widely rejected by scientists.
That work suggested a link between autism and the combined childhood vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, called the MMR. Several large scientific studies failed to find any connection, the theory was rejected by at least a dozen major U.K. medical groups and the paper was eventually retracted by the journal that published it.
Britain's top medical board stripped Wakefield of the right to practice medicine in the U.K., ruling that he and two of his colleagues showed a "callous disregard" for the children in the study, subjecting them to unnecessary, invasive tests. As part of his research, Wakefield took blood samples from children at his son's birthday party, paying them about 5 pounds each ($7.60), and later joked about the incident.
Still, MMR immunization rates plummeted across the U.K. as fearful parents abandoned the vaccine ? from rates over 90 percent to 54 percent. Wakefield has won support from parents suspicious of vaccines, including Hollywood celebrities like Jenny McCarthy, who has an autistic son.
Nearly 15 years later, the rumors about MMR are still having an impact. Now there's "this group of older children who have never been immunized who are a large pool of infections," Elliman said.
The majority of those getting sick in the U.K. ? including a significant number of older children and teens ? had never been vaccinated. Almost 20 of the more than 100 seriously ill children have been hospitalized and 15 have suffered complications including pneumonia and meningitis. One adult with measles has died, though it's unclear if it was the disease that killed him.
The first measles vaccines were introduced in the 1960s, which dramatically cut cases of the rash-causing illness. Since 2001, measles deaths have dropped by about 70 percent worldwide; Cambodia recently marked more than a year without a single case.
Globally, though, measles is still one of the leading causes of death in children under 5 and kills more than 150,000 people every year, mostly in developing countries. Measles is highly contagious and is spread by coughing, sneezing and close personal contact with infected people; symptoms include a fever, cough, and a rash on the face.
Across the U.K., about 90 percent of children under 5 are vaccinated against measles and have received the necessary two doses of the vaccine. But among children now aged 10 to 16, the vaccination rate is slightly below 50 percent in some regions.
To stop measles outbreaks, more than 95 percent of children need to be fully immunized. In some parts of the U.K., the rate is still below 80 percent.
Unlike in the United States, where most states require children to be vaccinated against measles before starting school, no such regulations exist in Britain. Parents are advised to have their children immunized, but Britain's Department of Health said it had no plans to consider introducing mandatory vaccination.
Last year, there were 55 reported cases of measles in the United States, where the measles vaccination rate is above 90 percent. So far this year, there have been 22 cases, including three that were traced to Britain. In previous years, the U.K. has sometimes exported more cases of measles to the U.S. than some countries in Africa.
Portia Ncube, a health worker at an East London clinic, said the struggle to convince parents to get the MMR shot is being helped by the measles epidemic in Wales.
"They see what's happening in Wales, so some of them are now sensible enough to come in and get their children vaccinated," she said.
Clinic patient Ellen Christensen, mother of an infant son, acknowledged she had previously had some "irrational qualms" about the MMR vaccine.
"But after reading more about it, I know now that immunization is not only good for your own child, it's good for everyone," she said.
Listen to Stranger Than Fiction No. 4 with Tim Wu and Alastair Reynolds by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:
Welcome to Stranger Than Fiction, a new six-episode podcast from Slate, the New America Foundation, and Arizona State University. Each week, Tim Wu?a Future Tense fellow at New America, the author of The Master Switch, and a professor at Columbia Law School?talks to a contemporary science fiction writer about whether we?re living in the future.
This week, Tim speaks with Alastair Reynolds, author of the Revelation Space series, Blue Remembered Earth, and Doctor Who: Harvest of Time, which is set in the era of Jon Pertwee?s Doctor and will be released June 4. Reynolds, who has a Ph.D. in astronomy and previously worked for the European Space Agency, talks about interstellar travel, whether we need to invest more money in finding extraterrestrials, and more.?
Check back on Monday for the next two weeks for a new Stranger Than Fiction episode, as Tim Wu speaks to Kim Stanley Robinson and Robert Sawyer.
Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, the New America Foundation, and Arizona State University.
Will Benghazi become President Obama's Watergate? Or perhaps the IRS scandal?
In a sense, they already have.
Watergate, of course, has become political parlance for any scandal that takes down a president. But it was also something that has become much more mundane ? something that has hit every two-term president since. It was a second-term scandal.
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President Regan had the Iran-Contra affair. President Clinton had the Monica Lewinsky scandal. President Bush had his vice president, Dick Cheney, embroiled in investigations over the public outing of a CIA agent, Valerie Plame.
Now, it seems, Mr. Obama is genuinely a part of the club, with allegations that the White House covered up the fact that the attack on a diplomatic outpost in Libya was terrorism, and that the IRS, on his watch, discriminated against conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
The White House has said it did nothing wrong on Benghazi but simply released information as it was known. It also said Sunday that it had no knowledge of the IRS activities against tea party groups and others, and bristled at the idea of investigations swallowing Obama's second-term agenda.
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"What we're not going to participate in is partisan fishing expeditions designed to distract from the real issues at hand," said White House Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer on ABC's "This Week" Sunday.
What is it about second terms that get presidents into so much trouble? The fact that a first term preceded it. Presidential politics is rarely fluffy clouds and rainbows, and the massive American bureaucracy has never been likened to Swiss clockwork. Things go wrong, and (this being politics) that rarely leads to primetime presidential confessionals before Congress.
"What is it about presidents' second terms that makes them seem so scandal-ridden? Simple: The iron law of longevity," writes Doyle McManus in an opinion article for the Los Angeles Times. "All governments make mistakes, and all governments try to hide those mistakes. But the longer an administration is in office, the more errors it makes, and the harder they are to conceal."
Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College, even has accompanying graphs to prove it. Once inaugural-year jitters are out of the way, the peak time for scandals during a president's career is the fifth year, he found by looking at data for when scandals were reported in The Washington Post.
"The Post data show an initially high risk of scandal as presidents try to find their footing and get their initial nominees confirmed followed by a decline in scandal risk through their second year. The likelihood of a scandal then increases again to a peak around their fifth year in office (for those who are re-elected) before declining by the end of their second term," he writes in a study released last Monday.
Yet time is just one factor in scandals, he suggests. Another powerful factor is how members of the opposition view a president. "The likelihood of scandal increases as the opposition base becomes more hostile to the administration," he writes.
In the current hyperpartisan era, it seems, second-term scandals have become almost an inevitability through a combustible mix of mistakes, secrets, egos, anger, and revenge.
Yet not all scandals are created equal.
Nate Silver at the FiveThirtyEight blog notes that the second-term curse is, to some degree, a creation of media perception. In other words, just because the media are covering it doesn't mean either that Americans are listening or certain to be outraged.
On one hand, he does note a second term effect: The average approval rating for the seven two-term presidents from Harry Truman to George W. Bush declines from 56 percent in the first year of the second term to 42 percent in the fourth year. But the decline is not universal.
For example, while Mr. Bush's approval rating plummeted from 45 percent in his fifth year to 28 percent in his eighth, Mr. Clinton's actually increased from 58 to 60 percent ? despite his impeachment by the House during the Lewinsky scandal. Likewise, while Mr. Reagan saw his approval decline from 60 to 52 percent from this fifth to eighth year, that 52 percent figure is higher than the average for his first term in office.
To some degree, approval depends on whether Americans think the opposition is reaching to create a scandal. For now, it appears that Americans have not yet decided what to make of Obama's "Watergates."
A Gallup poll released this weekend shows that Americans are not paying close attention to the scandals gripping Washington.
?Slim majorities of Americans are very or somewhat closely following the situations involving the Internal Revenue Service (54 percent) and the congressional hearings on the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and its aftermath (53 percent) ? well below the average for news stories Gallup has tracked over the years,? writes Frank Newport, Gallup?s editor-in-chief.
Yet the poll finds that wide majorities of respondents say the IRS and Benghazi allegations are ?serious enough to warrant continuing investigation? (74 percent for the IRS scandal and 69 percent for Benghazi).
In the middle is Obama himself. His approval rating ticked up slightly to 51 percent in the Gallup survey despite his tough week.
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Seriously, what is the deal with allll those janky lyrics sites? You google the lyrics for Random Access Memory and you're suddenly transported to the early 2000s. It's sort of surreal. I'm not the first person to mention this by far, and yet the lyrics world just seems to stagnate.
There are new lyrics apps sometimes that are pretty, but the fact is we're all just looking to resolve an "are we human or we dancer" debate and get on with our lives. What features would you appreciate if these sites decided to actually exist in any aesthetic vaguely reminiscent of 2013? What would be value-added for you?
Ben Affleck joined the five-timers club as host, but departing castmember Bill Hader stole the show on "Saturday Night Live?s" season 38 finale.
Hader gave a cinematic sendoff to Stefon, that perennially irritating scenester kid. During Weekend Update, he faced his usual dressing down from Seth Meyers. Stefon had finally had enough, and announced he?d met someone else and was leaving Meyers. Meyers -- who was joined at the Update desk by former co-anchor Amy Poehler -- ran after Stefon and found him in a church. What came next was a fantastic (and surprisingly emotional) Graduate-themed segment featuring surprise guest Anderson Cooper as Stefon?s fiancee.
VIDEO: "Saturday Night Live": Watch Bill Hader's finest sketches
In the show?s final sketch, Hader, Fred Armisen, Jason Sudeikis and Taran Killam played a British rock band saying goodbyes on the last night of a tour.
?It?s the last night here,? Armisen said.
?But we?re going to keep playing together,? Hader said.
The band began playing a song, and were eventually joined on stage by Armisen?s Portlandia costar Carrie Brownstein, Sonic Youth?s Kim Gordon, the Sex Pistols? Steve Jones, singer-songwriter Aimee Mann, and Dinosaur Jr.?s J Mascis.
Earlier in the week, a report emerged that Armisen and Sudeikis would be leaving the show, and while NBC has not commented on the report, it's worth nothing that Armisen played the leader of the band. The focus was actually more on Armisen than Hader. Based solely on the sketch, signs point to an Armisen exit in addition to Hader's.
But lest we forget the host, it's time to circle back to Affleck. During his opening monologue, the actor-director addressed his odd "Argo" Oscars speech, in which he thanked wife Jennifer Garner but went on to talk about how marriage takes a lot of work. On "SNL," Affleck brought Garner out to discuss what he really meant. What followed was a marital game of ping-pong, with Garner saying she would have described their marriage as ?a gift,? not work, and Affleck fumbling for a better explanation.
PHOTOS: From live TV to the big screen: 12 "SNL" sketches made into movies
Affleck finally found his footing:
"I want to tell you how I wish I had ended that speech: I couldn?t do any of the things I do without you, without your support. You?re my angel, my wife, my world.?
The moment was shattered when Garner pointed out that he was reading the speech off of a cue card.
"SNL" moved on to imagine what would happen if Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Armisen) were to make a movie about Affleck directing "Argo." The result was spectacular. "Bengo F--- Yourself" saw Ahmadinejad wearing a Red Sox cap, doing a Boston accent and pitching his idea for a totally false CIA story. Affleck himself had a role in the movie as a sound technician.
?Why would I appear in this movie? Well, to be honest I?ve long been looking to appear in a movie worse than 'Gigli,'? Affleck said.
VIDEO: "SNL" recap: Zach Galifianakis plays "Game of Game of Thrones"
Affleck sported a mustache and a paunch to play a member of a family of emotionally repressed police officers attempting to toast the engagement of a young female relative. In a less-than-successful sketch, he portrayed a counselor at a camp designed to turn gay kids straight.
"SNL" was on a gay sketch kick, apparently, with a prerecorded segment advertising anti-anxiety medication for people feeling worried about attending perfect gay weddings over the summer. One man (Hader) feared that he was an inadequate dancer at gay weddings, where he said guests knew choreographed Beyonce dances. Another (Moynihan) never had clothes that were good enough, and a third noted that President Barack Obama had called to congratulate his gay friends at their wedding, while at his wedding, his grandmother had called Obama the N-word. Not quite as classy of an event.
Obama addresses the IRS scandal at a news conference. (Getty)
Republican Senators Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell and Rob Portman continued Sunday to press the Obama administration on the Internal Revenue Service scandal that's engulfed the White House.
On CNN's "State of the Union," Paul told Candy Crowley he heard about a "written policy" that encouraged IRS officials to target "those who are critical of the president."
"And when that comes forward, we need to know who wrote the policy and who approved the policy," Paul said.
The Kentucky senator seemed to backtrack when pressed about the existence of yet another controversial document.
"Well, we keep hearing the reports and we have several specifically worded items saying who was being targeted," Paul said. "I don't know if that comes from a policy, but that's what's being reported in the press and reported orally. I haven't seen a policy statement, but I think we need to see that."
Memo or no memo, McConnell said it's clear that political bullying is being cultivated by the Obama White House.
"There is a culture of intimidation throughout the administration," McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "The nanny state is here to tell us all what to do and if you start criticizing, you get targeted."
[Related: The IRS targeted tea party groups. Did liberal groups get better treatment?]
Earlier this month, an inspector general report disclosed that the IRS improperly scrutinized certain conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status. On Sunday's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos,? Portman called for a bipartisan investigation into inspector general's report.
"What we do know is that politics was put ahead of the public interest," Portman said. "And it was done in two of the most sensitive areas of our government."
"So, it seems to me that there's a lot of issues here we need to get bottom of," the Ohio Republican added. "We need to find out what really happened and ensure that we can begin to regain some trust in our government. That's my concern."
Meanwhile, White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer accused the GOP of conducting "fishing expeditions" ahead of next year's midterm elections.
"I think we've seen this playbook from Republicans before," Pfeiffer said on "Meet The Press" Sunday. "What they want to do when they are lacking a positive agenda is try to drag Washington into a swamp of partisan fishing expeditions, trumped-up hearings and false allegations. We're not going to let that happen."
Obama appears to be weathering the storm, the Associated Press noted. A poll released on Sunday by CNN/ORC International showed President Obama has a 53 percent approval rating, with just 45 percent saying they disapprove.
Stitcher just announced a new car mode for the iPhone version of its radio and podcasting app, bringing a simplified interface that works in both portrait and landscape positions. Accessible by tapping the Stitcher logo at the top of the screen, car mode offers a pared-down version of the app's standard UI, with bigger buttons and only the essential audio controls. It's nowhere near as flashy as Stitcher's BMW integration, mind you, but the point is to keep your eyes on the road and off your iPhone's screen. The app gets a few other updates this time around: a front page with top headlines, one-tap access to shows and podcasts you're searching for and improved playback when you're picking up in the middle of a show. Head to the source link below to give the app a spin, and drive safely!
Vanilla, open-source Android available for 10-inch tablet on Sony GitHub
Like the Xperia Z before it, Sony has announced that it's bringing the Xperia Tablet Z into its version of the Android Open-Source Project (AOSP). The project brings the latest vanilla Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean to the tablet, with the caveat that it's not "certified or intended for daily use," and many of the features from the shipping ROM will be missing.
You'll also need to do a bit of legwork yourself if you want to get AOSP up and running on your Xperia Tablet Z. The code is available on the Sony GitHub, just as it is for the Xperia Z, but you'll need to download and compile it yourself. So this is by no means a quick, easy fix to turn the Tablet Z into a Nexus-style device, but active development from Sony -- not to mention community developers -- could eventually make this a tablet of choice for Android hackers.
You'll find more technical details over on the official Sony blog, linked below. The Xperia Tablet Z is already available in some countries around the world. The Sony U.S. store is currently taking pre-orders, with an estimated ship date of May 24.
LAS VEGAS (AP) ? The lawyer who defended O.J. Simpson on armed robbery charges delivered a potentially heavy blow to the former football star's bid for a new trial Friday, testifying that Simpson knew his buddies had guns on them when he went to a hotel room to reclaim some sports memorabilia.
Miami attorney Yale Galanter took the stand in a frequently combative hearing over Simpson's claim that he was so badly represented by Galanter that his conviction should be thrown out. Point by point, Galanter contradicted much of own former client's testimony and defended his handling of the case.
Galanter said Simpson confided to him that he had asked two men to bring guns to the hotel room confrontation with two memorabilia dealers in 2007 and "he knew he screwed up."
The attorney denied giving Simpson the go-ahead to try to retrieve the items, which included photos and signed footballs that Simpson believed had been stolen from him. He said he advised Simpson not to take matters into his own hands.
And Galanter disputed Simpson's claim that Galanter never told him about plea bargain discussions with prosecutors that could have resulted in a prison sentence of just a few years.
Simpson, 65, was convicted in 2008 of kidnapping and armed robbery over the hotel room episode and was sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison. He and his new lawyers, Patricia Palm and Ozzie Fumo, allege Galanter botched the trial. District Judge Linda Marie Bell has not indicated when she will rule on the request for a new trial.
On the stand, Galanter hesitated and spoke only after he paused, breathed deeply and was reminded that Simpson had waived attorney-client privilege.
"I'm very uncomfortable doing this," Galanter said.
Testifying about events leading up to the hotel room incident, Galanter said he was surprised when Simpson told him over dinner at a Las Vegas hotel that he and several other men were planning a "sting" the next morning to take back items he believed had been stolen from him in Los Angeles.
Galanter said he advised against it.
"When he first mentioned it, it just went over my head," Galanter said of Simpson's plan. "About a minute or two later, I leaned over and said, 'What are you talking about? What are you doing?'
"He told me he finally had a lead on some personal pictures and memorabilia that was stolen from him years earlier," Galanter testified. "I said, 'O.J., you've got to call the police.'"
According to Simpson, Galanter advised the former NFL running back that it was his legal right to retrieve the items; told Simpson not to testify at the trial; and failed to tell Simpson that prosecutors had offered plea bargains. Earlier in the week, Simpson testified that he didn't know anyone in the hotel room had guns.
Another Simpson lawyer, Tom Pitaro, insistently cross-examined Galanter closely about financial aspects of the case. During one objection, the judge asked Pitaro where he was going with his questions.
"What Mr. Galanter has done is, this man has received over a half-million dollars and has put his interest, his financial interest, above the interest of his client," Pitaro said.
Galanter insisted he told Simpson at least three times that prosecutors discussed plea bargains with him. But he said Simpson rejected them.
Simpson said, "No deal. No way" to an offer from the district attorney of five to seven years in prison, Galanter said. Later, during the trial, Simpson turned down an even better offer, Galanter said.
"I went out in the hall and said to O.J, 'There is an offer of two to five.' He said, 'See if they will take a year,'" Galanter testified. "I discussed a year with them, and they said no and the trial went on."
Galanter was also grilled on his trial decisions, such as not objecting to a recording of a discussion that mentioned Simpson's sensational 1995 murder trial, which ended with his acquittal in the slayings of his ex-wife and a friend of her. Galanter noted that the judge at the armed robbery trial had instructed the jury it couldn't consider the murder case.
If Simpson succeeds in getting his armed robbery conviction thrown out, prosecutors will have to either retry him or offer a plea bargain. It is also possible Simpson could be freed with credit for time served. If he loses, he will be sent back to prison and will probably appeal to a higher court. He will be 70 before he is eligible for parole.
___
Find Ken Ritter on Twitter: http://twitter.com/krttr
May 16, 2013 ? African-American adults living closer to a fast food restaurant had a higher body mass index (BMI) than those who lived further away from fast food, according to researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and this association was particularly strong among those with a lower income.
A new study published online in the American Journal of Public Health indicates higher BMI associates with residential proximity to a fast food restaurant, and among lower-income African-Americans, the density, or number, of fast food restaurants within two miles of the home.
The study was led by Lorraine Reitzel, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Health Disparities Research at MD Anderson. Data was collected from a large sample of more than 1,400 black adult participants from the Project CHURCH research study, a collaboration between MD Anderson and Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston -- one of the largest Methodist churches in the United States.
"According to prior research, African-Americans, particularly women, have higher rates of obesity than other ethnic groups, and the gap is growing," said Reitzel. "The results of this study add to the literature indicating that a person's neighborhood environment and the foods that they're exposed to can contribute to a higher BMI."
Reitzel said that this is an important population group for researchers to examine because of the health consequences that are associated with obesity among African-Americans including diabetes, cancer and heart disease. "We need to find the relationships and triggers that relate to this population's BMI, as they're at the greatest risk for becoming obese and developing associated health problems," said Reitzel. "Such information can help inform policies and interventions to prevent health disparities."
In this study, Reitzel and her team examined two different food environment variables and their associations with BMI: proximity and density of fast food restaurants, which were based on each participant's geocoded residential address. The study participants were also broken into two income groups; those making less than $40,000 a year and those making $40,000 or more a year. "We found no previous research literature that considered household income when investigating whether there were associations between fast food availability and BMI," said Reitzel.
The study controlled for factors that may influence a person's BMI including gender, age, physical activity, individual household income, median neighborhood income, education, partner status, employment status and residential tenure. Sedentary behaviors, including the amount of time the participant spent watching television, were considered. Researchers also controlled for the presence of children in the home because of its known relation with physical activity rates.
Researchers examined the density of fast food restaurants within a half mile, one mile, two miles and five miles around each participant's home.
On average there were 2.5 fast food restaurants within a half mile, 4.5 within a mile, 11.4 within 2 miles and 71.3 within 5 miles of participants' homes. "We found a significant relationship between the number of fast food restaurants and BMI for within a half-mile, one-mile and two-miles of the home, but only among lower-income study participants," said Reitzel. The data showed the greater the density, the higher the BMI. There was no significant association for the five-mile area.
When examining proximity -- the distance in miles from each participant's home to the closest restaurant -- the study found that closer proximity was associated with a higher BMI. In fact, although results indicate that the relationship between a higher BMI and proximity was stronger for those of lower income, it was still significant in the group with the higher incomes. The data also showed that every additional mile participants' lived from the closest fast food restaurant was associated with a 2.4 percent lower BMI.
"There's something about living close to a fast food restaurant that's associated with a higher BMI," said Reitzel. She said that there may be some behavioral economics involved in the decision to choose fast food over a healthier choice. "Fast food is specifically designed to be affordable, appealing and convenient. People are pressed for time, and they behave in such a way that will cost them the least amount of time to get things done, and this may extend to their food choices."
Reitzel also said that people of lower income may have less access to transportation, so having a high density of fast food restaurants around the home makes eating fast food easier. "This may also be why there were significant associations for density and BMI within 2 miles of the home, which is an easily walkable distance, but not 5 miles of the home." Reitzel said in some neighborhoods, there are fewer roads to travel and people pass by the same fast food restaurants on the way in and out of the neighborhood every day. "Those visual cues may prompt people to choose fast food even when it was not the original intent."
Co-authors with Reitzel are Ellen K. Cromley, Ph.D., of The University of Connecticut School of Medicine; Larkin L. Strong, Ph.D., David W. Wetter, Ph.D., Lorna H. McNeill, Ph.D. and Seann D. Regan, all of MD Anderson's Department of Health Disparities Research; and Nga Nguyen of MD Anderson's Department of Biostatistics.
There’s been a lot of talk about rooting your Glass device, or if its possible at all. Well, it is. During a Hacking Google Glass session today, the team shared the steps to go through to gain root access for your Glass device. Only the Fastboot tool for UNIX works, but there have been issues with using the OS X one. This will void your warranty: The entire process seems to take about 10-15 minutes, giving you warning messages along the way: After you’ve run through all of that, bam, you get access to the entire data partition. You’re rooted and your device is worth nothing: One developer has run Ubuntu on Glass, something that only a handful of geeks will try, but fun none-the-less. This is developing.
Get all the information you need from your Android device without ever typing a word with Speaktoit, today's first app worth downloading. It's a virtual assistant similar to Apple's Siri and can understand natural language questions to help you find what you need. We've also got an update to TuneIn Radio, a streaming Internet radio app that offers more than 70,000 stations. Finally, there's Toy Story: Smash It!, a 3-D arcade game in which you and Buzz Lightyear smash up toy structures.
Also on Android Apps
Celebrate Memorial Day and summer while reading from a list of great magazines, thanks to Zinio?s recent Guest Post.
What?s it about? Virtual assistant Speaktoit lets you ask your Android device questions aloud and get answers returned to you.
What?s cool? Like other virtual assistants, such as Apple's much-discussed Siri, Speaktoit uses natural language recognition to help you find information and to simply searches by allowing you to ask questions aloud. You can use the app to search for information, find nearby places, launch apps and more. The app also keeps track of things you ask frequently or the places and information that's most useful to you to provide you with better answers. Its most recent update adds Chinese to Speaktoit's repertoire, and new premium features that let you activate the app by voice.
Who?s it for? Android device users who do a lot of information-searching with their devices should try Speaktoit to simplify the process.
What?s it like? Check out other virtual assistants, such as Evi and Iris, to see which ones work best for you.
What?s it about? Stream tons of radio stations over the Internet with TuneIn Radio, which features access to as many as 70,000 stations.
What?s cool? TuneIn makes it easy to find what you want to listen to, be it hip-hop, stand-up comedy, country or any of 70,000 other potential radio stations. The app streams music the stations over your Internet connection, allowing you to listen wherever you are and to do so for free if you're using a Wi-Fi connection. You can also access the app's library of 2 million podcasts and stream those if you're looking for something more informational. The latest update to TuneIn fixes some playback issues and allows you to jump straight to the Google Play store to buy a song you're listening to, should you want to own it.
Who?s it for? Internet radio listeners, try TuneIn's massive library of potential stations.
What?s it like? Pandora Internet Radio is a solid streaming alternative that focuses on curating lists of music for you, and Spotify lets you find and stream just about anything.
What?s it about? Help Buzz Lightyear knock down toy structures and score points in Toy Story: Smash It!, a 3-D puzzler akin to Angry Birds.
What?s cool? Your goal in Toy Story: Smash It! is basically to break stuff. There are toy structures all over Andy's room, like cardboard Old West towns and stacks of blocks, that have been taken over by alien defenders. Your job is to throw rubber balls at the structures and knock them down, taking out the defenders and scoring points. The mechanics are a bit like Angry Birds in that flinging, destructive sort of way, but rather than a 2-D perspective, you'll find yourself controlling Buzz in 3-D from a third-person perspective.
Who?s it for? Toy Story fans are probably the biggest target demographic here, but anyone who enjoys Angry Birds-style mechanics should check out Toy Story: Smash It!.
What?s it like? Obviously, Angry Birds is the king of this kind of gameplay, but more 3-D smashing can be done in Catapult King.
Best Educational Apps, Handpicked By Experts
Appolicious is pleased to introduce appoLearning.com, where parents, teachers and students find great education apps. Check out our introduction video here!
Self-awareness is a skill that eludes many. You probably know people who view themselves as rock stars, when the rest of the world knows they're better suited to being part of the fan club. Professionally, it's not unusual for people to have a disconnected sense of their own worth. It's the person who thinks he or she was indispensable, but was, in fact, first to be let go during a layoff. Problem employees, by definition, often don't realize they are, in fact, the problem.
How can you tell if you're wearing a target on your back? Take stock of this list. If many of these items ring true, it's likely you need to adjust your approach to succeed in your workplace.
More: 8 Qualities The Best Employees Have
You say "no" when given a directive from your boss. You don't need to be a "yes man or woman," but there is a time and a place for offering an opinion at work. That time is not when a supervisor hands out assignments. If you're shaking your head (or worse, rolling your eyes in disbelief) when given a new task, you're probably considered "problem employee #1."
You can't take "no" for an answer. Even though you think you have a great idea, if no one else agrees and you can't drop the subject, colleagues and supervisors probably have you pegged as a troublemaker. Maybe you're convinced that you are ahead of your time and everyone else is clueless. If so, maybe it's time to start your own business. When you can't stop harping on the same topic after being told no, it doesn't bode well for your tenure.
You're convinced you are smarter than everyone at work. Perhaps you are, in fact, the most brilliant in your group. However, if you focus too much on thinking you're the brightest bulb ?- or, alternatively, about how clueless everyone around you is, it could be a sign that you're a problem employee.
You make a lot of excuses; nothing is ever your fault. You couldn't finish a project because your friend's sister's husband needed surgery? If you never fail to have an excuse instead of on-time work, people notice.
'Team' is a dirty word for you. Collaboration isn't your middle name? In some organizations, the lone wolf is the first one shown the door. If you break out in hives at the thought of a group project, and they seem to be assigned more and more frequently, it's probably time to find a more suitable job before your boss starts offering you "career counseling."
It's all about you. Whether you like it or not, part of working for someone involves trying to make that person look good. That doesn't mean that the boss should take credit for all your great work, but it does mean one of your priorities is to consider how you can help your boss and team win favor. If you're spending all of your time trying to hog the spotlight, you probably aren't a favorite where you work.
Gossip is your hobby and favorite pastime. You are always in the middle of any negative buzz around the office. If nothing gets past you, and you're the first one to share rumors, especially the most salacious news, you're not winning friends in high places.
You never seem to "get it" the first time. If you're always the one who needs a "do over" for projects, and you don't ever finish work without needing a lot of clarification or hand-holding, it's time to work on your listening skills and learn how to clarify details the first time before you lose your job.
You're a loose cannon. If your boss needs to think twice (or three times) before sending you out to meet clients or customers because he or she is afraid of what impression you'll give them, it's not a good sign for your career. Maybe you have a tendency toward profanity, or perhaps you never know when to stop talking and start listening. Either way, it's not good for your career.
You live for the weekend, and everyone knows it. Work-life fit is important, and it's great to have outside hobbies and interests. However, if you spend your entire week bemoaning the time you're at work and yearning for the end of the week, you may need to get a new job sooner than you'd like.
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Miriam Salpeter
Miriam Salpeter is a job search and social media consultant, career coach, author, speaker, resume writer, and owner of Keppie Careers. She is author of Social Networking for Career Success and 100 Conversations for Career Success. Miriam teaches job seekers and entrepreneurs how to incorporate social media tools along with traditional strategies to empower their success.
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Public release date: 21-May-2013
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British science-fiction writer Alastair Reynolds 
There’s been a lot of talk about rooting your Glass device, or if its possible at all. Well, it is. During a Hacking Google Glass session today, the team shared the steps to go through to gain root access for your Glass device. Only the Fastboot tool for UNIX works, but there have been issues with using the OS X one. This will void your warranty: The entire process seems to take about 10-15 minutes, giving you warning messages along the way: After you’ve run through all of that, bam, you get access to the entire data partition. You’re rooted and your device is worth nothing: One developer has run Ubuntu on Glass, something that only a handful of geeks will try, but fun none-the-less. This is developing.
What?s it about? Virtual assistant Speaktoit lets you ask your Android device questions aloud and get answers returned to you.
What?s it about? Stream tons of radio stations over the Internet with TuneIn Radio, which features access to as many as 70,000 stations.
What?s it about? Help Buzz Lightyear knock down toy structures and score points in Toy Story: Smash It!, a 3-D puzzler akin to Angry Birds.
Self-awareness is a skill that eludes many. You probably know people who view themselves as rock stars, when the rest of the world knows they're better suited to being part of the fan club. Professionally, it's not unusual for people to have a disconnected sense of their own worth. It's the person who thinks he or she was indispensable, but was, in fact, first to be let go during a layoff. Problem employees, by definition, often don't realize they are, in fact, the problem.