Diamond catalyst shows promise in breaching age-old barrier

June 30, 2013 ? In the world, there are a lot of small molecules people would like to get rid of, or at least convert to something useful, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison chemist Robert J. Hamers.

Think carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas most responsible for far-reaching effects on global climate. Nitrogen is another ubiquitous small-molecule gas that can be transformed into the valuable agricultural fertilizer ammonia. Plants perform the chemical reduction of atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia as a matter of course, but for humans to do that in an industrial setting, a necessity for modern agriculture, requires subjecting nitrogen to massive amounts of energy under high pressure.

"The current process for reducing nitrogen to ammonia is done under extreme conditions," explains Hamers, a UW-Madison professor of chemistry. "There is an enormous barrier you have to overcome to get your final product."

Breaching that barrier more efficiently and reducing the huge amounts of energy used to convert nitrogen to ammonia -- by some estimates 2 percent of the world's electrical output -- has been a grail for the agricultural chemical industry. Now, that goal may be on the horizon, thanks to a technique devised by Hamers and his colleagues and published June 30, 2013 in the journal Nature Methods.

Like many chemical reactions, reducing nitrogen to ammonia is a product of catalysis, where the catalytic agent used in the traditional energy-intensive reduction process is iron. The iron, combined with high temperature and high pressure, accelerates the reaction rate for converting nitrogen to ammonia by lowering the activation barrier that otherwise keeps nitrogen, one of the most ubiquitous gases on the planet, intact.

"The nitrogen molecule is one of the happiest molecules around," notes Hamers. "It is incredibly stable. It doesn't do anything."

One of the big obstacles, according to Hamers, is that nitrogen binds poorly to catalytic materials like iron.

Hamers and his team, including Di Zhu, Linghong Zhang and Rose E. Ruther, all of UW-Madison, turned to synthetic industrial diamond -- a cheap, gritty, versatile material -- as a potential new catalyst for the reduction process. Diamond, the Wisconsin team found, can facilitate the reduction of nitrogen to ammonia under ambient temperatures and pressures.

Like all chemical reactions, the reduction of nitrogen to ammonia involves moving electrons from one molecule to another. Using hydrogen-coated diamond illuminated by deep ultraviolet light, the Wisconsin team was able to induce a ready stream of electrons into water, which served as a reactant liquid that reduced nitrogen to ammonia under temperature and pressure conditions far more efficient than those required by traditional industrial methods.

"From a chemist's standpoint, nothing is more efficient than electrons in water," says Hamers, whose work is funded by the National Science Foundation. With the diamond catalyst, "the electrons are unconfined. They flow like lemmings to the sea."

While the method was demonstrated in the context of reducing nitrogen to a valuable agricultural product, the new diamond-centric approach is exciting, Hamers argues, because it can potentially fit a wide range of processes that require catalysis. "This is truly a different way of thinking about inducing reactions that may have more efficiency and applicability. We're doing this with diamond grit. It is infinitely reusable."

The technique devised by Hamers and his colleagues, he notes, still has kinks that need to be worked out to make it a viable alternative to traditional methods. The use of deep ultraviolet light, for example, is a limiting factor. Inducing reactions with visible light is a goal that would enhance the promise of the new technique for applications such as antipollution technology.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/zbzxBs1Pjuc/130630144449.htm

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Twitter CEO Dick Costolo Can't Tell You About NSA Abuses

He did say that his company's policy is to fight what they regard as overly broad requests for information.

Katie Couric's interview with Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is an excellent example of how charm and charisma can help a journalist to press a public figure to answer questions he'd rather not face. The exchange they have about NSA spying is of particular interest -- it starts around the 4 minute mark:

Ponder that for a moment.

The CEO of a leading American company isn't legally permitted to say if he's been approached with government requests for information on Americans that he regards as abusive. In fact, he'd be perfectly free to say, "I've never gotten any abusive requests from the government." But if certain kinds of abusive requests occurred he'd be barred from revealing them. He is left to squirm under questioning, because to tell the truth would imperil his freedom.

That kind of legally mandated secrecy is dangerous, and ought to have no place in the American system, which has always flourished in part because power isn't concentrated exclusively in government. Besides the checks and balances built into the Madisonian framework, the press, the business community, churches, and various associations of citizens all have the power to speak out when they believe that the government is abusing its coercive power. But due to the policies the last two administrations have pursued, Twitter has had to dissent in silence.

Here's a followup question the next time someone interviews Costolo: "Does it make you uncomfortable that it's illegal for you to talk about certain information requests that you regard as abusive?"

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheAtlantic/~3/9ODpqPws2ZA/story01.htm

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VP Biden: Virginia GOP Slate Extreme Captives of Tea Party Ideology

Vice President Joe Biden continued a busy political pace Saturday, appearing with Virginia's Democratic gubernatorial candidate at the swing state's premier party fundraiser and ridiculing this fall's conservative Republican statewide ticket as extreme captives of tea party ideology.

Biden brought about 1,000 Democrats to their feet repeatedly at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner barely four months ahead of the nation's only competitive governor's race. His appearances at state fundraisers haved evoked speculation that he is laying his footing for a 2016 presidential bid.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we stand for equal rights and women's rights," Biden said. "With virtually zero support from the Republicans, the president and I have moved the country from the worst recession since the Great Depression to 38 months of private-sector growth."

With Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe at his side, Biden took aim at McAuliffe's opponent, state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who won the GOP nomination with strong tea party support and his socially conservative ticket mates.

"There is so much they stand for that is so at odds with the value set of Virginians," Biden said.

The vice president warned that a GOP victory in Virginia would only galvanize the tea party's grip on the GOP in Congress, where he said even longtime moderate Republicans are fearful of a primary challenge if they don't do the tea party's bidding.

"They are so afraid of a challenge by the tea party that they vote against what is the right vote. Imagine what they will do to Barack and me if Terry McAuliffe loses," he said.

A McAuliffe victory, he said, would "send a strong signal to Republicans across America that there's no reason to be afraid of these extreme guys."

Before speaking to activists who paid $175 or more per ticket, Biden joined McAuliffe, a longtime confidante of Bill and Hillary Clinton, in surprising patrons at a Richmond restaurant, shaking hands before wolfing down two plates of fried whiting.

Among other campaign events this season, Biden aided Democratic Rep. Ed Markey in a Massachusetts special election ? Markey won, thus keeping Secretary of State John Kerry's old seat in Democratic hands ? and held a series of closed-door "donor-maintenance" events in Washington.

Sen. Tim Kaine, elected on the same Virginia ballot as President Barack Obama last fall, said it's too early for Democrats to take sides in a potential nomination contest between Biden and Hillary Clinton, but he counseled both to try pragmatism over progressive partisanship.

"I think the Virginia Democratic success model is, we'll let the other guys be the ideology people and we will be the work-together, compromise, make-things-happen party. That's been the model that has allowed Dems to win," said Kaine, like McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chairman.

In speeches warming up the crowd, Kaine and Sen. Mark Warner congratulated gay-rights activists for the ruling that cleared the way for same-sex marriages in 13 states but not in Virginia, where a 7-year-old amendment to the state Constitution prohibits it. And both hailed the immigration reform bill that they supported ? it now faces an uncertain future in a conservative Republican-led House.

The Cuccinelli campaign joined the Virginia GOP in using Biden's visit as an occasion to attack the ticket for Obama's clean-energy initiative, warning that it will devastate Virginia's struggling coal industry and drive up utility bills.

"With no economic plan or message to tout, Vice President Biden and Terry McAuliffe doubled down on an empty strategy of division and false attacks tonight," the campaign said in a statement that referred to the "Obama/Biden/McAuliffe War On Coal" and government-run healthcare as "harmful to job growth and economic opportunity in Virginia."

State GOP Chairman Pat Mullins called it "the most anti-coal slate of candidates ever fielded in the history of Virginia," a distinction intended to lock up the rural, rugged but independent southwestern tip of the state for the GOP in a neck-and-neck governor's race.

Republicans weren't alone in protesting Biden's trip. About three dozen environmental activists opposed to construction of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline stood on a street corner as Biden's motorcade passed, waving placards that read "Say No to Big Oil" and chanting "Hey, Joe, you ought to know, Keystone pipeline's got to go."

? Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/VP-Biden-Virginia-GOP/2013/06/29/id/512614

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Mired in recession, ex-Yugoslav Croatia joins troubled EU

By Zoran Radosavljevic

ZAGREB (Reuters) - Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union at midnight on Sunday, a milestone that caps the Adriatic republic's recovery from war but is tinged with anxiety over the state of the economy and the bloc it joins.

EU flags fluttered from a stage in Zagreb's central square ahead of the evening's festivities, though there have been few signs of the gushing welcome that marked past expansions to ex-communist Eastern Europe.

Croatia joins the bloc just over two decades after declaring independence from federal Yugoslavia, the trigger for four years of war in which some 20,000 people died.

But, facing a fifth year of recession and record unemployment of 21 percent, few Croatians are in the mood to party.

They join a bloc deeply troubled by its own economic woes, which have created internal divisions and undermined public support for the union.

"Just look what's happening in Greece and Spain! Is this where we're headed?" asked pensioner Pavao Brkanovic. "You need illusions to be joyful, but the illusions have long gone," he said at a Zagreb market.

The country of 4.4 million people, blessed with a coastline that attracts 10 million tourists each year, is one of seven that emerged from the ashes of Yugoslavia during a decade of war in the 1990s.

Slovenia was first to join the EU, in 2004, but Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo are still years away.

Some in Croatia have drawn comparisons between Sunday night's celebrations in Zagreb and the Eurovision Song Contest that the city hosted in 1990, when Yugoslavia was on the brink of collapse just as Europe was poised to unite with the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Italy's Toto Cutugno won with the refrain "Unite, unite Europe", but instead Yugoslavia fell apart and Croatia went to war with Serb rebels who tried to break away from the newly-independent state with the backing of Belgrade.

MERKEL NO-SHOW

"Back then, it looked to me as if everything should be resolved in a fortnight and we would quickly jump in (to the EU)," Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic told the European Parliament this week.

"But then the war happened, and it didn't come to pass until today."

To get to this point, Croatia has gone through seven years of tortuous and often unpopular EU-guided reform.

It has handed over more than a dozen Croatian and Bosnian Croat military and political leaders charged with war crimes by the United Nations tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

It has sold shipyards, steeped in history and tradition but deeply indebted, and launched a high-profile fight against corruption that saw former prime minister Ivo Sanader jailed.

Some EU capitals remain concerned at the level of graft and organized crime. Croatia will not yet join the 17-nation single currency zone, nor the visa-free Schengen zone.

The spirit of the occasion took another knock when German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the bloc's most powerful leader, pulled out of the accession ceremony, saying she was too busy.

Croatian media linked the move to a row over a former Croatian secret service operative wanted in Germany, though a spokesman for Merkel denied this.

The chancellor, instead, urged Croatia to press on with reforms.

"There are many more steps to take, especially in the area of legal security and fighting corruption," Merkel said in a weekly podcast.

Despite the mood, however, for some Croatians the merits of accession are undeniable.

"The EU is not perfect but it is Croatia's only option," said popular novelist Slavenka Drakulic Ilic.

"We need it for financial and economic reasons," she told the T-portal website on Friday, "and we need it for the sake of peace and stability. We belong to a region that is still volatile."

(Additional reporting by Annika Breidthardt in Berlin; Editing by Matt Robinson and Kevin Liffey)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mired-recession-ex-yugoslav-croatia-joins-troubled-eu-224458948.html

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Youth Church Leader Accused of Child Sex Crimes

SALISBURY, N.C. -- Deputies say a youth leader had inappropriate behavior towards teenage girls at a church.

Rowan County Sheriff's Office was alerted about the incident by teenage girls who attend High?Rock?Community Church near Salisbury.

The girls said 36-year old Torrey Morgan made sexual activity and advances towards them. The complaints involves several underage victims.

Detectives obtained warrants on Morgan for Disseminate Harmful Material to a Minor Under 18 Years of Age, Disseminate Harmful Material to a Minor Under 16 Years of Age, 2 counts of Indecent Liberties with a Child, and Second Degree Sexual Exploitation of a Minor. WCCB is told that more charges are possible.

Morgan was given a $50,000 secured bond and was placed in the Rowan County Detention Center.?

Source: http://www.wccbcharlotte.com/news/top-stories/Youth-Church-Leader-Accused-of-Child-Sex-Crimes-213704261.html

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Hookup Shocker: The Sex Is Legal, but Talking About It Is a Felony ...

This week the Ohio House of Representatives unanimously approved a bill ostensibly aimed at fighting "human trafficking" that makes it a crime to "solicit" a legal act: sex with someone who is 16 or 17 years old. The age of consent in Ohio is 16. Yet under H.B. 130, a 20-year-old who asks a 16-year-old to have sex with him, or a 21-year-old who does the same with a 17-year-old, thereby commits a fifth-degree felony, punishable by six to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine. He also has to register as a sex offender. But if the teenager broaches the subject, or if the sex proceeds without any explicit verbal reference to it, no crime has been committed. Here is the relevant provision:

No person shall solicit another, not the spouse of the offender, to engage in sexual conduct with the offender, when the offender is eighteen years of age or older and four or more years older than the other person,?and?the other person is sixteen or seventeen years of age,?whether or not?the offender knows?the age of the other person.

Since there is no requirement that money change hands, this provision criminalizes ordinary sexual propositions if one person is 16 or 17 and the other is at least four years older when it is the older person who makes the suggestion, even though the sex itself remains legal. Having sex is fine, as long as you don't talk about it beforehand.

The elimination of any knowledge requirement, which is problematic even when the "solicitation" involves someone below the age of consent, is especially so when the person approached is 16 or 17. Since the difference between a 16- or 17-year-old and an 18-year-old may be difficult to discern, someone keen to avoid a felony charge would be wise to demand proof of age before saying anything about sex. And if the object of his attention happens to have a fake ID?as teenagers pretending to be older than they are sometimes do, especially when they go to bars or clubs?that is no defense. As Granville, Ohio, attorney Drew Mc Farland notes, the bill imposes ?a "strict liability" sta ndard, meaning that "even an honest mistake is unforgiven." Mc Farland, who drew my attention to this bill, suggests one such scenario:

A mature 17-year-old is lawfully in a liquor-serving establishment and meets a 22-year-old who suggests they go back to his or her place for some sexual fun.?Under this change in the law, the 22-year-old is guilty of a felony.

Legislators already define "human trafficking" broadly enough to include consensual sex (when it occurs in exchange for money). Now Ohio is poised to classify merely talking about consensual sex, even when no money is involved, as a species of sexual slavery.

The Ohio Senate is expected to take up the bill after returning from its summer break.

Source: http://reason.com/blog/2013/06/28/hookup-shocker-the-sex-is-legal-but-talk

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Ex-Border Patrol agents get at least 30 years

SAN DIEGO (AP) ? A federal judge on Friday sentenced two brothers who worked as Border Patrol agents to at least 30 years in prison for smuggling hundreds of immigrants into the United States.

U.S. District Court Judge John Houston sentenced Raul Villarreal to 35 years for leading the smuggling ring. His brother, Fidel Villarreal, was sentenced to 30 years for managing the operation.

The sentences are among the longest given to border law enforcement officials.

Houston said he gave the severe sentences to deter others. The judge called their smuggling operation "disgusting" and a threat to national security.

The brothers were accused of helping more than 500 migrants cross the border from Mexico.

Prosecutors said Raul Villarreal ? who made television appearances as an agency spokesman and once played the role of a smuggler in a public service ad ?recruited his brother to his ring that smuggled in Mexicans and Brazilians. One Brazilian woman told investigators she paid $12,000 to cross.

Federal officials said they also took bribes from public officials.

The federal probe began in May 2005 when an informant tipped off the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Investigators installed cameras in areas where migrants were dropped off, planted recording devices and placed tracking instruments on Border Patrol vehicles. They also trailed the ring's smuggling operations by airplane.

Prosecutors said when the brothers learned they were being investigated in June 2006, they quit their jobs and fled to Mexico.

Two years later, the brothers were arrested. They were extradited to the U.S. and charged with human smuggling, witness tampering and bribery.

Raul Villarreal's attorney, David Nick, had argued the prosecution's witnesses were not credible and surveillance yielded no evidence of wrongdoing by his client.

Fidel's attorney, Zenia Gilg, echoed that argument, saying the prosecution's case rested largely on two alleged accomplices who were promised leniency for testifying and "inconsistent statements" from migrants.

The Border Patrol has suffered a string of such embarrassments since doubling its size in less than a decade, including the case of an agent who pleaded guilty in April to smuggling marijuana while on duty along the Arizona-Mexico border.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ex-border-patrol-agents-least-30-years-005107685.html

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Southwest cancels 64 flights after computer glitch

CHICAGO (AP) ? A system-wide computer failure forced Southwest Airlines to ground its entire fleet of airplanes preparing for departures late Friday, and at least 64 flights had to be cancelled even after service was fully restored hours later, a company spokeswoman said.

Michelle Agnew told The Associated Press that 50 of the cancellations were flights scheduled for late Friday night departures in the western half of the country. The other 14 were Saturday morning flights scattered across the U.S. because crews were not able to get to airports in time to make the scheduled takeoffs.

An estimated 250 flights ? most of them on the West Coast ? were grounded at least temporarily Friday night. The glitch impaired the airline's ability to do such things as conduct check-ins, print boarding passes and monitor the weight of each aircraft.

Some flights were on the taxiway and diverted back to the terminal after the problem was detected around 8 p.m. PDT Friday, Southwest spokesman Brad Hawkins said. Flights already in the air were unaffected.

Shortly after 11 p.m. PDT, Southwest posted on its Twitter page that "systems are operating and we will begin work to get customers where they need to be. Thanks for your patience tonight."

Agnew said the computer system was "running at full capacity" by early Saturday. Before that, though, officials used a backup system that was much more sluggish.

"Backup systems are in place, not the main system, so it's slower," Hawkins said after service resumed. "But we are able to start launching these flights."

He said cancellations were inevitable because the airline doesn't do redeye flights and by the time the problem was fixed, it was near "the end of our operational day."

The late hour of the disruption meant the computer problem affected far more flights on the West Coast, but Hawkins said at least a few on the East Coast were grounded as well. Southwest, based in Dallas, conducts, on average, 3,400 flights a day.

A spokesman for Los Angeles International Airport said of about 25 inbound and outbound flights remaining Friday, only five departing flights were experiencing delays, of 30 to 80 minutes. At LA/Ontario International Airport (ONT), a total of three flights ? all departures ? were affected.

Four Southwest flights were temporarily held in Seattle, said Christina Faine, a Seattle-Tacoma International Airport spokeswoman.

One flight to Oakland, Calif., had been due to leave at 9:20 p.m. and departed before 11 p.m. Faine said late Friday night that an airport duty manager, Anthony Barnes, told her the others were expected to depart shortly.

Steve Johnson, a spokesman for Portland, Ore., International Airport, said he was not aware of any planes held up there.

___

Associated Press writers Kathy McCarthy in Seattle, Robert Seavey in Phoenix and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/southwest-cancels-64-flights-computer-glitch-092759100.html

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Anouska Stahlmann: Best Scenes and Lines of ALL Time

Hello all! I'm now 15-years-old and I've realized I spend all my time watching films. I watch a lot of films and I suppose you could say I am quite good at movie trivia. What I find shocking is how many films aren't well-known when they're beyond amazing. There are some scenes that break your heart. There are some scenes that grip you and have you on the edge of your seat. There are those scenes that make your heart melt. There are those scenes that make you feel, cry, laugh and "aww." I've collected a list of 10 scenes. I've narrowed down all the scenes that have evoked so much emotion that I didn't know how to feel after watching the scene. This is my list of 10 scenes that are extra special and have that wow factor. These scenes are the ones that stared me down when I was scouring the earth for the scenes and screamed "I AM FABULOUS" or "I am the walrus" in number 8's case...

10. Schindler's List is directed by Steven Spielberg and is a film to inform audiences of the tragedy of the Holocaust but also the work of the heroic Oskar Schindler. The amazing Liam Neeson took the bull by the horns and managed to break the hearts of everyone in this epic work of art that is Schindler's list. The final scene of the actual film depicts a heartbroken Oskar breaking down over the fact that saving 1,200 Jews just wasn't enough. This is the second to last scene in the whole film but this is the last scene in the main action sequence. This black and white film sets the scene, but also sets us up for Oskar watching the Nazis drive the Jewish people out of the Ghetto and put them on their way to Auschwitz concentration camp and shows him following the girl in a little red outfit. She later appears being carried out of Auschwitz and I could feel my heartbreak as you fell in love with this little girl as she became the inspiration to Schindler to get as many out as possible and save them from the horrific fate they didn't have to face.

Overall, the last scene of the action was the one that made me cry as Liam Neeson portrayed a perfect breakdown, if possible, and drew me in as if I was him. Having been on the emotional rollercoaster that is Schindler's List, I highly recommend that everyone watches it as it truly does draw you in. This important film is huge and is a reminder of the tragedy suffered. It reminds us of the First World War saying, "Lest We Forget."

9. She's Having a Baby is directed by one of my favorite directors, John Hughes. Being THE director of the '80s, he created the Brat Pack and branded himself king of Teen and Coming of Age films. The romantic films he did were perfect and I bow down to him as a director because he really did capture everyone's hearts in his best moments.

This romantic comedy follows the life and marriage of Jake and Kristy Briggs, played by Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth McGovern. Jake narrates the film and it follows his life more so than Kristy's. With twists and turns, Kristy becomes pregnant. But with her labor looming, Jake is panicking and doing everything you can think of wrong but it's very funny. Until complications arise that the couple are unaware of and Jake's world is turned upside down as he is whipped from the room, his wife rushed into an emergency C-section and he doesn't even know what has hit him. "This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush begins to play and Jake remembers the times that made everything worthwhile with Kristy through all the difficult times. We watch as the tears begin to fall and he smiles as he remembers the good things as he worries about his baby and wife. This scene was heartbreaking to watch in so many ways that it's hard to describe. Imagine what it would be like to not know whether your unborn baby is going to be brought into this world alive or if your beloved wife will make it through the surgery and wake up on the other side. Exactly. You can't even begin to imagine all the pain and emotion that would be swirling round your mind.

8. Across the Universe was written around the Beatles fabulous music. Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson and Evan Rachel Wood star in this romantic drama musical type of thing. Jim Sturgess plays Jude ("Hey Jude") from Liverpool who travels to America to find his father. In the process he meets Max ("Maxwell's Silver Hammer"), Joe Anderson, who offers to house him. After meeting Max's sister, Lucy ("Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds"), Evan Rachel Wood, the boys go to New York to make a life for themselves after Max drops out of college. Lucy's boyfriend, Daniel, is fighting in the Vietnam War and due to come home. Unfortunately he is killed in action and Lucy begins to fall apart. In the 1967 Detroit Riot, Jojo's ("Get Back") little brother is killed. Before his death, he is shown singing "Let It Be." The funerals for Daniel and Jojo's brother are shown as the gospel choir at Jojo's brother's funeral continue "Let It Be" and your heart breaks because you feel connected with this little boy. I didn't feel a connection with Daniel. My heart bled for Lucy and Daniel's mother but I didn't feel anything for Daniel and I felt his death was insignificant. The little brother's death was heartbreaking for me because he was just a boy. The fact that in the Detroit Riot, children probably did die just kills me. This scene just connects you to the action and shows Jojo's background. It's so sad!

7. The Breakfast Club is, once again, a John Hughes film. Starring the Brat Pack, the story line follows five teenagers who have all been given detention. There is the "princess," Claire, who is played by the beautiful Molly Ringwald. Then you have the "athlete," Andrew (Emilio Estevez), the "brain," Brian (Anthony Michael Hall), the "basket case," Allison (Ally Sheedy), and the "criminal", John Bender (Judd Nelson). The reasons they've been put in detention is revealed and they become true friends. The choice of admitting their friendship or leaving it is one they face when they get stoned, thanks to the help of Bender. The hilarious dancing and the brutal honesty that happens in this friendship that is formed in a day shows the way teenage friendships are built. But the social cliques of teenage life get in the way. The triumphant end is accompanied by the letter the group write, signing it The Breakfast Club and giving themselves those titles, and the song "Don't You Forget About Me" by Simple Minds. The last shot was of Bender. It was just so perfect. This whole film radiates John Hughes' unique sense of film and knack for creating those memorable scenes. This film is a fitting epitaph for him.

6. King Kong was directed by Peter Jackson and released in 2005. This remake has one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen. The film begins and there is a lot going on all at once. Eventually, Ann, Naomi Watts, is on a prehistoric kind of island with a huge gorilla. The ins and outs are complex but with the man she loves desperate to get her back and her itching to get back to him, she has to escape from Kong, Andy Serkis, who seemed to be a very murderous gorilla. After spending a while with him, they have their ups and downs but he killed a T-Rex for her. YES, AS IN ONE OF THOSE HUGE MASSIVE MURDEROUS CARNIVORES THAT KILL EVERYTHING. He killed a T-Rex for her. That scene is pretty fly but it's not THE scene. The scene happens when King Kong arrives in New York. He's escaped and is roaming round New York with Naomi Watts in hand. Kong takes her to a frozen Central Park and they slide around on the ice together. This scene doesn't sound like much but it's the scene that made the film. I honestly love the scene so much. It just does it for me. Truly beautiful.

5. Surprisingly the only Tim Burton film on here, Edward Scissorhands makes it into my top five with a very beautiful scene. This scene is touching. Watching this about six years on and this film and scene has not lost the magic it always had. Johnny Depp is a fantastic actor. Put that with Tim Burton's amazing directing, Diane Wiest's kind face and Danny Elfman's stunning score, no wonder this film is breathtaking. Winona Ryder played the supporting role and love interest, Kim. I thought Kim was alright in the end but, however much I disliked what she did, she had to be with Edward because she needed dependable rather than crazy psycho. This scene has Edward carving an ice sculpture of Kim as an angel. The shedding ice falls like snow and enchants Kim who almost dances in it. Her blissful smile completes this scene as she gracefully moves through the ice flakes. It's just so stunning. Danny Elfman composed a beautiful song, Ice Dance, which fitted this scene so perfectly and made it magic.

4. Pretty in Pink is the third John Hughes film to hit my list. He seems to convey teenage angst better than teenagers can. This was the beginning for me. This was my beginning into the Brat Pack. She's Having a Baby was the first film I ever watched by John Hughes but this film is so different. This film sums up so much. Starring Molly Ringwald, the goddess of the Brat Pack, Jon Cryer and Andrew McCarthy, this film is perfect.

This film sums up high school with all the cliques and the places and everything so well. Jon Cryers' character Duckie has always been my favorite character in this film and it always will be. This film has the ability to make you laugh, cry and "aww" all at the same time. My favorite all-time dance sequence is the Duckie Dance. Duckie dances to "Try a Little Tenderness" by Otis Redding. The passion he puts into it kills me every time. I am genuinely wheezing every time. It's just too funny for me to handle.

3. Billy Elliot was released in 2000 and is a hit musical on Broadway and West End. The film is not a musical though. This film is about Billy's struggle with trying to accept his ballet passion but also his struggle for acceptance in 1980s London with a very macho father who is, to say the least, extremely disapproving. Including tracks from T. Rex and The Clash, this film is a smash hit. Following Billy's conflict within and struggle for acceptance, you begin to see the hardships for his father and Billy's best friend emerge. The final scene entails a grown up Billy, getting ready to dance the lead in Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake. Flicking from Billy to his proud dad and then to the best friend. Adam Cooper's final leap at the end was stunning. It was, by far, better than any stag leap I could ever do! This scene is truly inspiring.

2. Breakfast at Tiffany's stars Audrey Hepburn as the eccentric, upbeat and quirky socialite, Holly Golightly. George Peppard stars alongside Audrey as the reserved writer, Paul Varjak, who is better known as Fred. Through this film we watch Holly and Paul's friendship strain due to whatever Holly has done. She has her plans and he has his but this unlikely duo begin to fall madly and deeply in love. Holly just refuses to acknowledge it because it doesn't fit with her plan. Holly finally breaks and as she builds her life up again, it seems to flop. Poor Holly! So, Paul and Holly quarrel and finally they have the most romantic kiss in the history of film kisses. The kiss that began it all! The kiss that made every female want a KISS IN THE RAIN! It's basically a fantasy and Breakfast at Tiffany's began it all!

1. Say Anything is top of my tip top fabby list! John Hughes, god of teenage films, tops my list. In this one film, he managed to raise so many emotions in each scene, create some of the most memorable moments in film, create photobombing and create the most famous scene ever.

Say Anything is set around the summer after graduation. John Cusack and Ione Skye star as the young new couple, Lloyd and Diane. This film focuses on them and the trials they face. Diane is the valedictorian and is going to study in England at the end of the summer. Lloyd is an average student and not in her league at all. Say Anything offers the best scene of all time. John Hughes' build up to this scene is gigantic. With our favorite couple going through troubling times, our unconventional hero of the film, Lloyd, is found standing outside Diane's window with a boombox playing their song, "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel. This sweet song mixed with Lloyd's boombox, mac and car is the combo to creating the most perfect scene. Peter Gabriel has a stunning voice and this song is beautiful. So beautiful in fact that I made my dad give me his vinyl, which contains this song. So, this scene made me cry so much because of how sweet it is. Lloyd is socially awkward and I feel I can relate to him with it.

Set in the 1980s, I think Lloyd would be one of those guys that just kind of sits on Tumblr all day if he was in my generation. Diane would be a popular preppy girl just like she is in the film. Lloyd gets the girl of his dreams and treats her perfectly. This film is a must-watch purely for the scene. Just watch it, everyone!

So, that's my top 10 scenes. I scoured the earth and dug up a few dead bodies of films along the way. I sat and cried through films and used a lot of tissues and popcorn in the process but this is my top 10. Anyway!

All my love,
Anna x

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anouska-stahlmann/best-movie-scenes_b_3483071.html

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2013 All-County Girls Track and Field: Ponte Vedra's Nicole Greene ...

When Ponte Vedra?s Nicole Greene started messing around with the high jump during middle school, little did she know the path that would emerge from it led to dominance in the state and a shot at making her name in the national arena. With three years of varsity experience, two state titles and another pair of track seasons still to come, the budding star has shown all the tools necessary for a long, successful career in the sport.

Greene, the St. Johns County St. Augustine Record Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year, keeps toying with her competition to this day.

?It?s definitely not something I expected to happen; I was quite surprised at first,? Greene said. ?I really love it now. It took me by surprise.?

As a sixth-grader at Episcopal, Greene participated in the more fashionable events ? 100-meter dash, 200 and 4x100 relay. The high jump started as an attempt at filling idle time during track practice late in seventh grade. Then a coach saw her clearing 5 feet with ease without any idea of what she was doing, and after that, sprints became an afterthought.

Her first appearance at the state meets resulted in a second-place finish in Class 2A as an eighth-grader.

After transferring her freshman year to Ponte Vedra for the school?s Academy of Biotechnology and Medical Research (both her parents are doctors and Greene hopes to follow suit), she found immediate success with the Sharks on the track, winning her first Class 3A championship with a height of 5-6.

Though her state win this year came at a height of 5-5, it was on a rainy and windy day the University of North Florida that hurt times and heights across the board.

Greene hit 5-10 consistently this season, putting her eighth nationally in 2013. At the New Balance Nationals Outdoor held on Sunday, she took third.

As her control of the state continues, Greene has shifted her focus to her future. Some colleges have already made their interest known, but are unable to make an honest recruitment until her junior year.

That list includes UCLA, Louisville, Mississippi and Miami. Despite her career potential in track, Greene still looks for a school with a strong medical program ? that?s why Miami would be a nice fit and schools like North Carolina, University of Pennsylvania and Stanford round out her top choices.

But until colleges can make their recruitments in earnest, Greene is focusing on continuing her development.

She added a personal coach last year, Harold Rose, who won a state title as part of Wolfson?s 2005 championship team before later attending Bethune-Cookman on a track scholarship. He?s worked with Bartram Trail in the past, helping their team win its first track state title.

With Greene, what sets her apart in Rose?s eyes ? other than the natural talent ? is her demeanor.

She brings an intelligence and maturity to her practices not common for kids still without a driver?s license.

In his second year as her coach, Rose is more focused on refining technique than wholesale changes.

?Right now she just has to focus on enjoying the competition,? Rose said. ?She?s at a point where she?s still learning (high jump).?

Though the goal couldn?t be any simpler ? raise a bar, jump over it without knocking it over ? making the leap from regionally good to nationally dominant takes much more than physical prowess.

Understanding how the body travels and arches through the air is as important as the leg strength needed to clear the bar. Learning from what distance to start the jump and when to curl your body up and over may be a difference of inches, but for Greene?s purposes those inches often determine success and failure.

One day, she hopes, those inches will be the difference in medal color.

Though it?s still far away, the 2016 and 2020 Olympics are still in the back of Greene?s mind with each training session.

Heights of 5-10 and higher were the minimum to make the Olympic Trials for last year?s London games, a height that she?s been able to hit consistently all year.

By the end of the summer, Rose wants Greene to be clearing the 6-foot mark consistently, something she can already do occasionally during practice. By the end of her junior track season, the goal will be 6-2.

For contrast, 30-year-old Russian Anna Chicherova took gold in the high jump last year with a height of 2.05 meters (just over 6-7). At 16, Greene has already eclipsed the 6-foot mark in practice sessions while still physically maturing into an adult.

What can be measured by a squat rack isn?t the reason for Greene?s success as of yet. Luckily for her, it?s also not what she depends upon.

The strength will come with time and training. It?ll be joined with ever-deepening knowledge of the details in such a surface-simple event.

?Nicole?s a joy to work with; she?s so cerebral,? Rose said. ?At this point, watching her grow is a joy. There?s so much upside to her once she understands the intricacies of the event.?

Rose still believes that adding 1.5 to 2 inches every year is still a realistic short-term goal for Greene, certainly when considering her natural gift for the sport paired with the work ethic and intelligence shown so far.

?Right now, it?s more a matter of when I take off and get in the air,? Greene said. ?It?s the little details that help you get over 6 feet, but after that it gets a little easier.?

Nothing feels out of the question for Greene by the time she finishes her senior year in 2015. She?s surpassed the need to prove herself in the state of Florida.

Improving is now a self-maintaining goal. It always is with any track competition, but the heights possible in Greene?s career are only now beginning to come in view.

?(Greene) had ?it? when I first saw her,? Rose said. ?She enjoys learning the event and being competitive. The Olympics are something that she wants to accomplish, and with her work ethic and ability, I can?t see why that couldn?t happen.?

Source: http://staugustine.com/sports/local-sports/2013-06-20/2013-all-county-girls-track-and-field-ponte-vedras-nicole-greene

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Color Zen for iPhone and iPad review: Gorgeous mosaic puzzles that are as tricky as they are beautiful

Color Zen is a gorgeous puzzle game that's designed for both iPhone and iPad. The premise of the game is to twist, turn, and flick mosaic tiles that are all colored and shaped differently in order to fill the screen with the same color. When two like colors meet, they'll recolor the screen that shade. Seem easy enough? Don't be so sure!

The levels of Color Zen start off easy enough and allow you to get a feel for how the game is played. You'll notice that each level has a border color. The goal is to make the entire screen the color of the border. If you flick a red piece into another red, they will absorb and disappear, leaving the screen colored red. Move on to the next mosaics you can match in order to completely clear the board leaving only the tiles that match the border.

Color Zen gets difficult rather quickly and you'll have to think several steps ahead in order to plan for the border color to be the last mosaic tiles you have left to match on the board. I got stuck on one level that took me about a week to finally pass. A large part of me prefers puzzle games that offer up a challenge so I don't fly through them as quick leaving me waiting for more levels. You do, however, have the option to unlock all the levels via an in-app purchase if you would like to skip around or get stuck on a particularly hard level.

If you'd like to add more levels to Color Zen, there is currently a nature pack available as well for another $0.99 in-app purchase. The standard levels will probably keep you busy for quite a while though.

The good

• Easy game play that functions as a good time killer
• Levels get hard fast, meaning you won't clear the game in just a few hours and be left looking for another puzzler as quick

The bad

• The ability to buy even more packs would be a welcome addition

The bottom line

Color Zen is a great way to kill some time either quickly or when you want to lay around and play for long periods of time. I've found myself picking it up when I have just a few minutes to kill or when I have an hour. It's easy to put down and pick back up at any time which makes it a likely candidate for me to choose when I want to weed through games to play.

If you're a fan of puzzlers, Color Zen is definitely one you should add to your list to try out.

• $0.99 - Download Now

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/aFtVXLmzdNI/story01.htm

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Report: NSA can keep US records indefinitely

A banner supporting Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, is displayed at Central, Hong Kong's business district, Thursday, June 20, 2013. A WikiLeaks spokesman who claims to represent Snowden has reached out to government officials in Iceland about the potential of the NSA leaker applying for asylum in the Nordic country, officials there said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

A banner supporting Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, is displayed at Central, Hong Kong's business district, Thursday, June 20, 2013. A WikiLeaks spokesman who claims to represent Snowden has reached out to government officials in Iceland about the potential of the NSA leaker applying for asylum in the Nordic country, officials there said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The National Security Agency can keep copies of intercepted communications from or about U.S. citizens if the material contains significant intelligence or evidence of crimes.

That's according to exemptions in NSA's top secret rules published Thursday in the latest leak of classified U.S. materials.

Top secret documents published by The Guardian describe how NSA must first build a case in order to target a foreigner for phone or Internet surveillance. The documents also describe how the agency is to make sure the person is outside the U.S. ? and not an American.

But if the target is communicating with an American, the record of contact can be kept indefinitely. Administration officials have said material NSA inadvertently gathers on Americans is destroyed. NSA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-06-20-NSA%20Surveillance/id-3dce72cb771c48ca8a7baf49ba4f5481

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Lawyer working on BP settlement claims suspended

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? A lawyer working for the court-appointed administrator reviewing claims arising from BP's Gulf oil spill has been accused of collecting portions of settlement payments from a New Orleans law firm to which he had once referred claims, a BP official with direct knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press.

The BP official, who has reviewed a report outlining the allegations, said claims administrator Patrick Juneau delivered a copy of the report to U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier during a meeting in his chambers Thursday. Lawyers for BP and the team of private attorneys who brokered the multibillion-dollar settlement also attended the meeting. The BP official spoke on condition of anonymity because the report hasn't been made public.

The staff lawyer, Lionel H. Sutton III, acknowledged in an email late Thursday that he has been told he was suspended "pending an investigation of an anonymous allegation against me."

"I have not been made aware of the substance of the allegation or the status of the investigation," Sutton wrote. "Once this is resolved, I would be happy to discuss it all with you."

The BP official said the report indicates that Juneau's s security head, David Welker, also notified the FBI's New Orleans division about the lawyer's alleged misconduct. Welker until recently was the special agent in charge of the FBI office in New Orleans.

An FBI spokeswoman in New Orleans declined to comment Thursday.

According to the BP official, Juneau told the judge that he had suspended the lawyer and was weighing further disciplinary action. Neither Juneau nor his spokesman responded to calls and emails on Thursday night.

The report says the head of security for Juneau's office received a complaint that the staff attorney had referred claims to a New Orleans law firm in exchange for portions of subsequent settlement payments, the BP official said. The lawyer allegedly filed those claims before he went to work for Juneau.

The claims at issue were filed on behalf of a single party and involve hundreds of thousands of dollars, the BP official said.

BP PLC has sued to block what could be billions of dollars in settlement payouts to businesses over the spill. The London-based oil giant has accused Juneau of trying to rewrite the terms of the deal and asserts that he has made decisions that expose the company to fictitious losses that were never contemplated in the settlement.

Judge Barbier, who is overseeing the massive settlement, appointed Juneau last year and has upheld his decisions for calculating payments. BP has appealed, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear the case in July.

The spill began in April 2010 after the BP-leased drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded off the Louisiana coast, killing 11 workers. Roughly 200 million gallons of crude oil were released from the Macondo well a mile under the Gulf surface. Marshes, fisheries and beaches from Louisiana to Florida were fouled by the oil until a cap was placed over the blown-out well in July.

BP set up a compensation fund for individuals and businesses affected by the spill and committed $20 billion. The claims fund initially was handled by lawyer Kenneth Feinberg but Juneau took over the processing of claims after the settlement was reached last year.

It wasn't immediately known how many lawyers work for Juneau, but his office announced in May that it has determined more than $3 billion in claims are eligible for payment through the settlement agreement. More than 162,000 claims were filed and more than $2 billion had been paid to claimants as of May 6.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lawyer-working-bp-settlement-claims-suspended-071548314.html

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Weiner calls rival over voter's gay slur

Quinn said she received a message from Weiner Thursday (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)Former Rep. Anthony Weiner called his New York City mayoral rival Christine Quinn on Thursday to clarify a recent discussion he had with a voter who reportedly used a homophobic slur to describe Quinn.

Quinn, who is openly gay, told reporters Friday she received a phone message from Weiner on Thursday after the ex-congressman came under fire for not strongly admonishing a voter he met during a campaign event who reportedly referred to Quinn as a ?dyke.?

The interaction, detailed in a Washington Post story, said Weiner did not scold the woman until after he noticed a reporter?s ?incredulous reaction." Weiner then reportedly told the voter, who apologized, ?It?s okay. It?s not your fault.?

On Thursday, Weiner told reporters that he recalled admonishing the woman but insisted he did not recall any further interaction. He reaffirmed his support for gay rights and said he would not tolerate ?any utterance of any type of slur against any community.?

On Friday, Quinn said she was ?grateful? that Weiner clarified the interaction in his phone message to her?but stopped short of saying whether he explicitly apologized.

?I think it is incredibly important for all New Yorkers--but particularly those in public life--to make very clear that in this city, the most diverse city in the world, in the city where the LGBT civil rights movement was born, that that type of language cannot be tolerated,? Quinn said, according to Politicker. ?I think all of us need to re-commit to making sure that whenever we hear language of any type that is demeaning, derogatory, racists, sexist, homophobic, anything of that nature, that we speak out against it.?

Weiner issued a stronger apology in a statement issued on Twitter by his spokeswoman Barbara Morgan, insisting again that he did not believe the woman?s comment was ?appropriate.?

?If the impression is that I did, I apologize because behavior like this will absolutely not be tolerated in my administration,? Weiner said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/weiner-called-quinn-clarify-talk-voter-used-gay-175640568.html

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1M Brazilians fill streets with protest, violence

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) ? More than a million Brazilians poured into the streets of at least 80 cities Thursday in this week's largest anti-government demonstrations yet, protests that saw violent clashes break out in several cities as people demanding improved public services and an end to corruption faced tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets.

At least one protester was killed in Sao Paulo state after a car rammed into a crowd of demonstrators, the driver apparently angered about being unable to drive along a street.

In Rio de Janeiro, where an estimated 300,000 demonstrators swarmed into the seaside city's central area, running clashes played out between riot police and clusters of mostly young men, their T-shirts wrapped around their faces. But several peaceful protesters were up in the crackdown, too, as police fired tear gas canisters into their midst and at times indiscriminately used pepper spray.

Thundering booms echoed off stately colonial buildings as rubber bullets and the gas were fired at fleeing crowds.

At least 40 people were injured in Rio, including protesters like Michele Menezes, a wisp of a woman whose youthful face and braces belie her 26 years. Bleeding and with her hair singed from the explosion of a tear gas canister, she said that she and others took refuge from the violence in an open bar, only to have a police officer toss the canister inside.

It exploded on top of Menezes, tore through her jeans and dug out two quarter-sized holes on the back of her thighs while also perforating a rash of small holes in her upper arm.

"I was leaving a peaceful protest and it's not the thugs that attack me but the police themselves," said Menezes, removing her wire-rim glasses to wipe her bloodshot eyes.

She later took refuge in a hotel along with about two dozen youths, families and others said they had been repeatedly hit with pepper spray by motorcycle police as they too took refuge inside a bar.

Despite the crackdown, protesters said they would not back down.

"I saw some pretty scary things, but they're not going to shake me. There's another march on the 22nd and I'm going to be there," said 19-year-old university student Fernanda Szuster.

Asked whether her parents knew that she was taking part in the protests, Szuster said that "they know and they're proud. They also protested when they were young. So they think it's great."

She added, though, that she wouldn't tell her father the details of the police violence she was a victim of. "If he knew, he would never let me leave the house again."

In Brasilia, police struggled to keep hundreds of protesters from invading the Foreign Ministry, outside of which protesters lit a small fire. Other government buildings were attacked around the capital's central esplanade. There, too, police resorted to tear gas and rubber bullets in attempts to scatter the crowds.

Clashes were also reported in the Amazon jungle city of Belem, in Porto Alegre in the south, in the university town Campinas north of Sao Paulo and in the northeastern Brazilian city of Salvador.

"This was meant to be a peaceful demonstration and it is," said artist Wanderlei Costa, 33, in Brasilia. "It's a shame some people cause trouble when there is a much bigger message behind this movement. Brazil needs to change, not only on the government level, but also on the grass roots level. We have to learn to demonstrate without violence."

The protests took place one week after a violent police crackdown on a much smaller protests in Sao Paulo galvanized Brazilians to take to the streets.

The unrest is hitting the nation as it hosts the Confederations Cup football tournament with tens of thousands of foreign visitors in attendance. It also comes one month before Pope Francis is scheduled to visit the nation, and ahead of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, raising concerns about how Brazilian officials will provide security.

Mass protests are rare in this 190 million-person country, with demonstrations generally attracting small numbers of politicized participants. The ongoing, growing marches have caught Brazilian governments by surprise, but have delighted many citizens.

"I think we desperately need this, that we've been needing this for a very, very long time," said Paulo Roberto Rodrigues da Cunha, a 63-year-old clothing store salesman in Rio.

In Salvador, police shot tear gas canisters and rubber bullets to disperse a small crowd of protesters trying to break through a police barrier blocking one of the city's streets. One woman was injured in her foot.

Elsewhere in Salvador some 5,000 protesters gathered in Campo Grand Square.

"We pay a lot of money in taxes, for electricity, for services, and we want to know where that money is," said Italo Santos, a 25-year old student as he walked with friends toward the square.

Despite the energy on the street, many protesters said they were unsure how the movement would win real political concessions. People in the protests have held up signs asking for everything from education reforms to free bus fare while denouncing the billions of public dollars spent on stadiums in advance of the World Cup and the Olympics.

"It's sort of a Catch-22," Rodrigues da Cunha said. "On the one hand we need some sort of leadership, on the other we don't want this to be compromised by being affiliated with any political party."

Earlier Thursday, the protests took on the feel of a party, especially in Sao Paulo and Rio.

People of all ages, many of them draped in flags, gathered in front of the majestic domed Candelaria church in downtown Rio, while groups elsewhere pounded out Carnival rhythms or chanted slogans targeting Rio state's governor.

At one point, a police helicopter flew over the crowd, which booed and pointed green lasers at the craft.

When shirtless youths, many of them with T-shirts wrapped round their faces, pushed and jostled their way through the crowd, people spontaneously broke out into a chant of "Without violence!"

But as has been the pattern earlier this week, the clashes began once night fell.

Several city leaders have already accepted protester demands to revoke an increase in bus and subway fares in the hopes that anti-government anger cools. In Sao Paulo, where demonstrators blocked Paulista Avenue, organizers said they would turn their demonstration into a party celebrating the lower transit fares.

But many believe the protests are no longer just about bus fares and have become larger cries for systemic changes.

President Dilma Rousseff called an emergency meeting with top advisers for Friday morning. Rousseff has been largely absent since the demonstrations broke out, making just one public statement but offering no speeches or grand gestures in an attempt to calm the situation.

"This is the start of a structural change in Brazil," said Aline Campos, a 29 year old publicist in Brasilia. "People now want to make sure their money is well spent, that it's not wasted through corruption."

___

Associated Press writers Marco Sibaja in Brasilia, Bradley Brooks and Stan Lehman in Sao Paulo and Ricardo Zuniga in Salvador contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/1m-brazilians-fill-streets-protest-violence-015146446.html

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Samsung ATIV Q puts Windows and Android on a single tablet

Samsung today in London announced the ATIV Q tablet, sporting Windows and Android in a single platform. It's a dual-boot OS device that brings Windows 8 alongside the best of Android.

But the high-res display is just half of what makes this an intriguing device.

Be sure to check out our hands-on!

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/K6PFnx8UIoc/story01.htm

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Police seal off Istanbul square to protesters

ISTANBUL (AP) ? Bulldozers cleared all that was left of a two-week sit-in in an Istanbul park and police sealed off the area early Sunday, keeping angry demonstrators from returning to a spot that has become the focus of the strongest challenge to the prime minister in his 10 years in office.

Protesters set up barricades and plumes of tear gas rose in Istanbul's streets into the early hours after Turkish riot police rousted a group who had vowed to stay in Gezi Park despite Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's warnings to leave.

As dusk fell Saturday, hundreds of white-helmeted riot police swept through the park and adjacent Taksim Square, firing canisters of the acrid, stinging gas. Thousands of peaceful protesters, choking on the fumes and stumbling among the tents, put up little physical resistance.

The protests began as an environmental sit-in to prevent a development project at Gezi Park, but have quickly spread to dozens of cities and spiraled into a broader expression of discontent about what many say is Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian decision-making. He vehemently denies the charge, pointing to the strong support base that helped him win third consecutive term with 50 percent of the vote in 2011.

As police cleared the square, many ran into nearby hotels for shelter. A stand-off developed at a luxury hotel on the edge of the park, where police opened up with water cannons against protesters and journalists outside before throwing tear gas at the entrance, filling the lobby with white smoke. At other hotels, plain-clothes policemen turned up outside, demanding the protesters come out.

Some protesters ran off into nearby streets, setting up makeshift barricades and running from water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets.

As news of the raid broke, thousands of people from other parts of Istanbul gathered and were attempting to reach Taksim. Television showed footage of riot police firing tear gas on a highway and bridge across the Bosphorus to prevent protesters from heading to the area.

As the tear gas settled, bulldozers moved into the park, scooping up debris and loading it into trucks. Crews of workmen in fluorescent yellow vests and plain-clothes police went through the abandoned belongings, opening bags and searching their contents before tearing down the tents, food centers and library the protesters had set up in what had become a bustling tent city.

Demonstrations also erupted in other cities. In Ankara, at least 3,000 people swarmed into John F. Kennedy street, where opposition party legislators sat down at the front of the crowd facing the riot police ? not far from Parliament. In Izmir, thousands converged at a seafront square.

Near Gezi, ambulances ferried the injured to hospitals as police set up cordons and roadblocks around the park, preventing anyone from getting close.

Tayfun Kahraman, a member of Taksim Solidarity, an umbrella group of protest movements, said an untold number of people in the park had been injured ? some from rubber bullets.

"Let them keep the park, we don't care anymore. Let it all be theirs. This crackdown has to stop. The people are in a terrible state," he told The Associated Press by phone.

Taksim Solidarity, on its Web site, called the incursion "atrocious" and counted hundreds of injured ? which it called a provisional estimate ? as well as an undetermined number of arrests. Istanbul governor's office said at least 44 people were taken to hospitals for treatment. None of them were in serious condition, it said in a statement.

Huseyin Celik, the spokesman for Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, told NTV that the sit-in had to end.

"They had made their voice heard ... Our government could not have allowed such an occupation to go on until the end," he said.

It was a violent police raid on May 31 against a small sit-in in Gezi Park that sparked the initial outrage and spiraled into a much broader protest. While those in the park have now fled, it was unclear whether they would take their movement to other places, or try to return to the park at a later time.

The protests, which left at least four people dead and more than 5,000 injured, have dented Erdogan's international reputation and infuriated him with a previously unseen defiance to his rule.

Saturday's raid came less than two hours after Erdogan threatened protesters in a boisterous speech in Sincan, an Ankara suburb that is a stronghold of his party.

"I say this very clearly: either Taksim Square is cleared, or if it isn't cleared then the security forces of this country will know how to clear it," he told tens of thousands of supporters at a political rally.

A second pro-government rally is planned in Istanbul on Sunday.

According to the government's redevelopment plan for Taksim Square that caused the sit-in, the park would be replaced with a replica Ottoman-era barracks. Under initial plans, the construction would have housed a shopping mall, though that has since been amended to the possibility of an opera house, a theater and a museum with cafes.

On Friday, Erdogan offered to defer to a court ruling on the legality of the government's contested park redevelopment plan, and floated the possibility of a referendum on it.

___

Fraser reported from Ankara. Jamey Keaten in Ankara contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-seal-off-istanbul-square-protesters-091826259.html

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By The Way, The NSA Doesn't Need A Warrant To Listen To Your Calls

In a "secret briefing" to Congress the NSA confirmed that their analysts can listen to phone calls without a warrant and totally at their individual discretion. So . . . not just metadata. You know things have gotten weird because at this point it's not even that surprising.

The ability to review domestic calls at will stems from an interpretation of federal surveillance law that probably also extends to accessing and reading texts, IMs and e-mails. There have been other indications that the NSA has access to all of our domestic and international calls, and there have been reports on how they organize all that gabbing in case they ever want to go back and check something out. In 2009 the New York Times ran a story indicating that the NSA was engaging in "overcollection," but this is the first time the NSA is detailing what's going on.

The news validates some of Edward Snowden's claims about operations within the NSA. There was also a House Intelligence meeting in 2007 where the then-Director of National Intelligence, Michael McConnell, discussed the fact that the NSA was compiling a database of phone calls and communications accessible by NSA employees. Today McConnell is the vice chairman of Booz Allen Hamilton. Because of course.

Congressman Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat from New York who serves on the House Judiciary committee, spoke about the unfettered access described in the recent clandestine meeting. "I was rather startled," he said. Definitely one way of putting it. [CNET]

Image by Karlowac/Shutterstock

Source: http://gizmodo.com/by-the-way-the-nsa-doesnt-need-a-warrant-to-listen-to-513662183

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Simpson's Tapped Out adds waterfront property

Another bit of gaming goodness out of E3 was a fresh content patch for The Simpson's Tapped Out. The Waterfront update introduces a whole new range of buildings, decorations, quests, and characters. There are 30 new plots of land, so players can expand their own little versions of Springfield, and a new boardwalk section allows them to build out onto the water.

Though Tapped Out is a pretty standard collection-style game, complete with collecting cash, and XP, premium items, and completing quests, there's a ton of self-referential humor peppered throughout that makes it worth coming back time and again.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/xpiQqypqGiE/story01.htm

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