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Sometime in the future, Apple devices such as the iPhone, iPad and MacBook might work longer than ever on a smaller and lighter battery pack. How is this possible? By using hydrogen fuel cells, which convert oxygen and hydrogen into water, heat and electricity. The US Patent & Trademark Office has recently published two Apple patent applications, detailing how fuel cells might power smartphones, laptops and tablets of the future.
[More from Mashable: Company Sues Former Employee for Value of 17,000 Twitter Followers [VIDEO]]
Hydrogen fuel cells aren't exactly a new technology; they've been used to power Honda cars, for example, and they bring their own set of problems, especially in the context of smartphones or laptops. "It is extremely challenging to design hydrogen fuel cell systems which are sufficiently portable and cost-effective to be used with portable electronic devices," admits Apple.
But Apple might have a solution. One of the patent applications describes a "fuel cell system which is capable of both providing power to and receiving power from a rechargeable battery in a portable computing device. This eliminates the need for a bulky and heavy battery within the fuel cell system, which can significantly reduce the size, weight and cost of the fuel cell system."
[More from Mashable: How Tech and Social Media Companies Cashed Out in 2011]
And for how long these fuel cells (in its patent application, Apple explores other fuel possibilities besides hydrogen) could power a smartphone or a laptop? The answer is "days or even weeks without refueling," according to Apple. This sounds like a dream to owners of most modern smartphones, which barely last a day of heavy use.
We'll probably have to wait a while until fuel cell-powered iPhones and MacBooks hit the market, but a big breakthrough in battery technology is something we've been waiting for a long time, and it might change the face of the market forever.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
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Mitt Romney's wife gushes about his silly side and devotion to their five sons and 16 grandchildren.
Rick Santorum's college-age daughter opines online about missing the campus coffee shop and chats with friends about their Friday night plans.
Jon Huntsman's daughters generate much-needed buzz for him with a joint Twitter account and online videos, including at least one that went viral.
Days away from voting in the Republican presidential race, the path to the nomination quickly is becoming a crowded family affair with spouses and offspring pitching in and doing far more than just smiling from the sidelines.
Ann Romney, Anita Perry and Callista Gingrich are starring in new TV ads for their husbands. Romney extols her husband's character and says, "To me, that makes a huge difference" in a candidate. Perry tells the "old-fashioned American story" of how she and her husband were high school sweethearts who had to wait until he was done flying airplanes around the world for the Air Force before they could marry.
Callista Gingrich wishes the nation a Merry Christmas "from our family to yours" in husband Newt Gingrich's new holiday-themed TV ad.
Candidate kids are helping, too, acting as surrogates, strategists and, in some cases, sounding boards for parents competing for the right to challenge President Barack Obama next fall.
"There are times when I wonder why I'm not sitting in the coffee shop on campus with my friends, lightheartedly discussing ('Saturday Night Live') videos, how bad the cafeteria is, what our plans are for Friday night or how absolutely swamped we are with schoolwork," Santorum's daughter, Elizabeth, lamented in a recent blog post. "But this is where God wanted me."
Sometimes the family members campaign with the candidates, and other times they go it alone.
While Rick Perry spent several days campaigning in Iowa recently, his wife was in New Hampshire emphasizing his small-town upbringing and conservative values at a retirement community chapel. Audience members peppered her with questions about subjects such as taxes, immigration and the death penalty.
"She handled them quite well," said Sid Schoeffler, an independent voter from Concord. "When she knew the answer or knew the campaign's story line, she recited it. And when she didn't know, she said so. I thought that was refreshing.
"But whether it's enough to swing my vote, I don't know yet."
Source: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2011/dec/26/tdmain04-gop-primary-is-family-affair-ar-1568181/
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Vikings 33, Washington 26
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PYONGYANG, North Korea ? The handover of power in North Korea to Kim Jong Il's young son appeared to be going smoothly Thursday, with official media calling him the "outstanding leader" and no outward unrest in the capital or troop movements along its borders.
Foreign governments have focused intense scrutiny on North Korea since Kim's death was announced Monday because of concerns over his untested heir's rise in a country with a nuclear program, 1.2-million strong military and a history of deep animosity toward its neighbors.
But the capital remained a scene of mourning ? not protest ? on Thursday. U.S. and South Korean military officials said there had been no unusual military movements by the North Koreans in recent days.
"This appears to be a relatively smooth transition on the peninsula, and we hope it stays that way," Pentagon spokesman George Little said in Washington, adding that there has been no increase in force protection levels for U.S. troops in South Korea.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak sought to assure Pyongyang that his country was "not hostile," despite putting its front-line troops on alert since Kim's death was announced.
South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Yoon Won-sik said North Korea's military isn't showing any particular movement and that the South's troops are operating normally despite the alert.
In a clear signal to North Korea's people and the outside world, the North's main newspaper Rodong Sinmun in a lengthy editorial urged the country to "rally, rally and rally behind great comrade Kim Jong Un and faithfully uphold his leadership."
It called him "the outstanding leader of our party, military and people and a great successor."
Ratcheting up the personality cult it builds around the Kim family, North Korea claimed that Kim Jong Il's death generated a series of spectacular natural phenomena, creating a mysterious glow atop a revered mountain, cracking a sheet of ice on a lake with a loud roar and inspiring a crane to circle a statue of the nation's founder before perching in a tree and drooping its head in sorrow.
Dramatic scenes of mourning in the capital have continued nearly nonstop since Monday's announcement of Kim's death, which the government says happened two days earlier when he suffered a massive heart attack while on a train.
On Thursday, a long line of North Koreans filed past the body of Kim Jong Il, which lay in state in the Kumsusan Memorial Palace. With a military band playing a funeral dirge and a flag flying at half staff above the palace, mourners in black suits slowly circled Kim's glass coffin, Kim's head and shoulders bathed in a spotlight, a red cloth pulled tight around his body.
Outside powers, including the United States, Japan and South Korea, are watching with keen interest to see how the transition proceeds.
Communication between the United States and North Korea still appears open as the North continues its official 11-day mourning period. This is in sharp contrast to the confusion that followed the death of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung in 1994 and an indication that discussions may resume after the mourning period on food aid and efforts to rid North Korea of its nuclear arms programs.
The State Department said it wasn't expecting any meeting with the North Koreans this week, and little contact before the mourning period ends Dec. 29.
"We want to be respectful of the period of mourning, but the ball's in North Korea's court," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters. "We are also appreciative that this is not a moment in Pyongyang where we're likely to have fresh instructions until after the mourning period."
South Korea sent its nuclear envoy to China on Thursday for talks on ways to restart international negotiations to rid North Korea of its nuclear programs.
Despite the signs that North Korea is consolidating power behind Kim Jong Un, fears of instability remain high.
Chinese boatmen along a river separating North Korea and China told The Associated Press that North Korean police have ordered them to stop giving rides to tourists, saying they will fire on the boats if they see anyone with cameras.
Kim Jong Un only entered the public view last year and remains a mystery to most of the world.
South Korea's intelligence agency has told Parliament members that an ad hoc committee in which Kim Jong Un is a vice chairman is expected to handle key state affairs before he formally becomes the country's leader.
The agency predicts Kim Jong Un's aunt Kim Kyong Hui, a key Workers' Party official, and Jang Song Thaek, her husband and a vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission, will play larger roles supporting the heir, according to a lawmaker who spoke to the AP.
___
Reporting from Pyongyang by Associated Press Television News senior video journalist Rafael Wober. AP writers Foster Klug, Hyung-jin Kim, Sam Kim and Eric Talmadge in Seoul, South Korea, Lolita Baldor in Washington, and Korea bureau chief Jean H. Lee contributed to this story.
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Monday, President Obama addressed the nation and said in an official statement that Al-Qaida's leader Osama bin Laden has been killed in a U.S. Special Forces military operation in Pakistan.
The news quickly spread around the U.S. and Americans reacted to bin Laden's death with public celebrations. Crowds gathered in New York where the terrorist attacks occurred 10 years ago, cheering and waving flags. New York firefighters also gathered in New York's landmark Times Square cheering. People gathered outside the White House and were also celebrating the death of the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
So here are the reactions of people around the U.S. and also those who have been directly affected by the terrorist attacks and lost loved ones on 9/11.
"The murderer, the monster is no more," said Mary Ann of Pennsylvania. "I just didn't think they will ever get him. I'm just so surprised they finally got him"
A guy in Pennsylvania (where one of the airplanes with the terrorists on board went down) was wearing a sign saying: "I did not forget."
"It just made me feel proud that after all these years they finally got him," said Jeff Barry of Pleasant Hills, Pa.
President Obama declared that today was "a good day for America."
A family member of a 9/11 victim said: "Better later than never!" about capturing and killing the al-Qaida leader who evaded authorities for so long and managed to hide and escape for the past 10 years.
A family member who lost a loved one in the 9/11 attacks said: "I couldn't believe how quickly people forget things. But now I see that they haven't forgotten what happened on that day."
The DHS secretary Janet Napolitano said the U.S. still remains "at a heightened state of vigilance" and has issued "a situational awareness alert."
Former CIA director said: "Brace for retaliatory attacks" on the U.S.
In my opinion "It was about time and way overdue to capture the most wanted terrorist." I'm even surprised that it took the US military so long.
So, is the war of terror over or is this just the end of a long-lasting hunt for a major terrorist?
In my opinion, the long wars in the Middle East will create more anti-American sentiments in that region of the world. If the U.S. continues to strike and kill in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and now Pakistan, there will be retaliation of some kind by Islamic groups.
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Washington ? After a year of clashes on Capitol Hill over trillion-dollar deficits, 40 is suddenly the biggest number in congressional politics, as Democrats and House Republicans clash over a payroll-tax cut and other measures set to expire on Jan. 1.
Forty dollars is the average drop that some 160 million Americans will see in their paychecks, if Congress doesn?t act.
A White House call for responses to what a $40 tax hike means to families produced thousands of tweets in just 24 hours. Replies included: ?nearly a tank of gas,? ?feeding my family for three nights,? ?two months of vet care,? ?co-pay for prescription drugs,? and ?default on my mortgage, so I can feed my son.?
RECOMMENDED: Why 'temporary' tax cuts never die: Payroll tax and 3 other examples
With just 10 days before the payroll tax ?holiday? and other measures expire, the cost to American families of gridlock as usual on Capitol Hill is immediate and personal. Democrats and the White House are counting on public outrage to force Speaker John Boehner ? and the tea-party backed conservatives who pushed GOP leaders to take on this fight ? to cave.
?The average Republican House member is going to hear from their constituents, and the pressure to come back and pass our bill is just going to increase,? said Sen. Charles Schumer (D) of New York in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday.
?If it?s really a one-year deal you want, so do we,? he added. ?We will be the first ones on a plane to work out a one-year deal but on one condition: First pass the Senate?s two-month agreement, then we can negotiate right away and maybe have the whole thing done by New Years.?
In a bid to dramatize the impasse, House Democratic whip Steny Hoyer and Rep. Chris van Hollen (D) of Maryland took to the House floor in a bid to pass the Senate bill by unanimous consent. They were gaveled down at the start of a pro forma session that only lasted a few minutes.
?The House Republican leadership never even allowed a vote on the bipartisan Senate bill,? says Mr. Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. ?The reason they didn?t allow a vote was that they knew it would pass on a bipartisan vote.?
The payroll tax impasse began on Tuesday, as House Republicans rejected a Senate bill that would have extended the payroll tax and other expiring provisions for two months, on a party-line vote, 229 to 193. The Senate bill, which passed 89 to 10, also extended expiring federal benefits for jobless workers and blocked a 27.4 percent drop in payments to doctors serving Medicare patients, set to take hold on Jan. 1.
Speaker Boehner called for Senate Democrats to return to Washington to work out differences with the House. He called on President Obama to help persuade Democrats to come to the table.
But on Wednesday, the Speaker and eight negotiators appointed to conference with Senate Democrats met at an empty table and under a hail of criticism.
The Wall Street Journal?s editorial page dubbed the payroll tax strategy ?a fiasco.?
Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona retweeted the WSJ editorial to his 1.7 million followers.
Senate Republicans stepped up public criticism of House GOP leaders for blocking a bipartisan solution to the impasse, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, since Sunday, went silent.
?We are here in Washington working today because we want to make sure that the middle class and working families of this country have some certainty that their taxes will not go up for the entirety of next year,? said House majority leader Eric Cantor (R) of Virginia, at a photo op at the start of Wednesday?s meeting.
???Frankly, that's the only issue with which we differ with the Senate. And we're asking, as the Speaker said, for the Senate majority leader to appoint conferees to come join us to try and finish the work for the American people before the end of the year,??
Senate Republican leaders and eight members appointed to serve on the conference committees say they are committed to staying in Washington to find a solution. But House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi or Senate majority leader Harry Reid say they will not appoint conferees or negotiate with the House until the House votes to accept the Senate measure.
In a letter on Wednesday, Senator Reid again called on the House to take up the Senate bill. ?Because we have a responsibility to assure middle-class families that their taxes will not go up while we work out our differences, we must pass this immediate extension first,? he wrote.
Summing up how Democrats view House GOP leverage on this issue, Senator Schumer told reporters today: ?They?re at the end of the rope.?
RECOMMENDED: Why 'temporary' tax cuts never die: Payroll tax and 3 other examples
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FILE-This Oct. 26, 2011 file photo shows boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. walking into court for his misdemeanor harassment case at the Clark County Regional Justice Center. Officials say Mayweather Jr. will plead guilty in Las Vegas to reduced charges in a plea deal settling felony allegations that he battered his ex-girlfriend and a misdemeanor charge that he poked a security guard. An aide to Clark County District Attorney David Roger confirmed the 34-year-old boxer will enter his pleas Wednesday Dec. 21, 2011 in Las Vegas Justice Court. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Review-Journal, Jeff Scheid, File)
FILE-This Oct. 26, 2011 file photo shows boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. walking into court for his misdemeanor harassment case at the Clark County Regional Justice Center. Officials say Mayweather Jr. will plead guilty in Las Vegas to reduced charges in a plea deal settling felony allegations that he battered his ex-girlfriend and a misdemeanor charge that he poked a security guard. An aide to Clark County District Attorney David Roger confirmed the 34-year-old boxer will enter his pleas Wednesday Dec. 21, 2011 in Las Vegas Justice Court. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Review-Journal, Jeff Scheid, File)
Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., left, and his attorney, Karen Winckler, listen as he is sentenced in Clark County District Court, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011, in Las Vegas. Mayweather was sentenced to 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to reduced battery domestic violence and harassment charges. The 34-year-old was also ordered to complete 100 hours of community service and pay a $2,500 fine. The plea deal avoids trial on felony allegations that he hit his ex-girlfriend and threatened two of their children during an argument at her home in September 2010. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. listens as his attorney speaks on his behalf before sentencing in Clark County District Court, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011, in Las Vegas. Mayweather was sentenced to 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to reduced battery domestic violence and harassment charges. The 34-year-old was also ordered to complete 100 hours of community service and pay a $2,500 fine. The plea deal avoids trial on felony allegations that he hit his ex-girlfriend and threatened two of their children during an argument at her home in September 2010. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., left, has his tie adjusted by his manager Leonard Ellerbe while waiting for sentencing in Clark County District Court, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011, in Las Vegas. Mayweather was sentenced to 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to reduced battery domestic violence and harassment charges. The 34-year-old was also ordered to complete 100 hours of community service and pay a $2,500 fine. The plea deal avoids trial on felony allegations that he hit his ex-girlfriend and threatened two of their children during an argument at her home in September 2010. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., left, comments to his attorney Karen Winckler before being sentence in Clark County District Court, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011, in Las Vegas. Mayweather was sentenced to 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to reduced battery domestic violence and harassment charges. The 34-year-old was also ordered to complete 100 hours of community service and pay a $2,500 fine. The plea deal avoids trial on felony allegations that he hit his ex-girlfriend and threatened two of their children during an argument at her home in September 2010. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
LAS VEGAS (AP) ? Boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. is a perfect 42-0 in the ring and has dodged significant jail time several times in domestic violence cases in Las Vegas and Michigan.
But his courtroom streak came to an end Wednesday when a Las Vegas judge sentenced him to 90 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to a reduced battery domestic violence charge and no contest to two harassment charges.
The case stemmed from a hair-pulling, punching and arm-twisting argument with his ex-girlfriend Josie Harris while two of their children watched in September 2010.
"Punishment is appropriate," Justice of the Peace Melissa Saragosa said after a prosecutor complained that Mayweather has been in trouble before and hasn't faced serious consequences.
"No matter who you are, you have consequences to your actions when they escalate to this level of violence," she said.
Good behavior could knock several weeks off Mayweather's sentence. but he will likely serve most of the sentence set to begin Jan. 6, said Officer Bill Cassell, a Las Vegas police spokesman.
Mayweather and his manager, Leonard Ellerbe, declined comment outside the courtroom.
The jail time raises doubts about a possible showdown between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, a champion fighter from the Philippines against whom Mayweather's welterweight success is usually measured.
A long-awaited fight between the two men regarded as among the best of their generation has been delayed by stalling techniques and verbal sparring.
The two men have a defamation lawsuit pending in Las Vegas federal court stemming from statements by Mayweather that he suspects Pacquiao was taking performance-enhancing drugs.
Mayweather returned in September from a 16-month layoff to continue his undefeated record with a controversial knockout of Victor Ortiz in Las Vegas.
Mayweather's promoters have a May 5 date reserved against an as-yet unnamed opponent at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. But if Mayweather is jailed until the end of March, it could cut into the usual eight-plus weeks he takes to train.
Keith Kizer, executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, said licenses for all fighters expire on Saturday, and most, including Mayweather, have yet to reapply for next year.
He said Mayweather would be asked on his license application if he was convicted of any misdemeanors or felonies.
Kizer said commissioners would then decide whether to approve or deny his license or hold a hearing to talk about it. The commission has been in contact with prosecutors and Mayweather's lawyers as cases against him have progressed, he said.
"The commissioners are definitely up to speed on it and will be when it comes time to consider any kind of application," he said.
Lee Samuels, a spokesman for Pacquiao's promoter Top Rank and Bob Arum, declined comment on Mayweather's sentencing and its possible effect on a match.
Mayweather, 34, stood still in a striped olive vest and showed no reaction as the judge sentenced him to six months in the Clark County jail then suspended half the term.
She gave him credit for three days previously served in jail and ordered him to complete 100 hours of community service, pay a $2,500 fine and complete a yearlong domestic violence counseling program.
The plea deal avoided trial on felony and misdemeanor that could have gotten Mayweather 34 years in state prison if he was convicted on all counts.
Mayweather also is expected to plead no contest next week to a separate misdemeanor harassment charge involving a 21-year-old homeowner association security guard who was poked in the face during an argument about parking tickets placed on cars outside Mayweather's house.
Mayweather's lawyer, Karen Winckler, said she may appeal what she called the unusual sentence handed down Wednesday.
In court, she called Mayweather "a champion in many areas" and aired a list of his good deeds, including buying toys for children for Christmas and promising to donate $100,000 to breast cancer research by the end of December.
Winckler argued that the public would benefit more if Mayweather performed 100 hours of community service with children.
Mayweather is also on the hook for 40 hours of community service with the Las Vegas Habitat for Humanity Project under a South Carolina federal judge's order for dodging a deposition in a music rights lawsuit.
Mayweather has a Jan. 31 deadline on that court order. Habitat for Humanity official Catherine Barnes said Wednesday that Mayweather had not started to log the hours.
Saragosa said Wednesday she was persuaded to jail Mayweather following his admission that he hit Harris and twisted her arm, and that two of their children, ages 9 and 10, witnessed the attack.
Mayweather threatened to kill or make Harris "disappear," Saragosa said, and their 10-year-old son ran from the house and jumped a back gate to fetch security. Mayweather had taken cellphones belonging to Harris and the two boys.
"Things could have gotten more out of hand than they did," the judge said.
Prosecutor Lisa Luzaich cited three previous domestic violence arrests for scuffles involving Harris, with whom Mayweather has three children, and three cases involving another woman with whom Mayweather has one child.
Fines were of no consequence to Mayweather, Luzaich said.
Mayweather goes by the nickname "Money," and was guaranteed $25 million for the Ortiz fight that won him the WBC's welterweight belt. Mayweather earned more than $20 million in a previous fight against "Sugar" Shane Mosley.
Mayweather has been arrested several times since 2002 in battery and violence cases in Las Vegas and in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Mich.
He was convicted in 2002 of misdemeanor battery stemming from a fight with two women at a Las Vegas nightclub. He received a suspended one-year jail sentence and was ordered to undergo impulse-control counseling.
He was fined in Grand Rapids in February 2005 and ordered to perform community service after pleading no contest to misdemeanor assault and battery for a bar fight.
He was acquitted by a Nevada jury in July 2005 after being accused of hitting and kicking Harris during an argument outside a Las Vegas nightclub.
He was acquitted again in October of misdemeanor allegations that he threatened two homeowner association security guards during a parking ticket argument.
Mayweather also faces a civil lawsuit in Las Vegas from two men who allege he orchestrated a shooting attack on them outside a skating rink in 2009. Police have never accused Mayweather of firing shots and he has never been criminally charged in the case.
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SIOUX CITY, Iowa--In the spin room after Thursday night's debate, Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser to Mitt Romney, said of his candidate, "Americans watching at home could easily imagine him in the Oval Office." The line was, of course, designed to be flattering to Romney (this was the spin room, after all), but it captured the leap of faith that voters will make next month, beginning in Iowa on Jan. 3.
How do you imagine a president? Despite the oversize role of TV debates in the 2012 Republican presidential campaign, as the curtain falls on 2011? it is worth remembering how much about the job of the president was never discussed during these celebrity survivor shows. Three years ago, few Democrats, flush with the enthusiasm of the 2008 campaign season, could have envisioned President Barack Obama bedeviled by congressional Republicans and buffeted by chilly economic winds he cannot control. Now Republicans have to identify a would-be president from the seven candidates on stage during the final debate before the Iowa caucuses--picturing one of them delivering a State of the Union address, choosing the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and struggling with more gloomy projections from economic advisers.
The debates in 2011 did little to help voters to imagine the 45th president. The moderators could not resist fatuous horse-race questions: Megyn Kelly asked Rick Santorum on Thursday, "So far your campaign and you have failed to catch fire with the voters. Why?" The strait-jacket imposed by one-minute answers is at odds with the complexity of the presidency. Jon Huntsman was all but forced to sit in the corner with a dunce cap after he had the temerity to try to take two minutes to explain the role of the United Nations in American foreign policy. Candidates are also adroit at confecting crowd-pleasing banalities instead of real answers. Romney boldly declared, "It has to be the American century. America has to lead the free world."
The real problem is that debates tend to revolve around position-taking (what senators do all day) rather than executive policy-making (the job of a president). Early in the Sioux City debate, Newt Gingrich bragged, "I have a 90 percent American Conservative Union voting record for 20 years." Michele Bachmann burbled about devoting her congressional career to "going toe-to-toe with Barack Obama, taking him on, on every issue from Dodd-Frank to cap-and-trade to illegal immigration to Obamacare." Rick Perry once again peddled a balanced-budget amendment and a part-time Congress as a panacea. And Huntsman declared, ""We need to go to Congress and we need to say, you need term limits." (Almost certain congressional answer: "Fat chance.")
Even when the topic turned to a major presidential power, nominating federal judges, the emphasis quickly veered from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to Capitol Hill. Gingrich was asked about his long-standing proposal for Congress (not the president) to subpoena judges to justify controversial decisions. This was all part of the former House speaker's pledge "to take on the judiciary if, in fact, it did not restrict itself in what it was doing." Part of Gingrich's big-ideas solution involves eliminating entire federal appeals courts, as Thomas Jefferson did in 1802, should its decisions displease him. Because position-taking trumps governing in these battles waged from behind lecterns, Gingrich was never asked how such a radical proposal would survive a near-certain filibuster by Senate Democrats.
Sure, working with Congress is a major part of the presidential job description posted on Monster.com. But in debates, presidential candidates are allowed to claim without contradiction that they possess magical powers to cloud the minds of legislators. Perry, who has been a polarizing figure in both Texas and national politics, blandly invoked bipartisanship: "We need a president, who has that governing, executive experience, someone who understands how to work with both sides of the aisle." Romney, suggesting that not all Democrats are patriotic, said, "There are Democrats who love America as Republicans do, but we need to have a leader in the White House, that knows how to lead." Bachmann said that if she were president during last summer's debt-ceiling crisis, she would have met with all 535 members of Congress and dictated her three non-negotiable conditions--no tax increases, drastic spending cuts and fidelity to the Constitution. She ran out of time before she could explain how she could have convinced Democrats to agree without resorting to mass hypnosis.
Ron Paul was the only candidate to articulate his vision of the presidency: Calvin Coolidge for the 21st century, only sleepier. "I would be a different kind of president," Paul said with understatement. "I wouldn't be looking for more power. Everybody wants to be a powerful executive and run things. I, as the president, wouldn't want to run the world." Even as the Texas gadfly grew shrill in his exasperation with the bomb-bomb-bomb, bomb-bomb-Iran rhetoric from his Republican rivals, Paul was clear in how he would respond to ambiguous intelligence estimates: "I would say that the greatest danger is over-reacting."
Over-reacting to televised highlight reels from a debate is also dangerous. Often the most intriguing moments in debates are the ones that are barely mentioned in the after-action wrap-ups. Perry, for example, offered a brief, but telling, glimpse of his executive style when he said about Attorney General Eric Holder's ignorance of a failed federal gun-tracking operation on the Mexican border, "If I'm the president of the United States, and I find out that there is an operation like Fast and Furious and my attorney general didn't know about it, I would have him resign immediately."
Few debate questions--or answers--relate to the actual executive powers that come with the keys to the Oval Office and the codes for nuclear weapons. In almost every debate, except Sioux City, Gingrich promises to bring Lean Six Sigma business management techniques to the federal government. Instead of concocting clever gotcha questions, maybe a debate moderator might someday ask Gingrich to explain how Lean Six Sigma would work in the Commerce Department.
A na?ve fantasy, sure. But it is the Christmas season and a time for dreamers.
Walter Shapiro, a special correspondent for the New Republic, is covering his ninth presidential campaign. Follow him on Twitter at?@waltershapiroPD. This is part of a series of columns examining what we know about the character and personalities of the 2012 candidates.
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ScienceDaily (Dec. 16, 2011) ? A large, international team of researchers led by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has identified the gene that causes a rare childhood neurological disorder called PKD/IC, or "paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia with infantile convulsions," a cause of epilepsy in babies and movement disorders in older children.
The study involved clinics in cities as far flung as Tokyo, New York, London and Istanbul and may improve the ability of doctors to diagnose PKD/IC, and it may shed light on other movement disorders, like Parkinson's disease.
The culprit behind the disease turns out to be a mysterious gene found in the brain called PRRT2. Nobody knows what this gene does, and it bears little resemblance to anything else in the human genome.
"This is both exciting and a little bit scary," said Louis Ptacek, MD, who led the research. The John C. Coleman Distinguished Professor of Neurology at UCSF and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Ptacek is a professor in the Department of Neurology, which seeks to discover the causes of human nervous system disorders and improve treatment options for patients by applying state-of-the-art translational research methods and engaging in collaborations with colleagues around the globe.
Discovering the gene that causes PKD/IC will help researchers understand how the disease works. It gives doctors a potential new way of definitively diagnosing the disease by looking for genetic mutations in the gene. The work may also shed light on other conditions that are characterized by movement disorders, including possibly Parkinson's disease.
"Understanding the underlying biology of this disease is absolutely going to help us understand movement disorders in general," said Ptacek.
Disease Strikes Infants with Epileptic Seizures
PKD/IC strikes infants with epileptic seizures that generally disappear within a year or two. However, the disease often reemerges later in childhood as a movement disorder in which children suffer sudden, startling, involuntary jerks when they start to move. Even thinking about moving is enough to cause some of these children to jerk involuntarily.
The disease is rare, and Ptacek estimates strikes about one out of every 100,000 people in the United States. At the same time, the disease is classified as "idiopathic" -- which is just another way of saying we don't really understand it, Ptacek said.
If you take an image of the brain by MRI, patients with the disease all look completely normal. There are no injuries, tumors or other obvious signs that account for the movements -- as is often the case with movement disorders. Work with patients in the clinic had suggested a genetic cause, however.
"Sometimes we trace the family tree, and lo and behold, there is a history of it," said Ptacek. In the last several years, he and his colleagues have developed a large cohort of patients whose families have a history of the disease.
The new research was based on a cohort of 103 such families that included one or more members with the disease. Genetic testing of these families led to the researchers to mutations in the PRRT2 gene, which cause the proteins the gene encodes to shorten or disappear entirely in the brain and spinal cord, where they normally reside.
One possible explanation for the resulting neurological symptoms, the researchers found, relates to a loss of neuronal regulation. When the genetic mutations cause the gene products to go missing, the nerve cells where they normally appear may become overly excited, firing too frequently or strongly and leading to the involuntary movements.
The article, "Mutations in the Gene PRRT2 Cause Paroxysmal Kinesigenic Dyskinesia with Infantile Convulsions" by Hsien-Yang Lee, Yong Huang, Nadine Bruneau, Patrice Roll, Elisha D.O. Roberson, Mark Hermann, Emily Quinn, James Maas, Robert Edwards, Tetsuo Ashizawa, Betul Baykan, Kailash Bhatia, Susan Bressman, Michiko K. Bruno, Ewout R. Brunt, Roberto Caraballo, Bernard Echenne, Natalio Fejerman, Steve Frucht, Christina A. Gurnett, Edouard Hirsch, Henry Houlden, Joseph Jankovic, Wei-Ling Lee, David R. Lynch, Shehla Mohammed, Ulrich Meuller, Mark P. Nespeca, David Renner, Jacques Rochette, Gabrielle Rudolf, Shinji Saiki, Bing-Wen Soong, Kathryn J. Swoboda, Sam Tucker, Nicholas Wood, Michael Hanna, Anne M. Bowcock, Pierre Szepetowski, Ying-Hui Fu and Louis J. Ptacek appears in the January 26, 2012 issue of Cell Reports.
In addition to UCSF, authors on this study are affiliated with the Universit?de la M?diterran?e in Marseille, France; Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, MO; the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL; Istanbul University in Turkey; University College London; Beth Israel Medical Center in New York; the Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, HI; the University of Groningen in the Netherlands; Juan P. Garrahan Pediatric Hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina; H?pital Gui de Chauliac in Montpellier, France; Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York; H?pitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg in France; Baylor College of Medicine in Houston; the National Neuroscience Institute in Singapore; Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; Guy's Hospital in London; Justus-Liebig-Universit?t in Giessen, Germany; Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego; the university of California, San Diego; the University of Utah in Salt Lake City; the Universit?de Picardie Jules Verne in Amiens, France; Kanazawa Medical University in Ishikawa, Japan; the National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine in Taipei, Taiwan; Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan; the International Paroxysmal Kinesigenic Dyskinesia/Infantile Convulsions Collaborative Working Group; and the Juntendo University School of Medicine in Tokyo.
This work was funded by the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation, the Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia Parkinson Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Sandler Neurogenetics Fund, ANR, INSERM and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - San Francisco. The original article was written by Jason Bardi.
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By msnbc.com staff
LIVINGSTON, Tenn. -- A first-year teacher from Overton County may lose his job after writing the word "stupid" across a student?s forehead?with permanent marker, a district official told WSMV-TV in Nashville.
The math teacher has been suspended indefinitely, Matt Eldridge, director of the Overton County Schools, told the NBC?television station.
"We're here to help the children and not to hurt them," Eldridge said, adding "One word can break a child. I mean, I've got three children. I wouldn't want it done to mine."
Read complete coverage from WSMV.com
The incident happened last week at Allons Elementary, where a student asked a question and the teacher responded by writing on the child?s forehead in front of his classmates, Eldridge told the TV station. The teacher also wrote the word "stupid" backward on the student's forehead, so he'd be able to read it when he saw himself in the mirror, he said.
"The teacher said, 'I was trying to joke with him,' and of course, I said, 'That?s not the way you joke with anyone,'" Eldridge said.
Allons Elementary is a K-8 school with a few hundred students just outside Livingston.
"It's kind of one of those mistakes that's hard to correct," Eldridge said.
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CARACAS, Venezuela ? Venezuela handed a top Colombian drug trafficking suspect to U.S. authorities on Thursday, deporting him to face charges of shipping tons of cocaine to the United States.
The U.S. had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Maximiliano Bonilla Orozco, known as "Valenciano," who was also on Colombia's most-wanted list. Bonilla was captured in Venezuela last month.
He was turned over to U.S. authorities at Caracas' international airport. U.S. counter-drug officials, their faces covered with masks, led the handcuffed Bonilla aboard a plane.
The U.S. State Department had listed Bonilla among its eight most-wanted Colombian drug traffickers after leftist rebels. U.S. officials say Bonilla sent tons of cocaine to the United States through Central America and Mexico, dealing extensively with Mexico's Zetas drug cartel.
Venezuela also deported a second Colombian suspect, Gildardo Garcia Cardona, to Colombia on Thursday. Garcia, an alleged member of the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, was captured in Venezuela in October.
Garcia is charged with drug trafficking, and Colombian officials had issued an order for his arrest through Interpol, Venezuelan Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami said.
When Bonilla was captured in the central city of Maracay, both Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called it an example of improved counter-drug cooperation.
Santos said Colombian authorities had provided intelligence to Venezuelan authorities, who tracked down Bonilla.
Bonilla, 39, allegedly headed a Medellin-based criminal organization dating back to the 1980s that once recruited hit men for the late cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar.
Wanted on a 2008 federal indictment from New York's eastern district for drug trafficking, Bonilla received cocaine from various sources in Colombia, including the country's rebels, Colombian and U.S. officials say.
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Microsoft Tag adds support for QR codes and NFC, seeks barcode dominance originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
PermalinkSeattle Times | Microsoft Tag Blog | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/14/microsoft-tag-adds-support-for-qr-codes-and-nfc-seeks-barcode-d/
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A few years back, Intel prognosticated that NVIDIA's CUDA technology was destined to be a "footnote" in computing history. Since that time, Jen-Hsun Huang's low level virtual machine (LLVM) has more than proven its worth in several supercomputers, and now NVIDIA has released the CUDA source code to further spread the parallel computing gospel. This move opens up the LLVM to be used with more programming languages and processors (x86 or otherwise) than ever before, which the company hopes will spur development of "next-generation higher performance computing platforms." Academics and chosen developers can get their hands on the code by registering with NVIDIA at the source below, so head on down and get started -- petaflop parallel processing supercomputers don't build themselves, you know.NVIDIA open sources CUDA compiler, shares the LLVM love with everyone originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Dec 2011 22:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
PermalinkThe Inquirer | NVIDIA | Email this | Comments
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In this photo taken Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011, a canned powdered milk for infants Meiji Step, manufactured and sold by Japan's major food and candy maker Meiji Co., is shown. Traces of radiation spilled from the hobbled Japanese nuclear plant were detected in baby formula Tuesday in the latest in a string of contaminated food turning up in this nation. Meiji recalled the canned powdered milk, with expiration dates of October 2012. But the company said the levels of radioactive cesium found were so low that they would not affect health. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO LICENSING IN CHINA, FRANCE, HONG KONG, JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREA
In this photo taken Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011, a canned powdered milk for infants Meiji Step, manufactured and sold by Japan's major food and candy maker Meiji Co., is shown. Traces of radiation spilled from the hobbled Japanese nuclear plant were detected in baby formula Tuesday in the latest in a string of contaminated food turning up in this nation. Meiji recalled the canned powdered milk, with expiration dates of October 2012. But the company said the levels of radioactive cesium found were so low that they would not affect health. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO LICENSING IN CHINA, FRANCE, HONG KONG, JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREA
TOKYO (AP) ? Major Japanese food and candy maker Meiji Co. said it was recalling 400,000 cans of powdered milk for infants after traces of radiation from Japan's hobbled nuclear plant were detected in the formula.
The company said it did not know how many of the cans had reached consumers, but acknowledged Wednesday that it was being deluged with queries from worried buyers. The problem milk was manufactured in March and April, and was shipped starting in July with an October 2012 expiration date, it said.
The levels of radioactive cesium detected Tuesday were well below government-set safety limits, and the company said the amounts were low enough not to have any effect on babies' health even if they drank the formula every day.
"We are exchanging it so that people can feel their infants are safe," Meiji said in a statement.
Experts say children are more at risk than are adults of getting cancer and other illnesses from radiation exposure.
"There is no problem because the levels are within the government limit," Kazuhiko Tsurumi, a Health Ministry official in charge of food safety, said of the radiation in Meiji milk.
The March 11 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan sent three reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, and they have been spewing radiation into the air and ocean.
Some of that radiation has crept into food such as rice, fish and beef. But this was the first time radiation was reported in baby formula.
Airborne radioactive cesium contaminated milk as it was being dried at a plant in Saitama prefecture in March, according to Meiji, which has the top market share in Japan in baby formula sales.
It also exports baby milk to Vietnam under a different name, but none of the problem milk was exported to that country, company spokesman Masanobu Nakamura said.
The milk used to make the formula was mostly imported, from Australia and elsewhere. But a small portion of milk from Japan was also used, all from northern Hokkaido farms, which are outside areas that are at radiation contamination risk.
The levels of cesium-134 and cesium-137 in the milk were up to 31 becquerels per kilogram, which is below the government limit of 200 becquerels per kilogram set for milk.
The government has been reviewing its food safety and other radiation standards because some of them were not clearly defined before the nuclear crisis.
Not all food samples are monitored for radiation, and readings have been voluntarily reported by the manufacturers, including the latest by Tokyo-based Meiji.
Many consumers are worried. Some stores are labeling where food was grown or caught, allowing shoppers to opt for imports or products from parts of the country deemed safe.
___
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Chelsea seems charmed by her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Adam, on the season premiere of "Teen Mom 2."
By Ree Hines
Some things never change on ?Teen Mom 2.? If there?s trouble to be had, Jenelle Evans will find herself in the middle of it. If anyone?s going work hard to have it all, it?s Leah Messer. And if there?s one young mom that just can't put a certain teen dad behind her, well, that?s Chelsea Houska.
At the end of the first season of ?Teen Mom 2,? Chelsea finally said "so long" to her on-again-off-again boyfriend. But by the second season premiere, it seems she?s falling for Adam Lindt?s sometimes-good-guy act once again.
In an exclusive sneak peek MTV provided to TODAY.com, Adam can be seen turning on the charm while fawning over daughter Aubree.
?(Aubree) does tricks,? Chelsea told Adam.
?What is she? A dog?? Adam responded, clearly easing into his charming ways.
Aubree then impressed both parents by delivering an adorable ?get mad? face on demand. That inspired Adam.
?I want to hold her ? as a family,? he said.
Chelsea then told her daughter to give each of them a kiss. Aubree obliged, but Adam turned it into something more.
?It?s like we just kissed,? he told a blushing Chelsea.
?No, it?s not!? she said.
?Yes, it is,? Adam insisted. ?You just kissed me.?
The flirty routine continued until Adam finally walked out the door.
?Teen Mom 2? returns to MTV Tuesday, Dec. 6 at 10 p.m. ET.
What do you think of the latest between Chelsea and Adam? Is she just setting herself up for more disappointment from his usual good-dad-bad-dad routine, or is there a chance they can make it work this time? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.
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S. Sabawoon / EPA
A body is covered at the scene of an attack near a shrine in Kabul, Afghanistan.
By msnbc.com staff and news services
KABUL?-- A suicide bomber attacked a Shiite Muslim shrine in central Kabul on Tuesday where a crowd of hundreds had gathered for the festival of Ashoura, killing at least 30 people and injuring dozens more in an unprecedented sectarian attack.
The attacker blew himself up in the midst of a crowd of men, women and children. The mosque had been packed with worshippers and many who could not fit inside were?outside the building.
The blast came shortly after a bicycle bomb?near a mosque in the?northern city of?Mazar-e-Sharif killed at least four people.?Another?bomb in a motorcycle exploded in the southern city of Kandahar on Tuesday afternoon, injuring three civilians.
Afghanistan has a history of tension and violence between Sunnis and the Shiite minority but while such attacks have become commonplace in neighboring Pakistan and parts of the Middle East such as Iraq, they have not occurred in Afghanistan.
"Afghanistan has been at war for 30 years and terrible things have happened, but one of the things that Afghans have been spared generally has been what appears to be this kind of very targeted sectarian attack," Kate Clark, from the Afghanistan Analysts Network, told?Reuters.?"We don't know who planted the bomb yet and it is dangerous to jump to conclusions but if it was Taliban, it marks something really serious, and dangerous, and very troubling."?
Updated at 5:15 a.m.: "The shrine's loudspeaker continued to blast a recitation of the Quran as ambulances carried bodies and wounded away," the Associated Press reports.?It adds that the Abul Fazl shrine is located close to the palace where President Hamid?Karzai lives.?Its blue minaret is one of Kabul's better known landmarks.??
Updated at 4:55 a.m. ET:?Britain's Telegraph newspaper reports that?"Shiites were banned from marking Ashoura in public under the Taliban who ruled Afghanistan until 2001. This year, there are more Ashoura monuments around the city than usual including black shrines and flags."
Updated at 4:35 a.m. ET: Jonathan Boone (@jon_boone), a Kabul-based correspondent for The Guardian, tweets quoting US General John Allen as describing the attack as "the latest example of the insurgents' blatant disregard for human life."
Updated at 4:25 a.m. ET:? Mohammad Bakir Shaikzada, the top Shiite cleric in Kabul, said that it was the first time that Shiites have been attacked in decades.?"This is a crime against Muslims during the holy day of Ashoura. We Muslims will never forget these attacks. It is the enemy of the Muslims who are carrying them out," he said. He did not know who could have carried out such an attack.
?
Updated at 4:15 a.m. ET: Afghan President Hamid Karzai says it is first time that "terrorism" of this kind has occurred in the country on such a religious day, Reuters reports.
Updated at 4:10 a.m. ET:?Ahmad Shuja (@ahmadshuja),?director of Foundation for Afghanistan, tweets: "My hunch: Today's attacks WON'T, per se, touch off chain of sectarian violence. No Shiite group organized enough or duly experienced."
Updated at 4:00 a.m ET: NBC News cites a health official as saying that at least 50 people were injured in the Kabul blast.
?
Updated at 3.55 a.m. ET: Mohammad Zahir, head of Kabul's Criminal Investigation Department,?told Reuters?he had counted up to 20 bodies at a Kabul hospital, and expected the toll to rise following the explosion at a Shiite shrine in the Afghan capital. A?second attack near the main mosque in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif?killed four people and injured 17 others.
Reuters journalists Mirwais Harooni and?Emma Graham-Harrison?point out that although "Afghanistan has a history of tension and violence between Sunnis and the Shiite minority ... since the fall of the Taliban the country had been spared the large scale sectarian attacks that have troubled neighboring Pakistan. The noon bomb in a riverside shrine, in the heart of old Kabul, appears to set a grim new precedent."
Updated at 3:47 a.m. ET:?At least?34 people were killed on Tuesday after blasts hit Shiite shrines in Afghanistan during the festival of Ashoura, Al Jazeera English reported citing local media reports and police.
Published at 3:30 a.m. ET: A blast at a shrine in Afghanistan's capital during the Shiite festival of Ashoura killed up to 24 people Tuesday, according to reports.
Meanwhile, four others were killed in the northern city of Mazar-I-Sharif when a bomb on bicycle exploded, Reuters said. The victims included a soldier.
The Kabul explosion was caused by a suicide bomber, Al Jazeera reported. It put the death toll at 24.
However, Hashmatullah Stanekzai, a spokesman for Kabul police, told the Associated Press that it wasn't clear if the explosives were planted in the shrine or if a suicide bomber was behind the attack.
The AP reported that at least 15 had been killed in the attack on the shrine, where worshippers were gathering for Ashoura, the Shiite Muslim holiday marking the death of Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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