spanner capsize: 2013

Monday, August 5, 2013

MARSHALL: Detroit's wackiest sports fans spark stadium memories

With the passing of Comerica Park fixture "Eat em Up Tigers" guy recently, memories were sparked of other colorful Detroit sports Superfans.

Spanning the last few decades, here are just some of the special, charismatic and mostly popular figures who devoted much of their lives to worshipping Detroit teams and trying to entertain their fellow fans.

"Eat em Up Tigers" guy. In honor of his death, Eat em Up goes first. Since Comerica Park was opened, James VanHorn has graced fans approaching the stadium with his intense, rhythmic and passionate cheer of "eat em up Tigers, eat em up!" Over and over at machine-gun pace. If nothing else, his stamina was incredible. Eat em Up usually wore a huge green Hulk Hand that held the cup he used to collect donations. Never in many encounters did I hear Eat em Up ask for money, but I always heard him say "bless you," if you gave. A classic.

Leon "The Barber" Bradley. The very verbal 60s-something man designated himself as the Pistons' No. 1 fan. He attended nearly every Detroit game in the 80's and verbally lashed a majority of opposing players and coaches. Pistons players weren't even spared from his heckling. Leon was very creative in his digs and there have been more than one player complain about his personal attacks.

"The Brow." Joe Diroff was a retired, 30-year math teacher with an affinity for making creative, albeit obvious, signs that he would hold up in appropriate situations. Always dressed in white shirt, tie and fishing hat, The Brow - aptly named - stood out for several reasons, not the least of which was his legendary, almost scary unibrow. The Brow was known for standing up and inciting the fans with loud, demonstrative cheers. The Brow also was a mainstay at Detroit Metro Airport, greeting all the teams when they returned from road trips.

"Dancing Gus." Pistons fans over the age of 45 will probably remember Gus Sinaris. A rotund, rugged looking middle-aged man in the 1970s, Gus was a vendor at Cobo Arena, then the Pistons' home. At least once a game, Gus would come charging down the steep steps in the balcony, lean over the railing and belt out primal screams at the fans below. Many of us were certain that's the way he would leave us. Of note: Gus's son, Jimmy "Tiger" Sinaris, would go on to become a vendor at Tiger Stadium. Both, sadly, have passed.

"Hot Dog Guy." Singing at the top of his very ample lungs, Opera Guy belts out Hoottttttttt Dawwwgggsss! in a dramatic operatic tone at Tigers games. Still active at Comerica Park, Hot Dog Guy's arias were restricted a few years back to designated innings so as not to scare infants or blast out hearing aids.

"Herbie Redmond." Perhaps my favorite, little Herbie was a member of the grounds crew at Tiger Stadium from 1969-89. When the gang would come out to smooth the infield with the big brooms, John Denver's "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" would blare. When Herbie made his turn near first base, he would stop, shake his bootie and wave his hat to the crowd. Unofficially nicknamed "Herbie the Hoofer," by some. Herbie had several variations on his shuffle, including a limbo version and a polka version. A very versatile super fan.

"Mo Cheese." Who doesn't remember Mo Cheese from the Red Wings' glory Stanley Cup era. A good-sized fella who always sported a Red Wings jersey, Mo did his version of the Curly Shuffle from Three Stooges fame, flashed on the arena big screen. Rarely has a big man been blessed with such quick feet, no doubt fueled by the crowd and a few cold ones. During the playoffs, Mo would do his shtick with a Stanley Cup replica perched atop his noggin.

"Lions Super Fan." Known apparently just for wearing outlandish Lions gear, including a full set of shoulder pads and oversized shades. After a lengthy and thorough investigation, Lions Super Fan appears to just be a strong team supporter with little or no lasting gimmick. On his facebook page (I know, right?), he lists his job as "self-employed football fan and CEO of Superfan Enterprises" and studied at "University of Lions football." OK. Continued...

With the passing of Comerica Park fixture "Eat em Up Tigers" guy recently, memories were sparked of other colorful Detroit sports Superfans.

Contact Brian Marshall at (586) 716-8100 or bmarshall@voicenews.com

Source: http://www.voicenews.com/articles/2013/08/03/opinion/doc51fd0b1995910870775823.txt

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Friday, July 12, 2013

Exposed: The Final Conversation Between Morsi and Egyptian Military | FrontPage Magazine

On July 5, El Watan (?the nation?), one of Egypt?s most popular newspapers, published the final dialogue between General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Dr. Muhammad Morsi, which took place on Tuesday July 2, a few hours before Morsi?s final speech to the Egyptian people.? A reporter who was taken to an adjacent room was allowed to witness and transcribe their conversation from a TV screen.? I translate the entire speech as it appears on El Watan below:

Exchange Between Morsi and Sisi

Morsi: What?s the military?s position concerning what?s going on?? Is it just going to stand by watching?? Shouldn?t it protect the legitimacy?

Sisi: What legitimacy?? The entire army is with the will of the people, and the overwhelming majority of people, according to documented reports, don?t want you.

Source: http://a12iggymom.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/exposed-the-final-conversation-between-morsi-and-egyptian-military-frontpage-magazine/

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Thursday, July 11, 2013

'Wasted' and 'hammered' versus 'buzzed' and 'tipsy' is more than just semantics

Public release date: 10-Jul-2013
[ | E-mail |

Share ]

Contact: Ash Levitt
alevitt@ria.buffalo.edu
716-887-3366
University at Buffalo, SUNY

Mark Wood
mark_wood@uri.edu
401-874-4252
University of Rhode Island

Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research

Prior research found that women tended to use moderate self-referral terms for intoxication, whereas men used heavy terms.
New findings confirm that men's drinking is generally described in terms indicative of excessive consumption while women tend to couch drinking in more moderate terms.
These labels of intoxication may impact perceptions and subsequent behaviors, but also inform tailored measures for prevention and intervention.
Understanding the natural language that drinkers use to describe intoxicated states can provide critical insight into subjective perceptions of intoxicated states, particularly among specific groups such as college students. This study extends previous research by assessing how college students apply intoxication terms to characters in hypothetical situations, finding that the ways in which the two genders perceive and communicate intoxicated states may help tailor unique measures for prevention and intervention.

Results will be published in the December 2013 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.

"Drinkers use a complex set of physical and cognitive indicators to estimate intoxication," said Ash Levitt, a research scientist at the Research Institute on Addictions at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. "In order to quickly and easily communicate various levels of intoxication, drinkers distill these indicators down into distinct sets of natural language terms for intoxication, such as 'tipsy' or 'wasted.' Understanding this language is important as these terms reflect levels of intoxication as well as whether individuals are accurately estimating intoxication levels when they use these terms."

Levitt's previous research examined how individuals use natural language intoxication terms to describe themselves. "We found that self-use of terms differed for moderate versus heavy intoxication levels, and that women tended to use moderate terms, whereas men used heavy terms. The current study extends this previous work."

"The study of natural language labels used to describe alcohol's effects hasn't received much attention to date," added Mark Wood, a professor of psychology at the University of Rhode Island. "Broadly speaking, there is a long history of research in psychology, particularly social psychology, examining the way that labels applied to behaviors can impact perceptions and subsequent behaviors. This study's key findings that men's drinking, regardless of whether it is moderate or heavy, is described using terms indicative of excessive consumption such as 'wasted' or 'hammered,' while women tend to couch drinking in more moderate terms such as 'buzzed' or 'tipsy' corresponds with the way that 'drinking men' and 'drinking women' are differentially perceived. As such, these findings have clear implications for prevention and intervention work with men and women."

As part of a larger online study on the natural language of intoxication, Levitt and his colleagues had 145 undergraduate students from a large Midwestern university participate in a survey during the spring semester of 2007 in return for partial course credit. Participants were randomly assigned to read one of eight vignette conditions in their survey; the number of participants in each cell ranged from 16 to19, with gender being roughly equal within each cell.

"The current study showed that natural language intoxication terms are applied to others similarly to oneself," said Levitt. "Specifically, results supported previous research by showing that moderate intoxication terms such as 'tipsy' were applied to female vignette characters more than male characters, even when female characters were heavily intoxicated, and that female participants applied these terms more than male participants. In contrast, heavy intoxication terms such as 'wasted' were applied to male vignette characters more than female characters, and male participants applied these terms more than female participants."

"An important next step for research would be to see whether the inaccuracies in describing intoxication can predict alcohol-related consequences for men and women," said Wood. "Clinicians could use this knowledge to work with men to help correct the notions that being 'hammered' is both typical and acceptable, and with women to increase awareness about the potential dangers of underestimating their own or others' degree of intoxication. It would also be interesting to more directly investigate how natural language labels are connected to judgments of men and women described with heavy and moderate intoxication labels."

"One potential real-world implication that this research suggests is that women may be at increased risk for alcohol-related consequences such as drunk driving if they or their friends underestimate how intoxicated they are by using moderate terms like 'tipsy' to describe them when, in fact, they are heavily intoxicated and heavy terms would be more accurate," added Levitt.

Wood concurred. "Another consequence of underestimating impairment could lead to sexual victimization," he said. "One example of this might be not recognizing a risky situation or overestimating the ability to manage it, such as recognizing and avoiding sexual assault. The finding that women tend to avoid natural language labels that indicate excessive consumption indicates awareness of a gender-based double standard in which drinking women, and perhaps especially drunk women, are judged more harshly than men. Other research has found that when a woman was drinking moderately versus drinking soda on a first date, participants indicated that there was a significantly greater likelihood that the date would end with sex, that the woman was more promiscuous in general, but was rated less favorable in terms of both social appeal and overall impressions."

Wood added that the findings also suggest that the "natural language" men use to describe their own and other men's drinking may promote hazardous beliefs. "These beliefs normalized heavy drinking as both what most men actually do and what they ought or should do," he said. "These beliefs, known in the scientific literature as descriptive and injunctive norms, have been found to influence heavy drinking and alcohol problems, particularly among younger drinkers like college students. They also provide a potential excuse for typically unacceptable behaviors as something that is normative, acceptable, and even fun. Essentially, in an instance like this, intoxication provides a 'cultural timeout' from regulating one's behavior."

###

Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (ACER) is the official journal of the Research Society on Alcoholism and the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism. Co-authors of the ACER paper, "Gender Differences in Natural Language Factors of Subjective Intoxication in College Students: An Experimental Vignette Study," were: Robert C. Schlauch of the Research Institute on Addictions? at the University at Buffalo, SUNY; and Bruce D. Bartholow and Kenneth J. Sher of the University of Missouri and the Midwest Alcoholism Research Center. The study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. This release is supported by the Addiction Technology Transfer Center Network at http://www.ATTCnetwork.org.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

'Wasted' and 'hammered' versus 'buzzed' and 'tipsy' is more than just semantics Public release date: 10-Jul-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Ash Levitt
alevitt@ria.buffalo.edu
716-887-3366
University at Buffalo, SUNY

Mark Wood
mark_wood@uri.edu
401-874-4252
University of Rhode Island

Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research

Prior research found that women tended to use moderate self-referral terms for intoxication, whereas men used heavy terms.
New findings confirm that men's drinking is generally described in terms indicative of excessive consumption while women tend to couch drinking in more moderate terms.
These labels of intoxication may impact perceptions and subsequent behaviors, but also inform tailored measures for prevention and intervention.
Understanding the natural language that drinkers use to describe intoxicated states can provide critical insight into subjective perceptions of intoxicated states, particularly among specific groups such as college students. This study extends previous research by assessing how college students apply intoxication terms to characters in hypothetical situations, finding that the ways in which the two genders perceive and communicate intoxicated states may help tailor unique measures for prevention and intervention.

Results will be published in the December 2013 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.

"Drinkers use a complex set of physical and cognitive indicators to estimate intoxication," said Ash Levitt, a research scientist at the Research Institute on Addictions at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. "In order to quickly and easily communicate various levels of intoxication, drinkers distill these indicators down into distinct sets of natural language terms for intoxication, such as 'tipsy' or 'wasted.' Understanding this language is important as these terms reflect levels of intoxication as well as whether individuals are accurately estimating intoxication levels when they use these terms."

Levitt's previous research examined how individuals use natural language intoxication terms to describe themselves. "We found that self-use of terms differed for moderate versus heavy intoxication levels, and that women tended to use moderate terms, whereas men used heavy terms. The current study extends this previous work."

"The study of natural language labels used to describe alcohol's effects hasn't received much attention to date," added Mark Wood, a professor of psychology at the University of Rhode Island. "Broadly speaking, there is a long history of research in psychology, particularly social psychology, examining the way that labels applied to behaviors can impact perceptions and subsequent behaviors. This study's key findings that men's drinking, regardless of whether it is moderate or heavy, is described using terms indicative of excessive consumption such as 'wasted' or 'hammered,' while women tend to couch drinking in more moderate terms such as 'buzzed' or 'tipsy' corresponds with the way that 'drinking men' and 'drinking women' are differentially perceived. As such, these findings have clear implications for prevention and intervention work with men and women."

As part of a larger online study on the natural language of intoxication, Levitt and his colleagues had 145 undergraduate students from a large Midwestern university participate in a survey during the spring semester of 2007 in return for partial course credit. Participants were randomly assigned to read one of eight vignette conditions in their survey; the number of participants in each cell ranged from 16 to19, with gender being roughly equal within each cell.

"The current study showed that natural language intoxication terms are applied to others similarly to oneself," said Levitt. "Specifically, results supported previous research by showing that moderate intoxication terms such as 'tipsy' were applied to female vignette characters more than male characters, even when female characters were heavily intoxicated, and that female participants applied these terms more than male participants. In contrast, heavy intoxication terms such as 'wasted' were applied to male vignette characters more than female characters, and male participants applied these terms more than female participants."

"An important next step for research would be to see whether the inaccuracies in describing intoxication can predict alcohol-related consequences for men and women," said Wood. "Clinicians could use this knowledge to work with men to help correct the notions that being 'hammered' is both typical and acceptable, and with women to increase awareness about the potential dangers of underestimating their own or others' degree of intoxication. It would also be interesting to more directly investigate how natural language labels are connected to judgments of men and women described with heavy and moderate intoxication labels."

"One potential real-world implication that this research suggests is that women may be at increased risk for alcohol-related consequences such as drunk driving if they or their friends underestimate how intoxicated they are by using moderate terms like 'tipsy' to describe them when, in fact, they are heavily intoxicated and heavy terms would be more accurate," added Levitt.

Wood concurred. "Another consequence of underestimating impairment could lead to sexual victimization," he said. "One example of this might be not recognizing a risky situation or overestimating the ability to manage it, such as recognizing and avoiding sexual assault. The finding that women tend to avoid natural language labels that indicate excessive consumption indicates awareness of a gender-based double standard in which drinking women, and perhaps especially drunk women, are judged more harshly than men. Other research has found that when a woman was drinking moderately versus drinking soda on a first date, participants indicated that there was a significantly greater likelihood that the date would end with sex, that the woman was more promiscuous in general, but was rated less favorable in terms of both social appeal and overall impressions."

Wood added that the findings also suggest that the "natural language" men use to describe their own and other men's drinking may promote hazardous beliefs. "These beliefs normalized heavy drinking as both what most men actually do and what they ought or should do," he said. "These beliefs, known in the scientific literature as descriptive and injunctive norms, have been found to influence heavy drinking and alcohol problems, particularly among younger drinkers like college students. They also provide a potential excuse for typically unacceptable behaviors as something that is normative, acceptable, and even fun. Essentially, in an instance like this, intoxication provides a 'cultural timeout' from regulating one's behavior."

###

Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (ACER) is the official journal of the Research Society on Alcoholism and the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism. Co-authors of the ACER paper, "Gender Differences in Natural Language Factors of Subjective Intoxication in College Students: An Experimental Vignette Study," were: Robert C. Schlauch of the Research Institute on Addictions? at the University at Buffalo, SUNY; and Bruce D. Bartholow and Kenneth J. Sher of the University of Missouri and the Midwest Alcoholism Research Center. The study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. This release is supported by the Addiction Technology Transfer Center Network at http://www.ATTCnetwork.org.

[ | E-mail | Share ]
?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/ace-a070313.php
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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Throwable Camera Prototype Guarantees Pitch Perfect Photography

It turns out that making a throwable camera isn't that tricky. But making a throwable camera that doesn't capture random obscure images, or spinning video that induces motion sickness, is kind of hard. In fact it's taken Steve Hollinger years to develop such a camera, but with the Squito?his latest prototype?it looks like he's almost nailed it.

As demonstrated, the ball features a series of built-in cameras looking out in all directions that are able to take photos of people as it sails through the air using intelligent image recognition. It's also able to capture sweeping panoramas, full 360 degree images by automatically stitching together multiple exposures, and even full stabilized video.

But besides serving as a novel way to take a selfie, Holinger's designed the Squito with several practical applications in mind. Thermal imaging and night vision capabilities coupled with the ability to wirelessly broadcast images makes it a useful tool for rescue personnel trying to assess a dangerous situation. Multiple Squitos can even be thrown at the same time to capture a wider field of view.

And most importantly, one day it's going to totally revolutionize the baseball instant replay. The only thing standing between the Squito dream and reality is enough funding to perfect and commercialize this prototype. [Serveball via Engadget]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/throwable-camera-prototype-guarantees-pitch-perfect-pho-717760533

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Jim Carrey Apologizes for Mocking Assault Rifle Fans

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/07/jim-carrey-apologizes-for-mocking-assault-rifle-fans/

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Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Calif. judge says public school yoga not religious

SAN DIEGO (AP) ? A judge is allowing a San Diego-area school district to teach yoga, rejecting the claims of disgruntled parents who called it an effort to promote Eastern religion.

Yoga is a religious practice, but not the way that it is taught by the Encinitas Union School District at its nine campuses, San Diego Superior Court Judge John S. Meyer said in Monday's ruling.

Meyer said the school district stripped classes of all cultural references including the Sanskrit language. He noted that the lotus position was renamed the "crisscross applesauce" pose.

The judge said that the opponents of the yoga class were relying on information culled from the Internet and other unreliable sources.

"It's almost like a trial by Wikipedia, which isn't what this court does," Meyer said.

An attorney for the parents, Dean Broyles, said he will likely appeal.

"It was the judge's job to call balls and strikes and determine the facts. I think he got some of the facts wrong," he said.

In the lawsuit Broyles argued that the twice weekly, 30-minute classes are inherently religious, in violation of the constitutional separation between church and state.

The Encinitas district is believed to be the first in the country to have full-time yoga teachers at every one of its schools. The lessons are funded by a $533,000, three-year grant from the Jois Foundation, a nonprofit group that promotes Asthanga yoga.

The plaintiffs were Stephen and Jennifer Sedlock and their children, who are students in the district.

Superintendent Timothy B. Baird said since the district started the classes in January, teachers and parents have noticed students are calmer, using the breathing practices to release stress before tests.

"We're not teaching religion," he told The Associated Press. "We teach a very mainstream physical fitness program that happens to incorporate yoga into it."

The lawsuit did not seek monetary damages but asked the court to intervene and suspend the program.

The lawsuit noted Harvard-educated religious studies professor Candy Gunther Brown found the district's program is pervasively religious, having its roots in Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist and metaphysical beliefs and practices.

Children who have opted out of the program have been harassed and bullied, the plaintiffs said.

Yoga is now taught at public schools from the rural mountains of West Virginia to the bustling streets of Brooklyn as a way to ease stress in today's pressure-packed world where even kindergartners say they feel tense about keeping up with their busy schedules. But most classes are part of an after-school program, or are offered only at a few schools or by some teachers in a district.

The Jois Foundation says it believes the program will become a national model to help schools teach students life skills.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/calif-judge-says-public-school-yoga-not-religious-183429236.html

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Thursday, May 9, 2013

Avril Lavigne Gets 'Complicated' In 'Here's To Never Growing Up' Video

MTV News goes behind the scenes of the video, where Avril wears her signature look, complete with tie and skateboard.
By Jocelyn Vena

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1707059/avril-lavigne-gets-complicated-heres-never-growing-up-video.jhtml

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Hot Tub Time Machine 2: Adam Scott Will Star!

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Monday, May 6, 2013

Winds topple trees, spark fires in Central Oregon

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) ? Winds gusting to 40 mph wreaked havoc on parts of Central Oregon Saturday, toppling trees that blocked roads and downing power lines that sparked at least two small wildfires and forced the evacuation of dozens of homes.

The fires were small, estimated at 10 acres and 100 acres respectively ? a small fraction of a square mile. But strong winds and warm temperatures made them tough to fight.

About 40 homes were evacuated in the afternoon when flames got too close to the Crescent Creek subdivision near La Pine, according to Sgt. Mike Biondi of the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office.

He said all the evacuees were given the OK to return home about 8 p.m.

Biondi said more than 20 people showed up at a Red Cross shelter, which was shutting down as the threat eased.

The all clear came after crews were able to make progress containing the fires as winds died down.

Lisa Clark of the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center says a larger fire was about 80 percent contained.

Power-company workers were heading to the smaller fire to clear downed lines so fire crews could safely finish a containment line.

Biondi also said that two key county roads closed because of the fires had been reopened.

Earlier, Lt. Chad Davis of the Deschutes Sheriff's Office said one blaze burned close to an elementary school in La Pine, but school property was not damaged. The fires hadn't burned any structures, he said.

No injuries were reported, but the authorities advised people to stay indoors until the winds subsided and crews could clean up roadways. Davis said the sheriff's office received several reports of transformers exploding and trees catching fire.

The gusty winds and unusually warm weather brought an early start to fire season in the Pacific Northwest.

Firefighters contained a third small fire about four miles south of Redmond. Crews were still investigating the cause. Authorities in Washington said a small, 10-acre blaze was creating a large amount of smoke in a remote, mountainous area between Portland and Seattle.

Fire experts warned last week that a dry winter and expected warming trend mean the potential for significant fire activity will be above normal on the West Coast, in the Southwest and portions of Idaho and Montana.

KTVZ-TV in Bend reported that garage sales, baseball games and other weekend events were under way on an otherwise-nice Saturday, but the winds made it challenging to hold things in place.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/winds-topple-trees-spark-fires-central-oregon-003858321.html

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There Is In Fact A Tech-Talent Shortage And There Always Will Be

For America to maintain its fragile role as the most innovative nation on earth, it must perpetually attract the world’s best and brightest. There will always be trailblazing engineers that stay in their home country, leaving the United States one notch below its potential. Yet, on the heels of comprehensive immigration reform, a new viral economic study claiming that there is no tech talent shortage has skewed the national discussion over why we need to aggressively attract high-skilled immigrants in the first place. An Economic Policy Institute study claims that there is a surplus of American engineers, and, as a result, has garnered national headlines in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic for busting “The Myth of America’s Tech-Talent Shortage”. It’s fueled protectionist critics who rail against the high-skilled visa system for a being a low-paying indentured servitude scheme to trap vulnerable foreigners into low-paying, exploitative companies. While the study highlights important misconceptions about our less-than-pretty immigration system, let’s not forget that many major tech firms, from Google to Tesla, were founded by immigrants. Yet, as more and more household-names are produced abroad, from Skype to Spotify, it’s becoming clear that America is losing it’s grip as the sole source of pathbreaking innovation. There will always be a shortage to the extent that America has?international?competition Below, I explain the Economic Policy Institute’s argument, its methodological shortcomings, and why there will always be a shortage of great workers. What Critics Claim The Economic Policy Institute argues that two important figures prove there is no tech talent shortage: There is a surplus of American graduates with Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) degrees Wages for STEM careers are stagnant; if there was a dearth of applicants, wages would rise to attract more workers Both of these claims are true. Roughly half of STEM graduates never take a job in the field, and 52% of of those who ditch a technology career do so for reasons related to pay, promotion, and working conditions. “For STEM graduates, the supply exceeds the number hired each year by nearly two to one,” write the authors. Perhaps more importantly, since the early 2000s, wages for programmers have virtually stalled. Yet, we know when there is demand for programmers in the tech industry, wages rise. Indeed, just prior to the Internet bubble, wages sky rocketed. Moreover, in one at least career with significant excess

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/9G1-Z6Lz6Rg/

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Thursday, May 2, 2013

What's a monster hurricane doing on top of Saturn? (+video)

A monster hurricane at Saturn's north pole, spotted by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, has an eye 1,250 miles wide and inner eye wall winds of 330 miles an hour. Its energy source is a mystery.

By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / April 30, 2013

In this undated false-color image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows stunning views of a monster hurricane at Saturn's North Pole.

JPL-Caltech/SSI/NASA/AP

Enlarge

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured images of a monster hurricane at Saturn's north pole ? a storm so vast and powerful it makes tropical cyclones on Earth look tame by comparison.

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The storm's eye alone spans some 1,250 miles ? about the distance from North Carolina's Outer Banks to central Kansas. Wind speeds at the inner eye wall have been clocked at 330 miles an hour. The storm extends for another 600 to 700 miles beyond the eye.

Like a hurricane eye on Earth, the eye of Saturn is virtually cloudless, with tall clouds forming the eye wall and extending out from the eye.

"We did a double take when we saw this vortex because it looks so much like a hurricane on Earth," Andrew Ingersoll, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., and a member of the Cassini science team, said in a prepared statement. "But there it is at Saturn, on a much larger scale."

Saturn's no-name storm sits nearly dead center inside another odd feature: a hexagonal ring of high-speed winds analogous to Earth's polar jet streams, high-altitude winds that circle the globe at high latitudes.

The hexagon is about the size of Jupiter's Great Red Spot, a feature that would cover two to three Earths side by side, Dr. Ingersoll explained in an interview.

Saturn's polar storm is small compared with Jupiter's Great Red Spot, the current record-holder for largest storm on any planet in the solar system. That storm sits in Jupiter's southern hemisphere at a latitude comparable to the central coast of Queensland in Australia, where tropical cyclones frequently make landfall. Winds speeds for the Great Red Spot hover at around 400 miles an hour.

Astronomers have observed Jupiter's ruddy blemish regularly since 1831, although some records hint at an initial observation in the 1600s. Indeed, it may be a permanent feature in the giant planet's atmosphere.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/4Jr9gPvd_ek/What-s-a-monster-hurricane-doing-on-top-of-Saturn-video

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Chris Brown opens up about Rihanna assault

By Josh Grossberg, E! Online

Chris Brown wants to say goodbye to the past. Stopping by "On Air With Ryan Seacrest," ?the "Look At Me Now" crooner talked candidly about the current status of his relationship with Rihanna, whether they've been able to move on after he assaulted her four years ago, and his own view of his bad behavior.

When asked by Ryan Seacrest whether he ever thought Ri-Ri would forgive him the way that she did, the 23-year-old Brown admitted he "didn't know," but he's been making amends for the incident ever since.

"I just tried my best to be the best man I could be over the years and just show her how remorseful and sorry I was for the incident and that time was probably the worst part of my life and being that she has and she's a wonderful person I'm eternally grateful and thankful," the entertainer told the American Idol host on his radio show.?

Jennifer Lopez and Chris Brown get together in the studio

As for how they're getting on now, Breezy added: "It's still like we're kids. I try not to be too grown and be like, 'Lets have candlelight dinner every night.' I try to make sure everything is fun. It has to be fun and it has to be genuine."

The singer also acknowledged the challenge he continues to face in winning fans back that abandoned him after his domestic violence rap.

"People are entitled to their opinions. I can't go around blaming. It's all about my responsibility and me growing up as a man," he said. "So I think now that I'm becoming older, and trying to mature in this life under the public eye at all times, I have to focus on doing the right thing and being more of a humble individual."

When Ryan wondered what lesson he learned from that tough time, Brown replied, "that you can lose it all."

Watch Chris Brown's lawyer addresses probation hearing

"And I'm not just saying fame or stardom because that's not what it's about. I'm talking about dignity (and) integrity. You know, you lose yourself in a way."

While he admitted he learned -- and is still learning -- from his mistakes, the R&B star was quick not to blame the beatdown on his relative youth (he was still a teenager at the time it happened).

"I think for me that at age 18, 19, I was capable of writing and producing songs, so I'm also capable of making the right choices," noted Brown. "Being at that young age, I can tell you I was arrogant and definitely hotheaded. Everybody has a temper, but for me it was not knowing how to control it when I thought I had the world in my hands."

Chris Brown's valet fight: Insider the dispute over $10 parking fee

The "F.A.M.E." artist also elaborated on the altercation he got into with a valet the other day over a $10 parking fee, saying that he had given the valet a $100 and the man came back and demanded more money.

Chris said next time: "I've got to just shut up and be like, 'Security go get the keys!' I'll be by the car."

On the business side of things, Brown -- who appeared on the show to promote his new single, "Fine China," which drops in April -- also revealed he's currently working on a collaboration with Jennifer Lopez, whom he hopes to feature on his new album.

To hear the singer's full interview with Seacrest, click here.

Rihanna & Chris Brown: Relationship rewind

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Samsung Galaxy S 4 hits the FCC in MetroPCS and Sprint forms

Get ready for a small deluge of Galaxy S 4 filings at the FCC in the near future. Just a couple of weeks after Samsung's flagship hit the US agency in its international guise, we're now seeing the first US editions of the smartphone receive approval, starting with both MetroPCS (SCH-R970) and Sprint (SPH-L720) examples. Either has CDMA, EV-DO and LTE, although there's variances you'll want to watch for if you're free to choose between carriers: the Sprint version has HSPA 3G for world roaming, while the MetroPCS model drops HSPA but has a broad four bands of LTE meant mostly to support other mid-size American networks, like US Cellular. We still have AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon to go among the bigger US providers supporting the GS4, although it's just a matter of time before their models make FCC appearances.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung, Sprint

Comments

Source: FCC (1), (2)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/27/samsung-galaxy-s-4-hits-the-fcc-in-metropcs-and-sprint-forms/

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EBay targets $110 billion of marketplace volume in 2015

By Alistair Barr

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - EBay Inc aims to handle $110 billion of sales volume on its marketplace in 2015 by expanding globally, getting more local inventory online and using mobile technology to engage more with shoppers, executives said on Thursday.

The new forecast, made by Devin Wenig, president of eBay's Marketplaces business in North America, compares with Gross Merchandise Volume, or GMV, of $75 billion in 2012.

GMV is a closely watched measure of eBay's performance. Doug Anmuth, an analyst at J.P. Morgan, was expecting 2015 GMV of $101 billion.

After bleeding market share to Amazon.com Inc for years, Chief Executive John Donahoe began a turnaround effort in 2009 that set the Internet commerce company back on track by borrowing from its larger rival's playbook.

He took what was then a muddled auctions website and made it easier for shoppers to buy new items at fixed prices and get more free shipping and returns - essentially mimicking the Amazon experience. He also embraced mobile technology, creating shopping apps for smartphones and tablets that brought in new customers.

But eBay's online marketplace is still growing less than Amazon's and some analysts are concerned its growth may struggle to keep up with the overall expansion of the online retail sector.

On Thursday, Wenig told analysts and investors that the Marketplaces business will deliver "at least" market rates of growth.

"They are saying they have fixed the core marketplace, and they are now positioned to drive incremental growth from local, mobile and global initiatives," said Colin Sebastian, an analyst at R.W. Baird.

CEO Donahoe said that the company would enable $300 billion of commerce in 2015, up 71 percent from $175 billion in 2012.

That forecast includes sales on eBay's online marketplace, payments processed by PayPal and other transactions touched by the company's various businesses, such as GSI Commerce.

"That's one of the ways we will measure our success," Donahoe said during eBay's investor day at its headquarters in Silicon Valley.

To get this done, eBay is focusing on three main sources of potential growth - global expansion, local commerce and mobile applications that it hopes will encourage consumers to shop more on its marketplace and use PayPal more to pay for those purchases.

EBay is aiming to increase sales in emerging markets and BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China, by four times current levels in three years, Wendy Jones, an executive overseeing the global push, said.

By the end of 2015, as much as 25 percent of eBay active users and over 12 percent of global sales will come from BRIC countries and emerging markets, she added.

EBay's top executives will give other, new three-year financial forecasts later on Thursday.

Expectations run high on Wall Street. Anmuth of J.P. Morgan, is expecting revenue of $21.16 billion in 2015 and earnings of $3.98 per share that year, versus $14 billion and $2.36 a share in 2012.

The analyst is also calling for 2015 PayPal transaction volume of $246.9 billion that year.

(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Tim Dobbyn, and Kenneth Barry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ebay-ceo-says-company-enable-300-billion-commerce-154139664--sector.html

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Stocks lower as Italy adds to European fears

JeeYeon Park , CNBC ? ? ? 8 hrs.

Stocks recovered most of their earlier losses to close narrowly mixed Wednesday, with the S&P 500 finishing slightly below its closing high, as ongoing economic and political concerns over Europe kept a lid on gains.

(Read More: It's Back! Dark Clouds From Europe Stall US Bull Run)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shaved most of its early losses. JPMorgan led the blue-chip laggards, while Intel gained. The Dow was down as much as 120 points earlier before recovering.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq erased most of their losses to close narrowly mixed. The S&P has zigzagged between gains and losses for the last seven sessions.

The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, traded near.

Major averages ended near their best ever levels on Tuesday, with the Dow posting a new high and S&P 500 finishing less than 2 points from its closing peak.

(Read More:Bulls Revved Up to Take Out Next Stocks Milestone)

Among key S&P sectors, telecoms were lower, while health care rose.

On the economic front, pending home sales slid 0.4 percent in February, according to the National Association of Realtors. Economists polled by Reuters expected a 0.2 percent decline, compared with a 4.5 percent rise in the prior month.

(Read More: Housing Headwinds Still Exist: Shiller)

In Europe, political deadlock continued in Italy as the country's main leadership candidate Pier Luigi's Bersani reportedly said that only an "insane person" would want to govern the nation now, adding that Italy is "in a mess and faces a difficult year ahead."

Bersani made the remark after the anti-establishment "Five Star Movement" party headed by comedian Beppe Grillo again refused to form a coalition government with Bersani, thwarting his latest attempts to form a governing alliance.

(Read More: Hey Euro Zone, You Overrate Yourself: Moody's)

A political stalemate since its inconclusive elections in late February has spiked concerns over how the country will handle its growing debt problems. Italy paid more to borrow over five years than it has since October at its latest auction, indicating worries over its financial situation.

The euro extended its losses below $1.28 against the U.S. greenback, its lowest level since late November.

Elsewhere in Europe, Cyprus is finalizing financial control measures to prevent a run on its banks, which have been shut for a week since the country agreed to a conditional 10 billion euro ($12.8 billion) bailout from international lenders. Cypriots have been lining up to withdraw cash from ATMs, with limits at 100 euros a day for some banks.

"Banks will open on Thursday ... We will look at the best way to limit the possibility of large sums of money leaving, and not imposing punitive conditions on the economy, businesses and individuals," Cypriot Finance Minister Michael Sarris said in an interview on Cypriot television.

"Cyprus is a reason to remind investors that Europe is a source of risk, but I'm not sure Cyprus itself is going to be enough [for a market pullback from the recent run-up]," said Thomas Lee, chief U.S. equity strategist at JPMorgan. "The big picture still points to a major secular bull market being underway, with at least another four years left, led by durable goods."

Trading is likely to be thin ahead of the three-day Easter weekend. U.S. markets will be closed Friday for Good Friday.

Comcast edged higher after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the cable company in an antitrust case over how much the company charged subscribers. (Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal.)

Wal-Mart declined after the world's largest retailer said that probes into alleged foreign bribery at its stores are likely to result in a financial loss. Separately, the company said it would start using stores to get Internet orders to shoppers faster, amid growing competition from online rivals such as Amazon.com.

Boeing edged lower as its 787 Dreamliners face a temporary ban on some of the transocean flights, which would be a costly new challenge for the company.

Cliffs Natural Resources plunged to lead the S&P 500 laggards after Morgan Stanley downgraded the iron ore and metallurgical coal producer to "underweight" from "equal-weight." Rivals Alpha Natural Resources and Peabody Energy also traded lower.

Mattress Firm soared more than 10 percent after the mattress maker provided solid guidance for fiscal 2013. In addition, Raymond James upgraded the company to "outperform" from "market perform." Other mattress companies bounced higher, including Tempur-Pedic and Select Comfort.

Weekly mortgage applications rebounded last week as interest rates pulled back for the first time in three weeks, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Paychex and Red Hat are among notable companies scheduled to report earnings after the closing bell.

Earlier, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren supported the central bank's asset purchase program, saying it is having the desired impact of speeding up the pace of the recovery and should be continued through the end of the year. Meanwhile, Cleveland Fed President Sandra Pianalto said the Federal Reserve should consider tapering off the pace of its bond-buying stimulus plan if the U.S. economy continues to show signs of improvement.

And Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota said the Fed should ease monetary policy further to bring the unemployment rate down at a faster rate. Kocherlakota expects the jobless rate to be close to 7 percent by the end of 2014, and forecasts growth around 2.5 percent this year and 3 percent next year.

Treasury prices held their gains after the government auctioned $35 billion in 5-year notes at a high yield of 0.760 percent. The bid-to-cover ratio, an indicator of demand, was 2.73.

(Read More: Global 'Triple-A Ratings Club' Shrinks 60 Percent)

?By CNBC's JeeYeon Park (Follow JeeYeon on Twitter: @JeeYeonParkCNBC)

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/2a0d6875/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Cstocks0Elower0Eitaly0Eadds0Eeuropean0Efears0E2B910A4578/story01.htm

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Obama signs measure to avoid government shutdown (Washington Bureau)

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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Simulations uncover obstacle to harnessing laser-driven fusion: Under realistic conditions, hollow cones fail to guide energetic electrons to fuel

Mar. 26, 2013 ? A once-promising approach for using next-generation, ultra-intense lasers to help deliver commercially viable fusion energy has been brought into serious question by new experimental results and first-of-a-kind simulations of laser-plasma interaction.

Researchers at The Ohio State University are evaluating a two-stage process in which a pellet of fusion fuel is first crushed by lasers on all sides, shrinking the pellet to dozens of times its original size, followed by an ultra-intense burst of laser light to ignite a chain reaction. This two-stage approach is called Fast Ignition, and there are a few variants on the theme.

In a recent paper, the Ohio State research group considered the long-discussed possibility of using a hollow cone to maintain a channel for the ultra-intense "ignitor pulse" to focus laser energy on the compressed pellet core. Drawing on both experimental results from studies at the Titan Laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, and massively-parallel computer simulations of the laser-target interaction performed at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) in Columbus, Ohio, the research team found compelling evidence that the cone-guided approach to Fast Ignition has a serious flaw.

"In the history of fusion research, two-steps-forward and one-step-back stories are a common theme," said Chris Orban, Ph.D., a researcher of the High Energy Density Physics research group at Ohio State and the lead theorist on the project. "But sometimes progress is about seeing what's not going to work, just as much as it is looking forward to the next big idea."

Since the ultra-intense pulse delivers energy to the fuel through relativistic electrons accelerated by the laser interaction, the Ohio State study focused on the coupling of the laser light to electrons and the propagation of those electrons through the cone target. Rather than investigating how the interaction would work on a high-demand, high-cost facility like the National Ignition Facility (NIF), which is also based at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and one of the largest scientific operations in the world, the researchers considered experiments just across from NIF at the Titan laser, which is much smaller and easily accessible.

These images from their simulations highlight the trajectories of randomly-selected electrons for a thin cone (left) and thick cone (right), each attached to a copper wire. Background colors show the strength of the electric fields pointing away from the cone and wire. For thin cones, the electric fields act to guide energetic electrons forward into the wire while for thick cones -- a more realistic case -- these fields are too distant to be effective. An animation of the simulation is available online at: http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~orban/cone_wire_final5mJ_4_5ps.avi.

Despite its size and despite having lower total energy, for a brief moment the Titan laser is many thousands of times more intense than NIF, which makes it a decent stand-in as a second-stage ignitor pulse. The OSU-led experimental team focused the Titan pulse on hollow cone targets attached at the tip to copper wires and observed the burst of X-ray photons coming from the copper as a measure of the laser energy to relativistic electron conversion efficiency.

The X-ray signal was much lower from the hollow cones with thicker cone walls. "This was strong evidence to the experimental team that the typical approach to cone-guided Fast Ignition wouldn't work, since thicker cones should be more realistic than thin cones," said Orban. "This is because electrons are free to move around in a dense plasma, much like they do in a normal metal, so the thicker cone target is like a thin cone embedded in a dense plasma."

These intuitions were tested in simulations performed at OSC. Whereas earlier efforts to simulate the laser-target interaction were forced to simplify or shrink the target size in order to make the calculations more feasible, Orban used the LSP code to perform the first-ever, full-scale 2D Particle-In-Cell simulations of the entire laser-target interaction using fully realistic laser fields.

These simulations also included a sophisticated model for the pre-heating of the target from stray laser light ahead of the ultra-intense pulse developed by collaborators at the Flash Center for Computational Science at the University of Chicago.

"We were delighted to help Chris use the FLASH code to provide realistic initial conditions for his Particle-In-Cell simulations," said Don Lamb, director of the Flash Center. "This is an outstanding example of how two groups can collaborate to achieve a scientific result that neither could have achieved alone."

To conduct the simulations, the Ohio State researchers accessed OSC's flagship Oakley Cluster supercomputer system. The HP-built system features 8,300+ Intel Xeon cores and 128 NVIDIA Tesla GPUs. Oakley can achieve 88 teraflops, tech-speak for performing 88 trillion calculations per second, or, with acceleration from the NVIDIA GPUs, a total peak performance of 154 teraflops.

"The simulations pointed to the electric fields building up on the edge of the cone as the key to everything," said Orban. "The thicker the cone is, the further away the cone edge is from the laser, and as a result fewer energetic electrons are deflected forward, which is the crucial issue in making cone-guided Fast Ignition a viable approach."

With both the experiment and the simulations telling the same story, the evidence is compelling that the cone-guided route to Fast Ignition is an unlikely one. While other studies have come to similar conclusions, the group was the first to identify the plasma surrounding the cone as a severe hindrance. Thankfully, there are still many other ideas for successfully igniting the fusion pellet with current or soon-to-be-constructed laser facilities. Any future efforts to spark fusion reactions with these lasers using a two-stage fast-ignition approach must be mindful to consider the neutralizing effect of the free electrons in the dense plasma.

"We could not have completed this project without the Oakley Cluster," Orban noted. "It was the perfect combination of speed and RAM and availability for us. And thanks to the profiling I was able to do, the compute time for our production runs went from two weeks in November 2011 to three or four days as of February 2012."

"Energy and the environment is one of the primary focus areas of the center, and this research fits perfectly into that domain," said Brian Guilfoos, the client and technology support manager for OSC. "Many of our systems were designed and software packages selected to best support the type of computing required by investigators working in fields related to our focus areas."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ohio Supercomputer Center.

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

Journal Reference:

K. U. Akli, C. Orban, D. Schumacher, M. Storm, M. Fatenejad, D. Lamb, R. R. Freeman. Coupling of high-intensity laser light to fast electrons in cone-guided fast ignition. Physical Review E, 2012; 86 (6) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.86.065402

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/2LmJkrdgNbo/130326162340.htm

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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

In Russia, teen complains of adoptive US parents

In this photo taken on Saturday, March 20, 2013, Alexander Abnosov shows his American passport to journalists in the Volga river city of Cheboksary, Russia. His 72 -years old grandmother is in the background. Abnosov was adopted by an American couple at age 12 has returned to Russia claiming that his parents treated him badly, according to reports from Russian media with close ties to the Kremlin. (AP Photo/Nikolay Alexandrov)

MOSCOW (AP) ? A teenager adopted by an American couple has returned to Russia after five years claiming that his adoptive family treated him badly and that he lived on the streets of Philadelphia and stole just to survive, according to Russian state media reports.

The allegations by Alexander Abnosov, now 18, will likely fuel outrage here over the fate of Russian children adopted by Americans. It's an anger that the Kremlin has carefully stoked to justify its controversial ban on U.S. adoptions.

Russia's Channel 1 and Rossiya television ? which are both state controlled ? reported Tuesday that Abnosov returned from a Philadelphia suburb to the Volga river city of Cheboksary, where his 72-year-old grandmother lives.

Russian media identified the teen as Alexander Abnosov, but also show him displaying a U.S. passport that gives his name as Joshua Alexander Salotti.

Abnosov, who spoke in a soft voice and appeared somewhat restrained, complained to Rossiya that his adoptive mother was "nagging at small things."

"She would make any small problem big," he said on Channel 1. He also told Channel 1 that he fled home because of the conflicts with his adoptive mother, staying on the streets for about three months and stealing.

"I was stealing stuff and sold them to get some food," he said with a shy smile.

According to the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, Abnosov says that his parents visited him while he stayed in a shelter in Philadelphia, but that they didn't ask him to come home as he'd expected. Channel 1 said his adoptive father gave him $500 to buy a ticket to Russia, though it wasn't clear when he arrived here.

The newspaper said it reached Abnosov's adoptive mother, who denied driving him away. She was quoted as saying he was asked to come home, but said he wanted to return to Russia where he has relatives to care for.

The teen's adoptive parents ? identified in the media reports as Steve and Jackie Salotti ? could not immediately be reached Tuesday. A woman who identified herself as a relative at the couple's home in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, said the parents weren't there and did not want to discuss the case.

Abnosov's story was top news on Russian state television, which tried to cast it as an example of the alleged misfortunes that befall Russian children adopted by U.S. parents.

The Russian government in December banned all American adoptions of Russian children in retaliation for a new U.S. law targeting alleged Russian human-rights violators.

Some 60,000 children have been adopted by Americans in the past two decades, and many Russians disagree with the ban, seeing it as a politically driven move depriving children of a chance to have a family.

To help justify it, the ban has been accompanied by extensive state media coverage of what is described as numerous cases of parental cruelty to adopted Russian children in the United States. The Kremlin also has accused U.S. authorities of turning a blind eye to such cases.

Most recently, Russian officials pointed to the Jan. 21 death of 3-year-old Max Shatto, born Maxim Kuzmin, whose mother found him unresponsive outside their home in Gardendale, Texas.

Russian officials claimed the boy was the victim of "inhuman treatment," and expressed disbelief with an American grand jury decided earlier this month not to charge Max's adoptive parents in his death after a prosecutor concluded his fatal injuries were accidental.

Abnosov's grandmother told Rossiya that she was refused custody of her grandson after his alcoholic father died five years ago.

"I've been asking them to give me the boy," she said, referring to child welfare officials. "But I was very ill then, and they told me I was too old and ill to raise him."

Abnosov indicated he plans to stay in Russia, and state media reported that he is going through the legal process needed to establish at what level he would fit in the Russian education system.

___

Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Maryclaire Dale in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-26-Russia-US-Adoption/id-6b3ee462aa8b49ac87b49d6b9c18d62e

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