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Monday, October 31, 2011
How to Break the Speed of Light in Your Backyard [Video]
Tremendous Demand for Free iPhone 3GS, Apple Dominates Youth Market, iPad the Tablet to Beat, and More, iOS News Review
Vote! Excerpt from: Tremendous Demand for Free iPhone 3GS, Apple Dominates Youth Market, iPad the Tablet to Beat, and More, iOS News Review
Also why Apple leads the tablet world, tablet users don't want to pay for news, new apps, and more....
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Sunday, October 30, 2011
Is a 'Green Smartphone' Even Possible? (ContributorNetwork)
Apple has made lots of noise about its gadgets' toxin-free designs and low power consumption. Not to be outdone, Samsung has released the Replenish, "An Android with the Earth in mind." You can even get it on Credo Mobile's network, if your idea of an environmentally-friendly smartphone is one where less than a dollar of your monthly bill goes to support progressive causes.
Annie Leonard's video, The Story of Electronics, is a good animated introduction to green electronics. What makes a smartphone really "green," though ... and is it even possible?
New building materials
The Recompute desktop PC has an outer case made of cardboard. It's a safe bet that most smartphones and tablets aren't going to go that route, especially when you need to keep them in your pocket or handbag. (Can you imagine what would happen if it rained?)
In the smartphone world, the Replenish and iPhone 4 might be the closest we've come. The Replenish's case is made partly out of recycled plastic, while the iPhone's is made out of metal and glass -- more recyclable than some materials.
"Recyclable" doesn't mean "recycled," though. In some ways, it's just a new buzzword to make you think that something is green. And in the tech industry, "recycling" often means shipping stuff out to China, where kids breathe in toxic fumes as they take it apart for scrap. (Fortunately, there are greener gadget recyclers out there.)
New power source
You probably know you can buy solar chargers for smartphones, now. Aside from for truckers and travelers, though, they're not going to see much use when it's quicker to charge off the USB or wall socket ... which makes those chargers just more new electronic gadgets made out of toxic chemicals.
What about human-powered smartphones? You could charge them up just by walking, whenever you're on the go. The technology isn't quite there yet, though, and is still the subject of research papers.
What to do, then?
The greenest smartphone is the one you have right now. Every year that you stick with last year's model is another in which a chunk of the environment wasn't torn up to make a smartphone.
The second-greenest? Not a refurb or "green" phone, but one that you love so much that you keep it for years and years. What good is it that your Samsung Replenish is partly recyclable, when you're going to recycle it much sooner than if you'd bought something else?
If you find a green or refurb phone that you love, more power to you, but that's just one consideration out of many. And one that, right now, is more bark than byte (so to speak).
Another thing you can do
Whatever smartphone that you get, you can invest in green energy for it by buying a smartphone-sized carbon offset, which are available in some stores. Maybe you don't have the option of using green energy where you live, but buying an offset can help to create a world where the next generation does. Just do your homework, and make sure the company offering them is actually doing something that helps.
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No anthrax vaccine testing on children ? for now (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Should the anthrax vaccine be tested in children? It will be a while longer before the government decides.
An advisory board said Friday that ethical issues need to be resolved ? but if that can be accomplished the vaccine can be tested in children to be sure it's safe and to learn the proper dose in case it's needed in a terrorist attack.
Because of concerns that terrorists might use the potentially deadly bacteria, the government has stockpiled the vaccine. It has been widely tested on adults but never on children.
The question is whether to do tests so doctors will know if children's immune systems respond to the shots well enough to signal protection. The children would not be exposed to anthrax.
The National Biodefense Science Board said Friday a separate review board should look into the ethical issues of doing such tests in children. If that is completed successfully, the panel, said, the Department of Health and Human Services should develop a plan for a study of the vaccine in children.
How to protect young people after an anthrax attack is a challenging issue, said Dr. Nicole Lurie, a member of the board and assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Public Health Service. "Protecting children still stands, for me, among the most important responsibilities that we have as a nation."
The board gives advice to the Department of Health and Human Services on preparations for chemical, biological and nuclear events. Its vote was 12-1.
There is no deadline for the government to decide whether to go along. And if it does agree, it's not clear how much time it would take to find money for such research and get clearance from review boards at medical centers that would conduct studies.
Another big question is whether parents would sign up their children to test a vaccine when there is no immediate threat. It's not possible to get anthrax from the vaccine, but there are side effects. In adults, shot-site soreness, muscle aches, fatigue and headache are the main ones, and rare but serious allergic reactions have been reported.
Anthrax is among several potential bioterror weapons and is of special interest because it was used in letters sent to the media and others in 2001, claiming five lives and sickening 17. That prompted extensive screening of mail and better ventilation and testing at postal facilities and government agencies.
The FBI has blamed the attacks-by-mail on Bruce Ivins, a scientist at an Army biodefense laboratory, who committed suicide before he could be charged.
Anthrax can be difficult to treat, especially if someone has breathed anthrax spores. Millions of doses of antibiotics have been stockpiled since the 2001 episode, and two experimental toxin-clearing treatments also are being stored.
U.S. troops deploying to Iraq, Afghanistan and some other countries are required to get anthrax shots. Since 1998, more than 1 million have been vaccinated. After lawsuits objecting to the requirement, a federal judge suspended the program in 2004, finding fault in the Food and Drug Administration's process for approving the drug. The next year, the FDA reaffirmed its finding that the vaccine was safe.
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Saturday, October 29, 2011
The Best Time Tracking App for Linux [Linux App Directory]
Sadly, the time tracking apps available for Linux all have issues as of right now, but the best option is certainly the Linux-specific, super simple Hamster.
- Track any project, billable or otherwise
- Simple Start and Stop buttons let you track your activities without getting in your way
- Tag any activity with multiple tags for easier sorting later on
- See an overview of the day, week, or month, and manually edit it to your liking
- See bar graphs of how long you've spent on certain activities, tags, or categories
- Export your overviews to a printable HTML format
Hamster is extremely simple without being too dumbed-down. With a simple menu bar applet, you can bring up a new activity. Just type in the activity's name, tags, click the Start button, and go back to work. When you start a new activity, it'll stop the current one, or you can stop it manually. The overview is very nice, and you can view it in many different layouts, which is great.
Hamster also has the advantage of being the only popular Time Tracker on Linux that works mostly out of the box. It still hasn't been fully updated for GNOME 3, which means if you're running the latest version of Ubuntu (even with Unity), it'll have some problems. Luckily, you can download and install Alberto Milone's App Indicator for Hamster until it gets updated.
Hamster's only shortcomings come when compared to apps on other platforms, like Klok, which displays your time in an easy-to read calendar view. Similarly, it requires all manual input, unlike RescueTime, which will automatically track the apps you run and the sites you visit. That said, Hamster still does a great job of staying out of your way despite its manual nature, and as long as you're strict about tracking each of your activities, you'll get a lot out of it.
The competition is pretty slim. RescueTime doesn't have an official Linux client, but a few devs have put together an unofficial uploader that will automatically track the apps you use and the sites you visit, and upload that data to RescueTime's web-based interface. Its biggest downside is that it's very difficult to install and get working, and if you're on a newer version of Ubuntu, you might not be able to get it to work at all. However, RescueTime is one of my personal favorite time trackers, so it's worth researching to see if you can get it working.
Our other favorite time tracking app, Klok, is an Adobe AIR app, and with AIR no longer being supported on Linux, we thought it would be futile to choose it as the best. It's a fantastic app, and it should still work on Linux if you have Adobe AIR installed?but if you don't have AIR installed, it's become a bit of a chore, and is no longer officially supported, so it's unknown whether this app is going to stick around on Linux for long. Hamster is at least still being actively developed for Linux, so we felt it more reliable to recommend it before checking these out.
There you have it?you don't have a lot of choices. There may be a few other lesser-known apps, but frankly, Hamster is fantastic, and will work better than anything else if RescueTime and Klok don't work for you. Got a favorite we didn't mention? Be sure to share it with us in the comments.
Lifehacker's App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories.
You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/DW_H2fkq0tk/the-best-time-tracking-app-for-linux
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Friday, October 28, 2011
'Django Unchained' Versus Quentin Tarantino's Past Casts
With the latest addition of Kerry Washington, the already impressive cast of Quentin Tarantino's next movie, "Django Unchained," just got a little more impressive. Throw in his other recent hire -- Don Johnson -- and it's clear that the auteur is up to his usual quirky casting tricks. Tarantino has always been known for his, [...]
Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/10/26/django-unchained-quentin-tarantino-cast/
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Science & the Public: Infected bats can recover . . . with lots of help
Infected bats can recover . . . with lots of help
Unfortunately, there aren?t enough people to nurse more than a tiny number back to health.
Web edition : Wednesday, October 26th, 2011
A paper?published October 26 release in Nature confirms what everyone had come to assume: that?a fungus is responsible for killing vast numbers of North American bats. (Proving the link took some fancy lab work to nail down). But that's not the only bat news. Some authors of the new report also reported?data today establishing that with enough coddling, many heavily infected bats can recover.
The rub: Federal scientists pointed out that there really aren?t sufficient resources to save more than a handful of bats this way.
Their marginally encouraging news emerges from a study of 30 little brown bats, all of whom bore visual evidence of a severe white-nose infection. Those new data show that if infected bats are provided warmth, food and water, ?they actually can mount a rapid recovery,? notes David Blehert of the U.S. Geological Survey?s National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisc. He?s an author of the study.
These were bats that had recently ? and naturally ? emerged from winter hibernation, explains his colleague, wildlife pathologist Carol Meteyer; she also works at the Madison center. The animals had been traveling in and out of caves during late spring and were captured by hand in May and then transported by car to a rehabilitation facility run by Bat World New Jersey.
Nurtured in the lab, the animals? immune systems ? which basically turn off during hibernation ? revved up again. The first seven weeks of protective custody proved critical. During that time, the bats were individually taught to eat lab-administered meal worms. The researchers also treated visibly infected wing tissue on two-thirds of the bats using a dilute vinegar solution. In the end, that acid test offered no additional advantage.
Twenty-six of the animals survived 70 days (at which point they were sacrificed for further study). By that time, all had recovered and their wings were fungus-free. Meteyer and her team detail their findings in the current (July) issue of the Journal of Wildlife Diseases.
As the bats? immunity moved into full gear, wing lesions where the fungus had been eating through the animals? skin, began to scab over. Their bodies ?tend to wall off that fungus and lift it away from the bat wing,? Meteyer says. ?I call it ?bat magic.??
Eventually, the wings (which are the structures most vulnerable to white-nose syndrome) ?look entirely normal,? she says ? both to the naked eye and upon microscopic investigation. Somehow, wings regenerate fungus-savaged tissue to the point that recovered bats cannot be distinguished from uninfected ones, she says.
That?s the good news. The bad: More than one million bats have succumbed to white nose syndrome in the past five years and there?s no sign this infection is slowing. It?s actually continuing to radiate throughout North America. And insect-eating bats aren?t interested in the idea of a lab rehab. Most don?t cotton to eating the meal worms they?re offered and may need to be painstakingly and individually coerced before they readily eat this grub.
Meteyer says only a few Northeast facilities have been licensed to treat wild bats. Offering palliative care to affected bats can require round-the-clock attention and tends to evolve into a labor of love.?Clearly, she observes, the logistics of trying to gear this up for widescale nursing of sick bats ?isn?t feasible at this point.?
Adds Blehert, once a site where bats congregate for hibernation becomes infected with the white-nose pathogen (Geomyces destructans), viable fungus can persist on the walls and floors ? ready to claim a new host.
Some people have been investigating a possible vaccine for white nose syndrome, but Meteyer is dubious about its potential.
The vaccine might be functional during the summer, she says, when the animals? immune system is up and running. But ?that?s not when this fungus is most infectious,? she explains. It loves the near-freezing cold of the caves where northern bats hibernate. So it?s likely that any vaccine-triggered immunity would take a hiatus along with the rest of the animals? infection-fighting apparatus during hibernations ? precisely when bats are most likely to encounter the pathogen.
For now, ?there?s no magic bullet,? says Jeremy Coleman, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist in Cortland, N.Y., and coordinator of white-nose syndrome programs for his agency. That?s why the Fish and Wildlife Service has started contemplating a new captive management strategy, he says.
?It doesn?t include rehabilitation,? he told reporters during a briefing, ?and [Meteyer] indicated how difficult a large-scale rehab would be.? But the Fish and Wildlife Service has begun working with experts internationally to explore possible options for eight species of North American bats being hammered by white nose syndrome. A report detailing potential recommendations should be out by New Year?s, Coleman says. ?We?re looking at the potential for a full-on captive propagation program similar to what has been done successfully with the black-footed ferret and California condor.?
But make no mistake, bat biologists warn: Captive rearing is easier to contemplate than to accomplish. ?So far as I know, there are no sustaining populations of insectivorous bats in captivity,? says Alison Robbins of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in North Grafton, Mass. Various research groups have maintained such bats in captivity, she notes ? ?but not to the point where they can properly reproduce.?
She knows the pitfalls well. Robbins took in 120 infected little-brown bats last year for a treatment trial. Each was hand fed for two weeks before they began chowing down on meal worms without assistance. But within three months, every one had died. Her suspicion: The stress of handling did them in.
Meanwhile, each winter, North America?s bat pandemic grows.
Found in: Biology, Ecology, Environment and Science & Society
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Wednesday, October 26, 2011
U.S. restores benefits for Ivory Coast, Guinea, Niger (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama said Tuesday the United States would once again waive import duties on goods made in the Ivory Coast, Guinea and Niger after the countries held free and fair democratic elections.
Obama issued a proclamation restoring benefits for the three countries under African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which was signed into law in 2000.
"Today's announcement is the result of rigorous review by the Obama Administration to determine whether Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Guinea, and Niger have made progress in meeting AGOA's eligibility criteria," Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement.
"We have seen progress in each of these countries, in conducting free and fair elections and taking other actions to promote democratic government and market-based economies."
Congress established AGOA with the goal of expanding U.S. trade and investment with sub-Saharan Africa and stimulating economic growth in the region.
The program, along with the Generalized System of Preferences, allows most goods produced in the AGOA region to enter the United States without duties imposed at the border.
Ivory Coast lost its eligibility in 2005 following five years of political unrest and armed conflict.
The suspension was still in place late last year when former President Laurent Gbagbo lost an election to challenger Alassane Ouattara but refused to cede power.
The five-month crisis ended when Gbagbo was ousted by forces loyal to Ouattara, who was then sworn into office.
Guinea lost its AGOA eligibility in 2010 as a result of a coup and other abuses, but later that year held its first democratic presidential elections since 1958.
Niger lost its benefits in 2009 after President Mamadou Tanja attempted to hold onto power following the end of his second term in office by dissolving the national government and changing Niger's constitution.
A military junta deposed Tanja and he committed to leaving power following democratic presidential elections.
Those elections took place, and President Mahamadou Issoufou was inaugurated in April 2011.
Last year, the United States imported about $163 million worth of goods from the Ivory Coast, $85 million from Guinea and $50 million from Niger.
(Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Paul Simao)
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Second day of US-NKorea nuclear talks delayed (AP)
GENEVA ? The start of a second day of talks between U.S. and North Korean diplomats on Pyongyang's nuclear program was delayed without explanation Tuesday, a day after the top U.S. envoy reported some progress in narrowing differences between the two sides.
U.S. officials said North Korea had asked the American delegation to come to its U.N. mission in Geneva "for a working lunch and an afternoon session." The talks had been scheduled to start at 10 a.m. (0800 GMT; 4 a.m. EST).
North Korean officials couldn't be reached for comment.
In the closely watched meetings, the second direct encounter between the two parties in less than three months, diplomats from both sides are trying to determine whether the so-called six-party nuclear talks, which include China, Japan, Russia and South Korea in addition to North Korea and the United States, can resume.
The top U.S. envoy, Stephen Bosworth, said late Monday night that the discussions are also touching on other long-standing issues, such as urgently needed food aid for the North, families long separated on the Korean peninsula and the remains of troops missing in action. The U.S. and North Korea are still technically at war.
The U.N.'s top relief official, Valerie Amos, said Monday after visiting North Korea that it was "not appropriate" for the nuclear talks in Switzerland to extend to humanitarian assistance to the chronically hungry Asian country because that aid "must be kept separate from a political agenda." The U.N. is calling on countries to provide $218 million in emergency aid to North Korea.
The first day of talks was hosted by the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. The U.S. delegation was being hosted Tuesday at the North Koreans' U.N. mission, on the opposite side of Lake Geneva, where Bosworth's counterpart is First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan. Bosworth is accompanied by Glyn Davies, the U.S. ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, who is taking over the negotiating brief in future talks.
At his hotel late Monday night, Bosworth told reporters he was "neither optimistic nor pessimistic" with one day left for discussions.
"I think we're moving in a positive direction. We have narrowed some differences, but we still have differences that we have to resolve," he said at the elegant lakeside hotel where both parties are staying.
"As you know, our goal is to try to find a solid foundation on which to launch a resumption of discussions both bilateral and multilateral, and we will continue to work hard to bring that about," Bosworth said. "We have made some progress, we have issues still to resolve and we will work hard to do that."
U.S. diplomats want North Korea to adhere to a 2005 agreement it reneged on requiring verifiable denuclearization in exchange for better relations with its Asian neighbors. China, North Korea's closest ally, has urged Pyongyang to improve its strained ties with the United States and South Korea.
Beijing wants to revive the stalled six-nation disarmament negotiations. North Korea walked out on the talks in 2009 ? and exploded a second nuclear-test device ? but now wants to re-engage. Last year, Pyongyang also was blamed for two military attacks on South Korea that heightened tensions on the peninsula.
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Android Smartphone Round-Up: October Edition
Even with Ice Cream Sandwich on the way, Android Gingerbread devices are still as hot as ever. That said, there are way too many Android handsets on the market to parse through each and every one, but that's why we're here. We've looked through all the latest Android smartphones to give you our brief thoughts on the pick of the litter. These aren't full-length reviews, but rather a way for you to easily compare what we think to be the most full-featured Android handsets released this month. Hopefully, your shopping research just got way less intensive. For the glorious and spooky month of October, we're putting the following handsets on the table: Samsung Galaxy S II (AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint) Motorola Droid RAZR (Verizon, and maybe AT&T), HTC Amaze 4G (T-Mobile), and the Samsung Stratosphere (Verizon). While each of these phones run Android 2.3 Gingerbread, they all have something different they bring to the table, along with varying price tags. Let's take a closer look, yes?Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/W1XEXMmGce0/
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Girl shot at North Carolina school, prompting lockdown (Reuters)
WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (Reuters) ? A high school student was shot in the neck during an outdoor lunch break at a North Carolina school on Monday, prompting a lockdown of two campuses as authorities tried to identify her shooter.
Exactly what happened at Cape Fear High School in Fayetteville to land the 15-year-old girl in the hospital confounded investigators.
"This was probably one of the strangest shootings that we've ever come across," Cumberland County Sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Tanna told WRAL News.
"There have been all kinds of scenarios that have been tossed around here today," she said. "We're not (any) closer to knowing right now as we were when this initially happened."
Sheriff Earl "Moose" Butler told reporters that students who were outside for lunch at the high school said they thought they heard a "pop" about the time of the shooting, but no one saw a gun.
The injured student, who is in the 10th grade, fell to the ground, Butler said. Tanna said a school resource officer was standing nearby when the shooting occurred and saw the student get hit, but did not see any "chaos" around her at the time.
The student was in stable condition on Monday evening, according to Theresa Perry, assistant superintendent for Cumberland County Schools. She could not indicate how serious the girl's injuries were.
Officials locked down the high school and a nearby middle school for several hours after the shooting. School buses and students were searched by law enforcement before being released several hours later, officials said.
All after-school activities on both campuses were canceled on Monday, but officials expected the schools to reopen as usual on Tuesday, Perry told Reuters.
Law enforcement and school officials have been more vigilant about the potential for gun violence in schools following the 1999 shooting massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado.
At Columbine, students Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 12 students and a teacher and injured 21 other students before taking their own lives.
(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)
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Monday, October 24, 2011
Who wants to be in a band?!
Alright. I'm looking for two players to join my RPG Poetaster and Singing Dolls. I need a Poetaster desperately, and a singer would be nice too...
As the Poetaster, you get to be the boss man, controlling others just by speaking, owning a house, so on... In such, I do need a rather trust-able player to play him. But he should be a fun role.
The singer is the Poetaster's right hand man. He came around second to the band, in some sort of freak accident where the Poetaster learned about his ability to control other people.
If you are interested in checking out the RPG, please look here.
roleplay/poetaster-and-singing-dolls/
And that's about all...
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"If one is born in a world that creates insanity, does being normal make them mad? Or is it those who fit in with the society that are the crazy ones? What is normality? What is insanity? If twins are such a rare occurrence in one world, does it make them strange, when they are so common in another? If a man grins all of the time, but others do too, does that make him a freak? There is only one freak, and that is the man that stands alone... Don't you agree?""Freakshow?"
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/nGjUZSjwX7Q/viewtopic.php
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Sunday, October 23, 2011
Why ghosts get 'spooked' by HD cameras
"Paranormal Activity 3," the latest in a series of successful low-budget horror films about amateur ghost hunters, opens on Friday. The first film, released in 2007, was a surprise indie hit around the world.
The films are shot in a "found footage" style, in which the audience is treated to footage supposedly taken in real life from home videos and security cameras. This technique, often involving handheld cameras and actors talking to the camera operator, has been around for years but was widely popularized in the 1999 film "The Blair Witch Project."
The grainy, low-budget look of the films is no accident; it was done partly because the films actually are low-budget, and partly for added "realism." The fact that the low-quality picture skips and jitters adds to the suspense, and Horror Filmmaking 101 teaches that a dark, partly obscured monster is much scarier than one that's seen clearly in bright light.
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More science news from MSNBC Tech & Science
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Video wows with quantum levitation
Future of Tech: Quantum physics is the mind-bending study of matter and energy at its smallest scales. It can be difficult to grasp, no doubt. But this video of a smoking cold disk that appears to float in midair just might make you try.
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Video wows with quantum levitation
It's been an effective technique in the first two films, scaring up hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office. And it's also true in real-life ghost hunting: Virtually all of the "evidence" for ghosts appears in the form of brief, ambiguous anomalies recorded with low-quality cameras (or good-quality cameras sabotaged by low-light conditions).
People have long reported weird, ghostly and paranormal activity, but perhaps the biggest mystery is why the evidence ? especially the photographic evidence ? hasn't improved. Are ghosts afraid of high-definition cameras?
Review: 'Paranormal Activity 3' is pretty scary
The idea that amateur ghost hunters wandering in the dark with crummy video cameras are going to uncover genuine evidence of a spirit realm unknown to science seems absurd. Nonetheless, the SyFy show "Ghost Hunters" has been wildly popular for years ? it was recently picked up for an eighth season ? despite the fact that the team has never found scientific evidence for ghosts.
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The show is, of course, entertainment television instead of real investigation, but what about the hundreds of amateur ghost-hunting groups around the world inspired by the show?
If ghosts exist, you would expect the photographic and video evidence for them should improve dramatically as more and more people look for them with better and better equipment.
There are more people actively trying to document paranormal activity than ever. And, thanks to smartphones, at no time in history have so many people had high-quality cameras on hand virtually all the time.
Today there's no excuse for anyone to capture grainy photos or video images of anything, whether it's your aunt in a horrid floral hat, Bigfoot in the woods, or paranormal activity in your hallway. And yet that is so often the quality of the footage that makes the rounds on the internet. [ Mythical Creatures: Beasts That Don't Really Exist (or Do They?) ]
Last weekend, Apple sold 4 million iPhone 4S units, each of them equipped with a built-in high definition 1080p camera featuring state-of-the-art optics, image stabilization, automatic lighting adjustment and other features that rival cameras used by Hollywood videographers only a few years ago. Perhaps one of those iPhone users will finally record some clear evidence of ghosts.
High definition provides more image information, which helps identify things often mistaken for ghosts, such as random shadows, unnoticed reflections and video artifacts. With those ghost impostors more easily dismissed, any real ghostly images should be sharper and clearer than ever before.
The age of amateurs posting questionable video evidence of the paranormal should be coming to an end. Professional ghost hunters, however, might well continue using cameras that produce low-quality images. After all, that's where the ghosts appear.
Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @ llmysteries, then join us on Facebook.
? 2011 LifesLittleMysteries.com. All rights reserved. More from LifesLittleMysteries.com.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44991420/ns/technology_and_science-science/
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Mosquito lab handles "world's most dangerous animals"
SEATTLE |
SEATTLE (Reuters) - He keeps them in warm, comfortable bug dorms, feeds them on meals of human blood with the occasional sugar water snack and lives in awe of their killing power.
Seattle-based research scientist Stefan Kappe says mosquitoes are the most dangerous animals in the world.
Which is probably why when his laboratory colleagues slice their heads off with miniscule needle-like scalpels and squeeze them with tweezers to extract early forms of the malaria parasite from their saliva glands, he feels no concern about cruelty to animals.
Kappe has spent his working life trying to figure out how this tiny malaria-carrying insect can inflict so much death and disease on humans, and what he and his team can do to stop it.
According to the World Health Organisation, malaria kills a child every 45 seconds in Africa and costs that continent's economy $12 billion a year.
FORMIDABLE PREDATORS
Kappe, molecular biologist and expert in parasitology who trained first in Germany then the United States, has no doubt the killer parasitic disease will one day be wiped out across the world, but acknowledges it's a tough fight.
"They are formidable little predators," he says as he looks through the mesh window on one of the mosquito bug dorms at his
Seattle BioMed laboratory and insectary. A handwritten sticker on this dorm says "fed."
"They are uniquely adapted to take blood meals, and unfortunately infectious diseases have taken a ride along with this ability of the mosquito to bite you and take your blood," Kappe says.
Until this week, some of the world's best scientific minds had failed to make an effective vaccine against malaria -- or any parasitic disease for that matter -- and Kappe says eradication can't be achieved without one.
RTS,S was recognized as the first effective malaria vaccine on Tuesday when scientists released data showing it halved the risk of children getting the disease in a large Africa trial.
"Right now malaria vaccine development stands at a very interesting point because we have a partially effective vaccine in RTS,S," Kappe told Reuters.
Experts stressed that RTS,S -- developed by the British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline and the non-profit PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative -- will be no quick fix.
At around a 50 percent protection rate, the new shot is less effective against malaria than other vaccines are against common infections like polio and measles.
"The RTS,S vaccine will always stand as the first really successful vaccine that can partially protect against malaria," Kappe said. "But to eradicate the disease -- and that is our goal -- you need a vaccine that protects 90 to 100 percent. So we have to build on RTS,S."
To do that Kappe's team is taking various routes -- most of which involve breeding large numbers of these dangerous animals in warm, soupy trays in what he calls the "swamp room."
After dissecting them, modifying them, breeding more generations and then allowing them to drink malaria-infected blood from a skin-like covered cup, he sets them on brave human trial volunteers who agree to be bitten in the name of science.
Seattle BioMed is a non-profit research institute that works on research to eliminate the world's most devastating infectious diseases, funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and around 500 other donors.
One of the institute's approaches to creating a vaccine centers around immature forms of the malaria parasite called sporozoites, which are carried in the saliva glands of female malarial mosquitoes and transferred into humans when they bite.
The process of infection with malaria takes a complex path, starting in the human victim's blood and moving into the liver.
Inside the liver, the sporozoites change form and then grow and divide into thousands of merozoites. These in turn burst out from the liver cells and back into the blood.
Once back in the blood, the merozoites multiply in red blood cells, again burst out and produce more parasites, eventually damaging the brain and lungs, causing fever, chills, anemia and, in severe cases, death.
DELETING THE PARASITE'S GENES
Kappe's team is seeking to interrupt this process at a critical stage and has found a way of genetically modifying the sporozoites to delete key genes from their DNA, so that while they still make it into the liver where they trigger a strong immune response, they are also genetically programed to die off there.
"What we're interested in is preventing the liver-stage parasite from completing its development," explains Ashley Vaughan, a molecular geneticist working with Kappe.
"If you have enough sporozoites going to the liver and stopping there, they will alert your immune system that your liver is seeing a large amount of malaria, which would then generate a protective response.
"So if you then get bitten by a mosquito carrying natural malaria, the parasite would go to your liver, that same response would be triggered and your immune system would kill it.
"This would mean you'd never get a blood-stage infection, and never get sick."
In tests on mice, the so-called genetically attenuated whole parasite (GAP) experimental vaccine has proven 100 percent protective, 100 percent of the time, Kappe and Vaughan said.
And in the first early-stage human trials, where six volunteers agreed to be bitten first by a "vaccine mosquito" carrying genetically modified parasites and then by one with natural malaria, five out of six were protected.
Kappe is worried by the sixth case -- where the trial volunteer went on to develop malaria caused by the parasites in the vaccine failing to stop developing at the right stage.
In the trial, the volunteer was of course immediately treated and cured with anti-malarial drugs, but for the GAP experimental shot to be developed any further down the path to a potentially useful product, the team still has much work to do.
"What we have to do now is learn how to make it safer, and learn how we would be able to manufacture it on a larger scale," said Kappe.
For the moment the manufacturing process is very hands on, and a little gruesome.
Working with microscopes in a laboratory next to the "swamp room," scientists Heather Kain and Will Betz take each mosquito at a time, soak it in an ethanol solution, slice its head off, squeeze its thorax to get the saliva glands out, and then cut open each gland to harvest the sporozoites.
For every potential vaccine dose, the researchers need around 10,000 sporozoites, and all those and more can come from a single mosquito. As Kappe says, "it's hard to imagine making millions of doses" by hand.
"On a good day I can dissect around 200 mosquitoes an hour," says Betz. "But it takes a steady hand."
(Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
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Saturday, October 22, 2011
Democrats target Romney, draw from Bush vs. Kerry (AP)
WASHINGTON ? A beleaguered president seeks re-election. His challenger, a candidate with Massachusetts roots and a presidential demeanor straight out of central casting, has to fight through a primary contest fending off charges of flip-flopping. In the end, the challenger's strength also proves his vulnerability.
Election 2012 is looking a lot like the presidential race of 2004.
Democrats in and around President Barack Obama's campaign are preparing to run against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney ? the man they believe likely to emerge from the Republican contest ? by borrowing from the playbook George W. Bush and Republicans used to defeat Sen. John Kerry seven years ago.
As candidates, Kerry and Romney are remarkably similar. Both are wealthy men, products of Massachusetts politics, eloquent on the stump but perceived as remote or aloof on the campaign circuit.
Even before Romney has won a single nominating contest, Obama's camp is singling him out as a fickle politician and is preparing to go straight at Romney's perceived strength ? his record as a businessman in the face of a flat-line economy. It was a strategy Republicans employed against Kerry, who had to fend off charges of flip-flopping himself and whose strength as a decorated Vietnam veteran running in the first post-Sept. 11 election was undermined by attack ads.
A key feature of the Obama strategy is Romney's tenure as head of Bain Capital, a private equity firm he co-founded in 1984 that saved and launched businesses such as Staples and Domino's Pizza but sliced jobs elsewhere through cost-cutting and consolidation.
It's not the first time Romney's tenure at the helm of Bain Capital has come under attack. Sen. Edward Kennedy pulled away from Romney during his 1994 Senate race in Massachusetts by airing a series of ads that featured workers from an Indiana paper plant that Bain took over, laying off employees, cutting wages and reducing benefits.
"Basically, he cut our throats," a worker said in one of the ads.
"When we made the decision to define him to voters of Massachusetts and took a hard line in doing so, we had a lot of success," said Democratic consultant Tad Devine, who crafted the ads for Kennedy and later served as a senior adviser to Kerry's presidential campaign.
Obama advisers are keenly aware of Kennedy's line of attack and are counting on similar results.
"In his professional life, he was an expert in stripping down companies and leading them to bankruptcy and profiting from these ventures, with a lot of jobs lost in the process," said Obama strategist David Axelrod, previewing a potential line of attack.
"Whenever you're running for president of the United States and you represent yourself in a certain way and you say here's my core asset, then you need to be able to stand by your record," Axelrod added in an interview. "It was problematic for him then; it will be problematic for him now."
Republicans concede that Romney could be vulnerable. But they say the Romney camp should be ready for the onslaught.
Michael Dennehy, a New Hampshire-based Republican strategist, said he remembers Kennedy's anti-Romney ads as being "just brutal and very, very effective."
"To some extent it will be effective again," he said. "The variable is how Romney responds and what they have learned from that 1994 race for Senate."
Top Romney strategist Eric Fehrnstrom said Obama, faced with a stagnant economy, is grasping for ways to win. "Now, they are employing a `kill Mitt' strategy," he said. "I suspect they'll go through many other strategies before they realize this election is a referendum on Obama's failed leadership on jobs."
For now, the Obama camp is focusing on portraying Romney as a finger-to-the-wind politician who changes his convictions to meet the political circumstances. They cite his embrace of mandatory health insurance when he was governor of Massachusetts and his criticism of Obama's health care bill, which relies on the same mandate, or his previous stance in favor of abortion rights against his current opposition to abortion.
"I will give him this, he is as vehement and as strong in his convictions when he takes one position as he is when he takes a diametrically opposite view," Axelrod said last week. On Wednesday, Axelrod pounced again, declaring on CBS that Romney appeared to have "no core to him."
No doubt Romney stands as the Republican to beat for his party's nomination. He has maintained a steady position as other Republicans rise and fall around him. Democrats in Obama's circle believe that barring an unexpected development, Romney will be the nominee. As a result, their sideline denunciations are designed to begin a story line they intend to build upon in the general election.
Gerry Chervinsky, a Massachusetts pollster who conducted public surveys during the Kennedy-Romney contest and during Kerry's presidential bid, said attacks on Romney's shifting stances aren't likely to damage him because he confronted them in 2007 and 2008 when he first ran for president.
"The Romney business issue, however, I think would score points," he said. "Teddy (Kennedy) had excellent info and made terrific TV spots and definitely left the impression that Romney's business record was based on laying people off to make big bucks."
Once the ads ran, Romney was unable to recover and lost to Kennedy. But the damage was not permanent. Romney ran for governor in 2002 and won.
So far, with the exception of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, Republicans running against Romney have not tried to turn Romney's business experience against him.
During a debate last week, Huntsman described Romney as "somebody who breaks down businesses, destroys jobs as opposed to creating jobs and opportunity, leveraging up, spinning off, enriching shareholders."
"The whole discussion around this campaign is going to be job creation ? how can you win that debate given your background?" Huntsman asked him.
Romney parried the question, noting that Bain Capital had launched Staples and Sports Authority.
"We didn't take things apart and cut them off and sell them off," Romney said. "We instead helped start businesses."
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Kelly Bensimon Offers Advice to Real Housewives of New York City Replacements
Kelly Bensimon continues to put up a strong front.
The reality star got the boot this summer from The Real Housewives of New York City, but tells Us Weekly she is "not angry" because, hey, she'll still be on television for years to come!
"The show is on all over the world and we're still going to be on for a long time," Kelly says. "It's like the Baywatch of Housewives. For me, it's just the gift that keeps on giving."
Kelly isn't familiar with the show's new cast members - Carole Radziwill, Heather Thomson and Aviva Drescher - but she has the following advice for the trio:
"Make as many mistakes as possible. Do anything that you can do that you can learn from your mistakes. Because if you don't learn from your mistakes then you're what? Boring!"
Will we see Bensimon on reality TV again? She hopes so, saying: "I love doing reality because for me, I just have a really good time. And I have a really kooky life and I'm not going to make apologies for it. I have a lot of fun and I make a lot of mistakes."
[Photo: WENN.com]
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Friday, October 21, 2011
Video: GOP race gets ugly
Cardinals play winning hand in Game 1
Pinch-hitter Allen Craig singled in the go-ahead run off reliever Alexi Ogando in the sixth inning with a sinking line drive that dropped just in front of right fielder Nelson Cruz, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers 3-2 on Wednesday night in a chilly World Series opener.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/44966793#44966793
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Nokia loss not as bad as feared (AP)
HELSINKI ? Nokia Corp. narrowed its losses more than anticipated during the third quarter even though its smartphone sales continued to suffer in the face of stiff competition from Apple Inc.'s iPhone.
Finland's biggest company reported a third-quarter net loss of euro68 million ($94 million). Though that's a big reverse from last year's equivalent profit of euro529 million, it represented an improvement on the second quarter's euro368 million loss.
However, the loss was not as big as many in the markets feared and shares in the company jumped more than 12 percent on the news before closing up more than 5 percent at euro4.72 ($6.52) on the Helsinki Stock Exchange on Thursday.
"Nokia is down but not out. Volume shipments were above expectations, profit decline not quite as bad as expected and some regional numbers surging," said Neil Mawston from London-based Strategy Analytics. "There are signs of some stabilization here."
Despite signs of encouragement, Nokia continues to suffer from heavy competition in the smartphone market. Its sales of smartphones dropped 39 percent to euro2.2 billion, from euro3.6 billion a year earlier, knocking overall revenue by 13 percent to euro8.9 billion.
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop was more upbeat than he has been of late, saying Nokia's smartphone portfolio "performed well" despite the huge drop in sales and that it had gained market share in some markets, including India, where it sold 18 million dual SIM card handsets in the quarter.
"In Q3 we started to see signs of early progress in many areas. We made some difficult decisions but we also celebrated some early moments of success," Elop said in a conference call. "As we head into the fourth quarter we are looking forward to generating more success as a result of delivering against our new strategy."
Nokia, which used to hold the innovative edge in the mobile market, has been losing the race in the smartphone sector, as it is being squeezed in the low end market by Asian manufacturers like ZTE and in the high end by the iPhone and Research in Motion's Blackberry devices.
The company is hoping to partly remedy that with a new Windows Phone 7, expected to be launched next week in London after it opened a partnership with Microsoft Corp. in February.
But analysts have said it would take a few quarters before Nokia's success can be measured.
To cut costs in the face of fierce competition, Nokia announced more than 10,000 layoffs this year in an attempt to reduce operating expenses by euro1 billion by 2013. It has not ruled out more cutbacks.
It has also dropped phone prices, with the average selling price of mobile devices falling to euro51 in the quarter, from euro65 a year earlier.
Reflecting the lower prices, volume sales in Asia-Pacific, previously Nokia's second-largest market area, grew 17 percent to take the top spot, while the Asia-Pacific region saw a volume surge of 41 percent. Volume sales in Europe, which had been Nokia's top selling region, fell 30 percent.
Nokia has been the world's top cell phone maker since 1998 selling 432 million devices last year ? more than its three closest rivals combined. But after reaching its announced global goal of 40 percent market share in 2008, it has been struggling against rivals making cheaper handsets in Asia. That sent Nokia's market share below 30 percent earlier this year.
In the second quarter it had a total market share of 24 percent, ahead of South Korea's Samsung Electronics which had an almost 21 percent share.
It said the lower volumes were due to the "strong momentum of competing smartphone platforms" relative to Nokia's higher priced Symbian devices, as well as "pricing tactics by certain competitors."
The Espoo-based company, near Helsinki, employs 136,000 people ? up from 132,000 a year ago.
___
Online:
Nokia: http://www.nokia.com.
Fall TV Popularity Contest: Are You Going to Man Up!? (omg!)
Prosecutor to call for jail time for Lohan ANTHONY McCARTNEY - AP Entertainment Writer - AP - 2 hours 5 minutes ago
A city prosecutor will ask a judge to find Lindsay Lohan in violation of her probation and order her to spend time in jail, a city attorney's spokesman said Tuesday. More??Prosecutor to call for jail time for Lohan
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Thursday, October 20, 2011
Philly police: Disabled victimized by theft scheme
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey waits to address the media on Monday, Oct. 17, 2011 in front of the Philadelphia apartment building where four weak and malnourished mentally disabled adults, one chained to the boiler, were found locked inside a sub-basement room on Saturday. Police arrested three adults staying in an apartment upstairs, including the person accused of being the ringleader, Linda Ann Weston, in what authorities say is a scheme to steal the Social Security disability checks of defenseless and vulnerable people. (AP Photo/Ron Cortes, Pool)
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey waits to address the media on Monday, Oct. 17, 2011 in front of the Philadelphia apartment building where four weak and malnourished mentally disabled adults, one chained to the boiler, were found locked inside a sub-basement room on Saturday. Police arrested three adults staying in an apartment upstairs, including the person accused of being the ringleader, Linda Ann Weston, in what authorities say is a scheme to steal the Social Security disability checks of defenseless and vulnerable people. (AP Photo/Ron Cortes, Pool)
The dank sub-basement room in Philadelphia where four weak and malnourished mentally disabled adults, one chained to the boiler, were found locked inside on Saturday is shown Monday, Oct. 17, 2011. Police arrested three adults staying in an apartment upstairs, including the person accused of being the ringleader, Linda Ann Weston, in what authorities say is a scheme to steal the Social Security disability checks of defenseless and vulnerable people. (AP Photo/Ron Cortes, Pool)
This undated photo provided by the Philadelphia Police Department shows Linda Ann Weston. Weston is one of three people charged following the discovery of four malnourished mentally disabled adults chained to a boiler in a locked northeast Philadelphia basement room that was too small for an adult to stand up straight and also reeked of waste from the buckets they used to relieve themselves, police said Sunday, Oct. 16, 2011. (AP Photo/Philadelphia Police Department)
This undated photo provided by the Philadelphia Police Department shows Thomas Gregory. Gregory is one of three people charged following the discovery of four malnourished mentally disabled adults chained to a boiler in a locked northeast Philadelphia basement room that was too small for an adult to stand up straight and also reeked of waste from the buckets they used to relieve themselves, police said Sunday, Oct. 16, 2011. (AP Photo/Philadelphia Police Department)
Sgt. Joseph Green stands in the dank basement room in Philadelphia where four weak and malnourished mentally disabled adults, one chained to the boiler, were found locked inside, Monday, Oct. 17, 2011. Police arrested three adults staying in an apartment upstairs, including the person accused of being the ringleader, Linda Ann Weston, in what authorities say is a scheme to steal the Social Security disability checks of defenseless and vulnerable people. (AP Photo/Ron Cortes, Pool)
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? A woman convicted in the starvation death of a man nearly 30 years ago is facing charges of kidnapping and false imprisonment for allegedly preying on four mentally disabled adults, locking them in a basement and wresting control of their Social Security disability checks.
Linda Ann Weston was charged Monday with kidnapping, false imprisonment and other offenses, with bail set at $2.5 million after her landlord stumbled upon the four adults, all weak and malnourished, in a dank, foul-smelling boiler room on Saturday.
Also charged were Eddie "the Rev. Ed" Wright, 50, whom Weston described as her boyfriend, and Gregory Thomas, 47.
Detectives found dozens of ID cards, power-of-attorney forms and other documents in the apartment, suggesting the alleged theft scheme involved more than just the four captives.
Weston has a criminal record. In 1983, a 13-year-old Philadelphia boy testified that Weston, his older sister, had beaten another sister's boyfriend with a broomstick and imprisoned him in a closet in 1981 after the man said he would not support the sister's unborn child. The man died of starvation weeks later.
After initially being ruled incompetent to stand trial, Weston began serving time in state prison on a third-degree murder charge on June 7, 1985. She was paroled on Jan. 15, 1987, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
She's now behind bars in another heinous scheme that echoes the earlier case.
Police identified the victims as Derwin McLemire, 41, of Florida; Herbert Knowles, 40 of Virginia; and two Philadelphia residents, 29-year-old Tamara Breeden and 31-year-old Edwin Sanabria.
Police suspect Weston, 51, and the other suspects were keeping them in squalor while taking their Social Security checks. One victim said he met Weston through an online dating service.
"That was real dirty of (her). That was wrong," McLemire told KWY-TV on Monday. "I escaped one time to one of the houses that we used to live in, of hers, and I didn't get away so they got me."
He and two others told the station they had been on the move for about a year with their alleged captors, traveling from Texas to Florida to Philadelphia.
"They moved them around," Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said Monday after examining the boiler room-turned-dungeon inside a small apartment house. "Whenever it looked like people knew what was going on, they moved."
Landlord Turgut Gozleveli discovered the victims Saturday morning after he heard dogs barking in the area. The door to the basement room was chained shut, but Gozleveli managed to get inside, lifting a pile of blankets to find several sets of eyes staring back at him. One man was chained to the boiler.
The crawlspace reeked of urine and was too shallow for an adult to stand up. There were mattresses, blankets, buckets for using the bathroom, and a container of orange juice. The adults shared their space with three dogs.
Gozleveli called police, suspecting they were squatters, then watched as officers and ambulance workers helped them up the steps to the street in a working-class section of the city's Tacony neighborhood.
The victims had the mental capacity of 10-year-olds, along with some physical disabilities, authorities said. One could barely see.
Philadelphia police soon arrested Weston at her daughter's apartment upstairs, along with the two other men.
"Without a doubt. This is just the beginning of this investigation," Lt. Ray Evers said Monday. "She's been out of jail for a period of time, and we think she's being doing this for quite some time."
Exactly how long, how much money the scheme brought in, precisely how the disabled were deceived, and how many people in all were victimized are still unclear, investigators said. The FBI has joined the investigation.
"Talk about preying on the weak and weary," Evers said.
A Florida girl missing since July 4 from West Palm Beach, where neighbors said the group had come from earlier this month, was also located by Philadelphia police. The mother of 15-year-old Benita Rodriguez told WPTV-TV her daughter had been friends with Thomas' son. Rodriguez was not in the basement with the adults and it wasn't clear how she connects to the case.
As of Monday, the defendants did not appear to have lawyers.
Neighbors said the defendants and their alleged captives had arrived in an SUV from West Palm Beach about two weeks ago, though it does not appear the victims spent the entire time in the basement.
Danyell "Nicky" Tisdale, a block captain in the neighborhood, said that about a week ago, a man and woman and four mentally disabled adults held a yard sale, selling piles of shoes, jackets and other clothing on the sidewalk.
Since the arrests, police have slowly and patiently been trying to elicit information from the alleged captives. All four were treated at hospitals and placed with social service agencies.
Breeden had been reported missing by her family in Philadelphia in 2005, police said. Relatives of McLemire and Sanabria were contacted. Police were having trouble finding family members for Knowles.
According to an investigative report obtained by The Associated Press, Knowles was reported missing in Norfolk, Va., in December 2008 after a mental health case worker couldn't reach him and family members failed to hear from him.
The case worker reported that Knowles' Social Security checks were going to a Philadelphia address. The report said Philadelphia police went by the address and were told no one there had ever heard of Knowles.
Knowles' government benefits were stopped at one point after his mail was forwarded to Philadelphia, but Weston took the man to a Philadelphia social service agency in 2008 and showed identification, and the checks resumed, Norfolk police said.
Norfolk police spokesman Chris Amos said police did not continue looking for Knowles because as an adult he was under no obligation to report to his case worker.
"It's not illegal to be missing," Amos said. "A lot of people are missing by choice."
Scam artists can get control of a disabled person's checks by visiting the Social Security office with the victim, who then designates the other person to receive the payments, said Nora J. Baladerian, a clinical psychologist in Los Angeles and advocate for people with disabilities.
Only if there is a report of suspected abuse would social service agencies enter the picture, she said.
In Florida, Weston and Thomas appeared to live with several disabled adults, including a man and woman who had bruises on their faces, neighbors in a poor section of West Palm Beach said. The woman also had what looked like a large burn mark on her face, neighbor Ronald Bass said.
He said he often heard yelling, apparently from the disabled women, and that police frequently went to the house.
Another neighbor, Sadie Pollard, said she saw bruised lips and other facial injuries on the disabled people, but was told they had been fighting with each other.
Mark Riordan, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Children and Families, said a search of its databases as well as vital statistics and school records, found no record of the alleged perpetrators, the victims, or the children who lived with them.
"This family has clearly led a nomadic lifestyle and had become quite adept living beneath the radar. Until now," he said.
___
Associated Press Writers Randy Pennell and JoAnn Loviglio in Philadelphia, Dena Potter in Richmond and Matt Sedensky in West Palm Beach contributed to this report.
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