Apple's dedicated "in-app purchases litigation administrator" has had a busy few days. According to CNET, he or she has been emailing some important news to the 23 million parents who've been involved in a long-running class action lawsuit over in-app purchases racked up by their kids. The email says that individual claims for compensation can now be sent to Cupertino as per the terms of the original settlement back in February. Disputed transactions under $30 will qualify for a nominal $5 iTunes voucher, while bigger bills may be fully refunded in cash -- but only for strings of purchases made within 45 days of each other, back when there were no repeat password requests or disclaimers to get in a seven-year-old's way. There's a deadline of January 13th, 2014 for at least some types of claim, by which point Apple's litigation administrator may well find themselves diverted to another urgent case.
The picturesque beach city of San Clemente has hummed along for decades just up the highway from the ominous concrete domes of the San Onofre nuclear plant.
To residents, there were always reminders of their neighbor's presence ? the quarterly emergency siren tests and the potassium iodide tablets that local agencies kept on hand to distribute to residents in the 10-mile emergency planning zone around the plant.
But for the most part, the 63,000 residents of this city on the southern edge of Orange County ? known for its proximity to legendary surf spots and the rolling coastal hills of Camp Pendleton Marine base ? went about their daily lives for years with little thought of the nuclear generating station four miles down Interstate 5.
The tide began to shift in 2011, however, when a tsunami inundated Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, leading to equipment failures and meltdowns at three reactors and raising new concerns about the safety of Southern California's own coastal nuclear plant. A year later, a tube in one of San Onofre's newly installed steam generators leaked a small amount of radioactive steam, setting off a chain of events that led to Edison's announcement this month that the facility will be retired for good.
Residents in San Clemente greeted the news with a mix of feelings ? relief; sadness that the jobs of hundreds of utility workers who lived, shopped, and ate and drank in town will be lost; and worry about replacing the plant's energy and about the nuclear waste that will remain at the site.
"Every year, I have to sign a waiver so if something happened or leaked while the kids are in school, we give the school permission to give them iodine tablets," said Alicia Lopez, a mother of three who waits tables at the OC Tavern, a restaurant and sports bar in San Clemente that is popular with San Onofre workers.
"That's crazy," Lopez said. "I had to ask my pediatrician if I should do it. I'll be glad when we don't have to deal with that."
But Lopez's relief was tempered with regret at the thought that many of her longtime customers will lose their jobs as the plant is mothballed.
Over the next year, the plant's workforce will be cut from 1,500 to about 400 ? who will be charged with securing the plant during the potentially decades-long decommissioning process.
Daniel Dominguez, business manager for Utility Workers Union of America Local 246, said the employees were disappointed but will now focus on keeping the facility safely shut down:
"We're all professionals," he said. "It's unfortunate the plant was shut down, but it is what it is."
A plant employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said many workers hadn't expected a decision on the plant's fate until later in the year and were caught off guard. The plant's workforce has already been cut by about 700 in the last year.
"We just went through a very painful reduction in force," he said. "Some people just barely made it through, and they celebrated."
The employee said he expected that many of his colleagues would leave Southern California to find jobs elsewhere with comparable pay. With San Onofre gone, the two nearest nuclear plants are Diablo Canyon near San Luis Obispo and Palo Verde in Arizona.
San Clemente officials said about 400 of the plant's employees live in the city. On top of that, contractors stay for months at a time during the plant's regular refueling outages and other projects ? including the steam generator replacement that ultimately led to the plant's permanent closure.
Eric Moser, general manager at the Best Western Casablanca Inn in San Clemente, said San Onofre contractors made up about 3% to 4% of the hotel's overall business; but during the winter months when the plant generally scheduled its refueling outages, they could account for 30% or more.
Some suggested that the plant's closure could boost property values. Median home prices in San Clemente are about half that of nearby Laguna Beach, according to real estate firm DataQuick, and lower too than in neighboring Dana Point, which also is within San Onofre's emergency planning zone but a few miles farther from the plant.
"We have disclosures we have to give to people. Sometimes it's an issue, sometimes it's not," said Debbie Ferrari, who owns a local real estate business and has lived in San Clemente since 1981. She said it is difficult to determine whether the plant has been a factor in real estate decisions.
"We might have more people willing to come here now that it's closed, and willing to pay a higher price."
San Onofre's first reactor began operating in 1968, and Units 2 and 3 followed in the early 1980s. Unit 1 was shut down in 1992 rather than undergo expensive upgrades. The other two units were expected to continue generating power at least until 2022, when the plant's license expired. But the leak and unusual wear on hundreds of other tubes led to a complex regulatory process that had dragged on for 16 months while the plant sat idle. With no end in sight, Edison threw in the towel.
There have always been those who viewed the plant with suspicion.
In 1970, residents argued that an expanded plant would be in danger of sabotage because then-President Nixon's home ? the so-called Western White House ? was about 11/2 miles away. A decade later, about 15,000 people attended a festival in Laguna Niguel, calling for San Onofre to be shut down and replaced with renewable energy.
San Clemente City Councilwoman Lori Donchak said community concerns about the plant surged after the Fukushima disaster. The council sent letters to federal officials asking them to find a permanent off-site storage place for spent fuel before relicensing the plant. But city officials stayed out of the more recent debate over restarting the plant.
"I felt like we should let the experts decide how to operate this thing and how to do the restart," said Mayor Bob Baker, who characterized the activists opposed to the plant as a "very vocal minority."
Activists celebrated the plant's closure but expressed lingering concerns about the waste that will be left behind, perhaps indefinitely.
"We'll probably never do anything more important in our lives," said Gary Headrick, co-founder of the group San Clemente Green, who along with his wife has devoted his life since 2009 to shutting down the plant.
Gene Stone, 66, a local activist who launched an effort to outfit residents with portable Geiger counters so they could post real-time radiation readings online, called the permanent closing of the plant a "good step" for safety, but said: "The bad news is the easy part is over. We need to work to make sure it's decommissioned properly. There's no way in the world that we will allow this to be a nuclear waste dump."
The trial of James 'Whitey' Bulger is now focusing on FBI evidence claiming that Bulger was an informant ? a claim he refutes. The court proceedings are showing an ugly side of the FBI.
By Mark Trumbull,?Staff writer / June 24, 2013
A vehicle with bullet holes and broken glass was shown to jurors earlier this month hearing the racketeering and murder trial of accused Boston mob boss James 'Whitey' Bulger.
US Attorney's Office/Reuters
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Controversy surrounding the FBI took center stage in the trial of reputed gangster James ?Whitey? Bulger Monday, with lawyers sparring over the agency?s flawed use of criminals as informants.
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Prosecutors said Mr. Bulger spent years as an informant, and presented evidence suggesting he abused his secret role to help him get away with murder and other crimes.
Defense attorneys are putting a different spin on Bulger?s relationship with federal agents ? citing corruption within the FBI?s Boston office to raise questions about whether there?s credible evidence that Bulger was an informant.
Either way, the federal law enforcement agency doesn?t come out looking good.
Officially, this high-profile criminal case is about whether Bulger will be found guilty of racketeering charges that include 19 murders and other organized-crime activities. But unofficially, the trial is also serving as a venue for airing missteps and corruption within law enforcement ? most notably the FBI.
Some criminal-justice experts say the tale of Bulger as informant symbolizes an era when FBI personnel were desperate to make headway against the Mafia.
To the FBI at the time, Bulger and his main crime partner, Stephen Flemmi, were important informers against Italian-American organized crime in the region. The problem: They themselves were also big-time criminals, who appear to have gotten the best of the FBI relationship for years.
Some murder-victim family members say the FBI role, as revealed in this trial and others before it, is deeply troubling.
?Did anybody not get immunity?? It seems like nobody?s going to jail here,? said Tom Donahue, the son of a 1982 Boston murder victim, referring to the immunity that some former FBI officials have been granted in the case.
Talking to reporters outside court Monday, Mr. Donahue said his father was killed because one FBI informant (Bulger) was worried that another FBI informant (Brian Halloran) would incriminate him. Mr. Halloran was shot in a car outside a Boston restaurant. Donahue?s father was shot just because he was neighbors with Halloran and happened to be giving him a ride home at the time.
Halloran and Donahue represent two of Bulger?s alleged 19 murders in the trial, which started early this month.
One of the next witnesses for the prosecution will be John Morris, a former FBI supervisor in Boston.
But not all FBI personnel have, like Mr. Morris, been granted immunity from prosecution.
Notably, FBI Agent John Connolly is already in prison because of his role as an informant ?handler? who went astray. Mr. Connolly frequently interviewed Bulger and Mr. Flemmi, and drew up reports with information they provided about other criminals. But Connolly also accepted money from Bulger and Flemmi, and fed them information.
Connolly was convicted in 2002 for warning Bulger that an indictment was coming ? enabling Bulger to successfully flee Boston early in 1995. Then Connolly was convicted of second-degree murder in Florida in 2008, for telling Bulger?s group that one of its associates might become a cooperating witness ? a tip that resulted in a 1982 murder.
In Monday?s courtroom duel, the prosecution had the lead role ? spending all four hours of the court session walking through evidence based on Bulger?s FBI informant file with witness James Marra of the US Department of Justice.
But the defense scored a victory by getting Judge Denise Casper to sustain a key objection. In effect, the judge ruled that prosecutors can?t imply that the statements attributed by the FBI to Bulger were actually made by Bulger.
If the defense scored a technical victory on this point, however, that doesn?t mean it will ultimately win the war over whether Bulger?s legacy includes the ?informant? label.
Prosecuting attorney Fred Wyshak presented numerous documents attributing information to Bulger. The tips were often detailed, fingering specific people as alleged murderers, for example.
And although the FBI?s own reputation is sullied, the jury is unlikely to view Bulger as a something akin to an underworld saint.
Some of the nuggets attributed to Bulger appeared to aimed at keeping FBI investigators off his trail. Prior to the murder of drug dealer Halloran, for instance, the FBI reported tips from Bulger saying that Halloran?s life was at risk from other criminals.
History can be told in terms of secret passageways, hidden rooms, and obscure tunnels. Wars have been won and lost by them, coup d'?tats sprung, and entire countries altered thanks to a well-placed nook or crannie. There are also plenty of modern-day uses, as you'll see below?from drug smuggling tunnels in Tijuana to hidden doors that protect your most valuable wines. Check out 20 of the best, below.
Some of the oldest hidden passageways are found in the pyramids of Egypt. Below is the Cheops, the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis. On the right, we see a long tunnel leading upwards to the entrance to the burial chamber.
The C? Chi tunnels in Vietnam were used as hiding spots during combat. They also bore communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for guerrilla fighters.
Here, we see the entrance to an underground Hezbollah warehouse. In 2006, during an IDF operation in the central sector of southern Lebanon, Israeli soldiers found the bunker filled with weaponry and rocket launchers hidden under trees.
This 220-yard tunnel, in Tijuana, Mexico, crossed the border beneath the US and Mexico, and was widely used by drug smugglers. Its entrance? The cabinet underneath a bathroom sink inside a warehouse in Tijuana. It was raided in 2012.
Photo: Alejandro Cossio/AP//U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement/AP
Plenty of average people want the security and privacy of hidden rooms, too. This billiards room has a secret passageway created by Creative Home Engineering, a company that specializes in custom construction.
This garage, on the bottom floor of a historic Victorian apartment on Oak Street in San Francisco's Upper Haight district, isn't exactly hidden. But it is very neatly disguised, thanks to a series of bay windows.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africans appeared resigned on Monday to the inevitability of one day saying goodbye to former president Nelson Mandela after the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader's condition in hospital deteriorated to critical.
Madiba, as he is affectionately known, is revered among most of South Africa's 53 million people as the architect of the 1994 transition to multi-racial democracy after three centuries of white domination.
However, his latest hospitalization - his fourth in six months - has reinforced a realization that the father of the post-apartheid 'Rainbow Nation' will not be around for ever.
President Jacob Zuma told a news conference he and African National Congress (ANC) Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa had visited Mandela late on Sunday night.
Zuma declined to give specific details about his medical condition other than to say he remained critical.
"Given the hour, he was already asleep. We saw him, looked at him and then we had a bit of a discussion with the doctors and his wife," Zuma said. "I don't think I'm a position to give further details. I'm not a doctor."
U.S. President Barack Obama is due to visit South Africa this week as part of a three-country Africa tour, but Zuma said Mandela's deterioration should not affect the trip.
"Nothing is going to stop the visit because Madiba is sick," Zuma said.
"WE WILL MISS HIM"
Mandela's deterioration this weekend, two weeks after being admitted in a serious but stable condition with a lung infection, has caused a perceptible switch in mood from prayers for recovery to preparations for a fond farewell.
"If it's his time to go, he can go. I wish God can look after him," said nurse Petunia Mafuyeka, as she headed to work in Johannesburg.
"We will miss him very much. He fought for us to give us freedom. We will remember him every day. When he goes I will cry."
There was some concern among the public about doctors trying to prolong the life of South Africa's first black president, one of the 20th century's most influential figures.
"I'm worried that they're keeping him alive. I feel they should let him go," said Doris Lekalakala, a claims manager. "The man is old. Let nature take its course. He must just rest."
Since stepping down in 1999 after one term as president, Mandela has stayed out of active politics in a country with the continent's biggest and most important economy. His passing is expected to have little political impact.
His last public appearance was waving to fans from the back of a golf cart before the final of the soccer World Cup in Johannesburg's Soccer City stadium in July 2010.
During his retirement, he has divided his time between his home in the wealthy Johannesburg suburb of Houghton, and Qunu, the village in the poor Eastern Cape province where he was born.
The public's last glimpse of him was a brief clip aired by state television in April during a visit to his home by Zuma and other senior officials of the ruling African National Congress.
At the time, the 101-year-old liberation movement, which led the fight against white-minority rule, assured the public Mandela was "in good shape", although the footage showed a thin and frail old man sitting expressionless in an armchair.
(Reporting by Ed Cropley and Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Angus MacSwan)
Martin Truex Jr. races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series auto race, Sunday, June 23, 2013, in Sonoma, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
SONOMA, Calif. (AP) ? Martin Truex Jr. snapped a 218-race winless streak with an easy victory Sunday on the road course at Sonoma Raceway.
It was just the second win of Truex?s career, first since Dover in 2007. It put Michael Waltrip Racing in Victory Lane for the second year in a row after Clint Bowyer won here last season.
Truex worked his way to the front and used strategy to stay with the leaders. He then pulled away after the final restart and built a healthy lead of more than six seconds over Juan Pablo Montoya, who was running second until he ran out of gas on the final lap.
Jeff Gordon finished third a week after he was wrecked six laps into the race at Michigan.
Carl Edwards was fourth, followed by Kurt Busch, who climbed back from a pair of speeding penalties.
Bowyer wound up fifth in a strong day for the MWR Toyotas.
The race got off to an inauspicious start before it even began with a pit road accident, a mechanical issue for Jacques Villeneuve and an oil line failure for Bobby Labonte.
The accident occurred as the cars were headed onto the track and David Reutimann stopped his car on pit road. Alex Kennedy stopped behind Reutimann, and Paulie Harraka slammed into the back of Kennedy.
The damage wasn?t significant enough to prevent Harraka from making his Sprint Cup Series debut. But it was a short-lived race for the first driver to advance from NASCAR?s diversity program into a Cup race ? Harraka spun and crashed his car six laps later.
Meanwhile, a parts failure caused Labonte to dump oil all over pit road before the race and he was forced to take his car to the garage for a quick repair. Labonte made it onto the track for the green flag, but his engine failed on the first lap.
?It blew up, dude,? Labonte said on his radio. ?Something in the bottom engine because it had no oil pressure.?
Villeneuve had an issue shifting his gears and had to stay on pit road for a quick repair before trying to catch up to the field at the start of the race. He made it, but the problem wasn?t completely corrected and he was back on pit road after 19 laps for more repairs.
Busch had back-to-back speeding penalties in yet another race that slipped away. He led 15 laps, lost the lead to former teammate Brad Keselowski, then was flagged for speeding when he went in for a scheduled pit stop. He had to return to pit road for a stop-and-go penalty and was flagged for speeding again.
It dropped Busch to 38th in the running order, from where he had to climb back to steal his strong finish.
His brother, Kyle, also had his share of problems. He was spun early in the race by Juan Pablo Montoya to lose a ton of track position, then gave up everything he made up when he was caught speeding on pit road. Kyle Busch also spun at least two more times during the race.
Danica Patrick, thought to be a contender based on her strong runs in Nationwide Series road races, struggled all weekend to find speed and was done in by a flat rear tire just past the halfway point. The tire issue caused her to spin into a barrier and make multiple pit stops for repairs.
Pole-sitter Jamie McMurray never even led a lap as he was passed at the start by Marcos Ambrose, and his race took a big hit when he later ran off course with a tire problem and lost a lap.
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Google's billion dollar deal for Waze was a win, with Apple and Facebook left behind, but the excitement at Google's Santa Clara headquarters will be put on hold?while the Federal Trade Commission takes a good, long look at the deal. The New York Post?reported the FTC would be?scrutinizing?the Waze deal, despite the fact that the deal closed on June 11, and?Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal?confirmed the news with Google.?
RELATED: European Version of FTC Accuses Google of Abusing Its Dominant Search Results
The California tech giant won't be able to integrate any of the crowd-sourcing technology that made Waze the toast of the map app world until regulators have determined everything is on the up-and-up. Waze quickly became the toast of the tech world before Google scooped it up, garnering attention from Apple and Facebook, too. And it's because of this wide-spread interest among tech titans that the FTC will be looking at closely, as the Journal explains:
The FTC would have to determine whether Waze would have become a head-to-head competitor with Google, whose Google Maps software is the dominant digital mapping and navigation service around the world, or whether there is any evidence, such as emails, that showed Google wanted to acquire the company only to keep it from rivals.
Before the purchase, Waze was seen as the first competitor who stood a chance of potentially taking down Google Maps as the go-to map app. When Google did finally pay slightly north of $1 billion for the app, some questioned why the FTC wasn't getting involved. Google was buying a direct competitor, after all.?Quartz's Christopher Mims?figured it was just the Silicon Valley way that was allowing them to get away with it: "Absolutely blows my mind that the FTC thinks it's OK for Google to acquire Waze. But whatever, competition, feh." The Post and the Journal say Google didn't need to submit the deal for FTC review because Waze made less than $70 million in American revenue. But the commission exercised their right to look at the deal regardless, so Google users will have to wait for that sweet, sweet crowd-sourced traffic info. Sorry, people who live in LA. You'll have to guess whether you should turn onto La Brea or Fairfax.
SAO PAULO (AP) ? About 150,000 anti-government demonstrators again took to streets in several Brazilian cities Saturday and engaged police in some isolated, intense conflicts. Anger over political corruption emerged as the unifying issue for the demonstrators, who vowed to stay in the streets until concrete steps are taken to reform the political system.
Across Brazil, protesters gathered to denounce legislation, known as PEC 37, that would limit the power of federal prosecutors to investigate crimes ? which many fear would hinder attempts to jail corrupt politicians.
Federal prosecutors were behind the investigation into the biggest corruption case in Brazil's history, the so-called "mensalao" cash-for-votes scheme that came to light in 2005 and involved top aides of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva buying off members of congress to vote for their legislation.
Last year, the supreme court condemned two dozen people in connection to the case, which was hailed as a watershed moment in Brazil's fight against corruption. However, those condemned have yet to be jailed because of appeals, a delay that has enraged Brazilians.
The protests continued despite a prime-time speech the night before from President Dilma Rousseff, a former leftist guerrilla who was tortured during Brazil's military dictatorship. She tried to appease demonstrators by reiterating that peaceful protests were a welcome, democratic action and emphasizing that she would not condone corruption in her government.
"Dilma is underestimating the resolve of the people on the corruption issue," said Mayara Fernandes, a medical student who took part in a march Saturday in Sao Paulo. "She talked and talked and said nothing. Nobody can take the corruption of this country anymore."
The wave of protests began as opposition to transportation fare hikes, then became a laundry list of causes including anger at high taxes, poor services and high World Cup spending, before coalescing around the issue of rampant government corruption. They have become the largest public demonstrations Latin America's biggest nation has seen in two decades.
Across Brazil, police estimated that about 60,000 demonstrators gathered in a central square in the city of Belo Horizonte, 30,000 shut down a main business avenue in Sao Paulo, and another 30,000 gathered in the city in southern Brazil where a nightclub fire killed over 240 mostly university students, deaths many argued could have been avoided with better government oversight of fire laws. Thousands more protested in dozens of Brazilian cities.
In Belo Horizonte, police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who tried to pass through a barrier and hurled rocks at a car dealership. Salvador also saw protests turn violent.
During her pre-recorded TV speech, Rousseff promised that she would always battle corruption and that she would meet with peaceful protesters, governors and the mayors of big cities to create a national plan to improve urban transportation and use oil royalties for investments in education.
Many Brazilians, shocked by a week of protests and violence, hoped that Rousseff's words after several days of silence from the leader would soothe tensions and help avoid more violence, but not all were convinced by her promises of action.
Victoria Villela, a 21-year-old university who joined the crowd, said she was "frustrated and exhausted by the endless corruption of our government."
"It was good Dilma spoke, but this movement has moved too far, there was not much she could really say. All my friends were talking on Facebook about how she said nothing that satisfied them. I think the protests are going to continue for a long time and the crowds will still be huge."
Around her, fathers held young boys aloft on their shoulders, older women gathered in clusters with their faces bearing yellow and green stripes, the colors of Brazil's flag.
In the northeastern city of Salvador, where Brazil's national football team played Italy and won 4-2 in a Confederations Cup match, some 5,000 protesters gathered about 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the stadium, shouting demands for better schools and transportation and denouncing heavy spending on next year's World Cup.
They blocked a main road and clashed with riot police who moved in to clear the street. Protesters said police used rubber bullets and even tossed tear gas canisters from a helicopter hovering overhead. The protesters scattered and fled to a nearby shopping mall, where they tried to take shelter in an underground parking garage.
"We sat down and the police came and asked us to free up one lane for traffic. As we were organizing our group to do just that, the police lost their patience and began to shoot at us and throw (tear gas) canisters," said Rodrigo Dorado.
That was exactly the type of conflict Rousseff said needed to end, not just so Brazilians could begin a peaceful national discussion about corruption but because much of the violence is taking place in cities hosting foreign tourists attending the Confederations Cup.
Brazil's news media, which had blasted Rousseff in recent days for her lack of response to the protests, seemed largely unimpressed with her careful speech, but noted the difficult situation facing a government trying to understand a mass movement with no central leaders and a flood of demands.
With "no objective information about the nature of the organization of the protests," wrote Igor Gielow in a column for Brazil's biggest newspaper, Folha de S. Paulo, "Dilma resorted to an innocuous speech to cool down spirits."
At its height, some 1 million anti-government demonstrators took to the streets nationwide on Thursday night with grievances ranging from public services to the billions of dollars spent preparing for international sports events.
Outside the stadium in Belo Horizonte where Mexico and Japan met in a Confederations Cup game, Dadiana Gamaleliel, a 32-year-old physiotherapist, held up a banner that read: "Not against the games, in favor of the nation."
"I am protesting on behalf of the whole nation because this must be a nation where people have a voice ... we don't have a voice anymore," she said.
She said Rousseff's speech wouldn't "change anything."
"She spoke in a general way and didn't say what she would do," she said. "We will continue this until we are heard."
___
Associated press writers Tales Azzoni and Ricardo Zuniga in Salvador, Stan Lehman in Sao Paulo and Rob Harris in Belo Horizonte contributed to this report
June 21, 2013 ? University of Delaware chemist Joel Rosenthal is driven to succeed in the renewable energy arena.
Working in his lab in UD's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Rosenthal and doctoral student John DiMeglio have developed an inexpensive catalyst that uses the electricity generated from solar energy to convert carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, into synthetic fuels for powering cars, homes and businesses.
The research is published in the June 19 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Gold and silver represent the "gold standard" in the world of electrocatalysts for conversion of carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide. But Rosenthal and his research team have pioneered the development of a much cheaper alternative to these pricey, precious metals. It's bismuth, a silvery metal with a pink hue that's a key ingredient in Pepto-Bismol, the famous pink elixir for settling an upset stomach.
An ounce of bismuth is 50 to 100 times cheaper than an ounce of silver, and 2,000 times cheaper than an ounce of gold, Rosenthal says. Bismuth is more plentiful than gold and silver, it is well distributed globally and is a byproduct in the refining of lead, tin and copper.
Moreover, Rosenthal says his UD-patented catalyst offers other important advantages: selectivity and efficiency in converting carbon dioxide to fuel.
"Most catalysts do not selectively make one compound when combined with carbon dioxide -- they make a whole slew," Rosenthal explains. "Our goal was to develop a catalyst that was extremely selective in producing carbon monoxide and to power the reaction using solar energy."
Many of us hear '"carbon monoxide" and think "poison."
"It's true that you do not want to be in a closed room with carbon monoxide," Rosenthal says. "But carbon monoxide is very valuable as a commodity chemical because it's extremely energy rich and has many uses."
Carbon monoxide is used industrially in the water-gas shift reaction to make hydrogen gas. It also is a prime feedstock for the Fischer-Tropsch process, which allows for the production of synthetic petroleum, gasoline and diesel.
Commercial production of synthetic petroleum is under way or in development in a number of countries, including Australia and New Zealand, China and Japan, South Africa and Qatar.
Rosenthal says that if carbon dioxide emissions become taxed in the future due to continuing concerns about global warming, his solar-driven catalyst for making synthetic fuel will compete even better economically with fossil fuels.
"This catalyst is a critically important linchpin," Rosenthal says. "Using solar energy to drive the production of liquid fuels such as gasoline from CO2 is one of the holy grails in renewable energy research. In order to do this on a practical scale, inexpensive catalysts that can convert carbon dioxide to energy-rich compounds are needed. Our discovery is important in this regard, and demonstrates that development of new catalysts and materials can solve this problem. Chemists have a big role to play in this area."
Rosenthal credits a scientific article published during America's first energy crisis in the 1970s for piquing his interest in bismuth. At that time, many researchers were examining the conversion of carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide using electricity and metal electrodes. The research went bust in the early 1980s when federal funding dried up. Rosenthal picked up the trail and blazed a new one.
"With this advance, there are at least a dozen things we need to follow up on," Rosenthal notes. "One successful study usually leads to more questions and possibilities, not final answers."
Rosenthal's lab will be operating at full tilt this summer, exploring some of those questions. And his research team of seven will have some company. Through the American Chemical Society's Project SEED summer research program, budding scientists from nearby Newark High School will join Rosenthal's team for further study of this bismuth-based catalyst.
Every weekend, Longform shares a collection of great stories from its archive with Slate. For daily picks of new and classic nonfiction, check out Longform or follow@longform on Twitter. Have an iPad? Download Longform?s app to read the latest picks, plus features from 70 of the world?s best magazines, including Slate.
Every story ever written about the late Gandolfini was really just a story about The Sopranos. Except this one.
?He pulls up on his Harley. I watch as he awkwardly backs the small bike to the curb outside the Ear Inn and lifts off his helmet. James Gandolfini arrived back in New York City at seven thirty this evening after his Emmy weekend in Los Angeles; he put his 5-year-old son to bed, then headed out, only slightly late for his interview. He does very few of these. He has not always had an easy time with the public side of the fame The Sopranos has brought him?all those nosy questions, those pesky paparazzi, the peculiar moments when a person will come up to you as you are vomiting at the curbside outside a Tennessee airport to ask whether you'd mind his taking a picture. But nor does he have much patience with the sound of someone like him complaining about such things. In the past, when he has spoken, he has sometimes replied to questions by protesting that he is boring. Maybe he believes that this is the case, or just believes there is no point in allowing himself to seem interesting in the way interviewers usually want people to be. Still, he has told himself that tonight he will be truthful. He's feeling calmer these days. He has not had one of these conversations for a while, and he intends it to be a long time before he has another.?
The Family Hour Sam Kashner ? Vanity Fair ? April 2012
?JAMES GANDOLFINI (Tony Soprano): I dabbled a little bit in acting in high school, and then I forgot about it completely. And then at about 25 I went to a class. I don?t think anybody in my family thought it was an intelligent choice. I don?t think anybody thought I?d succeed, which is understandable. I think they were just happy that I was doing something.
?DAVID CHASE: In the movie version of The Sopranos, I thought about Robert De Niro. For TV, it was audition after audition?a lot of people went up for that role. As a matter of fact, they don?t like you to bring in one person?they want to have some input. So three people were brought to HBO for the role of Tony, and Jim was one of them. And when Jim Gandolfini walked in, that was it.
?JAMES GANDOLFINI: I read it. I liked it. I thought it was good. But I thought that they would hire some good-looking guy, not George Clooney but some Italian George Clooney, and that would be that. But they called me and they said can I meet David for breakfast at nine A.M. At the time I was younger and I stayed out late a lot, and I was like, Oh, for fuck?s sake. This guy wants to eat breakfast? This guy?s going to be a pain in the ass. So we met and we spent most of the time laughing about our mothers and our families.?
The Long Con Emily Nussbaum ??New York ? January 2007
?Now that it?s over, no longer a work-in-progress, we are finally free to criticize it for real or praise it as a whole, and despite some missteps (a gambling problem, really? And what was that Furio-Carmela thing back in Season 4?), I do think the show will reward rewatching. It was, in fact, truly revolutionary, but not because it was adult or novelistic. The Sopranos was the first series that truly dared us to slam the door, to reject it. And when we never did, it slammed the door on us: A silent black screen, a fitting conclusion to a show that was itself a bit of a long con, that seduced us as an audience, then dismantled its own charms before our eyes.?
Is This the End of Rico? David Remnick ? The New Yorker ? April 2001
The Sopranos and the fading mob genre.
?Does ?The Sopranos,? with all its postmodern self-awareness, with all its evidence of decline, signal the end of the Mafia movie? Will the Mob movie go the way of the Western, revived rarely and only then as something nostalgic (?Unforgiven?), sensational (?The Wild Bunch?), or comic (?Blazing Saddles?)? It is remarkable to think now how such a rich movie genre came out of such a small, violent, and hermetic world. There were a few silent Mob pictures of distinction?D. W. Griffith?s 1912 short ?The Musketeers of Pig Alley,? Raoul Walsh?s ?The Regeneration? (1915), and Josef von Sternberg?s ?Underworld? (1927)?but the first golden age was ushered in by two events: the advent of sound, in 1927, which gave us the jolt of gunfire and the bite of the gangsters? slang and wit, and the St. Valentine?s Day Massacre, in 1929, which made Al Capone a national media figure. Three films released between 1931 and 1932?Mervyn LeRoy?s ?Little Caesar,? William Wellman?s ?Public Enemy,? and Howard Hawks?s ?Scarface??set the standard. Both David Chase and Tony Soprano adore them and the theme they established. As Robert Warshow pointed out in his 1948 essay ?The Gangster as Tragic Hero,? the appeal of these pictures, beyond their visceral excitement and their opportunity for escapism, resides in ?that part of the American psyche which rejects the qualities and the demands of modern life, which rejects ?Americanism? itself,? the comfort and conformity, the sunny optimism and unbounded opportunity. The gangster in these movies is a man whose response to harsh circumstance is brutal and ultimately doomed. He is possessed of perverse ambition and perverse nobility. With our ids, we enjoy his murderous ascent, we delight in his malapropisms and limitless appetites, and with our superegos we are satisfied by his inevitable fall, we feel a sense of superiority and relief.?
The Night Tony Soprano Disappeared Brett Martin ??GQ ??June 2013
Playing Tony Soprano wasn?t easy. And one night 2002, Gandolfini decided he?d had enough.
?By the winter of 2002, Gandolfini's sudden refusals to work had become a semiregular occurrence. His fits were passive-aggressive: He would claim to be sick, refuse to leave his TriBeCa apartment, or simply not show up. The next day, inevitably, he would feel so wretched about his behavior and the massive logistic disruptions it had caused?akin to turning an aircraft carrier on a dime?that he would treat cast and crew to extravagant gifts. ?All of a sudden there'd be a sushi chef at lunch,? one crew member remembered. ?Or we'd all get massages.? It had come to be understood by all involved as part of the price of doing business, the trade-off for getting the remarkably intense, fully inhabited Tony Soprano that Gandolfini offered.
?So when the actor failed to show up for a 6 p.m. call at Westchester County Airport to shoot the final appearance of the character Furio Giunta, a night shoot involving a helicopter, few panicked. ?Nobody was particularly sad to go home at nine thirty on a Friday night,? says Terence Winter, the writer-producer on set that evening. ?You know, ?It's just money.? I mean, it was a ton of money?we shut down a fucking airport.?
?Over the next twelve hours, it would become clear that this time was different. This time, Gandolfini was just gone.?
A beyond-thorough examination of The Sopranos? final scene. Not for beginners.
??If you look at the final episode really carefully, it's all there.? These are David Chase's words regarding the finale of the Sopranos. He is right, it is ?all there.? This is the definitive explanation of why Tony died in Holsten's in the final scene of The Sopranos. The following is based on a thorough analysis of the final season of the show and will clear up one of the most misunderstood endings in film or television history. Chase took almost 2 years to construct the final season of the show after the fifth season ended in June of 2004. Part 1 will show how Chase directed, edited and scored the final scene of the Sopranos to lead to the interpretation that Tony was shot in the head in Holsten's and how this ties into the ?never hear it happen? concept that Chase hammered into the viewer before the show's final scene.?
Have a favorite piece that we missed? Leave the link in the comments or tweet it to @longform. For more great writing, check out Longform?s complete archive.
Each week, our friends at gdgt go through the latest gadgets and score them to help you decide which ones to buy. Here are some of their most recent picks. Want more? Visit gdgt anytime to catch up on the latest, and subscribe to gdgt's newsletter to get a weekly roundup in your inbox.
Plus, World War Z is smart and tense, and The Bling Ring is stylish and lurid.
Also opening this week in limited release:
A Hijacking, a thriller about a Danish cargo ship commandeered by a group of Somali pirates, is Certified Fresh at 100 percent.
The Attack, a drama about a prominent Israeli Palestinian whose wife is posthumously accused of being a suicide bomber, is at 92 percent.
Unfinished Song, starring Gemma Arterton and Terence Stamp in a dramedy about a grumpy older guy who comes out of his shell when he joins a local choir, is at 64 percent.
Maniac, starring Elijah Wood in a thriller about a withdrawn shop owner whose dark side is unleashed, is at 54 percent.
The French import Three Worlds, a drama about disparate people who reconnect after a hit-and-run accident, is at 43 percent.
Somm, a documentary about a group of wine experts working to pass the demanding Master Sommelier test, is at 33 percent.
Rushlights, a thriller about a pair of teens who get into big trouble when they attempt to claim an inheritance under false pretenses, is at zero percent.
A robot built to mimic the movements of a shark relative, the cownose ray, takes a dip.
Credit: Norm Shafer
Meet three researchers who study animal locomotion. Each of the critters they work with has perfected a style of movement over millions of years. Their moves have inspired these engineers to build robots that can do important and useful jobs ? ones that people can?t do. Known as biomimicry,?it's the design of new technologies based on nature.
Visit the new?Science News for Kids?website and read the full story:??Cool Jobs ? Moved by life
If Cisco and iRobot have their way, robot CEOs may invade boardrooms from Tokyo to New York in 2014. The two companies?recently announced collaboration on the autonomous Ava 500 telepresence robot for business. The firms hope the Ava 500 will allow business people to attend daily meetings in person, across the planet?without ever changing a plane or time zone.
The navigation technology behind iRobot?s Roomba robot vacuum cleaner and the RP Vita medical telepresence robot will guide the five foot five inch, 100 pound Ava 500. Meanwhile, a Cisco TelePresence EX60 personal video endpoint will broadcast a worker?s face and voice from its?21.5? screen and send back sounds and images via an onboard camera and microphone.
Using a special app on a tablet, remote workers will wake the robot up and tell it where to go. The Ava 500 can map and autonomously navigate the halls of its home office, freeing the telecommuter to make small talk along the way (or leave the screen off until it reaches its destination). After a meeting, the unit dutifully returns to its charging station to catch a few winks and juice up for its next appointment.
iRobot CEO, Colin Angle, told the Boston Herald the Ava 500 gives folks the chance to be in the same room as the people they?re meeting, to see facial expressions, and to go in the hall after for a private chat. Angie Mistretta, director of telepresence solutions at Cisco, says, ?The real value of the robot is that spontaneity.?
The question is whether that spontaneity is worth the robot?s $70,000 price tag?(or?$2,000 ? $2,500 a month to rent). iRobot and Cisco are targeting executives, corporate trainers, site inspectors, and remote employees. Travel costs for these folks can stack up fast.?If Ava 500 saves even a few trips a month, the robot could pay its way.
But businesses are cost cutting machines. If telepresence robots are attractive at $70,000, then they?re even more appealing at $7,000, and exponentially sexier as the price tag approaches $0.?And already, firms can order a simpler telepresence robot from Double Robotics for $2,599. Businesses may be willing to sacrifice a little screen real estate and autonomous navigation for $67,000 in saved costs.
Double Robotics iPad telepresence robot.
And they may not need to make that sacrifice very long.?Advanced AI and robotics are entering the consumer market at drastically reduced prices.
We recently wrote about AI startup Anki. Anki?s robot cars drive themselves around a track at top speed, avoiding each other, the wall, making evasive maneuvers?all this runs on iOS with an expected cost of $200.?But Anki isn?t just about toy cars. It?s an iOS-powered consumer AI and robotics platform.
Such technology will just as easily guide an autonomous telepresence robot through the office. And soon. Offering enterprise solutions at enterprise prices in a world where AI and robotics are hitting consumer markets at consumer prices?how long will such products make sense?
In case you forgot, Samsung and Apple's legal squabbles didn't end in US federal court last year: the litigation rages on in international courts. Stop us if you've heard this one -- Samsung and Apple are caught up in a lawsuit focusing in part on Cupertino's bounce back patent, and things aren't looking great for Sammy's lawyers. It's a familiar story, but this time it's playing out in a Japanese courtroom, with a Tokyo judge deciding that a number of Samsung devices are in violation of Apple's scrolling technology. What's this mean to the consumer? Nothing yet -- the court still hasn't calculated damages or approved an injunction, and this isn't the only legal battle the firms are waging in the country's court system. Feel free to brush up on your kanji and check out the source link below for more details, or skip on over to Bloomberg for a more digestible account.
Networked cars make traffic safer and more efficientPublic release date: 20-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Silja Hoffmann silja.hoffmann@tum.de 49-892-892-2798 Technische Universitaet Muenchen
Vehicles communicate with one another -- field test involving 500 testers
This news release is available in German.
The system developed within the framework of the simTD (Safe Intelligent Mobility Test Field Germany) project links vehicles and infrastructure together electronically. Cars, motor bikes and roadside stations installed along the route receive information about traffic situations and external factors, such as bad weather, via sensors. Using specially developed radio technology, based on the WLAN standard, they exchange information directly among themselves. They also transmit anonymized information to a traffic center, which then forecasts and manages traffic developments.
Drivers with simTD technology equipped vehicles are in a significantly better position for anticipatory driving. For one thing, they can view a display offering them suggestions for the best route to take and recommendations such as the optimum speed needed to ride a 'green wave' (a succession of green traffic lights along a stretch of road).
For another, drivers receive acoustic and visual warnings to advise them of imminent risks. For example, a light signal is displayed if a car ahead brakes sharply even if there are several other vehicles between the car that is braking and the driver's car. This means that the driver can react even if he or she cannot yet see the danger. Traffic backups, emergency vehicles and dropped loads that may be blocking the road are also signaled in good time.
Does this system work in everyday situations? Which functions are accepted by users? In order to find out more, the simTD project sent around 120 vehicles out onto highways, country roads and city streets in and around Frankfurt for a period of six months. Five hundred test drivers traveled almost one million miles (1.6 million kilometers) as part of the experiment. The 'scripts', containing various scenarios for the field test, were designed mainly by traffic engineers at Technische Universitt Mnchen. They also analyzed the data that was collected more than four terabytes in total. The scientists not only analyzed the actual effects of the experiment on the traffic situation in the test region, they also simulated how traffic would react if a certain number of all vehicles were equipped with the system.
"The field test clearly shows that the system provides for enhanced safety, efficiency and comfort in road traffic," says Professor Fritz Busch, TUM's Chair of Traffic Engineering and Control. "Drivers have used the information to adapt their speed and driving behavior earlier to a particular traffic situation. The benefits of networking are great, particularly in situations where hidden dangers lurk."
For example, more than half of all accidents at intersections could be prevented if all vehicles were equipped with the simTD system. The system notifies drivers in city traffic in good time before they reach an intersection about vehicles that are approaching from the other street.
Even if a small number of cars are fitted with the system, some of the functions will benefit all road users. For example, when the test drivers were informed about imminent road works, they slowed down and, if necessary, changed lane. As a result, the risk of a pileup was also reduced for the other vehicles.
"The car-to-x technology is now ready for market," says project coordinator Dr. Christian Wei. As a first step, a system is planned for a corridor between Rotterdam and Vienna, via Frankfurt/Main. This system, planned for 2015, will record the traffic situation at road works and issue the relevant warnings to drivers. To standardize the technology further, the project partners are working with other European automakers and authorities.
If the simTD function was implemented in all vehicles, the project partners estimate that savings of up to EUR 6.5 billion could be achieved in Geramny alone due to the number of accidents prevented. Another EUR 4.9 billion could be saved each year through shorter travel times and lower environmental pollution.
###
About simTD:
simTD is a joint project by leading German automotive manufacturers, component suppliers, telecommunication companies, research institutions and public authorities. simTD partners are as follows: Adam Opel AG, AUDI AG, BMW AG - BMW Forschung und Technik GmbH, Daimler AG (Projektleitung), Ford Forschungszentrum Aachen GmbH, Volkswagen AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, Continental Teves AG & Co. oHG, Deutsche Telekom AG, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Frderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., Deutsches Forschungszentrum fr Knstliche Intelligenz GmbH (DFKI), Technische Universitt Berlin, Technische Universitt Mnchen, Hochschule fr Technik und Wirtschaft des Saarlandes, Universitt Wrzburg, Hessen Mobil Straen- und Verkehrsmanagement, Stadt Frankfurt am Main. The project is funded and supported by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi), the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS). simTD was supported by the state of Hessen, the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) and the Car 2 Car Communication Consortium.
Silja Hoffmann
Technische Universitt Mnchen
Chair for Traffic Engineering and Control (Prof. Dr. Fritz Busch)
T: +49 89 289 22798
E: silja.hoffmann@tum.de
W: http://www.vt.bgu.tum.de/en/home/
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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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.
Networked cars make traffic safer and more efficientPublic release date: 20-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Silja Hoffmann silja.hoffmann@tum.de 49-892-892-2798 Technische Universitaet Muenchen
Vehicles communicate with one another -- field test involving 500 testers
This news release is available in German.
The system developed within the framework of the simTD (Safe Intelligent Mobility Test Field Germany) project links vehicles and infrastructure together electronically. Cars, motor bikes and roadside stations installed along the route receive information about traffic situations and external factors, such as bad weather, via sensors. Using specially developed radio technology, based on the WLAN standard, they exchange information directly among themselves. They also transmit anonymized information to a traffic center, which then forecasts and manages traffic developments.
Drivers with simTD technology equipped vehicles are in a significantly better position for anticipatory driving. For one thing, they can view a display offering them suggestions for the best route to take and recommendations such as the optimum speed needed to ride a 'green wave' (a succession of green traffic lights along a stretch of road).
For another, drivers receive acoustic and visual warnings to advise them of imminent risks. For example, a light signal is displayed if a car ahead brakes sharply even if there are several other vehicles between the car that is braking and the driver's car. This means that the driver can react even if he or she cannot yet see the danger. Traffic backups, emergency vehicles and dropped loads that may be blocking the road are also signaled in good time.
Does this system work in everyday situations? Which functions are accepted by users? In order to find out more, the simTD project sent around 120 vehicles out onto highways, country roads and city streets in and around Frankfurt for a period of six months. Five hundred test drivers traveled almost one million miles (1.6 million kilometers) as part of the experiment. The 'scripts', containing various scenarios for the field test, were designed mainly by traffic engineers at Technische Universitt Mnchen. They also analyzed the data that was collected more than four terabytes in total. The scientists not only analyzed the actual effects of the experiment on the traffic situation in the test region, they also simulated how traffic would react if a certain number of all vehicles were equipped with the system.
"The field test clearly shows that the system provides for enhanced safety, efficiency and comfort in road traffic," says Professor Fritz Busch, TUM's Chair of Traffic Engineering and Control. "Drivers have used the information to adapt their speed and driving behavior earlier to a particular traffic situation. The benefits of networking are great, particularly in situations where hidden dangers lurk."
For example, more than half of all accidents at intersections could be prevented if all vehicles were equipped with the simTD system. The system notifies drivers in city traffic in good time before they reach an intersection about vehicles that are approaching from the other street.
Even if a small number of cars are fitted with the system, some of the functions will benefit all road users. For example, when the test drivers were informed about imminent road works, they slowed down and, if necessary, changed lane. As a result, the risk of a pileup was also reduced for the other vehicles.
"The car-to-x technology is now ready for market," says project coordinator Dr. Christian Wei. As a first step, a system is planned for a corridor between Rotterdam and Vienna, via Frankfurt/Main. This system, planned for 2015, will record the traffic situation at road works and issue the relevant warnings to drivers. To standardize the technology further, the project partners are working with other European automakers and authorities.
If the simTD function was implemented in all vehicles, the project partners estimate that savings of up to EUR 6.5 billion could be achieved in Geramny alone due to the number of accidents prevented. Another EUR 4.9 billion could be saved each year through shorter travel times and lower environmental pollution.
###
About simTD:
simTD is a joint project by leading German automotive manufacturers, component suppliers, telecommunication companies, research institutions and public authorities. simTD partners are as follows: Adam Opel AG, AUDI AG, BMW AG - BMW Forschung und Technik GmbH, Daimler AG (Projektleitung), Ford Forschungszentrum Aachen GmbH, Volkswagen AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, Continental Teves AG & Co. oHG, Deutsche Telekom AG, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Frderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., Deutsches Forschungszentrum fr Knstliche Intelligenz GmbH (DFKI), Technische Universitt Berlin, Technische Universitt Mnchen, Hochschule fr Technik und Wirtschaft des Saarlandes, Universitt Wrzburg, Hessen Mobil Straen- und Verkehrsmanagement, Stadt Frankfurt am Main. The project is funded and supported by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi), the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS). simTD was supported by the state of Hessen, the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) and the Car 2 Car Communication Consortium.
Silja Hoffmann
Technische Universitt Mnchen
Chair for Traffic Engineering and Control (Prof. Dr. Fritz Busch)
T: +49 89 289 22798
E: silja.hoffmann@tum.de
W: http://www.vt.bgu.tum.de/en/home/
[ | 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.
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Public release date: 20-Jun-2013
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