IRIS, the new NASA space telescope, is being sent aloft to study a region of the sun's atmosphere physicists previously had little interest in, so much so the region was dubbed the 'ignorosphere.'
By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / June 27, 2013
This undated image shows technicians preparing at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., for the launch of IRIS, the new NASA space telescope, that will study the sun. NASA is set to launch the space telescope Thursday night.
Randy Beaudoin/VAFB/NASA/AP
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NASA is set to launch a space telescope Thursday night that is designed to explore the sun's version of terra incognita ? a region between the sun's lower atmosphere and its expansive outer atmosphere blandly dubbed the interface region.
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Indeed, for understanding some of the sun's processes, solar physicists didn't need to know what was going on there, earning it the title "ignorosphere," notes Ed DeLuca, a solar physicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.
But over the past five to 10 years, as physicists developed models to more fully represent the sun's processes, it became clear that the ignorosphere could be ignored no longer.
It's the region that generates most of the ultraviolet light the sun delivers to Earth, affecting everything from sun tans to atmospheric chemistry and climate. It's thought to play a key role in the solar outbursts that can disrupt power grids and satellite navigation. And, mysteriously, it's the region where temperatures in the sun's atmosphere soar.
At the top of the sun's lower atmosphere, known as the chromosphere, temperatures rise from about 10,000 degrees at the sun's surface to roughly 36,000 degrees. Processes in the interface region ? only about 200 miles thick ? kick those temperatures up to 1 million degrees F., feeding an even hotter outer atmosphere, or corona. There, temperatures are comparable to those in the sun's core.
Getting a handle on what's happening in the interface region is challenging because the region is so thin and because the processes taking place there are so fast. And with more mass than all the matter in the corona or in the solar wind currently flowing through the solar system, the interface region's density can make it hard to observe.
Hints of just how fast processes are have come from Japan's Hinode orbiting solar observatory.
Taking one image every 4 seconds, the craft delivered data that allowed researchers to produce a short video starring a dense forest of hair-like tendrils of plasma rising through the interface region. These represent the central cores of jets of hot gas that rise to give the top of the interface region the look ? from a distance ? of rolling hills.
The hair-like cores are about 100 miles wide and some 10,000 miles long, said Alan Title, a solar physicist with Lockheed Martin Corporation and the mission's lead scientist, during a prelaunch briefing. They rocket up through the transition region at about 270,000 miles an hour, and last for about 10 minutes before vanishing, only to be replaced by fresh tendrils.
The images Hinode captured were scientifically useful. But seeing them, scientists also realized "for the first time that four-second exposures and just one wavelength [of light] wasn't enough" to see the full structures, Dr. Title said
NASA?s new solar telescope, known as IRIS, aims to remedy that.
As satellites go, it's a lightweight. Some seven feet long, the craft and its telescope weigh 403 pounds. IRIS is set for launch between 10:27 and 10:32 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time tonight from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central California coast. It's being launched on an Orbital Sciences Pegasus rocket ? a launch vehicle carried aloft underneath an L-1011 jet, then release for its final ascent.
IRIS has 20 times the ability of previous telescopes to see fine details. Its instrument, an imaging spectrometer, can make measurements 20 times faster than its predecessors. And it is designed to gather ultraviolet light at several groups of wavelengths.
And that's a good thing, Dr. DeLuca says, because if the models are correct, processes in the interface zone are nothing if not complicated.
From the sun's core through its surface, the photosphere, the sun's hot gas is dense enough to twist and contort the star's magnetic fields, DeLuca explains. Up in the corona, the reverse it true, with magnetic fields working their will on the hot gas, giving shape to the enormous, glowing coronal loops that appear there.
In the ignorosphere, however, magnetic fields hold sway over gas in some areas. In others, the opposite happens. And still other regions neither gas nor magnetism holds sway over the other, DeLuca says. The shapes of structures in this region are equally complex.
Still, to understand the corona's energy budget and the role magnetic fields play in transferring energy from the sun's surface to the corona, getting a handle on the interface region is important.
"It's all gotta go through the chromosphere and interface region," he says.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- With a solemnity reserved for momentous occasions, the Senate passed historic legislation Thursday offering the priceless hope of citizenship to millions of immigrants living illegally in America's shadows. The bill also promises a military-style effort to secure the long-porous border with Mexico.
The bipartisan vote was 68-32 on a measure that sits atop President Barack Obama's second-term domestic agenda. Even so, the bill's prospects are highly uncertain in the Republican-controlled House, where conservatives generally oppose citizenship for immigrants living in the country unlawfully.
Spectators in galleries that overlook the Senate floor watched expectantly as senators voted one by one from their desks. Some onlookers erupted in chants of "Yes, we can" after Vice President Joe Biden announced the bill's passage.
After three weeks of debate, there was no doubt about the outcome. Fourteen Republicans joined all 52 Democrats and two independents to support the bill.
In a written statement, Obama coupled praise for the Senate's action with a plea for resolve by supporters as the House works on the issue. "Now is the time when opponents will try their hardest to pull this bipartisan effort apart so they can stop commonsense reform from becoming a reality. We cannot let that happen," said the president, who was traveling in Africa.
After the bill passed, he called Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a leading author of the bill, to offer congratulations.
In the final hours of debate, members of the so-called Gang of 8, the group that drafted the measure, frequently spoke in personal terms while extolling the bill's virtues, rebutting its critics ? and appealing to the House members who turn comes next.
"Do the right thing for America and for your party," said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who said his mother emigrated to the United States from Cuba. "Find common ground. Lean away from the extremes. Opt for reason and govern with us."
Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake said those seeking legal status after living in the United States illegally must "pass a background check, make good on any tax liability and pay a fee and a fine." There are other requirements before citizenship can be obtained, he noted.
He, too, spoke from personal experience, recalling time he spent as a youth working alongside family members and "undocumented migrant labor, largely from Mexico, who worked harder than we did under conditions much more difficult than we endured."
Since then, he said, "I have harbored a feeling of admiration and respect for those who have come to risk life and limb and sacrifice so much to provide a better life for themselves and their families."
The bill's opponents were unrelenting, if outnumbered.
"We will admit dramatically more people than we ever have in our country's history at a time when unemployment is high and the Congressional Budget Office has told us that average wages will go down for 12 years, that gross national product per capita will decline for 25-plus years, that unemployment will go up," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.
"The amnesty will occur, but the enforcement is not going to occur, and the policies for future immigration are not serving the national interest."
In the Senate, at least, the developments marked an end to years of gridlock on immigration. The shift began taking shape quickly after the 2012 presidential election, when numerous Republican leaders concluded the party must show a more welcoming face to Hispanic voters who had given Obama more than 70 percent of their support.
Even so, division among Republicans was evident as potential 2016 presidential contenders split. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida was one of the Gang of 8, while Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas were opposed to the bill.
The legislation's chief provisions includes numerous steps to prevent future illegal immigration ? some added in a late compromise that swelled Republican support for the bill ? and to check on the legal status of job applicants already living in the United States. At the same time, it offers a 13-year path to citizenship to as many as 11 million immigrants now living in the country unlawfully.
Under the deal brokered last week by Republican Sens. John Hoeven of North Dakota and Bob Corker of Tennessee and the Gang of 8, the measure requires 20,000 new Border Patrol agents, the completion of 700 miles of fencing and deployment of an array of high-tech devices along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Those living in the country illegally could gain legal status while the border security plan was being implemented, but would not be granted permanent resident green cards or citizenship.
A plan requiring businesses to check on the legal status of prospective employees would be phased in over four years.
Other provisions would expand the number of visas available for highly skilled workers relied upon by the technology industry. A separate program would be established for lower-skilled workers, and farm workers would be admitted under a temporary program. In addition, the system of legal immigration that has been in effect for decades would be changed, making family ties less of a factor and elevating the importance of education, job skills and relative youth.
With the details of the Senate bill well-known, House Speaker John Boehner said at a news conference the separate legislation the House considers will have majority support among Republicans. He also said he hopes the bill will be bipartisan, and he encouraged a group of four Democrats and three Republicans trying to forge a compromise to continue their efforts.
He offered no details on how a House bill could be both bipartisan and supported by more than half of his own rank and file, given that most of the bills that have moved through the House Judiciary Committee recently did so on party line votes over the protests of Democrats. None envisions legal status for immigrants now in the country illegally.
Boehner declined to say if there were circumstances under which he could support a pathway to citizenship, but he made clear that securing the border was a priority.
"People have to have confidence that the border is secure before anything else is really going to work. Otherwise, we repeat the mistakes of 1986," he said, referring to the last time Congress overhauled the immigration system.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader, also said he favors a bipartisan approach. At the same time, she noted that Democratic principles for immigration include "secure our borders, protect our workers, unite families, a path to legalization and now citizenship for those" without legal status.
While the outcome of the Senate vote was not in doubt, supporters scrambled to maximize the vote and fell short of 70, a level they had talked of reaching. Schumer spoke with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday night as he lobbied ? successfully ? for the vote of the state's Republican Sen. Jeff Chiesa, whom the governor appointed to his seat.
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Associated Press writer Donna Cassata contributed to this report.
Whether or not you pay for GameStop's annual membership plan, the planet's largest video game retailer is opening the doors of the Las Vegas Sands Expo and Convention Center to the public for its annual GameStop Expo, which this year features hands-on with both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 come this August. For a $35 general admission ticket, you'll get access to both consoles on August 28th -- long before their respective holiday launches -- as well as a chance to play a variety of upcoming games. Should you shell out a stone cold $90, you'll snag a copy of Madden NFL 25 for Xbox 360, gain (one hour) early entry to the show and "access to panel discussions with some of the biggest names in the industry."
Per usual, attendees must be older than 17, and the event's a one day affair. But then you'll be in Vegas, so... maybe stay for a few days.
BEIRUT (AP) ? Intense shelling by Syrian government troops on a village in the country's south killed at least eight women and girls overnight as forces loyal to President Bashar Assad pushed ahead with an offensive against rebels near the border with Jordan, activists said Friday.
Buoyed by an influx of fighters from the Lebanese militia Hezbollah and other foreign Shiite Muslim militants, the Syrian regime has grabbed the initiative in the nation's more than 2-year-old conflict in recent weeks, capturing a strategic town near the border with Lebanon and squeezing rebel positions around the capital, Damascus.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the shelling overnight targeted the village of Karak, in eastern Daraa, and killed four women and four girls. The Observatory relies on a wide network of activists on the ground in Syria for its information
A video posted on a Facebook page of activists from Daraa showed the bodies of the women and children allegedly killed in the shelling wrapped in blankets placed on the ground of a home. Another video from the village showed residents carrying others wounded into vehicles amid wails by women and children and signs of panic.
The videos appeared genuine and were consistent with other AP reporting of the events.
The United Nations has estimated that more than 6,000 children are among the some 93,000 people killed in Syria's more than 2-year-old conflict, which started with largely peaceful protests against the rule of President Bashar Assad. The uprising morphed into an armed rebellion in response to a brutal government crackdown on the protest movement.
In recent weeks, government troops have gone on the offensive against rebel-held areas to try to cut the opposition's supply lines and secure Damascus and the corridor running to the Mediterranean coast, which is the heartland of the president's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Regime forces have also made inroads in the south. Syria's state news agency said Friday government troops were chasing "terrorist cells" in the city of Daraa, the birthplace of the anti-Assad uprising, as well as the surrounding countryside, including along the border with Jordan. It did not mention Karak.
SANA said 18 opposition fighters including Jordanians, a Saudi and a Chechen, were killed and weapons were seized. It did not refer to civilian casualties.
State-owned Al-Ikhbariya TV also reported that government forces seized a truck loaded with weapons and ammunition in the central Homs province apparently destined for rebel fighters. The truck included with anti-tank missiles, machine guns, shoulder propelled grenades and communication devices, the station said.
The United States and its allies recently said they will help arm the rebels amid reports that Washington's Gulf allies have already sent some much-coveted anti-tank missiles to select groups of fighters. The U.S. is still trying to sort out which rebels exactly will be given weapons and how, fearing that advanced arms may fall in the hands of Islamic extremists in the rebel ranks.
Meanwhile, the Observatory said a rare attack in Damascus's old city Thursday was caused by an explosive device planted near a Shiite charity organization. The attack, which killed four people, was first believed to be a suicide attack near a church.
State media showed pictures of the body of the suspected suicide bomber in the ancient quarter. Residents had disagreed on the target of the attack but a government official also said a bomber wearing an explosive belt blew himself up near the Greek Orthodox Church.
But Rami Abdul-Rahman, the director of the Observatory, said investigation by activists on the ground indicated that a device was planted near the Shiite charity, and it blew up when this man was walking past. The Observatory originally reported that the explosion was caused by a suicide bomber. The church and charity are only around two dozen meters (yards) apart.
The conflict has increasingly taken on sectarian overtones. The rebels fighting to remove Assad are largely Sunnis, and have been joined by foreign fighters from other Muslim countries. The regime of Assad is led by the president's Alawite sect and his forces have been joined by fighters from Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah militant group, a factor that has helped fan the sectarian nature of the conflict.
In an apparent snub to the targeting of a religious institution, The main opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, said in a statement Friday that it "rejects" actions that violate the unity of Syrians and fuels sectarian strife, blaming the regime for attempting to incite it.
"The unfortunate practices of various individuals do not reflect the true values of the revolution," the statement said. "The Syrian Coalition reiterates that those who commit crimes and infringe on international conventions will be identified, pursued and brought to justice."
BAGHDAD (AP) ? Iraqi officials say two bombs have exploded near a checkpoint run by government-allied Sunni militiamen in western Iraq, killing at least 11 people.
Police say the blasts struck near a checkpoint run by Sahwa members in the village of Zangoura, south of the former insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, 115 kilometers (70 miles) west of Baghdad.
Police and hospital officials say 22 people were wounded in the attack.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Sahwa militiamen joined forces with U.S. troops to fight al-Qaida during the Iraq War. Since then, the group has been a target for Sunni insurgents who consider its members traitors.
NEW YORK (AP) ? The Brooklyn Nets will acquire Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett from the Boston Celtics in a deal that was still developing as the NBA draft ended, according to a person with knowledge of the details.
The trade can't be completed until July 10, after next season's salary cap is set, so pieces were still being discussed early Friday. But the person says the Nets will get the two perennial All-Stars, signaling the breakup of the Celtics' veteran core.
The person was granted anonymity because details of the trade were not being made public.
Nets general manager Billy King refused to comment on the deal during his press conference to discuss the drafting of Mason Plumlee.
Yahoo Sports, which first reported the talks, said the Nets would also get veteran Jason Terry from Boston and send Gerald Wallace, Kris Joseph, the expiring deal of Kris Humphries and three future first-round picks to Boston.
On the day they hosted the NBA draft, the Nets were making much bigger noise with the transaction that will send Pierce and Garnett to a new Atlantic Division home.
The Celtics already let Doc Rivers leave after acquiring a draft pick from the Los Angeles Clippers. Ray Allen departed last summer for Miami, and now the other two members of the Big Three that led the Celtics to an NBA title and within a victory of a second will soon be gone as well.
"Sort of sad," said Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau, an assistant to Rivers on the 2008 NBA champions.
"You hate to see it. I certainly hate to see them go to Brooklyn, Doc of course going to the Clippers. But that's the NBA. It's constant change, and you have to be ready to adapt. I think what Paul Pierce did for that franchise and Kevin ? I think's it's good for them. They have an opportunity to continue on. Good for the Celtics, where they can start their rebuilding, and it was good for Doc."
Garnett had to waive a no-trade clause, which he had been reluctant to do previously. But the Nets hoped he would consider this time with Pierce joining him and the Celtics' best days seemingly behind them.
The Celtics tumbled down the Eastern Conference standings this season, falling all the way to the No. 7 seed and getting eliminated by the New York Knicks in the first round. They have been considering moving one or both of the veterans, and this triggers the start of a true rebuilding process.
And it provides a huge boost to the Nets at two of their weakest positions. They struggled to settle on a starting power forward all last season, and Pierce would be immune to the lengthy offensive slumps that plagued Wallace, the starting small forward.
In Pierce and Garnett, rookie coach Jason Kidd gets veteran leadership from two longtime opponents as he makes the transition to the sideline after retiring as a player last month.
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AP Sports Writer Andrew Seligman in Deerfield, Ill., contributed to this report.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) ? Rescue crews searching for a classic American schooner carrying seven people believe the boat sank between New Zealand and Australia, although they haven't given up hope of finding survivors.
A third day of aerial searches Friday turned up no sign of the 85-year-old wooden sailboat or its crew. Named Nina, the boat left New Zealand on May 29 bound for Australia. The last know contact with the crew was on June 4. Rescuers were alerted the boat was missing on June 14, but weren't unduly worried at first because the emergency locator beacon had not been activated.
The six Americans on board include captain David Dyche, 58, his wife Rosemary, 60, and their son David, 17. Also aboard was their friend Evi Nemeth, 73, a man aged 28, a woman aged 18, and a British man aged 35.
The leader of Friday's search efforts, Neville Blakemore at New Zealand's Rescue Coordination Centre, said it's now logical to assume the 70-foot (21-meter) boat sank in a storm but added it's possible some crew members survived either in the life raft that was aboard or by making land.
On the day the boat went missing, a storm hit the area with winds gusting up to 110 kilometers (68 miles) per hour and waves of up to 8 meters (26 feet).
Blakemore said the Southern Hemisphere winter months tend to produce the year's worst storms, although he added that he wouldn't normally expect a sturdy and well-maintained craft like the Nina to sink in a storm like the one in early June.
Friday's search focused on the coastline around northern New Zealand, including the small Three Kings Islands. Rescuers were looking for wreckage or the life raft.
Blakemore said plane searches earlier this week covered a wide band of ocean between New Zealand and Australia. He said searchers were considering their options for the weekend.
He said the logical conclusion is that the boat sank rapidly, preventing the crew from activating the locator beacon or using other devices aboard including a satellite phone and a spot beacon. He said that unlike many locator beacons, the one aboard the Nina is not activated by water pressure and wouldn't start automatically if the boat sank.
Dyche is a qualified captain and he and his family are experienced sailors. Blakemore said the family had been sailing around the world for several years and were often joined on different legs by friends and sailors they met along the way.
Susan Payne, harbor master of the St. Andrews Marina near Panama City, Florida, said the couple left Panama City in the Nina a couple of years ago and sailed to Mystic Seaport in Connecticut where they prepared for the trip.
New Zealand meteorologist Bob McDavitt was the last person known to have been in contact with the schooner, when the boat was about 370 nautical miles west of New Zealand.
He said Nemeth called him by satellite phone June 3 and said: "The weather's turned nasty, how do we get away from it?"
He advised them to head south and brace for the storm.
The next day he got a text, the last known communication: "ANY UPDATE 4 NINA? ... EVI"
McDavitt said he advised the crew to stay put and ride out the storm another day. He continued sending messages the next few days but didn't hear back. Friends of the crew got in touch with McDavitt soon after that, and then alerted authorities.
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Associated Press writer Melissa Nelson-Gabriel in Pensacola, Florida, contributed to this report.
Just days after Jonathan Toews kissed that Stanley Cup, the Blackhawks captain finds a buyer for one of his Chicago apartments?he owns three. The three-bedroom unit has 11-foot ceilings and "hardwoods that shimmer like an ice rink by the light of day," writes Curbed Chicago ever poetically. It had been listed at $1.7M. [Chicago Tribune via Curbed Chicago]
DETROIT (Reuters) - The battle in six-cylinder pickups takes an interesting twist this fall with the launch of the 2014 Ford F-150 Tremor and the 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel.
Both trucks feature turbocharged V6 engines, but take different approaches to reach different segments of the full-size pickup audience.
The new Ford and Ram entries - one built for speed, the other for high mileage and heavy loads - are hitting the U.S. market as General Motors Co's recently redesigned 2014 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups are beginning to reach U.S. dealers in significant numbers.
Chrysler Group LLC hopes to divert some attention from the new GM trucks with its new 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel, the industry's first light-duty diesel-powered pickup.
Ford Motor Co is counterpunching with the 2014 Tremor, the industry's quickest and most powerful six-cylinder pickup.
The Ram 1500 EcoDiesel features a 3.0-liter turbocharged V6 diesel from Italy's VM Motori, a longtime supplier to Chrysler and an affiliate of the U.S. automaker's corporate parent Fiat SpA .
Fitted with an eight-speed automatic transmission, the EcoDiesel delivers 240 horsepower and 420 pounds-feet of torque. Chrysler said the diesel version of the Ram 1500 will deliver better than 25 miles per gallon in highway driving.
Ford's Tremor, a short-wheelbase version of the regular-cab F-150, gets the company's 3.5-liter EcoBoost engine, a turbocharged, direct-injection gasoline V6 rated at 365 horsepower and 420 pounds-feet. A special "performance" axle helps the Tremor accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in about 6.5 seconds. EPA highway fuel economy is 22 miles per gallon.
In comparison, GM's 2014 Silverado and Sierra get a standard 4.3-liter gasoline V6 that makes 285 horsepower and 305 pounds-feet, and has an EPA highway rating of 24 mpg.
The 2014 Ram 1500 with a standard 3.6-liter V6 gasoline engine will have a base price of $25,295, and the "EcoDiesel" option will be $2,850 more, Chrysler said Friday at the trucks' introduction.
Ford has not released prices on the 2014 F-150 trucks, but said Thursday the Tremor would be more expensive than the standard F-150 V6 model.
Chevrolet has not priced the regular-cab 2014 Silverado V6, which goes on sale later this summer.
The three Detroit-based automakers dominate the full-size pickup truck market, which continues to heat up and is easily outpacing sales for cars, crossovers and SUVs. While total U.S. industry sales were up 7.3 percent through May, sales of big trucks jumped 21.2 percent.
At all three of those automakers, the light-duty pickup trucks are the company's best sellers.
In May, sales of the Ford F-Series rose 31 percent, Chevrolet Silverado sales rose 25 percent and Chrysler's Ram truck sales rose 22 percent.
(Additional reporting by Deepa Seetharaman in Detroit; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
'White House Down' actor and co-star Jamie Foxx ponder whether his new baby could take down North West during 'After Hours.' By Kevin P. Sullivan, with reporting by Josh Horowitz
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former Congressman Anthony Weiner, attempting a political comeback two years after resigning in disgrace from the legislature, has taken the lead over his Democratic rivals in the race for New York City mayor, a poll showed.
Weiner has the backing of 25 percent of registered Democrats, while City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the early front-runner and a close ally of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, trails with 20 percent, according to Tuesday's Wall Street Journal-NBC New York-Marist poll.
Former Comptroller Bill Thompson has 13 percent, followed by Public Advocate Bill de Blasio with 10 percent and city Comptroller John Liu with 8 percent.
Weiner has shaken up the race for City Hall since announcing his candidacy on May 22. His resignation in 2011 had marked a remarkable fall from grace for a politician who was seen as a leading liberal voice in the U.S. House of Representatives and had been widely expected to run in this year's race for mayor.
Once a popular six-term Congressman representing parts of Brooklyn and Queens, he resigned from Congress after admitting he had sent a lewd picture over Twitter and then lied about it repeatedly.
Since entering the race, Weiner has presented himself as a champion for working-class New Yorkers and a man who has learned from his mistakes.
As recently as February, most city-wide polls had Quinn, who would be the city's first female and lesbian mayor, leading with nearly 40 percent of Democratic support. But since then, Quinn's support has seen a slow and steady drop.
The survey of 689 Democrats was conducted last week and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
(Editing by Eric M. Johnson; Editing by John Stonestreet)
Flush from launching in the US in a Google-heavy iteration, HTC is rewarding its UK fans with a sultry "glamor red" option of the One smartphone. It'll arrive at retailer Phones 4U in mid-July, although there's no specifics yet on storage (16 or 32GB?), or whether there will be any price difference between the new colorful hue and existing silver and black options.
Course with Web-based, plus hands-on experimentation wins <i>Science</i> Magazine prizePublic release date: 27-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Natasha Pinol npinol@aaas.org 202-326-6440 American Association for the Advancement of Science
Approach improves students' understanding of real research
As a young student in Estonia, Margus Pedaste was very interestedand quite brilliantin biology. In seventh grade, he conducted his first real research, and by the time he left high school he had won his nation's annual biology olympiad three times. Still, he rankled at all the memorization required of him in biology classes and couldn't understand why he would ever want to know, for instance, the names used to describe the reproductive anatomy of 20 different animal groups.
"I'm a very practical person," says Pedaste, who is a technology education professor at the University of Tartu. "I was always thinking, why would I need that? It's not very interesting and not effective."
Wanting to improve on how biology is taught, Pedaste worked with the Science Created by You (SCY) project, which is funded by the European Union, to help create a course module called the ECO mission. Because of its effectiveness as a teaching tool, the mission, an investigation of ecosystems that involves Web-based and hands-on experimentation, has won the Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction.
The Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction (IBI) was developed to showcase outstanding materials, usable in a wide range of schools and settings, for teaching introductory science courses at the college level. The materials must be designed to encourage students' natural curiosity about how the world works, rather than to deliver facts and principles about what scientists have already discovered. Organized as one free-standing "module," the materials should offer real understanding of the nature of science, as well as providing an experience in generating and evaluating scientific evidence. Each month, Science publishes an essay by a recipient of the award, which explains the winning project. The essay about the ECO mission will be published on June 28.
"We want to recognize innovators in science education, as well as the institutions that support them," says Bruce Alberts, editor-in-chief emeritus of Science. "At the same time, this competition will promote those inquiry-based laboratory modules with the most potential to benefit science students and teachers. The publication of an essay in Science on each winning module will encourage more college teachers to use these outstanding resources, thereby promoting science literacy."
Pedaste grew up in Tartu, Estonia. As a child, he spent all of his summers in the countryside with his grandparents. It was there that he developed his initial interest in plants and animals. He studied biology in college and after earning his first degree in ecology he decided he wanted to prepare himself to help younger generations of science students. Turning to education, he spent 14 years as a biology teacher for students aged 13 to 19.
Over the years, Pedaste's conviction that rote memorization was ineffective as a science education tool only strengthened. Memorization was, however, the main approach of classes in Estonia. "There were too many facts for students," says Pedaste.
Even science teachers often lacked a coherent understanding of science that would allow them to support inquiry-based learning with an emphasis on process. They, too, had learned long lists of scientific terms. They couldn't, however, explain why, for instance, photosynthesis is important or necessary. "There were so many different terms for things, many of them synonyms, but the processes that should be understood were somewhere in the background," Pedaste says.
Realizing how difficult it would be to train and influence science teachers, Pedaste and his colleagues decided to approach students directly. The means for that was creating Web-based learning environments, so that students could experience "problem-based and inquiry-based" instruction, Pedaste says.
"We found it was really helpful, and our research found that specific support on inquiry skills, whether Web-based or involving an actual experiment in the lab, had a great effect on students' learning."
Incorporating Web-based learning held the advantage of allowing educators to track student learning. In a classroom of 25 students, one teacher could only spend a few minutes per student. When part of their instruction occurs with the help of instructional software, Pedaste says, "Their computer can actually analyze their learning, and we can support every student according to their needs."
The ECO mission, designed for high-school students, looks specifically at the ecosystems of a freshwater lake. It starts by asking students to create a "concept map" representing their initial understanding of the different processes in the body of water and how they relate. Pedaste says such a map or visualization helps students think about the relation between different scientific processes and concepts. Such a holistic, conceptual framework is often lacking in students' understanding because science is often taught in separate piecemeal units.
What follows in the ECO mission is a combination of approaches. Students assess the role of light in the level of photosynthesis through a hands-on experiment. They see the effect that the composition of the lake bottom could have on the pH rise in the lake from acid precipitation stemming from acid rain. Students use computer simulations, however, to understand nutrient concentration and food chains.
Such a combination of approaches is ideal, Pedaste says. "Simulations are helpful," he says, "but students still need to touch things and do something real in the lab."
The simulations allow students to study processes with experimentation that could otherwise only be conducted over more time than is available throughout a high school science class.
"Using the ECO mission, students were able to collect and analyze data in a way that would have been impossible in real time," says Melissa McCartney, associate editor at Science.
For the students, the most important benefit is experiencing the wonder of scientific research as it is done by scientists.
"Through the learning environment, we are trying to show students what science is," says Pedaste. "It's not memorizing. It's doing something; it's doing research work, and it's really attractive to students who are by their nature interested in finding something new."
Pedaste says he hopes his winning the IBI and having an essay about the SCY ECO mission will help it to gain traction in the education community.
"The best result would be if teachers from several countries would find that this is something for their students," Pedaste says. "Then I think we will have done our job."
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The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science as well as Science Translational Medicine and Science Signaling. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes 261 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.
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Course with Web-based, plus hands-on experimentation wins <i>Science</i> Magazine prizePublic release date: 27-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Natasha Pinol npinol@aaas.org 202-326-6440 American Association for the Advancement of Science
Approach improves students' understanding of real research
As a young student in Estonia, Margus Pedaste was very interestedand quite brilliantin biology. In seventh grade, he conducted his first real research, and by the time he left high school he had won his nation's annual biology olympiad three times. Still, he rankled at all the memorization required of him in biology classes and couldn't understand why he would ever want to know, for instance, the names used to describe the reproductive anatomy of 20 different animal groups.
"I'm a very practical person," says Pedaste, who is a technology education professor at the University of Tartu. "I was always thinking, why would I need that? It's not very interesting and not effective."
Wanting to improve on how biology is taught, Pedaste worked with the Science Created by You (SCY) project, which is funded by the European Union, to help create a course module called the ECO mission. Because of its effectiveness as a teaching tool, the mission, an investigation of ecosystems that involves Web-based and hands-on experimentation, has won the Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction.
The Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction (IBI) was developed to showcase outstanding materials, usable in a wide range of schools and settings, for teaching introductory science courses at the college level. The materials must be designed to encourage students' natural curiosity about how the world works, rather than to deliver facts and principles about what scientists have already discovered. Organized as one free-standing "module," the materials should offer real understanding of the nature of science, as well as providing an experience in generating and evaluating scientific evidence. Each month, Science publishes an essay by a recipient of the award, which explains the winning project. The essay about the ECO mission will be published on June 28.
"We want to recognize innovators in science education, as well as the institutions that support them," says Bruce Alberts, editor-in-chief emeritus of Science. "At the same time, this competition will promote those inquiry-based laboratory modules with the most potential to benefit science students and teachers. The publication of an essay in Science on each winning module will encourage more college teachers to use these outstanding resources, thereby promoting science literacy."
Pedaste grew up in Tartu, Estonia. As a child, he spent all of his summers in the countryside with his grandparents. It was there that he developed his initial interest in plants and animals. He studied biology in college and after earning his first degree in ecology he decided he wanted to prepare himself to help younger generations of science students. Turning to education, he spent 14 years as a biology teacher for students aged 13 to 19.
Over the years, Pedaste's conviction that rote memorization was ineffective as a science education tool only strengthened. Memorization was, however, the main approach of classes in Estonia. "There were too many facts for students," says Pedaste.
Even science teachers often lacked a coherent understanding of science that would allow them to support inquiry-based learning with an emphasis on process. They, too, had learned long lists of scientific terms. They couldn't, however, explain why, for instance, photosynthesis is important or necessary. "There were so many different terms for things, many of them synonyms, but the processes that should be understood were somewhere in the background," Pedaste says.
Realizing how difficult it would be to train and influence science teachers, Pedaste and his colleagues decided to approach students directly. The means for that was creating Web-based learning environments, so that students could experience "problem-based and inquiry-based" instruction, Pedaste says.
"We found it was really helpful, and our research found that specific support on inquiry skills, whether Web-based or involving an actual experiment in the lab, had a great effect on students' learning."
Incorporating Web-based learning held the advantage of allowing educators to track student learning. In a classroom of 25 students, one teacher could only spend a few minutes per student. When part of their instruction occurs with the help of instructional software, Pedaste says, "Their computer can actually analyze their learning, and we can support every student according to their needs."
The ECO mission, designed for high-school students, looks specifically at the ecosystems of a freshwater lake. It starts by asking students to create a "concept map" representing their initial understanding of the different processes in the body of water and how they relate. Pedaste says such a map or visualization helps students think about the relation between different scientific processes and concepts. Such a holistic, conceptual framework is often lacking in students' understanding because science is often taught in separate piecemeal units.
What follows in the ECO mission is a combination of approaches. Students assess the role of light in the level of photosynthesis through a hands-on experiment. They see the effect that the composition of the lake bottom could have on the pH rise in the lake from acid precipitation stemming from acid rain. Students use computer simulations, however, to understand nutrient concentration and food chains.
Such a combination of approaches is ideal, Pedaste says. "Simulations are helpful," he says, "but students still need to touch things and do something real in the lab."
The simulations allow students to study processes with experimentation that could otherwise only be conducted over more time than is available throughout a high school science class.
"Using the ECO mission, students were able to collect and analyze data in a way that would have been impossible in real time," says Melissa McCartney, associate editor at Science.
For the students, the most important benefit is experiencing the wonder of scientific research as it is done by scientists.
"Through the learning environment, we are trying to show students what science is," says Pedaste. "It's not memorizing. It's doing something; it's doing research work, and it's really attractive to students who are by their nature interested in finding something new."
Pedaste says he hopes his winning the IBI and having an essay about the SCY ECO mission will help it to gain traction in the education community.
"The best result would be if teachers from several countries would find that this is something for their students," Pedaste says. "Then I think we will have done our job."
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The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science as well as Science Translational Medicine and Science Signaling. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes 261 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.
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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.
Matt DeWitt's custom-made mountain bike was stolen in Alaska on Tuesday and found on Wednesday. It was specially made for him so that he can steer with his prosthetics and shift gears with his knees.
By Elisha Fieldstadt
A custom-made bike for a double amputee veteran was found Wednesday morning, after it had been stolen two days earlier along with four other vets? bikes in Alaska, police said.
The bike was built by an organization called Ride 2 Recovery for Matt DeWitt, an Army veteran who served six years in Afghanistan before losing his forearms. ?
DeWitt said the first time he rode it was Monday, the first day of an R2R-sponsored trip to Alaska. After the group locked it up in a U-haul truck outside of?their hotel that night, the bike was stolen, preventing DeWitt from participating in the remaining two rides during the trip.
John Wordin, founder of Ride 2 Recovery,?said that everywhere they went in Alaska, people knew about the bike from local media coverage. ?We had to make sure whoever had that bike knew exactly what it was and knew it was worthless to that person.?
Dani Myren, a spokeswoman for the Anchorage Police Department who had assisted the Ride 2 Recovery staff on Tuesday, said that Wednesday ?around 8:20 a.m., we received a call from a citizen who saw an unattended bicycle in Kincaid Park.?
She said the thief must have dropped it off after realizing he or she couldn't "really resell this without drawing attention to it.??
When?DeWitt got news that his bike had been turned in, Wordin said the vet was ?very, very excited and happy.?
On Tuesday, DeWitt had expressed his disappointment that, if the bike wasn't returned,?he wouldn't be able to train for an upcoming 100-mile race that he had been invited to enter in August.
Alison Valenziano, R2R?s director of administrative operations, was not sure they would even?be able to rebuild a bike for DeWitt before the race.
Scott?Moro, the technician who built the bike?said that designing and modifying it took about three months. When he heard the police had found?the bike, "I screamed out 'woohoo,'? Moro said.
Wordin said he and Moro actually?may have been more happy than DeWitt when they heard the news.?The two men had struggled to figure out how to help DeWitt steer with his prosthetics and shift gears with his knees.
?It was super, super-cool ? it took a long time to perfect,? Wordin said.
Valenziano said the bike was worth more than $10,000, not including Moro and Wordin's time and labor.
?The cool thing is that this is the special bike,? Myren said, adding: ?I don?t want to minimize that the other bikes are missing.?
Myren said the officer who recovered the bike confirmed it was, in fact, DeWitt?s -- and then took fingerprints from the bike, in hope that it would lead him to the remaining four missing bikes.
Police were trying to track down the group in order to get the bike back to DeWitt, Myren said. The group had gone on a daytrip ?right after they heard? the bike had been turned in, said Valenziano.
Myren said the bike wasn't terribly damaged, but police were working?to make?sure they could??present it to the gentleman in full operational order,? so DeWitt could resume riding as soon as he gets it back.
Ride 2 Recovery gives mountain bikes to veterans to help them overcome their physical and mental wounds, said Valenziano. She said they have modified bikes for vets without arms, vets without legs and even a tandem bike for a man who lost his sight at war.
Related:
Thief takes custom-made bike made for double amputee veteran
Tiffini Skuce
Matt DeWitt's custom-made mountain bike took three months to plan and build. It was stolen in Alaska on Tuesday but turned into police on Wednesday morning after someone spotted it in a park.
Google swooped on Waze earlier this month, shelling out $1.1 billion to acquire the crowdsourced traffic app -- indicating there is mileage (and cash) in crowdsourcing-plus-cars. Exactly how much of either remains to be seen but a just launched iOS app, called Fuelzee, reckons there's enough of both to build a new car-centric community in and around trips to the gas station.
BEIJING (Reuters) - A U.S. businessman held captive by about 100 workers in a Beijing factory said on Wednesday he was hopeful of a resolution to a row about pay in the next day or two. Chip Starnes, president of the Florida-based Specialty Medical Supplies, said from behind his barred office window that the workers were demanding severance packages identical to those offered to 30 recently laid off employees - even though there weren't going to be any more layoffs. ...
June 26, 2013 ? Proposed method could be more efficient than previous systems and easier to retrofit in existing power plants.
Many researchers around the world are seeking ways to "scrub" carbon dioxide (CO2) from the emissions of fossil-fuel power plants as a way of curbing the gas that is considered most responsible for global climate change. But most such systems rely on complex plumbing to divert the steam used to drive the turbines that generate power in these plants, and such systems are not practical as retrofits to existing plants.
Now, researchers at MIT have come up with a scrubbing system that requires no steam connection, can operate at lower temperatures, and would essentially be a "plug-and-play" solution that could be added relatively easily to any existing power plant.
The new electrochemical system is described in a paper just published online in the journal Energy and Environmental Science, and written by doctoral student Michael Stern, chemical engineering professor T. Alan Hatton and two others.
The system is a variation on a well-studied technology that uses chemical compounds called amines, which bind with CO2 in the plant's emission stream and can then release the gas when heated in a separate chamber. But the conventional process requires that almost half of the power plant's low-pressure steam be diverted to provide the heat needed to force the amines to release the gas. That massive diversion would require such extensive changes to existing power plants that it is not considered economically feasible as a retrofit.
In the new system, an electrochemical process replaces the steam-based separation of amines and CO2. This system only requires electricity, so it can easily be added to an existing plant.
The system uses a solution of amines, injected at the top of an absorption column in which the effluent gases are rising from below. The amines bind with CO2 in the emissions stream and are collected in liquid form at the bottom of the column. Then, they are processed electrochemically, using a metal electrode to force the release of the CO2; the original amine molecules are then regenerated and reused.
As with the conventional thermal-amine scrubber systems, this technology should be capable of removing 90 percent of CO2 from a plant's emissions, the researchers say. But while the conventional CO2-capture process uses about 40 percent of a plant's power output, the new system would consume only about 25 percent of the power, making it more attractive.
In addition, while steam-based systems must operate continuously, the all-electric system can be dialed back during peak demand, providing greater operational flexibility, Stern says. "Our system is something you just plug in, so you can quickly turn it down when you have a high cost or high need for electricity," he says.
Another advantage is that this process produces CO2 under pressure, which is required to inject the gas into underground reservoirs for long-term disposal. Other systems require a separate compressor to pressurize the gas, creating further complexity and inefficiency.
The chemicals themselves -- mostly small polyamines -- are widely used and easily available industrial materials, says Hatton, the Ralph Landau Professor of Chemical Engineering Practice. Further research will examine which of several such compounds works best in the proposed system.
So far, the research team, which also includes former MIT research scientist Fritz Simeon and Howard Herzog, a senior research engineer at the MIT Energy Initiative, has done mathematical modeling and a small-scale laboratory test of the system. Next, they hope to move on to larger-scale tests to prove the system's performance. They say it could take five to 10 years for the system to be developed to the point of widespread commercialization.
Because it does not rely on steam from a boiler, this system could also be used for other applications that do not involve steam -- such as cement factories, which are among the leading producers of CO2 emissions, Stern says. It could also be used to curb emissions from steel or aluminum plants.
It could also be useful in other CO2 removal, Hatton says, such as in submarines or spacecraft, where carbon dioxide can accumulate to levels that could endanger human health, and must be continually removed.
The work was supported by Siemens AG and by the U.S. Department of Energy through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy.
With the summer holiday season in full swing, many of us think about having a rest and relax after a hard working year. One of the issues while on the road is how to stay in touch with family, friends and business contacts. Fortunately, in the era of intense technological advancements, there are various methods of communication that are cost-effective and easy-to-use. And here VoIP may become one of the cheapest and flexible ways of keeping you connected with your acquaintances while traveling.
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The following advantages turn VoIP into a truly effective way of making cheap international calls from abroad.
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One of the most significant advantages of VoIP is that it enhances flexibility and portability of communications. If you have Wi-Fi network you can enjoy free international calls, or else use available internet networks to connect your contacts directly from your home or mobile phone number with cheaper calls. VoIP makes it possible to use the service anytime and anywhere regardless of time and location.
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Another feature which makes VoIP communication worth using throughout your travel is the call forwarding option which may be especially useful for business people. Due to this feature calls may automatically be transferred to another number in case the main line is busy, or else they can be redirected to additional number after answering the call.
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VoIP is also a great option due to its IP faxing services. The latter allows business travelers to send and receive documents on-the go in real time over an IP-based network. In this case fax data are being transmitted over the Internet which means that costs are significantly less as compared with conventional faxing services when fax data are sent over long-distance telephone lines.
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While on the road, VoIP may be the best solution for money-saving international calls to your friends and close ones. Avail of the wide range of VoIP services provided by Voicebuy since our calling rates will save you money even when traveling overseas.
June 25, 2013 ? Training young children in spatial reasoning can improve their math performance, according to a groundbreaking study from Michigan State University education scholars.
The researchers trained 6- to 8-year-olds in mental rotation, a spatial ability, and found their scores on addition and subtraction problems improved significantly. The mental rotation training involved imagining how two halves of an object would come together to make a whole, when the halves have been turned at an angle.
Past research has found a link between spatial reasoning and math, but the MSU study is the first to provide direct evidence of a causal connection -- that when children are trained in one ability, improvement is seen in the other. The findings will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Cognition and Development.
Kelly Mix, professor of educational psychology, said the findings suggest spatial training "primes" the brain to better tackle calculation problems. Mix authored the study with Yi-Ling Cheng, a doctoral student in MSU's College of Education.
"What's shocking is that we saw these improvements in math performance after giving the students just one 20-minute training session in spatial ability," Mix said. "Imagine if the training had been six weeks."
Understanding the connection between spatial ability and math, she said, is especially important in the early elementary grades because many studies indicate early intervention is critical for closing achievement gaps in math.
Spatial ability is important for success in many fields, from architecture to engineering to meteorology, according to a Johns Hopkins University paper. An astronomer must visualize the structure of the solar system and the motions of the objects in it, for example, while a radiologist must be able to interpret the image on an X-ray.
Some education experts have called for including spatial reasoning in the elementary math curriculum. But there are many forms of spatial ability and Mix said it's important to first figure out how each of them may or may not relate to the various math disciplines.
To that end, Mix is leading a larger study that tests elementary students on different forms of spatial ability and math performance.
Mix's research into spatial ability and math is funded by two grants totaling $2.8 million from the Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education.
How secure and how private is iMessage, Apple's SMS/MMS-like communications platform? Earlier this month, after news broke about the NSA's electronic surveillance program, codenamed PRISM, Apple released a statement detailing some specifics on the number of requests they receive from government agencies for customer records. As part of the statement, Apple claimed that iMessage conversations use end-to-end encryption and therefore cannot be decrypted by Apple:
For example, conversations which take place over iMessage and FaceTime are protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can see or read them. Apple cannot decrypt that data.
Matthew Green, cryptographer and research professor at Johns Hopkins University, has raised some important questions about these claims, based on what little information is publicly available about iMessage encryption. In a post on his Cryptography Engineering blog, Green writes:
And that's the problem with iMessage: users don't suffer enough. The service is almost magically easy to use, which means Apple has made tradeoffs -- or more accurately, they've chosen a particular balance between usability and security. And while there's nothing wrong with tradeoffs, the particulars of their choices make a big difference when it comes to your privacy. By witholding these details, Apple is preventing its users from taking steps to protect themselves.
The first point Green raises is that iMessages are backed up and can be restored to a new device. If iMessages can be restored to a new device, then the encryption key can't be locked to the device. You can also read messages after resetting your password, meaning that the data must not be encrypted with your password either. This makes it unlikely, if not impossible, that the keys used to encrypt the stored messages are not possessed or recoverable by Apple.
Ultimately, there's no way for a person to know that messages are being encrypted with the correct public key to ensure only the intended recipient can decrypt them.
Green's second point has to do with how Apple distributes iMessage encryption keys. If you send another person an iMessage, it is encrypted using their public key. They can then decrypt the message using their private key. However, you have no way of knowing whose public key you're receiving from Apple to encrypt the messages. For instance, Apple could theoretically have you encrypt the messages with their public key, in which case, Apple could decrypt the message being sent with their private key. This isn't a particularly likely scenario as such an act, once discovered, would destroy any goodwill users have with Apple in entrusting them with their privacy. Although, a third party could also do the same if they had access to Apple's systems. Ultimately, there's no way for a person to know that messages are being encrypted with the correct public key to ensure only the intended recipient can decrypt them.
The third issue raised is Apple's ability to retain metadata. Even if all of the contents of your iMessages are securely encrypted, Apple's statement says nothing about protecting the metadata of those messages. This metadata would show who you talked to at what time, and possibly other seemingly innocuous details. While many people don't find this too concerning, an alarming number of details can be gleaned from this type of metadata. Without Apple addressing it in their statement, it remains unknown how this metadata is protected, if at all.
Finally, while iMessage does make use of SSL to encrypt communications with Apple's directory lookup service, it does not employ certificate pinning. SSL helps guarantee that communications are encrypted between the client and server. However, without certificate pinning, there is no assurance as to the identity of the server. It is not unheard of for valid SSL certificates to be forged, making it possible for malicious third parties to perform intercept traffic. Certificate pinning works by explicitly telling an application which SSL certificate should be trusted, rather than trusting any certificate issued by a trusted certificate authority.
This doesn't necessarily mean you should stop using iMessage.
This doesn't necessarily mean you should stop using iMessage. Many electronic communication methods, such as email, don't offer any sort of encryption by default. iMessage's encryption, at the very least, offers protection from casual eavesdroppers or criminals looking to capture your information. The points outlined by Green mean it could be possible for Apple, and in-turn law enforcement agencies, to decrypt communications sent over iMessage.
Unfortunately, it's difficult to know anything more specific without Apple providing more details on how they secure these communications.
Just days after Jonathan Toews kissed that Stanley Cup, the Blackhawks captain finds a buyer for one of his Chicago apartments?he owns three. The three-bedroom unit has 11-foot ceilings and "hardwoods that shimmer like an ice rink by the light of day," writes Curbed Chicago ever poetically. It had been listed at $1.7M. [Chicago Tribune via Curbed Chicago]
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Public release date: 27-Jun-2013
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Google swooped on Waze earlier this month, shelling out $1.1 billion to acquire the crowdsourced traffic app -- indicating there is mileage (and cash) in crowdsourcing-plus-cars. Exactly how much of either remains to be seen but a just launched iOS app, called Fuelzee, reckons there's enough of both to build a new car-centric community in and around trips to the gas station.
