October 8, 2013

Broken lives of Fukushima

In 2011 a massive earthquake and tsunami wrecked the Fukushima nuclear plant, resulting in a meltdown that became the world's worst atomic crisis in 25 years. About 160,000 people living near the plant were ordered to move out and the government established a 20-km compulsory evacuation zone. The operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co, is struggling to contain contaminated water at the site 240 km north of Tokyo. There have been multiple leaks and glitches over the last two and a half years. Reuters photographer Damir Sagolj returned to this abandoned area last month and captured these haunting images.


A small monument to victims is seen in front of an abandoned house at the tsunami destroyed coastal area of the evacuated town of Namie in Fukushima prefecture, some 6 km (4 miles) from the crippled Daiichi power plant, Sept. 22. Namie's more than 20,000 former residents can visit their homes once a month with special permissions but are not allowed to stay overnight inside the exclusion zone. A total of 160,000 people were ordered to leave their homes around Daiichi plant after the government announced the evacuation following the nuclear disaster in March 2011. (Damir Sagolj/Reuters)


A woman, who came for a brief visit to her home, walks under a sign reading "Nuclear Power - The Energy for a Better Future," at the entrance of the empty Futaba town, inside the exclusion zone in Fukushima prefecture Sept. 22. Decades ago, the citizens of Japan's Futaba town took such pride in hosting part of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex that they built a sign over a promenade proclaiming that atomic power made their town prosperous. Now, they are scattered around Japan with no clear sign of when they might return to their homes.


Mieko Okubo, 59, poses with a portrait of her father-in-law Fumio Okubo next to his jacket in his room where he committed suicide in the evacuated town of Iitate in Fukushima prefecture Sept. 18. Fumio, a 102-year-old farmer hanged himself in the house he lived in all his life after authorities ordered evacuation from the area following the nuclear disaster at the tsunami-crippled Daiichi power plant. Mieko, who lives outside the exclusion zone, comes back every other day to feed Fumio's dog and clean the house. She said Fumio committed suicide because he just could not stand to end his life somewhere else.

more

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2013/10/broken_lives_of_fukushima.html

October 8, 2013

Fox News debuts bizarre, giant tablets in its outrageous new 'newsroom'

By T.C. Sottek on October 7, 2013 12:46 pm



Fox News has just unveiled a breathtakingly ridiculous newsroom, complete with novelty-sized Windows-based touchscreens, a Twitter wall, and a wannabe Minority Report-style display, which it hopes will connect it with generations of viewers who use smartphones and apps.

In a video that could be mistaken for a College Humor or Saturday Night Live parody, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith walks viewers through the network's new setup, which includes workstations with 55-inch touchscreen monitors. In the video, journalists swipe through pages and apps, presumably collecting information for live reporting. "We call these BATs," Smith notes. "Big area touchscreens."

Smith later demonstrates a gigantic 38-foot-long video wall with a device "never been used in broadcast television before." It's a remote control that allows Smith to shuffle through an image carousel with no apparent journalistic purpose. "For instance, I can take this lady who's been evacuating from a hurricane zone and move it over here," Smith says.

Fox says the new "news deck" is designed to appeal to viewers who are "nonlinear" — those who sift through news all day on their phones and computers. "Just like you, we get our news from multiple platforms," Smith says, "and this is the place where viewers can watch us sort it all out as it happens." In other words, Fox's new newsroom will serve as a fact-checking machine for Twitter's firehose.

more
http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/7/4812630/fox-news-shepard-smith-news-deck

October 8, 2013

Woman Says She Called 911 for an Ambulance for Her Fiancé, Cops Came and Shot Him Instead

Ed Krayewski|Oct. 7, 2013 4:59 pm
Jack Lamar Roberson was shot and killed by police in his home on Friday afternoon in Waycross, Georgia. According to local TV station First Coast News, his fiancée Alcia Herron called 911 for an ambulance after becoming worried about diabetes medication Roberson had taken. Cops claim Roberson was brandishing two weapons (not identified by police, though the mayor said he was told it was a knife) and came toward them “aggressively armed”. Police also say they were informed

Roberson had attempted to commit suicide and was being combative while on their way to his residence. His mother and his fiancée both witnessed the shooting, and their 8-year-old daughter was apparently in the home too.

Roberson’s mother said the family didn’t own “two decent knives” while his fiancée described the incident to First Coast News:

more
http://reason.com/blog/2013/10/07/woman-says-she-called-911-for-an-ambulan

October 8, 2013

A Little Mammal Has So Much Sex That It Disintegrates

by Ed Yong
It’s August in Australia, and a small, mouse-like creature called an antechinus is busy killing himself through sex. He was a virgin until now, but for two to three weeks, this little lothario goes at it non-stop. He mates with as many females as he can, in violent, frenetic encounters that can each last up to 14 hours. He does little else.

A month ago, he irreversibly stopped making sperm, so he’s got all that he will ever have. This burst of speed-mating is his one chance to pass his genes on to the next generation, and he will die trying. He exhausts himself so thoroughly that his body starts to fall apart. His blood courses with testosterone and stress hormones. His fur falls off. He bleeds internally. His immune system fails to fight off incoming infections, and he becomes riddled with gangrene.

He’s a complete mess, but he’s still after sex. “By the end of the mating season, physically disintegrating males may run around frantically searching for last mating opportunities,” says Diana Fisher from the University of Queensland. “By that time, females are, not surprisingly, avoiding them.”

Soon, it’s all over. A few weeks shy of his first birthday, he is dead, along with every other male antechinus in the area.

more

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/10/07/why-a-little-mammal-has-so-much-sex-that-it-disintegrates/

October 7, 2013

Georgia 2013 COLLEGE-BOUND SENIORS SAT SCORES

2013 COLLEGE-BOUND SENIORS SAT SCORES BY FAMILY INCOME
READING MATH WRITING TOTAL
$ 0 - $20,000 435 462 429 1326
$20,000 - $40,000 465 482 455 1402
$40,000 - $60,000 487 500 474 1461
$60,000 - $80,000 500 511 486 1497
$80,000 - $100,000 512 524 499 1535
$100,000 - $120,000 522 536 511 1569
$120,000 - $140,000 526 540 515 1581
$140,000 - $160,000 533 548 523 1604
$160,000 - $200,000 539 555 531 1625
More than $200,000 565 586 563 1714

From:
http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/news/documents/2013/10/07/PDFscores-2013-SAT.pdf
By Maureen Downey
Bob Schaeffer of FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testingsent me a note and a chart related to the AJC story on how closely Georgia's SAT scores align with family income. The FairTest chart draws from the College Board's College-Bound Seniors 2013: Total Group Profile Report and College-Bound Seniors 2006: Total Group Profile Report. (I could not drop this chart into the earlier SAT blog entry so I am creating a new one but this relates to our earlier discussion today.)

Here is what Schaeffer had to say about the chart:
The SAT is -- if nothing else -- a strong measure of accumulated opportunity. Kids born into economically comfortable families have incredible advantages from the moment of their conception: adequate maternal nutrition and prenatal care; a much higher probability of normal birth weight; homes with less exposure to allergens, pesticides, heavy metals, etc.; parents who read to them and use rich vocabularies; regular medical checkups and intervention; quality day care; good neighborhood schools; nearby libraries and other cultural institutions; access to tutoring and test prep; etc. All have been linked to higher test scores.

Given this sharply unequal access to factors long-proven to improve test performance, no one should be surprised that kids from high-income families do better on the SAT (and ACT). The societal problem arises when test scores are used to predict the capacity to do college level academic work, not look back at accumulated opportunity.

more
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2013/oct/07/chart-sat-scores-and-influencing-factors/

October 7, 2013

Nuclear fusion milestone passed at US lab

By Paul Rincon
Science Editor, BBC News website

Researchers at a US lab have passed a crucial milestone on the way to their ultimate goal of achieving self-sustaining nuclear fusion.

Harnessing fusion - the process that powers the Sun - could provide an unlimited and cheap source of energy.

But to be viable, fusion power plants would have to produce more energy than they consume, which has proven elusive.

Now, a breakthrough by scientists at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) could boost hopes of scaling up fusion.

NIF, based at Livermore in California, uses 192 beams from the world's most powerful laser to heat and compress a small pellet of hydrogen fuel to the point where nuclear fusion reactions take place.

The BBC understands that during an experiment in late September, the amount of energy released through the fusion reaction exceeded the amount of energy being absorbed by the fuel - the first time this had been achieved at any fusion facility in the world.

more

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24429621

October 7, 2013

Gulf states to introduce medical testing on travellers to 'detect' gay people

Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE already outlaw homosexuality, but are toughening their controversial stance
Kuwait's director of public health says 'gays will be barred'
By TED THORNHILL

A medical test being developed by Kuwait will be used to 'detect' homosexuals and prevent them from entering the country – or any of the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC), according to a Kuwaiti government official.

GCC member countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – already deem homosexual acts unlawful.

This controversial stance is being toughened, with members of the LGBT community stopped at the border and banned from entering the country, according to Yousouf Mindkar, the director of public health at the Kuwaiti health ministry.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2449051/Gulf-states-introduce-medical-testing-travellers-detect-gay-people-stop-entering-country.html

October 7, 2013

Tom Coburn Doesn't Believe in the Debt Ceiling

By Ruth Brown, Newser Staff
Posted Oct 7, 2013 3:38 PM CDT



Sen. Tom Coburn says the US won't default on its debt if the debt ceiling isn't raised, because ... the debt ceiling doesn't exist. On CBS This Morning, the Oklahoma Republican dismissed the default as a "rumor" perpetrated by the media:

"The debt ceiling and the (continuing resolution) are the same thing. There is no such thing as a debt ceiling in this country because it's never been not increased, and that's why we're $17 trillion in debt and I would dispel the rumor that is going around that you hear on every newscast that we'll default. We won't. We'll continue to pay our interest and continue to redeem bonds and we'll issue new bonds to replace those. So it's not entirely accurate. What we need to do is have a discussion."
The Obama administration quickly took issue with Coburn, with the White House press secretary saying the even if the Treasury met its debt payments for now, it would have to stop paying for something else. "Prioritization is default by another name," he said, per the Hill. "If you pay some of your bills and not all of your bills, you're in default on the bills that didn't pay."

http://www.newser.com/story/175500/tom-coburn-doesnt-believe-in-the-debt-ceiling.html

October 7, 2013

Nebraska Court Rules Teen Too Immature for an Abortion, Fine to Raise a Kid

By Katy Waldman
The Nebraska Supreme Court denied a 16-year-old foster child’s request for an abortion on Friday because she was "not sufficiently mature" enough to make the decision herself. So instead, this immature young woman who does not want a baby will become a mother. Everyone wins.

The teenager, identified in the court ruling as Anonymous 5, showed evidence of mature reasoning at a confidential hearing. She worried that she didn’t have the financial resources to support a child or to be “the right mom that I would like to be right now.” Yet district judge Peter C. Bataillon, whom the Raw Story reports once served on the committee for an Omaha anti-abortion group, disagreed, and the Supreme Court upheld his ruling in a split vote of 5-2.

How does something like this happen? Nebraska is one of eight states that require girls 17 or younger to obtain written, notarized consent from a parent or guardian before undergoing an abortion. (As the Guttmacher Institute reports, 39 states insist on some form of parental involvement in the decision; the majority, though, don’t also require notarization.)

Since Anonymous 5 is a ward of the State Department of Health and Human Services—she actually requested the abortion at the confidential hearing dissolving the parental rights of her biological mother and father, who were physically abusive—she doesn’t have anyone to grant her consent. “She is in legal limbo—a quandary of the Legislature's making,” wrote Judge William Connolly in his Supreme Court minority opinion.

more

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/10/07/nebraska_supreme_court_rules_that_a_16_year_old_in_foster_care_is_not_mature.html

October 7, 2013

Arizona Lawmaker Rages Against 'De Fuhrer' Obama In Angry Facebook Post

TER WALKER – OCTOBER 7, 2013, 5:19 PM EDT
In an angry Facebook post Monday, Arizona state Rep. Brenda Barton (R) likened President Barack Obama to Adolph Hitler for having National Parks Service officers close monuments during the government shutdown.



Barton's post was a reference to the title used by Hitler, which was actually, der fuhrer, or "the leader" in German.

Just before she compared Obama to the Nazi dictator, Barton wrote a pair of Facebook posts criticizing the President's behavior during the shutdown. She said she was "FURIOUS" about the closure of the memorials in Washington, D.C., accused Obama of holding the country "in contempt," and accused the president of maintaining his "excessive staff" while punishing Americans.

"While the POTUS continues to punish the American people; he keeps open his golf course, he keeps open Camp David, and he retains his and his wife's excessive staff and stable of Czars! I'll bet he has kept in service his 3 food tasters!!!" wrote Barton.

more

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/arizona-lawmaker-rages-against-de-fuhrer-obama-in-angry-facebook-post