Where to See NASA's Space Shuttles This Summer

With the opening of the space shuttle Atlantis' permanent exhibit in Florida on Saturday (June 29), the last of NASA's retired space planes will be officially on display for the public to enjoy, but you'll have to go state-hopping to see all four of the iconic spacecraft.

From Los Angeles to New York, the space shuttles have made their homes around the country. If you're looking for a good summer vacation destination, try visiting one (or all)of the orbiters that have been put out to pasture.

The space shuttles on public display include NASA's three space-flown orbiters ? Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavour ? as well as the Enterprise, a prototype shuttle used for landing glide tests but never flew in space. [8 Surprising Space Shuttle Facts]

Here's where to find NASA's space shuttles this summer and what you need to know when you visit them:

Atlantis: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, NASA, Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Cost of admission: A viewing of the shuttle is included in the price of admission to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex: $50 for adults, $40 for children (ages 3-11).

Why to visit: The space shuttle Atlantis was the last to fly in space before the fleet was retired in 2011 and the final orbiter to be put on public display. Atlantis flew 33 missions, including secret missions for the U.S. military, flights to space stations and missions to launch several spacecraft into orbit.

Atlantis was named after a ship that sailed for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts between 1930 and 1966. That vessel was the first seafaring ship to image the seafloor using electronic sounding technology.

Enterprise: Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, New York City, NY

Cost of admission: Due to damage sustained during Hurricane Sandy, the Enterprise pavilion at the museum is currently closed, but scheduled to reopen on July 10.

Why to visit: Enterprise was the first space shuttle, but never actually flew in space. Enterprise was built without a heat shield or engines, making it incapable of spaceflight. It was used for drop tests and glide tests, giving astronauts a sense of what to expect during trips to and from space.

To the glee of "Star Trek" fans everywhere, Enterprise was named after the venerable starship commanded by Captain Kirk in the original series. It was originally called Constitution, but after receiving tens of thousands of letters from people around the country, then-president Gerald Ford decided to rename the orbiter.

Discovery: National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, Va.

Cost of admission: Free

Why to visit: The space shuttle Discovery launched for the first time in 1984. Although it was only the third shuttle to fly to space, it flew the most missions, 39 in total. Discovery was chosen as the "Return to Flight" orbiter after two space shuttle tragedies; once in 1988 after the Challenger explosion and then again in 2005 after the Columbia disaster.

Discovery is responsible for launching the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit and was used to help build the International Space Station.

This space shuttle is part of a long, historical tradition of naming ships "Discovery," NASA officials have said. Henry Hudson's Hudson Bay exploring vessel was named Discovery, as was James Cook's in the 1770s.

Endeavour: California Science Center, Los Angeles, Calif.

Cost of admission: Tickets reserving a timed slot are free, but a $2 service charge is applied to all tickets; $3 for telephone sales.

Why to visit: The only space shuttle displayed on the West Coast, Endeavour was built as a replacement shuttle after Challenger was lost just after liftoff in 1986. The youngest orbiter eventually flew to space 25 times, making multiple trips to the International Space Station and one flight to Mir, the Russian orbiting laboratory.

Endeavour got its name through a competition. A group of 6,000 schools in the United States competed to name the shuttle. NASA asked that the spacecraft be named after an "exploratory research sea vessel," and nearly one-third of the schools suggested Endeavour, the ship James Cook sailed to Tahiti while observing the transit of Venus from 1769 to 1771.

Follow Miriam Kramer onTwitter and Google+. Follow us onTwitter, Facebook andGoogle+. Original article on SPACE.com.

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/where-see-nasas-space-shuttles-summer-115816123.html

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Animal Welfare Groups Plan Suit in Response to USDA Decision to ...

June?28,?2013

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has given the green light for the grisly practice of horse slaughter to resume on U.S. soil. The agency approved an application for horse slaughter inspections under federal law at a plant in New Mexico. This news comes on the heels of the U.S. House and Senate appropriations committees? votes to halt all funding for horse slaughter in FY 2014. The decision means that the federal government could potentially spend millions of taxpayer dollars to start up inspections at horse slaughter plants, only to have Congress terminate the process in the coming months.

In response to the USDA?s decision, The Humane Society of the United States and Front Range Equine Rescue plan to file suit immediately against the USDA to put a stop to this agency decision. The two groups previously informed USDA that they would take aggressive legal action against the agency, in light of the serious unresolved environmental and food safety issues surrounding horse slaughter.

Jonathan Lovvorn, senior vice president and chief counsel for animal protection litigation at The HSUS, said: ?The USDA?s decision to start up domestic horse slaughter, while at the same time asking Congress to defund it, is bizarre and unwarranted. Slaughter plants have a history of polluting their communities and producing horsemeat that is tainted with a dangerous cocktail of banned drugs. We intend to hold the Obama administration accountable in federal court for this inhumane, wasteful and illegal decision.?

Hilary Wood, president of Front Range Equine Rescue, said: ?America?s horses are not raised as food animals, and they receive numerous substances during their lives making them unfit and illegal for human consumption. Adding insult to injury, the suffering of the horses in the slaughter pipeline and the danger to humans makes this action more than inhumane. Horses bound for slaughter have many alternatives open to them including re-training, re-homing, and humane euthanasia. We remain committed to stopping this insult to justice and our sense of justice.?

The USDA?s approval is particularly surprising, considering the recent scandal in the European Union, where horsemeat was discovered in food products labeled as beef.? The operation of horse slaughter plants in the U.S. will make it more difficult to prevent the commingling between horsemeat and beef products that occurred in Europe.

Horses are raised as pets and for use in show, sport, work and recreation in the U.S. and are regularly administered drugs that are expressly prohibited by current federal regulations for use in animals intended for human consumption. For example, a common pain reliever routinely administered to all types of horses, Phenylbutazone, is known to cause potentially fatal human diseases, and if the animal has taken the drug, the meat is adulterated and should not be eaten. There is also no system in the U.S. to track medications and veterinary treatments given to horses to ensure that their meat is safe.

Any facility slaughtering thousands of horses will necessarily be processing the blood, organs and remains of animals whose tissues and blood may contain significant amounts of dangerous substances, which are either known to be dangerous, or which have never been tested on humans and therefore present completely unknown dangers. At least six applications for horse slaughter inspections have been filed with the USDA.

Background:

• This month, the U.S. House and Senate Appropriations committees voted to block funding for inspections of horse slaughter plants. President Obama?s proposed FY 2014 budget also included a request for Congress to prevent tax dollars from supporting horse slaughter.
• The HSUS and FRER also filed petitions with USDA?s Food Safety and Inspection Service and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to declare horsemeat unfit for human consumption. USDA denied that petition.
• According to a national poll conducted last year, 80 percent of Americans disapprove of horse slaughter.
• ?Kill buyers? gather up horses from random sources and profit by selling healthy horses for slaughter that bring the best price per pound for their meat. USDA reports show that approximately 92 percent of American horses going to slaughter are healthy and would otherwise be able to go on to lead productive lives.
• The methods used to kill horses rarely result in quick, painless deaths, as horses often endure repeated blows to render them unconscious and sometimes remain conscious during the slaughtering process. When horse slaughter plants previously operated in the U.S., the USDA documented severe injuries to horses in the slaughter pipeline, including broken bones and eyeballs hanging from a thread of skin.
• The Safeguard American Food Exports Act, H.R. 1094 / S. 541, introduced this year by U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Reps. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa., and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., is a bipartisan measure that would outlaw horse slaughter operations in the U.S., end the current export of American horses for slaughter abroad, and protect the public from consuming toxic horsemeat.?

Media Contacts:

HSUS - Stephanie Twining, 240-751-3943, stwining@humanesociety.org

FRER - Hilary Wood, 719-481-1490, info@frontrangeequinerescue.org

Source: http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2013/06/usda-horse-slaughter-suit-062813.html

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The Myth of the Komodo Dragon?s Dirty Mouth

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The Myth of the Komodo Dragon?s Dirty Mouth
In 1969, an American biologist named Walter Auffenberg moved to the Indonesia island of Komodo to study its most famous resident?the Komodo dragon. This huge lizard?the largest in the world?grows to lengths of 3 metres, and can take down large prey like deer and water buffalo. Auffenberg watched the dragons for a year and eventually published a book on their behaviour in 1981. It won him an award. It also enshrined a myth that took almost three decades to refute, and is still prevalent today.

Source: National Geographic
Posted on: Thursday, Jun 27, 2013, 8:51am
Views: 14

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128828/The_Myth_of_the_Komodo_Dragon___s_Dirty_Mouth

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Boost for cars or bust? Ethanol debate heats up

WASHINGTON (AP) ? It's a dilemma for drivers: Do they choose a gasoline that's cheaper and cleaner even if, as opponents say, it could damage older cars and motorcycles?

That's the peril and promise of a high-ethanol blend of gasoline known as E15. The fuel contains 15 percent ethanol, well above the current 10 percent norm sold at most U.S. gas stations.

The higher ethanol blend is currently sold in just fewer than two dozen stations in the Midwest, but could spread to other regions as the Obama administration considers whether to require more ethanol in gasoline.

As a result, there's a feverish lobbying campaign by both oil and ethanol interests that has spread from Congress to the White House and the Supreme Court.

On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge by the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry's chief lobbying group, to block sales of E15. The justices left in place a federal appeals court ruling that dismissed challenges by the oil industry group and trade associations representing food producers, restaurants and others.

Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy, an ethanol industry group, hailed the decision as victory for U.S. consumer, who will now have greater choice at the pump.

"Now that the final word has been issued, I hope that oil companies will begin to work with biofuel producers to help bring new blends into the marketplace that allow for consumer choice and savings," Buis said.

The API had argued that E15 was dangerous for older cars.

Putting fuel with up to 15 percent ethanol into older cars and trucks "could leave millions of consumers with broken down cars and high repair bills," said Bob Greco, a senior API official who has met with the White House on ethanol issues.

The ethanol industry counters that there have been no documented cases of engine breakdowns caused by the high-ethanol blend since limited sales of E15 began last year.

"This is another example of oil companies unnecessarily scaring people, and it's just flat-out wrong," said Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, an ethanol industry group.

The dispute over E15 is the latest flashpoint in a long-standing battle over the Renewable Fuel Standard, approved by Congress in 2005 and amended in 2007. The law requires refiners to blend increasing amounts of ethanol into gasoline each year as a way to decrease reliance on fossil fuels and lower greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a 16.5 billion-gallon production requirement for ethanol and other gasoline alternatives this year, up from 15.2 billion gallons last year. By 2022, the law calls for more than double that amount.

Biofuel advocates and supporters in Congress say the law has helped create more than 400,000 jobs, revitalized rural economies and helped lower foreign oil imports by more than 30 percent while reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

But the oil industry, refiners and some environmental groups say the standard imposes an unnecessary economic burden on consumers. Using automotive fuel that comes from corn also has significant consequences for agriculture, putting upward pressure on food prices, critics say.

"The ever increasing ethanol mandate has become unsustainable, causing a looming crisis for gasoline consumers," said the API's Greco. "We're at the point where refiners are being pressured to put unsafe levels of ethanol in gasoline, which could damage vehicles, harm consumers and wreak havoc on our economy."

Along with the E15 court case, the API and refiners have swarmed Capitol Hill and the White House to try to have the current mandate waived or repealed.

Charles Drevna, president of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, which represents refineries, accused the EPA of putting politics ahead of science.

An EPA official told Congress earlier this month that the agency does not require use of E15, but believes it is safe for cars built since 2001.

"The government is not saying 'go ahead' " and put E15 in all cars, said Christopher Grundler, of the EPA's director of the office of transportation and air quality. "The government is saying this is legal fuel to sell if the market demands it and there are people who wish to sell it."

Ethanol supporters say E15 is cheaper than conventional gasoline and offers similar mileage to E10, the version that is sold in most U.S. stations.

Scott Zaremba, who owns a chain of gas stations in Kansas, scoffs at claims that E15 would damage older cars. "In the real world I've had zero problems" with engine breakdowns, said Zaremba, whose station in Lawrence, Kan., was the first in the nation to offer E15 last year.

But Zaremba said he had to stop selling the fuel this spring after his gasoline supplier, Phillips 66, told him he could no longer sell the E15 fuel from his regular black fuel hoses. The company said the aim was to distinguish E15 from other gasoline with less ethanol, but Zaremba said the real goal was to discourage use of E15. New pumps cost more than $100,000.

The American Automobile Association, for now, sides with the oil industry. The motoring club says the government should halt sales of E15 until additional testing allows ethanol producers and automakers to agree on which vehicles can safely use E15 while ensuring that consumers are adequately informed of risks.

A spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents 12 major car makers, said E15 gas is more corrosive and the EPA approved it before it could be fully tested.

Older cars were "never designed to use E15," spokeswoman Gloria Bergquist said. Use of the fuel over time could create significant engine problems, she said.

The API cites engine problems discovered during a study it commissioned last year, but the Energy Department called the research flawed and said it included engines with known durability issues.

For now, E15 remains a regional anomaly. About 20 stations currently offer the fuel in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

___

Follow Matthew Daly on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-06-24-US-EPA-Ethanol/id-0db7df23319641b8b80b0b0348a128ee

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Obama to outline climate plan Tuesday (Washington Bureau)

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Page Not Found - Yahoo!

Please check the URL for proper spelling and capitalization. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Yahoo!, try visiting the Yahoo! homepage or look through a list of Yahoo!'s online services.

Please try Yahoo Help Central if you need more assistance.

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La Jolla Festival of the Arts Kicks Off at UCSD [Photos] - Entertainment

The La Jolla Festival of the Arts is Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The sun was shining Saturday for the first day of the La Jolla Festival of the Arts at UC San Diego's Warren Field.

The two-day event is produced by Torrey Pines Kiwanis, a non-profit organization that raises funds to support adaptive sports and recreation programs for San Diegans with disabilities.

La Jolla Festival Arts will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 22 and Sunday, June 23 at UC San Diego Warren Field.

Tickets are $14 at the door. For more info visit?lajollaartfestival.org.

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4 workers hurt in Texas A&M construction accident

This photo provided by KBTX-TV shows damage to the Texas A&M University equestrian center on Saturday, June 22, 2013 near College Station, Texas. A portion of the equestrian center under construction has collapsed. KBTX-TV reports some workers were hurt in Saturday morning's accident but that everyone has been accounted for. A&M spokesman Lane Stephenson confirmed there had been an accident at the equestrian center on university property about a mile from the College Station campus. (AP Photo/KBTX-TV, Alex Lotz)

This photo provided by KBTX-TV shows damage to the Texas A&M University equestrian center on Saturday, June 22, 2013 near College Station, Texas. A portion of the equestrian center under construction has collapsed. KBTX-TV reports some workers were hurt in Saturday morning's accident but that everyone has been accounted for. A&M spokesman Lane Stephenson confirmed there had been an accident at the equestrian center on university property about a mile from the College Station campus. (AP Photo/KBTX-TV, Alex Lotz)

This photo provided by KBTX-TV shows damage to the Texas A&M University equestrian center on Saturday, June 22, 2013 near College Station, Texas. A portion of the equestrian center under construction has collapsed. KBTX-TV reports some workers were hurt in Saturday morning's accident but that everyone has been accounted for. A&M spokesman Lane Stephenson confirmed there had been an accident at the equestrian center on university property about a mile from the College Station campus. (AP Photo/KBTX-TV, Alex Lotz)

This photo provided by KBTX-TV shows damage to the Texas A&M University equestrian center on Saturday, June 22, 2013 near College Station, Texas. A portion of the equestrian center under construction has collapsed. KBTX-TV reports some workers were hurt in Saturday morning's accident but that everyone has been accounted for. A&M spokesman Lane Stephenson confirmed there had been an accident at the equestrian center on university property about a mile from the College Station campus. (AP Photo/KBTX-TV, Alex Lotz)

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) ? Four workers were hurt, three critically, after a barn frame collapsed Saturday at an $80 million Texas A&M University equestrian complex that's under construction.

The collapse happened on university property about a mile from the main campus, Texas A&M spokesman Lane Stephenson said.

College Station and Bryan fire departments, campus police and Texas A&M emergency medical personnel all responded to the accident, which happened shortly before 11 a.m. Saturday.

The accident involved an approximately 300-foot barn, according to the College Station Fire Department. Twisted metal beams could be seen at the site, where ground was broken last fall.

The injured workers were transported to hospitals. Their names and further details on their conditions were not immediately released. Nobody else was hurt.

For a time, emergency responders had to halt the search for the four because of concerns about another collapse.

"After that time search and rescue efforts were suspended until the remainder of the structure that was still standing could be stabilized," according to a statement from the College Station Fire Department. "After the structure was secured a secondary search of the area was conducted to ensure that all patients had been located."

Texas A&M police officials were trying to determine what caused the collapse. University police identified the contractor as Gamma Construction Company, with offices in Houston and San Antonio.

A Gamma Construction representative did not immediately return a phone call to The Associated Press for comment Saturday.

Gamma Construction, on its website, described the A&M work as one of its 2013 projects.

The website said the equestrian complex "will enhance Texas A&M University's equine program and will consolidate not only academic programs, but clubs and associations to one premier location in order to teach, train, conduct research, exhibit and showcase events."

Conditions at the time of the collapse were cloudy with temperatures in the mid-80s and winds gusting just above 10 mph, the National Weather Service said.

The first phase of the equestrian center was set for completion in 2014. The facility will include locker rooms, offices, a concessions building, a 50-stall barn, plus practice arenas and two covered competition arenas, according to the university.

___

Online:

Texas A&M Equestrian: http://www.aggieathletics.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=27300&SPID=94496&SPSID=635254

Gamma Construction Company: http://www.gammaconst.com/

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-06-22-Texas%20AandM-Structure-Collapse/id-16526e423add4d5f9b11d9a49bec0369

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Social media spreads and splinters Brazil protests

Social media

Caroline Stauffer Reuters

6 hours ago

UESLEI MARCELINO / REUTERS

A demonstrator holds a sign next to street structures set on fire during a protest against the Confederations Cup and President Dilma Rousseff's government, in front of the National Congress in Brasilia June 20, 2013.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's biggest protests in decades are a confusing, conflicting mix of people and messages. Blame Facebook.

Social media tools like Facebook and Twitter enabled mass protests of the sort that have not happened in Latin America's biggest country in more than two decades.

As a result of the speed, efficiency and anonymity of online activism, though, an amorphous, unwieldy movement has emerged that is beyond the control of any of those who first began pushing for change.

"Social media has helped us organize without having leaders," said Victor Damaso, 22, demonstrating on Sao Paulo's main Paulista Avenue on Thursday night. "Our ideas, our demands are discussed on Facebook. There are no meetings, no rules."

The demonstrations have been mostly peaceful, but as more than a million Brazilians took to the streets on Thursday, vandals and looters cast a violent pall over some of the protests. Police and security forces have responded with teargas, rubber bullets and pepper spray.

Facebook pages set up for logistical coordination and Twitter hash tags have cropped up for protests in hundreds of cities across Brazil. Rival groups appear to be vying for control of one of the most-viewed organizing pages on Facebook and an associated Twitter feed.

"Any movement risks attracting unaffiliated groups and individuals," said Angela Alonso, a sociologist at the University of Sao Paulo. "It's a price of growth. In this case there is no centralized leadership, administration is more difficult and it is even becoming uncontrollable."

The Free Fare movement, a group of 40 activists who marched for - and got - lower transportation rates, said on Friday it was suspending any further marches for now because of mounting tension and violence.

Sparked by Free Fare's protests, the nationwide call for reform quickly evolved into what is now known online as Anonymous Brazil.

The group appears to use encrypted Web browsers that make it difficult to identify page administrators and has adopted the Guy Fawkes mask, the symbol for the global cyber group of hackers known as Anonymous, as its mascot, although it is not clear if the two have a formal link.

While that opens the door to all sorts of fringe groups, the people at the core of the protests generally share a commitment to better public services. Their rallying cries, found on Twitter and Facebook and on traditional signs at the protests, range from ending political corruption to lambasting more than $12 billion being poured into soccer stadiums and other preparations for the 2014 World Cup.

The demonstrators, mostly educated, middle class and under age 30, want nothing to do with established groups that were behind the causes of their parents' generation.

Online organizing
Unlike Brazil's movement for redemocratization in the 1970s and 1980s and protests for the impeachment of President Fernando Collor de Mello in the early 1990s, today's demonstrations have no clear leadership or political affinity.

"The recent protests are not partisan, and they do not have centralized leadership," said Alonso, the sociologist. "This has to do with new technologies that allow for organization without centralization, and also with the fact that the activists are from a new generation that is no longer guided by ideals like socialism, and doesn't want state power."

Indeed, Brazil's protests do not target any specific leader or political party. That makes them different from the Arab Spring, a series of uprisings against autocratic leaders in the past few years, or even this year's demonstrations in Turkey against the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

While some of the Arab governments blocked access to the Internet to disrupt the planning of protests, Brazil's intelligence agency, Abin, has beefed up efforts to monitor calls for demonstrations online and on popular smart phone chat tool WhatsApp.

President Dilma Rousseff, a leftist guerrilla in the 1970s, has praised the protests as democratic.

Anonymous Brazil's Facebook page, which has nearly 1 million followers, briefly disappeared from the Web on Friday. The group later said via Facebook that its Twitter account had been "robbed" by one of its own members, generating conflicts on its linked Facebook platform.

The group says competing Twitter accounts like @AnonymousBr4sil and #AnonymousFuel are run by "usurpers."

Of the 53.5 million Brazilians online, almost a third of the population, 86 percent use some kind of micro blog or social media tool, according to polling firm Ibope.

(Additional reporting by Silvio Cascione; Editing by Paulo Prada and Mohammad Zargham)

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2da7054c/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Csocial0Emedia0Espreads0Esplinters0Ebrazil0Eprotests0E6C10A4180A84/story01.htm

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Super full moon shines brightly this weekend

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A "supermoon" rises this weekend.

The biggest and brightest full moon of the year graces the sky early Sunday as our celestial neighbor swings closer to Earth than usual.

While the moon will appear 14 percent larger normal, skywatchers won't be able to notice the difference with the naked eye. Still, astronomers say it's worth looking up and appreciating the cosmos.

"It gets people out there looking at the moon, and might make a few more people aware that there's interesting stuff going on in the night sky," Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory said in an email.

Some viewers may think the supermoon looks more dazzling but it's actually an optical illusion. The moon looms larger on the horizon next to trees and buildings.

The moon will come within 222,000 miles of Earth and turn full around 7:30 a.m. EDT, making it the best time to view.

As in any supermoon event, high tides are forecast because of the moon's proximity, but the effect is expected to be small.

Forget about the myths that swirl every time a supermoon appears. There's no link to higher crime or bizarre behavior. Scientists say that's just lunacy.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/super-full-moon-shines-brightly-weekend-163728260.html

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The Engadget Podcast is live at 3:30PM ET!

We're all coming down from the high that was E3 / WWDC week. But while there aren't any huge conferences to speak of, there's no shortage of tech news to talk about this week. Join Tim, Brian and Peter after the break, for the latest installment of the Engadget Podcast.

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Google: We're not handing over data to NSA 'willy-nilly'

Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg

David Drummond, senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer with Google Inc., went on the PR trail Wednesday, answering questions in a live Q&A about the company's data privacy policies.

Staff Portland Business Journal

Google?s top privacy executive ditched the legal script Wednesday, launching a spirited defense of his company?s relationship with the National Security Agency, writing, ?We?re not in cahoots with the NSA.?

As the Silicon Valley Business Journal reports, David Drummond's plainspoken approach was a big shift from Google?s legalese in the days after journalists revealed details about the NSA?s top-secret Prism program.

Google CEO Larry Page issued a carefully crafted statement the day after news of the story broke, writing, ?We have not joined any program that would give the U.S. government... direct access to our servers.?

Source: http://feeds.bizjournals.com/~r/vertical_47/~3/GBGscQEKxf8/google-were-not-handing-over-data-to.html

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In California, Obama and Xi seek to build new ties

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) ? Seeking a fresh start to a complex relationship, President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping are retreating to a sprawling desert estate for two days of talks on high-stakes issues, including cybersecurity and North Korea's nuclear threats.

Obama's efforts to press Xi to halt China's alleged hacking against the U.S. could be overshadowed by revelations that Obama's own administration has been secretly seizing phone records from millions of Americans.

There are significant differences between China's reported cyberattacks against U.S. interests and the Obama administration's court-approved domestic surveillance program. But both underscore the vast technological ? and in some cases, legal ? powers that governments have to access information covertly from individuals, companies and other governments.

The setting for the talks that begin Friday is the 200-acre Sunnylands estate just outside Palm Springs, Calif., marking a departure from the formality that typically greets Chinese leaders during state visits at the White House. U.S. officials hope the relaxed atmosphere will facilitate a more candid and free-flowing discussion between the leaders of the world's two largest economies.

Obama was due to arrive Friday afternoon following a health-care event and a Democratic fundraiser in Northern California. He and Xi will hold a bilateral meeting Friday evening, then take questions from reporters. They'll also have discussions during a working dinner Friday night and hold additional talks Saturday morning.

The media availability with reporters will likely mark Obama's first public comments on the revelation that the National Security Agency, under the cover of a top-secret court order, is accessing the telephone records of millions of U.S. customers of Verizon.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Thursday that the NSA phone record program is a "critical tool" in keeping Americans safe.

"The top priority of the president of the United States is the national security of the United States and protecting this homeland," Earnest said. "And we need to make sure that we have the tools we need to confront the threat posed by terrorists, to disrupt plots that may exist and to otherwise protect the homeland."

The debate over U.S. government-sanctioned surveillance will be juxtaposed with Obama's warnings to Xi against Chinese spying on the American government and businesses.

China has publicly denied that it is using computer network technology to spy on the U.S. But Obama administration officials say they've seen some signals in private meetings with Chinese counterparts that Beijing may be ready to address the issue.

The economy is also expected to be a major topic during the talks, with Xi likely to press China's claims of business discrimination in U.S. markets. The leaders are also certain to discuss North Korea's provocative nuclear threats.

Obama and Xi first met before the Chinese leader took office in March. They weren't slated to meet again until September, on the margins of an international economic summit in Russia, but both countries saw a need to move up their first meeting of the year, given the myriad issues that define their relationship.

The China summit kicks off a heavy foreign policy-focused stretch for Obama that includes trips to Europe and Africa later this month. It also comes as the White House grapples not only with the NSA disclosure, but also controversies over the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative political groups, the Justice Department's seizure of phone records from Associated Press journalists, and the resurgent investigation into the attack on Americans in Benghazi, Libya.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/california-obama-xi-seek-build-ties-074541658.html

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24 hours later, search continues in Philly

By Dave Warner

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Nearly 24 hours after a building under demolition collapsed on shoppers and staff at a neighboring thrift store, killing six people and injuring 14 others, rescue crews searched through the rubble for survivors.

About 75 percent of the site in downtown Philadelphia had been scoured by early Thursday morning as part of an around-the-clock search for life amid the mountain of crumbled concrete and splintered wood, Mayor Michael Nutter said at a news conference on Thursday.

Late on Wednesday, 12 hours after the 10:45 a.m. EDT collapse, a 61-year-old woman was pulled from the debris and rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Earlier in the day, six people were found dead and 13 others were rescued with minor injuries.

At the news conference on Thursday, Fire Commissioner Floyd Ayer said his team "stayed the course" and would do so until the entire site was searched.

"All of the despair with the people who were deceased, that person being pulled out alive is what every rescue is all about," Ayer said.

Investigators were trying to determine what caused the four-story building that was being demolished to collapse onto a neighboring Salvation Army Thrift Store, burying shoppers in the debris. On the scene investigating were Philadelphia police, Philadelphia Licenses and Inspection and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The mayor suggested at a late-night news conference on Wednesday that the number of casualties could rise.

"We still do not know how many people were inside the thrift store or possibly on the sidewalk" at the time of the collapse, Nutter said. "If someone else is in that building, they will find them."

Authorities declined to identify the dead other than to say that they included one man and five women who had all been inside the store when the building next door came down.

Most of the injured were also thought to have been inside the store or on the sidewalk in front of it at the time. Aside from the last woman rescued, most were said to be in stable condition or have already been released from the hospital.

Witnesses to the sudden collapse, which occurred at 22nd and Market streets in the heart of Philadelphia's busy Center City district, said it shook the ground and knocked people on the nearby sidewalk off their feet.

One witness, Dan Gillis, 31, a construction worker from New Jersey who was on a job across the street, said he saw a crane remove a supporting beam from the front of the building and then the wall next to the thrift store began to sway.

Jeffrey Fehnel, 48, of Philadelphia, said a backhoe hit the rear side of the building at about the same time. "The building came down. It was like a big blast," he told Reuters.

Authorities said the building that was being demolished had housed an X-rated book and video store.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Maureen Bavdek)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/death-toll-philadelphia-building-collapse-rises-six-mayor-033918247.html

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MRI study: Breastfeeding boosts babies' brain growth

June 6, 2013 ? A study using brain images from "quiet" MRI machines adds to the growing body of evidence that breastfeeding improves brain development in infants. Breastfeeding alone produced better brain development than a combination of breastfeeding and formula, which produced better development than formula alone.

A new study by researchers from Brown University finds more evidence that breastfeeding is good for babies' brains.

The study made use of specialized, baby-friendly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to look at the brain growth in a sample of children under the age of 4. The research found that by age 2, babies who had been breastfed exclusively for at least three months had enhanced development in key parts of the brain compared to children who were fed formula exclusively or who were fed a combination of formula and breastmilk. The extra growth was most pronounced in parts of the brain associated with language, emotional function, and cognition, the research showed.

This isn't the first study to suggest that breastfeeding aids babies' brain development. Behavioral studies have previously associated breastfeeding with better cognitive outcomes in older adolescents and adults. But this is the first imaging study that looked for differences associated with breastfeeding in the brains of very young and healthy children, said Sean Deoni, assistant professor of engineering at Brown and the study's lead author.

"We wanted to see how early these changes in brain development actually occur," Deoni said. "We show that they're there almost right off the bat."

The findings are in press in the journal NeuroImage and available now online.

Deoni leads Brown's Advanced Baby Imaging Lab. He and his colleagues use quiet MRI machines that image babies' brains as they sleep. The MRI technique Deoni has developed looks at the microstructure of the brain's white matter, the tissue that contains long nerve fibers and helps different parts of the brain communicate with each other. Specifically, the technique looks for amounts of myelin, the fatty material that insulates nerve fibers and speeds electrical signals as they zip around the brain.

Deoni and his team looked at 133 babies ranging in ages from 10 months to four years. All of the babies had normal gestation times, and all came from families with similar socioeconomic statuses. The researchers split the babies into three groups: those whose mothers reported they exclusively breastfed for at least three months, those fed a combination of breastmilk and formula, and those fed formula alone. The researchers compared the older kids to the younger kids to establish growth trajectories in white matter for each group.

The study showed that the exclusively breastfed group had the fastest growth in myelinated white matter of the three groups, with the increase in white matter volume becoming substantial by age 2. The group fed both breastmilk and formula had more growth than the exclusively formula-fed group, but less than the breastmilk-only group.

"We're finding the difference [in white matter growth] is on the order of 20 to 30 percent, comparing the breastfed and the non-breastfed kids," said Deoni. "I think it's astounding that you could have that much difference so early."

Deoni and his team then backed up their imaging data with a set of basic cognitive tests on the older children. Those tests found increased language performance, visual reception, and motor control performance in the breastfed group.

The study also looked at the effects of the duration of breastfeeding. The researchers compared babies who were breastfed for more than a year with those breastfed less than a year, and found significantly enhanced brain growth in the babies who were breastfed longer -- especially in areas of the brain dealing with motor function.

Deoni says the findings add to a substantial body of research that finds positive associations between breastfeeding and children's brain health.

"I think I would argue that combined with all the other evidence, it seems like breastfeeding is absolutely beneficial," he said.

Other authors on the study were Douglas Dean, Irene Piryatinsky, Jonathan O'Muircheartaigh, Lindsay Walker, Nicole Waskiewicz, Katie Lehman, Michelle Han and Holly Dirks, who all work with Deoni in the Baby Imaging Lab. The work was funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/lME9x2o8erw/130606141048.htm

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