Former Scientific American editor in chief John Rennie talks about his new six-episode Weather Channel TV Show, Hacking the Planet, which debuts February 28
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Former Scientific American editor in chief John Rennie talks about his new six-episode Weather Channel TV Show, Hacking the Planet, which debuts February 28th at 8 P.M. EST. Join in a live Facebook discussion with Rennie during the show at the Hacking the Planet Facebook page. ??????? ?
This Dragon spacecraft will launch on the upcoming SpaceX CRS-2 mission. The flight will be the second commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station by SpaceX.
By Miriam Kramer Space.com
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ? The weather looks promising for the planned Friday launch of a privately built robotic space capsule to the International Space Station, NASA says.
The unmanned Dragon space capsule, built by the private spaceflight company SpaceX of Hawthorne, Calif., is slated to launch toward the space station Friday?at 10:10 a.m. EST. Weather forecasts predict a 80 percent chance of favorable conditions for launch. NASA and SpaceX officials gave the scheduled mission a final "go" for launch earlier Thursday.
"The mission is the second of 12 SpaceX flights contracted by NASA to resupply the International Space Station," NASA officials said in a mission update. "It will mark the third trip by a Dragon capsule to the orbiting laboratory, following a demonstration flight in May 2012 and the first resupply mission in October 2012."
SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to provide 12 unmanned cargo deliveries to the space station. Another company, Orbital Sciences Corp. based in Virginia, has a $1.9 billion contract for eight mission using its own Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft.
The Dragon spacecraft is expected to deliver 1,200 pounds ?(544 kilograms) worth of supplies to the six international crew members on board the station. The capsule is scheduled to return to Earth with 2,300 pounds (1,043 kg) of material from the space station when it splashes down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California on March 25.
SpaceX
On Monday, Falcon 9 and Dragon underwent a successful static fire in preparation for launch to the International Space Station. Engineers ran through all countdown processes as if it were launch day, ending with all nine engines on the rocket firing for nearly two seconds.
SpaceX conducted a?successful rocket engine test, known as a "static test fire" on Monday. The rocket's 9 Merlin engines were fired for a few seconds while the rocket was held down on the launch pad.
NASA is relying on SpaceX, Orbital Sciences and other private companies to develop new private spacecraft to supply the International Space Station with cargo and ultimately ferry American astronauts into and from low-Earth orbit.
With the retirement of the space shuttle fleet in 2011, NASA has been dependent on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft to fly astronauts to the space station, and use unmanned cargo ships built by Russia, Japan and Europe to deliver supplies to the orbiting laboratory.
The space agency?also is developing a new rocket and spacecraft, the Orion space capsule and its Space Launch System mega-rocket, for future deep-space exploration missions to the moon, asteroids and Mars.
You can follow Space.com staff writer Miriam Kramer on Twitter?@mirikramer.?Follow Space.com on Twitter?@Spacedotcom. We're also on?Facebook?and?Google+.
Copyright 2013 Space.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
BARCELONA (Reuters) - Small cell radio equipment that boosts network coverage is providing big opportunities for telecom operators as they face growing demand for smartphone Internet access in busy streets, shopping centres and stadiums.
The devices - small radio nodes which provide network coverage over a range of between 10 and 200 metres - have been used by businesses and consumers to provide a signal in areas of poor coverage for years.
Now operators are using them to bolster public broadband networks and ease pressure on traditional base stations, as they struggle to meet exploding data demand from customers wanting to access the Internet via smartphones and tablets on the go.
Nicola Palmer, chief technology officer of Verizon Wireless, said the U.S. carrier would deploy up to 300 4G small cells this year and "a lot more in 2014".
"I view small cells as a complement to the rest of the network especially in areas of intense demand such as business districts or shopping malls, but they won't replace the traditional mobile tower," she said at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona.
Small cells, which are around the size of a shoe box, can be clustered in streets between tall buildings - canyons where mobile reception can be poor - and where demand is high.
Telecoms consultancy Informa predicted the deployment of public small cells would generate 2016 revenues of $16.2 billion, creating an opportunity for network gear providers like Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia Siemens Networks, which make them.
"Public access small cells in busy urban areas are set to be one of the defining mobile network trends in the coming years," said analyst Dimitris Mavrakis in Barcelona.
"The vendors who succeed in this space are going to win the lion's share of small cell revenues."
The installed base of small cells was set to grow from almost 11 million today to 92 million in 2016, with a total market value of over $22 billion, Informa said.
Telecoms gear maker Alcatel-Lucent said as demand for data soared, the capacity of the main network would run out of steam, and small cells would be part of the solution.
HERE AND NOW
"It's no longer an 'if small cells', in fact in my mind it's no longer a 'when small cells', it's here and now," said Michael J. Schabel, the company's vice president of small cells.
Companies including AT&T and Vodafone UK as well as Verizon, have announced plans to roll out more small cells in their networks, as consumers increasingly expect a seamless data service.
Mike Flanagan, chief technology officer for network software firm Arieso, said the networks were coming under pressure from a small group of users who consume a huge amount of data, often for video or gaming.
He said one percent of all subscribers consumed more than half of all the data being transmitted in the network.
"So when you employ these small cells, don't think of a uniform ubiquitous small-cell coverage across a certain area, like Soho in London," he said.
"Instead look at it as a surgical placement of small cells precisely where they are required to satisfy the demand of those extreme one percent of users."
He said the technology was now able to detect where that demand was located down to the individual building.
"If the network operator can just satisfy the demands of one percent they've doubled the effective capacity of their whole network."
(Additional reporting by Leila Abboud; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)
Although robots are getting better at adapting to the real world, they still tend to tackle challenges with a fixed set of alternatives that can quickly become impractical as objects (and more advanced robots) complicate the situation. Two MIT students, Jennifer Barry and Annie Holladay, have developed fresh algorithms that could help robot arms improvise. Barry's method tells the robot about an object's nature, focusing its attention on the most effective interactions -- sliding a plate until it's more easily picked up, for example. Holladay, meanwhile, turns collision detection on its head to funnel an object into place, such as balancing a delicate object with a free arm before setting that object down. Although the existing code for either approach currently requires plugging in existing data, their creators ultimately want more flexible code that determines qualities on the spot and reacts accordingly. Long-term development could nudge us closer to robots with truly general-purpose code -- a welcome relief from the one-track minds the machines often have today.
While you might be excited to start your new business, you should pause and take a look at your internet marketing strategy first. You may find one or more effective tips to use in the article below.
To drive traffic to your site, hold special events and promotions. Possibly, you could offer a particular e-book for $1 for one or two days. Your site will attract more visitors, who will see your other products and services while they are stopping by to pick up their promo item. It is not unusual for such visitors to purchase other things that you have for sale on your website in addition to the e-book.
Offer customers a freebie that features your brand name and that can be transmitted electronically. It can be submitted to various websites where the item can be listed and provided to customers at no charge. If you have an e-book, give it to free e-book websites. There are many websites that offer articles, e-zines, e-books, and general freebies that you can submit to.
Always include a limited time frame to order as an incentive to make a purchase now. Free shipping or giveaways can increase the traffic that comes onto your page. But it is important that urgency is created to get the people to act right away.
You could get more people to share a link to your content or feature it if you openly encourage them to do so. Anyone who likes your site will be more than happy to provide a link back to your site, just as long as you provide a link to their site, too.
Give yourself an impressive title so that people will show you respect. For example, make yourself the CEO if you are running your own company. If you are not owner, try finding a good title that shows power and authority. Using this title as your signature gives you the perfect chance to display your importance.
It is both a science and art to do internet marketing. True, you need to understand the technical aspects of marketing, but you also have to feel your way through the realistic side of things. Make sure you think it through when you are considering what your customer wants to experience.
You should think about mobile marketing. Offer customers the chance to sign up for texts alerting them to sales, product launches, or other happenings on your site. This has become one of the freshest ways to promote your business.
Take advantage of the many cost effective resources on the internet as a means to improve your marketing campaign. You can join online business communities, read marketing blogs, attend local business development seminars and conferences, and download and study e-books.
Your website should be well made and have content people want to see! Your site is the most essential part of your online marketing strategy. You want your visitors to stay around awhile, so you need to make the website eye-catching and interesting. The site?s design should be engaging to the visitors and make them want to visit and stay there long enough to maybe purchase something.
Consider using positive words such as ?guarantee? whenever you are writing ad descriptions. The value of a guarantee varies greatly depending on the company offering it, but the mere offer of a guarantee seem to allay many concerns. A guarantee makes people feel more comfortable when making a purchase.
You should give your customer an option of either buying in bulk or retail. Selling wholesale items at a small amount of profit is one way to boost the amount of items you sell.
Give rewards to your customers for referring others to your site. You can achieve multiple sales from just a few persons if you incorporate a referral program with freebies into your website. People love free gifts, and this can increase sales!
It is optimal to be able to run pages on numerous social networking sites, but consider the time that would need to be invested to keep them up-to-date and functioning. Stagnant profiles are useless and are often seen as spam.
Grade the effectiveness of your efforts in online marketing by making use of tech tools that determine how many of your visitors become paying customers. Statistics that show the quantity of visitors and sales can be useful in showing how a website is doing. One way to find statistic is the use of web trackers.
By placing surveys and polls throughout your website, you can solicit feedback from site users. This will make your customers feel included in the business, and it will assure that your site will have plenty of content that they will find very appealing.
It is important that your customers feel special. To make them feel valued, personalize all correspondence. Your visitors and customers are fed up with bulk emails that are impersonal and fake. Aren?t you sick of bulk emails? Make sure your info is personalized and targeted to keep people interested.
To encourage people to visit your site over others, work to offer something unique. Try drawing cartoons that relate to your website or product, or providing an e-book full of useful information. Having an item that is exclusive to your site is great at attracting plenty of customers to your website.
A good way to attract visitors to your website is to offer them some sort of free course. This is great marketing strategy for the Internet since you can bundle the course along with a complimentary product which will attract customers to purchase. You can use your ad campaign to detail your customers about the contest.
How good is your service or product? You can have the best internet marketing around, though if what you are selling is below average, you will not see any changes to your bottom line. A first-rate product will go a long way towards increasing your sales profits.
When it comes to Internet marketing, it can be hard to learn everything. But everyone needs to start somewhere. In fact, the learning process never stops in this field, and even the experts and professionals are constantly refining their knowledge.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A senior adviser to President Barack Obama said the White House will soon renew efforts to push cybersecurity legislation through Congress, though he foresaw an uphill battle given the failure of the last attempt.
Daniel said the White House has begun drafting "key legislative principles" for a new bill that it believes can pass both the House and Senate this time.
"We very much want a bill," White House cybersecurity coordinator Michael Daniel told Reuters while in San Francisco to meet industry experts and business leaders at a security conference. But he added: "I don't want to leave anybody with an impression that we underestimate the challenges."
"We will do our best to work with Congress," he added. "You will see that develop over the next couple of weeks to months," he said.
Cybersecurity legislation backed by the Obama administration died in the Senate in November amid fierce opposition from businesses that complained about over-regulation.
That bill would have increased information-sharing between intelligence agencies and private companies, with some privacy protections. It also would have set voluntary standards for businesses that control electric grids, water treatment plants and other essential facilities.
In the absence of overarching legislation, the Obama administration will pursue other means to improve cybersecurity, he said. Those included implementing an executive order the president signed this month that seeks to better protect critical infrastructure from cyber-attacks.
The order directs federal authorities to improve information-sharing on cyber-threats - including some that may be classified - with companies that provide or support critical infrastructure.
"It would be a mistake to assume you can't make any progress in the absence of legislation," he said.
The principles that the White House will support in new legislation include requiring that a civilian agency must be in charge of information-sharing, Daniel said.
Last year's Senate plan likewise would have put the Department of Homeland Security squarely in charge, though it could turn to the military's National Security Agency for assistance.
(Additional reporting by Joseph Menn and Deborah Charles; Editing by Eric Walsh)
Feb. 25, 2013 ? Environmental exposure to bisphenol A (BPA), a widespread chemical found in plastics and resins, may suppress a gene vital to nerve cell function and to the development of the central nervous system, according to a study led by researchers at Duke Medicine.
The researchers published their findings -- which were observed in cortical neurons of mice, rats and humans -- in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Feb. 25, 2013.
"Our study found that BPA may impair the development of the central nervous system, and raises the question as to whether exposure could predispose animals and humans to neurodevelopmental disorders," said lead author Wolfgang Liedtke, M.D., PhD, associate professor of medicine/neurology and neurobiology at Duke.
BPA, a molecule that mimics estrogen and interferes with the body's endocrine system, can be found in a wide variety of manufactured products, including thermal printer paper, some plastic water bottles and the lining of metal cans. The chemical can be ingested if it seeps into the contents of food and beverage containers.
Research in animals has raised concerns that exposure to BPA may cause health problems such as behavioral issues, endocrine and reproductive disorders, obesity, cancer and immune system disorders. Some studies suggest that infants and young children may be the most vulnerable to the effects of BPA, which led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban the use of the chemical in baby bottles and cups in July 2012.
While BPA has been shown to affect the developing nervous system, little is understood as to how this occurs. The research team developed a series of experiments in rodent and human nerve cells to learn how BPA induces changes that disrupt gene regulation.
During early development of neurons, high levels of chloride are present in the cells. These levels drop as neurons mature, thanks to a chloride transporter protein called KCC2, which churns chloride ions out of the cells. If the level of chloride within neurons remains elevated, it can damage neural circuits and compromise a developing nerve cell's ability to migrate to its proper position in the brain.
Exposing neurons to minute amounts of BPA alters the chloride levels inside the cells by somehow shutting down the Kcc2 gene, which makes the KCC2 protein, thereby delaying the removal of chloride from neurons.
MECP2, another protein important for normal brain function, was found to be a possible culprit behind this change. When exposed to BPA, MECP2 is more abundant and binds to the Kcc2 gene at a higher rate, which might help to shut it down. This could contribute to problems in the developing brain due to a delay in chloride being removed.
These findings raise the question of whether BPA could contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders such as Rett syndrome, a severe autism spectrum disorder that is only found in girls and is characterized by mutations in the gene that produces MECP2.
While both male and female neurons were affected by BPA in the studies, female neurons were more susceptible to the chemical's toxicity. Further research will dig deeper into the sex-specific effects of BPA exposure and whether certain sex hormone receptors are involved in BPA's effect on KCC2.
"Our findings improve our understanding of how environmental exposure to BPA can affect the regulation of the Kcc2 gene. However, we expect future studies to focus on what targets aside from Kcc2 are affected by BPA," Liedtke said. "This is a chapter in an ongoing story."
In addition to Liedtke, study authors include Michele Yeo and Ken Berglund of the Liedtke Lab in the Division of Neurology at Duke Medicine; Michael Hanna, Maria D. Torres and Jorge Busciglio of the University of California, Irvine; Junjie U. Guo and Yuan Gao of the Lieber Institute for Brain Development and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md.; and Jaya Kittur, Joel Abramowitz and Lutz Birnbaumer of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
The research received funding from Duke University, the Klingenstein Fund, the National Institutes of Health (R21NS066307, HD38466 and AG16573), and intramural funds from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
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Journal Reference:
Michele Yeo, Ken Berglund, Michael Hanna, Junjie U. Guo, Jaya Kittur, Maria D. Torres, Joel Abramowitz, Jorge Busciglio, Yuan Gao, Lutz Birnbaumer, and Wolfgang B. Liedtke. Bisphenol A delays the perinatal chloride shift in cortical neurons by epigenetic effects on the Kcc2 promoter. PNAS, February 25, 2013 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1300959110
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
The fight against online piracy just gained a new weapon in the form of the Copyright Alert System (CAS) aka the "six strikes" policy. Starting today, participating ISPs like Verizon, Time Warner Cable, AT&T and Comcast will begin issuing warnings to customers suspected of using illegal peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing services that violate copyright laws. Initial notifications will be used to educate and direct customers to legal alternative content sources. If the first set of notifications go avoided, the ISP may take further action, which includes: throttling internet connection speeds and redirecting users to websites requiring acknowledgment of CAS alerts.
If a person wishes to contest their ISP's findings, they will have 14 calendar days to request an independent review by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) for a fee of $35. If the investigation finds that no copyright violations have taken place, the alerts will be removed from the customer's account and they will receive a refund for the filing fee. However, should the organization's research rule otherwise, the internet service provider may proceed with taking action against its account holder. To get a closer look at the CAS and its inner workings, "redirect" your browser to the source links below.
Not much has come easily for C. Vivian Stringer during her Hall of Fame coaching career.
So it was fitting that it took her five tries to become the fourth women's basketball coach to have 900 victories. She finally reached the milestone Tuesday night with Rutgers' 68-56 win over South Florida.
"When I look back on my life, this team, probably this year, best reflects what 900 has been," she said. "It helped me to remember that it was never easy. But unless you really have a passion, unless you really know how fortunate you are not to have had a lot of major injuries to a lot of players, which is what happened to this team, and unless you remember how fortunate you are to be able to get to those special places."
Stringer joined Pat Summitt, Jody Conradt and Sylvia Hatchell in the exclusive club. Maybe a half dozen more women's coaches might gain entrance over the next few years. Only three Division I men's coaches have reached 900 victories: Mike Krzyzewski, Bob Knight and Jim Boeheim.
"I am fortunate to call Vivian my friend and could not be happier that she has reached the 900-win milestone in her career. I have great respect and admiration for Vivian and consider her one of the great pioneers of our game," Summitt said in a statement. "She has had an incredible journey, and I hope she adds many more to her 'W' column!"
Stringer, who was the first coach in men's or women's basketball to take three different schools to the Final Four ? including Rutgers in 2000 and '07 ? fought back tears as her team celebrated their coach's achievement.
"I think it's beyond words," said Stringer, whose record stands at 900-330 in 42 seasons. "I'm happy that it's over. I can hardly breathe. It's over and now I can just coach and smile, and get back to what I love to do because it's never been about numbers."
During the four-game losing streak, Stringer admitted she was tired of talking about when she'd get No. 900. She was getting worn out by it, even snapping at reporters during a media session.
Her demeanor changed after a loss to St. John's on Saturday, the game before Tuesday's landmark victory. Stringer said she received a call from Hatchell, who reached 900 wins on Feb. 7.
The longtime friends talked about the pressures their players faced while trying to get that 900th win. It took Hatchell's team two tries to get her that victory.
"She is probably one of the few people I would talk to about it," Stringer said, "and she was just saying it was highly stressful for her, too. Finally when they were over it, (the players) were much better because they were really uptight."
With the weight of the milestone lifted, Stringer can only hope her team will use it as a springboard for the rest of the season. Stringer, in her 18th season at Rutgers, has been focused on making an 11th-straight trip to the NCAA tournament. Beating a surging South Florida team will definitely help the Scarlet Knights' resume.
"Everything will take care of itself," Stringer said, dismissing a question related to her team's postseason fate. "This was a major win, and it's important to win down the (stretch) as it is right now."
The Scarlet Knights (15-12, 6-8 Big East), who are 10th in the conference, finish off the regular season against Cincinnati and Pittsburgh ? two of the bottom teams in the league.
As the game ended, a crowd of 1,304 at the Rutgers Athletic Center saluted Stringer with chants of "900" and "C-V-S" and Scarlet Knights athletic director Tim Pernetti was among the first to greet her with a framed No. 900 jersey. Rutgers' cheerleaders unfurled a banner that read "Congratulations Coach Stringer - 900 wins," and her players took turns hugging their emotional coach at midcourt.
"If it's something special for all the generations of players and coaches that I've been a part of, then, yeah, I'm happy," she said. "But I'm looking forward to more."
Rutgers had lost four straight games since beating Cincinnati for Stringer's 899th career victory.
"It's more than a game, it's about a preparation for life," said Stringer, who is in her 18th season at Rutgers. "It's about understanding that when things are rough you may get knocked down and there may be doubters but you'll still rise."
Senior guard Erica Wheeler scored 24 points to lead Rutgers.
"It's almost a little heartbreaking because she gives her heart out when she coaches," Wheeler said. "So to not get her that 900th win as soon as we needed to, I cried a couple times at night. It was important tonight to definitely get her that win."
___
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The bones of Richard III, who reigned for two years, have been discovered in Leicester, England, and they indicate that his spine was twisted by scoliosis and that he received eight head wounds in battle. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.
By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News
Nine distant relatives of King Richard III are demanding that the British government reverse its decision to have his skeleton reburied at Leicester Cathedral, near the parking lot where it was found, and give it a resting place in York instead.
The open letter, published late Sunday by British newspapers such as The Telegraph and the Daily Mail, is just one of several efforts seeking a burial at York Minster for the more than 500-year-old remains, which were discovered last year by researchers from the University of Leicester. This month, the researchers said DNA analysis and other forensic tests proved "beyond reasonable doubt" that the skeleton was that of Richard III.
The English monarch reigned for just two years before he was killed in battle in 1485, but he was immortalized in William Shakespeare's play, "Richard III," in which he was portrayed as a hunchbacked villain. Richard III's legions of modern-day fans say he wasn't really all that bad ? and the row over what to do with his bones has added a new twist to the drama.
"We, the undernamed, do hereby most respectfully demand that the remains of King Richard III, the last Plantagenet King of England and our mutual ancestor, be returned to the city of York for formal, ceremonial reburial," the statement from his relatives says. "We believe that such an interment was the desire of King Richard in life and we have written this statement so that his wishes may be fully recognised and upheld. King Richard III was the last King of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty which had ruled England since the succession of King Henry II in 1154.
"We, the undernamed blood descendants, unreservedly believe that King Richard is deserving of great recognition and respect and hereby agree to dutifully uphold his memory.
"With due humility and affection, we are and will remain His Majesty?s representatives and voice."
The statement was signed by nine individuals who have traced their ancestry back to Richard III's siblings. The nine signers are?Charles E. Brunner, Stephen Guy Nicolay, Vanessa Maria Roe, Jacob Daniel Tyler, Paul Tyler, Raymond Torrence Bertram Roe, Linda Jane Roe, Eleanor Bianca Lupton and Charlotte Jane Lupton. Richard died childless and thus has no direct-line descendants.
Even before the remains were found, the British Ministry of Justice granted a license putting the University of Leicester in charge of the parking-lot dig and the disposition of any remains found there."The University of Leicester specified in its application that reinterment would occur in Leicester Cathedral if the remains were proved to be those of King Richard III," the institution said in a statement.
The university is currently working with the cathedral and Leicester's city council on plans for his reburial by August 2014. In the meantime, researchers are continuing to study the remains.
The long lead time means that the tug of war between Leicester and York, two cities that are 100 miles (160 kilometers) from each other, could continue for months. There are even those who want to see the remains interred in London's Westminster Abbey. But the nine relatives behind this week's open letter have no more standing than the other descendants of Richard III's family, who doubtless number in the thousands by now.
In that light, Leicester seems to have the strongest case, by virtue of legal grounds as well as the less rigorous "finders, keepers" rule and the dictum that possession is nine-tenths of the law. Do you disagree? Feel free to weigh in with your comments below.
More about Richard III:
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Supporters cheer comedian-turned-political agitator, Beppe Grillo, as he arrives for his final rally in Rome's Piazza San Giovanni on Friday. Italians are fed up, and no one is tapping that emotional vein better than comic-turned-political agitator Grillo and his anti-establishment 5 Star Movement.
By Catherine Hornby, Reuters
? ROME - Italians began voting on Sunday in one of the most closely watched elections in years, with markets nervous about whether it will produce a strong government to pull Italy out of recession and help resolve the euro zone debt crisis.?
A huge final rally by anti-establishment-comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo on Friday before a campaigning ban kicked in has highlighted public anger at traditional parties and added to uncertainty about the election outcome.?
Voters started casting their ballots at 7 a.m. (1 a.m. ET). Polling booths will remain open until 9 p.m. (4 p.m. ET) on Sunday and between?6 a.m. and 2 p.m.?(midnight and 10 a.m. ET) on Monday. Exit polls will come out soon after voting ends and official results are expected by early Tuesday.?
Filippo Monteforte / AFP - Getty Images
Comedian-turned-political agitator, Beppe Grillo, speaks during his final rally in Rome's Piazza San Giovanni on Friday.
The election is being followed closely by financial markets with memories still fresh of the potentially catastrophic debt crisis that brought technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti to power more than a year ago.?
Italy, the euro zone's third-largest economy, is stuck in deep recession, struggling under a public debt burden second only to Greece's in the 17-member currency bloc and with a public weary of more than a year of harsh austerity policies.?
Economic austerity has fueled anger among Italians grappling with rising unemployment and shrinking disposable incomes, encouraging many to turn to Grillo, who has tapped into a national mood of disenchantment.?
Final polls published two weeks ago showed center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani with a 5-point lead, but analysts disagree about whether he will be able to form a stable majority that can push though the economic reforms Italy needs.?
Bersani is now thought to be just a few points ahead of center-right rival Silvio Berlusconi, the four-times prime minister who has promised tax refunds and staged a media blitz in an attempt to win back voters.?
Berlusconi criticism? Berlusconi hogged the headlines on Sunday after he broke the campaign silence the previous evening attack magistrates, saying they were "more dangerous than the Sicilian mafia" and had invented allegations he held sex parties to discredit him.?
The 76-year-old billionaire, who faces several trials on charges ranging from fraud to sex with an underage prostitute, was criticized by his election rivals for making the comments after the campaigning ban had come into force.?
Ciro De Luca / Reuters
Silvio Berlusconi, leader of People of Freedom party, appears on a screen during his political rally in Naples Friday.
While the center left is still expected to gain control of the lower house, thanks to rules that guarantee a strong majority to whichever party wins the most votes nationally, a much closer battle will be fought in the Senate, which any government also needs to control to be able to pass laws.?
Seats in the upper house are awarded on a region-by-region basis, meaning that support in key regions can decisively influence the overall result.?
Pollsters still believe the most likely outcome is a center-left government headed by Bersani and possibly backed by Monti, who is leading a centrist coalition.?
But strong campaigning by Berlusconi and the fiery Grillo, who has drawn tens of thousands to his election rallies, have thrown the election wide open, causing concern that there may be no clear winner.?
Surveys have shown up to 5 million voters are expected to make up their minds at the last minute, adding to uncertainty.?
Italy's Interior Ministry urged some 47 million eligible voters to not let bad weather forecasts put them off, and said it was prepared to handle snowy conditions in some northern regions to ensure everyone had a chance to vote.?
Related:?
Polls: Cigar-chomping former communist will be Italy's next leader
Pope's resignation could thwart Berlusconi comeback
Italy's comeback kid Berlusconi defends Mussolini
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Scream. It?ll make you feel better. Complain. It?ll release the poisons. Throw a justified temper tantrum in public, like the University of Miami?s president did last week, and feel stronger as consensus gathers behind you with uncommon support. Purging outrage can feel good when it doesn?t feel bad. But then slink back to your corner, defeated, and realize that your path is littered with beaten screamers and complainers and temper-tantrum throwers who expired exhausted without ever making so much as a dent. And then wait for the fear to return.
The worst part? The helplessness. UM President Donna Shalala is a powerful person unaccustomed to feeling powerless. So her angry screed toward the NCAA about its investigation last week echoed from coast to coast, but it wasn?t so much an uprising as it was one tiny, furious woman yelling into a canyon. An angry letter, that?s all this was, though personal because this particular president felt wronged after decades and decades of university presidents enabling, empowering and emboldening the NCAA?s ridiculous rights.
So many powerful people have fed this bloated, ugly beast for so long, and now one of them was finally complaining about being bitten. But she wouldn?t have been this kind of passionate if she worked at the University of Florida instead. And that?s one of the frustrations here: Unfairness must be felt by the motivated many before fairness can be felt by the first few.
Shalala?s statement got huge backing locally because it gave the powerless a voice, and made all those weary UM fans feel heard, but this was just a street crowd gathering and yelling, ?Fight! Fight!? Celebrating that she hit the old tank with a pebble from her slingshot ignores all the bodies strewn behind her and all the awful yet up ahead.
You can?t get consensus on much of anything in sports, arguments starting over the silliest of hair-splitting, but the consensus for decades has been that the NCAA is an absurd, unjust artifact that belches out unfairness. And yet here it still stands, undefeated. Not only that, you can make the argument it has never been more powerful given the way it trampled due process in gutting Penn State ? and to applause, no less. We like the behavior of the all-powerful when we agree with it. We don?t like it so much when it is our school on the wrong end.
Inside or outside of sports, you will have a hard time finding anything railed against as long as the NCAA with so little impact. Dictatorships come to mind. But never mind overthrow; nobody can get the NCAA to even change. Why? Money, of course. The NFL and NBA have free minor-league systems, and rich boosters fund big athletic departments, so we keep trafficking on the inner cities and rationalize these cartels by filing it neatly under ?education? ? this as freshman Heisman winner Johnny Manziel makes an estimated $37?million for his university and now (cough, cough, wink, wink) takes his classes online. If the labor is free, and the rich and powerful keep getting paid, what incentive is there to fix anything about shamateurism? You are insulated from noise outside when you work inside a bank vault.
Still, Miami is in the middle of what feels like a small movement. There is some solace in that. An assistant USC football coach is suing the NCAA for corruption in its investigative arm. Ed O?Bannon is suing on behalf of all student-athlete-indentured-servants for using his likeness in a video game for profit. The governor of Pennsylvania is suing for what happened at Penn State, and you can rest assured Shalala will be suing if her school is hit with even more penalty than it self-imposed. The more lawsuits, the better. It is what finally brought change to an NFL that had been discrediting doctors linking the game to concussions. And Miami is armed with something unusual ? the omnipotent NCAA admitting actual wrong-doing by firing employees over conduct in the UM investigation.
"She's happy, we're happy, everybody's happy," says Dr. Salim Abu Khaizaran, who treats the wives of Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons.
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By John Ray, Correspondent, NBC News
TEL AVIV, Israel -- It is surely among the strangest jail break stories ever conceived: a daring escapade in which a determined band of young women beat one of the toughest security regimes in the world.
They are the wives of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails ? without the right to conjugal visits ? who nevertheless claim to have become pregnant by their husbands.
This isn?t a case of the usual contraband sneaked into a jail to make life a little easier for inmates. It?s what is smuggled out that matters ? the stuff of life itself.
Plenty think the plot is far-fetched, but the women insist that armed with little more than cunning and a concealed container, they can ensure that no wall or coil of barbed wire is a barrier to parenthood.
Faridah?Ma?arouf laughed as she recalled hurrying out of the prison gates after visiting day was done, hiding a sample of her son?s sperm.
?We had a taxi waiting to take us very fast,?? she said. ?I thought I had to get it to the doctor quickly.??
It seems to have been a successful operation. Three months later Ma?arouf sat in an IVF clinic where the progress of her daughter-in-law?s pregnancy was being monitored.
It is what could be described as the brainchild of Dr.?Salim Abu Khaizaran, head of the?Razan Center for Infertility in the Palestinian city of Ramallah on the West Bank.
?We are doing this to help these ladies because we feel as doctors that the wives of prisoners pay a very high price,? Abu Khaizaran said without revealing how many other such procedures he had conducted. ?She has to wait for her husband, sometimes she can spend her lovely youth just waiting. And by the time her husband is out, many of them will not be able to have babies.?
NBC News
Faridah Ma'arouf says she smuggled a sample of her son's sperm out of Ofer Prison, above, so that her daughter-in-law could become pregnant.
He added: ?The wives lose out twice because the community then pressurizes the husband to marry another woman in order to?fulfill his requirements to become a father, which ... I feel is very sad.?
'What are you waiting for?' Many of the men are serving long sentences for terrorist offenses.
Ammar?Al-Zibben has been in prison for 16 years. He is serving 27 life sentences with an additional 25 years for plotting bomb attacks in Jerusalem that killed 21 people.
He is also the recent father of a baby boy, named Mohannad, who is just seven months old.
His wife, Dalal,?32, said the idea to go for?IVF was originally her husband?s. The suggestion took her by surprise. She had expected opposition from family and friends in their conservative community.
?I was very surprised when I found them encouraging me enthusiastically,? she said. ?Everyone said I should do it and not deny myself and my husband our basic right, to have a family.
?It reached a point where people would stop me in the street and ask me why I still hadn?t done it,? she added. ?They would say to me, ?What are you waiting for? Why are you wasting time???
Her husband got to see his son for the first time six months ago.
?The meeting was happy, sad, exciting. It was mixed with a lot of feelings and tears, I can?t describe to you how we both felt,?? she said.
?I had sacrificed everything when my husband was arrested,? she said. ?Now I have been given this opportunity to make my dreams come true, to have the family I always wanted. We will be waiting for my husband to come out and join us.??
Near-miraculous conceptions As word spread, the?number of?prisoners? wives?waiting for the clinic to make their dreams come true has risen, hospital officials said.
Alaa Badarneh / EPA, file
Dalal Rabaya holds her son Mohannad at a hospital in the West Bank town of Nablus on Aug. 13.
They all face the same, daunting obstacle. Typically a prisoner visitor will pass through an airport style scanner, a body search, and then be asked to leave all their possessions in a locker before they get to see their relative. And then they will be separated by glass and speak only by phone.
According to the Israel Prison Service these are near-miraculous conceptions.
?Due to technological and security restrictions that apply to prisoners in their relationship with family members, one can question the ability to smuggle as claimed,?? Sivan Weizman, spokeswoman for the Prison Authority, said dryly.
If Abu?Khaizaran has any idea how samples get from prison cell to fertility clinic, he?s not telling. But the hospital insists on the written word of two close family members that the sperm is indeed that of the husband, he said.
A black-and-white screen showed the outline of a baby in the womb. The loud and rapid beat of its heart reverberated in the fertility clinic?s small ultrasound room.
?This is the head of the baby. And there?s its hand. He?s moving. It?s a boy. Fifteen weeks,? Abu?Khaizaran told mother-to-be?Lidya Al-Rimawi?who had come in for her first scan. ?Everything looks fine.??
Like all the women NBC interviewed, Al-Rimawi was coy when asked how she managed to evade Israeli prison guards and their searches.
?We found much difficulty. But despite the security checks we got through, thanks to God,? she said.
?Each case is different from another,?? she said when pressed for more detail. ?We smuggled it out in a bag, a small nylon bag. But it is difficult to explain how.?
?If I told you the way we smuggled it, definitely the army will prevent it from happening and there are prisoners we don?t want to deprive of this same chance.??
She beamed as she looked at the image of the fast-growing baby inside her.
?It is a very beautiful feeling,?? she said. ?It is a feeling that cannot be described. It is a miracle.??
Fragments of continents hidden under lava in the Indian Ocean Public release date: 24-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: F. Ossing ossing@gfz-potsdam.de 49-331-288-1040 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
The islands Reunion and Mauritius, both well-known tourist destinations, are hiding a micro-continent, which has now been discovered. The continent fragment known as Mauritia detached about 60 million years ago while Madagascar and India drifted apart, and had been hidden under huge masses of lava. Such micro-continents in the oceans seem to occur more frequently than previously thought, says a study in the latest issue of Nature Geoscience ("A Precambrian microcontinent in the Indian Ocean," Nature Geoscience, Vol 6, doi: 10.1038/NGEO1736).
The break-up of continents is often associated with mantle plumes: These giant bubbles of hot rock rise from the deep mantle and soften the tectonic plates from below, until the plates break apart at the hotspots. This is how Eastern Gondwana broke apart about 170 million years ago. At first, one part was separated, which in turn fragmented into Madagascar, India, Australia and Antarctica, which then migrated to their present position.
Plumes currently situated underneath the islands Marion and Reunion appear to have played a role in the emergence of the Indian Ocean. If the zone of the rupture lies at the edge of a land mass (in this case Madagascar / India), fragments of this land mass may be separated off. The Seychelles are a well-known example of such a continental fragment.
A group of geoscientists from Norway, South Africa, Britain and Germany have now published a study that suggests, based on the study of lava sand grains from the beach of Mauritius, the existence of further fragments. The sand grains contain semi-precious zircons aged between 660 and 1970 million years, which is explained by the fact that the zircons were carried by the lava as it pushed through subjacent continental crust of this age.
This dating method was supplemented by a recalculation of plate tectonics, which explains exactly how and where the fragments ended up in the Indian Ocean. Dr. Bernhard Steinberger of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and Dr. Pavel Doubrovine of Oslo University calculated the hotspot trail: "On the one hand, it shows the position of the plates relative to the two hotspots at the time of the rupture, which points towards a causal relation," says
Steinberger. "On the other hand, we were able to show that the continent fragments continued to wander almost exactly over the Reunion plume, which explains how they were covered by volcanic rock." So what was previously interpreted only as the trail of the Reunion hotspot, are continental fragments which were previously not recognized as such because they were covered by the volcanic rocks of the Reunion plume. It therefore appears that such micro-continents in the ocean occur more frequently than previously thought.
###
Torsvik, T.H., Amundsen, H., Hartz, E.H., Corfu, F., Kusznir, N., Gaina, C., Doubrovine, P.V., Steinberger B., Ashwal, L.D. & Jamtveit, B., A Precambrian microcontinent in the Indian Ocean", Nature Geoscience, Vol. 6, doi:10.1038/NGEO1736.
A picture in printable resolution can be found here:
http://www.gfz-potsdam.de/portal/gfz/Public+Relations/M40-Bildarchiv/Bildergalerie+Mauritia/130222_Reunion_Hotspot
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Fragments of continents hidden under lava in the Indian Ocean Public release date: 24-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: F. Ossing ossing@gfz-potsdam.de 49-331-288-1040 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
The islands Reunion and Mauritius, both well-known tourist destinations, are hiding a micro-continent, which has now been discovered. The continent fragment known as Mauritia detached about 60 million years ago while Madagascar and India drifted apart, and had been hidden under huge masses of lava. Such micro-continents in the oceans seem to occur more frequently than previously thought, says a study in the latest issue of Nature Geoscience ("A Precambrian microcontinent in the Indian Ocean," Nature Geoscience, Vol 6, doi: 10.1038/NGEO1736).
The break-up of continents is often associated with mantle plumes: These giant bubbles of hot rock rise from the deep mantle and soften the tectonic plates from below, until the plates break apart at the hotspots. This is how Eastern Gondwana broke apart about 170 million years ago. At first, one part was separated, which in turn fragmented into Madagascar, India, Australia and Antarctica, which then migrated to their present position.
Plumes currently situated underneath the islands Marion and Reunion appear to have played a role in the emergence of the Indian Ocean. If the zone of the rupture lies at the edge of a land mass (in this case Madagascar / India), fragments of this land mass may be separated off. The Seychelles are a well-known example of such a continental fragment.
A group of geoscientists from Norway, South Africa, Britain and Germany have now published a study that suggests, based on the study of lava sand grains from the beach of Mauritius, the existence of further fragments. The sand grains contain semi-precious zircons aged between 660 and 1970 million years, which is explained by the fact that the zircons were carried by the lava as it pushed through subjacent continental crust of this age.
This dating method was supplemented by a recalculation of plate tectonics, which explains exactly how and where the fragments ended up in the Indian Ocean. Dr. Bernhard Steinberger of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and Dr. Pavel Doubrovine of Oslo University calculated the hotspot trail: "On the one hand, it shows the position of the plates relative to the two hotspots at the time of the rupture, which points towards a causal relation," says
Steinberger. "On the other hand, we were able to show that the continent fragments continued to wander almost exactly over the Reunion plume, which explains how they were covered by volcanic rock." So what was previously interpreted only as the trail of the Reunion hotspot, are continental fragments which were previously not recognized as such because they were covered by the volcanic rocks of the Reunion plume. It therefore appears that such micro-continents in the ocean occur more frequently than previously thought.
###
Torsvik, T.H., Amundsen, H., Hartz, E.H., Corfu, F., Kusznir, N., Gaina, C., Doubrovine, P.V., Steinberger B., Ashwal, L.D. & Jamtveit, B., A Precambrian microcontinent in the Indian Ocean", Nature Geoscience, Vol. 6, doi:10.1038/NGEO1736.
A picture in printable resolution can be found here:
http://www.gfz-potsdam.de/portal/gfz/Public+Relations/M40-Bildarchiv/Bildergalerie+Mauritia/130222_Reunion_Hotspot
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
A cursory look at the ZTE Grand S might leave you worrying that it will fetch quite the premium for that 5-inch screen, LTE and quad-core performance. Not so, according to mobile division lead He Shiyou. He estimates that the smartphone's price in mainland China will hover between ¥3,000 to ¥3,500 ($481 to $561), depending on market conditions -- a reasonable bargain for a high-end model expected to ship before the first quarter of the year is out. We're just left wondering whether the value-minded pricing will hold if and when the Grand S goes on a world tour.
It has been confirmed! Kim and Kanye are expecting a little girl!!! I am excited for them. Whatever you want to say about the Kardashian’s they are a family that is involved, like really involved in each others lives. That is important and I can’t knock that. All three of the sisters have expressed wanting to be mothers and while my heart truly aches for Khloe, I am excited for kim. Thought I wish she was divorced and all that mess but it is what it is. The only negative thing I have to say is _ PLEASE DON’T LET KANYE DRESS HER!!! And yes, I meant to scream it. Kim has been a hot mess since she started dating Kanye and I am just over it! She looks ridiculous. Her fashion choices, or Kanye’s, are consistently bad. Like horrible. But it sound slike Kim is already planning on it. “If anyone knows Kanye, they just know how into fashion he is, and I think he’s going to have things specially made,” she said on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in January. “So I don’t think hand-me-downs are going to work.” Kim confirmed her pregnancy on Dec. 31 after Kanye revealed the [...]
Here is the latest Tennessee sports news from The Associated Press February 23, 2013 03:08 EST
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- Marc Gasol notched a double-double with 19 points and 13 rebounds to help the Memphis Grizzlies pick up their sixth straight victory on Friday night. The Grizzlies defeated the Orlando Magic 88-82. The shorthanded Magic had only seven players available because of injuries and trades.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Safety George Wilson and the Tennessee Titans have agreed to terms on deal, making defense the first area targeted in free agency. The Titans did not release details of the multi-year contract wit the 6-foot, 212-pound safety released by Buffalo Feb. 11.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Tennessee guard Trae Golden says he never lost his confidence even as he endured a midseason benching and an injured hamstring. Now he's back on the upswing just in time to help the Volunteers make a late-season charge. The Volunteers face Texas A&M Saturday and need a win.
Southern Mississippi is having a good season and need a head-turning win that could make their postseason resume more impressive come NCAA tournament time. There's one more chance to get it when Southern Miss travels to face No. 21 Memphis on Saturday. Memphis has won 19 of the past 20 in the series.
Okanagan-Coquihalla MP Dan Albas presents Mayor Doug Findlater with a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his contributions to municipal government Wednesday at council chambers in West Kelowna.
Findlater received a Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002, as well.
"In this business, you hear from people who aren't always happy about what's going on. So it's always nice to be recognized and that there is support," said Findlater.
Coordinator - Nursing Informatics (HUP) - University of Pennsylvania Health System - Philadelphia,
our organization." The Coordinator for Nursing Informatics utilizes clinical expertise and knowledge of... clinical settings required ? Experience with clinical... From University of Pennsylvania Health System - 19 Feb 2013 18:24:08 GMT - View all Philadelphia jobs
Michael Handzo?s T-shirt collection makes his school allegiance ambiguous.
He accumulated many burgundy-and-white shirts during his four years of undergraduate studies at Lafayette College in Easton. He now keeps them hidden during rivalry week while pursuing a master?s degree at Lehigh University in Bethlehem.
?I get it from both sides,? said Handzo, a 23-year-old Massachusetts native studying art and political science. ?I just love the Lehigh Valley.?
His affection for the Valley is why he stayed in the area after earning his bachelor?s degree. And it?s also part of why he enrolled in a Lehigh fellowship that university directors say is the only of its kind in the nation.
The Lehigh University College of Arts and Sciences Community Fellows Program requires students to work with nonprofit or government agencies while taking a yearlong course related to the agency. Fellowship directors say no other graduate program in the nation requires that.
?A fellow is required to go above and beyond the work of an intern since it is a part of their graduate studies,? said Kim Carrell-Smith, the director of the fellowship, which recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary. ?The agencies usually end up raving about the fellows? work, because they are so passionate about what they do.?
The fellowship pairs students with agencies related to Lehigh?s course offerings in politics, sociology and environment.
Agencies pay a student for 15 hours per week of service, money that goes toward the student?s tuition.
Handzo, who is helping the city of Easton, pays a third of his $37,800 tuition while Lehigh pays another third and the city pays the rest.
?What we pay is really very cheap for the quality of work we get in return,? said Becky Bradley, Easton?s codes and planning director, who has tapped Handzo to envision the city in 20 years and to enhance the city?s social media.
Handzo said he and Bradley have discussed how a new Route 33 interchange in neighboring Palmer Township will affect the city, and how to make the city friendlier to pedestrians. ?We have some thought-provoking conversations,? he said.
Laura Schmidt?s passion for sustainable agriculture and the future of farmers steered her to the fellowship.
The 27-year-old Rhode Island native studying environmental policy design works with the Lehigh Valley chapter of Buy Fresh Buy Local, which promotes homegrown produce. She collects data that show similar prices between farmers markets and supermarkets to dispel the notion that supermarkets are cheaper.
?It was always possible to find less expensive produce there than at supermarkets,? Schmidt said.
Lynn Prior, director of Lehigh Valley Buy Fresh Buy Local, found the research helpful. The fellowship, she said, ?is very beneficial in that the community receives assistance from top students at a very low cost.?
Last week I wrote about the pop singer Lady Gaga and her painful joint condition that forced her to cancel a few shows of her current tour. Well, it appears the situation is worse that expected.
Lady Gaga is expected to have hip surgery to repair a torn labrum in her hip, CNN is reporting. She has therefore cancelled the remainder of her tour to recover from the surgery.
The labrum of the hip is a piece of cartilage that courses around the socket of the joint. It serves to add stability to the joint by deepening the socket. A hip labrum tear can cause hip pain, clicking in the hip joint, and a feeling of hip instability and weakness.
Physical therapy after a hip labrum tear involves regaining normal range of motion, strengthening muscles around the hip, and restoring normal functional mobility.
Last Modified: Monday, February 18, 2013 at 2:43 p.m.
"We have been wronged," Shalala said.
Her statement came shortly after the embattled NCAA said it was pressing on with the case against Miami, even after the acknowledgment Monday of "missteps" that led to the replacement of its enforcement department and the throwing out of all ill-gotten information gleaned from two depositions that could have been very damaging for the Hurricanes.
The NCAA said it paid Maria Elena Perez, the attorney for former booster Nevin Shapiro, more than $19,000 for work she performed, primarily using subpoena power to ask questions on the association's behalf and doing so under the guise of a bankruptcy case. The NCAA does not have subpoena power and was not involved in Shapiro's bankruptcy proceedings.
And this all comes with Miami expecting to finally receive its notice of allegations ? the list of wrongs that the NCAA will claim it found ? as early as Tuesday, a long-awaited step that will usher in the start of the sanction phase of the process.
"Sadly the NCAA has not lived up to their own core principles," Shalala wrote. "The lengthy and already flawed investigation has demonstrated a disappointing pattern of unprofessional and unethical behavior. By the NCAA leadership's own admission, the University of Miami has suffered from inappropriate practices by NCAA staff."
Perez did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Florida Bar said last week that it has opened a file to see if Perez broke any rules through her involvement in the Miami-NCAA matter.
Earlier Monday, speaking on a teleconference to announce the findings of a review into his association's ties with the attorney of the former Miami booster at the center of this scandal, NCAA President Mark Emmert insisted the case will not be settled.
"This is going to go forward to the committee on infractions," Emmert said.
It's believed that committee has a meeting sometime in the next few days, though it would be an incredibly rare step for Miami to get in front of that group so quickly. The next scheduled session comes in April ? and it usually takes two to three months for penalties to be announced after schools appear before that committee.
"There must be a strong sense of urgency to bring this to closure," Shalala wrote. "Our dedicated staff and coaches, our outstanding student-athletes, and our supporters deserve nothing less."
Already, Miami's football program has voluntarily forfeited the right to appear in two bowl games, along with one trip to the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game, up to 30 practices and an undisclosed number of scholarships in response to the investigation. Earlier this month, coach Al Golden told The Associated Press that he believes the Hurricanes have already paid "a huge penalty."
Others, on the NCAA level, are also paying a price.
Julie Roe Lach, who was the NCAA's vice president for enforcement ? basically, its top cop ? since 2010, was ousted and has been replaced on a temporary basis by Jonathan Duncan, a lawyer with extensive experience working with the association.
"Obviously, this is an outcome that nobody wants to see on their watch or anyone else's," Emmert said. "This is something that's an embarrassment to the association and our staff."
Lach was part of the chain that approved payments to Perez, the attorney for Shapiro, a convicted Ponzi scheme architect now serving a 20-year term in federal prison. According to a 52-page report commissioned by the NCAA and released Monday, Perez offered her help to the NCAA in the form of "using bankruptcy subpoenas to compel depositions from witnesses who had refused to cooperate."
The NCAA, in turn, provided her with specific questions to ask, those coming in an email from former investigator Ameen Najjar, dated Dec. 18, 2011. "Maria, Listed below are a number of areas we would like you to explore," began the email from Najjar.
From there, he listed 34 questions, none of which seem to be in any way related to a bankruptcy case.
Upon learning that Perez was willing to participate with investigators, members of the NCAA's legal team urged the enforcement department not to proceed, though were apparently ignored. And now the depositions given by former Miami equipment-room staffer Sean Allen and former Shapiro business partner Michael Huyghue ? along with any other lead that came out of their interviews ? have been tossed from the NCAA's case against the Hurricanes.
"Based upon our review, it is our opinion that the current assertions in the U. Miami Investigative Record are not based on evidence that is derived, directly or indirectly, from the depositions of Mr. Allen or Mr. Huyghue," said the report, which was prepared by Kenneth L. Wainstein, an attorney hired to lead the probe that Emmert ordered last month.
Wainstein estimated on a teleconference that about 20 percent of the case against Miami had to be tossed because of the depositions.
According to the report and other documents released by the NCAA on Monday, Perez billed the NCAA for $57,115 worth of work performed from October 2011 through July 2012 ? though Lach and other officials were expecting the amount of her work to cost roughly $15,000. The depositions of Allen and Huyghue were performed in December 2011.
One email released by the NCAA from an investigator who worked on the case said they wanted her to depose Allen because the NCAA "did not think he would interview with us again" otherwise.
Allen was not contacted during the NCAA's external probe, which started late last month after Emmert said major breakdowns in the association's own procedures were discovered.
Another point in the report was that now-retired Associate Director of Enforcement Rich Johanningmeier bought a prepaid cellphone and paid for Shapiro's prison phone calls. The NCAA spent about $8,200 "to fund communications with Mr. Shapiro, including transfers of approximately $4,500 to his prison commissary account."
Given what the NCAA revealed Monday, Shalala made it very clear: Miami will not accept more sanctions without a fight.
"We believe that this process must come to a swift resolution, which includes no additional punitive measures beyond those already self-imposed," Shalala said.
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Public release date: 24-Feb-2013
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