The Robotboys featuring Poppin John have all the right moves!
Source: http://www.ivillage.com/video-robotboys-dance-poppin-john/1-a-550895?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Avideo-robotboys-dance-poppin-john-550895Police cars in Iowa and Florida are testing a secret weapon: a small cannon embedded in the grill. It shoots "tracking" bullets — containing tiny GPS devices — that can stick to the trunk of a suspect's car. Police could then follow a suspect at a leisurely pace instead of embarking on a dangerous high-speed chase.
Oracle is exploring silicon photonics, an optical technology drawing widespread interest, as a potential weapon in the battle against data-center power consumption.
Advances in CPU and memory design could boost efficiency dramatically over the next few years. When they do, the interconnects among components, servers and switches will effectively become the power hogs of the data center, according to Ashok Krishnamoorthy, architect and chief technologist in photonics at Oracle.
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Optical connections, which will eventually be needed for high-speed links within rows and racks of servers, promise efficiency gains over copper cables but need to get cheaper first. A key part of that effort will be integration, the time-honored work of bringing the functions of many separate chips into one. Silicon photonics is a likely technology for doing that, though it probably won't ship in volume for two years or so, said Linley Group analyst Jag Bolaria.
Oracle isn't often associated with networking and may not even manufacture or sell the technologies it's now studying. But as a big player in computing and storage, it could benefit from fostering a future technology that helps make faster, more efficient data centers possible.
Like other Oracle hardware divisions, the photonics unit has its roots in the former Sun Microsystems, which began work on short-reach optical communications in 2004 and has had a photonics partnership with the U.S. military research agency DARPA since 2008. Silicon photonics is part of Oracle's larger effort to help data centers and private and public clouds meet future computing needs, Krishnamoorthy said.
"We see bandwidth and computing demand growing unabated," he told an audience at the recent Open Server Summit in Santa Clara, California. "Can we scale infrastructure and systems to meet demand?"
Silicon photonics holds the potential to help do that, Krishnamoorthy said. In his conference presentation, he used power consumption as a measure of efficiency, while adding that space and cooling are also critical issues.
Work that the industry is already doing may make both CPUs and memory several times more efficient over the next several years, Krishnamoorthy said. At that point, connectivity will consume a much bigger percentage of a data center's power than it does now. "If we do our job here, then we have sort of this gaping interconnect problem," he said. Oracle's goal is optical interconnects that use about one-tenth as much power as those in use now.
For high speeds over long distances, optical links are already standard. Multi-gigabit carrier backbones can carry a whole city's data as waves of light, which are converted to and from electrical signals on each end. When individual servers start generating enough information, data-center architects will have to use optical technology just to connect them the top of the server rack.
Where is Casey Stengel when we need him? In 1962 as the manager of the brand new and determinedly hapless New York Mets -- 40 wins, 120 losses -- he looked up and down his bench one dismal day and wondered, "Can't anybody here play this game?" That phrase kept coming at me recently as I watched the impressively inept performance of the Obama administration in both foreign and domestic policy. On a given day, this administration makes the '62 Mets look good.
This is a surprise -- at least to me. If Barack Obama has an image, it is of the infinitely cool, cerebral leader.
The man can give a rousing speech, but he is, at heart, a planner and a plodder. Both his presidential campaigns were exercises in micromanagement -- digital all the way. Obama was the better candidate, but he had, by far, the better organization.
Yet this same man has lately so mishandled both domestic and foreign policy that he is in mortal peril of altering his image. This unsettling and uncharacteristic incompetence became shockingly clear when Obama failed to come to grips with the Syrian civil war. I did not agree with the president's do-nothing policy, but at least it was both a policy and intellectually coherent. What followed, though, was both intellectually incoherent and pathetically inconsistent -- a "red line" that came out of nowhere and then mysteriously evaporated, and a missile strike that was threatened and then abandoned. It was a policy so wavering that if Obama were driving, he would be forced to take a breathalyzer.
The debacle of the Affordable Care Act's website raised similar questions about confidence. This was supposed to be Obama's Big Deal. The president has other accomplishments -- navigating out of the Great Recession was no minor feat -- but restoring the status quo does not get your face on Mount Rushmore. It takes achievement, a program -- something new and wonderful. The Affordable Care Act was supposed to be it.
Something went wrong. People could not sign up. Why? Not sure. Who's at fault? Apparently no one. An act of God. Something that could never have been foreseen. Another president might have had someone in the White House calling every day -- no, twice a day -- to make sure the program was going to work. But no, it was a shock to everyone, and when the White House rolled out its gigantic cake -- maestro, some music please -- no one jumped out.
Pathetic.
Here, I must mention that bit of theater in which various world leaders wax indignant about their telephone conversations being bugged by the National Security Agency. This is not Obama's doing since the program predated his time in office. But the decibel level of the outrage does suggest that in Germany, France, Brazil and elsewhere, Obama's standing is not what it once was. He and America are no longer held in either awe or respect and the bugging program, instead of seeming a necessary evil, looks both clumsy and silly. Bugging Angela Merkel's personal phone -- she who once said that when she thinks of Germany she thinks of "well-sealed windows" -- puts at risk the poor NSA listener. He must be catatonic by now.
But the reaction of the bugged has been nothing compared to the bleat of anger coming from the Middle East. The Saudis, who usually whisper their differences, have severely upped the volume and now talk dismissively of Obama and America. They didn't like the way we washed our hands of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, a steadfast and durable ally, and then dealt with the Syrian civil war in such a wobbly fashion. In recent days, the kingdom has rejected a seat on the U.N. Security Council and, in the person of its intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, has said the U.S.-Saudi relationship is strained. Bandar, a former ambassador to Washington, can hardly be dismissed as anti-American.
Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, and in the long run Riyadh and Washington were always going to make an odd couple. But the current spat is not about values but about reliability and performance. The Obama administration has botched Syria and, in the Saudi (and Israeli) view, cannot be trusted to deal firmly with Iran. An erratic presidency has made the world a bit less safe.
History will someday provide perspective and say, possibly, that Syria and Obamacare did not matter. I doubt it. At the least, they help validate the once-frivolous Republican charges of incompetence. A competent president would beware. As Casey Stengel might note, strike three is coming up.
The beauty of math and numbers and formulas and equations and so forth is that they can work without you ever understanding how the hell they work. What seems like complete randomness is actually just a math problem! Like this slick trick with a deck of cards. Take twenty or so cards and flip over five cards face side up and randomly insert them back into the rest of the deck. Shuffle it up all you want, split the deck in two and you can get the same exact amount of face up cards in each card pile.
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CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian kung fu gold medalist has been suspended by the sport's national federation because he displayed an Islamist symbol showing support for ousted President Mohammed Morsi during a tournament in Russia, officials said Monday.
The online service of the state newspaper Al-Ahram posted a photo of Mohammed Youssef wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a picture of an open palm with four yellow fingers — the symbol representing a pro-Morsi protest camp violently cleared by security forces in August. In the photo, Youssef held his gold medal with his right hand while punching the air with a clenched left fist during the medal ceremony.
It quoted the federation president as saying Youssef also would be banned from a tournament next month in Malaysia.
Youssef flew to Cairo early on Monday from Moscow after being sent home early by the federation, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information. The player's brother Hamam confirmed in a telephone interview with Al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr that his brother was sent home early from the tournament because he displayed the symbol.
The suspension underlines the deepening divisions in Egypt, nearly four months after Morsi — the country's first freely elected president — was ousted in a popularly backed military coup. His ouster followed protests by millions of Egyptians calling on him to step down and accusing him and his Muslim Brotherhood of acting undemocratically and trying to monopolize power in the latest crisis to roil the Arab world's most populous nation since the 2011 ouster of autocratic ruler Hosni Mubarak.
More than 600 protesters were killed when Egyptian police moved in with armored bulldozers to clear the massive sit-in demanding the reinstatement of the Islamist leader near Cairo's Rabaah el-Adawiya mosque. Tensions have spiked as the military-backed interim administration continued to crack down on the Brotherhood, arresting more than 2,000 senior and mid-level officials.
Islamic militants also have stepped up their campaign of violence, mainly targeting Egyptian police and soldiers since the coup, especially in the volatile northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel and the Gaza Strip.
The militants' campaign mostly has been confined to the troubled peninsula that is separated from the mainland by the Suez Canal, but attacks outside Sinai have grown more frequent in recent weeks.
On Monday, gunmen killed three policemen at a security checkpoint in Mansoura, a city north of Cairo, according to the Interior Ministry. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the shootings, but such attacks are typical for militants opposed to Egypt's military-backed government.
Despite the arrests of much of the Brotherhood's leadership, Morsi supporters have pressed forward with protests to try to maintain pressure on authorities to release the toppled leader, who has been held largely incommunicado since his detention on July 3. He is due to go on trial on Nov. 4 for allegedly inciting supporters to kill protesters outside his presidential palace in Cairo last December.
Police used tear gas Monday to disperse several hundred pro-Morsi university students who were rallying near Rabaah el-Adawiya, in eastern Cairo. As the protest got underway, army troops and police backed by armored vehicles blocked off the road leading to the site, creating a tense standoff that lasted hours. By late afternoon, the students retreated to their campus, while pelting security forces with rocks.
I mean. What is this? Or a better question might be what isn't this? They're playing bottles in a pool in Borneo. They're apparently called the Bottle Boys. This probably took quite a bit of rehearsal time. I don't know what else to say. Good job, internet. You've done whatever it is you do again.
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In this Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, file photo, a man is reflected in paneling as he speaks on his phone at the Mobile World Congress, the world's largest mobile phone trade show, in Barcelona, Spain. A Spanish newspaper published a document Monday that it said shows the U.S. National Security Agency spied on more than 60 million phone calls in Spain in one month alone — the latest revelation about alleged massive U.S. spying on allies. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File)
In this Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, file photo, a man is reflected in paneling as he speaks on his phone at the Mobile World Congress, the world's largest mobile phone trade show, in Barcelona, Spain. A Spanish newspaper published a document Monday that it said shows the U.S. National Security Agency spied on more than 60 million phone calls in Spain in one month alone — the latest revelation about alleged massive U.S. spying on allies. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File)
FILE - In this Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013, file photo, a man speaks on a cell phone in the business district of Madrid. A Spanish newspaper published a document Monday, Oct. 28, 2013, that it said shows the U.S. National Security Agency spied on more than 60 million phone calls in Spain in one month alone — the latest revelation about alleged massive U.S. spying on allies. (AP Photo/Paul White, File)
Graphic shows country-by-country look allegations of spying by the U.S. National Security Agency and reaction; 3c x 5 inches; 146 mm x 127 mm;
WASHINGTON (AP) — Faced with a flood of revelations about U.S. spying, President Barack Obama and key lawmakers say it's time to look closely at surveillance programs that may have gone too far. The White House is considering ending eavesdropping on friendly foreign leaders, a senior administration official said.
The administration is trying to tamp down damage from the months-long spying scandal — including the most recent disclosure that the National Security Agency monitored the communications of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. A final decision about listening in on allies has not been made, the official said.
The White House also faces complaints at home about the NSA collecting millions of Americans' phone records and sweeping up Internet traffic and email. The House Intelligence Committee was to examine tightening the rules on those anti-terror programs in a hearing later Tuesday.
Asked about the reports of eavesdropping on world leaders, President Barack Obama said in a television interview that the U.S. government is conducting "a complete review of how our intelligence operates outside the country." Obama declined to discuss specifics or say when he learned about the spying operations.
"What we've seen over the last several years is their capacities continue to develop and expand, and that's why I'm initiating now a review to make sure that what they're able to do doesn't necessarily mean what they should be doing," he said Monday on the new TV network Fusion.
On Tuesday, House Speaker John Boehner said there should be a thorough review, bearing in mind the responsibility to keep Americans safe from terrorism and the nation's obligations to allies.
"We have to find the right balance here," said Boehner, R-Ohio. "And clearly, we're imbalanced."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called Monday for a "total review of all intelligence programs" following the Merkel allegations. In a statement, the California Democrat said the White House had informed her that "collection on our allies will not continue."
The administration official said that statement was not accurate, but added that some unspecified changes already had been made and more were being considered, including terminating the collection of communications from friendly heads of state.
The official was not authorized to discuss the review by name and insisted on anonymity.
Reports based on new leaks from former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden indicate that the NSA listened in on Merkel and 34 other foreign leaders.
"With respect to NSA collection of intelligence on leaders of U.S. allies — including France, Spain, Mexico and Germany — let me state unequivocally: I am totally opposed," Feinstein said. She added that the U.S. should not be "collecting phone calls or emails of friendly presidents and prime ministers" unless in an emergency with approval of the president.
In response to the revelations, German officials said Monday that the U.S. could lose access to an important law enforcement tool used to track terrorist money flows.
Other longtime allies have also expressed their displeasure about the U.S. spying on their leaders. Spain's prosecutor's office said Tuesday it has opened a preliminary inquiry to determine whether a crime was committed by NSA surveillance.
Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo's office on Tuesday confirmed a report in De Standaard that at his most sensitive meetings, the premier is asking government ministers to leave their mobile phones out of the room.
As possible leverage, German authorities cited last week's non-binding resolution by the European Parliament to suspend a post-9/11 agreement allowing the Americans access to bank transfer data to track the flow of terrorist money. A top German official said Monday she believed the Americans were using the information to gather economic intelligence apart from terrorism and said the agreement, known as the SWIFT agreement, should be suspended.
European Union officials who are in Washington to meet with lawmakers ahead of White House talks said U.S. surveillance of their people could affect negotiations over a U.S.-Europe trade agreement. They said European privacy must be better protected.
Many officials in Germany and other European governments have made clear, however, that they don't favor suspending the U.S.-EU trade talks which began last summer because both sides stand to gain so much through the proposed deal.
Amid tensions with European allies, the top U.S. intelligence official declassified dozens of pages of top-secret documents in an apparent bid to show the NSA was acting legally when it gathered millions of Americans' phone records.
Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper said he was following the president's direction to make public as much information as possible about how U.S. intelligence agencies spy under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The document release is part of an administration-wide effort to preserve the NSA's ability to collect bulk data. The administration says the spying is key to tracking terror suspects. Privacy activists say is a breach of the Constitution's ban on unreasonable search and seizure of evidence from innocent Americans.
The documents support administration testimony that the NSA worked to operate within the law and fix errors when they or their systems overreached. One of the documents shows the NSA admitting to the House Intelligence Committee that one of its automated systems picked up too much telephone metadata. The February 2009 document indicates the problem was fixed.
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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC and Kimberly Dozier at http://twitter.com/kimberlydozier
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Associated Press writers Ted Bridis, Jack Gillum and Connie Cass in Washington, Frank Jordan, Geir Moulson and Robert H. Reid in Berlin, Juergen Baetz in Brussels, Ciaran Giles, Jorge Sainz and Alan Clendenning in Madrid and Sarah DiLorenzo in Paris contributed to this report.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-29-NSA%20Surveillance/id-d0cd8d9cb7004fc687e8b708e2b4d878In this Oct. 22, 2013 photo, Saw Min lies still on a bed with weights on her eye after receiving local anesthesia ahead of a cataract operation at a government hospital in Bago, Myanmar. Saw Min waited with hundreds of Myanmar's poorest villagers to be prepped for the simple, free surgery she hopes will restore her sight. My heart is racing," said the 38-year-old mother of five, who lost all vision in her left eye one year ago and, in the months that followed, all but 20 percent in her right. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
In this Oct. 22, 2013 photo, Saw Min lies still on a bed with weights on her eye after receiving local anesthesia ahead of a cataract operation at a government hospital in Bago, Myanmar. Saw Min waited with hundreds of Myanmar's poorest villagers to be prepped for the simple, free surgery she hopes will restore her sight. My heart is racing," said the 38-year-old mother of five, who lost all vision in her left eye one year ago and, in the months that followed, all but 20 percent in her right. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
In this Oct. 22, 2013 photo, a patient with an eye patch rests inside a makeshift mosquito-net at a Buddhist monastery following a simple operation to remove a cataract in Bago, Myanmar. Five decades of isolation, military rule and woeful health care have left Myanmar with one of the highest rates of blindness in the region. Now the veil of darkness is starting to lift, thanks to an “assembly line” surgical procedure that allows cataracts to be removed safely, without stitches, through two small incisions. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
In this Oct. 22, 2013 photo, patients receive assistance after undergoing cataract surgeries at a government hospital in Bago, Myanmar. Accurate statistics concerning public health are difficult to come by in Myanmar, which only opened up to the outside world two years ago. The World Health Organization puts blindness prevalence rates at under 1 percent, high for the region in Myanmar, but one outside survey showed it peaking at 8.1 percent in some rural areas. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
In this Oct. 23, 2013 photo, Buddhist monks with eye patches exit a room in a Buddhist shrine following simple operations to remove cataracts in Bago, Myanmar. Five decades of isolation, military rule and woeful health care have left Myanmar with one of the highest rates of blindness in the region. Now the veil of darkness is starting to lift, thanks to an “assembly line” surgical procedure that allows cataracts to be removed safely, without stitches, through two small incisions. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
In this Oct. 22, 2013 photo, a woman suffering from blindness has tears dripping from her eye as she waits to enter an operation room to follow a simple surgical procedure to remove cataracts at a government hospital in Bago, Myanmar. Five decades of isolation, military rule and woeful health care have left Myanmar with one of the highest rates of blindness in the region. Now the veil of darkness is starting to lift, thanks to an "assembly line" surgical procedure that allows cataracts to be removed safely, without stitches, through two small incisions, a technique pioneered by Nepalese master surgeon Sandut Ruit. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
BAGON, Myanmar (AP) — Five decades of isolation, military rule and woeful health care have left Myanmar with a particularly high rate of blindness. Now the veil of darkness is starting to lift, thanks in part to an "assembly line" surgical procedure that allows cataracts to be removed safely, without stitches, through two small incisions.
Nepalese surgeon Sandut Ruit, who helped pioneer the technique, oversaw nearly 1,300 operations at two massive eye camps in 10 days in October, with dozens of local ophthalmologists looking on and helping.
Despite improvements over the last two decades, the vast majority still use a microincision surgical technique that requires two sutures. Doctors were confident the no-stitch procedure — cheap, easy to learn and taking as little as five minutes — would catch on quickly.
"This is a turning point in our cataract history," said Dr. Tin Win, the chief of Yangon Eye Hospital. He said his goal is to have all 60 eye centers in the nation of 60 million using the procedure by the end of next year. He says he will pass on the information to all doctors, together with training manuals and videos, at a nationwide eye conference in early November.
"If we succeed, we can double our cataract surgical rate," he said. "We can start getting rid of our cataract backlog."
Several organizations focused on preventing blindness have focused on Myanmar as a country in particular need of help. A 2005 survey conducted by the South Australian Institute of Ophthalmology in the rural Meiktila district of central Myanmar found that 8.1 percent of the population there was blind.
Ruit, who travels throughout the developing world holding free mass eye camps, was working in Myanmar for the first time.
He and his team were initially scheduled to perform 1,000 surgeries, but added nearly 300 patients due to the overwhelming response by potential candidates.
After the operation, some patients expressed hope they would be able to work again. Others were eager to see the faces of their children and grandchildren.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2013-10-31-AS-Myanmar-Gift-of-Sight-Photo-Essay/id-c1915ef26c1147e9b5bc5e0a387c4b2a
Yo dude, it would be badass if we used a quadcopter and a GoPro to get good air footage of ourselves. Let's do that. Dude don't worry, it's gonna be great.
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HARRISON, N.J. (AP) — A second term all but assured, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is casting himself as an inclusive Republican who transcends political lines and a pragmatic leader whose results-oriented approach offers valuable lessons for dysfunctional party leaders in Washington.
"We need to send a message to all of America that the only way our state and our country gets better is if people work together across the aisle," Christie said during a rally in the campaign's waning days at an Elks Lodge packed with pro-Christie Democrats.
"My job is to be the CEO of this state, not to be some ideologue," he added.
It's a closing message that doubles as the opening argument for a prospective presidential run. But a resounding victory Tuesday in a Democratic-leaning state over a little-known and underfunded state senator, as polls suggest is likely, doesn't automatically translate into success at the national level.
Democrats and Republicans agree that Christie always was positioned to win big in his first re-election test. Challenger Barbara Buono has struggled to attract support from even her party's most devoted allies.
Signaling how little confidence she has inspired in the party, the Democratic Governors Association, which is designed to help Democrats win governor's races, spent less than $5,000 on the New Jersey contest while pouring more than $6 million into the Virginia election, also Tuesday.
Other would-be Christie critics shied away from New Jersey, giving the incumbent little resistance as he sells himself as an electable GOP leader with particular appeal among women and minorities, groups that Republicans elsewhere often struggle to attract. Christie's advisers suggest that would be his pitch during any future national campaign.
Beyond New Jersey, Democrats express regret that they didn't do more to highlight Christie's political warts, challenge his economic record in a state with high unemployment, and use the moment to exploit his vulnerabilities ahead of a possible national run.
Outside groups were reluctant to spend money on a race perceived as unwinnable for Democrats, particularly when there was a more competitive contest in Virginia.
"At no point in this race was there tension he might lose," said Bill Burton, who led the super political action committee devoted to President Barack Obama's re-election. "What you don't know is if his feet were really put to the fire, could he keep from lashing out?"
Christie tried to insulate himself from any real challenge from outside groups by spending big on advertising.
His campaign spent $11.5 million on television and radio ads through Election Day, compared with Buono's $2.1 million, according to SMG Delta, a Virginia-based firm that tracks political spending. The only other major player on television was Garden State Forward, a PAC formed by the state's largest teachers union, which spent almost $1.8 million against Christie.
Left-leaning groups that did engage struggled to make their criticisms stick.
"Chris Christie is not a moderate," said Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY's List, which works to elect Democratic women and argues that Christie, who opposes abortion rights, isn't good for women. "When you sell a false bill of goods, it is going to catch up with you."
Democrats complain that Christie skirted scrutiny for saddling taxpayers with a $24 million tab by scheduling two elections three weeks apart to avoid sharing the ballot with Democrat Corey Booker, who just joined the U.S. Senate.
They call attention to Christie's decision to use taxpayer dollars on a post-Superstorm Sandy advertising campaign that featured him in a starring role, and cite the questions that Mitt Romney's vice presidential checking team raised about the governor's medical history and early political career.
"As a Republican in New Jersey, you never get a free pass on anything," Christie said Sunday when asked about the lack of criticism from national Democratic groups.
Even with polls predicting a big victory, the Christie camp is trying to lower expectations in a state that Obama won by more than 17 points. Should Christie break the 50 percent mark, he would become the first Republican governor to do so in New Jersey since 1985.
A number of Democrats attended the Harrison rally on Friday night.
"This is a blue town. This is a blue state," said Gina Davies, a lifelong Democrat who praised Christie's support for a local redevelopment project. "I like the fact that he makes tough decisions."
She's never supported a Republican before, but is willing to forgive Christie's positions on gay marriage and abortion — Christie opposes both. But she won't be so forgiving if he goes after the White House.
"I wouldn't vote for him for president," said Davies, a 33-year-old financial analyst, as she held a large Christie sign that proclaimed "Strong Leadership."
"I love Hillary Clinton."
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The 23-year-old charged as the gunman in the deadly shooting at Los Angeles International Airport told authorities at the scene that he acted alone and had been dropped off at the airport by a friend, a law enforcement official who has been briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press exclusively Sunday.
Authorities do not believe the friend knew that Paul Ciancia, the man charged in the attack, planned to open fire inside LAX's Terminal 3 just moments later, killing one Transportation Security Administration officer and wounding four others, including two more TSA workers, said the official, who is not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation and requested anonymity.
Ciancia was dropped off in a black Hyundai and was not a ticketed passenger. He was able to respond to investigators' questions at the scene Friday, the official said.
Ciancia, an unemployed motorcycle mechanic who grew up in the small, blue-collar town of Pennsville, N.J., was shot four times and was under a 24-hour armed guard at the hospital, where he remained heavily sedated, the law enforcement official told the AP.
Federal prosecutors charged Ciancia on Saturday with murder of a federal officer and committing violence at an international airport. The charges could qualify him for the death penalty.
In court documents and interviews, authorities spelled out a chilling chain of events, saying Ciancia walked into the airport, pulled a .223-caliber assault rifle from his duffel bag and fired repeatedly at point-blank range at 39-year-old TSA officer Gerardo I. Hernandez, killing him.
He then fired on at least two other uniformed TSA employees and an airline passenger, who all were wounded, before airport police shot him as panicked passengers cowered in stores and restaurants, authorities said.
It wasn't clear why Ciancia targeted TSA officers, but what he left behind made it clear he intended to kill any of them that crossed his path, FBI Agent in Charge David L. Bowdich said.
The shooter's duffel bag contained a handwritten letter signed by Ciancia stating he'd "made the conscious decision to try to kill" multiple TSA employees and that he wanted to "instill fear in their traitorous minds," Bowdich said.
Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday he had seen the note and said that Ciancia "wanted to talk about was how easy it is to bring a gun into an airport and do something just like he did."
The attack underscores how difficult it is to protect travelers at a massive airport such as LAX, where the terminals are open and easily accessible to thousands of people who arrive at the terminals via a broad ring road that fronts the facility and is designed to move people along quickly.
"It's very difficult to stop these types of attacks," McCaul said. "And you know, it's like a shopping mall outside the perimeter, it's almost like an open shopping mall. So it's very difficult to protect."
The FBI has served a search warrant on a Sun Valley residence where Ciancia lived, Ari Dekofsky, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Los Angeles field office, said Sunday. Agents are still interviewing people, she said.
Hernandez, a three-year veteran of the TSA, moved to the U.S. from El Salvador at age 15, married his sweetheart, Ana, on Valentine's Day in 1998 and had two children.
The other two TSA officers wounded in the attack have been released from the hospital.
Brian Ludmer, a Calabasas High School teacher, remained in fair condition at Ronald Regan UCLA Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the leg.
His family declined to comment and asked for privacy, hospital officials said.
The FBI was still looking into Ciancia's past, but investigators said they had not found evidence of previous crimes or any run-ins with the TSA. They said he had never applied for a job with the agency.
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Associated Press writers Alicia Chang and Gillian Flaccus in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-11-03-LAX%20Shooting/id-1bc17484326840f3a15afccbebac77b7
Once they've finished hunting us down, it looks like the machines will be able to put on a good show to celebrate. The all-robot band, Z-Machines, have been making erratic appearances across Japan since early Summer, and Maker Faire Tokyo seemed like the most appropriate place to show off some actuated ax-grinding. They were without the third member, the keyboard-playing, laser-shooting Cosmos, but that didn't detract from a spectacle that drew in university students, older professor-types and stroller-pushing families alike. The live performance lasted roughly ten minutes, prefaced by a quick intro and explanation from the team that built them, but two songs was more than enough to make the crowd cheer and whoop: the robots will be repeating the show six times each day of the Maker Faire, but it's not as if they're going to tire. The guitarist (Mach) wields two guitars, while we counted just over 20 drumsticks connected to Ashura, with plenty of pneumatic piping on both robots to ensure they connect with their respective instruments.
One of the biggest challenges, we're told, was ensuring that program timing included the movement between hitting a beat and hitting the subsequent one. If Ashura had just hit the snare, for example, then the drumstick would be in a different starting place. Alongside pre-programmed music, both robots could be controlled independently and we got to briefly steer the guitarist robot with both a wired-up guitar and keyboard. After the break, alongside Z-Machine's warm-up set, we've added a full-length collaboration between the 'bot band and Squarepusher, a combination that makes a whole lot of sense.
Little oil lamps mark Diwali celebrations in Allahabad, India, far away from American homes.
Little oil lamps mark Diwali celebrations in Allahabad, India, far away from American homes.
Small flickering oil lamps known as diyas are lighting up Indian homes in South Asian communities around the globe on Sunday as hundreds of millions of people observe Diwali.
Otherwise known as the Festival of Lights, it's a religious celebration of self-awareness and reflection. Diwali is a public holiday in a number of other nations, but it's not nearly so well-known in the U.S., where families must rely on themselves to keep the tradition alive.
Nestled among old colonial homes in Haverford, Pa., the Shukla home is a vibrant display of light and colorful decoration. Inside the kitchen, it's a feast for the senses. For the Shuklas, Diwali ushers in a new year for self-reflection or, as they put it, finding the light within.
Ravindra Shukla, Aseem's father, kneels before the family altar as part of the holiday celebration.
Celebrations begin with a ritual of prayer called Lakshmi Puja. Shoes off, seated on the floor, three generations of the Shukla family take part invoking the Hindu goddess Lakshmi to bring wealth, prosperity and peace to the home. The gathering then evolves into a retelling of centuries-old tales of Hindu gods battling between good and evil, symbolizing a person's struggle within.
As second-generation Indian-Americans, Suhag Shukla and her husband, Aseem, are keenly aware of how easy it is to lose touch with tradition. They say Diwali pulls their kids back from the distractions of western culture to remember a heritage that places heavy emphasis on devotion to others.
The ritual ends with a song, Hanuman Chalisa. Aseem Shukla says it captures the resilience of Hindus who, generations ago, left their homeland behind, but have never let go.
"That came with them on the boats, when they came as sugar cane workers, plantation workers," he says. "That was, like, the few things they had, so they sing this with a lot of passion."
But, at the end of the day in the Shukla home, Diwali represents the celebration of family.
Guilherme Cruz, MMA Fighting
Daniel Sarafian won’t call himself the TUF: Brazil winner if he beats Cezar "Mutante" Ferreira on Nov. 9 in Goiania, Brazil.
Sarafian, who earned his spot on the finale after three consecutive wins on the reality show last year, was pulled out of UFC 147 with an injury, and Sergio Moraes took his place against Cezar Ferreira. Moraes, who suffered a devastating knockout against Sarafian in the semifinal, ended up losing to Ferreira via decision.
Ferreira and Sarafian will finally meet at UFC Fight Night 32, 16 months after the final, but the reality show is in the past for Sarafian.
"He fought and became the champion," Sarafian told MMAFighting.com. "I fought once in the UFC and lost, and then I fought again and won the right to fight against the TUF Brazil champion. It’s wonderful to me.
"Defeating him would mean just a step ahead for me, and that’s it. He’s the TUF winner and it won’t change anything. TUF died that night. That fight was a relief for me because TUF became the past after that."
Sarafian suffered a close decision loss to CB Dollaway in his UFC debut last January. He then submitted Eddie Mendez to earn his first win inside the Octagon on June, and looks ready to add another win to his record on November.
"I heard millions of people saying I would have beaten him that night, others said I would have lost," he said. "And then millions of people asking when we would finally fight and I was tired of this. Now, the fight is on and we will finally see who wins, and TUF has nothing to do with this."
Sarafian and Ferreira used to train together at TUF: Brazil 1 when they both fought for Vitor Belfort’s team, and he doesn’t seem to worry about his former teammate’s weapons.
"He is a tall fighter, but that doesn’t say much," he said. "I’ve fought a lot of taller guys and won. He’s a good athlete, dedicated, has good wrestling, striking and jiu-jitsu. But so do I. But it’s hard to analyze someone, so I will analyze myself going into this fight. Get ready (Ferreira), because I will be ready."
Lighted pylons at the Century Boulevard entrance to Los Angeles International Airport, which normally flash in a multicolored sequence, shine a steady blue Saturday evening, Nov. 2, 2013, in honor of Gerardo Hernandez, the Transportation Security Administration officer slain at an LAX terminal Friday. He is the first TSA officer to die in the line of duty in the history of the 12-year-old agency, created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. A police entry checkpoint, part of an increased visible police presence, is seen in the foreground. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Lighted pylons at the Century Boulevard entrance to Los Angeles International Airport, which normally flash in a multicolored sequence, shine a steady blue Saturday evening, Nov. 2, 2013, in honor of Gerardo Hernandez, the Transportation Security Administration officer slain at an LAX terminal Friday. He is the first TSA officer to die in the line of duty in the history of the 12-year-old agency, created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. A police entry checkpoint, part of an increased visible police presence, is seen in the foreground. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
This photo provided by the FBI shows Paul Ciancia, 23. Accused of opening fire inside the Los Angeles airport, Ciancia was determined to lash out at the Transportation Security Administration, saying in a note that he wanted to kill at least one TSA officer and didn’t care which one, authorities said Saturday, Nov. 2, 2013. (AP Photo/FBI)
ALTERNATE HORIZONTAL CROP - This June, 2013 photo released by the Hernandez family Saturday, Nov. 2, 2013, shows Transportation Security Administration officer Gerardo Hernandez. Hernandez, 39, was shot to death and several others wounded by a gunman who went on a shooting rampage in Terminal 3 at Los Angeles International Airport Friday. (AP Photo/Courtesy Hernandez Family)
John S. Pistole, left, Administrator of Transportation Security Administration and Ana Fernandez, center, wife of TSA agent Gerardo Fernandez, victim at LAX shooting, before a press conference in Porter Ranch, Calif. on Saturday Nov. 2, 2013. A gunman armed with a semi-automatic rifle opened fire at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday, killing a Transportation Security Administration employee and wounding two other people in an attack that frightened passengers and disrupted flights nationwide. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
Transportation Security Administration employees classify the luggage to return to passengers at Los Angeles International Airport's Terminal 3 on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2013. A gunman armed with a semi-automatic rifle opened fire at the airport on Friday, killing a Transportation Security Administration employee and wounding two other people in an attack that frightened passengers and disrupted flights nationwide. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The gunman charged in the deadly shooting at Los Angeles International Airport lay bloodied and handcuffed on the floor of Terminal 3 after being gunned down by police, but he replied to critical questions that helped authorities lock down the scene.
Paul Ciancia, 23, was hauled away moments later on a stretcher and later heavily sedated for medical reasons, but not before he told investigators he had acted alone when he opened fire in the terminal, a law enforcement official who has been briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press on Sunday.
Ciancia, an unemployed motorcycle mechanic who recently moved to Los Angeles from the small, blue-collar town of Pennsville, N.J., also told police a friend had dropped him at LAX on Friday just moments before he shot a Transportation Security Administration officer at point-blank range and wounded three other people, including two more TSA workers.
Officials do not believe that the friend knew of the shooter's plans. Ciancia arrived at the airport in a black Hyundai and was not a ticketed passenger.
Ciancia was under 24-hour armed guard at the hospital Sunday after being shot four times, the official said. He was sedated for medical reasons, the official said, adding that one gunshot to the mouth blew a molar out of his jaw.
Ciancia is facing charges of murder of a federal officer and committing violence at an international airport. The charges could qualify him for the death penalty.
It was not immediately clear when he would make a first court appearance given his medical condition.
In court documents and interviews, authorities spelled out a chilling chain of events, saying Ciancia walked into the airport, pulled a .223-caliber assault rifle from his duffel bag and fired repeatedly at 39-year-old TSA officer Gerardo I. Hernandez. He turned back to see Hernandez move and returned to finish him off, according to surveillance video reviewed by investigators.
He then fired on two other uniformed TSA employees and an airline passenger, who all were wounded, as he moved methodically through the security checkpoint before airport police shot him as panicked travelers hid in stores and restaurants.
It wasn't clear why Ciancia targeted TSA officers, but what he left behind indicated he was willing to kill any of them that crossed his path, authorities revealed.
The shooter's duffel bag contained a handwritten letter signed by Ciancia stating he'd "made the conscious decision to try to kill" multiple TSA employees and that he wanted to "instill fear in their traitorous minds," FBI Agent in Charge David L. Bowdich said.
"Black, white, yellow, brown, I don't discriminate," the note read, according to a paraphrase by a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
The screed also mentioned "fiat currency" and "NWO," possible references to the New World Order, a conspiracy theory that foresees a totalitarian one-world government.
The letter also talked about "how easy it is to get a gun into the airport," the law enforcement official said.
When searched, the suspect had five 30-round magazines, and his bag contained hundreds more rounds in boxes.
U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday that Ciancia's actions show how difficult it is to protect travelers at a massive airport such as LAX.
The terminals are open and easily accessible to thousands of people who arrive at large sliding glass doors via a broad ring road that fronts the facility and is designed to move people along quickly.
"It's like a shopping mall outside the perimeter, it's almost like an open shopping mall," McCaul said.
The FBI has served a search warrant on a Sun Valley residence where Ciancia lived, Ari Dekofsky, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Los Angeles field office, said Sunday. Agents are still interviewing people, she said.
Authorities believe the rifle used in the shooting was purchased in Los Angeles. Ciancia also had two additional handguns that he purchased in Los Angeles, but which weren't at the crime scene, a law enforcement official said. The official, who has been briefed on the investigation, was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.
The purchases themselves appeared legal, although authorities were still tracing them, and it's unclear if the shooter used his own identification or someone else's, the official said.
"He didn't buy them on the street. He didn't buy them on the Internet," the official said. "He bought them from a licensed gun dealer — the rifle and the two handguns."
Hernandez, a three-year veteran of the TSA, moved to the U.S. from El Salvador at age 15, married his sweetheart, Ana, on Valentine's Day in 1998 and had two children.
The other two TSA officers wounded in the attack have been released from the hospital.
Brian Ludmer, a Calabasas High School teacher, remained in fair condition at Ronald Regan UCLA Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the leg. Two other people suffered injuries trying to evade the gunman, but weren't shot.
The FBI was still looking into Ciancia's past, but investigators said they had not found evidence of previous crimes or any run-ins with the TSA. They said he had never applied for a job with the agency.
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Associated Press writers Alicia Chang and Gillian Flaccus in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-11-03-LAX%20Shooting/id-1cb48e135e5848578d9f99dd6d749a80LOS ANGELES (AP) — The 23-year-old charged as the gunman in the deadly shooting at Los Angeles International Airport told authorities at the scene that he acted alone and had been dropped off at the airport by a friend, a law enforcement official who has been briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press exclusively Sunday.
Authorities do not believe the friend knew that Paul Ciancia, the man charged in the attack, planned to open fire inside LAX's Terminal 3 just moments later, killing one Transportation Security Administration officer and wounding four others, including two more TSA workers, said the official, who is not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation and requested anonymity.
Ciancia was dropped off in a black Hyundai and was not a ticketed passenger. He was able to respond to investigators' questions at the scene Friday, the official said.
Ciancia, an unemployed motorcycle mechanic who grew up in the small, blue-collar town of Pennsville, N.J., was shot four times and was under a 24-hour armed guard at the hospital, where he remained heavily sedated, the law enforcement official told the AP.
Federal prosecutors charged Ciancia on Saturday with murder of a federal officer and committing violence at an international airport. The charges could qualify him for the death penalty.
In court documents and interviews, authorities spelled out a chilling chain of events, saying Ciancia walked into the airport, pulled a .223-caliber assault rifle from his duffel bag and fired repeatedly at point-blank range at 39-year-old TSA officer Gerardo I. Hernandez, killing him.
He then fired on at least two other uniformed TSA employees and an airline passenger, who all were wounded, before airport police shot him as panicked passengers cowered in stores and restaurants, authorities said.
It wasn't clear why Ciancia targeted TSA officers, but what he left behind made it clear he intended to kill any of them that crossed his path, FBI Agent in Charge David L. Bowdich said.
The shooter's duffel bag contained a handwritten letter signed by Ciancia stating he'd "made the conscious decision to try to kill" multiple TSA employees and that he wanted to "instill fear in their traitorous minds," Bowdich said.
Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday he had seen the note and said that Ciancia "wanted to talk about was how easy it is to bring a gun into an airport and do something just like he did."
The attack underscores how difficult it is to protect travelers at a massive airport such as LAX, where the terminals are open and easily accessible to thousands of people who arrive at the terminals via a broad ring road that fronts the facility and is designed to move people along quickly.
"It's very difficult to stop these types of attacks," McCaul said. "And you know, it's like a shopping mall outside the perimeter, it's almost like an open shopping mall. So it's very difficult to protect."
The FBI has served a search warrant on a Sun Valley residence where Ciancia lived, Ari Dekofsky, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Los Angeles field office, said Sunday. Agents are still interviewing people, she said.
Hernandez, a three-year veteran of the TSA, moved to the U.S. from El Salvador at age 15, married his sweetheart, Ana, on Valentine's Day in 1998 and had two children.
The other two TSA officers wounded in the attack have been released from the hospital.
Brian Ludmer, a Calabasas High School teacher, remained in fair condition at Ronald Regan UCLA Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the leg.
His family declined to comment and asked for privacy, hospital officials said.
The FBI was still looking into Ciancia's past, but investigators said they had not found evidence of previous crimes or any run-ins with the TSA. They said he had never applied for a job with the agency.
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Associated Press writers Alicia Chang and Gillian Flaccus in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-11-03-LAX%20Shooting/id-1bc17484326840f3a15afccbebac77b7New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, center left, and wife Mary Pat Christie, stand together as they pose for a photograph with the Rutgers University mascot Scarlet Knight in Piscataway, N.J. Saturday, Nov. 2, 2013, as Christie makes a campaign stop before a football game against Temple. Christie will face Democratic candidate, Barbara Buono in an election Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, center left, and wife Mary Pat Christie, stand together as they pose for a photograph with the Rutgers University mascot Scarlet Knight in Piscataway, N.J. Saturday, Nov. 2, 2013, as Christie makes a campaign stop before a football game against Temple. Christie will face Democratic candidate, Barbara Buono in an election Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
New Jersey's gubernatorial candidate Barbara Buono speaks during a visit to Montclair State University, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, in Montclair, N.J. Buono, Gov. Chris Christie's Democratic challenger ,spoke to reporters about how she would have been unable to attend college or law school without tuition assistance. Buono also said Gov. Christie has cut aid to higher education and that it has created a hardship for students in New Jersey, where average tuition is the nation's third-highest. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, center left, is mobbed by Rutgers University fans in Piscataway, N.J. Saturday, Nov. 2, 2013, as he makes a campaign stop before an NCAA college football game against Temple. Christie will face Democratic candidate, Barbara Buono in an election on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
HARRISON, N.J. (AP) — A second term all but assured, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is casting himself as an inclusive Republican who transcends political lines and a pragmatic leader whose results-oriented approach offers valuable lessons for dysfunctional party leaders in Washington.
"We need to send a message to all of America that the only way our state and our country gets better is if people work together across the aisle," Christie said during a rally in the campaign's waning days at an Elks Lodge packed with pro-Christie Democrats.
"My job is to be the CEO of this state, not to be some ideologue," he added.
It's a closing message that doubles as the opening argument for a prospective presidential run. But a resounding victory Tuesday in a Democratic-leaning state over a little-known and underfunded state senator, as polls suggest is likely, doesn't automatically translate into success at the national level.
Democrats and Republicans agree that Christie always was positioned to win big in his first re-election test. Challenger Barbara Buono has struggled to attract support from even her party's most devoted allies.
Signaling how little confidence she has inspired in the party, the Democratic Governors Association, which is designed to help Democrats win governor's races, spent less than $5,000 on the New Jersey contest while pouring more than $6 million into the Virginia election, also Tuesday.
Other would-be Christie critics shied away from New Jersey, giving the incumbent little resistance as he sells himself as an electable GOP leader with particular appeal among women and minorities, groups that Republicans elsewhere often struggle to attract. Christie's advisers suggest that would be his pitch during any future national campaign.
Beyond New Jersey, Democrats express regret that they didn't do more to highlight Christie's political warts, challenge his economic record in a state with high unemployment, and use the moment to exploit his vulnerabilities ahead of a possible national run.
Outside groups were reluctant to spend money on a race perceived as unwinnable for Democrats, particularly when there was a more competitive contest in Virginia.
"At no point in this race was there tension he might lose," said Bill Burton, who led the super political action committee devoted to President Barack Obama's re-election. "What you don't know is if his feet were really put to the fire, could he keep from lashing out?"
Christie tried to insulate himself from any real challenge from outside groups by spending big on advertising.
His campaign spent $11.5 million on television and radio ads through Election Day, compared with Buono's $2.1 million, according to SMG Delta, a Virginia-based firm that tracks political spending. The only other major player on television was Garden State Forward, a PAC formed by the state's largest teachers union, which spent almost $1.8 million against Christie.
Left-leaning groups that did engage struggled to make their criticisms stick.
"Chris Christie is not a moderate," said Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY's List, which works to elect Democratic women and argues that Christie, who opposes abortion rights, isn't good for women. "When you sell a false bill of goods, it is going to catch up with you."
Democrats complain that Christie skirted scrutiny for saddling taxpayers with a $24 million tab by scheduling two elections three weeks apart to avoid sharing the ballot with Democrat Corey Booker, who just joined the U.S. Senate.
They call attention to Christie's decision to use taxpayer dollars on a post-Superstorm Sandy advertising campaign that featured him in a starring role, and cite the questions that Mitt Romney's vice presidential checking team raised about the governor's medical history and early political career.
"As a Republican in New Jersey, you never get a free pass on anything," Christie said Sunday when asked about the lack of criticism from national Democratic groups.
Even with polls predicting a big victory, the Christie camp is trying to lower expectations in a state that Obama won by more than 17 points. Should Christie break the 50 percent mark, he would become the first Republican governor to do so in New Jersey since 1985.
A number of Democrats attended the Harrison rally Friday night.
"This is a blue town. This is a blue state," said Gina Davies, a lifelong Democrat who praised Christie's support for a local redevelopment project. "I like the fact that he makes tough decisions."
She's never supported a Republican before, but is willing to forgive Christie's positions on gay marriage and abortion — Christie opposes both. But she won't be so forgiving if he goes after the White House.
"I wouldn't vote for him for president," said Davies, a 33-year-old financial analyst, as she held a large Christie sign that proclaimed "Strong Leadership."
"I love Hillary Clinton."
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-11-03-NJ%20Governor-Christie/id-3151aa1f9508494f859e5aa937c43d87