5 reasons Google should be afraid of Samsung

Wilson Rothman , NBC News ? ? ? 11 hrs.

Google takes pride in the fact that its Android mobile operating system has outpaced Apple's. But the truth is, Android phones don't outsell Apple phones, Samsung phones do. Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft ? these may be Google's main competitors, but it's Samsung that could be the search giant's biggest threat.

As Samsung launches the Galaxy Note 8.0 this week, and the upcoming Galaxy S 4, not to mention a fleet of new Smart TVs, here are five reasons Google should be afraid:

1. Phones, phablets, tablets and more
Samsung has been the largest phone maker in the world for a while, but for the better part of last year, it was even out-selling Apple in the profitable smartphone category. On the surface, this is good news for Google, since Samsung is the largest ambassador of Android phones.

But compare the interface on a Google-branded Nexus phone to the software on Samsung's best-selling Galaxy S phones. The fundamental operating systems are the same, but everything from the stock apps (calendars, email, media player, etc.) to the interactive services (voice command, wireless file sharing, etc.) are different. Critics (including me) generally prefer Google's "pure" Android experience offered by Nexus devices (which also get faster OS updates), but the masses don't seem to mind Samsung's interface. And with time, money and momentum on its side, Samsung can keep improving.

The bigger the device gets, the more problematic things are for Google. Android phone apps may be a roaring success, but Android tablets have barely any native apps, especially compared to what's built for iPad. As evidenced in the expanding Note line ? which just welcomed an 8-inch model ? you can expect to see more Samsung-only features and interface tweaks, and increasing cooperation between Samsung and its software partners.

2. Retail stores
In an age when big-box stores struggle, Apple can still brag of its unbelievable (and mostly unforeseen) brick-and-mortar store success. Former skeptics now believe that the best way for electronics makers to reach their customers is through direct shopping-mall and online sales. Google is building up the online side, but recently rejected the idea of a retail store. Meanwhile, Samsung has quietly built out an online sales site, and is starting to show the urge to build some Apple Store clones of its own. In the meantime, it has clout with Best Buy, other mall retailers and even cellular carriers that Google could only dream of.

3. Mobile payments
Google got the jump on the competition when it comes to using your phone as a credit card. Built-in near-field communication chips in its Nexus phones combined with the Google Wallet system lets you, in Google's words, "shop faster, smarter and safer, in-store and online." Apple has been slower to get into mobile payments ? its Passbook app is a useful tool for those already checking into flights and buying event tickets online, but it's not yet a vehicle for commerce in itself. Now Samsung is making its own move with its own app ? called Wallet.

While the system, as it stands, currently resembles Apple's Passbook more than Google's similarly named service, don't forget that Samsung has NFC built into most of its premium phones. Not only that, as the Verge points out, it has a partnership with Visa to use the credit card company's PayWave service.

4. Media store
About two years ago, I laughed when Samsung tried to get me to buy a movie via its service on a cellphone. The selection wasn't great, and what was I going to do, watch some outdated action film on a phone's 4-inch screen? The laughter has, substantially, subsided. Those screens have gotten bigger, and Samsung has sold a lot of phones with its media store pre-installed.

Meanwhile, Samsung has expanded its media sales to its Smart TV line, and the current Smart TV interface dedicates a whole page to Samsung media. In other words, while you can still buy movies for apps like Amazon Instant Video and Vudu, you'll soon most likely stumble over stuff first on Samsung's page. How soon till you're giving it your $3.99 for a movie rental, rather than your cable provider or the competition?

5. Apple TV
Google's already spent its ammunition on something called Google TV, which you likely never bothered to purchase. Apple TV exists now too, as a cheap little add-on for Mac, iPad and iPhone owners, but Apple may yet pop a full-size TV that's so user friendly, fanboys would drool like they haven't drooled since Steve Jobs was alive.

Only thing is, Samsung already has an answer to Apple TV, and from what we saw at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Samsung isn't going to rest until it gets the interface right. Does it need Google's help to do it? Nope.

(Bonus dirt in Google's face: LG recently went out of its way to buy a third-party operating system, probably so it wouldn't have to rely on Android for its next-gen smart TVs.)

Maybe none of this matters to Google as long as it can keep making money on mobile ads on Samsung devices ? but according to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal, even this relatively safe haven could be threatened by Samsung's explosive growth.

Further reading:
Samsung sparks anxiety at Google - The Wall Street Journal

Eyeing Apple: How competitors are finally making phones consumers want - The New Yorker

Samsung takes a page from Apple's Passbook with new Wallet app - The Verge

'Next generation' Samsung smartphones to ship with Visa NFC payment system - The Verge

Android boss Andy Rubin says Google doesn't need a retail store - Business Insider

Samsung's new retail store clearly inspired by Apple - Digital Trends

Wilson Rothman is the Technology & Science editor at NBC News Digital. Catch up with him on Twitter at @wjrothman, and join our conversation on Facebook.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/5-reasons-google-should-be-very-afraid-samsung-1C8593123

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Advanced Breast Cancer Increasing Among Young Women

The percentage of young women ?in the U.S. who have advanced breast cancer has increased slightly in recent decades, according to a new study.

Between 1976 and 2009, the rate of metastatic breast cancer (cancer that has spread to distant organs such as bones or the brain) among women ages 25 to 39 increased by about 2 percent each year, the study found.

While this increase is small ? it translates to about 1.4 extra cases per 100,000 people over a 34-year period ? it shows no signs of tapering off, the researchers said.

Because this is the first time researchers have seen an increase in advanced breast cancer in the U.S., the findings will need to be confirmed by future studies. But if real, the results are particularly alarming because young women with advanced breast cancer have a low survival rate (about 31 percent of them survive five years). What's more, young women are not advised to receive breast cancer screening unless they have a family history of the disease, the researchers said.

The reason for the increase is also not clear, and will need to be investigated further, ?said study researcher Dr. Rebecca Johnson of Seattle Children's Hospital.

Breast cancer in young women is less common than it is in older women: about 1 in 227 American women will develop the disease before age 30; 1 in 42 will be diagnosed with it by age 50; and 1 in 28 will develop it by age 60, according to the National Cancer Institute.

In the new study, Johnson and colleagues analyzed information on breast cancer incidence using databases from the National Cancer Institute.

The researchers found that the rate of metastatic breast cancer among women ages 25 to 39 increased from 1.53 cases per 100,000 people in 1976 to 2.90 cases per 100,000 people in 2009. The biggest increase was seen during the most recent decade. Among all young women with breast cancer, the proportion diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer increased from 4.4 percent in the 1970s to 5.5 percent in the 1990s and 7.2 percent in the 2000s.

By contrast, there was no increase in early-stage breast cancer in young women, or breast cancer of any stage in older women, the researchers said.

A possible reason for the new increase could be that what doctors call metastatic breast cancer is being diagnosed at a different stage now than it used to be. But if that were the case, we would expect to see decreases in the number of women diagnosed with earlier stages of breast cancer, which has not happened, Johnson said.

The researchers examined existing studies to see if they could find an environmental factor that changed during the same period when the increase occurred, but couldn't find one, Johnson said. The increase in obesity in recent years has been a significant change, but earlier studies actually found a decreased risk of breast cancer in obese young women. If the increase is real, it's likely that more than one factor is responsible, Johnson said.

A 2007 study in Switzerland also detected an increase in breast cancer among young women. Data supporting an increase in breast cancer in young women may have to come from other countries, as the largest database documenting cancer incidence in the United States only goes back to the 1970s, Johnson said.

Pass it on: The rate of advanced breast cancer among young American women has increased slightly in recent years.

Follow Rachael Rettner on Twitter @RachaelRettner, or MyHealthNewsDaily @MyHealth_MHND. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

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

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/advanced-breast-cancer-increasing-among-young-women-222312267.html

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Infrared digital holography allows firefighters to see through flames, image moving people

Feb. 26, 2013 ? Firefighters put their lives on the line in some of the most dangerous conditions on Earth. One of their greatest challenges, however, is seeing through thick veils of smoke and walls of flame to find people in need of rescue. A team of Italian researchers has developed a new imaging technique that uses infrared (IR) digital holography to peer through chaotic conflagrations and capture potentially lifesaving and otherwise hidden details.

The team describes its breakthrough results and their applications in a paper published February 26 in the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Optics Express.

Firefighters can see through smoke using current IR camera technology. However, such instruments are blinded by the intense infrared radiation emitted by flames, which overwhelm the sensitive detectors and limit their use in the field. By employing a specialized lens-free technique, the researchers have created a system that is able to cope with the flood of radiation from an environment filled with flames as well as smoke.

"IR cameras cannot 'see' objects or humans behind flames because of the need for a zoom lens that concentrates the rays on the sensor to form the image," says Pietro Ferraro of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) Istituto Nazionale di Ottica in Italy. By eliminating the need for the zoom lens, the new technique avoids this drawback.

"It became clear to us that we had in our hands a technology that could be exploited by emergency responders and firefighters at a fire scene to see through smoke without being blinded by flames, a limitation of existing technology," Ferraro says. "Perhaps most importantly, we demonstrated for the first time that a holographic recording of a live person can be achieved even while the body is moving."

Holography is a means of producing a 3-D image of an object. To create a hologram, such as those typically seen on credit cards, a laser beam is split into two (an object beam and a reference beam). The object beam is shone onto the object being imaged. When the reflected object beam and the reference beam are recombined, they create an interference pattern that encodes the 3-D image.

In the researchers' new imaging system, a beam of infrared laser light is widely dispersed throughout a room. Unlike visible light, which cannot penetrate thick smoke and flames, the IR rays pass through largely unhindered. The IR light does, however, reflect off of any objects or people in the room, and the information carried by this reflected light is recorded by a holographic imager. It is then decoded to reveal the objects beyond the smoke and flames. The result is a live, 3-D movie of the room and its contents.

The next step in moving this technology to the field is to develop a portable tripod-based system that houses both the laser source and the IR camera. The systems may also be suitable for fixed installation inside buildings or tunnels. In addition, the team is exploring other applications, most notably in the biomedical field for non-destructive testing of large aerospace composite structures.

"Besides life-saving applications in fire and rescue, the potential to record dynamic scenes of a human body could have a variety of other biomedical uses including studying or monitoring breathing, cardiac beat detection and analysis, or measurement of body deformation due to various stresses during exercise," Ferraro says. "We are excited to further develop this technology and realize its application for saving and improving human life."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Optical Society of America.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. M. Locatelli, E. Pugliese, M. Paturzo, V. Bianco, A. Finizio, A. Pelagotti, P. Poggi, L. Miccio, R. Meucci, P. Ferraro. Imaging live humans through smoke and flames using far-infrared digital holography. Optics Express, 2013; 21 (5): 5379 DOI: 10.1364/OE.21.005379

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/bXDcFd2sAks/130226101454.htm

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Tips for Developing a Content PR Strategy - Maven Communications

There has been a lot written about content marketing recently, but it?s more than just a clever buzzword.??Creating an integrated content PR strategy that is relevant, engaging and social can make a huge difference when it comes to marketing your brand. Here are some tips for building a successful content PR strategy.

Defining Content PR

Content PR is the development and distribution of interesting content across multiple channels as a means of increasing awareness, establishing influence, providing useful information and shaping your company?s story.

The objective of a content PR strategy is to draw interest in, rather than push messages out and hope someone reads them.? It?s about creating content which speaks to the audience?s interests.? It requires PR pros to know what is being said and where it is being said, and then developing content that engages across multiple channels.? (For tips on how to create a ?likable? content strategy across marketing channels, check out Jason Brewer?s recent blog post.) ???

The New Integrated PR Landscape:? Pull vs. Push

The fact is PR has moved way beyond press releases and media events.? It is no longer just pushing out news for our clients; it?s about telling your story and helping to shape conversations.

As newsrooms have shrunk, PR has become more relevant, rather than less. Understaffed media outlets mean more opportunity for non-journalists to provide meaningful and impactful content.? Staying tapped into what your target audiences are interested in can make ordinary business-folks an invaluable resource for byline articles, guest columnists and blogs.? They key is asking ?What would my audience want to read?? rather than ?What would the company want me to say??

Below are several ways companies can leverage the current PR landscape to create successful content PR campaigns:

1)????? Publish Your Own Content: Traditional ?media relations? is no longer the only game in town. Today, we have an arsenal of self-publishing platforms at their disposal, including blogs, video, and social sharing tools.? Want to communicate a big company announcement?? Don?t blast about a press release and wait for the New York Times to call. Work to create a 2-minute video on what that means to your business and post it on your company?s YouTube page. Have the CEO share it with their client base and host it on the company webpage. Tweet, Share, Email, Repeat.

2)????? Repurpose and Share:?? With every piece of content you create, ask yourself: how can we maximize its visibility among target audiences? Can the video update be repurposed as an email alert, blog entry or bylined article? Have we shared it with our social media followers by posting it to the company Facebook page and Twitter feed? Has it been posted to specific groups of interest on LinkedIn? Not every piece of content needs to be blasted across every channel, but there are far more targeted opportunities to share good content than ever before. ?Knowing where the message will resonate will give businesses a significant advantage.

3)????? Integrate, Don?t Isolate: As the lines blur between ?traditional? and ?social? media, it is more important than ever to incorporate PR content into the overall marketing mix.?? A PR cannot live in a silo ? it should be weaved into the overall marketing strategy to help tell a broader story. The opportunity with content PR is to really leverage ?earned? and social media to fuel other parts of the marketing engine.

4)????? Stay focused: A successful content PR campaign takes time, buy-in, and of course, resources.? To maximize your campaign, choose a select number of channels and focus on a limited number of keywords and/or topics. There are several factors to consider when adding social media or other marketing accounts, so take your time.? Add new outlets thoughtfully and carefully, based on where your audience looks for information.

5)????? Make it Relevant: No one wants to read an infomercial about your company or a laundry list of resume accomplishments. The content should be relevant, educational and engaging. The goal is to listen to what your audience is interested, and offer them useful solutions or information.

In today?s fragmented media landscape, it is more challenging than ever to differentiate your brand.? Having a good content strategy can help by plugging businesses directly into the conversation and providing information people want.??? Used effectively, it can help increase long term visibility and deliver real business results.

Source: http://mavenagency.com/blog/2013/02/tips-for-developing-a-content-pr-strategy/

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Court won't ban tell-all by DSK lover

Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP ? Getty Images

Dominique Strauss-Kahn leaves Paris' courthouse after a hearing Tuesday on a tell-all penned by an ex-lover.

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn lost his bid to have a court ban a kiss-and-tell book by an ex-lover who has described him as a sex-obsessed "half-man, half-pig" -- but he will collect damages.

In a ruling late Tuesday, a judge green-lighted publication of "Beauty and Beast" by Marcelle Iacub, a lawyer and columnist who had a seven-month affair with the former head of the International Monetary Fund, Le Monde reported.

The court agreed to Strauss-Kahn's demand that a disclaimer declaring his privacy had been invaded be included in every copy. It also ordered the author, the publisher and a magazine that printed excerpts to pay him $98,000, the newspaper said.

---

Hours before his partial victory, Strauss-Kahn appeared in a Paris courtroom to complain of the "horror" of having his love life exposed, The Guardian reported.

Christian Hartmann / Reuters

"Belle et Bete" ("Beauty and Beast") by Marcela Iacub details her seven-month affair with Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

"Is anything allowed in order to make money?" he asked, branding the book a cheap shot against "a man already down on the ground."

The affair chronicled in the book unfolded while Strauss-Kahn was embroiled in scandal over allegations he sexually assaulted a hotel maid in New York. Criminal charges were dropped by prosecutors who questioned the woman's credibility; Strauss-Kahn later settled a civil claim out of court.

Iacub's book, which is due to go on sale Wednesday, doesn't name Strauss-Kahn, but she has said it's about him. Excerpts published in Le Nouvel Observateur -- accompanied by an interview in which she referred to him as "half-man, half-pig" -- are decidedly unflattering.

"You were old, you were fat, you were short and you were ugly," the 48-year-old former mistress wrote, according to the Guardian. "You were macho, you were vulgar, you were insensitive and you were stingy. You were selfish, you were brutal and you had no culture. And I was mad about you."

Strauss-Kahn's lawyers contend he was seduced into a money-making trap and they tried to persuade the court with an email in which Iacub purportedly confessed the romance was a plot cooked up by her co-workers.

Iacub said she didn't remember the email, disavowed its contents and issued a warning to the Socialist leader once touted as presidential material before scandal doomed his career.

"I don't think it's in [Strauss-Kahn's] best interest for me to start searching through my emails," she said, according to London's Daily Telegraph.

Strauss-Kahn, who is under investigation in connection with a French sex ring, had asked for a disclaimer to be printed in every copy of "Beauty and Beast" already distributed, a ban on more copies being printed, and $130,000 in damages.?

As he left the courthouse, he said there was one more thing on his wish-list: "To be left alone."

?

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/26/17104205-court-wont-ban-tell-all-by-dominique-strauss-kahn-lover-who-called-him-half-man-half-pig?lite

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'Half-man, half-pig': Court won't ban tell-all by DSK lover

Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP ? Getty Images

Dominique Strauss-Kahn leaves Paris' courthouse after a hearing Tuesday on a tell-all penned by an ex-lover.

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn lost his bid to have a court ban a kiss-and-tell book by an ex-lover who has described him as a sex-obsessed "half-man, half-pig" -- but he will collect damages.

In a ruling late Tuesday, a judge green-lighted publication of "Beauty and Beast" by Marcelle Iacub, a lawyer and columnist who had a seven-month affair with the former head of the International Monetary Fund, Le Monde reported.

The court agreed to Strauss-Kahn's demand that a disclaimer declaring his privacy had been invaded be included in every copy. It also ordered the author, the publisher and a magazine that printed excerpts to pay him $98,000, the newspaper said.

---

Hours before his partial victory, Strauss-Kahn appeared in a Paris courtroom to complain of the "horror" of having his love life exposed, The Guardian reported.

Christian Hartmann / Reuters

"Belle et Bete" ("Beauty and Beast") by Marcela Iacub details her seven-month affair with Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

"Is anything allowed in order to make money?" he asked, branding the book a cheap shot against "a man already down on the ground."

The affair chronicled in the book unfolded while Strauss-Kahn was embroiled in scandal over allegations he sexually assaulted a hotel maid in New York. Criminal charges were dropped by prosecutors who questioned the woman's credibility; Strauss-Kahn later settled a civil claim out of court.

Iacub's book, which is due to go on sale Wednesday, doesn't name Strauss-Kahn, but she has said it's about him. Excerpts published in Le Nouvel Observateur -- accompanied by an interview in which she referred to him as "half-man, half-pig" -- are decidedly unflattering.

"You were old, you were fat, you were short and you were ugly," the 48-year-old former mistress wrote, according to the Guardian. "You were macho, you were vulgar, you were insensitive and you were stingy. You were selfish, you were brutal and you had no culture. And I was mad about you."

Strauss-Kahn's lawyers contend he was seduced into a money-making trap and they tried to persuade the court with an email in which Iacub purportedly confessed the romance was a plot cooked up by her co-workers.

Iacub said she didn't remember the email, disavowed its contents and issued a warning to the Socialist leader once touted as presidential material before scandal doomed his career.

"I don't think it's in [Strauss-Kahn's] best interest for me to start searching through my emails," she said, according to London's Daily Telegraph.

Strauss-Kahn, who is under investigation in connection with a French sex ring, had asked for a disclaimer to be printed in every copy of "Beauty and Beast" already distributed, a ban on more copies being printed, and $130,000 in damages.?

As he left the courthouse, he said there was one more thing on his wish-list: "To be left alone."

?

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/26/17104205-court-wont-ban-tell-all-by-dominique-strauss-kahn-lover-who-called-him-half-man-half-pig?lite

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Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop dies at 96

(Reuters) - Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, whose anti-smoking campaign and outspoken, controversial positions on abortion, AIDS and drugs, elevated the obscure post to one of national influence, died at his home in Hanover, New Hampshire, on Monday. He was 96 years old.

Koop, a pediatric surgeon, served as the leading U.S. spokesman on public health matters and adviser to President Ronald Reagan from November 1981 until October 1989. His death was announced by Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine, where he founded the C. Everett Koop Institute.

"Dr. Koop was not only a pioneering pediatric surgeon but also one of the most courageous and passionate public health advocates of the past century," said Dr. Wiley W. Souba, dean of the Geisel School.

The gray-bearded Koop, known for his bow ties and suspenders, became one of most recognizable figures in the Reagan administration.

He took stern and sometimes controversial stands on abortion, AIDS, fatty foods, drugs and cigarettes, and moved through the halls of power convinced that he knew what was best for the nation's health.

Koop enraged the powerful tobacco industry and lawmakers grateful for the industry's generous campaign funds with his insistence that smoking kills and should be banned.

Then, in the midst of a heated national debate about how best to halt the spread of AIDS, Koop blocked the Reagan administration's plans for extensive testing. To the applause of gay rights groups, Koop said the disclosure of the test results, intentional or otherwise, could ruin the careers of those tested.

He spearheaded the drive to make education about AIDS the primary means of preventing the disease, writing a brochure about AIDS that was distributed to millions of American households. Attired in the authoritative white military dress uniform of the Public Health Service and its 7,000-member medical corps he disclosed to the public the glum, often indelicate, details of the disease and how to avoid it.

He urged men to use condoms - if they were unable to abstain from sex - to prevent the spread of AIDS, which is transmitted through semen or blood.

At the time, conservative activist and Koop critic Phyllis Schlafly blasted Koop and his attempts at educating the public as "teaching of safe sodomy in public schools." She demanded, unsuccessfully, that Koop stop preaching about safe sex.

At his confirmation hearings before the Senate, he was blasted by one feminist leader as "a monster" for his deeply held position against abortion.

"He saved countless lives through his leadership in confronting the public health crisis that came to be known as AIDS and standing up to powerful special interests like the tobacco companies," U.S. Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, said on Monday.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, on October 14, 1916, Koop was badly injured as a child in a skiing accident and in playing football, which led him to an interest in medicine.

At 16, he entered Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and later graduated from Cornell Medical School.

Koop was preceded in death by his first wife, Elizabeth, and by their son David, according to Dartmouth.

He is survived by their children Allen Koop, the Rev. Norman Koop and Elizabeth Thompson, as well as by his wife, Cora, whom he married in 2010. He is also survived by eight grandchildren, according to Dartmouth.

(Reporting by Paul Thomasch and Corrie MacLaggan; editing by Christopher Wilson and Jackie Frank)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-surgeon-general-c-everett-koop-dies-96-024543747.html

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Seattle Times Will Install Paywall Next Month

Poynter.:

The Seattle Times will begin a digital-subscription plan in March, Times Executive Editor David Boardman told readers in a column Sunday. The plan resembles The New York Times' paywall -- print subscribers will have full access to the Times' site, and nonsubscribers will be able to access a limited number of articles before hitting the pay gate.

Read the whole story: Poynter.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/seattle-times-will-instal_n_2758751.html

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Cardinal's departure darkens mood as pope allows early conclave

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A senior cleric resigned under duress on Monday and Pope Benedict took the rare step of changing Vatican law to allow his successor to be elected early, adding to a sense of crisis within the Roman Catholic Church.

With just three days left before Benedict becomes the first pope in some six centuries to step down, he accepted the resignation of Britain's only cardinal elector, Archbishop Keith O'Brien, who was to have voted for the next pope.

O'Brien, who retains the title of cardinal, has denied allegations that he behaved inappropriately with priests over a period of 30 years, but said he was quitting the job of archbishop of Edinburgh.

He could have attended the conclave despite his resignation, but said he would stay away because he did not want media attention to be focused on himself instead of the process of choosing the next leader of the 1.2 billion-member Church.

O'Brien's dramatic self-exclusion came as the Vatican continued to resist calls by some Catholics to stop other cardinals tainted by sex scandals, such as U.S. Cardinal Roger Mahony, from taking part.

Catholic activists have petitioned Mahony to exclude himself from the conclave so as not to insult survivors of sexual abuse by priests committed while he was archbishop of Los Angeles.

In that post from 1985 until 2011, Mahony worked to send priests known to be abusers out of state to shield them from law enforcement scrutiny in the 1980s, according to church files unsealed under a U.S. court order last month.

"O'Brien's recusal is also important as a precedent," said Terence McKiernan, of BishopAccountability.org, a U.S.-based documentation center on child abuse by priests.

"Many cardinals scheduled to join the conclave have been involved as bishops in handling cases of clergy sexual abuse, and some of them have done such a bad job that they too should recuse themselves from the conclave," he said.

CRISIS MANAGEMENT

Benedict changed parts of a 1996 constitution issued by his predecessor John Paul so that cardinals could begin a secret conclave to choose a successor earlier than the 15 days after the papacy becomes vacant, as prescribed by the previous law.

The change means that in pre-conclave meetings starting on March 1, a day after Benedict leaves on Thursday, they can themselves decide when to start.

Some cardinals believe a conclave, held in secret in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel, should start sooner than March 15 in order to reduce the time in which the Church will be without a leader at a time of crisis.

But some in the Church believe that an early conclave would give an advantage to cardinals already in Rome and working in the Curia, the Vatican's central administration and the focus of accusations of ineptitude and alleged sexual scandals that some Italian newspapers speculate in unsourced reports led Benedict to step down. The Vatican says the reports are false.

The Vatican appears to be aiming to have a new pope elected by mid-March and installed before Palm Sunday on March 24 so he can preside at Holy Week services leading to Easter.

Cardinals have begun informal consultations by phone and email in the past two weeks since Benedict said he was quitting.

Benedict's papacy was rocked by scandals over the sexual abuse of children by priests, most of which preceded his time in office but came to light during it and which, as head of the Church, he was responsible for handling.

His reign also saw Muslim anger after he linked Islam to violence. Jews were upset over his rehabilitation of a Holocaust denier. And, during a scandal over the Church's business affairs, his butler was convicted of leaking his private papers.

With the Italian media speculating about conspiracies and alleged sexual scandals inside the Vatican that they say may have influenced his decision to resign, the pope's spokesman said an internal report into leaked papal documents would remain confidential and only be shown to the next pontiff.

The Vatican has accused the Italian media, some of which have called for the "Vatileaks" report to be made public, of spreading "false and damaging" rumors in an attempt to influence the cardinals as they head to Rome for the conclave.

The three cardinals who prepared the report for the Vatican met the pope on Monday.

Compiled after the arrest of Benedict's butler, who leaked sensitive documents to the media, the report has been seen only by the pope and the three cardinals and would be seen only by the next pope, the Vatican said.

The butler's leaked documents told of corruption in the Vatican, infighting over the running of its scandal-mired bank, and painted a picture of an administration where some clerics were more interested in their careers than serving the pope.

On Sunday, the pope, in his last appearance from his window overlooking St Peter's Square, said his abdication was God's will and insisted he was not "abandoning" the Church but stepping down for health reasons.

His last public appearances include a general audience in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday and a meeting with cardinals on Thursday before he flies to the papal summer retreat near Rome.

The papacy will become vacant at 8 p.m. (1900 GMT) on Thursday, February 28.

(Writing by Robin Pomeroy; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-changes-church-law-allows-cardinals-start-conclave-120524744.html

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Shazam conjures iPad and Android tablet versions, zips past 300 million users

If you've finally caught up on tech with a new tablet and now want to get up to speed on the latest tunes or TV programs, Shazam now has a slate-friendly flavor of its media-discovery software for iPad and Android. New touches include a refreshed home page, improved tag result layout, a new way to browse your friends' tagging and interactive mapping that shows users' taste in cities around the world. The outfit says it's optimized the interface for the slate environment and that it just passed 300 million users worldwide -- making it a little easier to admit you might be out of touch. It'll arrive for free at the App Store and Google Play in a few weeks, according to Shazam -- hit the PR after the break for more.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Tablets

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This Eavesdropping App Calls Your Shrink If It Thinks You Sound Too Bummed-Out

Ain't no problem that can't be solved by an app. At least, that's what it seems like the folks at EI Technologies are out to prove. Their app "Xpression" aims to help treat depression by listening to a user's voice, cataloging his or her moods, and alerting a doctor of any dangerous dips. All automatically. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/dmktbcXLemk/this-eavesdropping-app-calls-your-shrink-if-it-thinks-you-sound-too-bummed+out

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Italians vote in parliamentary elections

ROME (AP) ? Will Italy stay the course with painful economic reform? Or fall back into the old habit of profligacy and inertia? These are the stakes as Italy votes in a watershed parliamentary election Sunday and Monday that could shape the future of one of Europe's biggest economies.

Fellow EU countries and investors are watching closely, as the decisions that Italy makes over the next several months promise to have a profound impact on whether Europe can decisively put out the flames of its financial crisis. Greece's troubles in recent years were enough to spark a series of market panics. With an economy almost 10 times the size of Greece's, Italy is simply too big a country for Europe, and the world, to see fail.

Leading the electoral pack is Pier Luigi Bersani, a former communist who has shown a pragmatic streak in supporting tough economic reforms spearheaded by incumbent Mario Monti. On Bersani's heels is Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire media mogul seeking an unlikely political comeback after being forced from the premiership by Italy's debt crisis. Monti, while widely credited with saving Italy from financial ruin, is trailing badly as he pays the price for the suffering caused by austerity measures.

Then there's the wild card: comic-turned-politician Beppe Grillo, whose protest movement against the entrenched political class has been drawing tens of thousands to rallies in piazzas across Italy. If his self-styled political "tsunami" sweeps into Parliament with a big chunk of seats, Italy could be in store for a prolonged period of political confusion that would spook the markets.

Voting was generally calm. But when Berlusconi showed up at a Milan polling place to cast his ballot, three women pulled off their sweaters to bare their breasts and display the slogan "Basta Silvio!" (Enough of Silvio) scrawled on their flesh. A cordon of police, already in place for security before the former premier's arrival, blocked Berlusconi's direct view of the women.

Police detained the women for questioning. Italian news reports said the three were members of the Femen protest group. On his way out of the polling station, Berlusconi made no direct comment on the protesters.

While a man of the left, Bersani has shown himself to have a surprising amount in common with the center-right Monti ? and the two have hinted at the possibility of teaming up in a coalition. Bersani was Monti's most loyal backer in Parliament during the respected economist's tenure at the head of a technocratic government. And in ministerial posts in previous center-left governments, Bersani fought hard to free up such areas of the economy as energy, insurance and banking services.

But it's uncertain that Monti will be able muster the votes needed to give Bersani's Democratic Party a stable majority in both houses of Parliament.

"Forming a government with a stable parliamentary alliance may prove tricky after elections," said Eoin Ryan, an analyst with IHS Global Insight. "A surge in support for anti-austerity parties is raising chances of an indecisive election result and post-vote political instability."

Another factor is turnout. Usually some 80 percent of the 50 million eligible voters go to the polls but experts are predicting many will stay away in anger, hurting mainstream parties.

Interior Ministry figures put the turnout at noon, four hours after polls opened, at 14.9 percent of those eligible to vote for the Chamber of Deputies. That was down from the 16.5 percent turnout after four hours into voting in the last national elections, in spring 2008.

Italian elections are usually held in spring, and this balloting came amid bad weather in much of the country, including snow in the north. Rain was forecast for much of the country Monday.

When Berlusconi stepped down in November 2011, newspapers were writing his political obituary. At 76, blamed for mismanaging the economy and disgraced by criminal allegations of sex with an underage prostitute, the billionaire media baron appeared finished as a political force.

But Berlusconi has proven time and again ? over 20 years at the center of Italian politics ? that he should never be counted out.

The campaign strategy that has allowed him to become a contender in these elections is a simple one: please the masses by throwing around cash.

Berlusconi has promised to give back an unpopular property tax imposed by Monti as part of austerity measures. Even his purchase of star striker Mario Balotelli for his AC Milan soccer team was widely seen as a ploy to buy votes. Berlusconi has also appealed to Italy's right-wing by praising Italy's former fascist dictator Benito Mussolini during a ceremony commemorating Holocaust victims.

The most recent polls show Bersani in the lead with 33 percent of the vote, against 28 percent for Berlusconi's coalition with the populist Northern League. Grillo's 5 Star movement was in a surprise third place, with 17 percent support, while Monti's centrist coalition was notching 13 percent. The COESIS poll of 6,212 respondents had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 percent.

Pollster Renato Mannheimer said among his biggest clients heading into the elections were foreign banks seeking to gauge whether to hold or sell Italian bonds.

"They are worried mostly about the return of Berlusconi," Mannheimer said.

Uncertainty over the outcome of the vote has pushed the Milan stock exchange down in the days running up to the vote and bumped up borrowing costs, as investors express concern that Italy may back down from a reform course to pull the country out of recession.

Mannheimer said many undecided voters ? who comprise around one-third of the total electorate ? identify with the center-right, and that may help Berlusconi. He said that the undecided vote may also tilt heavily toward Grillo's protest movement.

The professorial Monti looked uncomfortable at first as a candidate but has recently warmed to the role. Like the others, he has not shied away from name calling, warning that Berlusconi is a "charlatan" and saying his return would be "horrific."

Bond analyst Nicholas Spiro said the election "will deliver the most important verdict on the eurozone's three-year-old austerity focused policies."

But he is betting on a period of political instability after the vote.

"An upset victory by Mr. Berlusconi may be markets' nightmare scenario," he said, "but the prospects for a stable and harmonious Bersani-Monti coalition government ? still the mostly likely outcome in our view ? are bleak."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italians-vote-parliamentary-elections-072036240--finance.html

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MC Hammer: 'Not bitter' about arrest in Calif.

DUBLIN, Calif. (AP) ? MC Hammer suggests he was a victim of racial profiling when he was stopped and arrested by police in the Northern California city of Dublin.

The '90s rap star tweeted on Saturday that an officer approached him in his car and asked "Are you on parole or probation?"

He says that as he handed over his ID, the officer reached inside the car and tried to pull him out.

Dublin police Lt. Herb Walters told the Oakland Tribune (http://bit.ly/YPesHt) that Hammer, who was born Stanley Burrell, was arrested Thursday for investigation of obstructing an officer in the performance of their duties and resisting an officer.

He declined to comment to KTVU about Hammer's version of the arrest.

Hammer tweeted that he wasn't bitter and considered what happened "a teachable moment."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-02-23-People-MC%20Hammer/id-28f548802b22459d84edeece6d759e85

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Ronda Rousey wins historic women's UFC debut

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) ? Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche made history just by stepping into the UFC cage. When Rousey recorded another savage victory with her signature move, she demonstrated why she could be a trailblazer in women's sports for years to come.

Rousey won the UFC's first women's bout Saturday night, beating Carmouche on an armbar with 11 seconds left in the first round of their bantamweight title fight at UFC 157.

Rousey (7-0) defended her belt with her seemingly inevitable move, forcing Carmouche to tap out after bending back her arm. Rousey raised both arms in victory while flat on the canvas after the longest fight of the mixed martial artist's ascendant career.

"Is this real life right now? I'm not sure," said Rousey, a former judo star with just two years of pro MMA experience.

Former UFC champion Lyoto Machida counterpunched his way to a split decision over Dan Henderson on the undercard at Honda Center, and bantamweight Urijah Faber beat Ivan Menjivar with an acrobatic rear naked choke late in the first round.

But the sellout crowd largely showed up to see Rousey, whose unique combination of star power, athleticism and skill singlehandedly ended UFC President Dana White's long-standing disinterest in women's MMA. White even put Rousey and Carmouche in the main event of a pay-per-view show by the sport's dominant promotion.

Rousey was awarded the equivalent of the bantamweight belt she won in the now-defunct Strikeforce before her first UFC fight, but quickly showed she deserved it.

"I was actually less nervous walking out than I was for some of my earlier fights," Rousey said. "I felt like the UFC champion, and I know how hard I am working. This was a wild ride, and I can't wait to get back in the octagon."

Rousey and Carmouche didn't disappoint in their pressure-packed debuts. Although Rousey was heavily favored, Carmouche (7-3) actually had Rousey in trouble early, nearly landing a rear naked choke while clinging to Rousey's back in the opening two minutes.

Rousey, who had never been seriously threatened in any previous bout, barely escaped the chokehold by getting her chin and mouth underneath Carmouche's arm. Rousey gradually imposed her will on the former Marine after that, rolling her across the canvas and finally getting side control on Carmouche before patiently separating her arms to land an armbar.

"That was the most vulnerable a position I've been in so far in my career," Rousey said. "That was pretty tight, that neck crank, and I was very happy to get out of it. She had the choke across my mouth and ... her forearm was pushing against my teeth. That can't have been any more fun for her than it was for me. Crazy sport we're in, huh?"

Rousey has won all seven of her professional MMA bouts and three amateur fights by armbar, a judo move that has dislocated at least two prior opponents' elbows.

"I had to learn to take my time in MMA, and I was just able to keep a clear head," said Rousey, who became the first American woman to win an Olympic judo medal in Beijing.

Rousey dealt with constant attention from media and fans in recent weeks, a function of her rising stardom in the UFC and the larger sports world. She said the pressure wasn't anything she couldn't handle.

"There's no amount of press that can save these girls from me," she said.

Carmouche earned a huge ovation from the sellout crowd for giving Rousey more trouble than she had ever faced.

"I thought I had it," said Carmouche, who served three tours of duty in Iraq. "Like everything else, you make a mistake, and it turns around."

Machida (19-3), the former light heavyweight champion, had lost three of his previous five bouts before edging Henderson (29-9) in a slow, technical fight. Machida used his typical elusiveness and unorthodox, karate-based techniques to pick away at Henderson.

Both fighters raised their arms in victory after the final horn, but Machida landed 68 percent of the fight's significant strikes, with a 23-8 advantage in head strikes.

Two judges favored Machida 29-28, while the third had Henderson winning 29-28.

"He's a very great opponent for me, and I have a lot of respect for him," Machida said while fans booed. "My strategy was to keep the fight standup, and I think I got it. I think I completely dominated the first round, second round, third round."

Faber (28-6) got his career back on track with an impressive victory over Menjivar (25-11). With his home-state crowd behind him, Faber took early control on the ground and then finished Menjivar by clinging to his back and wrapping both legs around his standing opponent, forcing Menjivar to tap out while on his feet with 26 seconds left in the opening round.

"Ivan is a very crafty veteran," Faber said. "I just attacked the neck. He let me hold on too long, and that was that."

Although Faber has a huge fan following for his years of success in other promotions, he was just 2-2 since moving to the UFC two years ago, dropping narrow decisions to bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and Renan Barao.

Robbie Lawler stopped Josh Koscheck with 1:03 left in the first round with a series of strikes, earning the knockout of the night award in his first UFC fight since October 2004. Court McGee also beat Josh Neer by unanimous decision in his welterweight debut.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ronda-rousey-wins-historic-womens-ufc-debut-052619750--spt.html

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AT&T, union reach tentative agreement on benefits

WASHINGTON (AP) ? AT&T is announcing a tentative agreement on wages, pensions and other benefits for more than 20,000 of its unionized workers.

The four-year agreement covers members of the Communications Workers of America in 36 states and the District of Columbia. AT&T is not disclosing the details of the agreement until it has been presented to union workers.

The CWA confirmed in a separate statement Saturday that an agreement had been reached, but is declining to provide details.

The agreement, which must be ratified by union members, covers wages, pensions, disability and work rules. The union negotiates health care benefits separately.

AT&T Inc. is based in Dallas, Texas.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-02-23-ATandT-Union/id-35cb8b1e3c7040fcb62b9d9e337ba598

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Pope moves top official amid leaks fallout

VATICAN CITY (AP) ? In one of his last appointments, the pope on Friday transferred a top official from the Vatican's secretariat of state to Colombia amid swirling media speculation about the contents of a confidential report into the Vatican's leaks scandal.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, stressed the transfer of Monsignor Ettore Balestrero had been months in the works, was an important promotion and had nothing to do with what the Vatican considers baseless reporting.

Balestrero was named undersecretary of the Vatican's Foreign Ministry in 2009 and, among other tasks, has been a lead player in the Holy See's efforts to get on the "white list" of financially transparent countries. Pope Benedict XVI, who steps down Feb. 28, named him ambassador, or nunzio, to Colombia.

Italian newspapers for days have been rife with unsourced reports about the contents of the dossier, presented to Benedict in December, that three cardinals prepared after investigating the origins of the leaks. The scandal erupted last year after papers taken from the pope's desk were published in a blockbuster book. The pope's butler was convicted in October of aggravated theft, and later pardoned.

The Vatican has refused to comment on the media reports, which have claimed the contents of the dossier were a factor in Benedict's decision to resign. Benedict himself has said he simply no longer has the "strength of mind and body" to be pope. Lombardi has indicated that Benedict would meet with the three cardinals before stepping down.

Balestrero was head of the Holy See's delegation to the Council of Europe's Moneyval committee, which evaluated the Vatican's anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing measures. The Vatican submitted itself to Moneyval's evaluation in a bid to improve its reputation in the financial world.

The Vatican passed the test on the first try in August, and Moneyval said it had made great progress in a short amount of time. But the Holy See received poor or failing grades for its financial watchdog agency and its bank, long the source of some of the Vatican's more storied scandals.

Some of the documents leaked in the midst of the "Vatileaks" scandal concerned differences of opinion about the level of financial transparency the Holy See should provide about the bank, the Institute for Religious Works.

The Vatican is now working to comply with Moneyval's recommendations before the next round of evaluation. Lombardi said the lengthy Moneyval process would simply be handled by someone else now that Balestrero is leaving. The nunciature in Colombia is one of the most important in Latin America, and Vatican officials said the move was a clear promotion for Balestrero.

Lombardi noted that the nunciature is the headquarters for the Latin American bishops' conference as well as the regional organization for religious orders, and is usually headed by someone who has had experience as a nuncio in at least two other postings.

"The procedure for this nomination was started some time ago, as evidenced by the fact that the agreement (with Colombia) has already been reached," Lombardi told The Associated Press. "It was started well before the pope's resignation, so it's completely unfounded to link it to the news articles in recent days."

Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, the Opus Dei canon lawyer who headed the cardinal's commission, has spoken in vague terms about the report and the well-known divisions within the Vatican Curia that were exposed by the leaks.

"Certainly, it has been said that this was a hypothesis behind the pope's resignation, but I think we need to respect his conscience," Herranz told Radio24 last week. "Certainly, there are divisions and there have always been divisions, as well as violent contrapositions along ideological lines. These aren't new, but yes, they have a weight."

Herranz, who was the Vatican's top legislator before retiring, was joined on the commission by Slovak Cardinal Jozef Tomko and Italian Cardinal Salvatore De Giorgio. The committee had broad-ranging powers to question Vatican officials, including cardinals, beyond the purely criminal scope of investigation carried out by Vatican prosecutors against the butler.

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-moves-top-official-amid-leaks-fallout-132205871.html

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Scott touts plan to keep spring training teams in Florida

Published: Thursday, February 21, 2013 at 9:19 p.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, February 21, 2013 at 9:19 p.m.

SARASOTA - Florida Gov. Rick Scott said the state needs to build a strategy to make sure no more Major League Baseball spring training teams leave for Arizona.

Scott made his comments Thursday night after attending a private reception at the Ed Smith Stadium Complex, where the Baltimore Orioles are scheduled to begin their spring training schedule on Saturday.

Florida has 15 spring training teams.

?We need to keep them in Florida,? Scott, a Republican, said.

Sarasota is no stranger to losing Grapefruit League teams to Arizona. The Cincinnati Reds left Ed Smith Stadium in 2010 for a better stadium in Arizona, and that was a decade after the Chicago White Sox left for Arizona.

The Orioles are in no danger of leaving anytime soon. The club signed a 30-year lease in Sarasota in 2009 in exchange for Sarasota's help in renovating Ed Smith Stadium.

Florida's biggest concern now is losing the Houston Astros, which train in Kissimmee. The team's lease expires in 2016, and there has been talk of Arizona cities trying to lure the team out west.

Arizona's 15 Cactus League teams are huddled around Phoenix, making for shorter travel for spring games.

Teams on Florida's east and west coasts can spend four hours on the road to play against teams on the opposite coast.

Source: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20130221/article/130229905

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Tim Skubick: Gov. Snyder's road funding proposal points up inconsistency in GOP tax philosophy

What the governor says makes a lot of sense as he tries to urge a decidedly unenthusiastic citizenry and legislature into supporting his gargantuan effort to pump $1.2 billion into road and infrastructure repairs.

?The more you drive, the more you pay.?

Put another way, if you don?t drive, you don?t pay one thin dime.

If you drive, you will pay more depending on the miles you log each year.

That certainly sounds fair.

Wait till the Democrats wake up to what marker the governor has just laid down.

Anybody heard about the graduated income tax?

For decades Democrats have foamed at the mouth over the prospects of ditching Michigan?s one-rate-fits-all income tax system. Those dragging down one hundred mil a year pay the same rate as the slug making $15,000.

That certainly sounds unfair, those Democrats would argue. Yet efforts to adopt a tax system that says, ?the more you earn, the more you pay? has never moved an inch, thanks to Republicans who would rather slit their throats than adopt such a proposal. A recent survey shows 63 percent of the citizens think the R's are dead wrong.

So here?s the governor applying the same philosophy to the roads. How can he ignore the same ?fairness? concept when it comes to taxes: as your income raises, your taxes go right along.

State budget director John Nixon was unwillingly dragged into this debate the other day. ?I didn?t come here to talk about the graduated income tax,? he protested when grilled on the issue on the Off the Record broadcast.

First he suggested he knew very little about it, but come to find out he presided over a similar system in Utah from whence he came. So it wasn?t that the Phi Beta Phi guy was ignorant; he just didn?t want to wade into the scrum.

Finally, after some mumbling and fumbling, he confided that the graduated tax would not be his first option for revamping the state tax system. Chances are his boss the governor feels the same way.

Apparently it is OK for motorists driving 30,000 miles a year to pay more than the one at 5,000, and if the same driver with a salary 10 times the other guy still pays the same income tax rate.

What?s the saying about wanting it both ways?

Watch "Off the Record with Tim Skubick" online anytime at video.wkar.org .

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/michigan-news/~3/wN0cYbrtOnM/tim_skubick_road_funding_pay_t.html

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Google Drive gets file previews, Android app now outfitted with video streaming

Mountain View has just made it easier to peek the contents of Google Drive files on the web with a brand-new preview feature. Now, users will be able to quickly view up to 30 file types (photos, videos, PDFs and more) in a lightbox overlay, and thumb through by clicking right and left arrows within the window. When it comes to documents, folks can zoom in and out, scroll through pages, and even select and copy text. If the update hasn't made it to your account already, Page and Co. say you can expect it to roll out over the next few days. As for the Drive's Android app, it's been updated to let devices wielding Honeycomb or higher stream video saved on the service. According to the changelogs, the application has also been upgraded with performance enhancements, pinch-to-zoom in the presentation viewer and a grab bag of bug fixes and assorted tweaks.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Google

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Asteroid flyby breaks records, raises warnings

Astronomers estimate that an asteroid the size of 2012 DA14, which came within a cosmic hair's breadth of our planet on Friday, strikes the Earth once every 1,200 years or so.

By Mike Wall,?SPACE.com / February 15, 2013

Asteroid 2012 DA14 is seen by Gingin Observatory, West Gingin, Australia, as the space rock made its closest approach to Earth on Feb. 15, 2013. The asteroid appears a streak because of its high speed.

Gingin Observatory (via NASA)

Enlarge

An asteroid half the size of a football field buzzed Earth in a historic flyby today (Feb. 15), barely missing our planet just hours after a much smaller object exploded above Russia, injuring perhaps 1,000 people.

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The 150-foot-wide (45 meters) near-Earth?asteroid 2012 DA14?cruised within 17,200 miles (27,000 kilometers) of Earth at 2:24 p.m. EST (1924 GMT) today, coming closer than many communications satellites circling our planet.

The flyby marked the closest approach by such a large?asteroid?that astronomers have ever known about in advance. But it wasn't even the most dramatic space-rock event of the day.

That distinction goes to a brilliant fireball that exploded early this morning in the skies over Russia's Chelyabinsk region, which is about 930 miles (1,500 km) east of Moscow. The blast damaged hundreds of buildings and wounded perhaps 1,000 people, according to media reports. [Fireball Explodes Over Russia (Video)]

Scientists think the?Russian fireball?was caused by a object that was about 50 feet wide (15 m) and weighed about 7,000 tons before it hit Earth's atmosphere. For comparison, 2012 DA14 tips the scales at 140,000 tons or so. The two space rocks are completely unrelated, NASA researchers say, making the dual events a spooky cosmic coincidence.

Scientific treat

Astronomers had been looking forward to 2012 DA14's flyby for a while, since it gave them the rare chance to study a decent-size asteroid up close.

"We're going to use our radars to bounce radio waves off this asteroid, watch it spin, look at the reflections and understand its size, its shape and perhaps even a little bit about what it's made of," Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science division, said in a video released by the space agency Thursday (Feb. 14).

Indeed, researchers around the world trained instruments on 2012 DA14, tracking the space rock as it cruised toward Earth, gave our planet a historically close shave and then slipped silently off into the depths of space once again.

Cosmic shooting gallery

There are lessons to be taken from today's asteroid flyby and fireball blast, researchers said.

"Today's events, both with 2012 DA14 and the Russian meteorite, are a reminder that our solar system is a crowded place," Chris Lewicki, president of asteroid-mining firm Planetary Resources, wrote in a blog post today.

Our planet has indeed been pummeled by asteroids many times over its history ? perhaps most famously 65 million years ago, when a 6-mile-wide (10 km) behemoth?wiped out the dinosaurs?? and it will continue to be struck in the future.

The good news is that we probably don't have to worry about a potential civilization-ending strike anytime soon. NASA researchers have mapped out the orbits of 90 percent of the biggest and most dangerous near-Earth asteroids, and none of them seem to be on a collision course with Earth in the foreseeable future.

But there are a lot of smaller space rocks out there waiting to be discovered and mapped. Researchers have identified just 9,600 near-Earth asteroids to date, but they think a million or more are likely to be out there. (2012 DA14 itself was just discovered in February 2012.)

Spotting the most threatening of these space rocks may require lofting dedicated asteroid-hunting space telescopes, researchers say. The nonprofit B612 foundation plans to do just that; in 2017 or 2018, it aims to launch an instrument called the?Sentinel Space Telescope, which would scan Earth's neighborhood from a Venus-like orbit, freeing it from having to contend with the glare of the sun.

Astronomers estimate that asteroids the size of 2012 DA14 buzz Earth this closely every 40 years and hit our planet once every 1,200 years or so. If 2012 DA14 did hit us, it would probably cause severe destruction on a local scale. In 1908, a space rock thought to be of similar size exploded over Siberia, flattening about 825 square miles (2,137 square km) of forest.

Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter?@michaeldwall?or SPACE.com?@Spacedotcom. We're also onFacebook?and?Google+.?

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

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/V1Xg_D5ZgnY/Asteroid-flyby-breaks-records-raises-warnings

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Adaptive Golf as a Therapeutic Modality Approved CE Course & Workshop

Learn how golf is being used as therapy for individuals with physical/cognitive challenges and learn to teach ?adaptive golf? safely to your clients.

This course is designed to educate Golf Professionals / Teachers, Therapists of multi-disciplinary processes, medical and health professionals, and volunteers about this rehabilitative, therapeutic process. (Referencing other weekly Adaptive Golf programs around the state, which have been models for Veteran Hospitals and communities nationally).

Professionals seeking 7 CE or MSR credit hrs, have a $100 registration fee for this course. Lunch is included. Please contact us for details and registration form. Deadline to register is March 1, 2013.

Source: http://browardnetonline.com/event/adaptive-golf-as-a-therapeutic-modality-approved-ce-course-workshop/

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