Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, July 10, 2012.
OND is a regular
community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Creation and early water-bearing of the OND concept came from our very own Magnifico - proper respect is due.
---
This diary is named for its "Hump Point" video: Can't You See by The Marshall Tucker Band
Please feel free to browse and add your own links, content or thoughts in the Comments section.
Any timestamps shown are relative to each publication.
---------------------------------------
|
|
Top News |
|
Those on Medicare get free doctor's visit
By (UPI)
|
More than 16 million on Medicare got at least one preventive service at no cost to them during the first six months of 2012, a U.S. health official says.
Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said this included 1.35 million who have taken advantage of the Annual Wellness Visit provided by the Affordable Care Act. Each person on Medicare gets an annual wellness visit with a doctor of his or her choice at no cost them.
. . .
Prior to 2011, people on Medicare had to pay co-pays or other payments for many preventive benefits such as cancer screenings. Due to the Affordable Care Act, preventive benefits are offered free of charge to beneficiaries, with no deductible or co-pay for seniors, Sebelius said.
|
Caring about family planning does not make you a slut, according to Melinda Gates
By Lisa Hymas
|
Melinda Gates will celebrate World Population Day by avoiding saying the word “population,” and at the same time doing more to address population-related challenges than anyone else on the planet.
. . .
A study published Tuesday in The Lancet, financed by the Gates Foundation, found that fulfilling unmet demand for contraception from women in poor countries could cut global maternal mortality by almost a third.
. . .
Last week, Gates took this message to The Colbert Report:
Stephen Colbert: You know from the culture wars in the United States, if you’re in favor of contraception, you are automatically a slut. Aren’t you afraid that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will be thought of as a slut factory? It is controversial.
Melinda Gates: You know, we’ve made it controversial in the United States and it doesn’t need to be. In fact, 90 percent of Americans say they find contraceptives morally acceptable. But because we’ve made it controversial, it’s come off the global health agenda. And so it means 200 million women that say they want access to contraceptives — things that we use here in the United States — they don’t have them. And then guess what: women die if they can’t space their births, if they have children too close together, or they’re too young when they have a child. That shouldn’t happen in this day and age.
There you have it. Contraception: not slutty. Has anyone told Rush Limbaugh and Foster Friess? |
The First Television and Telephone Satellite Launched 50 Years Ago
By Mario Aguilar
|
On July 10th, 1962, NASA launched the first Telstar satellite. The spherical satellite—which actually looks like a model of the Death Star—was the first to relay television and telephone signals through space.
In fact, just two days after launch on July 12, 1962, the satellite transmitted a television signal across the Atlantic Ocean from Andover Earth Station in Maine to the Pleumeur-Bodou Telecom Center in Brittany, France. According to the excellent history at Telstar50.org, the first images from the United States were of President John F. Kennedy and the first beamed over from France were of singer Yves Montand, along with clips of sporting events. Telstar 1 was also responsible for the first telephone calls—some 400 of them—sent through space.
. . .
These days satellite communication is something we take for granted; Anyone can beam an image from their phone across the globe in seconds. A tiny dish fixed to the roof of your house can pull in thousands of channels of television. None of that would have been possible without the Telstar 1.
|
US Episcopal Church approves same-sex blessing service
By (BBC)
|
The Episcopal Church has become the largest US denomination to bless same-sex relationships.
The policy was overwhelmingly approved in a vote at the church's general convention in Indianapolis, Indiana.
. . .
Under the new policy, each Episcopal bishop will decide whether to allow the ceremonies in his or her diocese. Same-sex couples must also complete counselling before undergoing the rite.
. . .
Also on Monday, the full Episcopal convention approved new anti-discrimination language for transgendered people that paves the way for transgendered clergy.
|
Scientists' latest depressing find: sitting down is really bad for your health
By Nadja Popovich
|
This week, researchers who looked through the results of five recent studies on the link between staying seated and health outcomes came out with a new conclusion: sitting for more than three hours per day cuts about two years off your life expectancy.
They added that watching more than two hours of TV per day will cut your life expectancy down another year or so. An even bleaker discovery? Moderate exercise doesn't seem to offset the effects of this excessive sitting either.
. . .
So what's the solution for those of us whose jobs involve lots of sitting time … say, in front of a computer, writing an article about how it's bad to be seated in front of a computer?
. . .
There are also some little things you can do every day, like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, standing while you eat lunch, and even walking over to your colleagues instead of sending off an email. It may sound as obvious as Gawker's mockery that "In other breaking news, you should try harder to eat fruits and vegetables," but let's face it, sometimes we all need a reminder to get up.
|
|
|
|
International |
|
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on historic Laos visit
By (BBC)
|
Hillary Clinton is due in Laos as the first US secretary of state to visit the country in 57 years.
She is expected to discuss plans to build a controversial Mekong River dam, which critics say would impact the environment and millions of lives.
. . .
Mrs Clinton's trip is part of a tour of Asia which analysts say signals the United States' growing interest in the region.
. . .
"After 10 years in which we focused a great deal of attention on the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States is making substantially increased investments - diplomatic, economic, strategic and otherwise - in this part of the world. It's what we call our pivot toward Asia."
|
DR Congo warlord Thomas Lubanga sentenced to 14 years
By (BBC)
|
Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga has been sentenced to 14 years in jail for recruiting and using child soldiers in his rebel army in 2002 and 2003.
. . .
The latest rebellion in eastern DR Congo, which has led some 200,000 people to flee their homes, is closely linked to the Thomas Lubanga case.
. . .
The Lubanga case is closely related to the current fighting in DR Congo, where forces loyal to Gen Bosco Ntaganda are threatening the main eastern city of Goma.
. ..
Lubanga was arrested in March 2005 by UN peacekeepers, along with other militiamen.
|
Sri Lanka moves to curb human smuggling
By Amantha Perera
|
If you hold a Pakistani or Afghan passport, be prepared for an unusually lengthy immigration process on entering Sri Lanka. Immigration authorities in the island tell IPS they have set up special procedures to check passengers from these two countries. This is after increasing evidence that this South Asian island country off the southern tip of India is being used as a departure point by illegal foreign asylum seekers taking boats to other destinations, mostly to Australia.
. . .
In the past, many illegal asylum seekers used Thailand and Indonesia as transit points. That seems to have changed. "Sri Lanka has been identified as a transit point" used by human smugglers, Aluthge said. The increasing incidents of foreigners using Sri Lanka to get on boats comes at a time when national security authorities have reported a spike in the number of locals taking the same risky route.
. . .
"These days we are recording high instances of human smuggling activity," police spokesperson Ajith Rohana said. "Ninety percent of the asylum seekers are from the [minority] Tamil and Muslim communities." So, he said, were the main organizers of the boats. Australian immigration officials have refused to divulge details of the number of boats that originated from Sri Lanka this year, citing security concerns. But publicly available information suggests that by the end of June this year, 72 boats were detected or reached Australia. There were 5,242 arrivals.
|
Former Barclays boss forgoes $30m bonus
By (Al Jazeera)
|
Bob Diamond, the former chief executive of Barclays, has given up bonuses worth up to 20m pounds ($30m) following his resignation over an interest rate-rigging scandal, the bank's chairman told a parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday.
Marcus Agius, the man at the top of Barclays when its traders manipulated a global benchmark interest rate, appeared before a hostile panel of lawmakers as part of its investigation into a row that has caused widespread public anger and which threatens to draw in a dozen more global banks.
. . .
Diamond, 60, would however receive a year's pay and a cash payment instead of a pension, together worth $3m, Agius said.
|
|
|
|
USA Politics, Economy, Major Events |
|
Colo. firefighters may buy U.S. healthcare
By (UPI)
|
President Obama will direct U.S. officials to let seasonal firefighters buy federal health insurance coverage, administration officials told The Denver Post.
The newspaper reported Tuesday the White House directive came after the president's June visit to Colorado Springs, where he toured wildfire-ravaged areas and met firefighters who are hired on a seasonal basis, but are not full-time employees of the U.S. Forest Service and are therefore not able to purchase federal insurance.
Citing senior administration officials, the Post said the Office of Personnel Management will issue a directive in the "near future" that will allow temporary Forest Service firefighters the option of purchasing federal health insurance by the end of July.
|
Let's Index Everything for Inflation!
By Kevin Drum
|
Andrew Stuttaford is unhappy about the state of the U.S. tax code:
And then there’s capital gains (due to rise, of course, courtesy of Mr. Obama), and still not adjusted for inflation, a deliberate anomaly that means the taxpayer pays real taxes on unreal “gains”. . .
That's pretty sad. I wonder how he feels about indexing the minimum wage to inflation? . . . Oddly, though, rich people seem uninterested in making such a bargain. Inflation and all, I guess they must think the current setup is a fairly sweet deal. |
|
Welcome to the "Hump Point" of this OND.
News can be sobering and engrossing - at this point in the diary, an offering of brief escapism:
Random notes related to this video:
The Marshall Tucker Band is an American Southern rock band originally from Spartanburg, South Carolina. The band's blend of rock, rhythm and blues, jazz, country, and gospel helped establish the Southern rock genre in the early 1970s. While the band had reached the height of its commercial success by the end of the decade, the band has recorded and performed continuously under various lineups for nearly 40 years.
. . .
The "Marshall Tucker" in the band's name does not refer to a band member, but rather a Spartanburg-area piano tuner. While the band was discussing possible band names one evening in an old warehouse they had rented for rehearsal space, someone noticed that the warehouse's door key had the name "Marshall Tucker" inscribed on it, and suggested they called themselves the "The Marshall Tucker Band," not realizing it referred to an actual person. It later came to light that Marshall Tucker, the blind piano tuner, had rented the space before the band, and the landlord had yet to change the inscription on the key.
Back to what's happening:
|
|
Environment and Greening |
|
The latest New York Times exposé won’t stop me from eating organic
By Twilight Greenaway
|
. . .
Author Stephanie Strom profiled Michael Potter, the owner of Eden Foods, and one of a shrinking list of people who own large, independent companies producing organic food. She also spent a great deal of time detailing the consolidation of the organic industry (a fact many consumers were introduced to by these popular mind map-like charts from Michigan State University). . .
Now, most consumers know that size and ownership structure do often influence the way a company is run. And much of the OTA’s response reads as a bit naïve in today’s world of corporate lobbying. But the association does make some valid points. And as I see it, the organic industry is neither Watergate nor is it a perfectly transparent, well-oiled machine.
. . .
But it’s also worth noting that Strom’s article is mainly about processed foods — the stuff that’s been canned, packaged, frozen, etc., and required additives in the first place. If you’re buying processed foods, it’s always worth reading the label — whether it’s organic or not.
. . .
And let’s face it: The fact that there are advocacy groups campaigning to keep DHA and carrageenan (the other organic food additive Strom mentions that has concerned some advocates) out of organic food is also a good thing. In the case of most conventional food, there is no discussion at all, let alone an intensive investigation. It’s all relative; but given the way Big Food has shaped the rest of our food system, organic is still the best we have.
|
|
|
|
Science and Health |
|
Waste to Watts: Improving Microbial Fuel Cells
By (ScienceDaily)
|
Some of the planet's tiniest inhabitants may help address two of society's biggest environmental challenges: how to deal with the vast quantities of organic waste produced and where to find clean, renewable energy.
According to César Torres and Sudeep Popat, researchers at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute, certain kinds of bacteria are adept at converting waste into useful energy. These microorganisms are presently being applied to the task, through an innovative technology known as a microbial fuel cell or MFC.
. . .
The study represents the first comprehensive analysis of cathode limitations in MFC's and will further the development of these systems through refinement of materials and operating conditions. "The main importance of our study is not to provide immediate answers, but to conduct a mechanistic study to determine how the cathode operates and identify the sources of inefficiency," Torres explains. "Now we can begin to work on solutions."
|
Deaf Brain Processes Touch Differently: Lacking Sound Input, the Primary Auditory Cortex 'Feels' Touch
By (ScienceDaily)
|
People who are born deaf process the sense of touch differently than people who are born with normal hearing, according to research funded by the National Institutes of Health. The finding reveals how the early loss of a sense -- in this case hearing -- affects brain development. It adds to a growing list of discoveries that confirm the impact of experiences and outside influences in molding the developing brain.
. . .
The researchers took advantage of an already known perceptual illusion in hearing people known as the auditory induced double flash, in which a single flash of light paired with two or more brief auditory events is perceived as multiple flashes of light. In their experiment, the researchers used a double puff of air as a tactile stimulus to replace the auditory stimulus, but kept the single flash of light. Subjects were also exposed to tactile stimuli and light stimuli separately and time-periods without stimuli to establish a baseline for brain activity.
. . .
There are several ways the finding may help deaf people. For example, if touch and vision interact more in the deaf, touch could be used to help deaf students learn math or reading. The finding also has the potential to help clinicians improve the quality of hearing after cochlear implants, especially among congenitally deaf children who are implanted after the ages of 3 or 4. These children, who have lacked auditory input since birth, may struggle with comprehension and speech because their auditory cortex has taken on the processing of other senses, such as touch and vision. These changes may make it more challenging for the auditory cortex to recover auditory processing function after cochlear implantation. Being able to measure how much the auditory cortex has been taken over by other sensory processing could offer doctors insights into the kinds of intervention programs that would help the brain retrain and devote more capacity to auditory processing.
|
Fossil find of ancient life 'nursery'
By (UPI)
|
. . .
Researchers from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, in collaboration with the Memorial University of Newfoundland, discovered more than 100 fossils in Newfoundland rocks of what are believed to be "baby" rangeomorphs, bizarre frond-shaped organisms that lived 580 million to 550 million years ago that were unlike any creature alive today,
The fossils are evidence of life from the mysterious Ediacaran period, 635 million to 542 million years ago, in which the first animals -- complex multi cellular organisms -- appeared, an Oxford release reported Monday.
. . .
"We think that, around 579 million years ago, an underwater 'nursery' of baby Ediacaran fronds was overwhelmed, Pompeii-style, by an ash fall from a volcanic eruption on a nearby island that smothered and preserved them for posterity."
|
HPV vaccine provides 'herd immunity'
By (UPI)
|
The human papillomavirus vaccine has reduced the infection in immunized U.S. teens, but also in teens not immunized, U.S. researchers found.
. . .
Herd protection is a decrease in infection rates among unimmunized individuals that occurs when a critical mass of people in a community is immunized against a contagious disease.
. . .
The study, published online in the journal Pediatrics, found the prevalence of vaccine-type HPV decreased 58 percent overall, from 31.7 percent to 13.4 percent. The decrease was high among vaccinated participants -- 69 percent -- but also was substantial for those who were unvaccinated at 49 percent.
|
Crackpots, geniuses, and how to tell the difference
By Maggie Koerth-Baker
|
Over at Download the Universe, Ars Technica science editor John Timmer reviews a science ebook whose science leaves something to be desired. Written by J. Marvin Herndon, a physicist, Indivisible Earth presents an alternate theory that ostensibly competes with plate tectonics. Instead of Earth having a molten core and a moveable crust, Herndon proposes that this planet began its existence as the core of a gas giant, like Jupiter or Saturn. Somehow, Earth lost its thick layer of gas and the small, dense core expanded, cracking as it grew into the continents we know today. What most people think are continental plate boundaries are, to Herndon, simply seams where bits of planet ripped apart from one another.
. ..
I noticed something else here, as well: The similarities in the way different kinds of badly done science often work. Even though Herndon can't present evidence supporting his theory, he can tell a good story about it. If I'm honest, the idea that, once upon a time, Earth was a gas giant is pretty appealing. As a story. It makes our planet seem more impressive. It gives a sense of a secret history known only to a few. It connects to familiar sounding things: Gas giants and Earth. And, if you don't know all the astronomical background that Timmer does, it sounds plausible.
. . .
I think that it can be legitimately really hard to tell the difference between science and pseudoscience. We want to know about the world around us. We often need scientific data to make useful decisions in our lives. But we can't just go out and do all the research ourselves because we have other stuff to do. We're each busy with our own area of expertise and don't have time to become experts in every question we're ever going to need an answer for. Specialization of labor is a bitch like that. At a certain point, we have to trust people who are experts in a given field to tell us what they've learned.
|
Cranberry juice 'can protect against urine infections'
By Michelle Roberts
|
Drinking cranberry juice to prevent urine infections does work say medical experts who have found scientific backing for this folk remedy.
. . .
But experts warn that the amount people must consume to gain this benefit - a couple of glasses daily for months or years - may be unacceptable to some.
. . .
Cranberries contain a substance that can prevent certain bacteria from sticking on the walls of the bladder, studies show. These bacteria, called E. coli, cause over 80% of all urinary tract infections.
. . .
The researchers who carried out the latest review found cranberry juice and other products containing cranberries that are sold in pharmacies can ward off some of these E.coli infections.
|
|
|
|
Technology |
|
Graphene Repairs Holes By Knitting Itself Back Together, Say Physicists
By The Physics arXiv Blog
|
The graphene revolution is upon us. If the visionaries are to be believed, the next generation of more or less everything is going to be based on this wonder material--sensors, actuators, transistors and information processors and so on. There seems little that graphene can't do.
But there's one fly in the ointment. Nobody has yet worked out how to make graphene in large, reliable quantities or how to carve and grow it into the shapes necessary for the next generation of devices.
. . .
Novoselov and co say the structure of the repaired area depends on the form in which the carbon is available. So when available as a hydrocarbon, the repairs tend to contain non-hexagonal defects where foreign atoms have entered the structure.
. . .
But there are significant challenges ahead. One important question is how quickly these processes occur and whether they can be controlled with the precision and reliability necessary for device manufacture.
|
The Internet of Things, Soon Accessible by Smartphone
By David Talbot
|
The heady day when the shrink-wrap on your broccoli can be scanned by your smartphone for the latest recipes just moved a bit closer.
Thinfilm, a Norwegian company, is putting printed wireless transmitters together with existing printed logic, memory, sensor, and battery systems on product packaging. . .
. . .
Thinfilm has already put printed memory together with printed transistors on the same sheet of plastic in a partnership with PARC, and had previously announced plans to include printed batteries and printed displays, too.
|
Google boss: China net censorhip will fail
By (UPI)
|
Dubbed the Great Firewall of China, China's attempt to restrict the flow of information into and out of the country will eventually fail, and when it does the country will experience political and social openness on a huge scale, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said in an interview at the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival last week.
. . .
Technological advances and people's desire for information and freedom would eventually overcome it, CNET.com reported Schmidt as saying.
. . .
"The natural next question is when [will China change], and no one knows the answer to that question. [But] in a long enough time period, do I think that this kind of regime approach will end? I think absolutely."
|
San Francisco city agencies plan to boycott Apple
By Amy Silverstein
|
Do you work for the city of San Francisco? Your next work computer might be a PC. Apple recently decided to stop participating in a government program that encourages computer companies to go green. The San Francisco city government was not happy about this. So San Francisco fought back: city officials are now trying to get all San Francisco city agencies to boycott Apple computers, the Wall Street Journal reported.
. . .
In its proposed boycott, San Francisco isn't trying to be vengeful. Legally, the city would actually be required to stop buying Apple products. Under United States government rules, 95 percent of all electronics purchased by city agencies must have the EPEAT label, BBC News reported.
"We hope that the city saying it will not buy Apple products will make Apple reconsider its participation," Melanie Nutter, director of San Francisco’s Department of Environment, told the Wall Street Journal.
|
The LEDs of the Future Are Paper-Thin
By Jamie Condliffe
|
. . .
Researchers from Linköping University, Sweden, have just published work in Rapid Research Letters that reveals they're capable of growing white LEDs directly onto the surface of paper in very thin layers. That means that in the future, LED lighting could appear built into wallpaper, or even sewn directly into fabrics.
The trick is made possible using nanorods of zinc oxide, which are deposited onto a thin layer of polydiethylflourene, a conducting polymer. Magnus Willander, one of the researchers, explains:
"This is the first time anyone has been able to build electronic and photonic inorganic semiconducting components directly on paper using chemical methods."
|
Google Could Pay FTC $22.5 Million in Apple Safari Privacy Case
By Tiffany Kaiser
|
Google, which invaded the privacy settings of users of Apple's Safari browser, could pay as much as $22.5 million to the FTC for its actions.
. . .
Google was able to successfully get past Safari's browser settings for privacy, which attempts to block certain types of cookies. Safari accepts first-party cookies (the Web site the user is on) or second-party cookies (the user's browser), but blocks third-party cookies, which links the browser to an entirely different Web site. The mobile version of Safari, which can be found on iOS devices, has the ability to block all cookies or none at all.
. . .
Google responded to the charges by saying that the tracking was unintentional, and that no harm came from the company's inadvertent actions.
"The FTC is focused on a 2009 help center page," said Google. "We have now changed that page and taken steps to remove the ad cookies."
|
|
|
|
Cultural |
|
US man jailed for translating Thai king book freed
By TODD PITMAN
|
An American sentenced to two and a half years in Thai prison for translating a banned biography about the country's king and posting the content online has been freed by a royal pardon, the U.S. Embassy said Wednesday.
. . .
Joe Gordon was convicted in December for translating excerpts of the book "The King Never Smiles" from English into Thai. The punishment was a high-profile example of the severe sentences meted out here for defaming Thailand's royal family, an issue that has raised concern about freedom of expression in this Southeast Asian kingdom.
. . .
In the banned book, author Paul M. Handley retraces the king's life, alleging that he has been a major stumbling block to the progress of democracy in Thailand as he consolidated royal power over his long reign.
Gordon, who lived in the U.S. for about 30 years, was visiting his native country to seek treatment for arthritis and high blood pressure at the time of his arrest. After being repeatedly denied bail, he pleaded guilty in October last year in hopes of obtaining a lenient sentence. The judge said at the time that the punishment, initially set at five years, was reduced because of Gordon's plea.
|
The search for photos of China's past
By (BBC)
|
China's photographic record begins only in the 1970s because nearly all earlier pictures were destroyed. The ones that survived are mostly outside China, and a major effort is now under way to bring them together online, says Mary Ward-Lowery.
. . .
Such photographs are exceptionally rare in China. The turbulent history of the 20th Century meant that many archives were destroyed by war, invasion and revolution. Mao Zedong's government regarded the past as a "black" time, to be erased in favour of the New China. The Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s finished the job.
. . .
Bickers is leading a project to collect the photographs and make them freely available. It started when he put online a list of 2,000 British policemen who had worked in the Shanghai Municipal Police.
. . .
The British - businessmen, missionaries, customs officers and police - were everywhere, even in remote places where very few people even possessed a camera.
. . .
"These photos are an inadvertent legacy of that period of national humiliation, of British supremacy in China.
|
|
Meteor Blades is known to offer an enlightening Evening Open Diary - you might consider checking that out tonight if you haven't already. |