BEIJING (AP) ? A Chinese newborn who was rescued from a sewer pipe has been released to his family and his mother is unlikely to face criminal charges because authorities concluded he fell into the toilet after his birth accidentally, local officials and media reports said.
The baby was released from a hospital to his maternal grandparents late Wednesday, while his 22-year-old mother remains under medical care, the state-run Jinhua Evening News reported, in an account confirmed Thursday by a local police official who declined to give his name.
The baby's stunning, two-hour rescue from a pipe underneath a squat toilet in Zhejiang province's Pujiang county captivated the world, prompting both horror and an outpouring of charity on his behalf.
The mother initially raised the alarm about the baby when he got stuck Saturday in a pipe just below a squat toilet in a public restroom of a residential building, but she had cleaned the room of signs of a fresh birth and did not immediately come forward as the mother, officials have been quoted as saying.
She admitted she was the mother two days later when confronted by police who found baby toys and blood-stained tissues in her apartment, the reports said.
Police later concluded that the incident was an accident and that the woman did not initially come forward because she was frightened, but that she later started telling the truth, the Jinhua Evening News and a Pujiang county propaganda official said. The police initially treated the case as a possible attempted homicide, but now are unlikely to file criminal charges, the newspaper and the official said.
A man tracked down by police who is believed to be the baby's father has requested a paternity test and ? if the baby is his ? is willing to help support the child, said the Pujiang official, who declined to give his name, as is customary among Chinese officials.
Officials have not publicly released the names of anyone connected with the case, which has raised discussion over China's lack of proper education about sex, birthing and contraception in many schools. Unwanted pregnancies have been on the rise because of an increasingly lax attitude toward premarital sex.
Duan Wanjin, a criminal lawyer based in Xi'an, said local police erred in not prosecuting the mother. He said she could be charged with attempted homicide for not immediately calling for help after the newborn became stuck.
"The local police may have considered the woman was still young and did not have any malice, and have come to the decision from the human perspective, but it sends a terrible signal to the public," Duan said.
Sociologist Li Yinhe said the only mistake by the woman was not to immediately admit the baby was hers. "I don't think that's a big deal. After all, the child is safe, and it has a happy ending," Li said. "The Chinese people still lean heavily on the human considerations. Let it be bygones if there's no serious crime."
The woman told police she got pregnant after a brief affair with the man, hid her pregnancy from family and neighbors, and secretly delivered the child Saturday in a rental building's restroom. She said the infant accidentally slipped into the squat toilet and ? after cleaning up the scene ? raised the alarm.
Firefighters who arrived at the rental building found the infant trapped in an L-shaped section of sewage pipe just below the squat toilet in one of the building's shared restrooms.
In video footage, officials were shown removing the pipe from a ceiling that apparently was just below the restroom and then, at the hospital, using pliers and saws to gently pull apart the pipe, which was about 10 centimeters (3 inches) in diameter.
The baby, who weighed 2.8 kilograms (6 pounds, 3 ounces), had a low heart rate and some minor abrasions on his head and limbs, but was mostly uninjured, according to local reports. The placenta was still attached.
SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (AP) ? A wildfire that broke out near a power station and utility lines north of Los Angeles burned out of control Thursday, but improved firefighting conditions after nightfall slowed its growth and residents were allowed to return to homes they had evacuated, officials said.
The fire in the Angeles National Forest surged to 1,000 acres and sent out big clouds of black smoke amid afternoon temperatures in the high 80s and winds gusting at more than 20 mph.
Homes in the mountain community of Green Valley were evacuated, but the order was canceled about five hours later as temperatures and winds dipped and the fire largely laid down, the U.S. Forest Service said in a statement. It's not clear how many homes were affected, but about 1,000 people live in the area.
But there was still no containment of the blaze that had plenty of fuel to consume.
"The growth potential of this fire is great," said Forest Service spokeswoman Sherry Rollman. "It's burning medium to thick brush on steep slopes."
About 500 firefighters were assigned to the scene.
Both Southern California Edison and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said the fire was threatening their facilities and they were monitoring the blaze for potential problems, though none had been reported.
The lines that were in danger were transmission lines not distribution lines, and major outages were unlikely, LADWP officials said.
The blaze broke out at about 3:30 p.m. Thursday, just north of Powerhouse No. 1, a hydroelectric plant near the LA aqueduct that has been operating for nearly a century.
One structure has burned but it was not immediately clear what it was.
Further north near Santa Barbara, a fire that burned nearly 2,000 acres in the Los Padres National Forest and forced the evacuation of thousands of campers when it broke out on Memorial Day was fully contained Thursday.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center / Axel Mellinger
From now through October, comet ISON tracks through constellations Gemini, Cancer and Leo as it zips toward the sun.
By Joe Rao Space.com
As astronomers track a possible "comet of the century" in the coming months, they might need to recall an old adage:?"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
When it was first sighted last September by two Russian amateur astronomers, Comet ISON was located some 620 million miles (1 billion kilometers) from the sun. At the time, it was hovering at around 18th magnitude on the brightness scale ? about 100,000 times fainter than the faintest star visible to the unaided eye.?
While that is extremely faint, ISON was still glowing rather brightly for a comet so far from the sun. When it was determined that the comet would eventually "graze" the sun, coming within 730,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) ?of the solar surface on Nov. 28, 2013, the implication was that ISON would become superbright ? possibly matching the brilliance of a full moon. [See Photos of Comet ISON in the Night Sky]
Remember Kohoutek? If you're of a certain age, this story might have a familiar ring. Indeed, exactly 40 years ago, a comet by the name of Kohoutek was also discovered at a tremendously large distance from the sun, en route to a close solar encounter in late December 1973.
Like ISON, Kohoutek was expected to dazzle ? perhaps more than 100 times brighter than Venus. It, too, was dubbed "the comet of the century," but in the end, Kohoutek turned out to be much dimmer and put on a rather disappointing show.?
Members of the media referred to Comet Kohoutek as ?Ko-hoax-tek,? and the recriminations were rather nasty for astronomers, who had promised a holiday light show in the sky.
NASA, ESA, J.-Y. Li (Planetary Science Institute), and the Hubble Comet ISON Imaging Science Team
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of Comet ISON was taken on April 10, 2013, when the comet was slightly closer than Jupiter's orbit at a distance of 386 million miles from the sun (394 million miles from Earth).
When Johnny Carson, who liked to think of himself as an amateur astronomer, welcomed astronomer Carl Sagan as a guest on the "Tonight Show," the comedian balked at Kohoutek?s poor showing. "Comet of the century?" quipped Carson, "This thing wouldn't have made comet of the week!"
Going nowhere Although Comet ISON won't begin its rendezvous with the sun for another six months, astronomers say the comet will put on a stupendous display. But as was the case with Kohoutek, there?s a possibility that Comet ISON may not live up to its heralded expectations.
Comet ISON has apparently stopped brightening since the beginning of this year. After increasing more than sixfold in apparent brightness since its discovery, the comet has remained at 16th magnitude since Jan. 2; its brightening trend has, for all intents and purposes, flatlined.?
Using CCD camera imagery, astronomer Faustino Garcia has developed the "observadores-cometas" light curve here for a photometric aperture of 10 inches.
The solid red line depicts the original brightening forecast for the comet; the dates at the bottom of the graph give the day, followed by the month and then the year ? so the final date"19/05/13? corresponds to May 19, 2013.
Celestial deception Comet ISON is apparently a "new" comet ? a comet making its first trip around the sun ? that has originated from the Oort cloud, a realm of icy objects that extends ?perhaps one to two light-years from the sun, where billions of comets may reside.
Such a comet has never been exposed to the light and heat of the sun, and may possess a thin "frosting" of volatile material that vaporizes at a great distance from the sun and initially gives a false impression that it is dynamically large and active. After the frosting evaporates, the comet stops brightening. This is what may have happened with ISON.
Astronomers probably won?t know what will happen to ISON until the comet gets close enough to the sun for any frozen water locked within its 3-mile-wide (4.8 km) nucleus to begin to sublimate (go from a solid to a gaseous state).
This process could get ISON back on a brightening trend. ISON will need to come within 280 million to 230 million miles (450 million to 370 million km) of the sun for this to happen, but it won?t arrive within this distance range until sometime between July 8 and Aug. 12.?
Until then, consider Comet ISON to be in a "holding pattern." It still has a chance of becoming a celestial showpiece by later this year, but it could just as easily end up following the ill-fated Kohoutek as a celestial flop.
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for "Natural History" magazine, the "Farmer's Almanac" and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, N.Y. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Copyright 2013 Space.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Michele Bachmann, a Tea Party firebrand and 2012 presidential contender, announced on Wednesday she will not seek re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives but said her surprise decision had nothing to do with multiple investigations into her campaign finances.
Bachmann, a conservative Minnesota Republican whose outspoken style and sharp criticism of President Barack Obama made her a prominent and polarizing national figure, did not give a specific reason for stepping down. But she said she was not ducking the likelihood of a difficult re-election fight in her suburban Minneapolis district.
Bachmann, 57, faced a probable rematch next year with Democrat Jim Graves, who came within 1 percentage point of beating her in 2012 in a congressional district that was carried easily by Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney.
"My decision was not influenced by any concerns about my being re-elected," Bachmann said in an 8-1/2 minute video announcement posted on her campaign website in which she sat in front of a bookcase and spoke over light rock music reminiscent of political ads.
Bachmann also said the decision was "not impacted in any way by the recent inquiries" into her 2012 White House campaign, which is the subject of at least five federal and state investigations into potential campaign finance violations.
The Federal Election Commission, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Office of Congressional Ethics, the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee and a local Iowa police department are looking into allegations about the campaign.
A former Bachmann staffer has alleged that an Iowa state senator who was chairman of Bachmann's campaign received third-party payments for his work from another company in order to sidestep Iowa Senate ethics rules.
Another allegation involves the possible theft and misuse of an email distribution list maintained by an Iowa home-school group. As a candidate, Bachmann courted voters involved in the home-schooling movement.
The investigations are not likely to be affected by the announcement by Bachmann, who will serve in Congress until January 2015. An Iowa Supreme Court justice appointed a special investigator to look into the allegations.
"It was clearly understood that compliance with all rules and regulations was an absolute necessity for my presidential campaign, and I have no reason to believe that that was not the case," Bachmann said in the video.
'MENTALLY TAXING'
Bachmann's decision to retire probably will make it easier for Republicans to hold the seat in a heavily Republican district that Romney won by 15 percentage points in 2012.
"She was still favored for re-election to Congress by virtue of her district being so Republican, but all of those problems she faced had to be physically and mentally taxing," Minnesota Republican strategist Ben Golnik said.
Her retirement completes a stunning fall for Bachmann, whose penchant for inflammatory rhetoric shot her to national prominence and made her an early favorite of the conservative Tea Party movement.
Bachmann's presidential bid got off to a quick start in 2011 when she won the Iowa straw poll, seen as a traditional test of strength in the state that kicks off the presidential nominating contest. But Texas Governor Rick Perry entered the Republican race on the same day, and he quickly soaked up much of her conservative support.
Bachmann's campaign faded quickly; she finished a distant sixth in the Iowa caucus vote in January 2012, prompting her to drop out of the race the next day.
She remained a prominent conservative voice, however, although one known for inflammatory and sometimes inaccurate takes on national issues.
While she helped elevate opposition to Obama's healthcare overhaul to a touchstone issue for Republicans, she often was mocked during the presidential campaign for her outrageous or incorrect statements.
She confused the late actor John Wayne with serial killer John Wayne Gacy, praised the United States' Founding Fathers for ending slavery - which actually ended nearly a century after the nation was founded - and suggested that a crowd sing "Happy Birthday" to the late singer Elvis Presley on the anniversary of his death.
More seriously, she suggested that a vaccine for a virus linked to cervical cancer led to "retardation," and last year was criticized for accusing Huma Abedin, an adviser to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a conservative Islamist group.
Her decision not to seek a fifth two-year term in Congress came as a shock to Republicans in her district, who said she had shown no signs that she would not run. Bachmann aired her first campaign commercial this month, earlier than usual for a House campaign and a sign that she had not been planning her retirement for long.
"I fully expected her to run again and to win again," Minnesota Republican Party Chairman Keith Downey said.
Democrats were quick to pounce on Bachmann's announcement, sending out a fundraising appeal within hours touting her "crazy" Web video and proclaiming that Republicans were wondering "who's next to go."
In her video, Bachmann thanked her husband, five children and 23 foster children and said she would dedicate the rest of her congressional term to fighting for "traditional marriage, family values, religious liberty and academic excellence."
She did not rule out a future run for public office, but analysts suggested that conservative talk radio or television talk shows were a more likely avenue for her future.
"She stirs the pot like few politicians do. There are ways to make a lot of money and have a career without running for public office again," said political scientist Steven Schier of Carleton College in Minnesota.
"When you are flamboyant, divisive and controversial, you limit your appeal with the broader electorate," he said. "That's the lesson of Michele Bachmann's career."
(Reporting by John Whitesides; Additional reporting by Fred Barbash and Laura MacInnis; Editing by David Lindsey and Eric Beech)
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This summer, Austin families are invited to join Move Your Tale for free, improvised shows at ColdTowne Theatre. ?Shows are interactive, so be ready to influence the comedic direction of the stories being acted out onstage. ?Choose from Cirque du Steve, for the kiddie set, or Teen Improv Nights for older kids. There is fun to be had for all ages! Cirque du Steve!
An interactive, improvised circus for kids featuring Steve Scott, the improvising poodle.
Saturdays at 10 a.m.? June 8, 15 and 22 and July 6, 13, 20 and 27, 2013? (No show June 29th)
The cast of What?s the Story Steve presents the silliest summer circus on Earth!?Don?t just go see an elephant, become the elephant. Audience members are?invited to help create an original show each week, providing suggestions, creating?characters, and even jumping onstage to participate in the show. Stay after the show on June 8th for a post-show carnival and dance party. Face?painting, circus games and the musical stylings of DJ Drew.
Teen Improv Night Sundays?at 5 p.m. June 9, 16 and 23, July 7, 14, 21 and 28 and August 4, 11 and 18, 2013? (No show June 30th) Sunday evenings at 5 p.m., Move Your Tale at ColdTowne Theater invites a troupe?of young performers and an established adult troupe to improvise original shows. Following the shows, audience members are invited to join the performers onstage for?an improv jam. See improv done by your peers and by seasoned adult performers, then?jump up onstage and give it a try! Pay what you wish. For more information, visit the Move Your Tale website.
Study helps explain growing education gap in mortality among US white womenPublic release date: 30-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Daniel Fowler pubinfo@asanet.org 202-527-7885 American Sociological Association
WASHINGTON, DC, May 28, 2013 Less-educated white women were increasingly more likely to die than their better-educated peers from the mid-1990s through the mid-2000s, according to a new study, which found that growing disparities in economic circumstances and health behaviorsparticularly employment status and smoking habitsacross education levels accounted for an important part of the widening mortality gap.
"Based on the information we get from the news, it seems that life expectancy just keeps going up, and we're all riding this wave," said Jennifer Karas Montez, the lead author of the study and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at Harvard University. "But, the reality is, life expectancy is not increasing for everyone. In fact, for low-educated white women, it appears to be declining. And, this is disturbing."
Titled, "Explaining the Widening Education Gap in Mortality among U.S. White Women," the study, which appears in the June issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, relied on National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality File data on 46,744 white women aged 45-84 from 1997-2006.
Montez and co-author Anna Zajacova, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wyoming, divided the women into two groups: those without a high school credential ("low educated") and those with at least a high school credential ("high educated"). The researchers found that the odds of dying among low-educated white women were 37 percent greater than among their high-educated peers during 1997-2001, and 66 percent greater during 2002-2006.
"Previous research has shown that over the past half century, the gap in adult mortality across education levels has grown in the United States for white and black men and women, and since the mid-1980s, the growth has been especially pronounced among white women," said Montez. "Those of us who have studied this disturbing trend have been really good at documenting it, but we have not been very good at explaining why it is happening. The reasons for the growing mortality gap are poorly understood."
Montez said the few attempts researchers have made to try to explain the growing gap in adult mortality across education levels have focused on trends in specific causes of death or in health behaviors, and generally concluded that diverging smoking patterns played an important role. They have not revealed why diverging health behavioral patterns emerged, nor have they addressed non-behavioral explanations such as economic policy, labor market participation, and social integration.
"In our study, we focused on white women aged 45 to 84 years and examined three explanations social-psychological factors, economic circumstances, and health behaviors for the widening education gap in mortality from 1997 to 2006," Montez said. "We found that social-psychological factors contributed little to the increasing gap. However, economic circumstances and health behaviors played important roles."
Among eight components of economic circumstances (employment, occupation, poverty, home ownership, and health insurance) and health behaviors (smoking, obesity, and alcohol consumption) tested in the study, two employment and smoking were by far the most important contributors to the widening gap, Montez said.
"The role of employment is intriguing and, to our knowledge, has not been previously examined as a potential explanation of the growing education gap in mortality," Montez said. "Employment matters a lot is what the data is telling us, and that has implications for what can be done to stop the troubling trend. Employment provides both manifest and latent benefits, such as social networks and a sense of purpose. It also enhances self-esteem and offers mental and physical activity. Access to social networks and support through employment may have become more important in recent decades, with high divorce rates, smaller families, and geographic mobility disrupting other avenues of support."
Given previous research that identifies diverging smoking patterns as an explanation for the growing education gap in mortality among white women Montez said, "It it would have been problematic had our study not found that smoking was important."
According to Montez, the study has several policy implications. "Disparities in longevity in the United States have grown during the last several decades, despite major policy initiatives to eliminate the disparities," she said. "This study suggests that a promising strategy for reversing the trend among women should focus on employment, specifically on implementing work-family policies for example, paid parental leave and subsidized childcare to mitigate the obstacles that women disproportionately face in combining employment and childrearing. The obstacles are particularly high for low-educated women, who tend to have low-paying jobs with inflexible schedules."
Continued policy efforts to reduce smoking may also stem the growing longevity gap, Montez said. "However, these efforts must go beyond conventional tobacco controls oriented at changing individual behavior and instead address the adverse conditions faced by low-educated women that shape smoking behavior," she said.
###
This research was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar Program at Harvard University and a National Institutes of Health grant.
About the American Sociological Association and the Journal of Health and Social Behavior
The American Sociological Association, founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society. The Journal of Health and Social Behavior is a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal of the ASA.
The research article described above is available by request for members of the media. For a copy of the full study, contact Daniel Fowler, ASA's Media Relations and Public Affairs Officer, at (202) 527-7885 or pubinfo@asanet.org.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Study helps explain growing education gap in mortality among US white womenPublic release date: 30-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Daniel Fowler pubinfo@asanet.org 202-527-7885 American Sociological Association
WASHINGTON, DC, May 28, 2013 Less-educated white women were increasingly more likely to die than their better-educated peers from the mid-1990s through the mid-2000s, according to a new study, which found that growing disparities in economic circumstances and health behaviorsparticularly employment status and smoking habitsacross education levels accounted for an important part of the widening mortality gap.
"Based on the information we get from the news, it seems that life expectancy just keeps going up, and we're all riding this wave," said Jennifer Karas Montez, the lead author of the study and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at Harvard University. "But, the reality is, life expectancy is not increasing for everyone. In fact, for low-educated white women, it appears to be declining. And, this is disturbing."
Titled, "Explaining the Widening Education Gap in Mortality among U.S. White Women," the study, which appears in the June issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, relied on National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality File data on 46,744 white women aged 45-84 from 1997-2006.
Montez and co-author Anna Zajacova, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wyoming, divided the women into two groups: those without a high school credential ("low educated") and those with at least a high school credential ("high educated"). The researchers found that the odds of dying among low-educated white women were 37 percent greater than among their high-educated peers during 1997-2001, and 66 percent greater during 2002-2006.
"Previous research has shown that over the past half century, the gap in adult mortality across education levels has grown in the United States for white and black men and women, and since the mid-1980s, the growth has been especially pronounced among white women," said Montez. "Those of us who have studied this disturbing trend have been really good at documenting it, but we have not been very good at explaining why it is happening. The reasons for the growing mortality gap are poorly understood."
Montez said the few attempts researchers have made to try to explain the growing gap in adult mortality across education levels have focused on trends in specific causes of death or in health behaviors, and generally concluded that diverging smoking patterns played an important role. They have not revealed why diverging health behavioral patterns emerged, nor have they addressed non-behavioral explanations such as economic policy, labor market participation, and social integration.
"In our study, we focused on white women aged 45 to 84 years and examined three explanations social-psychological factors, economic circumstances, and health behaviors for the widening education gap in mortality from 1997 to 2006," Montez said. "We found that social-psychological factors contributed little to the increasing gap. However, economic circumstances and health behaviors played important roles."
Among eight components of economic circumstances (employment, occupation, poverty, home ownership, and health insurance) and health behaviors (smoking, obesity, and alcohol consumption) tested in the study, two employment and smoking were by far the most important contributors to the widening gap, Montez said.
"The role of employment is intriguing and, to our knowledge, has not been previously examined as a potential explanation of the growing education gap in mortality," Montez said. "Employment matters a lot is what the data is telling us, and that has implications for what can be done to stop the troubling trend. Employment provides both manifest and latent benefits, such as social networks and a sense of purpose. It also enhances self-esteem and offers mental and physical activity. Access to social networks and support through employment may have become more important in recent decades, with high divorce rates, smaller families, and geographic mobility disrupting other avenues of support."
Given previous research that identifies diverging smoking patterns as an explanation for the growing education gap in mortality among white women Montez said, "It it would have been problematic had our study not found that smoking was important."
According to Montez, the study has several policy implications. "Disparities in longevity in the United States have grown during the last several decades, despite major policy initiatives to eliminate the disparities," she said. "This study suggests that a promising strategy for reversing the trend among women should focus on employment, specifically on implementing work-family policies for example, paid parental leave and subsidized childcare to mitigate the obstacles that women disproportionately face in combining employment and childrearing. The obstacles are particularly high for low-educated women, who tend to have low-paying jobs with inflexible schedules."
Continued policy efforts to reduce smoking may also stem the growing longevity gap, Montez said. "However, these efforts must go beyond conventional tobacco controls oriented at changing individual behavior and instead address the adverse conditions faced by low-educated women that shape smoking behavior," she said.
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This research was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar Program at Harvard University and a National Institutes of Health grant.
About the American Sociological Association and the Journal of Health and Social Behavior
The American Sociological Association, founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society. The Journal of Health and Social Behavior is a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal of the ASA.
The research article described above is available by request for members of the media. For a copy of the full study, contact Daniel Fowler, ASA's Media Relations and Public Affairs Officer, at (202) 527-7885 or pubinfo@asanet.org.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
They're still in use by musicians today, but those full-size electronic drum pads seemed to have hit their peak with consumers sometime in the mid-80s, alongside Casio's ubiquitous electronic keyboards. But if you're feeling nostalgic, and handy with a soldering iron, this miniature DIY modern alternative won't end up collecting dust in the corner of your basement when you get bored of it?maybe a drawer instead.
It's time once again to rank the most powerful people in mobile advertising. And, as usual, we want your input.
Take a look at last year's list, and also our list of the most powerful women in mobile advertising. And then tell us who should be on the list this year.
Perhaps just as important, tell us who from last year should NOT make this year's ranking.
Here are the rules:
You can nominate executives in the ad agency business, from ad sales businesses, from networks and exchanges, and from device companies and wireless carriers -- as long as mobile ads are the core of their job.
You must ALSO nominate two other executives from different or competing companies, to ensure that your nominations aren't self-serving. Those last two nominations will be treated in confidence -- no one will know who you named from other companies.
Then send an email to jedwards@businessinsider.com explaining why you believe the executive should be on the list. Consider their achievements, the size of the business they run, and consider how closely watched they are by executives at competing companies. We will weight in favor of hard numbers over percentages, and actual dollars over "reach." (Self-serving nominations, and nominations that contain mushy, non-specific metrics will be weighted against the nominee.)
Lastly, if you have a nice, big photo of the executive, please attach that to your email along with photo credit information and confirmation that we can publish it should the executive make the list.
DEADLINE FOR NOMINATIONS: June 7.
We'll combine all your nominations with our own research and contacts in the mobile ad industry, and when we feel our data is sufficiently complete, we'll publish a ranking of the most powerful people in mobile advertising.
FILE - In this May 17, 2013 file photo, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Dave Camp speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. The storm engulfing the Internal Revenue Service over agents targeting conservative political groups could provide a much-needed boost to members of Congress working to simplify an outdated tax code that is so complicated most Americans hire someone fill out their returns. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
FILE - In this May 17, 2013 file photo, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Dave Camp speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. The storm engulfing the Internal Revenue Service over agents targeting conservative political groups could provide a much-needed boost to members of Congress working to simplify an outdated tax code that is so complicated most Americans hire someone fill out their returns. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
FILE - In this April 17, 2013 file photo, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington. The storm engulfing the Internal Revenue Service over agents targeting conservative political groups could provide a much-needed boost to members of Congress working to simplify an outdated tax code that is so complicated most Americans hire someone fill out their returns. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The storm engulfing the Internal Revenue Service could provide a boost for lawmakers who want to simplify U.S. tax laws ? a code that is so complicated most Americans buy commercial software to help them or simply hire someone else to do it all.
Members of Congress from both political parties say the current uproar ? over the targeting of conservative political groups ? underscores that overly complex tax provisions have given the IRS too much discretion in interpreting and enforcing the law.
"This is the perfect example of why we need tax reform," said Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. "If you want to diminish and limit the power of the IRS, you have got to reduce the complexity of the tax code and take them out of it."
There are still formidable obstacles to completing a major tax overhaul this year or next. Democrats and Republicans start off with opposite views on whether the government should levy more taxes and on who should pay what share. The two sides also don't trust one another, making it difficult to envision agreement on which popular tax breaks to keep and which to scrap.
Most taxpayers pay someone to do their taxes or they buy commercial software to help them file. In a report earlier this year, national taxpayer advocate Nina E. Olson ranked complexity as the most serious problem facing both taxpayers and the IRS. People simply trying to comply with the rules often make inadvertent errors and overpay or underpay, she said, while others "often find loopholes that enable them to reduce or eliminate their tax liabilities."
The IRS scandal has little, if anything, to do with most everyday taxpayers, yet some lawmakers hope the attention will help galvanize support for the first major tax overhaul since 1986.
A little over two weeks ago, the IRS revealed that agents assigned to a special team in Cincinnati had targeted tea party and other conservative groups for additional, often burdensome scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status. The targeting lasted more than 18 months during the 2010 and 2012 election campaigns, hindering the groups' ability to raise money, according to a report by the agency's inspector general.
The ensuing storm has cost two top IRS officials their jobs, and a third has been placed on paid administrative leave. Investigations by Congress and the Justice Department are underway.
The IRS was screening the groups' applications because agents were trying to determine their level of political activity. IRS regulations say that tax-exempt social welfare organizations can engage in some political activity but the activity cannot be their primary mission. It is a vague standard that agents struggled to apply, according to the inspector general's report. Lawmakers in both parties have complained for years that overtly political groups on the left and right have taken advantage of the rules, allowing them to claim tax-exempt status and hide the identities of their donors.
"There are countless political organizations at both ends of the spectrum masquerading as social welfare groups in order to skirt the tax code," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. "Once the smoke of the current controversy clears, we need to examine the root of this issue and reform the nation's vague tax laws pertaining to these groups."
Baucus' counterpart in the House, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, said he, too, thinks the scandal could boost efforts to simplify the tax code.
"The complexity of the law didn't require the IRS to target people for their political beliefs," said Camp, a Michigan Republican. But, he added, "I think giving the IRS less discretion is going to be important, and that's what a simplified code would do."
Camp and Baucus have been working for months on the herculean task of simplifying a tax code that has undergone about 5,000 changes since 2001. At nearly 4 million words, Camp likes to say the code is "10 times the size of the Bible with none of the good news."
Their committees have held dozens of hearings over the past two years and the two chairmen have started a website, taxreform.gov, where they solicit ideas from readers on how to change the laws. Camp has created bipartisan working groups of Ways and Means committee members to develop options for simplifying the various sections of the tax code. He has published several preliminary proposals.
Some Republicans hope to use an upcoming debate over increasing the federal government's borrowing authority to trigger action on tax change. The government is expected to reach the limit of its borrowing authority by early fall, raising the possibility of another debt standoff like the one in 2011 that brought it to the brink of default.
Details are fluid, but congressional aides have been working on mechanisms to streamline the process of passing a tax package, in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, perhaps guaranteeing floor votes on bills approved by the tax-writing committees in the House and Senate. Camp and Baucus chair those committees.
President Barack Obama, however, has said he won't negotiate over raising the debt ceiling.
Obama has called for an overhaul of corporate taxes, and he laid some groundwork to accomplish that in his latest budget proposal. The president has also said he wants to do comprehensive tax reform as part of a broad budget deal that cuts spending and reformulates entitlement programs. Such a grand bargain has proven elusive.
Camp and Baucus say they are open to a process that links tax reform to the debt ceiling. But Baucus warns, "I don't want to be part of something that's political or partisan. But I do want to be part of something that's practical and pragmatic that looks like it's going to advance the ball."
Baucus, who has been in the Senate since 1978, announced in April he won't run for re-election in 2014. He said he will focus much of his remaining time in the Senate trying to steer a tax package through Congress.
Camp says he is committed to passing a tax bill out of his committee by the end of the year. There is no guarantee the full House would take up the bill, but Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has signaled his support for the effort by reserving the prestigious bill number HR 1 for a tax overhaul measure.
Lawmakers in both parties are convinced that simpler, easier-to-understand tax laws would spur economic activity. But there are significant partisan differences.
The Republican recipe calls for reducing or eliminating tax breaks that benefit targeted taxpayers, and using all the additional revenue to reduce overall rates for everyone. At the end of the day, the tax system would raise about the same amount of money, but businesses could focus on being more efficient instead of trying to take advantage of targeted tax breaks, supporters say.
Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress also want to reduce or eliminate various tax breaks. Overall income tax rates would be lower, but the wealthy would pay more each year because they would lose certain exemptions, deductions and credits.
Choosing which tax breaks to scale back is a big hurdle. For all of the work Camp and Baucus have done building support for the idea of tax reform, they have yet to answer hard questions about which breaks to scrap.
That's because Americans like their credits, deductions and exemptions ? the provisions that make the tax law so complicated in the first place. In exchange for lower tax rates, would workers be willing to pay taxes on employer-provided health benefits or on contributions to their retirement plans? How would homeowners feel about losing the mortgage interest deduction?
Those are among the three biggest tax breaks in the tax code, according to congressional estimates. Together, they are projected to save taxpayers nearly $300 billion this year.
"We're going to have to come to that," Baucus said. "Those are very big important questions and we're going to tackle them."
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Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap
The blue king crab season is coming to an end on the next episode of "The Deadliest Catch," and the event could mark the end of the line for one deck hand on The Northwestern.
A preview from Tuesday's night's episode reveals that just as Edgar Hansen closes his maiden voyage as captain, deck boss Jake Anderson considers leaving his band of brothers behind.
"Nobody got hurt," Hansen is seen boasting after the last of the crabs hit the deck. "We're still alive. Boat's still in one piece. We've got crab on the boat. That's pretty big."
Almost as big? The choice Anderson has to make.
"When I get home, I've got the biggest decision I'll ever make in my whole life," he tells the camera. "I can stay here and work with these guys, work on deck -- which I don't really like anymore."
Or he could jump ship -- literally -- to work on another boat.
Whatever he does, "it's going to make a lot of people unhappy," he adds.
See what lies ahead in this exclusive sneak peek:
"Deadliest Catch" airs May 28 at 9 p.m. on Discovery.
A team of researchers has developed a technique which uses mirror images signals to dramatically increase the accuracy?and speed?of data transmission across the internet.
The team explain in Nature Photonics how it's possible to send not one but two beams of light down a fiber cable: one the normal data signal, the other its mirror image?or, more accurately its phase conjugate. At the other end of the cable it's possible to recombine the signals in such a way that errors caused by noise in the signals is cancelled out.
The trick works in much the same way as noise-cancelling headphones, and crucially means that data can be transmitted much further before it becomes corrupted by interference. In fact, the paired beams are able to travel four times further than normal data streams, and the team has so far managed to achieve speed of 400Gb/s down 12,800km of optical fibre.
As ever, while it sounds like a wonderful idea in theory, transferring the technology to the real world will require extra infrastructure?and it's not clear that this is the best technique to use. But it's at least comforting to know that engineers around the world are at least coming up with new ideas to satisfy our insatiable appetite for bandwidth. [Nature Photonics via BBC via Verge]
I would do basically anything to try a bananaberry, kiwigerine or pinegrape. No matter how varied and colorful nature is, I will always want more delicious fruit options. And Ogilvy Brazil knows. They sense my weakness.
To sell Philips's new blender, the Walita Avance, Ogilvy Brazil designed this ad campaign . . . and created hybrid fruits without all the genetic mumbo jumbo. Molecular gastronomist Clecia Ribeiro pureed the fruit that was less structurally convenient, like strawberries, tangerines and grapes, and then combined the puree with thick-skinned fruits like bananas, kiwis and pineapples in a vacuum-sealed bag. The whole fruits had little incisions in them to allow the puree to enter and infuse flavor/color.
Not sure why this video is in the Nonprofits & Activism category on YouTube, but maybe it's just that crucial to give people of Sao Paulo the hybrid produce they want. [Design Taxi]
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's rising political star is a 61-year-old former Socialist whose message of changing the system from within is drawing voters in despair at economic ruin and official corruption in the euro zone's fourth biggest economy.
Lacking the raucous anti-establishment appeal of Italy's Beppe Grillo and Greek leftist hero Alexis Tsipras, Rosa Diez relies on sharp debate to deliver her reform message to a country pushed to the brink by the euro zone debt crisis.
Diez split from the Socialist party six years ago and formed the centrist Union for Democracy and Progress, or UPyD.
Polls show she is Spain's most highly regarded politician at a time when a quarter of workers are out of a job and public disenchantment with the political class is rising, as is the caseload of judges investigating allegations of official graft.
Projections by Metroscopia polling firm show that if elections were held now, Diez's party could take as many as 30 seats in the 350 seat parliament, up from five at present.
The former Communists the United Left could quadruple its presence to 48 seats, perhaps forcing one of Spain's two main political forces, the socialists or the centre-right People's Party, to form a coalition government for the first time.
Although the bigger parties will expect to win back support during campaigning for the 2015 vote, the growing impact of smaller parties is bringing about a dramatic and permanent change in the political landscape.
"The two-party system has suffocated democracy and people know that. A huge majority of Spanish citizens want a radical change in the political system," Diez said in an interview with Reuters.
She cultivates a maverick image - an asymmetrical haircut and each fingernail painted a different color - but her politics are far from revolutionary. She defines herself as a social-liberal who endorses free-market economics.
SPANISH EXCEPTION
When Spain returned to democracy in the 1970s after Francisco Franco's dictatorship, the electoral system was set up to guarantee stability by limiting proportionality and favoring two major parties.
Over the past 36 years the People's Party - which currently has an absolute majority in parliament - and the Socialists carved up power and controlled everything from savings banks to the justice system. To pass laws they counted on votes from nationalist parties from the wealthy Basque and Catalan regions, which received extensive self-governing powers in return.
The challenge to that long-running status quo in Spain reflects political upheaval all over Europe, where populists and extremists have tapped into public rejection of austerity measures, immigration, recession and unemployment.
In Britain, a far-right campaign to leave the European Union has gained ground; comedian-turned-activist Grillo has became a major force in Italy; and in Greece radical leftists and ultra-nationalists are growing in influence.
The economic picture in Spain is among the bleakest after a construction boom turned to bust, draining the banks and pushing up corporate insolvencies. Unemployment is around 27 percent. Madrid sought 42 billion euros in international assistance last year to put the financial system on an even keel.
But while the rise of smaller parties has meant destabilizing fragmentation and shaky coalitions in countries such as Italy and Greece, in Spain the recent shadow of fascism means there is little appetite for extremism.
Here, the increased weight of alternative voices could be a sign of maturing democracy, some observers say.
"It's going to be very difficult for the two big parties to recover legitimacy. Governing will be more difficult in the future but I'm skeptical of an Italian scenario. Spaniards are wary of extremism," said Antonio Barroso, a London-based political analyst at Teneo Intelligence, an advisory firm.
Diez's father was imprisoned for his political beliefs under Franco and she says she was "nursed on politics."
After Franco died and Spain finally held elections - in 1977 - Diez said "it was only logical" for her to run for office. She has been in politics ever since.
Still, she has managed to paint herself as an outsider and draw support from both the left and the right for her pro-European views and centrist line. She defines herself as a social-liberal who endorses free-market economics, progressive individual liberties and a social safety net.
"I voted for her because she's very charismatic. She's daring and different and I thought she would break barriers and do different things. I was totally disappointed with the two main parties," said Jose Miguel Delgado, 47, an industrial technician.
RECKLESS BANKS
Diez has tapped into public outrage over the costly bailout for banks that loaned recklessly during the real-estate boom.
"She has a great nose for social change and is able to convert that into party ideology," says a political rival who has worked with her in parliament for many years.
Diez's party has brought a lawsuit against former board members of Bankia, a major Spanish bank that almost collapsed last year and received the biggest bailout in the country's history.
The rescue came just as the government was cutting spending on hospitals and schools and rising numbers of Spaniards were out of work, defaulting on their mortgages and losing their homes.
The People's Party (PP) has seen its support dwindle to some 29 percent from 45 percent in the last elections as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy takes unpopular economic measures. His credibility was also damaged by allegations that high-level executives in his party channeled cash donations from business leaders to party leaders. A judge is investigating the charges.
PEOPLE'S HERO
Spaniards are turning not only to alternative political leaders like Diez and Lara. They are also increasingly involved with social movements.
A new hero to many is Ada Colau, 39, leader of an activist group called the Mortgage Victims Platform that helps jobless mortgage defaulters fight the banks. Last year 39,000 families left their homes because of mortgage problems. Of those almost 3,000 were forcibly evicted.
Barcelona-based Colau, frequently seen on television at protests outside banks, says a sign of the impact her group has had is that a director at one of Spain's biggest banks consulted with the Platform on an affordable housing proposal.
The Platform has an approval rating of 71 percent, according to a recent opinion poll, while politicians in general are the very lowest rated institution in all of Spain, with a disapproval rating of 93 percent.
The influence of the Platform has alarmed the PP government.
PP Secretary General Maria Dolores de Cospedal accused the Platform of demagoguery and said they should legitimize themselves by forming a political party, an idea Colau rejects.
"People stop me on the street and ask me to run for office," Colau told Reuters. "But if I did, the only thing I'd be able to do every now and again would be to have a tantrum in Parliament. I'd have much less influence than I have now."
LIMITED ROLE
Diez, meanwhile, enjoys a high profile due to her weekly show-downs with the prime minister in televised parliamentary debates. Spaniards gave Diez a grade of 3.96 in a survey this month by Metroscopia. Premier Rajoy got a grade of 2.44, while Socialist leader Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba got a 3.00, and no politician beat Diez.
While she's well-regarded now, she may find it hard to maintain a simultaneous role as rebel and political operator.
Critics say Diez's rise will be limited by her focus on returning powers to the central government that have been ceded to regional governments in Catalonia and Basque Country, and by a lack of detail in her economic policy.
Diez rejects the criticism, pointing to her initiatives to shut down public companies and unnecessary institutions, simplify employment contracts to make hiring and firing cheaper for corporations, and standardize business rules across Spain.
She does acknowledge it will be difficult for her party to break into the big time unless Spain reforms election laws that make it hard for minority parties to get representation anywhere except the largest cities, Madrid and Barcelona.
Experts are skeptical there is any political will to overhaul the electoral system and destroy the PP and Socialist power bases in local governments around the country.
"If you have a society in which most people are benefiting from protectionism or favours from the political system, it's very difficult to see how that same system is going to remove those," said Dr. Jonathan Hopkin, a politics expert at the London School of Economics.
One arena where the UPyD and the United Left can both shine is in European Parliamentary elections next year, where they are expected to gain significant numbers of seats because that vote is run on a strictly proportional basis.
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Our 60 Second Security videos are back!
In the last series, we produced episodes every two weeks; this time, we're hoping to publish a weekly roundup that's quick, fun and useful.
There is a serious side to these videos: we want to give you punchy computer security anecdotes to use in your own "elevator advocacy."
You probably know the feeling.
You get in the lift, sorry, elevator, with someone who's just had a run-in with IT over a security principle that you think is obvious, but they think is tiresome.
"Who cares about Windows updates? Why do I have to change my password? What's the big deal about privacy? Who's going to hack little old me?"
60 Second Security helps you fire back friendly answers to all those questions, long before you get to Level 11.
Here you go: watch the latest security news in just 60 seconds.
In this episode:
(If you enjoyed this video, you'll find plenty more on the SophosLabs YouTube channel.)
Tags: 60 Sec Security, 60 Second Security, 60 Seconds, 60SS, Congress, data breach, DDoS, FBI, Glass, Google, Japan, Patching, small biz, Small Business, yahoo
Paul Ducklin is a passionate security proselytiser. (That's like an evangelist, but more so!) He lives and breathes computer security, and would be happy for you to do so, too. Paul won the inaugural AusCERT Director's Award for Individual Excellence in Computer Security in 2009. Follow him on Twitter: @duckblog
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Public release date: 30-May-2013
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