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PARIS (AP) ? The man charged with reviving France's shrinking economy and attracting businesses to invest here is gaining a reputation for doing the opposite.
As the country's first-ever minister for industrial renewal, Arnaud Montebourg has told the world's largest steelmaker it is not welcome in France; exchanged angry letters with the head of an American tire company he was supposedly wooing; and scuttled Yahoo's offer to buy the majority of a video-sharing website.
Montebourg, a 50-year-old lawyer from Burgundy, is the public face of President Francois Hollande's plan to revitalize Europe's second-largest economy, which is in recession and grappling with 11 percent unemployment. The plan is to make the French economy more competitive globally ? especially for manufacturers ? by making it easier to fire workers, offering a payroll tax credit and investing in small businesses.
Economists have praised the labor reforms as a step in the right direction. But mostly they say France's economic plan is all wrong: It is too complicated; it favors a top-down approach to innovation; and it ignores some of the most serious problems plaguing France's economy, such as high labor costs.
And then there is Montebourg, whose public spats with international companies and efforts to block layoffs are making France look like an unappealing place to do business.
In fairness to Montebourg, he's not so much the problem as he is the symbol of it, analysts say. Even if Hollande were to replace him ? and that's looking increasingly likely ? it's unclear whether the substance of the industrial renewal strategy would change.
The sheer size of France's economy has cushioned it somewhat from the worst of Europe's debt crisis, which has brought depression-level unemployment to countries like Spain and Greece. It is home to many huge industrial companies, like EADS, parent company to plane-maker Airbus; Total, the world's fifth-largest investor-owned oil company; and Sanofi, the world's fourth-largest pharmaceutical company. France is also a cradle for design, high fashion and fine wine, embodied by world leaders like LVMH and L'Oreal.
But make no mistake, analysts warn: The French economy, which had no growth in 2012 and shrank at an annualized rate of 0.8 percent in the first three months of 2013, is in slow-motion free fall.
Profit margins at French companies are the lowest they have been in 30 years. In the past decade, one in six industrial jobs has been lost. And economists forecast unemployment will rise to 11.6 percent next year.
Hollande says the decline in French manufacturing ? from 16 percent of gross domestic product in 1999 to 10.7 percent a decade later ? is at the heart of his country's stagnation. Many European economies have seen a similar trend, but France's slide has been more pronounced than most. Reverse the decline, Hollande believes, and you reverse the stagnation.
"The goal of reindustrialization is a perfectly legitimate goal. The only question to ask for France is ... whether it's too late," says Elie Cohen, an economist at Sciences Po university in Paris. "It's probably too late."
Serge Lelard, who started a plastics company called Microplast in 1984, feels the same way. Montebourg, who buzzes around France touring businesses on a near-weekly basis, recently visited Microplast's factory outside Paris. He held it up as an example of the kind of small manufacturing businesses that France needs to keep and attract.
But Lelard is dismissive of the government's reindustrialization plan. He says there is too much talk and not enough action that addresses the competitive disadvantages French companies face in the global marketplace.
Microplast, which sells plastic bits that connect the wires in cars, has struggled along with the French auto industry. Lelard is pessimistic about the company's chances of survival.
France's economic challenges are rooted in government policies that protect workers at the expense of their employers. It has the highest payroll taxes in the European Union to fund generous health and retirement benefits. It has the highest tax on capital, which discourages investment. It aggressively fights companies that try to outsource jobs. And it makes firing an employee expensive and difficult.
These problems have existed for decades, but a growing global economy and France's control over its own currency and spending policies masked them. Slowly, however, those masks have been removed.
First, the euro was introduced at the turn of the millennium. Europe's strongest economies, like Germany, gained a competitive advantage: The value of the euro, held down by the weaker nations that used it, made German exports more affordable overseas. By contrast, countries like France suffered because the euro was valued more highly than their own currency, making French exports more expensive for buyers outside the eurozone.
Then the global recession dried up demand for French products at home and around the world. Finally, Europe's debt crisis prompted the government to cut spending and raise some taxes to reduce its budget deficit.
With these crutches pulled away, France's industry was pushed to its breaking point.
But Hollande, a Socialist, came to power last year by promising more of the same: He vowed to spark growth without cutting generous benefits.
There are three main planks to Hollande's reindustrialization plan: up to a 6 percent rebate for companies on some payroll taxes, labor reforms that make it easier to fire employees or cut their salaries during hard times, and a public investment bank with 42 billion euros ($55 billion) to invest in small businesses.
But new programs are announced frequently. Millions in grants and other incentives have been promised for everything from spurring the construction of electric cars to bringing robots to factory floors.
"That's exactly what you should not do. They're ... complicating instead of simplifying," says Anders Aslund, an economist with the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. Aslund says the government should avoid giving grants for specific industries and instead help all industries ? with permanent tax breaks, for example.
Last year, Montebourg unveiled a plan to give several hundred million euros in grants and tax credits to car companies and subcontractors in an effort to encourage the development of electric cars and batteries.
But economists say the French government should not try to invent successful sectors. Never mind that France is an unlikely place to incubate an auto revolution. Its car industry can't compete with global rivals like Volkswagen and Hyundai that have lower labor costs and stronger cultures of innovation. For example, French research institutions lack the strong links to industry that allow entrepreneurs in other countries to quickly convert lab discoveries into products.
The flip side of France's efforts to create booming new industries is its aversion to letting struggling ones die out.
"A saved job is always a victory," Montebourg, who is on the far left of the Socialist party, said at a recent lunch with journalists. He declined to be interviewed for this story.
But that's not how many economists see it. Part of Germany's success is its willingness to let some lower-level manufacturing jobs move to other countries, says Christian Ketels, a researcher at Harvard Business School. That allows German companies to stay competitive and keep high-skilled, higher-paid jobs at home.
"To my knowledge, France is really the only country in Europe that is upset about outsourcing," says Aslund.
One of the most glaring examples of this no-job-left-behind policy has been France's campaign to block steelmaker ArcelorMittal from shuttering the two blast furnaces at its processing plant in Lorraine, eastern France ? in spite of the fact that local mines are used up, it's far from ports and its furnaces are out of date.
That plant is "a perfect example of what you should close down," says Aslund.
Instead, Montebourg took up the cause, threatening to nationalize the plant and declaring that the company wasn't welcome in France. It's unclear how much of this rhetoric was in line with government policy ? the suggestions of nationalization were quickly struck down by the prime minister ? but the affair deeply bruised France's reputation as a serious place for business. In the end, the company will close the furnaces but other steel-processing operations at the plant will continue.
Montebourg also tried to save a Goodyear plant in northern France by asking American tire manufacturer Titan if it was willing to invest. The answer from Titan's CEO mocked France's work practices in an embarrassing public letter ? and Montebourg took the bait, shooting back an equally chest-thumping missive.
There looks to be little hope of saving the Goodyear plant, but litigation could drag on for months if not years.
Just this month, Montebourg vetoed Yahoo's attempt to take a 75 percent stake in video-sharing website, Dailymotion. Citing concerns about Yahoo's health as a company, Montebourg said the government, which owns a stake in Dailymotion's owner, France Telecom, would only approve a 50-50 deal. Yahoo walked away.
Business owners say that the government remains more of a hindrance than a help. There are too many regulations and too much paperwork even for mundane tasks.
But the fundamental problem French manufacturers face is simple: Workers get paid too much to make products that cost too little.
The French government argues that its hourly labor costs are not much higher than Germany's ? 34.20 euros per hour on average in 2012 versus 30.40 euros per hour, according to Eurostat. But France's range of products ? with some notable exceptions, like Chanel handbags or Moet & Chandon champagne ? is generally of a lower quality than Germany's.
In other words, if it costs the same to make a Peugeot as it does a BMW, guess which company is going to have more left over to reinvest in innovation? And investing in innovation is how you make a Peugeot more like a BMW.
And it's not even that France pays top dollar to attract the best workers. Its wages are above average, though not spectacularly so. But its payroll taxes are the highest in Europe.
The government's new "competitiveness tax credit," which will eventually give companies up to 6 percent back on some workers' salaries, is a step toward lessening this burden for a time. Early surveys, however, show few companies are taking advantage of it, according to study by consultancy Lowendalmasai.
How come? The paperwork is too complex.
___
Follow Sarah DiLorenzo at http://twitter.com/sdilorenzo.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/does-france-plan-revive-economy-092441481.html
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The all-new iMore show, the one I told you about yesterday, with the new day, time, format, and features, kicks off today at 12:30pm PT/3:30pm ET. I'll be co-hosting the show with our own Peter Cohen, and joining us will be Derek Kessler of Mobile Nations, and special guest Michael Simmons of Flexibits.
Want to be part of the show? Grab your iPhone or iPad, record a short (30 second) audio or video question or comment, and send it to imoreshow@mobilenations.com. Like, now!
Want to go full screen? Head to iMore.com/live. Want to watch via iPhone or iPad? Grab the Ustream app and search for "mobilenations". Want to subscribe to any or all of our shows? Head on over to our podcast page.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/_t3okN06mwk/story01.htm
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To Susana Soth, the scar tissue from her mastectomy six weeks ago feels like a rubber band wrapped tight around her chest. But the band is loosening, she said, thanks to help from her physical?therapist.
And she?s hopeful that by loosening up that tissue, she?ll be able to maintain as much mobility in her arm as she can even after she undergoes radiation as part of her breast cancer?treatment.
Physical therapy can help cancer patients regain motion after surgery, heal wounds and combat uncomfortable swelling. But it?s sometimes overlooked, said Bill Olson, a Spokane physical??
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Physical therapist Bill Olson, shown in his practice at 202 E. Spokane Falls Blvd., has added cancer patients to his practice, helping them recover from surgical procedures that often accompany other?treatments.
(Full-size photo)
To Susana Soth, the scar tissue from her mastectomy six weeks ago feels like a rubber band wrapped tight around her chest. But the band is loosening, she said, thanks to help from her physical?therapist.
And she?s hopeful that by loosening up that tissue, she?ll be able to maintain as much mobility in her arm as she can even after she undergoes radiation as part of her breast cancer?treatment.
Physical therapy can help cancer patients regain motion after surgery, heal wounds and combat uncomfortable swelling. But it?s sometimes overlooked, said Bill Olson, a Spokane physical therapist who treats Soth and other cancer patients during and after their?treatment.
While insurers usually cover physical therapy for cancer patients, other hurdles can prevent patients from accessing therapy, Olson said ? including the stress and exhaustion often related to cancer?treatment.
It?s easy for cancer patients to get overwhelmed by chemotherapy appointments, surgery and radiation ? and the medical fallout of each. Cancer?s tendency to disrupt patients? lives in other ways and the cognitive impairment that many survivors call ?chemo brain? are other?roadblocks.
For some people, treatment becomes a ?huge, growing snowball,? said Patty Williams, a registered nurse at Cancer Care Northwest in Spokane. Even when care providers refer patients to physical therapy, many forget or make it a low priority, she?said.
Yet, by necessity, cancer treatment is often a destructive process, Williams noted. Surgery and radiation for breast cancer create scar tissue, which can cause tightness in the chest and sometimes contribute to mobility loss in the shoulder and arm. The removal of lymph nodes can cause fluid buildup and swelling in the arms and legs called lymphedema. Deep tissue surgery in patients with melanoma skin cancer can lead to nerve damage and scar tissue that leaves muscles trapped, causing patients to walk with a?limp.
Nearly 25 percent of adult cancer survivors reported poor physical ?health-related quality of life? after their treatment, compared with 10 percent of adults without cancer, according to an analysis of data from the 2010 National Health Interview?Survey.
Patients are ?left with this legacy of their treatment,? said Olson, of Spokane Physical Therapy at Riverpoint. ?Great, you survived your cancer ? but now you can?t use your?arm.?
Patients? range of arm and shoulder motion after surgery depends on the severity of the operation, said Dr. Carol Guthrie, medical director at the Spokane Breast Center at Providence Cancer Center. Cancer may require a lumpectomy or a mastectomy along with the removal of some or most of the lymph nodes under the?arm.
While she instructs her patients on exercises to help them regain their range of motion in their arms and shoulders after they?re done healing, she asks them to call for a physical therapy referral if they don?t see?improvement.
?Not that many people do, and I don?t know whether it?s because they all get (mobility) back or they?re all caught up in their cancer treatment and it?s good enough ? they can do what they need to do,? Guthrie?said.
More often, Guthrie refers patients to physical therapy to learn drainage and massage techniques to address?lymphedema.
?There?s not a lot of data that says you can prevent it, but I think it helps for people to know the exercises, be concious of it, have education about activities so they aren?t limiting what they do out of fear of lymphedema,? Guthrie?said.
The swelling can grow severe, usually in one arm or leg and usually as a side effect of cancer?treatment.
To intervene, physical therapists use compression bandages or garments; drain the fluid using therapeutic massage; and talk to patients about modifying their activities to control the?swelling.
Soth, a 42-year-old mother and 20-year registered nurse, knows how difficult cancer treatment can?be.
The Spokane resident had been getting annual mammograms since age 37, but it took an ultrasound to spot the tumor in her breast. Incorporating strategies prescribed by her naturopath, Soth embarked on treatment, starting with aggressive chemotherapy to shrink the tumor before?surgery.
The chemo left her with an abnormally low count of white blood cells to fight off infections. Hospitalized with a staph infection, she got sepsis, a potentially fatal?condition.
Now, as Soth recovers from her mastectomy before undergoing radiation, she?s added another level of care, regular visits to Olson?s office. By breaking up the scar tissue on her chest, he?s reducing the pressure she feels along with the pain in her arm. By easing the tension on her skin, physical therapy is also benefiting her slow-to-heal surgical wound, she?said.
As a nurse, Soth has seen a lot of pain and suffering. She said she believes an interdisciplinary approach to care would help reduce it for cancer patients, including physical therapy to help cancer survivors regain physical?well-being.
?The traditional model, I think, is very important, but there are things we can do to complement it to make patients feel better,? she?said.
Guthrie, the surgeon, said she views breast cancer as an ?entire-body?experience.?
?We definitely get very focused on eradicating the disease, either through a combination of surgery, radition chemotherapy, medications, long-term hormone-blocking medications,? she said. ?But it does impact the entire body and it is important to make effort to restore the person as close to normal as?possible.?
Source: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/may/21/recovery-in-motion/
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May 20, 2013 ? A new computer model could help scientists predict when a particular strain of avian influenza might become infectious from bird to human, according to a report to be published in the International Journal Data Mining and Bioinformatics.
Chuang Ma of the University of Arizona, Tucson, and colleagues at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, explain that since 1997 several strains of avian influenza A virus (AIV), commonly known as "bird flu" have infected people directly from their natural bird hosts leading to numerous deaths. The most recent outbreak is "H7N9" bird flu, which emerged in China in February 2013. The team has now developed a computational technique that allows them to predict whether or not a given strain of bird flu has the potential to infect people. Such a tool would allow the health authorities to monitor specific strains in among wild and domestic birds and so predict with more certainty whether or not that strain is likely to cause a global pandemic of influenza in people.
The method is based on analyzing ninety signature positions in the inner protein sequences of different strains of the virus, the researchers explain. These positions are then correlated with more than 500 different physical and chemical characteristics of the virus. The researchers then use data mining techniques to match up specific physicochemical characteristics with bird to human infectivity. This can then be tracked back to the presence of mutations in the proteins of emerging strains. The team has successfully validated their system, which they refer to simply as "A2H," against known strains of bird flu and those that are infectious to people.
"A2H might be useful in the early warning of interspecies transmission of AIV, which is beneficial to public health," the team says. "It will be further validated and upgraded when more virus strains become available," they add. A similar approach might also one day be extended to other viruses that emerge from non-human hosts and become infectious to people.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/dDEzWCBlffU/130520104930.htm
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? Secretary of State John Kerry is heading back to the Middle East this week to press his case for peace talks between Syrian rebels and President Bashar Assad's regime amid increasing signs the new U.S. strategy to halt the war is being undermined by Russia.
Kerry departs Monday for discussions with the sultan of Oman. He then goes to Jordan to gather with 10 of America's closest European and Arab partners to discuss how to advance a political transition and end more than two years of bloodshed in Syria, before traveling on to Israel.
For the Syria negotiations to succeed, the Obama administration is banking on Russia's help.
The U.S. and Russia have wrangled repeatedly while more than 70,000 Syrians have died, but they now say they're working together to start direct talks between Syria's government and the opposition in Geneva next month. Washington demands Assad's ouster, while Russia continues to provide the Syrian leader with military aid and diplomatic cover, but President Barack Obama this week said the meeting "may yield results."
The optimism echoes the message of Kerry, who during his Moscow visit earlier this month declared that the old Cold War foes, by rejuvenating Syrian peace hopes, were demonstrating how they "can accomplish great things together when the world needs it."
For all the heady talk of cooperation, however, Russia has continued to rebuff American demands that it cut off military support for Assad.
Moscow is preparing to give Syria state-of-the-art ground-to-air missile systems, Israeli officials say. It is beefing up its naval presence near its base in northwestern Syria, reports suggest. And, in the latest revelation, U.S. officials say Russia has provided the Assad regime with anti-ship cruise missiles.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the transfer of the advanced anti-ship missiles is "an unfortunate decision that will embolden the regime and prolong the suffering."
On the diplomatic front, the situation isn't much better. There, Russia has repeatedly blocked a proposal for an expanded Security Council trip to Turkey and Lebanon to study Syria's refugee crisis, according to U.N. diplomats.
The continued friction between Moscow on the one hand and Washington and its partners on the other comes as the Obama administration is evaluating a range of options, including military ones, to break the stalemate in Syria's civil war and respond to evidence that Assad's forces used small amounts of chemical weapons in two attacks in March. Obama previously declared chemical weapons use his "red line" for a more forceful American intervention, though Kerry and other U.S. officials have since suggested that no such step would be taken while the new peace push still has hope.
Russia's missiles support significantly boosts Syria's capability to target manned planes, drones and incoming missiles after its systems were easily circumvented in 2007 when Israeli jets bombed a suspected nuclear reactor site along the Euphrates River in northeastern Syria. Apparently successful Israeli strikes in recent weeks on weapons convoys to Hezbollah show the Syrian defenses are still far from impregnable, but the new weaponry adds further considerations as the United States tries to change Assad's calculation that he can prevail in Syria's civil war.
While more and better anti-missile systems wouldn't immediately change the fight between Syria's government and armed opposition, they would make it more dangerous for the U.S. and other governments to try to enforce a no-fly zone in the country or otherwise intervening militarily. And with Washington mulling over the options, the war continues. The refugee toll has topped 1.5 million people and much of the country has slipped into lawlessness.
Kerry's weeklong trip will also see him try to advance his two-month effort to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
The secretary has convinced the Arab world to help by sweetening its deal of universal recognition for the Jewish state if it pulls out of most of the territory in east Jerusalem and the West Bank that it conquered in the 1967 Mideast war. But he has struggled to gain any public concession from Israel, which was accused of taking steps last week to legalize four unauthorized settlement outposts in the West Bank. The Palestinians see that land as part of its future state.
Kerry also will travel to Ethiopia to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Organization of African Unity, the precursor to today's African Union.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-mideast-advance-struggling-syria-plan-080859747.html
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16 hours ago
HBO
Can you feel the wedded bliss? Neither Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) nor Sansa (Sophie Turner) are exactly excited to be married to each other.
"You married who?!?!?" The refrain is often heard when a beloved family member marries someone who is ... not exactly the perfect match.
Fans of "Game of Thrones" who hadn't read the novels probably felt the same way when last week's sudden betrothal turned into a legally binding union Sunday night as Sansa Stark and Tyrion Lannister tied the knot. (When papa lion Tywin Lannister wants something, he gets it!) After all, there couldn't be a more mismatched pair.
And that got us thinking: The beauty and the beloved imp certainly aren't the only married couple who don't fit together all that well. (At least they have the excuse that it was an arranged marriage.) Here are a few others who probably shouldn't have tied the knot:
Don and anyone on 'Mad Men'
None of Don's (so far) three wives on the show have had an exactly wonderful marriage with the handsome ad man. First wife Anna was actually married to the real Don Draper, who died in the Korean War and had his identity stolen by the guy viewers now know and love as Don. As for second and third wives Betty and Megan, Don just couldn't be faithful to or honest with either.
Bates and Vera on 'Downton Abbey'
Oh, what a miserable marriage! When Bates tried to divorce Vera and marry Anna, the jilted ex (if you can call her that; they had been separated for years, after all) went to extreme lengths to keep the lovers from their happily ever after. First, she took all of his money, then blackmailed him. When none of that worked, she committed suicide and pinned her "murder" on him. (Honorable mention: Susan and Shrimpy, who don't yet have death to separate them.)
Alex and Izzie on 'Grey's Anatomy'
After ghost sex with Dead Denny and BFF sex with George, it seemed like Alex Karev would be a good match for Izzie. Both young doctors had overcome great obstacles in their pasts to succeed in their fields, and with Alex's inherent attraction to the slightly unstable and his need to take care of those he loves, it seemed like the pair could work. That is, until Izzie gets fired, blames Alex, leaves him and sticks him with her ginormous hospital bill from her cancer treatments. Nice.
Rick and Lori on 'The Walking Dead'
All was good with this couple ... until zombies took over the planet. She hooked up with his BFF, Shane, while Rick lay in a coma in a hospital (granted, they thought he was dead). But that was far from the worst of it. After her husband defied all odds and reunited with her and son Carl, she manipulated both Shane and Rick, which eventually led Rick to kill Shane after being provoked. Then she gets upset with him for killing the guy, whom she wanted dead anyway! As if that weren't enough, after her death, poor, exhausted, grieving Rick was tortured by visions of his dearly beloved.
President Fitz and Mellie on 'Scandal'
Oof. What a tough marriage to be in. First lady Mellie gave up her own career as a lawyer so hubby Fitz could pursue politics. And how does he repay her? By having an affair and falling in love with crisis manager Olivia. Not that Mellie made things easy for Fitz in season two by doing whatever she could to maintain her status as first lady, despite the president's admission that he wants a divorce.
Which married TV couples do you think need to split? Tell us in the comments!
Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/game-groans-tyrion-sansa-more-bad-tv-marriages-6C9995720
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2 hours ago
REUTERS
This custom-made electric guitar played by the late John Lennon and George Harrison of the Beatles recently sold at auction.
A custom-made electric guitar played by the late John Lennon and George Harrison of the Beatles sold at a New York auction on Saturday for $408,000, said officials with the company behind the event.
The semi-hollow-body guitar, manufactured by the VOX company, was sold to an unidentified U.S. buyer at the "Music Icons" event organized by Beverly Hills, California-based Julien's Auctions and held at the Hard Rock Cafe in Manhattan.
Julien's said previously it expected the guitar, which was the centerpiece of Saturday's sale, to fetch between $200,000 and $300,000.
Harrison played the instrument, distinguished by two symmetrical flared shoulders on the upper body, while practicing "I Am The Walrus," and Lennon used it in a video session for the song "Hello, Goodbye," according to a statement from Julien's Auctions.
Both songs were on the Beatles' 1967 album "Magical Mystery Tour."
The VOX guitar was a prototype instrument custom-built for Lennon in 1966, said Martin Nolan, executive director of Julien's. Lennon gave the VOX guitar as a gift in 1967 to Yanni "Magic Alex" Mardas, who was the electronics engineer for the band's Apple Records label, the auction house said.
The instrument, displayed in recent weeks at a museum in Ireland before the sale, was sold a few years ago by Christie's Auction House for a little over $100,000. Nolan said the latest buyer, who sent a representative to Saturday's auction to bid on his behalf, wished to remain anonymous.
Lennon was shot to death in New York in 1980 by a deranged fan, and Harrison died of lung cancer in Los Angeles in 2001. The surviving members of the Beatles are Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.
Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/beatles-guitar-auctioned-tune-408-000-1C9984548
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Who has time to watch a whole movie anymore? It's summer! So in the spirit of phoning in everything once the temperature rises above 70-ish, here's Ridley Scott's Aliens in 60 seconds of adorable animation. Brought to you, of course, by the fine folks who did Star Wars Episode IV
Edit: Aliens was, obviously, made by James Cameron, not Ridley Scott, and I am, obviously, an idiot. Sorry for any confusion, about Mr. Cameron's work or about my idiocy.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/watch-james-camerons-aliens-animated-in-just-60-second-508528275
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VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Pope Francis is calling for renewal in the Catholic church as he wrapped up two days of mass gatherings in St. Peter's Square aimed at energizing the faithful.
About 200,000 people turned out Sunday for Mass celebrated by Francis, about the same size crowd that came to a pep rally for Catholics that the pope led the night before in the square.
Francis urged his church to be more welcoming and avoid closing in on itself. But he warned that faithful should avoid "dangerous parallel paths" outside of doctrine.
In the pope's native South America, many Catholics have defected to dynamic evangelical Protestant churches.
For a second-straight day, Francis delighted the crowd by riding in his popemobile beyond the confines of Vatican City and down a Rome boulevard.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-church-open-teaching-161435514.html
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A South Korean man watches a TV news reporting missile launch conducted by North Korea, at a Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, May 18, 2013. North Korea fired three short-range guided missiles into its eastern waters on Saturday, a South Korean official said. It routinely tests such missiles, but the latest launches came during a period of tentative diplomacy aimed at easing tensions. The letters at a screen read " Fired three short-range guided missiles." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A South Korean man watches a TV news reporting missile launch conducted by North Korea, at a Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, May 18, 2013. North Korea fired three short-range guided missiles into its eastern waters on Saturday, a South Korean official said. It routinely tests such missiles, but the latest launches came during a period of tentative diplomacy aimed at easing tensions. The letters at a screen read " Fired three short-range guided missiles." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
South Koreans watch TV news showing a footage of North Korean missiles on a military parade, at a Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, May 18, 2013. North Korea fired three short-range guided missiles into its eastern waters on Saturday, a South Korean official said. It routinely tests such missiles, but the latest launches came during a period of tentative diplomacy aimed at easing tensions. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korea fired three short-range guided missiles into its eastern waters on Saturday, a South Korean official said. It routinely tests such missiles, but the latest launches came during a period of tentative diplomacy aimed at easing tensions.
The North fired two missiles Saturday morning and another in the afternoon, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said by phone. He said the North's intent was unclear. His ministry said it is watching North Korea carefully in case it conducts a provocation against South Korea.
In March, North Korea launched what appeared to be two KN-02 missiles off its east coast. Experts believe the country is trying to improve the range and accuracy of its arsenal.
North Korea recently withdrew two mid-range "Musudan" missiles believed to be capable of reaching Guam after moving them to its east coast earlier this year, U.S. officials said. The North is banned from testing ballistic missiles under U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Earlier this year, North Korea threatened nuclear strikes on Seoul and Washington because of annual U.S.-South Korean military drills and U.N. sanctions imposed over its third nuclear test in February. The drills ended late last month. This past month, the U.S. and South Korea ended another round of naval drills involving a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier off the east coast. North Korea calls such drills preparation to invade the North.
Analysts say the recent North Korean threats were partly an attempt to push Washington to agree to disarmament-for-aid talks.
This past week, Glyn Davies, the top U.S. envoy on North Korea, ended trips to South Korea, China and Japan. On Friday, an adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned from North Korea but didn't immediately give details of his talks with officials there.
On Monday, North Korean state media showed that the country's hard-line defense minister had been replaced by a little-known army general. Outside analysts said it was part of leader Kim Jong Un's efforts to tighten his grip on the powerful military after his father Kim Jong Il died in December 2011.
The United States and Japan are participants in six-nation nuclear disarmament talks along with the Koreas, Russia and Japan. North Korea walked out of the talks in 2009 after the United Nations condemned it for a long-range rocket launch.
North Korea possesses an array of missiles. U.S. and South Korean officials do not believe the North's claim that it has developed nuclear warheads small enough to place on a missile. Last week in Washington, South Korean President Park Geun-hye and President Barack Obama warned North Korea against further nuclear provocations.
Tension between the two Koreas remains high after both sides pulled out their workers from a jointly run factory complex earlier this year. The countries remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce instead of a peace treaty.
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A team of researchers from several universities ? including UCF ?has observed a rare quantum physics effect that produces a repeating butterfly-shaped energy spectrum in a magnetic field, confirming the longstanding prediction of the quantum fractal energy structure called Hofstadter's butterfly.
This discovery by the team paves the way for engineering new types of extraordinary nanoscale materials that can be used to develop smaller, lighter and faster electronics, including sensors, cell phones, tablets and laptops.
First predicted by American physicist Douglas Hofstadter in 1976, the butterfly pattern emerges when electrons are confined to a two-dimensional plane and subjected to both a periodic potential energy and a strong magnetic field. The Hofstadter butterfly is a fractal pattern?meaning that it contains shapes that repeat on smaller and smaller size scales. Fractals are common in systems such as fluid mechanics, but rare in the quantum mechanical world. The Hofstadter butterfly is one of the first quantum fractals theoretically discovered in physics but, until now, there has been no direct experimental proof of this spectrum.
Columbia University led the study and also involved scientists from the City University of New York, Tohoku University and the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan. Columbia prepared the sample and the UCF team measured the regular recurrence of the high-fidelity periodic pattern, engineered by inducing nanoscale ripples on graphene, a carbon material. The measured recurrence served as the essential proof that the measured spectrum was indeed the Hofstadter butterfly. The image that captured the evidence was taken in UCF Assistant Professor Masa Ishigami's laboratory.
Jyoti Katoch, Ishigami's graduate student, used a non-contact atomic force high-resolution microscope to image the ripples, which have the height of only 0.2 angstroms (twenty trillionth of a meter), to confirm that the observed Hofstadter butterfly spectrum indeed matched the theoretical prediction.
"The arrangement of individual atoms, even just one atom can drastically alter properties of nanoscale materials. That is the basis for nanotechnology," Ishigami said. "Atomic structures must be resolved to understand the properties of nanoscale materials. What we do here at UCF is to explain why nanoscale materials behave so different by resolving their atomic structures. Only when we understand the origin of the extraordinary properties of nanoscale materials, we can propel nanoscience and technology forward. What Jyoti has done here is to image how graphene is rippled to explain the observed Hofstadter spectrum."
UCF's laboratory utilizes a novel, the state-of-the-art microscopy technique to simultaneously determine the atomic structure and electronic properties of nanoscale materials such as graphene.
Katoch has been working with Ishigami since 2008, when Ishigami joined UCF. Katoch helped build the laboratory and developed the atomic-resolution capability critical to capturing the picture proof for this study.
Ishigami has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley and a bachelor's degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has won multiple awards, including the Intelligence Community postdoctoral fellowship and the Hertz graduate fellowship, and has published more than 30 papers in journals including Science.
###
The study is published in today's advance online publication of Nature http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature12186.html
University of Central Florida: http://www.ucf.edu
Thanks to University of Central Florida for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128300/Scientists_capture_first_direct_proof_of_Hofstadter_butterfly_effect
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Public release date: 17-May-2013
Share ] Contact: Rob Gutro
robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite known as TRMM measured Cyclone Mahasen's rainfall rates from space as it made landfall on May 16. Mahasen has since dissipated over eastern India.
Tropical Cyclone Mahasen hit southern Bangladesh on May 16, causing the reported deaths of at least 13 people and the destruction of many homes. Mahasen brought heavy rains and tropical storm force winds when it came ashore, but the winds quickly weakened.
NASA's TRMM satellite had two very informative views as deadly Tropical Cyclone Mahasen was moving toward and then over Bangladesh. TRMM passed above Mahasen on May 15, 2013 at 2133 UTC (5:33 p.m. EDT) and saw Mahasen again on May 16, 2013 at 0406 UTC (12:06 a.m. EDT) after the tropical cyclone's center passed over Bangladesh's Ganges Delta. With the first orbit, TRMM's Precipitation Radar found rain within Mahasen falling at a rate of over 67 mm (~2.6 inches) per hour and at a rate of over 57mm (~2.25 inches) per hour with the later view.
BBC News reported that predicted storm surge was avoided because it hit at low tide on Thursday morning, May 16. Mahasen made landfall in Patuakhali district in southern Bangladesh. According to the Bangladesh Meteorological Deparment, Mahasen's sustained winds were only near 16 mph (25 kph) near Chittagong and Cox's Bazar.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department said Cyclone Mahasen had weakened and moved over the Sitakunda and Feni regions of Bangladesh, then into India's Tripura state.
###
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Public release date: 17-May-2013 Share ] Contact: Rob Gutro
robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite known as TRMM measured Cyclone Mahasen's rainfall rates from space as it made landfall on May 16. Mahasen has since dissipated over eastern India.
Tropical Cyclone Mahasen hit southern Bangladesh on May 16, causing the reported deaths of at least 13 people and the destruction of many homes. Mahasen brought heavy rains and tropical storm force winds when it came ashore, but the winds quickly weakened.
NASA's TRMM satellite had two very informative views as deadly Tropical Cyclone Mahasen was moving toward and then over Bangladesh. TRMM passed above Mahasen on May 15, 2013 at 2133 UTC (5:33 p.m. EDT) and saw Mahasen again on May 16, 2013 at 0406 UTC (12:06 a.m. EDT) after the tropical cyclone's center passed over Bangladesh's Ganges Delta. With the first orbit, TRMM's Precipitation Radar found rain within Mahasen falling at a rate of over 67 mm (~2.6 inches) per hour and at a rate of over 57mm (~2.25 inches) per hour with the later view.
BBC News reported that predicted storm surge was avoided because it hit at low tide on Thursday morning, May 16. Mahasen made landfall in Patuakhali district in southern Bangladesh. According to the Bangladesh Meteorological Deparment, Mahasen's sustained winds were only near 16 mph (25 kph) near Chittagong and Cox's Bazar.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department said Cyclone Mahasen had weakened and moved over the Sitakunda and Feni regions of Bangladesh, then into India's Tripura state.
###
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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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/nsfc-nsc051713.php
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By Randee Dawn, NBC News contributor
Casting any movie is tough, but try casting a "Star Trek" movie, knowing that the original television characters are already dearly beloved by millions of devoted fans. Few actors are as associated with their roles as William Shatner as Captain Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Spock. Yet when Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto took over those roles in the 2009 film "Star Trek," reviews were mostly quite positive. As Pine, Quinto and co-stars prepare to beam down to theaters once again in "Star Trek Into Darkness," let's take a look at how the new actors fill out their Starfleet uniforms.
James T. Kirk
Classic:? William Shatner
New: Chris Pine
Paramount via Getty / Warner Bros
Chris Pine plays Capt. Kirk in the new "Star Trek" movies, but he can't beat the classic William Shatner.
The Shat has built a fine post-?Trek? career -- once he accepted with good humor that he would never, ever be forgotten as Kirk. But that aside, Classic Kirk has to rule over New Kirk. Classic Kirk had a twinkle in his eye, was never afraid to bare a chest, and had a way with a universe?s worth of ladies. We haven?t seen that yet in New Kirk, who?s more of a tomcat than a ladies? man and far from an unquestioned leader. Plus, only Classic Kirk has proven he can create a bazooka out of a log, dirt and gemstones.
Advantage: Classic Kirk
?
Leonard 'Bones' McCoy
Classic: DeForest Kelley
New: Karl Urban
Paramount via Getty / Warner Bros
Karl Urban and DeForest Kelley both have their good points as Bones, but the new guy, Urban, is a handsome bad boy.
Okay, so Classic Bones wasn?t afraid to smack a hoity-toity pregnant lady if he needed to do an examination. But something about his eternal grumpiness and pointed Spock-like eyebrows made Kelley's version of the doctor a little hard to like. New Bones is good looking enough to give Kirk a run for his money (if you like ?em dark and mercurial), he rocks a beard and swigs from a flask when necessary. New Bones is a bad boy as well as a doc, and that is the wave of the future.
Advantage: New McCoy
?
Spock
Classic: Leonard Nimoy
New: Zachary Quinto
Paramount via Getty / Warner Bro
Bravo, Zachary Quinto! The actor has taken on Leonard Nimoy's famed Spock and given him a modern update.
The old neck-pincher is one of the toughest decisions to make, particularly since Classic Spock (or rather, Spock Prime) makes an appearance in the rebooted series. The casting of Quinto as a youthful Nimoy is spot-on, unlike many of the other cast choices ? and the 2009 film even showed a pre-adolescent Spock on top of everything else. In a way, this is the best blended character with some of the series? most memorable personality quirks and special powers. How can we choose just one?
Advantage: Both Spocks
?
Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott
Classic: James Doohan
New: Simon Pegg
Paramount via Getty / Warner Bros
Simon Pegg isn't quite as devoted to the Enterprise as the original Scotty, James Doohan -- and that's a good thing.
You know, Classic Scotty really, really loved the Enterprise. Possibly a bit too much. Sure, he was the engineer and knew all of the inner workings of the ship, but sometimes you had to wonder if it made him a little touched in the head, being stuck down in the boiler room all the time. (No wonder he could outdrink an alien.) No such issue with New Scotty, who is still getting to know the big old girl and may take a long time to find his love connection. And that?s good for tension and comedy.
Advantage: New Scotty
?
Hikaru Sulu
Classic: George Takei
New: John Cho
Paramount via Getty / Warner Bros
Which Sulu rules, John Cho or George Takei? It's a tie!
In the 2009 film, Sulu got a few big moments ?- such as when he had to skydive from space and parachute onto a drilling platform, then fight off some Romulans. But the sword battle part of that scene was really an homage to one of Classic Sulu?s greatest scenes: When his inner swashbuckler comes to light and he runs around waving an epee. At the moment, there?s just not enough information on New Sulu to warrant leaving Classic Sulu behind, so we?d tend to lean toward Classic Sulu (oh, myyyy!) ? but let?s consider this the wild card in the bunch.
Advantage: Tie
?
Pavel Chekov
Classic: Walter Koenig
New: Anton Yelchin
Paramount via Getty / Warner Bros
New Chekov Anton Yelchin is a real Russian, unlike Walter Koenig from the classic series.
First off, if you?re gonna have a Russian on the Enterprise, hire a dang Russian. All due respect to Classic Chekov, but a Monkee look-alike from Chicago doesn?t hold much of a candle to New Chekov, whose portrayer hails from Leningrad and plays him as more delightfully impulsive than the originator. Plus, he was able to save Spock?s father thanks to some fantastical manipulation of the transporter. And he?s a navigator!
Advantage: New Chekov
?
Nyota Uhura
Classic: Nichelle Nichols
New: Zoe Saldana
Paramount via Getty / Warner Bros
Zoe Saldana's Uhura serves mostly as eye candy, whereas Nichelle Nichols juggled many roles.
Here?s a surprise: A show that began in the 1960s is better at handling its one regular female crew member than one in the new millennium. New Uhura served largely as eye candy and as a sex object for New Kirk, even if she could kick more butt and talk dirty. Classic Uhura managed to juggle all of her subspace frequencies far better -- and of course was the shared co-conspirator in one of TV?s first interracial kisses, when she and Classic Kirk locked lips.
Advantage: Classic Uhura
Final tallies: Four classics and five from the new bunch (though Spock and Sulu bridge both categories). Surprise! It turns out that the new franchise has managed to improve on the old -- though we sense there will be some disagreement on this issue. Tell us who your favorite newcomer is in our poll.
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? Dozens of tea party groups and other conservative organizations of the kind subjected to improper scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service operated with small budgets and rarely displayed overt partisan activities, according to an Associated Press review of public tax filings by 93 such activist groups. A few groups built million-dollar operations and political ties that could have been legitimate grounds for IRS investigation, tax law experts said.
The AP reviewed 990 tax returns for nonprofit groups that were made publicly available and posted on both the Guidestar and the Foundation Center websites, searching between 2009 and 2011 under the terms "tea party," ''patriot" and other terms frequently used by tea party groups. Several tea party groups also made their tax returns available to the AP. The returns detailed revenues and expenses for the groups, as well as other details. Donors' identifies, however, are shielded from disclosure under federal tax code provisions.
Only 21 of the 93 groups reported annual gross receipts higher than $25,000 between 2009 and 2011, according to the AP review. The $25,000 figure is a threshold for the IRS because an organization's financial strength and revenue sources are important factors in determining its tax-exempt status. Nonprofit groups reporting less than $25,000 a year are allowed to file a short-form, postcard tax return instead of a detailed filing ? one indication of a low-budget operation.
The median income for all the groups was just $16,700 a year. That figure includes several tea party organizations that boasted million-dollar budgets and a cluster of others with more than $100,000 in annual revenues. The well-funded activist groups were led by the Georgia-based Tea Party Patriots Inc., the nation's biggest tea party group, which started out with more than $700,000 in annual revenues in 2009 and grew to $20.2 million annually in 2012.
Facing IRS delays in tax-exempt status since late 2010, the Tea Party Patriots also set up a separate "super" political action committee last January, a sign of the group's growing campaign involvement. Overt political ties and activity are red flags for IRS scrutiny, tax law experts said, and returns from several groups hint in that direction, including voter turnout efforts and rallies. But while the tax returns of many of the groups reflected interests in fiscal responsibility and other pet conservative issues, there was little clear evidence of direct campaign ties.
Some tax law experts said that if IRS officials had considered finances and political involvement in their oversight of the wave of applications by tea party groups in recent years, the agency could have quickly determined whether low-budget groups qualified for tax-exempt status. The agency's blunder, said former top IRS official Marcus S. Owens, was seizing on every activist group that appeared to have a tea party or "patriot" background.
"The big boys who suddenly look like they won the lottery are the ones who should expect a knock on the door," said Owens, who headed the IRS' oversight of tax exempt groups in the 1990s. He added: "The agency should have applied better filters than looking for every tea party group under the rug."
The tea party tax filings showed that many of the groups reported low expenses. The median yearly expense for the 93 groups was $12,770. That figure also included high-spending groups like the Tea Party Patriots, which showed $17.6 million in expenses in 2011.
The contrast between many of the low-budget tea party groups and the few with big bank accounts was most striking in their spending.
Many tea party groups showed minor payments for basic operations ? travel costs, office supplies, insurance, meals and items for rallies.
The Faulkner County Tea Party of Conway, Ark., which earned $7,847 in 2010, listed $570 for senior citizen transportation and $873 for a website and communications. The First Coast Tea Party Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla., noted $14 for cookbook expenses and $101 for Christmas ornaments. The Laurens County Tea Party of Laurens, S.C., which took in $2,400 in income in 2010 and is seeking tax-exempt status, listed $204 for buying T-shirts for members.
Those low-budget expenses also rarely showed evidence of direct political activity. The Faulkner County Tea Party described itself as "nonpartisan," promoting "fiscal responsibility, conservative principles and values in government, at all levels." The group paid $912 for a "meeting facility expense" and $180 in advertising in 2012. Even during the 2010 campaign, the group spent just $162 on a voter guide,
On the high end, Tea Party Patriots lavished $5.7 million in payments to three direct mail contractors and $1.8 million on fundraising and nearly $1.4 million on telemarketing in 2012. The group paid nearly $700,000 to Campaign Headquarters, an Iowa operation that advertises its voter contact phone and GOTV operations. In January, the activist group set up the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund super PAC, promising to seek unlimited contributions.
Unlike nonprofits regulated by the IRS, super PACs are monitored by the Federal Election Commission. Following the lead of multimillion-dollar campaign operations like GOP strategist Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS and the Democratic-leaning Priorities USA, large and small tea party groups have pressed for tax-exempt status over the last four years.
Some tea party groups have applied as educational groups under the 501(c)(3) tax code, while many others have sought 501(c)(4) status as social welfare groups. Under IRS rules, (c)(4) groups can be involved in politics if it is not their primary purpose, but (c)(3) groups are banned from most direct political involvement. Under federal law, both tax-exempt nonprofits can seek unlimited donations and do not have to disclose the identities of their donors.
An inspector general's report on the IRS' handling of tea party groups noted that auditors were poorly trained in distinguishing between the nonprofit classifications. "It led to inappropriate enforcement of the tax laws," said Jay Sekulow, a lawyer representing nearly two dozen tea party groups with the IRS.
The Houston-based King Street Patriots organization has been waiting since July 2010 for a decision on its tax-exempt status for itself and an allied group, True the Vote, a leading national conservative group aimed at confronting vote fraud. Catherine Engelbrecht of Richmond, Texas, an official of both groups, complained that she and her husband are not only wrangling with the IRS but have fielded inquiries from other federal agencies.
Engelbrecht said the couple has been contacted in recent months by the FBI's domestic terrorism unit, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Her patriots group is well-financed, listing $140,000 in revenue and $130,000 in expenses in its 2010 tax filings. True the Vote listed $64,000 in income and $38,000 in expenses the same year. The 2010 filings were the only recent returns that are publicly available.
The group was at the forefront of conservative efforts to target vote fraud in the 2012 election and said it trained as many as 1 million election monitors. Engelbrecht said her group was nonpartisan, but top Democratic Party election lawyers and activists closely monitored the group's Election Day activities and accused it of close ties with Republican Party vote-suppression efforts.
Engelbrecht said she worries that tea party groups were being targeted by the government.
"I'm very concerned," she said, about a "coordinated effort by the federal government to single out private citizens."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tea-party-tax-returns-show-activism-budget-074723198.html
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) ? A mother whose 4-year-old was being abducted chased the suspect down and crashed her vehicle into his car, triggering a manhunt and the arrest of the suspect, Albuquerque police said Thursday.
The young girl was playing in her yard at St. Anthony's Plaza Apartments in Albuquerque's North Valley about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday when a group of teenagers saw the kidnapping and ran to alert the girl's mother, police said.
The family called 911 and the mother jumped into her vehicle and gave chase for about seven miles, unaware the man had pushed the girl out of the silver Buick before fleeing the apartment complex, authorities said. The girl was found wandering nearby, uninjured, police said.
According to police, the mother, who has not been identified, followed the suspect and finally rammed into his car near an intersection. The suspect fled on foot, police said.
The attempted kidnapping sparked a massive manhunt Wednesday as more than two dozen officers went door-to-door in the area looking for the suspect. A helicopter with heat-sensor cameras also was sent in for the search, authorities said.
Police arrested David Hernandez, 31, on Thursday afternoon in Rio Rancho after he saw his picture on television and called police. After being interviewed, he was charged with kidnapping, police spokeswoman Tasia Martinez said.
As he was being taken to jail, Hernandez told reporters that he was innocent. It was not known if Hernandez had an attorney.
Kevin Abar, assistant special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations, confirmed to The Associated Press that federal agents also helped Albuquerque police with the investigation.
In February, HSI and local enforcement agencies launched the Sexual Predator and Exploitation Enforcement Detail, or SPEED ? a task force aimed at finding missing and abducted children.
Police were also investigating a possible connection to the abduction and sexual assault of a 6-year-old from the same apartment complex last week. The suspect in that case was described as a male in a silver or gray vehicle.
Gilbert Hernandez, 25, a resident at the St. Anthony's, said he found the 6-year-old last week and was the one who contacted police. "This place isn't safe. People always let their kids run around here," Hernandez said. "We are all on the lookout now."
___
Follow Russell Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mom-nm-chases-down-child-abductor-man-arrested-211553701.html
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HONOLULU (AP) ? A jury on Thursday convicted a Wahiawa man of second-degree murder and other charges in a 2011 shooting rampage through Honolulu that killed a mother of 10 and wounded two other people.
Jurors deliberated for about 13 hours over three days before delivering a verdict in the case of Toby Stangel, 30.
They also found him guilty of two of seven counts of attempted murder. But they found him not guilty of one count of first-degree attempted murder, which would have carried a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Dwight Nadamoto said he was disappointed with that decision.
"We felt the evidence was sufficient for the attempted murders in the first degree," he said.
The jury convicted Stangel of reckless endangering for firing at two police officers, the daughter of the woman who died, and a man who was shot while trying to help a wounded motorist. It failed to reach a verdict on three drug charges.
Stangel's family, who had been in court throughout the trial, left after the verdict without commenting.
Stangel opened fire at an intersection in the early-morning hours of June 3, 2011, killing 54-year-old Tammy Nguyen of Honolulu, authorities said. He then shot and wounded two more people on a freeway and fired at two police officers who were ticketing racing drivers.
Stangel's sentencing was set for July 31.
Prosecutors asked for a hearing on an extended term in hopes of eventually sending Stangel to prison without the possibility of parole. The judge will consider the request Monday.
"It's a very, very sad case," Nadamoto said. "Hopefully it'll send the message (that) you can't go around shooting at people."
Defense attorney John Schum didn't dispute that Stangel committed the shootings. He argued instead that his client lacked the "state of mind" to prove intent, a necessary factor for a conviction of murder or attempted murder.
Schum told jurors during closing arguments that Stangel's actions were more in line with reckless endangerment. Stangel didn't testify at trial.
Nadamoto argued in his closing that Stangel wasn't merely reckless, but intended to kill when he fired multiple shots.
Police have said the 17-minute shooting spree started when Stangel got out of his car and walked up to vehicles stopped at the intersection. There, he shot and killed Nguyen, a mother of 10 who was in a minivan with her 16-year-old daughter.
He then proceeded to the H-1 freeway, where he shot Amie Lou Asuncion in the shoulder, authorities said. Samson Naupoto was shot when he stopped to help Asuncion.
Authorities said Stangel also fired at others, including the two officers, but they were uninjured. None of the victims knew the suspect.
Prosecution witnesses included Asuncion, Naupoto and Tammy Nguyen's daughter Cindy Nguyen, who said she was in the passenger seat of her family's minivan when her mother was shot in the head.
Asuncion recalled running across the freeway after being shot in the back while driving, then hiding in some plants because she feared the shooter was following her. Naupoto testified that he was driving along the freeway when he saw Asuncion running across the lanes. He said he was shot in his right thigh.
Records show Stangel has five misdemeanor convictions dating to 2002, including criminal property damage and operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant. He was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and one year of probation for criminal property damage in 2006.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2nd-degree-murder-conviction-honolulu-shootings-000812479.html
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