Photos: Kilauea Lava Reaches the Sea









































































































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Police: KC Chiefs Player Killed Girlfriend, Self













Jovan Belcher, a linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, committed suicide today in front of his coaches and police officers outside the team's stadium, shortly after he fatally shot his girlfriend, police said.


"We heard that they had been arguing in the past [and] as far as recently, they'd been arguing before the shooting occurred this morning," Kansas City Police spokesman Darin Snapp told ABC News Radio.


The victim was identified Kasandra Perkins, 22. Snapp said the couple had lived together and had a 3-month-old daughter.


Perkins' mother first alerted police this morning that her daughter had been shot by her boyfriend, who was a Kansas City Chiefs player, Snapp said.


It is believed Belcher drove to Arrowhead Stadium shortly after the shooting and police were called.


"When the officers arrived, when they were pulling up, they actually observed a black male who had a gun to his head and he was talking to a couple of coaches out in the parking lot," Snapp said. "As officers pulled up, and began to park, that's when they heard the gunshot and it appears the individual took his own life."


Snapp said the coaches told officers they didn't feel they were in any danger from Belcher.












Idaho Teacher Accused of Locking Boy, 5, in Dark Closet Watch Video





"They said the player was actually thanking them for everything they'd done for him," he said. "They were just talking to him and he was thanking them and everything. That's when he walked away and shot himself."


Kansas City is scheduled to host the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, and the league has told the Panthers to go ahead with their travel plans because the game will be played as scheduled.


In a statement posted on their website, the Chiefs said they are "cooperating with authorities in their investigation" and did not mention Belcher by name.


The 6-foot-2, 228-pound linebacker joined the Kansas City Chiefs in 2009, and had spent all four seasons of his career with the team. He has played every in game since joining the team.


Originally from West Babylon, N.Y., where he was a three-time all-America wrestler in addition to playing on the football team, Belcher went undrafted out of the University of Maine, where he started all 45 games in which he played.


Maine Head Football Coach Jack Cosgrove described Jovan as a "tremendous student-athlete."


"His move to the NFL was in keeping with his dreams," Cosgrove said in a statement released by the university today. "This is an indescribably horrible tragedy. At this difficult time, our thoughts and prayers are with Jovan, Kasandra and their families."


Belcher signed with the Chiefs as a rookie free agent, started 15 of 16 games his second season and last year started all 16 games as left inside linebacker.


Belcher expressed gratitude for his NFL career in an article posted on Nov. 21 on the Chiefs' website that has since been taken down.


"First and foremost, God. Family and friends just keeping me focused, coaches and just everyone," he said.



Read More..

Today on New Scientist: 30 November 2012







Dinosaurs might have once gazed into the Grand Canyon

It had been thought that the canyon formed 6 million years ago, but now two geologists say it is actually closer to 70 million years old



Saturn's rings may double up as a moon factory

A new model suggests Saturn's famous rings spawned the planet's moons. Could the mechanism explain the moons of Uranus, Neptune and even Earth?



Gaming the future: the best of 2012

New Scientist looks back at the video games that explored the boundaries of science and technology this year



Friday Illusion: Mystery mirror reveals missing banana

A prize for the first person to figure out how a strange mirror image remains in view



Syria again disconnects nation from the internet

Once again, the Syrian government appears to have pulled the plug on the internet, cutting off its citizens from the rest of the world



Crowdfund your area's projects one brick at a time

As the recession bites and budgets are cut, websites are springing up that allow citizens to club together to fund everything from parks to bridges



Omniphobia: the stuffs that stick at nothing

Whether it's water, oil, ketchup or ants, materials that repel everything that touches them are on the way, says Jessica Griggs



Feedback: Commas in breach of copyright

Why these words break the law, impure apples, Google rewrites the history of everything, and more



A quantum of... We want to see your movies!

The deadline for the Quantum Shorts Film Competition is hard on us and we've already had some amazing entries - submit yours before Sunday



LHC sees hint of high-speed particle pancake

Purely by accident, the Higgs-boson-hunting Large Hadron Collider may have stumbled upon a rare state of matter called a colour-glass condensate



Social bee-haviour: The secret life of the hive

Bees have a brain the size of a pinhead, yet their daily activities rival the range of behaviours seen in many mammals



Florida pet spa mystery link to China's great firewall

China's censors have innovative ways of stopping its citizens accessing banned websites, including poisoning internet servers



Giant tortoises bounce back in the Galapagos

A slow and steady rescue mission has seen the population of the iconic creatures on Española Island leap from just 12 into the thousands



Messenger finds hints of ice at Mercury's poles

The innermost planet of the solar system could harbour a small polar habitable zone - but the chances of finding life there are remote



Projections of sea level rise are vast underestimates

Estimates made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 were wildly wrong





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Mexico's incoming president unveils cabinet






MEXICO CITY: Mexico's incoming president Enrique Pena Nieto named his cabinet Friday, picking close advisors for key posts managing the drug war and the economy on the eve of his inauguration.

Pena Nieto takes the oath of office on Saturday, marking the return of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) after a 12-year absence from the presidency. The PRI ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century.

His 20-member cabinet includes only three women, a few independents from the left and one holdover from the administration of President Felipe Calderon of the conservative National Action Party (PAN).

The cabinet was presented by Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, a 48-year-old former Hidalgo state governor and friend of Pena Nieto's who will become interior minister, one of the most high-profile jobs.

Pena Nieto wants to bestow more powers to the interior ministry, giving it the responsibility of coordinating a drug war that has left more than 60,000 people dead in the last six years.

The congress, however, must still approve changes that will transfer the responsibilities of the public security ministry, including the scandal-plagued federal police, to the interior ministry.

The new finance minister will be Luis Videgaray, a 44-year-old economist who is considered the "brain" of the new president's circle. Videgaray managed Pena Nieto's campaign and headed the transition team.

His tasks will include steering structural reforms that the next president wants to implement in order to boost the economy.

Pena Nieto also decided to bring on board Calderon's finance minister, Jose Antonio Meade, who will become foreign minister, handling ties with the world, especially the United States, Mexico's powerful neighbor and drug war partner.

-AFP/ac



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Ouch! Yahoo ordered to pay $2.7B in Mexican lawsuit


A Mexican court walloped Yahoo with a huge judgment today, ordering it to pay $2.7 billion to a couple companies accusing it of breaching contract related to a yellow pages listings service.

Details are pretty scarce about the initial complaint. Yahoo's press released noted that Worldwide Directories S.A. de C.V. and Ideas Interactivas, S.A. de C.V. claimed breach of contract, breach of promise, and lost profits arising from contracts related to a yellow pages listings service.

Yahoo, meanwhile, said it believes the claims are without merit. It plans to vigorously pursue all appeals.

We've reached out to the company and will update when we hear back.

The judgment amount -- $2.7 billion -- is a pretty big chunk of change for Yahoo. In the company's most recently reported quarter, it only generated $1.2 billion in revenue.

Yahoo shares slid 1.5% to $18.49 in after-hours trading.

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Pictures: Mysterious Maya Tomb Explored for First Time

Photograph courtesy Héctor Montaño, INAH

Sporting an elaborate headdress and shield, the Palenque king named Kan Bahlam, or Snake Jaguar, is depicted on one of the tomb walls.

Eight other figures are depicted as well, "each probably a different royal ancestor of the tomb occupant," said Stuart.

"The imagery of nine ancestors seems to have been a theme repeated in other Palenque royal tombs, such as Pakal's own huge one in the Temple of the Inscriptions."

The region's most famous king, Pakal, came to power in A.D. 615 at age 12 and ruled until he was in his 80s. He turned Palenque into a thriving, world-class city. Because Pakal built over much of what existed before him, little is known about the time prior to his ascension to power.

If this tomb predates the famous king, as INAH and Stuart suspect, its contents could offer clues about life in pre-Pakal times.

It's unclear yet what might be found inside, but it's "cool enough," said Stuart, that there's now "firm archaeological evidence of a Palenque ruler from the years before Pakal's reign."

(Read about the rise and fall of the Maya in National Geographic magazine.)

Published November 30, 2012

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Obama Warns of 'Scrooge Christmas' Without Deal


ap barack obama ll 121130 wblog Obama Warns Of Scrooge Christmas Without Fiscal Cliff Deal

President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks at the Rodon Group, which manufactures over 95% of the parts for K' NEX Brands toys, Nov. 30, 2012, in Hatfield, Pa. (Susan Walsh/AP Photo)


HATFIELD, Pa. — President Obama today accused Republicans of putting Americans at risk of a “Scrooge Christmas” if they fail to extend middle class tax cuts, telling workers in Pennsylvania that a tax increase would be like a “lump of coal.”


“This is not some run-of-the-mill debate. This isn’t about which political party can come out on top in negotiations. We’ve got important decisions to make that are going to have a real impact on businesses and families all across the country,” the president said.


Obama made his remarks about the negotiations to avert the impending “fiscal cliff” as he stood before piles of toys at the Rodon Group factory, which manufactures Lincoln Logs, K’Nex and Angry Bird toys.


“I’ve been keeping my own naughty and nice lists for Washington. So you should keep your eye on who gets K’NEX this year,” he quipped. “There are going to be some members of Congress who get them, and some who don’t.” One day after the fiscal cliff talks between the White House and House Republicans took a turn for the worse, the president admitted there are going to be “some prolonged negotiations” to get the deficit under control because “you know, in Washington, nothing’s easy.”


“We’ve got some disagreements about the high-end tax cuts, right?” he said of his insistence on raising taxes on the top 2 percent as part of a broader deficit reduction deal. “That’s a disagreement that we’re going to have and we’ve got to sort out. But we already all agree, we say, on making sure middle-class taxes don’t go up. So let’s get that done. Let’s go ahead and take the fear out for the vast majority of American families so that they don’t have to worry about $2,000 coming out of their pockets starting next year.”


For a Different Take on Politics Try OTUSnews.com


Shortly after the president spoke, House Speaker John Boehner told reporters on Capitol Hill, “There’s a stalemate. Let’s not kid ourselves. I’m not trying to make this more difficult. If you’ve watched me over the last three weeks, I’ve been very guarded in what I had to say, because I don’t want to make it harder for me or the president or members of both parties to be able to find common ground.”


As Americans head out to shop for the holidays, the White House has warned consumer spending would take a hit of $200 billion in 2013, or roughly 1.4 percent of the GDP, if Congress could not reach a budget deal by the end of the year. As he did earlier this week, the president enlisted the help of Americans to pressure lawmakers to act on middle class tax cuts and said he’s ready to do his part. “If we can just get a few House Republicans on board, we can pass the bill in the House, it will land on my desk, and I am ready. I’ve got a bunch of pens ready to sign this bill… There are no shortage of pens in the White House,” he joked.


On Thursday, the White House put forth a proposal of $1.6 trillion in tax increases over the next 10 years, $50 billion in new stimulus spending, $400 billion in unspecified Medicare cuts, and a measure to effectively end Congress’s ability to vote on the debt limit. The offer, which closely mirrors the president’s previous deficit-reduction plans, lacked concessions to Republicans including detailed spending cuts and was strongly rejected.


Get More Political Analysis from ABC’s The Note


Factories like the Rodon Group’s will see a tax increase if a deal is reached in Democrats’ favor. But K’Nex CEO Michael Araten told ABC News his third-generation company wouldn’t be forced to change practices and had planned several years in advance to compensate for any tax increase.


“If on an individual basis we have some taxes we’ll deal with that,” he said. “But we don’t think that an incremental difference of 2 or 3 percent will meaningfully move our budgets in a way that impacts our hiring or investment plans. Everyone who has a job is going to have a job on Jan. 1 whether we go over the cliff or not.”


Striking into the Obama tour’s territory, today Majority Whip. Rep. Kevin McCarthy circulated a video of another Pennsylvania small business owner, Jerry Gorski of Gorski Engineering, explaining how the tax increase on the top 2 percent of income earners would harm his establishment.

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Projections of sea level rise are vast underestimates








































Expect more water to lap at your shores. That's the take-home message from two studies out this week that look at the latest data on sea level rise due to climate change.













The first shows that current projections for the end of the century may seriously underestimate the rise in global sea levels. The other, on the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica, looks at just how much of the water stored up there has been moving into the oceans.












Both demonstrate that global warming is a real and imminent threat.












What mechanisms could lead to a rise in global sea level as climate change warms the planet?
There are four major mechanisms: the thermal expansion of oceans in a warming world; the loss of ice from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets; the melting of mountain glaciers and ice caps (such as those in the Himalayas); and the extraction and discharge of groundwater.












What is the latest on sea level rise?
One of the two new studies shows that last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in 2007, vastly underestimated actual sea level rise. That's because the IPCC's fourth assessment report (AR4) did not include contributions from the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.












So, for the years 1993-2011, the IPCC estimated that sea level would rise by about 2 millimetres a year. But the satellite data from that period now tell a different story.












Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and colleagues compared IPCC AR4 projections with actual measurements and found the projections lagging behind what was happening in the real world. Global sea level has been rising at about 3.2 millimetres a year over the past two decades (Environmental Research Letters, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/7/4/044035).












Why the discrepancy?
The likely culprits are continental ice sheets. "[In IPCC models], the two big ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica contribute nothing to future sea level rise, because they assume that the mass loss from Greenland is balanced by ice gain in Antarctica due to higher snowfall rates," says Rahmstorf.












But satellite data show that the ice sheets are losing ice to the oceans.












If the models have not accurately reproduced what happened in recent years, it is likely that their projections for the future are not correct either. Since 2007, the IPCC has recognised this. Its initial projection of a maximum sea level rise of 60 centimetres by 2100 has been upped to include an additional 20-centimetre rise due to ice sheets melting. This effect comes from simplified models of what the ice sheets are doing, however, so even the updated projections could be off the mark and sea level rise could potentially be greater still.












So, what do the latest satellite readings tell us about ice sheets?
They tell us that the melting in Greenland is not offset by gain of ice in Antarctica. Andrew Shepherd of the University of Leeds, UK, and colleagues combined data from three independent types of satellite studies to lessen uncertainties and remove year-to-year variability.












"It's probably now the best overall and most comprehensive estimate of what the ice sheets are doing and what they have been doing for the last 20 years," says team member Ian Joughin of the University of Washington in Seattle.












And the data are clear: from 1990 to 2000, the melting of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets added about 0.25 millimetres a year to global sea level rise. For 2005-2010, that number has increased to about 1 millimetre a year (Science, http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1228102"












This is a concern, says Joughin. "It shows an accelerating increase of mass loss."












Is there a difference in how Greenland and Antarctica are reacting to global warming?
Yes. Greenland is losing the most ice, causing sea level to rise by about 0.75 millimetres per year. What's happening in Antarctica is more nuanced. East Antarctica is gaining mass because of increased snowfall, but this is more than offset by the loss of ice from West Antarctica, particularly along the Amundsen Coast, where warm water is melting ice shelves from beneath. This is leading to thinning and speed-up of glaciers, such the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers.












How much will the extraction of groundwater for irrigation add to the sea level?
Until now, sea level rise from the extraction of groundwater (which eventually ends up in the sea) has been countered by dams built on rivers over the last century, which hold water back on land. But the best sites for dams have now been utilised, so we can't expect to store more water on land.












As we extract more groundwater for irrigation – a trend that could increase as climate change causes droughts – it could add up to 10 centimetres to the sea level by 2100, according to Rahmstorf. "This will become a net contribution to sea level rise in the future," he says. "Not big, but not negligible."


















































If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

















































































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Motor Racing: Ecclestone blasts Vettel row as 'joke'






LONDON: Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone on Thursday blasted the controversy surrounding world champion Sebastian Vettel's Brazilian Grand Prix overtaking manoeuvre as a "joke".

Ferrari had contacted Formula One's governing body, the FIA, concerning the move by the Red Bull driver during last weekend's season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix that won him a third successive title.

There had been speculation that the manoeuvre could have been illegal and, if so, Vettel could have been sanctioned and thereby stripped of his title in favour of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso who missed out on the championship by just three points.

But Formula One ringmaster Ecclestone said it was a shame that the climax to the season had been overshadowed by the row.

"It's a shame because everything had gone so well," he told the Daily Telegraph.

"It was a super race, a super championship. Now everyone is talking about this. The problem is that no-one knows what is going on."

Earlier Thursday, the respected Autosport magazine said there was "no doubt" at the FIA that Vettel had overtaken legitimately on lap four of the race because a green flag had already been displayed in the yellow flag sector, allowing drivers to resume passing.

No team had asked for a review of the incident, it added.

"In the rules and regs normally you have to protest," added Ecclestone.

"They (Ferrari) missed that time. Then there is the fact that a green flag was shown, which nobody seems to dispute. It's a complete joke. What they are saying in that letter is wrong. I don't think there needs to be any action taken. It's completely and utterly wrong."

On Wednesday, footage emerged on YouTube which appeared to show Vettel, the youngest triple world champion in history, overtaking Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne under yellow flags.

Overtaking under caution is outlawed and is usually punished with a drive-through penalty.

But in cases where the infringement is not spotted, the sanction is a 20-second penalty handed out retrospectively.

Vettel was sixth in Sunday's rain-lashed race, while double world champion Alonso was second behind McLaren's Jenson Button.

Ferrari said they had wanted the FIA to clarify the rules.

"Ferrari asked, by means of a letter, for a clarification from FIA regarding VET's (Vettel's) overtaking move on VER (Vergne) during lap 4 of the Brazilian GP," the Italian team said on its Twitter account @insideferrari.

Vettel's victory had already been overshadowed by claims from Ferrari that Alonso should have been crowned champion, pointing to controversial races in Belgium and Japan to support their argument.

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said that Alonso paid a heavy price for first lap exits in Belgium and Japan where he was shunted out of contention by Lotus duo Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen respectively.

The Italian giants had been further aggrieved when Vettel, accused of blocking Alonso in qualifying in Japan before going on to win the race, escaped with just a reprimand.

Vettel refused to get involved in a war of words although he did allude to his rivals' controversial decision in Texas to change the gearbox on Felipe Massa's Ferrari in order to allow Alonso to enjoy a starting advantage on the grid.

"A lot of people tried to play dirty tricks but we did not get distracted by that and kept going our way and all the guys gave a big push right to the end," Vettel said.

-AFP/ac



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Scout bridges navigation gap between car and phone



Scout navigation app

The destination shown on this navigation system was delivered through smartphone integration.



(Credit:
Wayne Cunningham/CNET)



LOS ANGELES - If you ever read an address off your phone and typed it into your
car's navigation system, you experienced one of the biggest disconnects between smartphones and cars. At the LA Auto Show, Telenav demonstrated how its Scout navigation app solves this problem.


Last September, Ford and Telenav announced that Scout was compatible with Ford's Sync AppLink app integration feature. Sync AppLink lets drivers control compatible apps through their car's interface. Scout was the first navigation app to work with AppLink, and joined a growing number of compatible apps.


Telenav's Mark Burfeind demonstrated the new Scout integration for CNET in a Mustang equipped with Ford's previous generation navigation system and the latest version of Sync AppLink. Pairing an
Android phone with the Scout app to the car through Bluetooth, Burfeind used the car's voice command to launch Scout, which appeared as one of the choices on the AppLink screen.


AppLink was able to access destinations saved in the phone's Favorites and Recents list, and search for nearby points of interests based on categories. Burfeind requested Favorites through voice command, and the Mustang's infotainment system began displaying and reading out each destination, one at a time. Choosing one, the car loaded it into its navigation system and computed the route.


As another example of the system's capabilities, Burfeind chose the category Coffee, causing Scout to do an online search for nearby coffee shops. Again, the car read each result out one at a time, then showed the first three results on a screen. He was able to choose one and have the car compute the route. It seems tedious to have the car read out the results so slowly, but Telenav engineered the AppLink interface in this manner to avoid distracting drivers.


Beyond the phone and car integration, Telenav maintains the Scout.me Web site, which lets users search for destinations that will then show up in the Scout apps on their phones.


Although Scout worked fine in the navigation-equipped Mustang, it really shines when running with one of Ford's cars lacking navigation, but equipped with AppLink. In that environment, a user could control the Scout app through the car's voice command, searching for destinations or choosing one from the Favorites or Recents lists. Scout would use the car's own GPS chip and antenna to determine its location, then compute the route on the phone. Route guidance would appear as turn-by-turn directions on a screen in the car.


Scout navigation app

Scout AppLink integration lets drivers request destinations by Recents, Favorites, and category searches.



(Credit:
Wayne Cunningham/CNET)



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