Top IRS official didn't reveal tea party targeting

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Congress was not told tea party groups were being inappropriately targeted by the Internal Revenue Service, even after acting agency Chief Steven Miller had been briefed on the matter.

Miller was first informed on May, 3, 2012, that applications for tax-exempt status by tea party groups were inappropriately singled out for extra scrutiny, the IRS said Monday.

At least twice after the briefing, Miller wrote letters to members of Congress to explain the process of reviewing applications for tax-exempt status without disclosing that tea party groups had been targeted. On July 25, 2012, Miller testified before the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, but again did not mention the additional scrutiny ? despite being asked about it.

At the hearing, Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Texas, told Miller that some politically active tax-exempt groups in his district had complained about being harassed. Marchant did not explicitly ask if tea party groups were being targeted. But he did ask how applications were handled.

Miller responded, "We did group those organizations together to ensure consistency, to ensure quality. We continue to work those cases," according to a transcript on the committee's website.

Earlier, Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., had raised concerns with the IRS about complaints that tea party groups were being harassed. Boustany specifically mentioned tea party groups in his inquiry.

But in a June 15, 2012, letter to Boustany, Miller said that when the IRS saw an increase in applications from groups that were involved in political activity, the agency "took steps to coordinate the handling of the case to ensure consistency."

He added that agents worked with tax law experts "to develop approaches and materials that could be helpful to the agents working the cases."

Miller did not mention that in 2011, those materials included a list of words to watch for, such as "tea party" and "patriot." He also didn't disclose that in January 2012, the criteria for additional screening was updated to include references to the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.

The House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by GOP Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, is holding a hearing on the issue Friday and Miller is scheduled to testify.

The Senate Finance Committee announced Monday that it will join a growing list of congressional committees investigating the matter.

The IRS apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see whether they were violating their tax-exempt status. In some cases, the IRS acknowledged, agents inappropriately asked for lists of donors.

The agency blamed low-level employees in a Cincinnati office, saying no high-level officials were aware.

When members of Congress repeatedly raised concerns with the IRS about complaints that tea party groups were being harassed last year, a deputy IRS commissioner took the lead in assuring lawmakers that the additional scrutiny was a legitimate part of the screening process.

That deputy commissioner was Miller, who is now the acting head of the agency.

Camp and other members of the Ways and Means Committee sent at least four inquiries to the IRS, starting in June 2011. Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, sent three inquiries. And Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House oversight committee, sent at least one.

None of the responses they received from the IRS acknowledged that conservative groups had ever been targeted, including a response to Hatch dated Sept. 11, 2012 ? four months after Miller had been briefed.

In several letters to members of Congress, Miller went into painstaking detail about how applications for tax-exempt status were screened. But he never mentioned that conservative groups were being targeted, even though people working under him knew as early as June 2011 that tea party groups were being targeted, according to an upcoming report by the agency's inspector general.

The IRS issued a statement Monday saying that Miller had been briefed on May 3, 2012 "that some specific applications were improperly identified by name and sent to the (exempt organizations) centralized processing unit for further review." That was the unit in Cincinnati that handled the tea party applications.

Miller became acting commissioner in November, after Commissioner Douglas Shulman completed his five-year term. Shulman had been appointed by President George W. Bush.

On June 29, 2011, Lois G. Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, learned at a meeting that groups were being targeted, according to a draft of the report by the Treasury inspector general for tax administration.

At the meeting, Lerner was told that groups with "Tea Party," ''Patriot" or "9/12 Project" in their names were being flagged for additional and often burdensome scrutiny, the report says. Lerner instructed agents to change the criteria for flagging groups "immediately."

However, when Lerner responded to inquiries from the House oversight committee, she didn't mention the fact that tea party groups had ever been targeted. Her responses included 45-page letters in May 2012 to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who chairs the committee, and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who chairs a subcommittee.

Lerner also met twice with staff from the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee to discuss the issue, in March and in May 2012, according to a timeline constructed by committee staff. She didn't mention at either meeting that conservative groups had been targeted, according to the timeline.

On Monday, President Barack Obama said he first learned about the issue from news reports on Friday. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the White House counsel's office was alerted the week of April 22 that the inspector general was finishing a report concerning the IRS office in Cincinnati. But, he said, the counsel's office did not get the report and the president did not learn the focus until Friday.

"If, in fact, IRS personnel engaged in the kind of practices that had been reported on and were intentionally targeting conservative groups, then that's outrageous and there's no place for it," Obama said Monday at a press conference.

__

Associated Press writers Jim Abrams and Henry C. Jackson contributed to this report.

___

Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/top-irs-official-didnt-reveal-tea-party-targeting-000016562.html

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Obama's Health Secretary Seeks Donations From Companies For Health Care Law

By David Morgan
WASHINGTON, May 11 (Reuters) - U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is asking companies for financial donations to help implement President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul, months before it is due to take effect.
In telephone calls that began around March 23, officials say, Obama's top healthcare adviser has been seeking assistance from companies in the healthcare field and other industries as well as from healthcare providers, patient advocacy groups, churches and other charitable organizations.
"The secretary has been working with a full range of stakeholders ... We have always worked with outside groups, and the efforts now ramping up are just one more part of that work," said Jason Young, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services.
HHS declined to identify the targeted donors but said none of the companies are regulated by department agencies.
The administration's aim is to win financial help for nonprofit groups, including Washington-based Enroll America, which are mounting a private-sector effort to persuade millions of uninsured Americans to obtain health coverage in 2014 through new online marketplaces, known as exchanges, slated to begin enrollment for federally subsidized private insurance on Oct. 1.
With Republicans in Congress unwilling to consider allocating new money to finance government outreach efforts, the White House and HHS have appealed to private sources, including the insurance industry, to help with an implementation effort that could lead to higher costs and jeopardize a cornerstone of Obama's presidential legacy if it were to fail.
Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, blasted Sebelius' action as "absurd."
"Moving forward, I will be seeking information from the administration about these actions to help better understand whether there are conflicts of interest and if it violated federal law," he said in a statement.
HHS said the secretary began phoning companies after getting advice from department lawyers. "There is a special section in the Public Health Service Act that allows the secretary to support and to encourage others to support non-profit organizations working to provide health information and conduct other public health activities," Young told Reuters in an email.

OBAMA: DON'T BE 'BAMBOOZLED'
Sebelius' fund-raising activities were originally reported by the Washington Post.
Organizations like Enroll America are expected to play a key role in public outreach efforts set to begin this summer.
A nonpartisan group dedicated to extending health coverage to nearly 49 million uninsured people, Enroll America's board includes representatives from Teva Pharmaceuticals, the Kaiser Permanente health system and the American Hospital Association, a Washington trade group.
Enroll America President Anne Filipic said cooperation between the public, private and nonprofit sectors is vital to making sure the marketplaces are ready on time. "Secretary Sebelius recognizes the importance of the work Enroll America is doing and we're thrilled to be working with her," she said.
Obama defended his Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on Friday at a White House event intended to kick off the administration's promotional campaign with a focus on the law's benefits for women.
The president said he was "110 percent committed" to the law's success and warned listeners not to be "bamboozled" by misinformation.
"This is too important for political games," Obama said. "Regular access to a doctor or medicine or preventive care - that's not some earned privilege, it is a right."
The law is expected to provide health coverage to 38 million people by the end of the decade through the new marketplaces and an expansion of the Medicaid healthcare program for the poor. Some 7 million people are expected to gain coverage through the marketplaces alone in 2014, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Republicans have turned up the volume on their opposition to the law. The House of Representatives is to vote next week on a Republican measure to repeal the law. Like three-dozen previous House votes to repeal or defund healthcare reform, the measure is expected to go nowhere in the Democratic-led Senate.
HHS officials say the department has put together $1.26 billion to finance Affordable Care Act implementation between now and Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. That includes an outreach campaign that has already cost $240 million, as well as funding for the establishment of 17 state insurance exchanges, and 33 others that HHS will operate in states that are either not ready or unwilling to run their own.
The exchanges are scheduled to begin operating on Jan. 1, 2014, when the healthcare law comes into full force. (Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/11/obama-health-care-donations_n_3259741.html

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'Slow-motion disaster': California houses sinking into the ground

Rich Pedroncelli / AP

Robin and Scott Spivey walk past the wreckage of their Tudor-style dream home on Monday. They had to abandon it when the ground gave way causing it to drop 10 feet below the street in Lakeport, Calif. Officials believe that water that has bubbled to the surface is playing a role in the collapse of the hillside subdivision, forcing the evacuation of eight homes and endangering another 10.

By Tracie Cone, The Associated Press

LAKEPORT, Calif. --?Scott and Robin Spivey had a sinking feeling that something was wrong with their home when cracks began snaking across their walls in March.

The cracks soon turned into gaping fractures, and within two weeks their 600-square-foot garage broke from the house and the entire property ? manicured lawn and all ? dropped 10 feet below the street.

It wasn't long before the houses on both sides collapsed as the ground gave way in the Spivey's neighborhood in Lake County, about 100 miles north of San Francisco.

"We want to know what is going on here," said Scott Spivey, a former city building inspector who lived in his four-bedroom, Tudor-style dream home for 11 years.

Eight homes are now abandoned and 10 more are under notice of imminent evacuation as a hilltop with sweeping vistas of Clear Lake and the Mount Konocti volcano swallows the subdivision built 30 years ago.

---

The situation has become so bad that mail delivery was ended to keep carriers out of danger.

"It's a slow-motion disaster," said Randall Fitzgerald, a writer who bought his home in the Lakeside Heights project a year ago.

Unlike sinkholes of Florida that can gobble homes in an instant, this collapse in hilly volcanic country can move many feet on one day and just a fraction of an inch the next.

Officials believe water that has bubbled to the surface is playing a role in the destruction. But nobody can explain why suddenly there is plentiful water atop the hill in a county with groundwater shortages.

Rich Pedroncelli / AP

Jagtar Singh gazes from the doorway of one of the bedrooms that collapsed as the ground gave way beneath his home in Lakeport, Calif.

"That's the big question," said Scott De Leon, county public works director. "We have a dormant volcano, and I'm certain a lot of things that happen here (in Lake County) are a result of that, but we don't know about this."

Other development on similar soil in the county is stable, county officials said.

While some of the subdivision movement is occurring on shallow fill, De Leon said a geologist has warned that the ground could be compromised down to bedrock 25 feet below and that cracks recently appeared in roads well beyond the fill.

"Considering this is a low rainfall year and the fact it's letting go now after all of these years, and the magnitude that it's letting go, well it's pretty monumental," De Leon said.

County officials have inspected the original plans for the project and say it was developed by a reputable engineering firm then signed off on by the public works director at the time.

"I can only presume that they were checked prior to approval," De Leon said.

The sinkage has prompted county crews to redirect the subdivision's sewage 300 feet through an overland pipe as manholes in the 10-acre development collapsed.

Consultant Tom Ruppenthal found two small leaks in the county water system that he said weren't big enough to account for the amount of water that is flowing along infrastructure pipes and underground fissures, but they could be contributing to another source.

"It's very common for groundwater to shift its course," said Ruppenthal of Utility Services Associates in Seattle. "I think the groundwater has shifted."

If the county can't get the water and sewer service stabilized, De Leon said all 30 houses in the subdivision will have to be abandoned.

The owners of six damaged homes said they need help from the government.

The Lake County Board of Supervisors asked Gov. Jerry Brown to declare an emergency so funding might be available to stabilize utilities and determine the cause of the collapse. On May 6, state Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, wrote a letter of support asking Brown for immediate action. The California Emergency Management Agency said Brown was still assessing the situation.

On Wednesday, the state sent a water resources engineer and a geologist to look at the problem. Sen. Dianne Feinstein sent a representative the next day.

Lake County, with farms, wineries and several Indian casinos, was shaped by earthquake fault movement and volcanic explosions that helped create the Coast Ranges of California. Clear Lake, popular for boating and fishing, is the largest fresh water lake wholly located in the state.

It is not unusual for groundwater in the region to make its way to the surface then subside. Many natural hot springs and geysers receded underground in the early 1900s and have since been tapped for geothermal power.

Homeowners now wonder whether fissures have opened below their hilltop, allowing water to seep to the surface. But they're so perplexed they also talk about the land being haunted and are considering asking the local Native American tribe if the hilltop was an ancient graveyard.

"Someone said it must be hexed," said Blanka Doren, a 72-year-old German immigrant who poured her life savings into the house she bought in 1999 so she could live on the rental income.

The home shares a wall with her neighbor, Jagtar Singh ? who had two days of notice to move his wife, 4-year-old daughter and his parents before the hill behind the back of his home collapsed ? taking the underside of his house and leaving the carpet dangling.

Doren is afraid that as Singh's house falls it will take hers with it. Already cracks have spread across her floors.

Damaged houses in the subdivision have been tagged for mandatory removal, but the hillside is so unstable it can't support the heavy equipment necessary to perform the job.

"This was our first home," said Singh, who noticed a problem in April when he could see light between the wall and floor of his bedroom. A geotechnical company offered no solutions.

"We didn't know it would be that major, but in one week we were gone," he said.

So far insurance companies have left the owners of the homes ? valued between $200,000 and $250,000, or twice the median price in the county ? dangling too. Subsidence is not covered, homeowners said. So until someone figures out whether something else is going on, they'll be in limbo.

"It's a tragedy, really," contractor Dean Pick said as he took photos for an insurance company. "I've never seen anything like it. At least that didn't have the Pacific Ocean eating away at it."?

Related stories

?

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Nano-breakthrough: Solving the case of the herringbone crystal

Public release date: 12-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Nicole Casal Moore
ncmoore@umich.edu
734-647-7087
University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR---Leading nanoscientists created beautiful, tiled patterns with flat nanocrystals, but they were left with a mystery: Why did some sets of crystals arrange themselves in an alternating, herringbone style? To find out, they turned to experts in computer simulation at the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The result gives nanotechnology researchers a new tool for controlling how objects one-millionth the size of a grain of sand arrange themselves into useful materials---and a means to discover the rest of the tool chest. A paper on the research is published online May 12 in Nature Chemistry.

"The excitement in this is not in the herringbone pattern, it's about the coupling of experiment and modeling, and how that approach lets us take on a very hard problem," said Christopher Murray, the Richard Perry University Professor and professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania.

Murray's group is renowned for making nanocrystals and arranging them into larger crystal superstructures.

Ultimately, researchers want to modify patches on nanoparticles in different ways to coax them into more complex patterns. The goal is a method that will allow people to imagine what they would like to do and then design a material with the right properties for the job.

"By engineering interactions at the nanoscale, we can begin to assemble target structures of great complexity and functionality on the macroscale," said U-M's Sharon Glotzer, the Stuart W. Churchill Collegiate Professor of Chemical Engineering.

Glotzer introduced the concept of nanoparticle "patchiness" in 2004. Her group uses computer simulations to understand and design the patches.

Recently, Murray's team made patterns with flat nanocrystals made of heavy metals, known to chemists as lanthanides, and fluorine atoms. Lanthanides have valuable properties for solar energy and medical imaging, such as the ability to convert between high- and low-energy light.

They started by breaking down chemicals containing atoms of a lanthanide metal and fluorine in a solution, and the lanthanide and fluorine naturally began to form crystals. Also in the mix were chains of carbon and hydrogen that stuck to the sides of the crystals, stopping their growth at sizes of around 100 nanometers, or 100 millionths of a millimeter, at the largest dimensions. By using lanthanides with different atomic radii, they could control the top and bottom faces of the hexagonal crystals to be anywhere from much longer than the other four sides to non-existent, resulting in a diamond shape.

To form tiled patterns, the team spread a thin layer of nanocrystals and solvent on top of a thick fluid. As the solvent evaporated, the crystals had less space available, and they began to pack together.

The diamond shapes and the very long hexagons lined up as expected, the diamonds forming an Argyle-style grid and the hexagons matching up their longest edges like a foreshortened honeycomb. The hexagons whose sides were all nearly the same length should have formed a similar squashed honeycomb pattern, but instead, they lined up in more complicated, alternating herringbone style.

"Whenever we see something that isn't taking the simplest pattern possible, we have to ask why," Murray said.

They posed the question to Glotzer's team.

"They've been world leaders in understanding how these shapes could work on nanometer scales, and there aren't many groups that can make the crystals we make," Murray said. "It seemed natural to bring these strengths together."

Glotzer and her group built a computer model that could recreate the self-assembly of the same range of shapes that Murray had produced. The simulations showed that if the equilateral hexagons interacted with one another only through their shapes, most of the crystals formed the foreshortened honeycomb pattern---not the herringbone.

"That's when we said, 'Okay, there must be something else going on. It's not just a packing problem,'" Glotzer said.

Her team, which included U-M graduate student Andres Millan and research scientist Michael Engel, then began playing with interactions between the edges of the particles. They found that that if the edges that formed the points were stickier than the other two sides, the hexagons would naturally arrange in the herringbone pattern.

The teams suspected that the source of the stickiness was those carbon and hydrogen chains---perhaps they attached to the point edges more easily. Since experimentation doesn't yet offer a way to measure the number of hydrocarbon chains on the sides of such tiny particles, Murray asked Ju Li, now the Battelle Energy Alliance Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to calculate how the chains would attach to the edges at a quantum mechanical level.

Li's group confirmed that because of the way that the different facets cut across the lattice of the metal and fluorine atoms, more hydrocarbon chains could stick to the four edges that led to points than the remaining two sides. As a result, the particles become patchy.

"Our study shows a way forward making very subtle changes in building block architecture and getting a very profound change in the larger self-assembled pattern," Glotzer said. "The goal is to have knobs that you can change just a little and get a big change in structure, and this is one of the first papers that shows a way forward for how to do that."

The paper is titled "Competition of shape and interaction patchiness for self-assembling nanoplates."

Murray is also a professor of materials science and engineering. Glotzer is also a professor of materials science and engineering, macromolecular science and engineering, physics and applied physics. Li is also a professor of material science and engineering.

###

Sharon Glotzer: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/glotzergroup/home

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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.

Public release date: 12-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Nicole Casal Moore
ncmoore@umich.edu
734-647-7087
University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR---Leading nanoscientists created beautiful, tiled patterns with flat nanocrystals, but they were left with a mystery: Why did some sets of crystals arrange themselves in an alternating, herringbone style? To find out, they turned to experts in computer simulation at the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The result gives nanotechnology researchers a new tool for controlling how objects one-millionth the size of a grain of sand arrange themselves into useful materials---and a means to discover the rest of the tool chest. A paper on the research is published online May 12 in Nature Chemistry.

"The excitement in this is not in the herringbone pattern, it's about the coupling of experiment and modeling, and how that approach lets us take on a very hard problem," said Christopher Murray, the Richard Perry University Professor and professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania.

Murray's group is renowned for making nanocrystals and arranging them into larger crystal superstructures.

Ultimately, researchers want to modify patches on nanoparticles in different ways to coax them into more complex patterns. The goal is a method that will allow people to imagine what they would like to do and then design a material with the right properties for the job.

"By engineering interactions at the nanoscale, we can begin to assemble target structures of great complexity and functionality on the macroscale," said U-M's Sharon Glotzer, the Stuart W. Churchill Collegiate Professor of Chemical Engineering.

Glotzer introduced the concept of nanoparticle "patchiness" in 2004. Her group uses computer simulations to understand and design the patches.

Recently, Murray's team made patterns with flat nanocrystals made of heavy metals, known to chemists as lanthanides, and fluorine atoms. Lanthanides have valuable properties for solar energy and medical imaging, such as the ability to convert between high- and low-energy light.

They started by breaking down chemicals containing atoms of a lanthanide metal and fluorine in a solution, and the lanthanide and fluorine naturally began to form crystals. Also in the mix were chains of carbon and hydrogen that stuck to the sides of the crystals, stopping their growth at sizes of around 100 nanometers, or 100 millionths of a millimeter, at the largest dimensions. By using lanthanides with different atomic radii, they could control the top and bottom faces of the hexagonal crystals to be anywhere from much longer than the other four sides to non-existent, resulting in a diamond shape.

To form tiled patterns, the team spread a thin layer of nanocrystals and solvent on top of a thick fluid. As the solvent evaporated, the crystals had less space available, and they began to pack together.

The diamond shapes and the very long hexagons lined up as expected, the diamonds forming an Argyle-style grid and the hexagons matching up their longest edges like a foreshortened honeycomb. The hexagons whose sides were all nearly the same length should have formed a similar squashed honeycomb pattern, but instead, they lined up in more complicated, alternating herringbone style.

"Whenever we see something that isn't taking the simplest pattern possible, we have to ask why," Murray said.

They posed the question to Glotzer's team.

"They've been world leaders in understanding how these shapes could work on nanometer scales, and there aren't many groups that can make the crystals we make," Murray said. "It seemed natural to bring these strengths together."

Glotzer and her group built a computer model that could recreate the self-assembly of the same range of shapes that Murray had produced. The simulations showed that if the equilateral hexagons interacted with one another only through their shapes, most of the crystals formed the foreshortened honeycomb pattern---not the herringbone.

"That's when we said, 'Okay, there must be something else going on. It's not just a packing problem,'" Glotzer said.

Her team, which included U-M graduate student Andres Millan and research scientist Michael Engel, then began playing with interactions between the edges of the particles. They found that that if the edges that formed the points were stickier than the other two sides, the hexagons would naturally arrange in the herringbone pattern.

The teams suspected that the source of the stickiness was those carbon and hydrogen chains---perhaps they attached to the point edges more easily. Since experimentation doesn't yet offer a way to measure the number of hydrocarbon chains on the sides of such tiny particles, Murray asked Ju Li, now the Battelle Energy Alliance Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to calculate how the chains would attach to the edges at a quantum mechanical level.

Li's group confirmed that because of the way that the different facets cut across the lattice of the metal and fluorine atoms, more hydrocarbon chains could stick to the four edges that led to points than the remaining two sides. As a result, the particles become patchy.

"Our study shows a way forward making very subtle changes in building block architecture and getting a very profound change in the larger self-assembled pattern," Glotzer said. "The goal is to have knobs that you can change just a little and get a big change in structure, and this is one of the first papers that shows a way forward for how to do that."

The paper is titled "Competition of shape and interaction patchiness for self-assembling nanoplates."

Murray is also a professor of materials science and engineering. Glotzer is also a professor of materials science and engineering, macromolecular science and engineering, physics and applied physics. Li is also a professor of material science and engineering.

###

Sharon Glotzer: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/glotzergroup/home

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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/uom-nst050813.php

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Birds of Burden: 7 Ways Humans Harness Avian Abilities [Slide Show]

Our avian friends are capable of far more than singing or dressing a table

By Adam Hadhazy

HONEYCATCHER: Honeyguides, and in particular the Greater Honeyguide, are famous for?as their name implies?guiding people to bee hives. Image: Frans Vandewalle

Many of the 10,000 or so bird species on the planet are pretty, melodic or tasty. But birds are much more than that. Over the centuries, humankind has come up with some distinctive and surprising ways to take advantage of the unique abilities of our feathered friends. At various points in the history of civilizations, birds have served as hunters, guides and messengers. And we haven?t run out of new things for them to do. Farmers have employed raptors to strike terror into the hearts of crop-destroying birds, such as starlings and seagulls, scattering them back into the wild. With the proper training, birds might one day perform search and rescue.

With a nod to International Migratory Bird Day, May 11, here is a slide show showcasing many of the ways we have teamed up with our avian counterparts.

View the Birds of Burden slide show.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=1b33ec63f877812d329817ca9b11dd4d

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Nano-breakthrough: Solving the case of the herringbone crystal

May 12, 2013 ? Leading nanoscientists created beautiful, tiled patterns with flat nanocrystals, but they were left with a mystery: Why did some sets of crystals arrange themselves in an alternating, herringbone style? To find out, they turned to experts in computer simulation at the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The result gives nanotechnology researchers a new tool for controlling how objects one-millionth the size of a grain of sand arrange themselves into useful materials -- and a means to discover the rest of the tool chest. A paper on the research is published online May 12 in Nature Chemistry.

"The excitement in this is not in the herringbone pattern, it's about the coupling of experiment and modeling, and how that approach lets us take on a very hard problem," said Christopher Murray, the Richard Perry University Professor and professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania.

Murray's group is well-known for making nanocrystals and arranging them into larger crystal superstructures.

Ultimately, researchers want to modify patches on nanoparticles in different ways to coax them into more complex patterns. The goal is a method that will allow people to imagine what they would like to do and then design a material with the right properties for the job.

"By engineering interactions at the nanoscale, we can begin to assemble target structures of great complexity and functionality on the macroscale," said U-M's Sharon Glotzer, the Stuart W. Churchill Collegiate Professor of Chemical Engineering.

Glotzer introduced the concept of nanoparticle "patchiness" in 2004. Her group uses computer simulations to understand and design the patches.

Recently, Murray's team made patterns with flat nanocrystals made of heavy metals, known to chemists as lanthanides, and fluorine atoms. Lanthanides have valuable properties for solar energy and medical imaging, such as the ability to convert between high- and low-energy light.

They started by breaking down chemicals containing atoms of a lanthanide metal and fluorine in a solution, and the lanthanide and fluorine naturally began to form crystals. Also in the mix were chains of carbon and hydrogen that stuck to the sides of the crystals, stopping their growth at sizes of around 100 nanometers, or 100 millionths of a millimeter, at the largest dimensions. By using lanthanides with different atomic radii, they could control the top and bottom faces of the hexagonal crystals to be anywhere from much longer than the other four sides to non-existent, resulting in a diamond shape.

To form tiled patterns, the team spread a thin layer of nanocrystals and solvent on top of a thick fluid. As the solvent evaporated, the crystals had less space available, and they began to pack together.

The diamond shapes and the very long hexagons lined up as expected, the diamonds forming an Argyle-style grid and the hexagons matching up their longest edges like a foreshortened honeycomb. The hexagons whose sides were all nearly the same length should have formed a similar squashed honeycomb pattern, but instead, they lined up in more complicated, alternating herringbone style.

"Whenever we see something that isn't taking the simplest pattern possible, we have to ask why," Murray said.

They posed the question to Glotzer's team.

"They've been world leaders in understanding how these shapes could work on nanometer scales, and there aren't many groups that can make the crystals we make," Murray said. "It seemed natural to bring these strengths together."

Glotzer and her group built a computer model that could recreate the self-assembly of the same range of shapes that Murray had produced. The simulations showed that if the equilateral hexagons interacted with one another only through their shapes, most of the crystals formed the foreshortened honeycomb pattern -- not the herringbone.

"That's when we said, 'Okay, there must be something else going on. It's not just a packing problem,'" Glotzer said.

Her team, which included U-M graduate student Andres Millan and research scientist Michael Engel, then began playing with interactions between the edges of the particles. They found that that if the edges that formed the points were stickier than the other two sides, the hexagons would naturally arrange in the herringbone pattern.

The teams suspected that the source of the stickiness was those carbon and hydrogen chains -- perhaps they attached to the point edges more easily. Since experimentation doesn't yet offer a way to measure the number of hydrocarbon chains on the sides of such tiny particles, Murray asked Ju Li, now the Battelle Energy Alliance Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to calculate how the chains would attach to the edges at a quantum mechanical level.

Li's group confirmed that because of the way that the different facets cut across the lattice of the metal and fluorine atoms, more hydrocarbon chains could stick to the four edges that led to points than the remaining two sides. As a result, the particles become patchy.

"Our study shows a way forward making very subtle changes in building block architecture and getting a very profound change in the larger self-assembled pattern," Glotzer said. "The goal is to have knobs that you can change just a little and get a big change in structure, and this is one of the first papers that shows a way forward for how to do that."

The paper is titled "Competition of shape and interaction patchiness for self-assembling nanoplates."

Murray is also a professor of materials science and engineering. Glotzer is also a professor of materials science and engineering, macromolecular science and engineering, physics and applied physics. Li is also a professor of material science and engineering.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/kOnNe91VKq0/130512141206.htm

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Should the FDA Regulate Caffeine in Foods? | wHealthySolutions

The Associated Press reported recently that with the proliferation of people using energy-boosting foods such as energy drinks and most recently energy gums, ?The Food and Drug Administration said Monday that it will investigate the safety of added caffeine and its effects on children and adolescents.?

What is caffeine?

Q: Dr. Arad, we all know that caffeine helps us to boost energy, but what exactly is caffeine and how does it trigger the energy boosting mechanism in our body?

A: Coffee is a natural substance obtained from coffee beans. There are thousands of different varieties of coffees, so we need to be careful when generalizing about it. However, most commonly coffee is a mild stimulant (when used in moderation) that increases wakefulness, focus, and concentration. It is also a healthy nutrition source, since it contains many antioxidants that prevent damage from oxidization in the body. Oxidization is considered to be the major cause of multiple diseases as well as aging.

Coffee in this theoretical sense is a double-edged sword. The positive benefits may be counterbalanced by adverse effects of over stimulation, although the image of the over-stimulated coffee addict going wild and wreaking havoc is unsubstantiated by any academic research.

Physiological effect of coffee

Another concern is the physiological effect of coffee, including increased heart rate and blood pressure, which could theoretically be harmful to the heart. Fortunately, these concerns are also theoretical. I have searched the Google and Pub Med database dating from 1997 to 2013, and could find only a single article that documents the effects of acute caffeine administration in adolescents (Temple, J. L., A. M. Dewey, et al. (2010). ?Effects of acute caffeine administration on adolescents.? Exp Clin Psychopharmacol 18(6): 510-520.). In that study, intake of as much as 200mg of caffeine actually resulted in decreased heart rate and minor increase in diastolic blood pressure, and no change in systolic blood pressure. In comparison, Starbuck?s Grande Cappuccino has only 150mg of caffeine. So the likelihood of significant physiological damage from one to two cups of coffee is minimal even in adolescents.

In addition, a recent study has shown that people who drink coffee in the morning are 30% less likely to be involved in a car accident. And students who drink coffee before examinations tend to do better than those who don?t.

?Safety of energy drinks

Q: ?Are the energy drinks currently available on the market safe?

A: The caffeine content of most energy drinks is less than 250mg/serving, which should definitely be safe. However, there are a few of them which exceed this amount. For example, Chameleon Cold Brew Coffee has 2160 mg of caffeine in 32 ounces (or 8, 4oz servings delivering 270mg of caffeine each). 5150 Semi Sweet contains 15,200 mg in 32 ounces, or 475mg/ounce. Whether intake of multiple servings from these products is harmful has not been established, however, according to the Mayo Clinic, daily consumption of more than 500 to 600 mg of caffeine may cause insomnia, nervousness, restlessness, irritability, upset stomach, fast heartbeat and muscle tremors. Still they do not mention serious morbidity or mortality associate with this intake.?

How much coffee should I drink?

Q: ?So what would be your recommendation to your patients as far as drinking coffee is concerned?

A: My recommendation to my patients is that you may drink as much coffee as you like as long as you don?t experience the negative side effects mentioned above. However, in moderation this is a safe drink with some real health benefits.

FDA to regulate caffeine in food or not

Q: So in your view, should the FDA regulate the caffeine quantities in food products, or not?

A: In my opinion, there is absolutely no evidence today that indicates that the FDA should get involved in regulating caffeine quantities in food.

Before any regulations are implemented much more research is required. I would therefore encourage FDA to commission a comprehensive study to address the questions mentioned in this blog.

About the Interviewee:

Dr. Yadon Arad is Board certified in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolism, and Emergency Medicine. He has extensive experience in various aspects of human and animal Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Preventive Medicine. Dr Arad received a BA in Mathematics, Magna Cum laude, and an MD from the University of Rochester, and trained at Columbia University.

At wHealthy Solutions, we will always be your gatekeeper for accurate information.

As you and your family embark together on the journey to develop healthier habits, wHealthy Solutions will be there to provide you with relevant, valuable, timely, and custom services to guide you in your quest. wHealthy Solutions? services empower you to easily put together a personalized health-plan for yourself and your loved ones, which will improve your health and happiness over time.

Source: http://www.whealthysolutions.com/should-the-fda-regulate-caffeine-in-foods/

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AT&T LG Optimus G Pro now on sale

LG's 5.5-incher is now available from AT&T, priced $199.99 with a two-year plan

Alongside the 32GB Galaxy S4, AT&T has also officially launched the LG Optimus G Pro today. The G Pro packs a gigantic 5.5-inch 1080p display, along with a Snapdragon 600 CPU, 2GB of RAM and a 13-megapixel camera. Around the back there's 32GB of built-in storage, expandable via microSD card, alongside a monstrous 3,140mAh battery. So it's certainly a beastly device, matching the latest phones from HTC and Samsung on paper.

The LG Optimus G Pro on AT&T sells for $199.99 on a two-year plan, or $549.99 outright. Keep watching later today for our full review.

Source: AT&T

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/WMK9GFdspgg/story01.htm

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Samsung Galaxy S 4's storage claims to be investigated by BBC Watchdog

We've seen Microsoft's Surface RT face similar accusations, but this time it's the turn of Samsung's Galaxy S 4 and how much space you'll actually get from that advertised 16GB of storage. The BBC's consumer rights show, Watchdog, will be focusing on the smartphone in next week's episode, and the fact that almost half of the phone's memory is already occupied by Samsung's own software and apps. According to UK retailer Clove, there's just 9.5GB of storage left for customers to fill. It's not the only Android phone with storage space less than advertised -- visit our More Coverage link to see how the Droid RAZR Maxx's 16GB of storage magically transforms into 8GB of usable space. While the smartphone maker argues that the phone does offer an expansion option in the form of a microSD card slot (up to 64GB, no less), some apps still seem to prefer to reside on built-in storage over anything removable -- Amazon's Cloud Player comes to mind.

Host Anne Robinson hints at the end of this week's episode: "It [Samsung] claims that its brand new Galaxy phone has an extra-large memory, but what did it forget to mention?" Although we might have spoiled that question for you already, check the teaser after the break. Brits can tune in for the show at 8PM GMT next Wednesday.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

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Source: Videolan (YouTube), Gavin's Gadgets

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/see8TO2g0z8/

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When Grief Gives Way to Happiness 05/14 by Building Better ...

In loving memory of Jeanne Cooper, who passed yesterday, On-Air with Douglas is re-airing her interview and taking fan calls to celebrate her iconic career.

Artist, actress, and radio host Summer Azul in a rare and candid interview. She talks about the play that she is cast in, how she uses the Law of Attraction!

Food Network Challenge judge Kerry Vincent insists that 30 days is far from sufficient lead time for booking a wedding baker. To think otherwise is ?rubbish.?

Timeless pop-rock singer-songwriter Marshall Crenshaw, still rocking with tuneful abandon after all these years!

A Mother's Day special! Online sensation Gina Fenton aka Extreme Mom, talks raising four teenagers and how sharing the experience online has changed her life.

Grace Phipps joins Variety Radio Online to talk about her role as April Young on The Vampire Diaries.

Today on the BIG show, host Tim Gordon will talk with actor/comedian Craig Robinson about his leading man debut in the romantic comedy, Peeples.

Lawrence Saint-Victor played the popular character of Remy Boudreau on Guiding Light and now has captured The Bold and the Beautiful viewers as Carter Walton.

Atlanta Falcons Defensive Back, Robert McClain, visits The War Room to discuss his role in the Falcons defense and preparation for the upcoming NFL season.

MadnMack, teen sister pop-rock duo from SoCal, chat with Jammin Jukebox about the upcoming show at the 2013 Vans Warped Tour and their newly released album.

MTV's Teen Mom, Farrah Abraham, joins King Mac Radio to discuss her hit TV show, new book, being a mother, and the film she sold for over one million dollars.

NY Times Best Selling Author, Michelle Leighton and her best friend Courtney Cole, now a best selling author, talk about friendship and success!

Welcome Falcons QB Steve Bartkowski, NFL stats guru Russell Baxter, Jets TE Anthony Becht and Washington Times writer Dan Daly to Thursday Night Tailgate.

FantasyJAM continues having great guests talking about Fantasy Sports and this week the show features Fantasy Sports Warehouse President- Matt Kirchbaum!

Visit with the Woman behind the powerful voice, Martha Wash, lead singer of The Weather Girls "It's Raining Men," (C&C Music Factory) "I've got the Power."

Join Momma Joyce and visit with special guest Danny Hahlbohm, the famous Christian Artist who is known around the world for his paintings of inspired art!

Join award-winning blogger, author, coach and mental health advocate Michele Rosenthal as she teaches you how to shift from powerless to powerful!

Nicholas Snow welcomes drag queen extraordinaire Miss Coco Peru. Discover how Hollywood Icon Jane Fonda came to have an onstage conversation with Miss Coco!

Allegra di Bonaventura traces the stories of two families to the eve of the Revolution. A colonial New England family life and the slave experience.

In observance of Mental Health Month, teen hosts Arij and Allison discuss mental health myths and facts with Tonja Rector, LMFT.

Lindy Love, Animal Whisperer, talks about Healing Touch, an energetic Healing modality that clears negative energy, including therapeutic healing with Horses.

Barracuda, white seabass and yellowtail show in Southern California with excellent rock fishing. Get the latest updates on Phil Friedman Outdoors Radio.

Brough and JT welcome Gary Renard, author of best-selling books The Disappearance of the Universe and Your Immortal Reality.

The legends consider Chris Widener the leader of a new generation of personal development experts. Chris discusses his new book, Success Rules.

Source: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/building-better-relationships/2013/05/14/when-grief-gives-way-to-happiness

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