4 Firefighters Shot, 2 Killed Responding to NY Blaze

Two firefighters were shot and killed and two others taken to a nearby hospital after a gunman opened fire on them as they responded to a house fire in Webster, N.Y., this morning, according to authorities and local media.

Officials at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.Y., told ABCNews.com that two men were taken there this morning and were in "guarded condition" after suffering gunshot wounds.

"The responding firefighters, when they pulled up on the scene, were ... fired upon by one or more shooters," Webster Police Chief Gerald L. Pickering told reporters this morning.

There is "no active shooter, or shooters" at this time, Pickering said.

The fire spread to three homes on Lake Road, according to officials.

The fire department is back to fighting the blaze after waiting for police to safely evacuate nearby residents and secure the scene.

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Today on New Scientist: 21 December 2012

Cadaver stem cells offer new hope of life after death

Stem cells can be extracted from bone marrow five days after death to be used in life-saving treatments

Apple's patents under fire at US patent office

The tech firm is skating on thin ice with some of the patents that won it a $1 billion settlement against Samsung

Himalayan dam-building threatens endemic species

The world's highest mountains look set to become home to a huge number of dams - good news for clean energy but bad news for biodiversity

Astrophile: Black hole exposed as a dwarf in disguise

A white dwarf star caught mimicking a black hole's X-ray flashes may be the first in a new class of binary star systems

Blind juggling robot keeps a ball in the air for hours

The robot, which has no visual sensors, can juggle a ball flawlessly by analysing its trajectory

Studio sessions show how Bengalese finch stays in tune

This songbird doesn't need technological aids to stay in tune - and it's smart enough to not worry when it hears notes that are too far off to be true

Giant tooth hints at truly monumental dinosaur

A lone tooth found in Argentina may have belonged to a dinosaur even larger than those we know of, but what to call it?

Avian flu virus learns to fly without wings

A strain of bird flu that hit the Netherlands in 2003 travelled by air, a hitherto suspected by unproven route of transmission

Feedback: Are wind turbines really fans?

A tale of "disease-spreading" wind farms, the trouble with quantifying "don't know", the death of parody in the UK, and more

The link between devaluing animals and discrimination

Our feelings about other animals have important consequences for how we treat humans, say prejudice researchers Gordon Hodson and Kimberly Costello

Best videos of 2012: First motion MRI of unborn twins

Watch twins fight for space in the womb, as we reach number 6 in our countdown of the top videos of the year

2012 Flash Fiction winner: Sleep by Richard Clarke

Congratulations to Richard Clarke, who won the 2012 New Scientist Flash Fiction competition with a clever work of satire

Urban Byzantine monks gave in to temptation

They were supposed to live on an ascetic diet of mainly bread and water, but the monks in 6th-century Jerusalem were tucking into animal products

The pregnant promise of fetal medicine

As prenatal diagnosis and treatment advance, we are entering difficult ethical territory

2013 Smart Guide: Searching for human origins in Asia

Africa is where humanity began, where we took our first steps, but those interested in the latest cool stuff on our origins should now look to Asia instead

The end of the world is an opportunity, not a threat

Don't waste time bemoaning the demise of the old order; get on with building the new one

Victorian counting device gets speedy quantum makeover

A photon-based version of a 19th-century mechanical device could bring quantum computers a step closer

Did learning to fly give bats super-immunity?

When bats first took to the air, something changed in their DNA which may have triggered their incredible immunity to viruses

Van-sized space rock is a cosmic oddball

Fragments from a meteor that exploded over California in April are unusually low in amino acids, putting a twist on one theory of how life on Earth began

Read More..

Petitioners ask Obama to retaliate for Russia adoption ban

WASHINGTON: Tens of thousands of petitioners are calling for US President Barack Obama to escalate the diplomatic feud that led Moscow to propose a law barring Americans from adopting Russian children.

Two petitions on the White House web site are asking for US sanctions on the Russian lawmakers who help pass the law that one of the petitions says will "jeopardize lives and well-being of thousands of Russian orphans."

Moscow sees the ban on adoptions as retaliation for a US human rights law that allows the seizure of assets from Russian officials implicated in the 2009 death of a Russian lawyer who blew the whistle on a US$235 million police embezzlement scheme.

Under the US law -- dubbed the Magnitsky Act in tribute to the late lawyer -- those same officials would also be barred from entering the United States.

More than 37,000 people have signed one of the petitions saying they are "outraged with the actions of Russian law-makers."

According to the White House rules, there will be an official response if the petition reaches 25,000 signatures within 30 days.

These lawmakers "breached all imaginable boundaries of humanity, responsibility, or common sense and chose to jeopardize lives and well-being of thousands of Russian orphans, some of whom, the ill and the disabled ones, now might not have a chance of survival if the ban on international adoption is to be put in place," the petition continues.

The petitioners "urge this Administration to identify those involved in adopting such legislature responsible under 'Magnitsky Act' and thus included to the relevant list."

Likewise, a second petition, signed by more than 5,000 people, asks that the Magnitsky Act "be extended to supporters of this law in (the) Russian Duma."

The Duma passed the adoption ban without debate in a quick 420-7 vote on Friday as protesters picketed the building demanding the measure be voted down.

The Kremlin-dominated upper house is now expected to approve the bill next Wednesday before passing it on to President Vladimir Putin for his signature.

The Russian leader has indicated he is ready to put his name on the measure so that it could enter law on January 1.

The measure, which underscores the severity of the recent strain in Russia-US ties, would end about 1,000 adoptions a year.

Caregivers in particular fear the new rules will hit the most disadvantaged children because foreign adoptive parents are often ready to adopt kids rejected by Russian families.

- AFP/xq

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A miniature speaker amplifier for your desktop

Pro-Ject Stereo Box S

(Credit:
Pro-Ject)

I've long admired Pro-Ject turntables, but I was only vaguely aware of their electronics line so it was high time to check out one of their amplifiers. I requested their baby amp, the Stereo Box S ($299). It's the smallest power amp I've ever seen, a mere 4.1 by 1.4 by 4.8 inches, and the build quality of its all-metal chassis felt robust. The amp is available in silver or black finishes. A remote control adjusts volume and switches between two RCA inputs. The gold-plated speaker binding posts are really pretty small, and so closely spaced it's nearly impossible to connect bare wires to the amp. I finally managed it, but it took a few minutes to squeeze my fingers into the space. If you have banana plugs, use them instead of bare wires.

The Stereo Box S was designed in Vienna, Austria and built in the Czech Republic, with audiophiles in mind. That's a different mindset from what I see with most budget amps. The Stereo Box S actually sounds pretty good, like a mini-audiophile amp should. The Stereo Box line includes tuners, power amps, headphone amps, digital-to-analog converters,
iPod docs, media players, and so on.

I did the bulk of my listening on my desktop, with the Pro-Ject Speaker Box 5 (speakers). The tonal balance is pretty flat, not bumped up or hyped in any way. That's another way of saying the amp and speakers sound crisp and clear with a wide range of music genres, but the bass was lightweight. If you crave a big, bassy sound, plan on adding a sub. The Stereo Box S amp is rated at 30 watts per channel, but it definitely doesn't sound that powerful. On the desktop, sitting 30 inches from the speakers, their power was adequate, but when I moved the amp out into the room with the same speakers, the sound didn't impress. Back on the desktop volume wasn't an issue. I think the amp is better than the Pro-Ject speakers, and if desktop space is really limited the Stereo Box S is a no-brainer.

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Pictures: Fungi Get Into the Holiday Spirit

Photograph courtesy Stephanie Mounaud, J. Craig Venter Institute

Mounaud combined different fungi to create a Santa hat and spell out a holiday message.

Different fungal grow at different rates, so Mounaud's artwork rarely lasts for long. There's only a short window of time when they actually look like what they're suppose to.

"You do have to keep that in perspective when you're making these creations," she said.

For example, the A. flavus fungi that she used to write this message from Santa grows very quickly. "The next day, after looking at this plate, it didn't say 'Ho Ho Ho.' It said 'blah blah blah,'" Mounaud said.

The message also eventually turned green, which was the color she was initially after. "It was a really nice green, which is what I was hoping for. But yellow will do," she said.

The hat was particularly challenging. The fungus used to create it "was troubling because at different temperatures it grows differently. The pigment in this one forms at room temperature but this type of growth needed higher temperatures," Mounaud said.

Not all fungus will grow nicely together. For example, in the hat, "N. fischeri [the brim and ball] did not want to play nice with the P. marneffei [red part of hat] ... so they remained slightly separated."

Published December 21, 2012

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Norquist: Obama, Democrats Using Newtown for 'Political Purposes'

Dec 23, 2012 11:23am

(ABC News)

National Rifle Association board member and president of Americans for Tax Reform Grover Norquist said on Sunday that President Obama and Democrats are politicizing the Newtown tragedy by pushing for gun control.

“We ought to calm down and not take tragedies like this, crimes like this, and use them for political purposes,” Norquist told me on “This Week.” “President Obama has been president for four years. If he thought some gun control could solve this problem, he should have been pushing it years ago.”

“Democrats had a majority in the House and a supermajority in the House and the Senate for the first two years that they were in office. If they thought that this was really an important issue they might have done something then. They didn’t,” he added.

Read a full transcript of this week’s show HERE. 

On Wednesday, Obama announced that Vice President Joe Biden would head a task force of leaders from across the country to evaluate solutions to reduce gun violence.

Norquist endorsed the recommendation made by NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre at a press conference on Friday to place armed guards in schools across the country.

Other members of the political roundtable pushed for what they called “common sense” gun laws.

Like “This Week” on Facebook here. You can also follow the show on Twitter here.

Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker, who is a member of the pro-gun control group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, said that there is more agreement than disagreement on measures to stop the mentally ill and criminals from acquiring weapons.

“I don’t think anyone has seen someone shot—I have,” Booker said. “I don’t know if anybody here has had to put their hand in somebody’s chest, and try to stop the bleeding so that person doesn’t die—I have. What frustrates me about this debate is that it is a false debate.”

“Most of us in America including gun owners agree on things that would stop the kind of carnage that is going on in cities all across America,” Booker said, adding that loopholes that allow criminals to buy guns in “secondary markets” should be closed.

Get more pure politics at ABC News.com/Politics and a lighter take on the news at OTUSNews.com.

Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan said that LaPierre’s suggestion that the effect of a violent culture on the mentally ill has contributed to increased gun violence, but she believes that Congress should pursue some gun control measures.

“I am for the banning of the extended magazines and extended clips,” Noonan said.

Editor and Publisher of The Nation Katrina vanden Heuvel said that focusing on the mentally ill is a distraction from the issue of gun violence.

“The mental illness argument has been used to evade action,” vanden Huevel said. “More guns and bullets, more dead children.”

SHOWS: This Week

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Today on New Scientist: 21 December 2012

Cadaver stem cells offer new hope of life after death

Stem cells can be extracted from bone marrow five days after death to be used in life-saving treatments

Apple's patents under fire at US patent office

The tech firm is skating on thin ice with some of the patents that won it a $1 billion settlement against Samsung

Himalayan dam-building threatens endemic species

The world's highest mountains look set to become home to a huge number of dams - good news for clean energy but bad news for biodiversity

Astrophile: Black hole exposed as a dwarf in disguise

A white dwarf star caught mimicking a black hole's X-ray flashes may be the first in a new class of binary star systems

Blind juggling robot keeps a ball in the air for hours

The robot, which has no visual sensors, can juggle a ball flawlessly by analysing its trajectory

Studio sessions show how Bengalese finch stays in tune

This songbird doesn't need technological aids to stay in tune - and it's smart enough to not worry when it hears notes that are too far off to be true

Giant tooth hints at truly monumental dinosaur

A lone tooth found in Argentina may have belonged to a dinosaur even larger than those we know of, but what to call it?

Avian flu virus learns to fly without wings

A strain of bird flu that hit the Netherlands in 2003 travelled by air, a hitherto suspected by unproven route of transmission

Feedback: Are wind turbines really fans?

A tale of "disease-spreading" wind farms, the trouble with quantifying "don't know", the death of parody in the UK, and more

The link between devaluing animals and discrimination

Our feelings about other animals have important consequences for how we treat humans, say prejudice researchers Gordon Hodson and Kimberly Costello

Best videos of 2012: First motion MRI of unborn twins

Watch twins fight for space in the womb, as we reach number 6 in our countdown of the top videos of the year

2012 Flash Fiction winner: Sleep by Richard Clarke

Congratulations to Richard Clarke, who won the 2012 New Scientist Flash Fiction competition with a clever work of satire

Urban Byzantine monks gave in to temptation

They were supposed to live on an ascetic diet of mainly bread and water, but the monks in 6th-century Jerusalem were tucking into animal products

The pregnant promise of fetal medicine

As prenatal diagnosis and treatment advance, we are entering difficult ethical territory

2013 Smart Guide: Searching for human origins in Asia

Africa is where humanity began, where we took our first steps, but those interested in the latest cool stuff on our origins should now look to Asia instead

The end of the world is an opportunity, not a threat

Don't waste time bemoaning the demise of the old order; get on with building the new one

Victorian counting device gets speedy quantum makeover

A photon-based version of a 19th-century mechanical device could bring quantum computers a step closer

Did learning to fly give bats super-immunity?

When bats first took to the air, something changed in their DNA which may have triggered their incredible immunity to viruses

Van-sized space rock is a cosmic oddball

Fragments from a meteor that exploded over California in April are unusually low in amino acids, putting a twist on one theory of how life on Earth began

Read More..

S'pore students set for workforce & world: global quiz host

SINGAPORE: Singapore students have a hunger for knowledge and are ready to face the workforce and the world, observed a key partner of the Tata Crucible Campus Quiz.

Mr Giri Balasubramaniam, more popularly known as "Pickbrain", is the host of the global business quiz.

He said the world looks up to Singapore in many ways, and one of them is quality education.

The Tata Crucible Campus Quiz has been held in India, Singapore and the UK.

The defending team from Singapore Management University (SMU) won the challenge in Singapore this year.

This is SMU's fourth win, and its third consecutive one since it was held in Singapore five years ago.

The team from the National University of Singapore took second place, and the Nanyang Technological University took third spot.

The quiz tests students' knowledge on business-related topics as well as their lateral-thinking abilities.

The SMU team is set to represent Singapore in April next year at the International Finals in India.

The quiz covers a wide range of subjects from the world of business and economy, including business houses, personalities, brands, and markets.

Organiser Tata group aims to encourage lateral association, speed of thought and out-of-the-box thinking, among youth.

Tata group is made up of more than 100 firms in various sectors, and has operations in over 80 countries globally.

- CNA/xq

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On truths, dreams, confessions -- and the iPhone

Oddly emotional.

(Credit:
Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

Sometimes I just wander into places.

No reason I should. No reason I shouldn't.

Tonight it was a fascinating North Vietnamese restaurant called Khong River House in Miami Beach. It's been open only four days and the staff have that staring-eye look that reminds you of exam day at college.

Still, for reasons of sheer art, they have an installation near the restrooms. The idea is that you take one of the provided pens and write down your truth, your dream, or your confession on a piece of board that you then hang for all to see.

Just like the Web, it's entirely anonymous.

But I imagine that a lot of slightly inebriated people come by and -- just like the Web -- post things because it makes them feel better to release something of themselves.

I went through most of the submissions. Of course, some of them must be jokes. But, I suspect, not all of them.

"My daughter isn't my husband's biological child, but he doesn't know," read one that seemed oddly real.

"I like to pluck my pubic hair," said another. I am not sure whether this was a truth, a dream, or a confession.

"I'll be knocked up, fat, and ugly in 2013... and my bf won't marry me :(" read one painfully realistic confession.

The more I stared, the more mesmerized I became with people's apparent openness about their own lives and life itself.

"If you're lucky, life is one problem after the next," began one plaintive philosopher. "If you're not so lucky, it's the same problem over and over again."

And then came the slightly sad stunner: "I like my iPhone more than most of my friends."

Contrary to the opinion of some contrary readers, I don't happen to be obsessed with Apple products. I use precisely two: an iPhone and a
MacBook Air. I succumbed to the iPhone only because Nokia dumped me (and everyone else in America) and simply didn't launch a decent phone.

Yet I stared at this confession and wondered whether I could imagine any other brand being written about in the same way. Would someone have written: "I love my Galaxy S3 more than most of my friends"?

Would anyone have trumpeted: "I love my
Nokia Lumia 920 more than most of my friends"?

I'm not sure that they would. For reasons understandable or not, the Apple brand has found a way to creep into people's being in a way no other has.

You can decide whether this is a good or a bad thing. But it's so real that Samsung has to make jokes about it.

More Technically Incorrect

This may not last forever. It may be overtaken both by an Apple faltering or a Samsung/Nokia/Microsoft/Google stroke of emotional genius.

But it hasn't happened yet. Somehow, Apple still gets you at the core, while other brands stroke you at the peripheries.

I looked through most of the hanging boards to see whether some other gadget might have touched a soul.

All I found was: "Truth: Men Cheat. Dream: A Faithful Man. Confession: Women are worse."

As well as gems such as: "I blamed my arrest on being heartbroken," "I am in the military and I'm scared to die," and "When I was mad, I stuck his toothbrush in the toilet."

My favorite was this: "My wife still gives me butterflies after 8 years."

Strangely, for quite a few people, so does Apple.

Life is cruel.

(Credit:
Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

That is a confession.

(Credit:
Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

Read More..

Pictures: Fungi Get Into the Holiday Spirit

Photograph courtesy Stephanie Mounaud, J. Craig Venter Institute

Mounaud combined different fungi to create a Santa hat and spell out a holiday message.

Different fungal grow at different rates, so Mounaud's artwork rarely lasts for long. There's only a short window of time when they actually look like what they're suppose to.

"You do have to keep that in perspective when you're making these creations," she said.

For example, the A. flavus fungi that she used to write this message from Santa grows very quickly. "The next day, after looking at this plate, it didn't say 'Ho Ho Ho.' It said 'blah blah blah,'" Mounaud said.

The message also eventually turned green, which was the color she was initially after. "It was a really nice green, which is what I was hoping for. But yellow will do," she said.

The hat was particularly challenging. The fungus used to create it "was troubling because at different temperatures it grows differently. The pigment in this one forms at room temperature but this type of growth needed higher temperatures," Mounaud said.

Not all fungus will grow nicely together. For example, in the hat, "N. fischeri [the brim and ball] did not want to play nice with the P. marneffei [red part of hat] ... so they remained slightly separated."

Published December 21, 2012

Read More..