WASHINGTON (AP) ? When President Barack Obama ran for re-election last year, he and his advisers were quick to condemn comments from Republicans that were deemed offensive or demeaning to women.
But now, with two prominent members of Obama's Democratic Party admitting to lewd online behavior and facing allegations of sexual harassment, the White House is conspicuously silent.
"I don't have any comment on that any more than I've had comment on other similar issues," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday when asked about San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, who is facing numerous sexual harassment allegations.
Carney has also repeatedly dodged questions about Democrat Anthony Weiner, the former congressman currently running for New York City mayor. Weiner resigned from Congress in 2011 after admitting he sent racy pictures and messages over the Internet to women he did not know. Earlier this month, Weiner acknowledged that he engaged in similar behavior even after resigning.
"We just have no comment on it," Carney said Wednesday. "There's plenty of coverage, plenty of stuff to cover without us commenting."
The White House's silence has drawn criticism from Republicans. Party officials say the president's team is being hypocritical given how quickly Democrats jumped on controversial comments about rape made by GOP candidates last year.
"Interesting how we're hearing crickets from the Democrats when it comes time to condemn activity from some of their own," said Kirsten Kukowski, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee.
Indeed, Obama and his campaign advisers quickly denounced Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin's assertion last year that women's bodies have ways to prevent pregnancy "if it's a legitimate rape." The president said the Republican congressman's comments were "offensive" and underscored a significant difference in approach to women's issues between Democrats and the GOP.
Obama's campaign was also highly critical of Richard Mourdock, who ran for the Senate from Indiana and said if a pregnancy results from rape, it is "something God intended to happen." The president's campaign said Mourdock's comments were "outrageous and demeaning to women."
Akin and Mourdock lost their respective races, while Obama ran up big margins among female voters in his contest against Republican Mitt Romney.
While the controversies surrounding Akin and Murdock focused on words, the spectacles involving Weiner and Filner center on actions.
Weiner, who is married, has vowed to stay in the New York mayor's race despite new revelations about sexually explicit messages he sent to several women. Filner, the mayor of the nation's eighth-largest city, says he will enter two weeks of "intensive" therapy as he battles a sexual harassment lawsuit from his former communications director, as well as detailed account of alleged advances by seven other women.
While the White House has stayed silent about both Democrats, other party leaders have not. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi rebuked Weiner and Filner for "reprehensible" behavior and said both men should "get a clue."
Some nonavian dinosaurs, including carnivorous tyrannosaurs, may have had brains that were hardwired for flight long before even the earliest known birds started flapping their wings, a new study finds.
Scientists used high-resolution CT scanners to closely study the craniums of modern birds, nonavian dinosaurs and Archaeopteryx, considered by some to be one of the earliest known birds. They found that characteristics of the typical "bird brain" could be found much earlier in history than was previously thought.
"What we think of as birdlike features ? they keep falling down the evolutionary tree," said study lead author Amy Balanoff, a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History and a postdoctoral researcher at Stony Brook University, both in New York. [Images: Dinosaurs That Learned to Fly]
Archaeopteryxlived roughly 151 million to 149 million years ago, during the late stage of the Jurassic era. This early bird specimen has been branded as an evolutionary bridge between dinosaurs and modern birds, due to its signature blend of avian and reptilian features. The new findings, however, question whether Archaeopteryx, which was about the size of a raven, really was an evolutionary intermediate.
"Archaeopteryx has always been held up as a transitional species between nonavian dinosaurs and birds, but our study shows Archaeopteryx isn't unique in being in that space between more primitive dinosaurs and birds," Balanoff told LiveScience. "We found all these other closely related species that also fall in that close transitional space."
Head scans
Balanoff and her colleagues used CT scanners to measure the cranial cavities of more than two dozen specimens, including birdlike oviraptorosaurs and troodontids.
"What's really interesting about birds is that as their brain develops, it fills so much of the cranial cavity that it creates an impression on the surrounding bones," Balanoff said. "If you fill that space in and get rid of the bones, you have a cast of what the brain looked like during life."
The researchers stitched together these scans to build 3D reconstructions of the skull interiors. This enabled the scientists to calculate the volume of the cranial cavities, and the size of each brain's major anatomical regions.
Modern birds characteristically have large cranial cavities relative to body size, Balanoff said. Structurally, birds also have large forebrains that equip them with the coordination and vision necessary for flying. The new research suggests some dinosaurs may have already evolved these brain capabilities, even if they never took flight. [7 Surprising Facts About Dinosaurs]
"For a long time, bird brains were considered really different than those in other so-called reptiles," study co-author Mark Norell, chair of the division of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History, said in a statement. "This is another case where the attributes that we traditionally have associated with birds actually can be seen cascading down the tree of life. We can now say that the bird brain was present in animals that were not really birds."
The changing brain
The researchers also zeroed in on a neurological structure, called the wulst, which is present in living birds and is important for information processing and motor control. In their digital brain casts of Archaeopteryx, the scientists found an indentation that could be from the wulst, but this same structure was not observed in nonavian dinosaurs, the researchers said.
Still, by comparing the different brains, the scientists discovered that several other nonavian dinosaurs had larger brains relative to their body size than Archaeopteryx. Being able to peer inside the skulls of the different specimens enabled the researchers to trace evolutionary changes.
"The story of brain size is more than its relationship to body size," study co-author Gabriel Bever, an assistant professor of anatomy at the New York Institute of Technology, said in a statement. "If we also consider how the different regions of the brain changed relative to each other, we can gain insight into what factors drove brain evolution as well as what developmental mechanisms facilitated those changes."
The detailed findings of the study were published online today (July 31) in the journal Nature.
Follow Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
LUSAKA, Zambia ? In early 2011 Google team members visited the University of Zambia to encourage students to participate in the Africa Android Competition. When one student asked the Google presenters what Android was ? and only three people in the room knew the answer ? a light bulb went off in Simunza Muyangana's head.
"I remember leaving there thinking, 'Wow, how do we correct this?'" he told Mashable two years later.
Together with Lukonga Lindunda and Silumesii Maboshe, Muyangaga began organizing technology skills workshops, such as a weekend Ruby on Rails crash course, a session on how to set up a server and a two-week workshop on developing for Android led by an out-of-town instructor.
As these meetups gained popularity, the trio decided to formally name the group BongoHive (meaning "collective of brains," derived from the local Bemba word "bongo" for brain or head).
After receiving one year of funding from the Indigo Trust and Google for Entrepreneurs, BongoHive opened its first physical home in November 2012, nestled in a house on a quiet, tree-lined street, just blocks behind one of Lusaka's busiest shopping malls. The residential home-turned-innovation-hub is hardly distinguishable from the other single-family units it's surrounded by ? save the boldly painted logo on its entryway.
BongoHive, Muyangaga explains, is both the name of the community and the physical location where the community meets. The co-working space offers entrepreneurs free Internet and serves as a pre-incubator for fledging companies looking to learn the basics of accounting, market research and running a business. The founders plan to launch a paid consulting service in the coming months, which will advise companies navigating the digital world.
The community now numbers around 800 people, counting those who "like" BongoHive on Facebook, receive its newsletter and attend its different groups and classes. While the vibrant tech community in Zambia may seem isolated, it's part of a network called AfriLabs, which consists of similar institutions in countries like Kenya, Cameroon and Uganda.
"Since we're the first ones to start these hubs in our own countries, it's where we can exchange notes, help define some things and learn what to avoid from other people's mistakes," Muyangaga says.
Next month BongoHive plans to launch an entrepreneur mentorship program that will match its community with online mentors, who can offer advice via email from outside the Lusaka community.
"We are more likely to learn from Kenya than we are from South Africa, because South Africa has a much larger middle class," Muyangaga says. "When South Africa says, 'We've got this great app that's a copy of one from Silicon Valley,' we say, 'That's great, but it won't fly in Zambia because it's a totally different market and it's not likely to work here.'"
Muyangaga said one of his mantras came out of a widely circulated discussion of dead aid following TED Africa in 2007, in which Jennifer Brea wrote, "Many of Africa's best and brightest become bureaucrats or NGO workers when they should be scientists or entrepreneurs."
Given the economic history of a country like Zambia, which has spent much of its recent history in severe debt, Muyangaga says he understands why many of his countrymen seek security in their careers. However, he believes entrepreneurship will be the fix.
"Zambia has a large unemployment base, poor college and high school graduation rates, and an increasing youth population that cannot find jobs. I don't think the government will sort that out soon," Muyangaga says. "I lean towards the idea that encouraging people to start small businesses is going to sort out this problem quicker than if large corporations come in. If you've got a certain amount of passion for technology and look at problems in a way you that you weren't taught in school, you should venture into your own enterprise, and the worst that you can say is you tried."
Zoe Fox traveled to Zambia on a fellowship from the International Reporting Project
Your daily round-up of the best of the Journal?s China coverage:
Group Alleges Abuses at Apple Supplier: A new report from a group defending Chinese workers? rights alleges labor abuses at a major Apple contractor the company has been using more as it shifts some work from longtime supplier Foxconn. (Free)
China Plans to Boost Budget-Airline Market: China, whose airline market is dominated by state-owned carriers noted for inefficiency and poor service, will study policies to encourage the budget-carrier model that is sweeping Asia. (Subscriber Content)
Japan, China Inch Toward Better Ties: Japan and China are edging gingerly toward repairing diplomatic relations, seeking ways to contain the fallout from a territorial row, even without any clear sign of how to resolve it.?(Subscriber Content)
Baby-Milk Demand Lifts Danone: Strong demand for baby milk in China helped Danone stem falling sales in Europe in the second quarter, as the company tried to reassure investors about growth in the Chinese market after it cut prices on infant formula.?(Subscriber Content)
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PRINCETON, N.J. ? A geologist and an architect standing in a lab may sound like the start to a very nerdy joke, but a pair of these professionals have joined together to revolutionize the way scientists study structures, such as fossils, inside rocks.
Geologists use a variety of techniques to analyze fossils and other features trapped inside Earth's rocky layers. The most basic technique, dating back to the 19th century, involves slicing away layers of rock, taking pictures of each layer, and then recreating the full 3D shapes by connecting the dots between images. But this method is tedious and prone to human error.
"People have done this since Darwin," said Adam Maloof, a geoscientist at Princeton University who recently opened a rock imaging lab that brings this technique into the 21st century. "You can find very old articles from the 1870s where people sliced something five times, and then drew it, and put together a model of it."
Researchers have since devised more precise methods using electronic rock grinders and digital cameras, but, until now, the technique has not been automated.
Revolutionary redesign
Maloof has teamed up with architects at the Brooklyn-based Situ Studio to design a machine that automatically grinds layers as thin as 0.00025 centimeters ? thinner than a human hair ? and automatically takes high-resolution images along the way.
The grinding setup looks a bit like a mini car wash. On an automated steel shuttle, the rock first travels under misting nodules that clean away grime. Next, the rock passes back and forth under a 1-inch-thick (2.5 cm) diamond-studded grinding wheel, with a stream of water flowing to reduce dust. The sample then exits the grinder under a series of wiper blades and enters the limelight of an automated camera that snaps a shot from above. The shuttle then returns the rock to the start position, where the process repeats. [See photos of the lab and 3D rock models]
Maloof wears mist-covered safety goggles as he describes the special features of the room: Double-width cinder blocks in the walls help reduce sound pollution outside, and a climate control system maintains a constant room temperature.
"The main source of error with a grinder like this is the expansion and contraction of the steel," Maloof said, with the machine humming loudly behind him, and all of lights shut off except a beam glowing from the camera area. "If you have temperature fluctuations at night, for example, the steel will change size and there will be an error."
Even the slightest shift can cause images to misalign and jeopardize the precision of the digital model.
The machine hums along day and night, and can grind through several inches of rock within 24 hours. A modern manual setup would take up to two weeks to cover the same area, and would not be as accurate.
Ancient life
Maloof's interest in high-precision grinding was sparked in 2009 when he and his graduate students discovered what they thought could be the earliest evidence of fossilized animal life. In a 640-million-year-old rock formation in South Australia, the team found large patches of small red flakes that varied in size and shape, and looked nothing like the surrounding rock. The group brought samples back to Princeton, where they spent two weeks manually grinding and imaging about half an inch (1.5 cm) of sample. [Photos: The World's Most Famous Rocks]
With the help of Situ Studio, the group created a 3D model of their manual images and found what seemed to be remnants of ancient marine sponges. The team hopes to confirm this finding with their improved system.
"It definitely points to the potentials of interdisciplinary work," said Brad Samuels of Situ Studio, who helped Maloof choose the appropriate imaging and coding software, similar to what architects use to plan buildings. "The kinds of things that they needed in terms of tools and work flow are things that we have as a studio that we employ in designing spaces."
Oil drilling and meteorite dissection
A number of collaborators have already contacted Maloof about using the lab, including geologists in the oil industry wanting to analyze potential drilling rock, and geophysicists interested in dissecting meteorites.
"This is a very exciting instrument," said Roger Fu, a geophysics graduate student at MIT who will travel to the lab later this summer to study structures within meteorites that could help reveal information about how the solar system formed. "With the grinder, we should be able to get better 3D maps of meteorites than ever before."
A downside of the grinder is that it ultimately destroys the sample, Fu said. Some researchers avoid this by using X-ray scanning technology to peer inside rocks, but X-rays blur with depth, and do not differentiate between different materials of the same density.
The beauty of rocks
For now, Maloof is working out the final kinks of the system using less valuable samples. The results, so far, have produced stunningly beautiful images of structures inside rocks.
"If you looked at these with an X-ray, you would see absolutely nothing," Maloof said, pointing to an image of sand grains coated in concentric layers of calcium carbonate.
The compiled images of this rock reveals the full spherical form of each sand grain for the first time since they fused together hundreds of millions of years ago.
Editor's Note:?The author worked with Maloof's research group in 2010 and 2011 as a lab technician, and helped collect some of the fossil rocks from South Australia. She was not, however, involved in the analysis of the rock.
Follow Laura Poppick on Twitter. Follow LiveScience on Twitter, Facebookand Google+. Original article on LiveScience.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
New coating may help joint replacements bond better with bonePublic release date: 29-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Pam Frost Gorder Gorder.1@osu.edu 614-292-9475 Ohio State University
Layer of nanowire 'carpet' gives growing cells a foothold on metal implants
COLUMBUS, OhioBroken bones and joint replacements may someday heal faster, thanks to an unusual coating for medical implants under development at The Ohio State University.
Researchers here have found that bone cells grow and reproduce faster on a textured surface than they do on a smooth oneand they grow best when they can cling to a microscopic shag carpet made of tiny metal oxide wires.
In tests, the wires boosted cell growth by nearly 80 percent compared to other surfaces, which suggests that the coating would help healthy bone form a strong bond with an implant faster.
The engineers developed an affordable technique for creating the wires, which they describe in a paper in the July 2013 issue of the journal Ceramics International.
"What's really exciting about this technique is that we don't have to carve the nanowires from a solid piece of metal or alloy. We can grow them from scratch, by exploiting the physics and chemistry of the materials," said Sheikh Akbar, professor of materials science and engineering at Ohio State. "That's why we call our process 'nanostructures by material design.'"
Akbar's team (co-advised by his colleague, Suliman Dregia, associate professor of materials science and engineering) was able to grow the wires by tailoring the mix of materials and gases inside a furnace. At temperatures around 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit, fine filaments of titanium dioxide rose from a smooth titanium surface. Each was tens of thousands of times smaller than a human hair.
But then something unusual happened that the engineers couldn't explain. Each wire grew a protective coating of aluminum oxide around itselflike a layer of bark around a tree trunk. The growth of the coating might make sense, if the material in the furnace were a titanium alloy that contained aluminum. But in this case, the researchers were working with pure titanium, so it's not clear how the wires grew an aluminum coating.
"It's strange that we don't completely understand why this process works the way it does. We're going to have to do some fancy microscopy to figure it out, but we do know that the wires only form under just the right conditions," Akbar said.
In tests, the researchers grew bone cancer cells on three different surfaces: smooth titanium, smooth titanium dioxide, and the nanowire carpet. (They chose the cancer cells because the cells are particularly hardy, and also reproduce the same way healthy bone cells do.)
The biggest difference in cell growth occurred within the first 15 hours of testing, when researchers measured a 20 percent higher concentration of the bone-growth enzyme alkaline phosphatase being produced by the cells growing on the nanowires. By the end of the study, there were around 90,000 cells per square centimeter on the nanowire surface80 percent more than the 50,000 cells per square centimeter on each of the other two surfaces.
Study co-author Derek Hansford, associate professor of biomedical engineering and materials science and engineering, said that the coating could aid people who have hip and knee replacements, dental implants, or broken bones that require screws and plates to repair them.
"Our hope is that this surface treatment will become a simple-to-implement modification to titanium implants to help them form a stronger interface with surrounding bone tissue. A stronger interface means that implants and bones will be better able to share mechanical loads, and we can better preserve healthy bone and soft tissue around the implant site," Hansford said.
Akbar believes that the price is right for commercial development. $100 worth of metal foil is enough to make hundreds of samples.
The method to grow the wires is also exceedingly simple. Beyond setting the right mix of materials and gases, it involves little other than pressing a button to turn on the laboratory furnace.
"Seriously, if you spent the day in my lab, you could learn how to do it yourself," Akbar said.
He and his team are now exploring other material and gas combinations to make different nano-sized shapes for cell growth and chemical sensing.
###
This work was partially funded by the National Science Foundation.
Written by Pam Frost Gorder, (614) 292-9475; Gorder.1@osu.edu
Editor's note: Photographs to accompany the story are available from Pam Frost Gorder.
[ | 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.
New coating may help joint replacements bond better with bonePublic release date: 29-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Pam Frost Gorder Gorder.1@osu.edu 614-292-9475 Ohio State University
Layer of nanowire 'carpet' gives growing cells a foothold on metal implants
COLUMBUS, OhioBroken bones and joint replacements may someday heal faster, thanks to an unusual coating for medical implants under development at The Ohio State University.
Researchers here have found that bone cells grow and reproduce faster on a textured surface than they do on a smooth oneand they grow best when they can cling to a microscopic shag carpet made of tiny metal oxide wires.
In tests, the wires boosted cell growth by nearly 80 percent compared to other surfaces, which suggests that the coating would help healthy bone form a strong bond with an implant faster.
The engineers developed an affordable technique for creating the wires, which they describe in a paper in the July 2013 issue of the journal Ceramics International.
"What's really exciting about this technique is that we don't have to carve the nanowires from a solid piece of metal or alloy. We can grow them from scratch, by exploiting the physics and chemistry of the materials," said Sheikh Akbar, professor of materials science and engineering at Ohio State. "That's why we call our process 'nanostructures by material design.'"
Akbar's team (co-advised by his colleague, Suliman Dregia, associate professor of materials science and engineering) was able to grow the wires by tailoring the mix of materials and gases inside a furnace. At temperatures around 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit, fine filaments of titanium dioxide rose from a smooth titanium surface. Each was tens of thousands of times smaller than a human hair.
But then something unusual happened that the engineers couldn't explain. Each wire grew a protective coating of aluminum oxide around itselflike a layer of bark around a tree trunk. The growth of the coating might make sense, if the material in the furnace were a titanium alloy that contained aluminum. But in this case, the researchers were working with pure titanium, so it's not clear how the wires grew an aluminum coating.
"It's strange that we don't completely understand why this process works the way it does. We're going to have to do some fancy microscopy to figure it out, but we do know that the wires only form under just the right conditions," Akbar said.
In tests, the researchers grew bone cancer cells on three different surfaces: smooth titanium, smooth titanium dioxide, and the nanowire carpet. (They chose the cancer cells because the cells are particularly hardy, and also reproduce the same way healthy bone cells do.)
The biggest difference in cell growth occurred within the first 15 hours of testing, when researchers measured a 20 percent higher concentration of the bone-growth enzyme alkaline phosphatase being produced by the cells growing on the nanowires. By the end of the study, there were around 90,000 cells per square centimeter on the nanowire surface80 percent more than the 50,000 cells per square centimeter on each of the other two surfaces.
Study co-author Derek Hansford, associate professor of biomedical engineering and materials science and engineering, said that the coating could aid people who have hip and knee replacements, dental implants, or broken bones that require screws and plates to repair them.
"Our hope is that this surface treatment will become a simple-to-implement modification to titanium implants to help them form a stronger interface with surrounding bone tissue. A stronger interface means that implants and bones will be better able to share mechanical loads, and we can better preserve healthy bone and soft tissue around the implant site," Hansford said.
Akbar believes that the price is right for commercial development. $100 worth of metal foil is enough to make hundreds of samples.
The method to grow the wires is also exceedingly simple. Beyond setting the right mix of materials and gases, it involves little other than pressing a button to turn on the laboratory furnace.
"Seriously, if you spent the day in my lab, you could learn how to do it yourself," Akbar said.
He and his team are now exploring other material and gas combinations to make different nano-sized shapes for cell growth and chemical sensing.
###
This work was partially funded by the National Science Foundation.
Written by Pam Frost Gorder, (614) 292-9475; Gorder.1@osu.edu
Editor's note: Photographs to accompany the story are available from Pam Frost Gorder.
[ | 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.
HIALEAH, Fla. ? A man living with his mother in a South Florida apartment complex set their unit on fire and went on a shooting rampage throughout the building, killing six people before being shot to death by police. As the eight-hour standoff unfolded, horrified residents hunkered down in their homes, at times so close to the action they could feel the gunfire or hear negotiations between the gunman and police, authorities and witnesses said Saturday.
At one point, Pedro Vargas, 42, held two people hostage at gunpoint for up to three hours in their apartment until a SWAT team entered and killed him, police said. The hostages were not hurt.
?The crime scene is the whole building,? said Lt. Carl Zogby, a spokesman with the Hialeah Police Department.
Police were called to the aging, five-story apartment building in Hialeah, a working-class suburb a few miles northwest of downtown Miami, at 6:30 p.m. Friday. The first calls reported a fire, but when firefighters arrived, they heard shots and immediately notified police, Zogby said.
Vargas, who has no known criminal record, set a combustible liquid on fire in his fourth-floor apartment. Building manager Italo Pisciotti, 79, and his wife, Camira Pisciotti, 69, saw smoke and ran to the unit, Zogby said. When they arrived, Vargas opened the door and fired, killing both.
Detectives were investigating whether Vargas had any ongoing disputes with the building manager, as some residents believed. His mother was not home at the time.
After gunning down the building managers, Vargas went back into his burning apartment and fired 10 to 20 shots from a 9 mm pistol into the street. One of the bullets struck 33-year-old Carlos Javier Gavilanes, who was parking his car after returning home from work. Zogby said his body was found next to his vehicle.
The gunman then kicked his way into a third-floor apartment, where he shot to death Patricio Simono, 54; his wife, Merly Niebles, 51; and their 17-year-old daughter. Family members said Simono worked at a carwash and Niebles cleaned hotel rooms. Their daughter wanted to be a nurse.
All six people were killed in a short time span, Zogby said, and it?s possible they were all dead by the time police arrived.
Officers and Vargas then engaged in an hours-long shootout and chase, with police following the gunman from one floor to the next.
?He kept running from us as he fired at us and we fired at him,? Zogby said.
Several hours into the ordeal, Vargas forced his way into a fifth-story unit and held two people captive. Sgt. Eddie Rodriguez said negotiators and a SWAT team tried talking with him from the other side of the door.
Miriam Valdes, 70, was in a friend?s apartment two doors down. She said she heard officers trying to persuade Vargas to surrender.
?Pedro, let these people out,? Valdes said officers told him. ?We?re going to help you.?
She said the gunman first asked for his girlfriend and then his mother but refused to cooperate.
Rodriguez said the talks eventually ?just fell apart.? Officers stormed the building, fatally shooting the gunman in an exchange of gunfire. Zogby said Vargas still had several rounds of ammunition when he was killed.
The hostages, identified as Zoeb and Sarrida Nek, were shaken up but not hurt, he said.
Police and neighbors described Vargas as a quiet man who had only recently moved into the building.
Detectives, meanwhile, tried to piece together every minute of what had happened. ?It could have been a much, much more dangerous situation,? Zogby said.
Photography is like anything else in life; there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. It just so happens, though, that in this case the wrong way yields way more satisfying results. Michael Cetta has made striking photographs by abusing his film with everything from absinthe to turpentine. And you can't tear your eyes away.
Military technology doesn't simply spring forth fully formed from a DARPA engineer's head like some GI Athena. It requires extensive development cycles and field testing before it's put on the front lines. At this year's semi-annual Network Integration Evaluations (NIE) at the White Sands Missile Range, in New Mexico, Army researchers put a trio of technologies through their paces. Technologies that could radically alter how future wars are waged by delivering a more complete battlefield view to troops in the line of fire.
Aside from testing the devices themselves, the NIE gives commanders a chance to integrate the new technology into their existing tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs). ?Over the last few NIEs, the network has become much more stable than it was," said Col. Beth Bierden, chief of the Network Integration Division at Brigade Modernization Command. "We are able to get at the TTPs and figure out mission command and do all that kind of stuff much more now than we have in the past, when we were really just trying to figure out the architecture.? Here are three systems expected to make the biggest impact on tomorrow's battlefield.
Nett Warrior
Originally known as the Ground Soldier System, the Nett Warrior is an integrated situational awareness system for dismounted combat leaders (those not sitting in a HumVee or remote command center). It's a mini-map that notes every squad member's positions (to avoid friendly fire and set more effective crossfires) as well as a host of other pertinent tactical and navigation information that's shared amongst the squad over secured radio waves using Rifleman Radios.
It effectively becomes a tiny, mobile ad hoc network?known as the On-The-Move self-forming network?whose voice, data, and GPS information can be displayed either on a mobile handset or on the soldier's HUD. What's more, commanders can use the system to access Secret or Sensitive-but-Unclassified ISR information during on-the-fly mission planning. And even if the commander is incapacitated or killed in action, the next-most senior member of the group will be able to pick up where the previous commander left off.
Warfighter Information Network ? Tactical Increment 2 (WIN-T)
Domestic carrier coverage is spotty even in the boondocks of Iowa; what makes you think you'll get any bars in the wilds of Afghanistan? So instead of relying on the Big Three, future soldiers will carry their network along with them. Known as the Warfighter Information Network - Tactical Increment 2, this network will form the basis of the entire Army's secured troop communication services.
WIN-T will enable commanders to track (via voice, video, and data) and coordinate a mobile and dispersed strike force from anywhere on the battlefield while remaining tapped into the Army's intel network. The system consists of infrastructure and network components that securely relay satellite and terrestrial tactical communications (known as Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance?C4ISR) between individual soldiers and command.
So rather than shouting into a walkie-talkie during the pitch of battle to get status updates from the squad's radio operator, the WIN-T network will allow commanders monitor and redeploy forces in real time as well as transmit tactical information?everything from Ku-band RADAR and Super High Frequency datalinks to GPS and the Secure, Mobile, Anti-Jam, Reliable, Tactical - Terminal (SMART-T). Think of it as a secured, miniature Internet that exists only within a theater of operations but spans from the front lines to the rear guard.
Distributed Common Ground System
There are a lot of moving pieces on a battlefield. So to make sure that elements from the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines are all on the same page, there's the Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS).
The DCGS is the primary means of analyzing and disseminating ISR data?from the weather forecast to threat assessments?collected by the Air Force's U-2, RQ-4 Global Hawk, MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1 Predator drones. It comprises 45 geographically distinct, networked sites manned by a mixture of active-duty, national guard, and reservists service members. And while previous human-based systems required weeks of analysis to deliver actionable results, the cloud-based DCGS churns through millions of data points in near real time.
?It was not that long ago that intelligence analysis was a very labor-intensive business,? explained Col. Charles Wells, the project manager for the Army's wing of the DCGS. ?With the cloud and with lightweight applications that run analytics, we can now look through all that data?all 20 million records?and literally in a matter of seconds to minutes get a diagram that has been provided and start the analysis from there. We're not having to filter the data. We're not having to look at a subset of the data. We're looking at every one of those records in real time, and getting an answer.?
This allows commanders worldwide to deliver accurate, actionable intelligence faster than ever before and will help save American lives.
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Public release date: 29-Jul-2013
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