Syria warplanes hit village near Turkey

ATME, Syria: A Syrian warplane bombarded the village of Atme near the northwestern border with Turkey on Monday, prompting hundreds of panicked residents to flee, an AFP journalist said.

The fighter jet overflew Atme three times at a low altitude and dropped at least six bombs or rockets into populated areas near a school that houses a rebel command centre, without causing any casualties, witnesses said.

The journalist observed six points of impact on three houses, a garden and a road. Residents spoke of three bombs while others said rockets caused the damage.

The rebel command centre, which also houses the Damascus Eagles brigade of the Free Syrian Army, was not affected.

A warplane again bombed the area of Atme and the nearby border crossing of Bab al-Hawa at 3:00pm (1300 GMT). The jet made four sorties, bombing twice, each time using decoys first to avoid possible anti-aircraft fire.

Two plumes of smoke rose over the hills around Bab al-Hawa, the reporter said.

With each overflight, the aircraft verged on Turkish airspace. People familiar with the terrain claimed it had briefly crossed into Turkey, from where the hum of high altitude jets could be heard.

"The MIG flew very low. It made three passes," according to Mahmud, the owner of one of the damaged houses.

One of the missiles plummeted into his garden, leaving a large crater in the ground, shattering windows and scattering furniture.

"The whole family was in the house. Thank God, nobody was hurt," he told AFP.

"This is what Bashar (al-Assad) sent us to solve the problems of Syria. And thanks to (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan for this no-fly zone," he said sarcastically, referring to the Syrian president and the Turkish prime minister.

The village of Atme, just two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the border, was once home to 7,000 people.

Ongoing violence has forced many to seek shelter in a refugee camp in nearby Qaa village, or even in makeshift camps in the surrounding olive groves.

The bombing did not hit the camps but caused a mass panic among the refugees, hundreds of whom climbed over barbed wire fences for safety in neighbouring Turkey.

"The Turkish border guards fired in the air, but it was useless. Hundreds of families, with bundles on their heads, entered Turkey," said a witness.

By the late afternoon, the guards ordered the refugees to return back the way they came. With no alternative, most returned to the muddy, cold and unhygienic tents on the other side.

The region in Idlib province is a hub for the rebellion and Atme and its environs in particular are home to numerous rebel groups.

- AFP/fa

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Google Maps helps man walk 5,000 miles

Winston Fiore (left) has walked 5,000 miles for smiles.

(Credit:
Winston Fiore)

Imagine hiking 5,000 miles through Asia, with only Google Maps as your guide. Winston Fiore, a U.S. marine formerly deployed to Senegal and Afghanistan, did it in about a year, calling the journey his "Smile Trek."

The inspiration for "Smile Trek" came in 2007 when Fiore witnessed "an incredible amount of poverty" while in Senegal. He then decided to set aside a year of traveling, and found a cause to throw his weight behind: the International Children's Surgical Foundation (ICSF), a nonprofit that provides free corrective surgery for kids in developing countries with cleft lips and palates.

For the past year, he has hiked through Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, and Singapore. He completed his journey last week.

Speaking to CNET Asia in Singapore, his start and end point, Fiore says he didn't carry any physical maps and only relied on Google Maps to map his daily walking route. (Good thing Fiore wasn't using an
iPhone 5 -- we all know about the Apple Maps kerfuffle.)

Along with Google Maps, Fiore relied on Google Translate (to communicate with locals); Google Latitude (for keeping his family, friends, and supporters informed of his whereabouts); and MyTracks (to record his speed, distance, and places visited).

Fiore carried his vest/backpack containing
a tent, sleeping bag, inflatable mattress, and water container.

(Credit:
Jacqueline Seng/CNET Asia)

Fiore related an incident where he spotted a man suffering from a facial deformity (commonly known as "Elephant Man Syndrome") in Vietnam. He reached out to the local -- using Google Translate of course -- and informed him about getting facial reconstructive surgery at ICSF's medical mission nearby. The app also helped Fiore get help when he was bitten by a stray dog in Thailand.

Other non-Google apps he used were reading apps such as
Kindle and Audible, as well as Skype to keep in touch with family and friends back home.

Surprisingly, Fiore said he had a mobile Internet connection most of the time -- whether 3G or GRPS/EDGE -- even if he was "standing in the middle of a rice paddy in Vietnam." When he didn't have a connection, he'd find himself within range of a cell tower after a few hours.

He recharged the batteries for his gadgets while he rested by finding a generator, municipal power, or even a local household. He brought along a spare battery for his smartphone but on hindsight wishes he had several more.

As for the tech gadgets he brought along, there was an 11-inch
MacBook Air that doubled as his last-ditch mobile charger and back brace. Fiore also started his trek off with a Samsung Infuse 4G, but found it difficult to get Asian SIM cards to work with his U.S.-only handset. He then switched along the way to a Galaxy Nexus, followed by the recently launched Galaxy Note 2, which has a longer battery life.

As of this writing, Smile Trek had raised $67,649 of its $75,000 fundraising goal.

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Distant Dwarf Planet Secrets Revealed

Orbiting at the frozen edges of our solar system, the mysterious dwarf planet Makemake is finally coming out of the shadows as astronomers get their best view yet of Pluto's little sibling.

Discovered in 2005, Makemake—pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh after a Polynesian creation god—is one of five Pluto-like objects that prompted a redefining of the term "planet" and the creation of a new group of dwarf planets in 2006. (Related: "Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule.")

Just like the slightly larger Pluto, this icy world circles our sun beyond Neptune. Researchers expected Makemake to also have a global atmosphere—but new evidence reveals that isn't the case.

Staring at a Star

An international team of astronomers was able for the first time to probe Makemake's physical characteristics using the European Southern Observatory's three most powerful telescopes in Chile. The researchers observed the change in light given off by a distant star as the dwarf planet passed in front of it. (Learn how scientists found Makemake.)

"These events are extremely difficult to predict and observe, but they are the only means of obtaining accurate knowledge of important properties of dwarf planets," said Jose Luis Ortiz, lead author of this new study and an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, in Spain.

It's like trying to study a coin from a distance of 30 miles (48 kilometers) or more, Ortiz added.

Ortiz and his team knew Makemake didn't have an atmosphere when light from the background star abruptly dimmed and brightened as the chilly world drifted across its face.

"The light went off very abruptly from all the sites we observed the event so this means this world cannot have a substantial and global atmosphere like that of its sibling Pluto," Ortiz said.

If Makemake had an atmosphere, light from the star would gradually decrease and increase as the dwarf planet passed in front.

Coming Into Focus

The team's new observations add much more detail to our view of Makemake—not only limiting the possibility of an atmosphere but also determining the planet's size and surface more accurately.

"We think Makemake is a sphere flattened slightly at both poles and mostly covered with very white ices—mainly of methane," said Ortiz.

"But there are also indications for some organic material at least at some places; this material is usually very red and we think in a small percentage of the surface, the terrain is quite dark," he added.

Why Makemake lacks a global atmosphere remains a big mystery, but Ortiz does have a theory. Pluto is covered in nitrogen ice. When the sun heats this volatile material, it turns straight into a gas, creating Pluto's atmosphere.

Makemake lacks nitrogen ice on its surface, so there is nothing for the sun to heat into a gas to provide an atmosphere.

The dwarf planet has less mass, and a weaker gravitational field, than Pluto, said Ortiz. This means that over eons of time, Makemake may not have been able to hang on to its nitrogen.

Methane ice will also transform into a gas when heated. But since the dwarf planet is nearly at its furthest distance from the sun, Ortiz believes that Makemake's surface methane is still frozen. (Learn about orbital planes.)

And even if the methane were to transform into a gas, any resulting atmosphere would cover, at most, only ten percent of the planet, said Ortiz.

The new results are detailed today in the journal Nature.

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Cracks in the Conservative Armor?

So much for pledges?

As lawmakers return to Washington today, the deadline to put on the brakes before the country plunges off the fiscal cliff is now in sight, and it appears that both sides are open to some wheeling and dealing.
For Republicans, that may mean breaking a promise many of them made not to raise taxes.

"When you're $16 trillion in debt, the only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid becoming Greece," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told ABC's George Stephanopoulos yesterday in a "This Week" interview. "Republicans should put revenue on the table."

Infographic: What to Know About the "Fiscal Cliff"

But for Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist, the spirit of the pledge seems as alive as ever even as GOP lawmakers like Graham publicly contemplate defecting.

"What the pledge does of course is allows elected officials to make it clear openly to their voters where they stand," Norquist said in an interview with ABC's David Kerley. "Are they going to be with reforming government or raising taxes to continue more of the same?"

Peter Foley/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Dick Durbin on 'This Week' Watch Video

Norquist is casting the pledge as lawmakers' "commitment to their constituents" -- rather than to him -- and he told ABC News over the weekend that the hundreds who have signed it "are largely keeping it."

But other prominent Republicans are joining Graham, including Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who signaled his openness to re-thinking the pledge yesterday on NBC's "Meet The Press."

"The world is changed and the economic situation is different," King said.

Watch: Nancy Pelosi on the status of the fiscal cliff

Of course, Graham on "This Week" and other GOP members of Congress who appeared on the Sunday talk shows qualified their support for raising revenue on not raising tax rates but rather on capping certain deductions.

And for all the talk of taxes, there's another elephant in the room that gets a lot less attention: Entitlement reform.

"I will violate the pledge -- long story short -- for the good of the country only if Democrats will do entitlement reform," Graham said.

Also appearing on "This Week," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., acknowledged that "meaningful reforms" for Medicare should be on the table.

"Only 12 years of solvency lie ahead if we do nothing," Durbin said. "So those who say don't touch it, don't change it are ignoring the obvious."

But how many other Democrats are going to be willing to see serious reform as part of the discussion?

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Keystroke-logger checks your identity as you type

WHETHER an aggressive finger-jabber or a fluent touch-typist, the way you type says more about you than you might think. A biometric authentication system monitors the telltale timing gaps between the letters you type to continually verify your identity.

The traditional password is notoriously troublesome as a way of keeping your devices secure. Many people use simple, easy-to-guess passwords like qwerty or 123456, or reuse the same one across multiple services, putting only one line of defence in front of their entire digital life.

David Hibler of Christopher Newport University, Virginia, and colleagues designed software called URIEL, which uses the average time between keystrokes as a surprisingly accurate way of identifying an individual. The software learns the user's typing style by measuring the time between key presses over 10 areas of the keyboard as a user types, and learns who they are as they type words from a specific ...

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Republicans ease on tax as US budget talks resume

WASHINGTON: As Congress prepared to dive back into "fiscal cliff" talks on Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday, there were encouraging signs that Republican intransigence on tax could be easing.

For the second time in days, a leading Republican, this time Senator Lindsey Graham, edged toward violating something that had been sacrosanct -- a longstanding pledge signed by many in his party never to raise taxes.

Strings were attached -- concessions by Democrats on social welfare programs like health care for the elderly. But his change of heart was a hopeful sign that the Republican leadership is ready to make tough choices in order to strike a deal.

Both Republicans and Democrats are well aware of the need for the country to get its fiscal house in order, as America tries to rein in a huge debt that has been growing bigger by the day and reduce deficit spending.

If no deal is reached before the end of the year, a poison pill law of tax hikes and massive spending cuts, including slashes to the military, comes into effect with potentially catastrophic effects for the fragile US economy.

After months of stalemate, congressional leaders met on November 16 with President Barack Obama -- who is deemed to have a considerably stronger negotiating hand after handily winning re-election 10 days earlier.

Just five weeks now remain in the calendar year to conclude an agreement before the expiration of tax cuts put in place during the presidency of Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush.

Obama has said that any deal he concludes would have to include an increase in taxes on wealthy taxpayers, something congressional Republicans so far have rejected.

The plan he proposes -- and presented to voters on the campaign trail -- would raise the tax rate for top earners, but keep Bush-era tax rates for individuals who make less than $200,000 per year and families earning less than $250,000.

Republicans insist raising taxes on the wealthy would be counter-productive and only serve to slow economic growth and ensure that the country continues to be plagued by economic stagnation.

They insist that higher taxes would dampen spending and hiring and investment by business owners.

The top income tax rate, which now stands at 35 percent, will automatically revert to 39.6 percent at the beginning of 2013 unless there is a new budget deal.

Republicans say they prefer to look at ways to bring in more tax revenue by completely overhauling the old and unwieldy US tax code, including closing what they say are "special interest loopholes" likely to hit the poor and the middle class as well as the rich.

Graham, speaking Sunday on ABC's "This Week" program, said it was fair to ask his party to do this in turn for Democratic concessions on reducing government spending on social welfare programs, known here as entitlements.

"When you're $16 trillion in debt, the only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid becoming Greece, and Republicans -- Republicans should put revenue on the table," Graham said.

He was alluding to Grover Norquist, a powerful conservative political player in the US budget debate, who over the past two decades has persuaded many Republicans to sign a pledge not to raise taxes.

"I want to buy down debt and cut rates to create jobs, but I will violate the pledge, long story short, for the good of the country, only if Democrats will do entitlement reform," Graham said.

Graham's apparent willingness to ignore the no higher taxes pledge came just days after another prominent US senator, Saxby Chambliss, said he would not be not bound by the promise either.

"I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge," Chambliss said.

Economists have said that closing loopholes and ending deductions will likely not generate sufficient money to chip away at the national debt, and that a combination of tax increases and spending cuts will be needed.

Speaking on the same program as Graham, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin insisted that tax rates for the highest earners do have to up.

"How in the world are you going to reduce deductions and generate enough revenue for meaningful deficit reduction," Durbin said.

Some experts said that there need not be a "grand deal" by the end of the year, because they could give themselves an extension by passing new legislation.

"Anytime Congress puts handcuffs on itself, it still has the key to those handcuffs. It can open the handcuffs anytime they want, or say. 'OK, we'll change the lock'," said Roberton Williams at the Tax Policy Center, an independent think tank.

-AFP/ac

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The vending machine that dispenses caviar

We have finally dispensed with the idea that there is any difference between the 1 percent and the 99.

How moving, then, that some of life's utter essentials are now being dispensed to everyone. Well, everyone who can afford them, that is.

It is with stomach-tightening joy that I bring you news of a vending machine that has been placed in the Burbank Towne Center.

This is a vending machine that brings all of America's social classes together and gathers them around foods without which they cannot live -- like caviar, truffles and escargot.

I was moved to unnatural motions when CBS Los Angeles informed me that this refined piece of technology sold such exotic items.

Indeed, the Gourme TFood Facebook page offers that this machine also has Bottarga, Blinis and Mother of Pearl Plates and Spoons.

More Technically Incorrect

It also tells me that there are two more such machines, one in the Topanga Westfield Mall and another at Century City Mall.

This is the brainchild of Beverly Hills Caviar, which proudly displays the machine on its own Facebook page.

You might be wondering how much loose change you might need to pay for one of these very fine items.

Well, apparently, the cheapest is around $50, but you can easily spend $500 on something that might uplift your lover's spirits or your chances of having a lover at all.

It's reassuring to know that the methods used by the unwashed masses are now being embraced by those once thought to live gated existences.

I feel sure that, very soon, you will be able to buy engagement rings, tiaras, mink coats and leather bodices amid all the excitement of the mall -- but without the interruption of some obsequious store assistant.

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Distant Dwarf Planet Secrets Revealed

Orbiting at the frozen edges of our solar system, the mysterious dwarf planet Makemake is finally coming out of the shadows as astronomers get their best view yet of Pluto's little sibling.

Discovered in 2005, Makemake—pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh after a Polynesian creation god—is one of five Pluto-like objects that prompted a redefining of the term "planet" and the creation of a new group of dwarf planets in 2006. (Related: "Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule.")

Just like the slightly larger Pluto, this icy world circles our sun beyond Neptune. Researchers expected Makemake to also have a global atmosphere—but new evidence reveals that isn't the case.

Staring at a Star

An international team of astronomers was able for the first time to probe Makemake's physical characteristics using the European Southern Observatory's three most powerful telescopes in Chile. The researchers observed the change in light given off by a distant star as the dwarf planet passed in front of it. (Learn how scientists found Makemake.)

"These events are extremely difficult to predict and observe, but they are the only means of obtaining accurate knowledge of important properties of dwarf planets," said Jose Luis Ortiz, lead author of this new study and an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, in Spain.

It's like trying to study a coin from a distance of 30 miles (48 kilometers) or more, Ortiz added.

Ortiz and his team knew Makemake didn't have an atmosphere when light from the background star abruptly dimmed and brightened as the chilly world drifted across its face.

"The light went off very abruptly from all the sites we observed the event so this means this world cannot have a substantial and global atmosphere like that of its sibling Pluto," Ortiz said.

If Makemake had an atmosphere, light from the star would gradually decrease and increase as the dwarf planet passed in front.

Coming Into Focus

The team's new observations add much more detail to our view of Makemake—not only limiting the possibility of an atmosphere but also determining the planet's size and surface more accurately.

"We think Makemake is a sphere flattened slightly at both poles and mostly covered with very white ices—mainly of methane," said Ortiz.

"But there are also indications for some organic material at least at some places; this material is usually very red and we think in a small percentage of the surface, the terrain is quite dark," he added.

Why Makemake lacks a global atmosphere remains a big mystery, but Ortiz does have a theory. Pluto is covered in nitrogen ice. When the sun heats this volatile material, it turns straight into a gas, creating Pluto's atmosphere.

Makemake lacks nitrogen ice on its surface, so there is nothing for the sun to heat into a gas to provide an atmosphere.

The dwarf planet has less mass, and a weaker gravitational field, than Pluto, said Ortiz. This means that over eons of time, Makemake may not have been able to hang on to its nitrogen.

Methane ice will also transform into a gas when heated. But since the dwarf planet is nearly at its furthest distance from the sun, Ortiz believes that Makemake's surface methane is still frozen. (Learn about orbital planes.)

And even if the methane were to transform into a gas, any resulting atmosphere would cover, at most, only ten percent of the planet, said Ortiz.

The new results are detailed today in the journal Nature.

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No Powerball Winner; Jackpot Grows to $425 Million

Nov 25, 2012 10:37am

                                                                (Image Credit: Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo)

The Powerball jackpot has swelled to $425 million, the largest in the lottery’s history, after no tickets matched the winning numbers in a drawing Saturday night.

The Powerball numbers for Saturday were 22-32-37-44-50, and the Powerball was 34.

Iowa Lottery spokeswoman Mary Neubauer said the jackpot could get even bigger before Wednesday, because sales tend to increase in the run-up to a big drawing.

The previous top windfall was $365 million. The jackpot was claimed by eight co-workers in Lincoln, Neb., in 2006.

PHOTOS: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners

While millions of Americans can have fun dreaming about how they’d spend the jackpot, the odds of winning are 1 in 175,000,000, according to lottery officials.

To put that in perspective, a ticket holder is 25 times less likely to win the jackpot then they are to win an Academy Award.

Even still, the old saying holds true: “You’ve got to be in it to win it.”

SHOWS: Good Morning America

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Papa pipefish's pregnancy good for young's immunity

MALE pipefish pregnancy may suit the females, but it's a real boon for their offspring.

In human fetuses, antibodies from the mother's egg and others that pass across the placenta help build its developing immune system. Sperm are too small to carry antibodies, so males aren't thought to contribute.

Not so in pipefish, where the male carries the pregnancy. To see if the immune priming might come from both the mother's egg and via the father's placenta-like structure, Olivia Roth at the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany and colleagues exposed lab-grown male and female broad-nosed pipefish to dead bacteria. The fish were then left to mate and the resulting offspring were later also exposed.

The young had the strongest immune response if both parents had been exposed to the bacteria, suggesting both provided antibodies (The American Naturalist, doi.org/jrq).

Pipefish may not be the only fathers that help build their offspring's immune system. Pigeons of both sexes have been shown to "lactate" antibody-rich "milk" in their crops for their chicks.

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