networking technologies

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Feds begin probe of SF Bay Area rail worker deaths

A BART police officer covers one of the two people that were struck and killed by a moving BART train along Jones Road in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013. (AP Photo/The Mercury News, Dan Rosenstrauch)

Two BART police officers look over the BART tracks along Jones Road in Walnut Creek, where two workers were killed by a moving BART train in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013. (AP Photo/The Mercury News, Dan Rosenstrauch)

A BART police officer looks out of a BART car that struck and killed two people along Jones Road in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013. (AP Photo/The Mercury News, Dan Rosenstrauch)

A BART police officer looks along the BART tracks along Jones Road in Walnut Creek, where a moving BART train struck and killed two people in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013. (AP Photo/The Mercury News, Dan Rosenstrauch)

A BART police officer looks along the outside of a BART car that struck and killed two people along Jones Road in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013. (AP Photo/The Mercury News, Dan Rosenstrauch)

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Federal accident investigators were in the San Francisco Bay Area on Sunday to examine the deaths of two transit workers who were struck by an out-of-service commuter train performing routine maintenance.

Saturday's accident on Bay Area Rapid Transit tracks in the East Bay city of Walnut Creek took place against the backdrop of a contentious and disruptive labor strike.

Two National Transportation Safety Board investigators were at the site of the accident on Sunday, NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss said.

The two-man team led by Jim Southworth, the board's railroad accident investigator-in-charge, will be looking at everything leading up to the collision, from safety procedures and qualifications of personnel to the track's condition.

"We will be the lead agency in the safety investigation into how and why this happened," Weiss said.

The four-car BART train with several people aboard was being run in automatic mode under computer control at the time of the accident, Assistant General Manager Paul Oversier said. The system has been shut down since Friday because of a work stoppage by the system's two largest unions.

The train was returning from a yard where workers cleaned graffiti from unused cars when it slammed into the two workers — one a BART employee and the other a contractor — who were inspecting an above-ground stretch of track between stations, Oversier said.

Neither BART nor the county coroner has released the names and ages of the victims.

Following the May death of foreman who was killed by a passenger train in West Haven, Conn., the NTSB has been promoting improved safety measures for track maintenance crews, Weiss said. In June, the board urged the Metro-North Railroad to provide backup protection for crews that were relying on dispatchers to close tracks while they are being worked on and to light the appropriate signals.

The investigators now in California will be checking to see if BART uses "shunts" — a device that crews can attach to the rails in a work zone that gives approaching trains a stop signal — or any other of the backup measures the NTSB recommended for the Metro-North system, Weiss said.

"Obviously, we are very concerned anytime anyone dies in transportation accidents, but we're very interested in the issue of track worker deaths right now," he said.

The fact that BART workers have been on strike since Friday would be part of the probe if it turns out to be relevant in terms of staffing and the experience and training of the track workers and train operators.

"We are not there because of the strike, but they would look at the circumstances and the personnel surrounding the issue," Weiss said.

Officials from the unions representing BART's train operators and some of the system's other workers have warned of the danger that could come with allowing managers to operate trains as BART had planned to do in case of a strike. At a news conference Saturday, Oversier would not say whether a manager had been at the controls. In an earlier statement, BART said only that the person was an experienced operator.

Meanwhile, with no indication that the striking BART workers would be back on the job Monday, the region was preparing for another day of gridlock on freeways and bridges clogged with commuters who would ordinarily be traveling by train. BART, the nation's fifth-largest commuter rail system, has an average weekday ridership of 400,000.

BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said Sunday that transit officials and labor leaders have been in contact over the weekend, but the two sides did not have any plans to return to the bargaining table.

___

Associated Press writer Andrew Dalton contributed to this report from Los Angeles. Cone reported from Fresno.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-20-BART%20Strike/id-d03d7f30c71740faa2a65ffb8094d4be
Related Topics: eric decker Brynn Cameron Nokia Hunter Hayes Bbc News

What's Creepy, Crawly And A Champion Of Neuroscience?

Soon you'll be able to direct the path of a cockroach with a smartphone and the swipe of your finger.

Greg Gage and his colleagues at Backyard Brains have developed a device called the RoboRoach that lets you control the path of an insect.

It may make you squirm, but Gage says the device could inspire a new generation of neuroscientists.

"The sharpest kids amongst us are probably going into other fields right now. And so we're kind of in the dark ages when it comes to neuroscience," he tells NPR's Arun Rath.

The RoboRoach device allows users to influence the movements of cockroaches with a smartphone.

Backyard Brains

The RoboRoach device allows users to influence the movements of cockroaches with a smartphone.

Backyard Brains

He wants to get kids interested in neuroscience early enough to guide them toward that career path. And a cyborg cockroach might be the inspiration.

"The neurons in the insects are very, very similar to the neurons inside the human brain," Gage says. "It's a beautiful way to just really understand what's happening inside your brain by looking at these little insects."

Directions Vs. Free Will

The idea was spawned by a device the Backyard Brain-iacs developed called The SpikerBox, which is capable of amplifying real living neurons. Insert a small wire into a cockroach's antennae, and you can hear the sound of actual neurons.

"Lining the inside of the cockroach are these neurons that are picking up touch or vibration sensing, chemical sensing," Gage says. "They use it like a nose or a large tongue, their antennas, and they use it to sort of navigate the world.

"So when you put a small wire inside of there, you can actually pick up the information as it's being encoded and being sent to the brain."

With the RoboRoach device and smartphone app, you can interact with the antennae to influence the insect's behavior.

“ There are some people that get really sort of scared ... that we're taking over the free will of this cockroach. But in essence, that's actually not the case.

- Greg Gage, in response to ethics complaints

When you swipe your finger on your mobile phone, the app sends a message using Bluetooth to the device, which then sends a small pulse of electricity into the left or right antenna.

The result: a cockroach that follows your directions.

Since Gage introduced the RoboRoach at a TEDx conference earlier this month, it has stirred up some ethical concerns and questions around animal treatment.

"There are some people that get really sort of scared when we start talking about brain control — that we're taking over the free will of this cockroach," he says. "But in essence, that's actually not the case."

Gage says the RoboRoach just provides a sensation in the antenna that makes the cockroach perceive an obstacle in its path. He compares it to the bridle of a horse.

"You can have these reins — you can pull the horse left or right," he says. "You can do the same thing with a cockroach. It thinks it's being touched on the left or right side and it will sort of turn in the counter-lateral direction."

Swarms For Survival?

With the RoboRoach, you can wield influence over a single insect. But what about swarms of these cyborg cockroaches?

Dr. Edgar Lobaton is an assistant professor at North Carolina State University. He's in the simulation phase of his latest project: using swarms of up to 1,000 cockroaches to assist in search-and-rescue operations.

"We can use this collection of agents to do an exploration of the entire space, to be able to localize potential people that may be trapped in the ruins after these disasters," he says.

Wearing backpacks similar to the RoboRoach, their movements can be used to map structures like a collapsed building. Lobaton says cockroaches are perfect for the job because they're natural explorers.

"For these particular insects, they have gone through a lot of evolution. There's a lot of development in there to make them very flexible, to be able to accomplish things related to exploration and the search of food," he says. "So what we're trying to do is exploit basically this design from nature to be able to use it in our advantage."

So you might think twice before stomping or spraying the next cockroach you encounter with insecticide.

Cockroaches could be deployed to save your life one day. Or, at least, teach you a little bit about neuroscience.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/10/20/237129154/whats-creepy-crawly-and-a-champion-of-neuroscience?ft=1&f=1019
Similar Articles: brandon jacobs fox sports vince young allen iverson Jason Dufner

You'll Barely Notice the World's Smallest USB 3.0 Flash Drive

When it comes to prolonging the life of your laptop, there's no easier upgrade than adding an ultra-compact USB flash drive to expand its storage capacity—particularly if it's got a small SSD on board. And a company called PKparis is now laying claim to the title of 'world's smallest USB 3.0 flash drive' with its new K’1 that more than looks the part.

Wall Street climbs as Senate leaders announce fiscal deal

By Julia Edwards

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks surged on Wednesday, nearing an all-time high, after Senate leaders said they had reached a deal to raise the government debt ceiling, one day before the U.S. defaults on its debt.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said leaders had come to an agreement, which will reopen the government through January 15 and raise the debt ceiling until February 7. The House of Representatives planned to vote on the measure later in the day.

The gains brought the S&P 500 index within striking distance of the record intraday high of 1729.86 set on September 19. Trading volume was low, however, at just 2.4 billion shares, as many investors stayed on the sidelines over the uncertainty coming from Washington.

"Even though the market is moving up, this is a real historic event that is happening here so there is pause and concern," said Frank Davis, director of sales and trading at LEK Securities in New York.

"You are seeing a lack of activity because it's hard to invest in a market where you don't know what's around the corner."

Throughout the crisis, many strategists have argued that the brief sell-offs would be a buying opportunity because Washington would get its act together. That scenario, at the moment, seems to be playing out. On the New York Stock Exchange, more than three stocks were rising for every share that was falling.

All ten S&P sectors were up, led by financials on hopes for the debt deal and strong quarterly results. The sector gained 1.8 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 194.65 points, or 1.28 percent, at 15,362.66. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 22.53 points, or 1.33 percent, at 1,720.59. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 42.25 points, or 1.11 percent, at 3,836.26.

Bank of America Corp reported a third-quarter profit of $2.22 billion, compared with a loss a year earlier, as provisions for credit losses fell. Shares were up 2.16 percent at $14.46.

"Not a bad quarter given the environment with Bank of America showing impressive capital levels and solid execution." Jeff Morris, head of U.S. equities at Standard Life Investments.

Shares of Yahoo eased back after rising earlier a day after the company reported third-quarter earnings that were slightly above forecasts by analysts. The company's shares were last down 0.6 percent at $33.19.

The corporate earnings season is off to a good start as the majority of companies has met or beaten estimates, said Jonathan Golub, chief U.S. market strategist at RBC Capital Markets in New York.

IBM , American Express and eBay are all expected to report after the close of the market.

J.P. Morgan will pay $100 million to settle charges for the "London Whale" trading scandal, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said on Wednesday. J.P.Morgan shares were up 2.7 percent to $53.75.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum, Kenneth Barry and Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wall-st-set-higher-open-hopes-fiscal-deal-131323214--finance.html
Category: Kaepernick Jenna Wolfe Larry Shippers tibetan mastiff Amish Mafia

Thousands protest in Romania against shale gas, gold mine

By Luiza Ilie

PUNGESTI, Romania (Reuters) - Thousands of Romanians protested on Saturday against plans by U.S. energy group Chevron to explore for shale gas in a poor eastern region and a Canadian company's project to set up Europe's biggest open cast gold mine in a Carpathian town.

Plans by the leftist government of Prime Minister Victor Ponta to approve the tapping of natural resources in the European Union's second-poorest state have triggered nationwide protests since the start of September, throwing together local communities, environmentalists, civic rights groups and the clergy.

While the two projects are separate and in different stages of development, protesters have criticized a lack of transparency in approving both. They demand stronger safeguards to protect Romania's environment and national heritage.

On Thursday, Chevron suspended work on what was to be its first exploration well in the small town of Pungesti in Vaslui county, 340 km (210 miles) northeast of the capital Bucharest, after locals blocked access to the site.

But the people of Pungesti, most of whom live off subsistence farming in one of Europe's poorest regions, have continued protesting, asking officials to revoke drilling plans.

On Saturday, more than 800 locals, priests and activists gathered in front of the empty lot where Chevron plans to install the well. Hundreds rallied in other cities.

In punishing windy weather, they waved "Stop Chevron" banners and knelt to the ground while a priest led them in prayer. A group of horse riders clad in national costumes then destroyed a cardboard model of an oil well.

FRACKING FEARS

Shale gas faces opposition due to concerns around hydraulic fracturing or fracking, the process of injecting water and chemicals at high pressure into underground rock formations to push out gas.

Critics say it can pollute water supplies and trigger small earthquakes. Advocates say it has a strong safety record and point to countries like the United States, where extensive fracking has driven down prices.

"I am against shale gas exploitation because of the chemicals used in fracking," said Vasile Ciobanu, 25, who has returned to Pungesti after working abroad for three years and now lives a few hundred meters away from the proposed well site.

"I don't think the company and Romanian officials are thinking about what could happen to people who live here."

Chevron declined to comment. Earlier this year, the company won all necessary approvals to drill exploratory wells in Vaslui, while it also has rights to explore three blocks near the Black Sea. The exploration phase would last for about five years.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that Romania could potentially recover 51 trillion cubic feet of shale gas, which would cover domestic demand for more than a century and help push prices lower.

In the central Romanian town of Campeni, around 2,000 people protested against Canada's Gabriel Resources plans to use cyanide to mine 314 metric tons of gold and 1,500 metric tons of silver in the small town of Rosia Montana.

The state also holds a minority stake in the mine. The government approved a bill to speed up the project, which has been waiting for approval for 14 years. In Rosia Montana, many argue the mine is the only solution to create jobs.

But one of the bill's provisions grants the mine "national interest" status, which would make it easier for the company to force the few locals who oppose the plan to quit their land, in return for compensation. Critics say this is unconstitutional. The bill is now following a tortuous path through parliament, and it is unclear when a vote will take place.

(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/thousands-protest-romania-against-shale-gas-gold-mine-193831695--finance.html
Category: The Walking Dead Season 4 elizabeth olsen furlough rose byrne What Did Riley Cooper Say

Ask Engadget: how can I bring WiFi to my shed?

We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, then here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget inquiry is from Jonathan, who has the age-old problem of how to bring the internet to his outbuilding. If you're looking to ask one of your own, drop us a ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/cPIJ1TdGpY0/
Related Topics: julianne hough monday night football serena williams miley cyrus Nick Jonas

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Woody Allen's new film: 'Magic in the Moonlight'

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Woody Allen has given his next film a name.

Continuing his European intrigue, "Magic in the Moonlight" is set in southern France and stars Colin Firth, Emma Stone, Eileen Atkins, Marcia Gay Harden, Hamish Linklater, Simon McBurney and Jacki Weaver. Co-stars include Erica Leerhsen, Catherine McCormack, Paul Ritter and Jeremy Shamos.

The Gravier Productions film is being produced by Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum. They've worked on a number of Allen's films, from his latest "Blue Jasmine" to 2001's "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion."

Allen has delivered a full-length feature every year since 1982. "Magic in the Moonlight" marks his 47th time in the director's chair and his first time casting both Firth and Stone.

The film has already begun production and is tentatively set to release in 2014.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/woody-allens-film-magic-moonlight-211959766.html
Category: detroit tigers Chobani Recall Iams Recall Sean Sasser Frank Castillo