WSJ: The FAA Is Ready to Ease Restrictions on In-Flight Electronics

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Federal Aviation Administration is about to loosen its restrictions on in-flight gadget use?more than a year after it first announced it was mulling the idea.

The Journal explains that a high-level, 28-member advisory panel will recommend to the FAA that it relax restrictions during taxiing, takeoff, and landing. The suggestion is based on an investigation launched last August which aimed to assess just how dangerous electronic devices are aboard flights.

While the advice to be given by the panel isn't finalized, opinion seems to suggest that current regulations "have become untenable." While it's unclear what the exact recommendations will be, they're expected to allow more freedom for gadget use inside airplanes?and some devices, like e-readers, will likely be permitted for use throughout the entire flight. Cellphone calls won't be covered just yet?but baby steps, people, baby steps.

The FAA's reluctance to change policy on gadgets has been broadly criticized by everyone from politicians to consumers, and it seems likely that any softening of the rules will be greeted with open arms. Certainly, it can't come soon enough?the current guidelines are based on regulations that have remained unchanged since 1966. [WSJ]

Image by Derrick Coetzee under Creative Commons license

Source: http://gizmodo.com/wsj-the-faa-is-ready-to-ease-restrictions-on-in-flight-528724592

puppy bowl national pancake day bar refaeli Paul Harvey ihop Sasquatch 2013 super bowl commercials

Paul LePage 'Vaseline' Remark Slams Democrat Troy Jackson

AUGUSTA, Maine ? The often-brash governor of Maine is at it again, this time using a sexually vulgar phrase to describe how he says a Democratic lawmaker is taking advantage of the people.

Gov. Paul LePage made the remark about Sen. Troy Jackson to two television reporters Thursday. When one reporter responded that people were bound to find the remark offensive, the governor repeated a variation of it.

"Sen. Jackson claims to be for the people, but he's the first one to give it to the people without providing Vaseline," LePage said, according to WMTW. "He is bad. He has no brains, and he has a black heart."

LePage acknowledged to WMTW that the comments could be offensive to some, saying,"Good. It ought to [offend], because I've been taking it for two years."

LePage's comments came as he intends to veto a two-year budget because it includes tax increases. Jackson had criticized the governor's announcement call for 60-day reprieve to negotiate a new budget and called a news conference for later Thursday.

LePage is known for speaking his mind. The Republican once told the NAACP to "kiss my butt."

Click here for a video of LePage's "Vaseline" comments from WMTW.

Also on HuffPost:

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/20/paul-lepage-vaseline_n_3473822.html

Mike Jeffries Abercrombie Charles Ramsey Interview Limo Fire Mayweather vs Guerrero Mario Machado May the Fourth be with you James Righton

That grocery store cabbage is alive

Public release date: 20-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mary Beth O'Leary
moleary@cell.com
617-397-2802
Cell Press

The fruits and vegetables we buy in the grocery store are actually still alive, and it matters to them what time of day it is. The discovery, reported on June 20 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, suggests that the way we store our produce could have real consequences for its nutritional value and for our health.

"Vegetables and fruits, even after harvest, can respond to light signals and consequently change their biology in ways that may affect health value and insect resistance," says Janet Braam of Rice University. "Perhaps we should be storing our vegetables and fruits under light-dark cycles and timing when to cook and eat them to enhance their health value."

Braam and her colleagues earlier found that plants grown in the laboratory change their physiology in important ways over the course of the day, driven by circadian rhythms. They suspected that food crops would do something similar, perhaps even after they'd been harvested from the field.

Unlike animals, plants are made up of many separate parts or modulesleaves and branches, fruits and rootsthat can continue to metabolize and survive more or less independently, at least for some time. Even after they've been harvested and cut from one another, their cells remain active and alive.

Braam's team now shows that post-harvest vegetables and fruits can in fact continue to perceive light and, as a result, their biological clocks keep on ticking. That's an advantage to the plants because it allows them to alter levels of important chemicals that protect them from being eaten by insects and other herbivores, the researchers found. When eaten by us, some of those same phytochemicals also have anti-cancer effects.

The researchers made the initial discovery in studies of cabbage. They then went on to show similar responses in lettuce, spinach, zucchini, sweet potatoes, carrots, and blueberries. Fruits and veggies subjected to light-dark cycles at the right times clearly suffered less insect damage.

It might be time to consider our foods' daily schedulesnot just our ownwhen deciding what time to have dinner. If that's too much to ask, maybe there is another way, according to the researchers.

"It may be of interest to harvest crops and freeze or otherwise preserve them at specific times of day, when nutrients and valuable phytochemicals are at their peak," Braam says.

###

Current Biology, Goodspeed et al.: "Postharvest Circadian Entrainment Enhances Crop Pest Resistance and Phytochemical Cycling."

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 20-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mary Beth O'Leary
moleary@cell.com
617-397-2802
Cell Press

The fruits and vegetables we buy in the grocery store are actually still alive, and it matters to them what time of day it is. The discovery, reported on June 20 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, suggests that the way we store our produce could have real consequences for its nutritional value and for our health.

"Vegetables and fruits, even after harvest, can respond to light signals and consequently change their biology in ways that may affect health value and insect resistance," says Janet Braam of Rice University. "Perhaps we should be storing our vegetables and fruits under light-dark cycles and timing when to cook and eat them to enhance their health value."

Braam and her colleagues earlier found that plants grown in the laboratory change their physiology in important ways over the course of the day, driven by circadian rhythms. They suspected that food crops would do something similar, perhaps even after they'd been harvested from the field.

Unlike animals, plants are made up of many separate parts or modulesleaves and branches, fruits and rootsthat can continue to metabolize and survive more or less independently, at least for some time. Even after they've been harvested and cut from one another, their cells remain active and alive.

Braam's team now shows that post-harvest vegetables and fruits can in fact continue to perceive light and, as a result, their biological clocks keep on ticking. That's an advantage to the plants because it allows them to alter levels of important chemicals that protect them from being eaten by insects and other herbivores, the researchers found. When eaten by us, some of those same phytochemicals also have anti-cancer effects.

The researchers made the initial discovery in studies of cabbage. They then went on to show similar responses in lettuce, spinach, zucchini, sweet potatoes, carrots, and blueberries. Fruits and veggies subjected to light-dark cycles at the right times clearly suffered less insect damage.

It might be time to consider our foods' daily schedulesnot just our ownwhen deciding what time to have dinner. If that's too much to ask, maybe there is another way, according to the researchers.

"It may be of interest to harvest crops and freeze or otherwise preserve them at specific times of day, when nutrients and valuable phytochemicals are at their peak," Braam says.

###

Current Biology, Goodspeed et al.: "Postharvest Circadian Entrainment Enhances Crop Pest Resistance and Phytochemical Cycling."

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/cp-tgs061313.php

texas relays meniscus robyn the colony ncaa final four 2012 uk vs louisville university of kansas

G-8 to focus on African kidnaps, tax on final day

ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland (AP) ? Leaders of the G-8 wealthy nations are spending the final day of their summit focused on how to deter kidnappings of foreign workers in North Africa and how to corner globe-trotting companies into paying more taxes.

Prime Minister David Cameron has invited the leaders of Libya and the African Union to join Britain, the United States, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Russia around the talks table Tuesday.

The British leader seeks a joint commitment by nations to stop paying ransoms to kidnappers in hopes of deterring the practice following January's bloody capture by al-Qaeda-linked militants of an Algerian gas facility. Ten Japanese, five Britons, three Americans and a French national were among the 40 civilians killed as Algerian forces retook the facility.

The summit concludes Tuesday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/g-8-focus-african-kidnaps-tax-final-day-064107266.html

MET GALA 2013 proflowers Susannah Collins George Jones funeral Jeff Hanneman twerking Camarillo fire

5 killed in Mozambique clashes

MAPUTO, Mozambique (AP) ? Media in Mozambique say at least five government troops were killed and two others were wounded in fighting with alleged members of an opposition group.

State radio and television say the clashes happened Monday in Sofala province in central Mozambique. There were no immediate reports on any casualties among opposition fighters from Renamo, a former rebel movement.

Renamo and the governing Frelimo party have held talks since the beginning of the year in the capital, Maputo, to try to resolve their differences.

After independence from Portugal in 1975, Mozambique fell into a devastating war between Frelimo, then a Marxist guerrilla group, and Renamo, which was backed by the white minority government that ruled neighboring South Africa at the time.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/5-killed-mozambique-clashes-091520520.html

taylor momsen russell brand cher christina aguilera mac miller juneteenth

FBI director acknowledges domestic drone use (cbsnews)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/313865546?client_source=feed&format=rss

superman flag day man of steel man of steel phil mickelson Ed Sheeran The Last of Us

In Alaska's oilfields, drones countdown to takeoff

By Krithika Krishnamurthy

Fri Jun 7, 2013 9:28am EDT

(Reuters) - No pilot was required when the Aeryon Scout took off into the leaden skies of Alaska to inspect a stretch of oil pipeline. The miniature aircraft was guided by an engineer on the ground, armed only with a tablet computer.

The 20-minute test flight, conducted by BP Plc last fall, was a glimpse of a future where oil and gas companies in the Arctic can rely on unmanned aircraft to detect pipeline faults, at a fraction of the cost of piloted helicopter flights.

It could become reality as soon as 2015, when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) opens up American skies for the commercial use of unmanned aircraft, popularly known as drones.

While technical shortcomings and strict regulation are likely to limit the use of drones in the near term, the rules governing public airspace will be more relaxed in the wilderness of Alaska than in the lower 48 states, industry experts say.

"We're going to take baby steps," said Gary Shane, senior project manager and chief technology officer of BP Pipelines in North America. The company plans to deploy its first drones in the Alaska North Slope within three years, he told Reuters.

Laid end to end, the more than 300,000 miles of natural gas pipelines that crisscross the United States would circumnavigate the planet 12 times. There's a lot of money to be saved by reducing the number of manned flights on these routes.

A small, unmanned vehicle fitted with a heat-sensing camera costs about $85,000, while it costs about $3,000 to send a helicopter to monitor an oil pipeline for an hour, said Dave Kroetsch, chief executive of drone manufacturer Aeryon Labs Inc.

The drone, therefore, would pay for itself within 29 hours.

BP began researching the use of unmanned aircraft in 2006. Royal Dutch Shell Plc began a year earlier. One aim, says Shell, is to track the movement of marine mammals to assess the impact of the company's operations in the seas off Alaska.

The Scout is the flagship product of Aeryon Labs, a private Canadian company based in Waterloo, Ontario - the same university town that gave rise to BlackBerry.

Under a meter in length, the Scout weighs 1.2 kg (2.7 lbs) - tiny when compared with the 1,020-kg MQ-1 Predator drone used by the U.S. military and manufactured by San Diego-based General Atomics.

Aeryon Labs calls the Scout a "flying robotic reconnaissance system". It has been used by Gaddafi-era Libyan rebels and seen action in a Central American drugs bust. (r.reuters.com/zec68t)

A camera mounted on the drone transmits a live feed to the operator. In the case of pipeline work, sensors can pinpoint the location of a suspected leak and detect signs of decay, such as cracks or rust, said Ian McDonald, Aeryon Labs' vice-president.

With four rotors and legs allowing for vertical take-off and landing, the Scout can also hover closer to a pipeline than any helicopter could. Proponents of the technology say this will help oil companies to find defects earlier than they can now.

According to a U.S. government report on pipeline safety, the public was quicker to report pipeline leaks than companies' in-house detection systems in a third of cases recorded between January 2010 and July 2012. (link.reuters.com/wyk48t)

SHORT FLIGHTS ONLY

So with all these advantages, why aren't more oil companies signing up? Why do Canada's two biggest pipeline operators, Enbridge Inc and TransCanada Corp, prefer traditional methods for inspecting their U.S. pipeline routes?

Technology, for one thing. Drones might not be new - BP also used the Aeryon Scout to help direct clean-up crews after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 - but they are yet to be proven for large-scale commercial use.

"We have looked at this in detail, but advanced drone technology is largely proprietary to the U.S. military," said Enbridge spokesman Graham White.

"Our experience is that there is still no substitute for human eyes, knowledge and expertise when inspecting the lines."

The 20 minutes flown by the Aeryon Scout is about the most that a small drone can manage. The sophisticated sensor systems needed for inspection are too big for longer flights; "miniaturizing" these sensors will take time, said BP's Shane.

Also missing from today's fleet of drones is the collision avoidance technology that automatically instructs an aircraft to take evasive action if an obstacle appears in its path.

While doubts persist, some oil majors are on the sidelines. ConocoPhillips said it was interested, but that it did not operate its own aerial surveillance program. Exxon Mobil Corp declined to comment for this article.

David Yoel, chief executive of industry consultants Aerospace Advisors Inc, said it would be at least 10 years before unmanned aircraft are in common use along U.S. pipelines.

Draganfly Innovations Inc, a Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based manufacturer that sold several drones to deepwater oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico two years ago, said industry-wide sales had begun to flag, due largely to the regulatory environment.

"Actual sales have definitely slowed, especially in the U.S., because of people's issues with the FAA regulations," said Kevin Lauscher, Draganfly's industrial sales manager.

INTO THE WILDERNESS

Current U.S. federal law permits only public agencies and universities to fly drones in public airspace. BP teamed up with the University of Alaska Fairbanks when it tested the Scout.

This should change from September 2015, by which time the FAA is mandated by Congress to have drawn up rules for their commercial use.

Even public agencies today must operate drones under strict regulations, and these restrictions will not disappear overnight for commercial users, industry experts say.

Such rules - drones must fly in daylight hours only, for example, within the remote operator's line of sight and more than five miles from any airport, big or small - are hardly conducive to monitoring a vast pipeline network.

Gretchen West, executive vice-president of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), said she believed that drones would become "an important technology" for oil and gas companies. "(But) it's still going to be several years before it's not heavily regulated."

Alaska just might be the exception.

It's very remoteness could win it special dispensation that would permit drones to be operated round-the-clock and controlled from beyond the line of sight.

The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 - the existing law that stipulates the September 2015 deadline for commercial drone use - saves a separate mention for the Arctic.

"The FAA is working ... to integrate unmanned aircraft into the Arctic region, where potential uses include wildlife observation, oil and mineral exploration, sea ice studies and pipeline monitoring," FAA spokesman Les Dorr said.

The FAA estimates that about 7,500 commercial "small unmanned systems" - drones weighing up to 55 lb (25 kg) - will be in operation within five years of its opening up the skies.

For companies such as Aeryon Labs and Draganfly, the challenge will be to develop the technology to drive more sales.

"Manufacturers and start-ups see that there will be great potential," said West. "This is going to be a great industry."

(Editing by Robin Paxton)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/yvE1Y_GlvRk/story01.htm

stevie nicks anchorman capybara duggars peter facinelli bobby rush supreme court justices