Military getting ready to bring back the airship

TUSTIN, Calif. (AP) ? The massive blimp-like aircraft flies but just barely, hovering only a dozen feet off a military hangar floor during flight testing south of Los Angeles.

Still, the fact that the hulking Aeroscraft could fly for just a few minutes represents a step forward in aviation, according to the engineers who developed it. The Department of Defense and NASA have invested $35 million in the prototype because of its potential to one day carry more cargo than any other aircraft to disaster zones and forward military bases.

"I realized that I put a little dot in the line of aviation history. A little dot for something that has never been demonstrated before, now it's feasible," said flight control engineer Munir Jojo-Verge.

The airship is undergoing testing this month at Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin, and must go through several more rounds of flight testing before it could be used in a disaster zone or anywhere else. The first major flight test took place Jan. 3.

The biggest challenge for engineers is making sure the airship will be able to withstand high winds and other extreme weather conditions, Jojo-Verge said.

Worldwide Aeros, the company that developed the aircraft, said it also must secure more funding for the next round of flight testing, but is hopeful the Defense Department and others will step in again as investors.

The company says the cargo airship's potential to carry more cargo more efficiently than ever before would provide the U.S. military with an advantage on the battlefield and greater capacity to save more lives during natural disasters.

The lighter-than-air vehicle is not a blimp or a zeppelin because it has a rigid structure made out of ultra-light carbon fiber and aluminum underneath its high-tech Mylar skin. Inside, balloons hold the helium that gives the vehicle lift. Unlike hydrogen, the gas used in the Hindenburg airship that crashed in 1937, helium is not flammable.

The airship functions like a submarine, releasing air to rise and taking in air to descend, said Aeros mechanical engineer Tim Kenny. It can take off vertically, like a helicopter, then change its buoyancy to become heavier than air for landing and unloading.

"It allows the vehicle to set down on the ground. And then when we want to become lighter than air, we release that air and then the vehicle floats and we can allow it to take off," Kenny said.

The project has set abuzz the old hangars at the Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin. The structures were built to hold blimps during World War II. Now workers zip around in cherry-pickers, and the airship's silvery surface shines against the warm tones of the aging wood of the walls.

"You could take this vehicle and go to destinations that have been destroyed, where there's no ports, no runways, stuff like that. This vehicle could go in there, offload the cargo even if there's no infrastructure, no landing site for it to land on, this vehicle can unload its whole payload," said Kenny.

Next, Aeros wants to build a full-size 450-foot-long vehicle that can carry 66 tons of payload.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/high-tech-cargo-airship-being-built-california-100513071--finance.html

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Secret Service dog's death in line of duty

A Belgian Malinois. (Getty Images via CNN)

A Secret Service dog fell to its death in New Orleans over the weekend while performing a sweep of a six-story parking garage. The garage was next to the Ritz Carlton where Vice President Joe Biden was speaking.

The bomb-sniffing dog, a Belgian Malinois, fell from the roof of the parking deck next to the hotel at approximately 6 p.m., New Orleans police told WWL-TV.

Biden was attending a fundraiser for Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu's re-election campaign.

Federal agents rushed the black and brown shepherd to Metairie Small Animal Hospital via motorcade, but veterinarians were unable to revive the dog, WWL reported.

According to CNN, the agency began using canines to detect explosives in 1975:

It uses Belgian Malinois because they are small and have short hair?making it easy for them to work in the heat. They are also very sociable. Each dog and its handler has to complete 20 weeks of training before beginning work, the agency said. When it's time for a dog to retire?usually after about 10 years?it is retired to its handler.

Secret Service spokesman Max Milien told the network the dog's death was a "tragic accident."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/secret-dog-death-144327207--politics.html

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Obama launches push for immigration overhaul

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.. center, answers a reporter's question as he and a bipartisan group of leading senators announce that they have reached agreement on the principles of sweeping legislation to rewrite the nation's immigration laws, during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. From left are Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. The deal covers border security, guest workers and employer verification, as well as a path to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants already in this country. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.. center, answers a reporter's question as he and a bipartisan group of leading senators announce that they have reached agreement on the principles of sweeping legislation to rewrite the nation's immigration laws, during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. From left are Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. The deal covers border security, guest workers and employer verification, as well as a path to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants already in this country. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Seeking swift action on immigration, President Barack Obama on Tuesday will try to rally public support behind his proposals for giving millions of illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship, as well as making improvements to the legal immigration system and border security.

The president will launch his push in a campaign-style event in Las Vegas, a day after a bipartisan group of senators unveiled their own plan for addressing an issue that has languished in Washington for years.

Administration officials said Obama would largely endorse the senators' efforts, though immigration advocates said they expected the president's own proposals to be more progressive than the Senate group's plan, including a faster pathway to citizenship.

The simultaneous immigration campaigns were spurred by the November presidential election, in which Obama won an overwhelming majority of Hispanic voters. The results caused Republican lawmakers who had previously opposed immigration reform to reconsider in order to rebuild the party's reputation among Hispanics, an increasingly powerful political force.

Most of the recommendations Obama will make Tuesday are not new. He outlined an immigration blueprint in May 2011 but exerted little political capital to get it passed by Congress, to the disappointment of many Hispanics.

Obama "believes that we are at a moment now where there seems to be support coalescing at a bipartisan level behind the very principles that he has long put forward and behind principles that have in the past enjoyed bipartisan support," White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday. "And that is a very positive thing."

The president was to make his pitch in Nevada, a political battleground he carried in November, in large part because of support from Hispanics in the state.

Nationally, Obama won 71 percent of the Hispanic vote, giving him a key advantage over Republican rival Mitt Romney.

Administration officials said the president would bolster his 2011 immigration blueprint with some fresh details. His original plan centered on four key areas: a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., improved border security, an overhaul of the legal immigration system, and an easier process for businesses to verify the legal status of workers.

Administration officials said they were encouraged to see the Senate backing the same broad principles. In part because of the fast action on Capitol Hill, Obama does not currently plan to send lawmakers formal immigration legislation.

However, officials said the White House does have legislation drafted and could fall back on it should the Senate process stall. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal strategy.

Gay and lesbian advocates were also expecting Obama's proposals to include recognition of same-sex couples where one partner is American and another is not.

Sen. John McCain called the issue a "red flag" in an interview Tuesday on "CBS This Morning."

The Arizona Republican also said he didn't think the issue was of "paramount importance at this time."

"We'll have to look at it," McCain said. But he added that the highest priority is finding a "broad consensus" behind the immigration bill already being planned. He said the country must do something about 11 million people "living in the shadows."

Obama's previous proposals for creating a pathway to citizenship required those already in the U.S. illegally to register with the government and submit to security checks; pay registration fees, a series of fines and back taxes; and learn English. After eight years, individuals would be allowed to become legal permanent residents and could eventually become citizens five years later.

The Senate group's pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the U.S. would be contingent upon securing the border and improving tracking of people in the U.S. on visas. Linking citizenship to border security could become a sticking point between the White House and lawmakers.

The Senate framework would also require those here illegally to pass background checks and pay fines and taxes in order to qualify for a "probationary legal status" that would allow them to live and work here ? but not qualify for federal benefits ? before being able to apply for permanent residency, a critical step toward citizenship. Once they are allowed to apply they would do so behind everyone else already waiting for a green card within the current immigration system.

Passage of legislation by the full Democratic-controlled Senate is far from assured, but the tallest hurdle could come in the House, which is dominated by conservative Republicans who've shown little interest in immigration reform.

The senators involved in formulating the immigration proposals, in addition to McCain, are Democrats Charles Schumer of New York, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Michael Bennet of Colorado; and Republicans Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Marco Rubio of Florida and Jeff Flake of Arizona.

Several of these lawmakers have worked for years on the issue. McCain collaborated with the late Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on comprehensive immigration legislation pushed by then-President George W. Bush in 2007, only to see it collapse in the Senate when it couldn't get enough GOP support.

___

Associated Press writer Erica Werner contributed to this report.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-01-29-US-Obama/id-ef9bcabbc18f462fb32161851db92cfe

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Los Angeles's First Real Estate Whales: 4 Rancho-Era Bigshots ...

Southern California's first private landowners were the early settlers granted tracts (ranchos) by the Spanish crown and Mexican government. (The crown didn't recognize land ownership, so the first truly "private" ranchos were those registered with the Mexican government after 1821.) Many of these grants were wiped out when California became a state; people couldn't provide the documentation to prove they owned the land, and others lost their family fortunes when the new American laws and regulations bankrupted them, opening the door for a new generation of whales. Here are four of LA's earliest real estate players:

Maria Rita Valdez and a relative, the local schoolmaster, petitioned the Mexican government for the official title to her land in present day Beverly Hills, in 1821. (The rancho was named Rodeo de las Aguas.) But when the schoolmaster got fresh with her, he was ordered off the land; Maria paid him "$17.50 for his share of the land; he threw in a peach tree and some farm equipment," according to Michael Gross's Unreal Estate.

Valdez sold her land to Henry Hancock in 1852, who only owned it for a brief period. He wasn't out of the game for long, though, and later bought Rancho La Brea further east. George Allen Hancock inherited Rancho La Brea from his father and, among other things, developed Hancock Park. He built himself a mansion at the corner of Vermont and Wilshire Boulevard. Before it was demolished, four of its rooms were carefully disassembled and rebuilt on the USC campus, where Hancock was a bigtime donor.

Benjamin Davis Wilson didn't let a few bear attacks deter him from making it to California from his native Tennessee, and when he got here he started buying up the place. Writes Gross: "known as Don Benito, having married into a Spanish family, [he] bought half of the 4,438 acre Rancho San Jose de Buenos Ayres [now Bel Air, Holmby Hills and Westwood] for $662.75" in 1852. Six years later the other half cost him $16,000.

Don Bernardo Yorba's "barronial" rancho in present-day Yorba Linda was the site of one of the largest homes in pre-statehood California. By Carey McWilliams's reckoning, Don Bernardo's 51-room house employed "two tanners, one soapmaker, one butter-and-cheese man, a harnessmaker, two shoemakers, one jeweler ... two errand boys, one head sheepherder, one cook, one baker, two washwomen, a woman to iron, four seamstresses, one dressmaker, two gardeners, a schoolmaster and a number of miscellaneous servants."
? Whale Week 2013 [Curbed LA]

Source: http://la.curbed.com/archives/2013/01/los_angeless_first_real_estate_whales_4_ranchoera_bigshots.php

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Bulgarians support building of new nuclear plant: exit polls

SOFIA (Reuters) - A majority of Bulgarians supported the building of a new nuclear power plant in the country's first referendum since the fall of communism, exit polls showed on Sunday, increasing pressure on rightist government which has opposed the plan.

While the low turnout of between 19.5 and 20.3 percent means the result will not be binding, it shows Prime Minister Boiko Borisov's policies have alienated many voters and complicated his campaign for a July election.

(Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bulgarians-support-building-nuclear-plant-exit-polls-173745203--business.html

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Internet Marketing, A Boost For Search Engine Optimization

Since the inception of eCommerce, different marketing techniques are used to make the product or service popular and reachable. These techniques are often grouped under internet marketing. Internet marketing has become an everyday cup of tea for entities which believe in online presence. Both aggressive and non-aggressive methods are used to escalate the ratings of product. One of the crucial factors in increasing the popularity is search engine optimization.

SEO is specifically designed to take into consideration content which is rich in keywords that are exact and appropriate in use for the website. This implies SEO contains a lot of information about the product. The product is often absorbed in the form of keyword which spider follows while moving around the web. The more specific use of word helps the spider crawl on the top of the search engine. This strategy of search engine optimization is followed by developers to make their clients or websites visible on the first page of search engine. The main job of Search Engine Optimization is likely to be achieved when tons of traffic start flooding the web and resort to buying or using the service. The back links are provided to allow the surfer to visit the website. These links are provided in the resource section of article directories.

One of the other internet marketing tools is used with the assistance of search engines. Social media marketing makes use of social networking websites to create online presence of product and service. Several messages and videos are shared and exchanged on internet. Some of the videos create controversy while some create sensation. Whatever the purpose, the main target of making things visible or making news helps in pulling the traffic onto the website. Like Search Engine Optimization, social media marketing has gained a lot of publicity since it entered the net platform and started allowing net surfers to open accounts free of cost. Though some services are paid, most of the surfers prefer to keep their account in public mode, visible to all.

One of the important aspects of web development is graphic design. Graphics make a page dynamic and accentuate the outlook of the website. Some website use animation software like Flash while others integrate some animations in the form of DHTML. Photoshop is also used to make graphics, design links or page itself. Graphic designers have a lot of experience in presenting the best websites on the internet platform. It is not only easy to create a website and integrate different features; it is also convenient to make eCommerce a part of website.

Search Engine Optimization has taken the entire internet market under its fold. Not a single enterprise stays behind in this era of online competition. The new applications are fast arriving on the platform. The latest products are used and developers are learning new methods to help clients with sales and revenue generation. It is difficult to think about selling a product without online marketing.

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You can get more information about SEO at http://iquariusmedia.com/services/internet-marketing-services/search-engine-optimization or try iQuarius Media's website at http://iquariusmedia.com .

Source: http://www.businesstoolchest.com/articles/data/20130127191606.shtml

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Male dancers signal their strength to men and women

Jan. 28, 2013 ? Heterosexual men pick up clues about other men's physical qualities from their dance moves just as heterosexual women do, say researchers at Northumbria University.

A study, led by psychologist Dr Nick Neave and researcher Kristofor McCarty, used 3D motion-capture technology and biomechanical analyses to examine the extent to which male dancing provides clues about the dancer's physical strength and fitness to both male and female observers.

The findings, published in the American Journal of Human Biology, suggest that male observers pick up on the strength of their potential rivals for female mates.

Researchers at Northumbria's School of Life Sciences filmed 30 males, aged 19-37, as they danced to a basic drum rhythm. Participants also completed a fitness test and assessments of upper and lower body strength. The dance clips were converted into virtual humanoid characters (avatars) and rated by women and men on perceived dance and physical qualities. The ratings were then correlated with various biomechanical indices.

The results showed that both sexes found significant positive associations between an individual's hand grip strength and their perceived dance quality, these qualities were picked up by the size and vigour of the movements of the upper body and arms.

Although it is traditionally thought that signals given off by men when they dance have been designed -- like animal mating displays -- to be interpreted as clues of their physical attributes to the opposite sex, it seems that heterosexual men are also making use of these signals, presumably to detect a potential love rival.

Dr Nick Neave believes that this increased sensitivity to male qualities by other heterosexual men may be due to intrasexual rivalry -- men sizing up the strength and virility of their competition.

He said: "Rated dance quality was positively associated with actual grip strength and these clues of upper-body strength were most accurately picked up by male observers. This ability to discern upper-body strength is principally because men are looking for cues of 'formidability' in other males.

"Upper-body strength is highly related to fighting ability as it reflects the ability to do damage, especially in intra-sexual conflicts. The ability to gauge strength before potential conflicts is sensible, especially to other males."

Also part of the research team were Northumbria University academics Dr Nick Caplan and Johannes H?nekopp, with Bernard Fink, from the Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of G?ttingen, Germany.

The study, "Male body movements as possible cues to physical strength: a biomechanical analysis", is published online in this month's American Journal of Human Biology

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Northumbria University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. N. Neave et al. Male body movements as possible cues to physical strength: a biomechanical analysis. American Journal of Human Biology, 2013

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/P6rh0QRlHrQ/130128081946.htm

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