Danh bạ website hay: tháng 3 2013

Thứ Sáu, 29 tháng 3, 2013

Immigrants could cause a superbug apocalypse, scientists warn

Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria seen under a high-powered microscope.Bioquell
Two Bioquell Q-10 robots, recently tested at Johns Hopkins Hospital as superbug killing machines.Bioquell

Immigrants may import dangerous and potentially lethal superbug strains, a medical journal recently warned -- and robots may hold the answer.

Earlier this month, G8 countries and the World Health Organization were called upon to face the threat of a catastrophic superbug apocalypse. The prestigious medical journal Lancet warned that a rise in extensively drug resistant cases could produce an outbreak of an untreatable superstrain, in particular of tuberculosis (TB).

While TB can be cured with antibiotics, if untreated it can be fatal in half of cases. Stronger, drug-resistant strains can then develop from the bacteria in patients who fail to complete their six-month treatment cycle.

The report notes that Eastern European immigrants in particular pose a credible threat of importing these drug-resistant TB.

Just last week in Australia, a superbug known to have killed humans abroad breached an intensive care unit in Melbourne infecting ten patients – and this particularly nasty superbug spread is ability to resist drugs to entirely different bacteria.

Key Lines of Defense: Robots and Drugs
Both healthcare and the pharmaceutical industries must robustly act to preserve existing drugs, experts warn. They must also be encouraged to develop new antibiotics to make up for the gap created by the failure to do so for twenty years.

Europe’s Innovative Medicines Initiative, a new public private partnership, looks like it has potential to be replicated elsewhere to improve international defenses.

Better hygiene is another key measure -- and a recent report suggests deploying robot dynamic duos may be the answer.

Johns Hopkins Hospital infection control experts tested using robots as superbug killing machines.

Weighing in at about 60 pounds apiece, the two washing machine-sized robots worked together dispersing a bleaching agent into the air and then detoxifying the disinfecting chemical.

In the first head to head study of traditional hospital counter-superbug cleaning tactics versus next generation robots, the robots killed it – literally. The Bioquell made robots were extremely effective at preventing the spread of multiple-drug-resistant bacteria, the scientists said.

In fact, the robots reduced the patient’s chances of becoming colonized by the especially aggressive and difficult to treat bacterium, vancomycin-resistant enterococci by a whopping 80 percent.

Robots: What can’t they do?

Ballet dancer turned defense specialist Allison Barrie has traveled around the world covering the military, terrorism, weapons advancements and life on the front line. You can reach her at wargames@foxnews.com or follow her on Twitter @Allison_Barrie.

Allison Barrie

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Amid increased rhetoric from North Korea, combat ship USS Freedom debuts in Pacific

- Next-gen battleship joining the Pacific fleet
- US flies B-2 bombers over South Korea

A fast, maneuverable surface warrior, the Navy's first littoral combat ship USS Freedom has joined the 7th Fleet in the Pacific.

Its arrival coincides with further heavy rhetoric from North Korea. News agency KCNA carried the government’s message Wednesday that it had ordered artillery and rocket units into "combat posture" to prepare to target U.S. bases in the United States mainland, Hawaii and Guam.

On its maiden deployment, USS Freedom arrived in the U.S. 7th Fleet Area of Responsibility (AOR) on March 20 -- a zone that covers more than 48 million square miles, stretching west from the International Date Line to the western coast of India. At any given moment, about 100 ships and submarines are deployed there and assigned to 7th Fleet.

On March 15, the fleet marked the 70th anniversary of its maintaining security and stability in the region.

While North Korea is not thought to have ballistic missiles or nuclear weapons capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, it is capable of striking U.S. bases in the region, including Guam, where Freedom will be visiting.

The ship will participate in some large scale training exercises in Southeast Asia, involving maritime security operations with regional partners.

North Korea, meanwhile, has been carrying out its own large-scale military exercises.

Surface and anti-submarine warfare ready
Designed and developed by Lockheed Martin, the littoral combat ship (coastal and shallow water areas are called “littoral”) is quick and agile, and loaded with mission packages that can be configured for surface warfare, countering sea mines and anti-submarine warfare.

'As the U.S. Navy supports the U.S. government rebalance to the Indo-Asia-Pacific, there is no better place to demonstrate LCS capabilities.'

- Vice Adm. Scott Swift, commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet

Led by Cmdr. Timothy Wilke, Freedom will initially be manned by her crew of 91 sailors, who include mission package personnel and an aviation detachment to operate its MH-60 helicopter.

Freedom can provide critical access and dominance in coastal water battlespaces.

As designed, Freedom can operate with substantially fewer crew, requiring only 40 core sailors plus support crew for the aviation and mission packages.

Should a battle erupt, Freedom can act as a hub to tie together sea, air and land assets.

COMBATTS-21 Combat Systems
The ship’s battle management system, also produced by Lockheed Martin, provides a flexible, next-generation defense system that can be reconfigured for a specific threat in days.

COMBATSS-21 is a self-defense suite and integrates the radar, electro-optical infrared cameras, gunfire control system, countermeasures and short-range anti-air missiles, as well as a variety of missile and torpedo systems, naval guns and more.

Let's say the mission required weapons systems to defeat enemy subs. An anti-submarine package would include an MH-60 Romeo carrying an active dipping sonar, sonobuoys and heavy-weight torpedoes.

What if the enemy had littered the coastal waters with mines? Freedom’s countermeasures package can search twice as quickly as earlier systems. It requires only two operators and would include tech like the Remote Multi-Mission Vehicle and Raytheon’s airborne SONAR mine countermeasure detection system, AQS-20A.

Remember the USS Cole incident where American lives were lost? Small boats continue to be an ongoing threat.

To protect the fleet from this sort of asymmetric warfare, Freedom’s tech could include the Gun Mission Module MK 50 MOD, a Non-Line of Sight Launch System Mission Module, a MH-60R helicopter and vertical takeoff drones.

Led by prime contractor Lockheed Martin, the team includes naval architect Gibbs & Cox and ship builder Marinette Marine Corporation.

USS Fort Worth, the team’s second littoral combat ship, was delivered two months early last year and included improved fuel efficiency and speed, reduced weight, improved satellite and launch, recovery and handling systems and landing aids with advanced night vision capability.

The next two ships, the Milwaukee and the Detroit, are currently under construction.

Allison Barrie

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Thứ Năm, 28 tháng 3, 2013

Grapevine: Is Congress getting dumber?

And now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine...

Birth Battle

Arizona's Secretary of State Ken Bennett says he's been asking for two months for Hawaiian officials to prove President Obama was born there.

Hawaiian officials won't budge until Bennett satisfies a number of requirements and both sides disagree about whether he's actually done it.

Bennett says he might remove President Obama from the ballot in Arizona if the proof doesn't arrive from Hawaii soon, a move Democratic critics say is politically calculated and aimed at capturing support from a fringe group of Republicans as Bennett weighs a run for governor.

Bennett says he's not quote -- "a birther" -- but wants to clear up the issue for concerned Arizonans.

Luxury Travel

A number of judiciary employees, including judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals are getting blasted for plans to attend a million-dollar conference in Hawaii in August.

Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Jeff Sessions sent a letter stating the Hawaii meeting does not meet, or seem to be in line with the 9th Circuit's own opinion that the budget is tight.

Conference organizers note government funds won't be used for the recreational activities like snorkeling or tennis.

A Circuit and Court of Appeals spokeswoman promised a formal response.

How Sophomoric

Lawmakers talk like teenagers according to a study from the Sunlight Foundation. It analyzed every single word uttered on the floor in the Senate and House finding that the average lawmaker in Congress speaks at a tenth grade level.

That's down from an eleventh grade level in 2005. By comparison, the Constitution is written at a so-called "seventeenth" grade level.

Some see all of this as a dumbing down of language but others claim it's a matter of communicating more effectively.

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Grapevine: Obama birth certificate case finally closed?

And now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine...

Case Closed

Arizona's Secretary of State says the case is closed in the birth certificate kerfuffle stemming from his request that Hawaii provide additional verification President Obama was, in fact, born there.

As we have reported, Aloha State officials have repeatedly confirmed President Obama's birth in the state and last April the White House released his long-form birth certificate.

Today, Secretary of State Ken Bennett in Arizona, explained he only pursued the issue on behalf of constituent requests, adding -- quote -- "[Hawaiian officials] complied with the request and I consider the matter closed."

Bennett said Tuesday if his actions embarrassed the state of Arizona he was sorry.

Hard-Hitting

A pinata with South Carolina Republican Governor Nikki Haley's face on it was the guest of dishonor at a retirement dinner for the outgoing president of the state's AFLCIO union.

Here you can see Donna Dewitt repeatedly bashing the Haley effigy to the enthusiastic delight of her fellow progressives.

Dewitt says she has no regrets because it was all in good fun.

However, the Washington-based AFLCIO disagreed saying it was an inappropriate joke.

Governor Haley tweeted the video adding -- quote -- "Wow. I wonder if the unions think this kind of thing will make people take them seriously."

1915-2012

Finally, the man who made channel surfing possible died over the weekend at age 96.

Eugene Polley invented the wireless television remote control back in 1955.

Polley began his career with Zenith Electronics in the stockroom before rising through the engineering ranks.

Ten years ago, Polley proudly said his Flash-Matic remote was the next most important civilized invention after the flush toilet.

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Romney Must Block Huntsman, Keep GOP Field Divided

As Mitt Romney moves into official campaign mode, he might be excused for wondering what’s so great about being a frontrunner anyway.

In a tumultuous Republican field, Romney is as close as the party has to an actual frontrunner. He has the staff, organization and cash that come with the title. Most polls do show him in the lead, but narrowly and often neck and neck with folks who aren’t running like Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani.

And what does he get for a 15 percent share of a five or six way race? A big target painted on his back as the “establishment candidate.” Since the Republican establishment has been a dying elephant for a long time, the brand is almost all downside. It lets your primary opponents beat you up and doesn’t add much electoral weight in early primaries.

History shows a considerable advantage for establishment candidates. The last four Republican presidential nominees have been products of the institutional GOP. But an informal survey of the professional political class in Washington doesn’t suggest that Romney has the same kind of lock-step support that his predecessors enjoyed.

It may be the nasty fight in the 2008 primaries. Unlike McCain’s 2000 upstart campaign, Romney chased the frontrunner deep into the primary calendar and traded a lot of body blows with not only McCain but Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani.

So Romney gets branded as the inside man, even though he isn’t. Not fun.

Romney’s natural advantages beyond his money and organization relate to geography (the former Massachusetts governor owns a home in New Hampshire), his resume as a successful businessman (many Republicans wondered how much better than McCain Romney might have fared against Barack Obama during an election overshadowed by a financial panic) and his appeal to a more moderate wing of the party (the hybrid of social conservatism and libertarianism in the Tea Party movement has been unsettling to many rock-ribbed Republicans).

Romney’s biggest advantage, though, has been what all of his frontrunner forbearers had going for them: inevitability. Romney’s team makes a convincing case that while Republican voters may not be swooning, their candidate is the only one who can go the distance. The scenario they paint is that Romney will come out of the early primaries with wins in New Hampshire, Nevada and Florida and be ready to outgun and outlast whoever wins the other two key early contests in Iowa and South Carolina.

And if that comes to pass, there’s no doubt that Romney would be in a good position to grind out a hard-fought win. By April 2012, Republicans would start closing ranks and helping the frontrunner to fend off attacks from the more conservative members of the field.

But for that inevitability strategy to work, Romney needs to head off two serious threats now forming.

The first is from former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, fresh from his stint as Obama’s ambassador to China. As Huntsman is testing the waters for a run, he has paid particular attention to New Hampshire and Florida. They’re both must-win states for Romney precisely because they are places where a well-financed moderate can succeed. Huntsman’s support for gay civil unions and global warming fees might be deadly in Iowa and South Carolina, but not disqualifying in New Hampshire and Florida.

Huntsman’s family fortune is larger than Romney’s personal wealth and he doesn’t have to lug around a health care law that helped lay the groundwork for Obama’s national plan. Huntsman may be little known, but he also gets to start with fewer negative perceptions.

There is also the issue of their shared Mormon faith. Romney, who is devout, has struggled with how to explain and defend his beliefs to evangelical Protestants and conservative Catholics who are skeptical of the Utah-based faith. Huntsman, meanwhile, told Time magazine that it was “tough to define” whether he was still a member of the faith and described himself as “very spiritual.” Romney may get credit for constancy, but it’s still not a topic on which he wants to spend much time.

Romney’s first task will be to scuttle Huntsman’s ambitions. Ideally for Romney, Huntsman would opt against a run. But if he does mount a campaign, stopping the attack from the left in New Hampshire and Florida has to become job number one for Romney.

The second threat to Romney’s inevitability strategy is an alternative candidate emerging too soon. The best scenario for Romney is that the rest of the field remains unsettled for as long as possible and that when it finally does take shape, the electorate’s divided loyalties continue to let him lead with a relatively small share of support.

A troubling scenario for Romney would be that another candidate, most likely former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty or Texas Gov. Rick Perry, starts rounding up key endorsements this fall. Romney would not like to see Pawlenty rallying with governors Chris Christie and Jeb Bush or Perry hand in hand with Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee.

If Romney can make it into March without a single rival emerging, it will probably be too late for anyone to bring him down. If the various blocs of the party start looking past the long shots and marshalling their forces behind the big names in the race in August or September, Romney could see the air go out of his inevitability balloon very quickly.

Chris Stirewalt is FOX News’ digital politics editor. His political note, Power Play, is available every weekday morning at FOXNEWS.COM.

Chris Stirewalt

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Perry's Path to GOP Nomination Could be the Clearest

Maybe Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he’s decided to test the waters on a presidential run just because he’s feels left out.

For all the attention paid to the presidential possibilities of two members of the House (Paul Ryan and Michele Bachmann) and a reality show host (you know who), you’d never know that the Republicans had on their bench the three-term governor of the state with the nation’s best economy and the largest Republican population.

But for some reason, when Perry told people he wasn’t running, reporters believed him. If Chris Christie even flies over Iowa, the blogosphere goes into meltdown mode, but the political press for some reason mostly took Perry at his word.

It seems strange that they would have.

Perry, who has been governor for more than a decade, is a favorite of the Tea Party movement for his tough stands on state sovereignty, border security, taxes and gun rights. Anybody who packs heat when he jogs so he can blow away coyotes that mess with his Labrador retriever and hangs out with Ted Nugent at a Tax Day rally is going to have serious street cred with the Republican base.

As the Perry talk heats up, these primary election positives will be reinforced by liberals who find his Texas-fried politics to be repellant. Every time Democratic cable news talkers remind viewers that Perry once warned that Texas might secede from the union if Washington kept piling on new federal powers, somewhere in Iowa or South Carolina a Republican primary voter thinks, “Not bad.” When Perry gets chided for declining photo-ops with President Obama on visits to the state, somewhere in New Hampshire a guy with a “Don’t tread on me” flag on his bumper thinks, “Cool!”

But unlike some of the other Tea Party favorites, Perry has an easier case to make to establishment Republicans. His state has a $1.3 trillion economy now on track to pass California's as the nation’s largest. Perry has also avoided some of the hardest stands of the conservative movement. Consider that while Perry is constantly hectoring Obama for more border security, he declined to sign onto the movement for an Arizona-style crackdown on illegal immigration when it was very hot among Republican circles.

Raised on a cotton farm and prone to a strong Texas twang, Perry won’t be grabbing the wonk vote from Mitch Daniels’ fans. But as a 28-year political veteran who started his career as a Democrat and pushed his way to the head of the state GOP and now the national Republican Governors Association, Perry knows how to adapt, survive and compromise when he needs to.

Plus, Republicans are almost certain to pick a nominee who is or was a governor. It makes for more gravitas when running against a sitting president and the GOP just seems more comfortable with the strong, decisive type than coalition-building congressmen.

Republican’s haven’t lost a presidential election with a former governor since Thomas Dewey in 1948. All six of the Republican presidential losses in the same period have been with a current or former member of Congress.

So how could it be that the GOP hasn’t been looking harder at Perry, the 61-year-old Methodist who’s married to his high-school sweetheart? It’s partly because Perry has no ties to the East Coast media establishment. The people around him are pure Texas and he’s never done much that would catch the eye of the political press. He’s not exactly a symposium kind of guy.

So maybe Perry is just engaging in this presidential flirtation to make a point and raise his profile ahead of fundraising season when he will be hitting the road to raise money for his fellow governors. Maybe he thought it would nice just to be asked.

But whatever has brought him to this point, if he does take a serious look, he may find that he has clearer path to the nomination than anyone else.

Perry has a natural alliance with the most important potential kingmaker of the cycle, if Sarah Palin doesn’t run herself. He would provide the sharpest contrast – politically and culturally – with frontrunner Mitt Romney at a time when Republicans are eager for an alternative. And being from a large, wealthy state, he has the best chance to turn on the kind of fast fundraising necessary to contend with Romney’s mega bucks.

Now that he’s moseyed over to the pool, Perry may find good reason to dive in.

Chris Stirewalt is FOX News’ digital politics editor. His political note, Power Play, is available every weekday morning at FOXNEWS.COM.

Chris Stirewalt

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Did sleep apnea cause Rick Perry's gaffes?

Published September 25, 2012

Life's Little Mysteries

During a 2011 debate, when Texas Gov. Rick Perry failed to remember one of the government departments he would eliminate if elected president, the epitaph he chose for his drawn-out mental lapse was "Oops."

Turns out, that syllable may have signaled a brain struggling under the effects of sleep apnea, which scientists say could cause daytime fatigue and even long-term cognitive damage.

According to "Oops," Texas Tribune correspondent Jay Root's new diary of his time covering the Perry campaign, the famous error came after weeks of poor sleep caused by an undiagnosed case of sleep apnea.

Referring to another debate malfunction in Orlando, Fla., in which Perry made a nearly unintelligible attack on Mitt Romney for being duplicitous, Root wrote:

"Perry had kept in touch with his medical team, and by early October, days after the Florida fiasco, the campaign had urgently consulted sleep specialists, bringing them in to investigate.

"After conducting overnight tests on Perry, they produced a rather startling diagnosis: He had sleep apnea, and it had gone undetected for years, probably decades."

Obstructive sleep apnea, the most common form of the sleep disorder, occurs when the throat muscles relax during sleep and intermittently block a sufferer's airway, according to the National Institutes of Health. This condition, often signaled by loud, fitful snoring, can interrupt a sleeper's oxygen supply for periods ranging from seconds to minutes.

By repeatedly rousing a sufferer into lighter states of sleep in order to restart breathing, sleep apnea often causes poor sleep and chronic daytime fatigue, but it may also result in long-lasting cognitive impairment, research has suggested. [Sleep Apnea: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment]

According to a 2008 study from the University of California, Los Angeles, sleep apnea is associated with tissue loss in brain regions that store memory.

The study, detailed in the journal Neuroscience Letters, scanned the brains of 43 sleep-apnea sufferers and determined that the mammillary bodies, a pair of brain structures known to play a role in memory, were nearly 20 percent smaller in sleep-apnea sufferers than in a control group.

"Our findings demonstrate that impaired breathing during sleep can lead to a serious brain injury that disrupts memory and thinking," principal investigator Ronald Harper, a professor of neurobiology at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, toldThe New York Times.

So science suggests that some of Perry's blunders may have been exacerbated by sleep apnea, and though the governor can't take back his debate performances, there are still plenty of reasons for him and other sleep-apnea sufferers to seek treatment, which is available. The disorder has also been linked to strokes and Alzheimer's disease.

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Grapevine: MSNBC pulling back on Trayvon Martin coverage?

And now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine...

Change of Tune

MSNBC is being accused of backing off of its coverage of the Trayvon Martin case after new evidence favorable to George Zimmerman -- the man charged with second degree murder in the case -- came to light.

The network spent hours, even full shows, covering the shooting for days after it happened.

But, according to Mediaite, last week after the new evidence about Zimmerman emerged there was not a single mention of the case on MSNBC's prime time programming...not one.

Even Reverend Al Sharpton who had taken his show on the road to cover the Martin case didn't mention it.

Instead, the network's evening programs turned their focus to the possibility of an ad connecting President Obama to Reverend Jeremiah Wright from an alleged pro-Romney group.

Making the Grade

A public elementary school in Manhattan will be the first to require students to study Arabic.

All second through fifth graders will have Arabic lessons twice a week.

The class teacher said it's important for children to learn Arabic because it will soon be a global language like Spanish or French.

So far, the parents association has been largely supportive of the measure. The school is a so-called "choice school" so no students are forced to attend.

Unwelcome Addition

There's quite a stir over a Harvard alumni directory updated ahead of the 50th class reunion.

Among the entries is "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski who is, of course, locked up at the federal supermax prison in Colorado for killing three people and injuring 23 others during a bombing spree,

Kaczynski lists his current occupation as "prisoner" and says his awards are "eight life sentences."

The Harvard Alumni Association regrets publishing the update and issued the following statement -- quote -- "While all members of the class who submit entries are included, we regret publishing Kaczynski's references to his convictions and apologize for any distress that it may have caused others."

A Harvard spokesman says the update was indeed submitted by Kaczynski, but wouldn't say how that was confirmed.

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Grapevine: Fight for your right to potty

And now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine...

Family Tree

Questions about Democratic Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren's purported Native American heritage are not going away and are actually taking a more prominent placement in some left-leaning publications asking whether she used a self-proclaimed minority status to get ahead.

The Boston Globe reports that new documents show Harvard University reported for six straight years in federal diversity statistics its employment of a Native American woman in the law school Elizabeth Warren

And while Warren has claimed she was unaware of how Harvard was promoting her heritage until she read it in the paper, only days ago, Harvard officials and federal guidelines say those statistics are usually based on the employee's self-descriptions.

The administrator for Harvard's diversity statistics from that time, and a citizen of the Cherokee nation himself, also said the school always accepted faculty members' identification.

Meanwhile, the candidate is desperately trying to move on from reporters' questions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Elizabeth, can you put this issue to bed and tell us whether or not you are in fact a member of a minority group?

ELIZABETH WARREN, D - MA, SENATE CANDIDATE: So, I uh -- middle class families are getting hammered.

REPORTER: Members of the Cherokee Nation want to know, they say you should come clean

WARREN: I have made the facts clear, and what I'm trying to do is talk about in this Senate race what matters to America's families.

REPORTER: Why did you claim you were a minority and then stop?

WARREN: I have told you, I have answered these questions; I am going to talk about what's happening to America's families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

One Washington Post reporter blogged -- Warren has -- quote-- "met the repeated questions with a good, old-fashioned, political stonewall."

Fight for your Right to Potty

CampusReform.org reports a transgendered student at the University of Arkansas Fort Smith sued the school in order to use women's only bathrooms.

The school suggested the student, who is biologically male, use the gender-neutral bathrooms that are available.

When that didn't mollify that student, the Justice Department got involved and the school eventually reversed its policy.

DOJ said that the letter did not imply whether the school had broken a federal law and -- quote --"This was an initial inquiry, and the department never directed the University to take a specific action or change any of its policies."

A Daily Caller reporter who covers the Fast and Furious investigation says -- quote--"It's pretty clear the DOJ's priorities are out of whack...Eric Holder's troupe focuses on trivial matters while demonstrably failing to comply with all 22 parts of the congressional subpoena into Operation Fast and Furious."

Keep away from children

And finally, those little packets of detergent called Tide pods may be easy to carry to the next load of laundry but, they're not so great if your child is eyeing the packages too closely.

Apparently, children have mistaken the small boxes of detergent for candy and then eaten them

No children have died fortunately, but, Poison Control has been called several times already.

The brand's parent company Proctor and Gamble plans to create double latch lids to help keep the candy cravers away.

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Fox News Poll: 70 percent say build the Keystone XL Pipeline

Fox News Poll: Majority for building Keystone XL Pipeline

A Fox News poll finds most American voters support building the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline. In addition, just over half blame the Obama administration for the recent increase in gas prices.

By a wide 70-23 percent margin, voters support building the pipeline that would transport oil from Canada to refineries in the United States.

Support for the pipeline is mostly unchanged from last year, when 67 percent favored building it and 25 percent were opposed (February 2012).

The three percentage-point uptick in support comes from Democrats: 57 percent say build it, up from 50 percent a year ago. At the same time, support among Republicans holds steady at 87 percent.

Sixty-six percent of independents back the pipeline, down from 69 percent in 2012.

CLICK TO VIEW THE POLL

On Friday, the State Department issued an environmental impact statement for the Keystone pipeline and ultimately concluded there would be “no significant impacts.” It’s unclear how the Obama administration will rule on the pipeline given the competing constituencies -- environmentalists who oppose the pipeline and unions who want the jobs it would bring.

The poll, released Monday, also finds 51 percent of voters think the Obama administration is at least somewhat responsible for the recent increase in gas prices. That includes 24 percent who say the White House is “very” responsible. Some 44 percent don’t think Obama is to blame for their pain at the pump.

Republicans (66 percent) are more likely than independents (44 percent) and Democrats (41 percent) to blame Obama for high prices at the pump.

The national average price for a gallon of gasoline is $3.78 -- the highest February price on record.

No wonder gas prices topped a list of gripes. The 84 percent of voters who say they are “fed up” with high gas prices, exceeds the number who feel that way about the growing federal budget deficit (81 percent) and gridlock in Washington (78 percent). And to really put it in perspective, it’s almost twice as many as say they are fed up with people having loud cell phone conversations (43 percent).

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,010 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from February 25 to February 27. The full poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

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MALE drones needed now to fly solo in hot spots

The military seeks a way to launch drones from smaller ships, greatly increasing their range for surveillance and intelligence.DARPA

Independent drones that don’t need bases could give the U.S. military quicker and more flexible reaction to hotspots.

Today’s unmanned airplanes launch from bases on land or, in some cases, large ships. To increase their range, military researchers on Tuesday sought a system to allow small ships to launch these MALE drones -- that’s short for medium-altitude long-endurance aircraft, of course, not a reference to the gender.

Given nearly 100 percent of the world’s land area lies within 900 nautical miles of ocean coastlines, it would provide strike capabilities almost anywhere in the world.

Is it a bird or a drone?
The Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node (TERN) program is named after the tern, a seabird that possess remarkable endurance and can migrate thousands of miles every year.

In the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program, the MALE UAV will carry a 600-pound payload and operate 600 to 900 nautical miles from its home vessel. The launch and recovery system will fit Littoral Combat Ship 2 class ships and other surface combat vessels.

TERN will give the military the advantage to strike mobile targets anywhere in the world at any time around the clock. And it will give the military an easy, quick, cheap way to deploy intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems.

“It’s like having a falcon return to the arm of any person equipped to receive it, instead of to the same static perch every time,” said Daniel Patt, DARPA program

manager.

Improving Current Capabilities
Airborne intelligence is a crucial asset for today’s warfare. Currently the military is limited to helicopters, fixed-wing manned and UAVs.

Fixed-wing manned and unmanned aircraft have good distance and endurance, but the problem is they require land bases with long runways or aircraft carriers. Helicopters can also provide such surveillance, but they have distance and flight time restrictions.

At Proposers’ Day -- held Tuesday, March 19 at DARPA HQ in Arlington, VA -- the agency sought proposals to design, develop, and demonstrate a MALE UAV with the novel automated launch and recovery system.

Developers will need to overcome big challenges: How to ensure a large aircraft can launch and land from a smaller ship in rough seas?

TERN will need to withstand the maritime environment as well, and fit within the limited space on ships while providing endurance and carrying ability comparable to its land-launched brethren.

It will also need to be designed in a way that requires minimal ship modifications and can work with limited operation and maintenance personnel.

Base-independent maritime and overland missions may be around the corner for TERN. DARPA plans to reveal a full-scale launch and recovery within forty months.

Allison Barrie

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Rebranding GM, Chrysler Bailouts Means Michigan is in Play for 2012

The fact that President Obama is trying to turn the negative of his unpopular bailout of General Motors and Chrysler into a political positive tells us two things:

First, at a time of high unemployment, Obama is digging hard for an argument that he has been a jobs president.

Second, the president thinks Michigan is in play for 2012.

The Great Lakes State hasn’t been seriously contested by the GOP in presidential elections since 1992, when it made the switch from Republican-leaning swing state to Democratic stalwart. As the state’s automotive economy foundered and suburban Detroit began to empty out, the GOP just couldn’t compete.

But in the run-up to the 2010 election, depopulation began to work to Republicans’ advantage. The economic collapse of the state was so complete after the Panic of 2008 that it was no longer just affluent residents with portable skills who fled the state, but also the former plant workers and other laborers at the core of past Democratic domination. In the 2010 Census, Wayne County, home to Detroit, had a population of 1.8 million. In 2000, it had been 2.1 million.

A century ago, farm boys and the grandchildren of slaves across the South fled economic hardship for opportunity in Detroit and Henry Ford’s unheard of wage of $5 a day. Now, many of their grandchildren are completing the cycle, fleeing the moribund Motor City for the fast-growing economies of Texas and other warmer climes.

The reduction in reliably Democratic precincts, combined with the high intensity of conservative-leaning voters in the rest of the state – voters antagonized by the Obama agenda and appalling economic conditions – brought a major reordering of Michigan politics.

In 2010, Republicans, led by gubernatorial candidate Rick Snyder, swept statewide offices and flipped two congressional seats to retake the majority of the state’s 15-member House delegation.

But the win by Snyder, former CEO of Gateway computers and a political novice, was particularly resonant because of the contrast between him and his opponent, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero. Bernero was in many ways a public face for the auto bailouts. He took the case to Capitol Hill and the airwaves in late 2008 and 2009. He was a top-tier advocate for not only the massive cash infusions granted to the companies but the even more controversial move in which the federal government wiped out the claims of private-sector creditors in order to keep the companies afloat. He championed the United Auto Workers-Obama administration proposal in which the unions were given ownership shares in the companies.

But Bernero didn’t even carry the union vote. A Detroit News poll before the election showed businessman Snyder with the edge in labor households, never a good sign in union-label Michigan. Snyder mostly steered away from taking a position on the bailouts, focusing instead on private-sector development.

While Democrats are betting that a high turnout for Obama among the state’s large black population and a softening of the economic gales blowing against Michigan will be enough, they are acting a little worried.

The party has trumpeted the news that GM and Chrysler have paid back big chunks of their public debt and are accusing the frontrunners of the Republican presidential field of wanting to “let Detroit go bankrupt.” The party has tapped former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, who was washed out in the political tide of 2008, to join with the UAW to sell the bailouts as a success and to cast Republicans as rooting for the failure of GM and Chrysler.

Part of this is in an effort to rebrand the bailout blitz of 2009, one of the least popular Obama policies, as a bold but limited move to save the Midwestern economy and keep Michigan from collapsing.

Republicans argue that by keeping the failed companies afloat and stiffing creditors, the administration has stunted reform in the industry. They point to the continued success of privately held Ford as a template for the industry.

But the Democratic rebranding effort may be more about Michigan’s 16 electoral votes – as many as Missouri and Nevada combined – than the national debate over bailouts and nationalization.

Snyder is locked in a battle over his tax and education plans. After Snyder’s budget came out in March, his approval rating in the Michigan State University poll took a 15-point dive to 44.5 percent, exactly the same as Obama’s in the state.

Michigan looks very much like a swing state right now.

We have read a lot lately about the Obama campaign’s strategy for raiding Republican turf in the West and South, leaving whomever the GOP nominates to spend time and resources defending votes in places like North Carolina. Boosters have even suggested the president may make a pass at Texas.

But that’s all pipe dreaming right now. Texas is redder than ever and Democrats have been on a two-year schneid since Obama’s victory there in 2008. But it’s a good storyline to tout since it might make Republicans misallocate resources in a campaign where Obama will have money to burn.

A raiding strategy, though, only works if your own firewall holds. And if Michigan doesn’t stay true blue in 2012, Obama doesn’t have a logical path to victory.

Chris Stirewalt is FOX News’ digital politics editor. His political note, Power Play, is available every weekday morning at FOXNEWS.COM.

Chris Stirewalt

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Technology that can beat the traffic

By John R. Quain

Personal Tech

Published February 05, 2013

FoxNews.com

Traffic hasn't worsened much since last year, according to the latest Urban Mobility Report. But any traffic is bad news. Can technology help reroute us around all this congestion?Texas Transportation Institute
Traffic hasn't worsened much since last year, according to the latest Urban Mobility Report. But any traffic is bad news. Can technology help reroute us around all this congestion?Texas Transportation Institute

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Do we really need to be told that traffic is terrible?

It's that time of year again when the Texas Transportation Institute releases its annual Urban Mobility Report. It's a rough enumeration of how much time we're wasting each year staring at taillights ahead of us. It's also a barometer of how the economy is doing, the amount of pollution we're generating, and how much money we're burning up in fuel.

The good news is that traffic hasn't worsened much since the previous year. But any traffic is bad news. In 2011, according to the report, U.S. drivers languished in it for an agonizing 5.5 billion hours. We also threw away money to the tune of $121 billion in extra gas.

Whining rights for wasting the most time in traffic goes to -- no surprise -- Washington, D.C., where they do enough whining and time wasting already. The rest of the top four worst traffic spots out of a total of 498 nationwide were Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York.

Can technology help route us around all this congestion? It can help, at least a bit.

The Institute culls the traffic data from the U.S. Transportation Department and state departments, as well as from traffic and navigation company Inrix. Inrix is one of several companies trying to attack the traffic problem using technology, specifically by tracking cars and smartphones on the road and then sending that information to other cars on the road in order to adjust routes and give drivers new directions.

The technology has had me pinballing between parallel highways. In the end, I saved only two or three minutes for all my hassle.

It's an excellent idea, but it requires that a large percentage of vehicles on the road use GPS tracking and two-way communications. Exact numbers are elusive, but experts I've spoken with say 20 percent use would give us all a pretty good picture of road conditions. Unfortunately, we're nowhere near that.

One of the more popular portable navigation device makers, Tom Tom, has also been working for years on live traffic reports. I regularly test their devices and have a love/hate relationship with the HD Live traffic reports. I've had it save me 45 minutes or more on a 3-hour trip. Even when I've stubbornly ignored the nav's feminine voice beseeching me to change my route, it still bailed me out when I came to a sudden halt around the next corner, leading me off the Interstate and away from further highway headaches.

On the other hand, traffic conditions have a tendency to change minute-to-minute as accidents are cleared or new obstructions appear. Consequently, many times the technology has had me pinballing between I-95 and Connecticut's dreaded Merritt Parkway. In the end, I saved only two or three minutes for all my hassle.

Not dissimilar approaches are being tried in the smartphone crowd-sourcing arena. Apps like Waze (now used by Apple) track other users of the app with icons that float along your route estimating current speeds. But it can be distracting. During one frustrating stint in neck-snapping stop-and-go traffic I noticed that another Waze user was somehow gaining on me in a different lane. It took all my self control not to start jumping back and forth between lanes.

Possibly more important than fuel, pollution, or money is the hypertension that traffic congestion generates. So the report now includes a rating for how much hair we're pulling out in particular urban areas. Surprisingly, New York City is not number one in this area either. The commuter stress honor goes to Honolulu (so much for the sunny clime).

At least technology may be able to help relieve congestion stress when self-driving cars are widely available. At the Consumer Electronics Show last month, Audi was very keen to demonstrate how its "Piloted Driving" system could allow drivers to take their hands off wheel in traffic and spend the time reading the newspaper (if newspapers still exist then).

Finally, for the first time the Urban Mobility Report includes its own suggestion for solving the traffic problem: public transportation. It now ranks the potential hours and dollars that could be saved by using buses and subways. At last, New York City ranks number one in this category.

So are we stuck for now grinning and bearing the traffic? At least one technology can solve the traffic problem for many of us today: telecommuting.

Follow John R. Quain on Twitter @jqontech or find more tech coverage at J-Q.com.

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Grapevine: Facebook a marriage killer?

And now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine...

Not News

The big story Monday that 43 Catholic institutions across the country have filed more than a dozen lawsuits against the Obama administration was pretty much absent from the network evening newscasts.

Neither NBC Nightly News nor ABC World News included any mention of the legal fight specifically targeting the president's health care law and the HHS contraception mandate that the plaintiffs say is a threat to religious freedom.

CBS Evening News spent 19 seconds on the subject -- a significant legal action by a cross-section of Catholic institutions against an administration in an election year.

Media Research Center President Brent Bozell said quote -- "If this isn't 'news' then there's no such thing as news."

It's Complicated

A status update for Facebook's troubled initial public offering could be described as "it's complicated."

Facebook stock fell again today, down $11-a-share from Friday's high as questions mount over the company's financial prospects and ability to grow fast enough to meet the hype surrounding its stock.

Meanwhile, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has changed his relationship status to married, tying the knot over the weekend to his college sweetheart.

However, the social networking site apparently can become a problem for couples. A recent survey out of the United Kingdom says more than a third of divorce filings last year contained the word Facebook.

To the LGBT Rescue

And has Superman been hiding a super secret?

DC Comics raised eyebrows today by announcing plans to "out" one of its major superheroes next month as openly gay.

Insiders say it will be an existing well-known character previously assumed to be straight. Some of DC Comics iconic characters include Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern.

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Harvard snoops through professors' email, teaches new lessons in privacy

Even some of the smartest people can be really dumb about technology. To wit, the recent hubbub at Harvard University over the scandalous, surreptitious searching of academia's finest's e-mails.

It all stemmed from another event that besmirched the reputation of the Ivy League school (isn't that always the way). Late last summer it came to light that almost half of a class on government at the university cheated on a final exam. While some may joke about the situation -- it was, after all, a class about how the Congress works -- the university didn't take it lightly. An e-mail was sent to resident deans from the administration suggesting how they should advise accused students. That e-mail was leaked to the press.

Words such as 'creepy' and 'dishonorable' have been used to describe the secret searches. Most employees in corporate America would probably have a different reaction: Duh!

Proving the rule that it's not the crime but the cover-up that always gets people in trouble, the administration decided to search the resident deans' e-mails to find out how the leak happened. They didn't reveal the search (except to one individual), until this fact came to light last week thanks to The Boston Globe.

In blogs and postings by current and former Harvard faculty, words such as "creepy" and "dishonorable" have been used to describe the secret searches. Most employees in corporate America would probably have a different reaction, however: Duh!

Not even in the days of CompuServe and 1,200-baud modems did most of us consider our business e-mails private. The IT department stored them -- often looked at them, many people have told me -- and the company paid for the service and the employees' computers. So it was no surprise that managers might check up on employees.

It turns out, however, that the degree of privacy afforded your e-mails -- even those from your company account -- varies, depending on what you signed as part of your terms of employment.

"It depends on what the policy is that governs the employer and employee relationship," says Hanni Fakhoury, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. According to Fakhoury, most employees give consent to companies to look at their business e-mail when they sign an employment agreement. (It does not give them access to your personal Yahoo and Gmail accounts, however.)

One can think of many situations in which one might be sympathetic to employers who want to look at e-mail messages: What if corporate secrets are being given to the competition or if one employee is harassing another? However, without consent being given, the only exception for searching e-mails is when the provider (your employer's IT department) needs to access e-mails for technical reasons, such as checking a spam filter or to maintain server capacity.

In the Harvard case, the administration is claiming it did not look at the contents of any e-mails, only the subject lines. Furthermore, they claim they were actually trying to protect student privacy since one leaked message recounted confidential discussions about the cheating scandal. But humans being human, it strains the limits of credulity to think that once one has opened the e-mail Pandora's box that no one is ever going to look inside.

Were the faculty at Harvard technologically naive? No question. Was the administration also naive? Yup. Thanks to that pesky "forward" button, the scarlet e-mail was passed along and that's how it eventually became public.

The moral of the story: You need to be more circumspect when using the company e-mail account, whether you're at Harvard or at Hewlett-Packard.

"And you need to know what your employment policy is," reminds the EFF's Fakhoury. "If you have the luxury and freedom, you may even want to negotiate" how e-mail is handled before you accept a job.

Unfortunately, in this job market, few of us enjoy such luxury.

Follow John R. Quain on Twitter @jqontech or find more tech coverage at J-Q.com.

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Copyright Alert System lets content providers monitor your traffic, penalize illegal file sharers

Apple's "1984" commercial depicted Windows-based computer makers as Big Brother. But a new copyright-control law may be turning your ISP into Big Brother instead.Apple

I know people who do it. You probably know people who do it. And we're not talking about falling in love.

File sharing, the euphemism for copying and sharing copyrighted material without paying, was one of the early hallmarks of the digital, anything-goes-on-the-Internet age. Names like Napster became synonymous with killing the music industry. And there were countless lawsuits against groups and individuals aimed at curbing illegal sharing -- but nothing seemed to work.

Now, the concern is that the same fate will befall the movie business. With higher speed networks, it's nearly as easy to share "Argo" as it is to share Adele. And everything is connect to the Web, from phones to TVs, so the movie and TV companies and individual content creators are worried.

So a new industry initiative has been launched that may turn your Internet service provider (ISP) into the unofficial Web police, curbing access for perceived abusers and forcing offenders to take remedial courses in copyright rules.

A new industry initiative may turn your ISP into unofficial Web police, curbing access for perceived abusers and forcing offenders to take remedial courses in copyright rules.

Last week, the Copyright Alert System was officially launched. Created by the recording and film industry, it essentially deputizes copyright holders who stealthily monitor peer-to-peer networks for illegal sharing of movies, TV shows, and music. When they notice material is being illegally shared, they contact the crook's ISP, which in turn will send a warning message to the subscriber. After six strikes, the ISP will do more than spam you; it can choose to slow your access speed, temporarily downgrade you to a lower-tier service, or automatically direct you to a special landing page until you contact them or complete an online education program.

How can participating ISPs, which include AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon, be sure you're doing something illegal? The Center for Copyright Infringement says it has a “rigorous process” to make sure the content is illegal and they have a process for appealing alleged violations. But it will cost you $35, and there's no rule about how long an appeal will take (although you will get the money back if you win).

If this all sounds like something digital vilgilantism, it is.

Proponents, which include the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America, say its not about prosecution or persecution, it's about educating consumers. However, the Copyright Alert System seems like its waving a red flag in front of attorneys. Can you say, lawsuit?

Furthermore, the Alert system isn't likely to catch the big pirates and peer-to-peer provocateurs. Those people are sophisticated enough to use software that defeats online traces (or at least makes it incredibly difficult). Indeed, free programs like Tor that were created to protect political protesters and dissidents from persecution are often used by people looking to disguise their identities. In fact, Tor has become so popular with other criminal elements online that security firms today routinely tag such Tor traffic as spreading malware.

Perhaps a better solution to prevent illegal sharing would be to make it easier for consumers to rent or buy movies and shows. It has become easier, with services like Netflix and Hulu Plus, but it's still a fragmented market with wild price changes, confusion about digital purchases, and the persistence of “windows,” the term used in the business to describe staggered release dates (you can buy the DVD, but you can't rent it ... until later).

In fact, make it easier to follow the law, and people will generally give up the hassle of managing peer-to-peer networks and surreptitious downloads. At least, that seems to be the lesson learned in the music business.

Music revenues are up for the first time since 1999. A meager 0.3 percent in 2012 over the previous year to $16.5 billion, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, but it seems to show that the tide is turning. According to the NDP Group, the easy access of streaming services and readily available files for sale has meant that illegal sharing is down about 20 percent. Granted, no one in the music business is going to start partying like it's 1999. We're no where near sales like that, which amounted to $27.8 billion that year.

Sorting out the digital movie business is going to take time. Meanwhile, there's the Copyright Alert System. Well, at least they won't be suing moms for sharing copies of “Happy Birthday” online.

Follow John R. Quain on Twitter @jqontech or find more tech coverage at J-Q.com.

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Bye bye, TNT: New generation of explosives for the Army

M795 projectiles like the ones pictured here will soon become equipped with IMX-101, making them far less likely to explode if dropped, shot at or hit by a roadside bomb during transport.U.S. Marine Corps / Sgt. Christopher R. Rye
BAE's Holsten munitions plant, where IMX-101 is manufactured.BAE Systems

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Seven Marines were killed in Nevada last week and more injured during a live-fire training exercise with mortar rounds -- a reminder of just how important it is to make advances in less dangerous explosives.

A far stabler new explosive called IMX-101 will soon make soldiers safer on and off the battlefield -- and the U.S. Army on Friday ordered as much as $780 million worth of it.

Hoping to reduce the risk of Nevada-type incidents in the future, the Army will use this new explosive as a replacement for TNT in artillery rounds. Within 10 years, it could completely replace TNT in all large caliber munitions.

TNT vs IMX-101
The new explosives are part of a class called Insensitive Munitions eXplosives or IMX. IMX-101 packs the same punch as TNT, but is a less dangerous explosive for those handling it.

BAE Systems developed IMX-101 and fielded it in partnership with the Army at a plant in Holston, Tenn.

“The work we do at Holston is critical to the defense of our nation and to the safety of our men and women in uniform,” said Erin Moseley, president of BAE Systems’ Support Solutions sector. “IMX-101 is … revolutionizing military ordnance.”

An alternative to TNT or Trinitrotoluene, IMX-101 is instead made with a combination of insensitive “energetic” ingredients like 2,4-Dinitroanisole and Nitrotriazalone. It’s designed to remain chemically stable when subjected to a range of shocks like those created by explosions, gunfire, shrapnel impact and fire.

Traditional TNT can be temperamental and vulnerable to shocks causing it to detonate. Take a vehicle transporting munitions with TNT for example: The impact of a bullet, rocket-propelled grenade or improvised explosive alone could cause detonation, making the cargo as deadly as the attack.

Old rounds with TNT will likely stay stored where they are pending eventual safe disposal.

The Quest for Less Dangerous Explosives
The U.S. Army Common Low-cost Insensitive Munitions Explosive program was designed to identify less dangerous yet equally effective alternatives to TNT.;

As one of the candidates in this program, IMX-101 was loaded into an 155mm M795 artillery projectile and subjected to a battery of tests. It was evaluated against small arms and fragmented munitions attack as well as the impact from a shaped charged weapon.

It was also tested against slow heating from a fire -- say, in an adjacent vehicle -- as well as fast heating that could result from a vehicle fuel fire.

There has been some early speculation that the cause of the Nevada tragedy was an event called “sympathetic reaction,” something that occurs from the same munitions in a magazine, store, aircraft or vehicle. IMX-101 was also tested against this sort of risk.

Testing showed the new explosive had far greater safety features like improved thermal and shock sensitivity. It passed all of the U.S. Army’s tests.

Over the next five years, BAE Systems will produce the explosives at the Holston Army Ammunition Plant in Tennessee – a plant capable of producing millions of pounds of IMX-101 on an annual basis.

Allison Barrie

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