Watchdog warns of waste in Afghan aircraft buy

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Pentagon is spending more than three-quarters of a billion dollars to buy Russian-made helicopters and other aircraft for an Afghan aviation unit that lacks the troops and expertise to operate and maintain the equipment, a government watchdog warned.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a report Friday these shortcomings mean the helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft destined for the Afghan Special Mission Wing "could be left sitting on runways in Afghanistan, rather than supporting critical missions, resulting in waste of U.S. funds." The report recommended putting the purchases on hold until the Afghans develop the capacity to support the aircraft.

The findings are sure to reverberate on Capitol Hill, where there is stiff opposition to the purchase of the Mi-17 helicopters from Rosoboronexport, the state-run Russian arms exporter that is a top weapons supplier to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Pentagon announced June 17 that Rosoboronexport had been awarded a $554 million contract for 30 Mi-17s to be used by the Special Mission Wing, a move that came just days after the House approved a 2014 defense policy bill that included a prohibition on contracts with the Russian agency. The Senate Armed Services Committee included a similar ban in its version of the bill.

The defense policy bill for 2013 also barred the Pentagon from using funds from that fiscal year for contracts with Rosoboronexport. But the Pentagon said money from the 2012 fiscal year was being used for the Mi-17 acquisition, so the restriction does not apply.

A Defense Department spokesman said there was an "urgent, near-term need" to buy the wing the Mi-17s, a multimission aircraft designed to operate at high altitudes and uniquely suited for the wing.

"Careful consideration of all the information available to the department confirms that it would be in the public interest to procure the Mi-17s needed for the (wing) from Rosoboronexport," Army Lt. Col. Jim Gregory said in a statement.

In addition to the Mi-17s, the Pentagon is spending $218 million on 18 PC-12 cargo aircraft from the Sierra Nevada Corp. of Sparks, Nev., to allow the Special Mission Wing to perform counterterrorism and counternarcotics missions, the report said.

The special inspector general is recommending the purchase be suspended until the wing's staffing, recruiting and training problems are resolved. Chief among them is finalizing a memorandum of understanding between the Afghan interior and defense ministries that would give the military control of the wing. But the document remains unsigned due largely to the interior ministry's "resistance to surrendering authority" over the wing, according to the report.

Michael Dumont, the deputy assistant defense secretary for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, said in comments included in the report that delaying the purchase of the aircraft until the agreement was signed "would unacceptably delay our efforts to develop the (wing) into a capable force."

The wing was to have 806 personnel by mid-2015, but as of late January had just 180, according to the report.

Filling out the wing's ranks won't be easy, the report said, due to challenges of finding Afghan recruits who are literate in their own language, competent in English and can pass the strict, 18- to 20-month U.S. vetting process that includes eliminating candidates who have ties to criminal or insurgent activities.

The flow of Afghan trainees from helicopter flight training at Fort Rucker, Ala., to more intense training in the Czech Republic "has been slow and uneven, ranging from a low of two up to eight trainees at a time," according to the special inspector general.

The report blamed a lack of steady funding for the training from the Defense Department, failed background checks for prospective pilots and flight engineers, and the Czech government's requirement that each Afghan trainee have a certificate signed by Afghan authorities.

Compensation, especially for mechanics, is another barrier to recruitment because Afghans with a basic command of English are in high demand and can get higher pay elsewhere, the report said.

Another key shortcoming is the dearth of pilots capable of flying at night, when most counterterrorism missions are conducted. As of late January, only seven of the 47 pilots assigned to the wing were fully mission qualified to fly with night vision goggles, the report said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/watchdog-warns-waste-afghan-aircraft-buy-040249401.html

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Stocks gain on encouraging news on the US economy

NEW YORK (AP) ? Stocks are closing higher on Wall Street after investors got a double dose of good news about the U.S. economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 114 points, or 0.8 percent, to close at 15,024 Thursday. It was the third straight triple-digit gain for the Dow. The Dow is still down slightly for the month.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up nine points, or 0.6 percent, at 1,613.

The Nasdaq rose 25 points, or 0.8 percent, to 3,401.

Consumer spending rose last month as incomes increased. Claims for unemployment benefits fell last week.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.48 percent.

Five stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was lighter than average, 3.3 billion shares.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-gain-encouraging-news-us-economy-201717103.html

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Rememberance: '93 Flood ? BEALL MANSION An Elegant Bed ...

The Alton CVB is commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Great Flood of 1993 with 20 days of giveaways! Starting July 13 you could win a dollar amount equal to the crest level of the Mississippi for that day back in ?93. A drawing will be held each day for until August 1, 2013.

Be sure to get your name in the drawing for a chance to win a prize!

For more information and official rules please visit: visitalton.com/Flood93

Source: http://beallmansion.com/blog_st_louis/wordpress/rememberance-93-flood/

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Turning off cells in habit-associated brain region prevents rats from learning to run maze on autopilot

June 27, 2013 ? Our daily routines can become so ingrained that we perform them automatically, such as taking the same route to work every day. Some behaviors, such as smoking or biting your fingernails, become so habitual that we can't stop even if we want to.

Although breaking habits can be hard, MIT neuroscientists have now shown that they can prevent them from taking root in the first place, in rats learning to run a maze to earn a reward. The researchers first demonstrated that activity in two distinct brain regions is necessary in order for habits to crystallize. Then, they were able to block habits from forming by interfering with activity in one of the brain regions -- the infralimbic (IL) cortex, which is located in the prefrontal cortex.

The MIT researchers, led by Institute Professor Ann Graybiel, used a technique called optogenetics to block activity in the IL cortex. This allowed them to control cells of the IL cortex using light. When the cells were turned off during every maze training run, the rats still learned to run the maze correctly, but when the reward was made to taste bad, they stopped, showing that a habit had not formed. If it had, they would keep going back by habit.

"It's usually so difficult to break a habit," Graybiel says. "It's also difficult to have a habit not form when you get a reward for what you're doing. But with this manipulation, it's absolutely easy. You just turn the light on, and bingo."

Graybiel, a member of MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research, is the senior author of a paper describing the findings in the June 27 issue of the journal Neuron. Kyle Smith, a former MIT postdoc who is now an assistant professor at Dartmouth College, is the paper's lead author.

Patterns of habitual behavior

Previous studies of how habits are formed and controlled have implicated the IL cortex as well as the striatum, a part of the brain related to addiction and repetitive behavioral problems, as well as normal functions such as decision-making, planning and response to reward. It is believed that the motor patterns needed to execute a habitual behavior are stored in the striatum and its circuits.

Recent studies from Graybiel's lab have shown that disrupting activity in the IL cortex can block the expression of habits that have already been learned and stored in the striatum. Last year, Smith and Graybiel found that the IL cortex appears to decide which of two previously learned habits will be expressed.

"We have evidence that these two areas are important for habits, but they're not connected at all, and no one has much of an idea of what the cells are doing as a habit is formed, as the habit is lost, and as a new habit takes over," Smith says.

To investigate that, Smith recorded activity in cells of the IL cortex as rats learned to run a maze. He found activity patterns very similar to those that appear in the striatum during habit formation. Several years ago, Graybiel found that a distinctive "task-bracketing" pattern develops when habits are formed. This means that the cells are very active when the animal begins its run through the maze, are quiet during the run, and then fire up again when the task is finished.

This kind of pattern "chunks" habits into a large unit that the brain can simply turn on when the habitual behavior is triggered, without having to think about each individual action that goes into the habitual behavior.

The researchers found that this pattern took longer to appear in the IL cortex than in the striatum, and it was also less permanent. Unlike the pattern in the striatum, which remains stored even when a habit is broken, the IL cortex pattern appears and disappears as habits are formed and broken. This was the clue that the IL cortex, not the striatum, was tracking the development of the habit.

Multiple layers of control

The researchers' ability to optogenetically block the formation of new habits suggests that the IL cortex not only exerts real-time control over habits and compulsions, but is also needed for habits to form in the first place.

"The previous idea was that the habits were stored in the sensorimotor system and this cortical area was just selecting the habit to be expressed. Now we think it's a more fundamental contribution to habits, that the IL cortex is more actively making this happen," Smith says.

This arrangement offers multiple layers of control over habitual behavior, which could be advantageous in reining in automatic behavior, Graybiel says. It is also possible that the IL cortex is contributing specific pieces of the habitual behavior, in addition to exerting control over whether it occurs, according to the researchers. They are now trying to determine whether the IL cortex and the striatum are communicating with and influencing each other, or simply acting in parallel.

"A role for the IL cortex in the regulation of habit is not a new idea, but the details of the interaction between it and the striatum that emerge from this analysis are novel and interesting," says Christopher Pittenger, an assistant professor of psychiatry and psychology at Yale University School of Medicine, who was not part of the research team. "Thinking in the long term, it raises the question of whether targeted manipulations of the IL cortex might be useful for the breaking habits -- and exciting possibility with potential clinical ramifications."

The study suggests a new way to look for abnormal activity that might cause disorders of repetitive behavior, Smith says. Now that the researchers have identified the neural signature of a normal habit, they can look for signs of habitual behavior that is learned too quickly or becomes too rigid. Finding such a signature could allow scientists to develop new ways to treat disorders of repetitive behavior by using deep brain stimulation, which uses electronic impulses delivered by a pacemaker to suppress abnormal brain activity.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Office of Naval Research, the Stanley H. and Sheila G. Sydney Fund and funding from R. Pourian and Julia Madadi.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/consumer_behavior/~3/6fOZ1dlBvr8/130627125522.htm

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Google Working on Game Console to Compete with Future Apple ...

According to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, Google has an Android-based a video game console and smart watch in the works in order to compete with products the company expects Apple to produce in the future.

Google is also continuing development on the Nexus Q, a media console that it announced last year but did not release. The Nexus Q was designed to stream music, video, and YouTube content to home entertainment systems, similar to the Apple TV.

With the watch and game console, Google is hoping to combat similar devices that Apple Inc. may release in the future, the people said.

The people briefed on the matter said Google is reacting in part to expectations that rival Apple will launch a videogame console as part of its next Apple TV product release.

This is not the first time it has been suggested that Apple could use the Apple TV to make a serious foray into the console gaming market. Tech sites have speculated for years that gaming on the Apple TV might be in Apple's future, and earlier this year, Xbox founding engineer Nat Brown said that Apple could "destroy" console gaming with third party apps on the Apple TV.

In February, TechCrunch's MG Siegler confirmed that Apple has something television related in the pipeline, which might be a television set or a revised box. Siegler suggested that gaming could be the major focal point of the new television product.

While Apple has referred to its Apple TV as a hobby project, the company has seen sales continue to rise over the years. With the second generation Apple TV and the introduction of AirPlay Mirroring for iOS devices with iOS 5, gaming on the set-top box became possible for the first time.

Clever developers have already begun using that technology to turn the Apple TV into a gaming console, with several implementing second screen capabilities that turn the iPhone or iPad into a controller. A game released earlier today goes even further, morphing the iPhone into a motion controller that serves as a tennis racket.

Now Apple has revealed that it has established partnerships with Logitech and MOGA to develop third party MFi certified gaming controllers, which would better facilitate television-based gaming, suggesting that the company may indeed be turning its focus to serious gameplay. It should also be noted that 21 of the top 25 all time best selling App Store apps are games.

A MOGA Gaming Controller
It is not unexpected that Google is planning for a gaming solution of its own to compete with a potential Apple offering, as the Mountain View-based company began work on a smart watch around the same time that Apple was developing a watch of its own. News of Apple's upcoming smart watch dubbed "iWatch" surfaced in December, and hints that Google would develop a competing product surfaced in March, though the company filed for a patent on the technology at an earlier date.

Wearable computers and fitness tracking devices such as the Pebble Smart Watch, the Jawbone UP, and the Nike FuelBand have soared in popularity in recent months and in addition to Apple and Google, other companies like Samsung and Microsoft are said to be developing wearable computing devices. Google already has experience in the market with Google Glass, which it plans to release to the public next year.

According to the WSJ, Google hopes to design and market its devices in house, releasing at least one product this fall. There are no hints on when Apple could potentially launch a revamped Apple TV or a smart watch, but its gaming controllers are expected in the fall alongside the iPhone 5S and iOS 7.

Tim Cook has also suggested that the company has "amazing new hardware, software, and services" coming later in the year and throughout 2014.

Source: http://www.macrumors.com/2013/06/27/google-working-on-smart-watch-media-box-and-game-console-to-compete-with-future-apple-offerings/

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How we're renegotiating our marriage with our yearly "relationship ...

Homie Cassandra left this awesome comment on our post about long-term relationships. So of course we asked her to elaborate and turn it into an awesome guest post.

When I was in my 20s I went to acting school in NYC. I had a terrible and abusive teacher whom I ended up despising. Despite that, she mentioned something one day that had a great influence on me. She was approaching her 35th wedding anniversary and offhandedly said that she and her husband renegotiated their marriage each year on their anniversary. I loved the idea and 13 years later, when I started dating my husband, incorporated it on the anniversary of our first date.

So for our anniversary we have our "relationship summit" or our "State Of The Union" address. We talk about where we are and what we want and if changes need to be made. This can be anything from "I don't want children, and if you do I love you and don't want to deprive you of them, so maybe we should part ways" (dating anniversary #2), to "pick up your socks" (somewhere around wedding anniversary #3 or 4), to "I see recurring patterns that cause you suffering. And even though this isn't about me, I don't want to get to old age and still see you suffering. Will you please think about getting some counseling, for the both of us?" (last year).

But what's more important is the time when we come to "I want to stay married to you for another year." It really is optional. A few years ago when mid-life crisis hit my husband and I was afraid he was thinking about leaving I reminded him that he had re-upped for at least another 10 months and he owed it to me to hang and see if we could work it out. We did.

We shared this practice at our wedding, which was on our anniversary (which happens to be Valentine's Day). We even had a wedding "intermission" where we went off into seclusion to do the summit. It was a great opportunity to be alone for 15 minutes and to really center ourselves.

These are the big issues. Ones that can't be solved when things are heated and doors are slamming. Ones that won't resolve themselves with makeup sex.

I remember once talking to a younger person about it in our early years and he said "That's great. That means you actually talk about stuff." It may seem like an artifice but we do, indeed, talk about stuff. Usually over a nice dinner (before drinks). And it's not just limited to that once a year.

A few weeks ago, after I had a disturbing dream where my husband told me he was leaving for greener pastures, I talked to him and said "I don't want to be just the greener pasture, I want to be the greenest pasture. And I want you to think about it for our next summit." These are the big issues. Ones that can't be solved when things are heated and doors are slamming. Ones that won't resolve themselves with makeup sex.

So even though that teacher wasn't great she did teach me som'n. Wasn't about acting but it was about life. And though I still wouldn't thank her to her face I will spread her lesson. Think about it. It works for us. We've been together for 19 years now and married for 13 and I see a long future ahead. One that we'll live without feeling terminally trapped but with freedom of choice.

Source: http://offbeathome.com/2013/06/how-were-renegotiating-our-marriage-with-our-yearly-relationship-summit

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Starting today, you can pre-order Recon Instrument's Jet for only $499.

Starting today, you can pre-order Recon Instrument's Jet for only $499. That's a lot cheaper than Glass! [Recon]

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/LIWxLPI4Vvg/starting-today-and-through-july-21-you-can-pre-order-r-589198154

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