Reminder: Google Maps is looking out for your safety with public alerts

Google's public alerts system can save your bacon by keeping you up to date with important safety information

Michael wrote in about something he noticed in Google Maps for Android. Seems there is a Flash Flood Warning for parts of New Hampshire, and Google Maps made sure he knew about it when searching for a location. It's not only pretty cool and pretty important, but it serves as a reminder that your Android phone can provide safety information as well as play Words With Friends.

Google started adding public alerts to Google Maps in January of 2012, but most of us have never seen them. Besides severe weather alerts from the US National Weather service, maps also has the ability to give safety warnings from the following:

• US Geological Survey (USGS)
• West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center
• AMBER alerts from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
• Nixle
• Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA)
• Environment Canada

These are all trusted partners and verified public safety authorities. The alerts you can see will depend not only on what alerts may be active, but also their severity, location settings and of course your location or the location you're searching. The goal here is to provide relevant safety information tailored to your needs and location. This is a really good thing.

To see all the live alerts, you can visit the Google Public Alerts homepage. While the service has been around a while, it's still fairly new so not every location has pertinent local information. If your hometown doesn't seem to be listing anything, and you're in a position to influence policy decisions (or know someone who is), direct your attention here. Google has set up steps to make it easy to publish the data in a web-friendly format so that they, and others, can use the data to keep people warned.

Thanks, Michael for this great reminder!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/ybCV00moP58/story01.htm

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Apple Hired the CEO of Yves Saint Laurent to Work On Special Projects

For some reason, Apple has hired the CEO of fashion house Yves Saint Laurent Paul Deneve to work on 'special projects'. He'll report directly to Tim Cook and presumably help out on future wearable technology that Apple has in store or outfit Jony Ive with tighter fitting t-shirts or something we have no idea what. Probably something we have no idea what.

Interestingly, Deneve actually worked for Apple from 1990 to 1997 as a sales and marketing manager. Earlier reports had actually speculated that Deneve would be in charge of Apple Retail (which is in need of a boss) but that doesn't appear to be true. So special projects, whatever that means, is it! [Bloomberg]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/apple-hired-the-ceo-of-yves-saint-laurent-to-work-on-sp-652012870

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Asia stocks gain as Fed, China slowdown weighed

BANGKOK (AP) ? Asian stock markets were mostly higher Tuesday as speculation that lukewarm U.S. economic indicators would keep the Federal Reserve from ending its stimulus program early offset pessimism about China's economy.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225, the region's heavyweight index, jumped 1 percent to 13,994.35. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 2.2 percent at 4,814.70 after the country's central bank left interest rates unchanged and said the Australian dollar is likely to continue falling, easing pressure on the economy.

Singapore's Straits Times Index rose 1.1 percent to 3,174.61. Seoul's Kospi was almost unchanged at 1,855.59

In China, the Shanghai Composite Index reversed early losses to rise 0.1 percent to 1,966.83 after reports on Monday that Chinese manufacturing weakened in June amid a credit crunch. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell by 0.1 percent to 20,787.67.

Much of the decline in Hong Kong was led by Chinese banks, which are facing central bank credit restrictions that have caused interest rates on loans by banks to other banks to sharply rise.

"The market is still worrying that the liquidity crisis in Chinese banks is not over," said Francis Lun, chief economist of GE Oriental Financial Group.

The gains in Asian markets followed a rally on Wall Street after an ISM manufacturing survey for the U.S. that showed a weak rebound in June thanks to new orders and higher production. The survey boosted stock markets as investors estimated it was strong enough to show the recovery is on track, but not so strong as to encourage the Federal Reserve to start ending its monetary stimulus program ahead of time.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.4 percent to 14,974.96 by day's end, while the broader S&P 500 index rose 0.5 percent to 1,614.96 and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.9 percent to 3,434.

"This rebound in the ISM and moderate employment growth in June would leave the Fed on track to start tapering" its bond purchases in September, said Paul Dales, analyst at Capital Economics.

U.S. economic indicators have been one of the main market drivers in recent weeks as investors gauge when the Fed is likely to wind down its stimulus.

After a volatile few weeks, Fed officials are trying to calm investors' concerns about the central bank's planned reduction in monthly purchases of financial assets. Those purchases are aimed at stimulating the economy by pushing down market interest rates, and investors worry that as the economy improves, a pullback could deprive them of cheap borrowing rates.

In that vein, the U.S. monthly jobs report due Friday will get huge attention as it is the most closely watched indicator for the world's largest economy.

Benchmark oil for August delivery was down 1 cent to $97.98 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.43 to close at $97.99 a barrel on Monday.

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3062 from $1.3065 late Monday in New York. The dollar rose to 99.77 yen from 99.63 yen.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asia-stocks-gain-fed-china-slowdown-weighed-055949747.html

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CSN: Daulton has surgery, brain tumors removed

Former Phillie Darren Daulton had two brain tumors removed after undergoing a seven-hour surgery on Monday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

Daulton, who now hosts a radio show on 97.5 FM The Fanatic, announced last week that he had been diagnosed with the brain tumors.

The surgery was performed by Dr. Kevin D. Judy, M.D., who specializes in neurosurgery.

"We did what's called an awake craniotomy," Judy said. "We took him to the operating room and sedated him, but did not use general anesthesia, so then we used a form of novocaine to numb up his scalp and then once we opened everything up, we woke him up so we could directly map the language function on his brain."

With the permission from Daulton's family, Judy announced that the 51-year-old Daulton had a glioma, which is a tumor that arises from the brain tissue itself and is not spread from cancer anywhere else in the body. Judy said that they do not have the final pathology on the glioma, but "patients over 40 (years of age) with gliomas, just about all of them are treated with radiation." However, Judy said until they see the final pathology, the particulars for Daulton's recovery are undetermined.

Judy said Daulton's spirits are high and he's been speaking quite a bit.

Daulton brought himself to medical attention because he had difficulty fully understanding and expressing himself.

"I would expect it's going to take him probably three to four weeks to get over the surgery," Judy said. "As far as full recovery, he did have some trouble prior to surgery with the language function, so we'll have to see how that evolves."

Fans can continue to send Daulton get well wishes at dutch@975thefanatic.com.

Source: http://www.csnphilly.com/baseball-philadelphia-phillies/darren-daulton-has-surgery-remove-brain-tumors

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Changes urged after 5 near airline collisions

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Five near collisions ? four of them last year ? involving airliners that aborted landings prompted the National Transportation Safety Board to call Monday for changes in air traffic control procedures.

In a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration, the board said aborted landings are placing planes on converging flight paths, forcing pilots to execute evasive maneuvers at a low altitude to avoid a potential collision.

The board cited four such near collisions last year: two in Las Vegas, and one each in New York and Charlotte, N.C. There was also a similar near collision in Las Vegas in 2006. In each case, the pilot of at least one of the planes swiftly changed course to avoid a possible midair collision.

The FAA regulates safety and operates the national air traffic control system, while the board investigates accidents and safety incidents.

Aborted landings are not uncommon and can occur for many reasons, but such sudden changes in course can create the danger one plane will fly into the path of another plane that's taking off or landing.

McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas is especially at risk for such incidents because of runways that are angled so that the flights paths of planes taking off simultaneously can cross. In one of the incidents at McCarran on July 30, 2012, a Spirit Airlines Airbus A319 and a Cessna Citation 510 came within 100 feet vertically and about 1,000 feet laterally before the pilot of the smaller Cessna four-seater changed course to avoid the airliner. The airliner executed the aborted landing.

In another incident on the same day at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, an American Airlines Boeing 737 aborted a landing at the same time as a Pinnacle Airlines regional jet was taking off. The two planes were being handled by different air traffic controllers using different radio frequencies. The two planes came within about 1,600 feet laterally and 300 feet vertically.

In a third incident the same month in Charlotte, N.C., an Expressjet regional jet was executing an aborted landing at the same time an Air Wisconsin regional jet was taking off. The two planes were being guided by different controllers. The controller handling the Air Wisconsin flight alerted the pilot to the conflict with the other plane, but gave no instructions on how to avoid the potential collision. The two planes passed within less than 800 feet laterally and 400 feet vertically of each other.

A fourth incident occurred when a JetBlue Airbus A320 aborted a landing at McCarran on April 26, 2012, at the same time a Mexican-registered Learjet 60 was taking off. The JetBlue pilot turned sharply to avoid the Learjet, while the Learjet pilot initiated a rapid climb to avoid the airliner. Radar data showed the climb rate at 6,000 feet per minute immediately after departure. In radio transmissions from the pilot, the airplane's stick-shaker, a cockpit safety system, can be heard in the background warning the pilot of an imminent stall.

The only warning from the controller to the Learjet pilot was to "go low," but by the time the instruction was issued, the plane was climbing at a high rate and the pilot was unable to comply. The planes came within less than 1,600 feet laterally and 100 feet vertically of each other.

Another McCarran incident cited by the board occurred on Jan. 27, 2006, between a United Airlines Airbus A320 that was instructed by controllers to abort a landing because of a potential conflict with a Beechcraft BE200, a twin-engine turboprop. While attempting to circle around, the United plane nearly collided with an American Airlines Boeing 757 that was taking off.

The United pilot made "made an evasive turn to the right to avoid a potential collision, reportedly banking as much as 40 degrees to avoid crossing" the flight path of the American plane, the board said. The American plane also made a slight left turn away from the other plane.

Afterward, the United flight crew told investigators that "the tower controllers did not seem to have clear procedures for separating aircraft in the event of a go-around (aborted landing) and may not have had the same perception of an impending collision that they (the crew) did," the board's letter said.

The FAA said in a statement that the agency has "thoroughly investigated the incidents and took aggressive steps to address the causes."

"The FAA takes NTSB recommendations very seriously and will respond to the board within 90 days," the statement said.

Among the actions the agency has taken at McCarran is placing more air traffic managers on duty whose aim is to focus on conflicting flight paths, according to an FAA official who wasn't authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be named. The agency also is testing several new technologies aimed at alerting controllers to the potential for such collisions, the official said.

___

Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/changes-urged-5-near-airline-collisions-203402302.html

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Telescopic Contact Lens With Switchable Magnification To Help AMD Patients

Lister: Any problems?
Kryten: Well, just one or two. In fact I've compiled a little list if you'll indulge me. Now then, uh, my optical system doesn't appear to have a zoom function.
Lister: No, human eyes don't have a zoom.
Kryten: Well then, how do you bring a small object into sharp focus?
Lister: Well, you just move your head closer to the object.
Kryten: I see. Move your head... closer, hmm, to the object. All right, okay. Well, what about other optical effects, like split screen, slow motion?
Lister: No. W

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/JHNF8UvNXBw/story01.htm

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Bugs to be Earth's 'last survivors'

1 July 2013 Last updated at 20:49 ET By Rebecca Morelle Science reporter, BBC World Service

The last surviving creatures on Earth will be tiny organisms living deep underground, according to scientists.

Researchers used a computer model to assess our planet's fate billions of years from now.

They found that as the Sun becomes hotter and brighter, only microbes would be able cope with the extreme conditions that the solar changes would bring.

The research is being presented at the National Astronomy Meeting.

Jack O'Malley James, from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, said: "There won't be very much oxygen present, so they need to be able to survive in low or zero-oxygen environments, high pressures, and high salinities because of evaporating oceans."

Mass extinction

The future of life on Earth is tied to that of the Sun, and over time, our star will become more and more luminous.

Scientists from the universities of St Andrews, Dundee and Edinburgh used this fact to create a forecast for our planet's future environment.

In a billion years' time, the heat from the Sun will become so intense, that the oceans start to evaporate.

"Once you get to this tipping point, you get a lot more water in the atmosphere and because water vapour is a greenhouse gas, that sets this runaway greenhouse effect... and you end up with the Earth heating up to 100C or more plus what we experience today," explained Mr O'Malley James, a PhD student.

This, he said, combined with falling levels of oxygen, would lead to the rapid loss of plants and larger animals.

Soon after, a group of microbes called extremophiles would be the only life forms left.

These tiny organisms are found on Earth today, and can cope with hostile environments.

These, the scientists said, would be the only creatures that could withstand the heat, aridity and poisonous atmosphere of this future Earth. They believe that they would probably be clustered around the last drops of water deep underground.

Eventually as conditions worsen they too will vanish, and in about 2.8 billion years, Earth will be devoid of all life.

'Microbial worlds'

The researchers said that studying the rise and fall of life on our planet could give us an insight into how life might survive elsewhere in the Universe.

Mr O'Malley James told the BBC: "If you were to find an Earth-like planet and to take a snapshot in time of the life living on the surface, it's more likely that you would find microbial life than you would the more complex life like we see on Earth today."

The researchers said that microbes cause subtle changes to the ratios of gasses in the atmosphere, and this could enable astronomers to one day detect their presence on other Earth-like planets.

"One of the best candidates is methane. This could be used to indicate the presence of life, although it depends on how much is produced and whether it builds up to a detectable level in the atmosphere... If we can pick up all these subtle levels of gasses on remote planets - maybe we could detect it," Mr O'Malley James said.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23135934#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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