acupuncturist barometer: 2013

Friday, November 8, 2013

Obama says he's sorry Americans losing insurance

FILE - In this Oct. 30, 2013, file photo, President Barack Obama speaks at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall about the federal health care law. Obama says he's sorry Americans are losing health insurance plans he repeatedly said they could keep under his signature health care law. But the president stopped short of apologizing for making those promises in the first place. "I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me," he said in an interview Thursday, Nov. 7 with NBC News. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he's sorry Americans are losing health insurance plans he repeatedly said they could keep under his signature health care law. But the president stopped short of apologizing for making those promises in the first place.

"I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me," he said in an interview Thursday with NBC News.

He added: "We've got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them, and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this."

The president's apology comes as the White House tries to combat a cascade of troubles surrounding the rollout of the health care law often referred to as "Obamacare." The healthcare.gov website that was supposed to be an easy portal for Americans to purchase insurance has been riddled by technical issues. And with at least 3.5 million Americans receiving cancellation notices from their insurance companies, there's new scrutiny aimed at the way the president tried to sell the law to the public in the first place.

Much of the focus is on the president's promise that Americans who liked their insurance coverage would be able to keep it. He repeated the line often, both as the bill was debated in Congress and after it was signed into law.

But the measure itself made that promise almost impossible to keep. It mandated that insurance coverage must meet certain standards and that policies that fell short could no longer be sold except through a grandfathering process, meaning some policies were always expected to disappear.

The White House says under those guidelines, fewer than 5 percent of Americans will have to change their coverage. But in a nation of more than 300 million people, 5 percent is about 15 million people.

Officials argue that those people being forced to change plans will end up with better coverage and that subsidies offered by the government will help offset any increased costs.

"We weren't as clear as we needed to be in terms of the changes that were taking place," Obama told NBC. "And I want to do everything we can to make sure that people are finding themselves in a good position, a better position than they were before this law happened."

The president's critics have accused him of misleading the public about changes that were coming under the law, which remains unpopular with many Americans and a target for congressional Republicans.

Obama dismissed that criticism, saying "I meant what I said" and insisting that his administration was operating in "good faith." He acknowledged that the administration "didn't do a good enough job in terms of how we crafted the law" but did not specify what changes might be made.

Sign-ups for the new health care marketplaces opened Oct. 1. People have six months to enroll before facing a penalty.

Some lawmakers — including Democrats — have called on the White House to delay the penalty or extend the enrollment period because of the website woes that have prevented many used from signing up. Obama said he remains confident that anyone who wants to buy insurance will be able to do so.

"Keep in mind that the open enrollment period, the period during which you can buy health insurance is available all the way until March 31," he said. "And we're only five weeks into it."

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-11-07-Obama-Health%20Overhaul/id-b04d8aa89e6842cc87fcb77ae9982d78
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5 ways BYOD is shaking up tech support

November 07, 2013

Amid the clamor of "bring your own device" (BYOD), a question lurks in the background: "What happens to technical service and support?" Concerns for the tech support function encompass the extremes, from agents being overwhelmed with calls, to their becoming inhabitants of a help desk ghost town.

On the one hand, it’s easy to imagine a flood of calls as employees attempt to access wireless networks or synch their e-mail, especially in companies that permit the use of any device type. At the same time, as more people own smartphones, they are increasingly accustomed to resolving issues independently, through online forums, communities and other means of self-support.

By 2016, says Gartner analyst Jarod Greene, help desks will see a 25% to 30% drop in user-initiated call volume, as BYOD drives a companion trend of BYOS, or “bring your own support.”

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Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/consumerization-of-it/5-ways-byod-shaking-tech-support-230379?source=rss_mobile_technology
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Researchers suggest plan to address hypoxia in Gulf of Mexico

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Nov-2013

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Contact: Debra Levey Larson
dlarson@illinois.edu
217-244-2880
University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences

URBANA, Ill. Despite a 12-year action plan calling for reducing the hypoxia zone in the Gulf of Mexico, little progress has been made, and there is no evidence that nutrient loading to the Gulf has decreased during this period. University of Illinois researchers have identified some of the biophysical and social barriers to progress and propose a way forward.

"We are suggesting that a partnership of researchers work closely with farmers to develop the suite of practices that are needed to reduce nutrient losses from agricultural fields," said U of I biogeochemist Mark David who has been studying nitrate loss since 1993. "Working with farmers is essential to develop realistic practices on real-world farmswhere the constraints that influence management are presentto document the effectiveness, and to communicate the environmental and socioeconomic results regionally."

"Biophysical and Social Barriers Restrict Water Quality Improvements in the Mississippi River Basin" was published in the Nov. 5 issue of Environmental Science and Technology. The opinion piece was authored by researchers Mark B. David, Courtney G. Flint, Gregory F. McIsaac, Lowell E. Gentry, Mallory K. Dolan, and George F. Czapar.

David said that the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone that was measured in July 2013 was 5,800 square miles (nearly the size of Connecticut), the result of riverine losses of nitrate and total phosphorus from the Mississippi River Basin. The goal of the 2008 action plan is to reduce the zone to a five-year running average of 2,000 square miles by 2015 and calls for a 45 percent reduction in total nitrogen and phosphorus, but these goals have not been met.

"Much of the nitrate that leads to the hypoxic zone formation is lost from millions of acres of fields across the upper Midwest, where drainage has been accelerated by a variety of agricultural practices," David said. "Many flat agricultural fields are artificially drained with perforated plastic tubing or older clay drainage tiles to allow timely field work and enhance crop growth. There are now tens of millions of acres of tile-drained fields with large losses of nitrate, even with the recommended best management practices being followed," he said.

According to the researchers, the combination of expanded and patterned tile drainage, increased fertilizer use due to more corn production, and more frequent high-intensity precipitation events all contribute to greater losses of nutrients and therefore a large hypoxic zone. This occurs even though nutrient balances (inputs minus outputs) have generally improved across the upper Midwest.

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) promotes and provides technical information on a wide array of techniques that can be used to reduce nutrient losses, including fertilizer rate, timing and placement; cover crops; nitrification inhibiters; water table management; tile bioreactors; constructed wetlands; buffer strips; and conversion of row crops to CRP or perennial crops. David said that unfortunately, few of these methods are used on tile-drained fields because they impose substantial costs and/or risks on the producer without increasing crop production.

"For example, end-of-pipe practices such as tile bioreactors or constructed wetlands have substantial construction costs, require land to be taken out of production, and provide no production benefit to the producer," David said.

The researchers noted that important constraints are in the socioeconomic realm and relate to factors influencing adoption of farm conservation practices.

"Producers view themselves as stewards who care for the land, but they need to make a living from it," said rural sociologist Courtney Flint. "Not only can they not see the loss of nutrients, they are disconnected physically from the downstream effects.
Stewardship objectives may be strong, but they can be trumped or complicated by other economic, social, and environmental drivers.

"Additionally, there is a growing sense among farmers that policy makers are too far removed from the realities of farming," Flint added. "This leads to an ever-widening trust gap that is a major barrier to effective collaboration and policy development for water-quality improvement in the Mississippi River Basin and beyond."

The researchers believe that having farmers actively participate with researchers to develop realistic suites of practices could find widespread regional acceptance, but they realize that real-world, on-farm longitudinal studies of nutrient loss reduction practices will require considerable funding for cost-sharing practice development and implementation.

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Researchers suggest plan to address hypoxia in Gulf of Mexico

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Nov-2013

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| E-mail

]

Share
Contact: Debra Levey Larson
dlarson@illinois.edu
217-244-2880
University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences

URBANA, Ill. Despite a 12-year action plan calling for reducing the hypoxia zone in the Gulf of Mexico, little progress has been made, and there is no evidence that nutrient loading to the Gulf has decreased during this period. University of Illinois researchers have identified some of the biophysical and social barriers to progress and propose a way forward.

"We are suggesting that a partnership of researchers work closely with farmers to develop the suite of practices that are needed to reduce nutrient losses from agricultural fields," said U of I biogeochemist Mark David who has been studying nitrate loss since 1993. "Working with farmers is essential to develop realistic practices on real-world farmswhere the constraints that influence management are presentto document the effectiveness, and to communicate the environmental and socioeconomic results regionally."

"Biophysical and Social Barriers Restrict Water Quality Improvements in the Mississippi River Basin" was published in the Nov. 5 issue of Environmental Science and Technology. The opinion piece was authored by researchers Mark B. David, Courtney G. Flint, Gregory F. McIsaac, Lowell E. Gentry, Mallory K. Dolan, and George F. Czapar.

David said that the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone that was measured in July 2013 was 5,800 square miles (nearly the size of Connecticut), the result of riverine losses of nitrate and total phosphorus from the Mississippi River Basin. The goal of the 2008 action plan is to reduce the zone to a five-year running average of 2,000 square miles by 2015 and calls for a 45 percent reduction in total nitrogen and phosphorus, but these goals have not been met.

"Much of the nitrate that leads to the hypoxic zone formation is lost from millions of acres of fields across the upper Midwest, where drainage has been accelerated by a variety of agricultural practices," David said. "Many flat agricultural fields are artificially drained with perforated plastic tubing or older clay drainage tiles to allow timely field work and enhance crop growth. There are now tens of millions of acres of tile-drained fields with large losses of nitrate, even with the recommended best management practices being followed," he said.

According to the researchers, the combination of expanded and patterned tile drainage, increased fertilizer use due to more corn production, and more frequent high-intensity precipitation events all contribute to greater losses of nutrients and therefore a large hypoxic zone. This occurs even though nutrient balances (inputs minus outputs) have generally improved across the upper Midwest.

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) promotes and provides technical information on a wide array of techniques that can be used to reduce nutrient losses, including fertilizer rate, timing and placement; cover crops; nitrification inhibiters; water table management; tile bioreactors; constructed wetlands; buffer strips; and conversion of row crops to CRP or perennial crops. David said that unfortunately, few of these methods are used on tile-drained fields because they impose substantial costs and/or risks on the producer without increasing crop production.

"For example, end-of-pipe practices such as tile bioreactors or constructed wetlands have substantial construction costs, require land to be taken out of production, and provide no production benefit to the producer," David said.

The researchers noted that important constraints are in the socioeconomic realm and relate to factors influencing adoption of farm conservation practices.

"Producers view themselves as stewards who care for the land, but they need to make a living from it," said rural sociologist Courtney Flint. "Not only can they not see the loss of nutrients, they are disconnected physically from the downstream effects.
Stewardship objectives may be strong, but they can be trumped or complicated by other economic, social, and environmental drivers.

"Additionally, there is a growing sense among farmers that policy makers are too far removed from the realities of farming," Flint added. "This leads to an ever-widening trust gap that is a major barrier to effective collaboration and policy development for water-quality improvement in the Mississippi River Basin and beyond."

The researchers believe that having farmers actively participate with researchers to develop realistic suites of practices could find widespread regional acceptance, but they realize that real-world, on-farm longitudinal studies of nutrient loss reduction practices will require considerable funding for cost-sharing practice development and implementation.

###

[

| E-mail

Share

]

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-11/uoic-rsp110713.php
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5 ways BYOD is shaking up tech support

November 07, 2013

By 2016, says Gartner analyst Jarod Greene, help desks will see a 25% to 30% drop in user-initiated call volume, as BYOD drives a companion trend of BYOS, or “bring your own support.”

To continue reading, register here to become an Insider

It's FREE to join

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/consumerization-of-it/5-ways-byod-shaking-tech-support-230379?source=rss_infoworld_top_stories_
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Ponder, Peterson help Vikings rally to beat Skins

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Adrian Peterson ran for 75 yards and two scores and the Minnesota Vikings stopped the Washington Redskins at the 4 in the final seconds to hold on for a 34-27 victory Thursday night.

Christian Ponder went 17 for 21 for 174 yards with two touchdowns and an interception before leaving late in the third quarter with an injured left shoulder. John Carlson had seven catches for 98 yards and a touchdown for the Vikings (2-7).

Robert Griffin III was 24 for 37 for 281 yards and three touchdowns for the Redskins (3-6), who led 27-14 early in the third quarter. But Santana Moss couldn't get his second foot in bounds on a pass in the corner of the end zone on fourth down, giving Minnesota the victory.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ponder-peterson-help-vikings-rally-beat-skins-043702040--spt.html
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Thursday, November 7, 2013

The Patient English

Andrew Parker, John Sawers, Iain Lobban — Andrew Parker of MI5, John Sawers of MI6, and Iain Lobban of GCHQ testifying before the Intelligence and Security Committee, Nov. 7, 2013.

In the months since Edward Snowden exposed mass surveillance by the National Security Agency, the U.S. Congress has grilled the agency, its overseers, and its intelligence-community partners in several open hearings. The British Parliament, however, has conducted no such interrogations, despite Snowden’s revelations of similar surveillance by the United Kingdom. Today, the chiefs of Britain’s top three intelligence agencies—MI5, MI6, and GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), testified together publicly for the first time before the parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee. The session was a joke.

Will Saletan writes about politics, science, technology, and other stuff for Slate. He’s the author of Bearing Right. Follow him on Twitter.

I expected better. The Brits, after all, are the people who gave us Question Time, a daily ritual in which members of Parliament interrogate government ministers. Our public-affairs TV network, C-SPAN, treats this as a model of transparency, accountability, and lively debate. But in security matters, the U.K. has a long way to go. When the spy chiefs were asked in today’s committee session about domestic surveillance, they gave the same pat answers U.S. intelligence officials tried to peddle in early post-Snowden congressional hearings. They alluded to “safeguards,” “rigorous oversight,” and “internal rules.” The committee’s members failed to press for evidence or clarification.

The committee’s chairman, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, asked the spymasters why they had to monitor the entire public in order to catch evildoers. Sir Iain Lobban, the director of GCHQ, assured Rifkind that the government’s data harvesters don’t exceed what’s necessary and proper, since “there are very specific legal thresholds,” and “I don’t employ the type of people who would” spy on innocent civilians. “My people are motivated by saving lives,” Lobban sniffed.

In a congressional hearing, this is the kind of assertion that prompts somebody on the panel to ask for details. What legal thresholds? What internal rules? Instead, Rifkind thanked Lobban: “You’ve given a very full response.”

Ten minutes later, Rifkind asked Andrew Parker, the director general of MI5, for “specific examples” of damage done to British intelligence by the disclosure of surveillance methods. Parker offered to give the committee examples in closed session, but he assured Rifkind that thanks to GCHQ’s data collection, “there are real instances” of the government “finding terrorist plots that we would not otherwise find that we’re then able to thwart, which leads to lives being saved.” Again, this is the kind of assertion that often unravels under scrutiny in congressional hearings. But in the British forum, it went unchallenged.

Lobban claimed to have solid evidence. “What we have seen, over the last five months, is near daily discussion among some of our targets” showing damage from recent surveillance disclosures, he told the committee.

We’ve seen terrorist groups in the Middle East, in Afghanistan, and elsewhere in South Asia discussing the revelations in specific terms, in terms of the communications packages that they use, the communications packages that they wish to move to. … We have actually seen chat around specific terrorist groups, including close to home, discussing how to avoid what they now perceive to be vulnerable communications methods, or to how to select communications which they now perceive not to be exploitable.

At this point in an American hearing, you’d expect some congressman to ask the witness how we have such good intel on this “chat” if the bad guys have learned how to evade our surveillance. But nobody on the British panel raised that question.

Why was the interrogation so lame? I can imagine several reasons. The British spy agencies are only supporting actors in the surveillance story. The NSA is the main target, so Congress feels pressure to do something. Libertarianism and distrust of government are also less prevalent in the United Kingdom. One member of the British committee told the spy chiefs that in national polls, “about 60 percent of the public either think that you’ve got the right amount of powers, or indeed, some members of the public think you need more powers.” In addition, the Brits have a stronger faith in the decency of public servants. When NSA officials tell Congress that their employees are good people, we nod but persist. We want to know what laws and mechanisms are in place to prevent abuse.

Two other things about the hearing struck me as odd. One was this comment from Parker, the MI5 boss: “There have been times over the years when successive governments have offered my service greater powers and greater measures. And we’ve said they’re disproportionate and turned away from them.”

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/frame_game/2013/11/british_surveillance_hearing_parliament_s_interrogation_of_u_k_spy_agencies.html
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Do-or-die time for Acer as it hunts for winning strategy

Best known for its low-cost laptops, Acer doesn’t really inspire thoughts of premium products. But building high-end hardware could be the Taiwanese vendor’s best shot as it looks for a way to rescue its struggling business.

With consumers flocking to tablets and smartphones, Acer’s once-thriving PC business has been left in the dust. Quarterly financial losses have become routine at the company, and its PC shipments declined more sharply in the past year than at any other major vendor, according to IDC.

The grim situation forced CEO J.T. Wang to resign from his post Tuesday. Acer will also cut seven percent of its global workforce and has assembled an advisory committee to come up with a new strategy, the company announced.

Bright spots are hard to find. The Wintel model that propelled Acer for years and helped it become the second-largest PC vendor in 2009 has been falling apart amid the demand for mobile gadgets. And Windows 8 and Intel’s Ultrabook strategy have failed to resuscitate the market.

It hasn’t helped that Acer is so reliant on sales to consumers, said IDC analyst Bryan Ma. The entire PC industry has been hurt by tablets, but Dell and Hewlett-Packard have at least managed to find cover selling PCs to businesses, which are still buying them. And Lenovo has capitalized on its position in China, now the world’s largest PC market.

“Acer didn’t really have the commercial PC business to protect itself. That’s why it was hit harder,” Ma said.

Low prices, low profits

Acer—whether to its benefit or detriment—has instead gained a reputation for low-priced PCs. Even in tablets it has tried to undercut rivals—its Iconia W4, an 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablet, starts at $329.99, while its Iconia B Android tablet goes for $129.99. The low prices have helped keep the company on consumers’ radar, but at the expense of profits.

One option for Acer is to build a brand as a higher-end PC player. It took a step in that direction last year with the Aspire S7, a Windows laptop with a slender, aluminum chassis that sells for $1200 and up. That product and its successors have had some success for the company, with sales of 2,000 to 3,000 units per month, said James Wang, an analyst with research firm Canalys.

“I think Acer has started to learn it is able to sell some expensive products,” he said.

Strategies by rivals

Selling higher-end PCs could help stop the bleeding in Acer’s finances, but with the overall PC market still shrinking, it’s unlikely to help it expand in any meaningful way. “You can’t really expect vendors in desktops and notebooks to find growth,” Wang said. “You win in the market by not falling in shipments.”

Acer might have to try breaking into other markets or raise its profile among business customers. Some of its rivals have taken that path, with Lenovo buying up PC makers in growth countries, and Dell and HP selling enterprise “solutions” that include services.

“If Acer continues to only sell PCs, in just a few years’ time it will be over for them,” predicted Gartner analyst Eileen He. “If you’re simply a hardware maker, it’s not enough.”

Acer’s fortunes reflect the collapse of the larger PC market as a whole, which led HP to consider selling its PC business and has forced Dell to make itself a private company.

Acer’s big Taiwanese rival, Asustek, has also seen its PC sales decline. But its willingness to experiment with innovative, sometimes off-the-wall products has helped bring strong growth to its Android business, and its profits haven’t suffered like Acer’s.

HP and Dell have much broader businesses to fall back on, giving them some leeway as they try to build effective tablet and smartphone strategies. But for Acer, with its narrow focus on consumer PCs, any big change will be easier said than done, potentially requiring it to invest more in research and development, overhaul its supply chain and build new brands.

“You can’t just turn a big boat on a dime,” IDC’s Ma said. “It takes time to make that course correction. The question is how quickly can it turn its boat?”

Michael Kan, IDG News Service Beijing correspondent, IDG News Service, IDG News Service

Michael Kan covers IT, telecom and Internet in China for the IDG News Service.
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Malala plotter chosen as Pakistani Taliban chief

FILE - In this Friday, Sept. 27, 2013 file photo, Malala Yousafzai addresses students and faculty after receiving the 2013 Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. A militant commander and an intelligence official say the Pakistani Taliban have chosen the man who planned the attack on teenage activist Malala Yousafzai as the group's new leader. (AP Photo/Jessica Rinaldi, File)

People watch a news report on TV about newly selected leader of Pakistani Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah at a coffee shop in Islamabad, Pakistan, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. The ruthless commander behind the attack on teenage activist Malala Yousafzai as well as a series of bombings and beheadings was chosen Thursday as the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, nearly a week after a U.S. drone strike killed the previous chief. The Arabic on the TV news report reads, "On April 21, 2011, fourteen troops were killed in an attack on a checkpoint in Dir." (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — The ruthless commander behind the attack on teenage activist Malala Yousafzai as well as a series of bombings and beheadings was chosen Thursday as the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, nearly a week after a U.S. drone strike killed the previous chief.

The militant group ruled out peace talks with the government, accusing Pakistan of working with the U.S. in the Nov. 1 drone strike. Islamabad denied the allegation and accused Washington of sabotaging its attempt to strike a deal with the Taliban to end years of violence.

Mullah Fazlullah was unanimously appointed the new leader by the Taliban's leadership council, or shura, after several days of deliberation, said the council's head, Asmatullah Shaheen Bhitani. Militants fired AK-47 assault rifles and anti-aircraft guns into the air to celebrate.

The previous chief, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed by the drone in the North Waziristan tribal area near the Afghan border. He was known for a bloody campaign that killed thousands of Pakistani civilians and security personnel, a deadly attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan and was believed to be behind the failed bombing in New York's Times square in 2010. The U.S. had put a $5 million bounty on his head,

Mehsud's killing had outraged Pakistani officials. The government said the drone strike came a day before it planned to send a delegation of clerics to invite the Pakistani Taliban to hold peace talks, although many analysts doubted a deal was likely.

Bhitani, the Taliban shura leader, said the group would not join peace talks with the government, accusing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of selling out the group when he met with President Barack Obama in Washington on Oct. 23.

"We will take revenge on Pakistan for the martyrdom of Hakimullah," Bhitani told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location in North Waziristan, where the shura met.

The Pakistani government did not immediately respond to request for comment on the Taliban comments or the appointment of Fazlullah.

Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said he asked the U.S. ambassador in Islamabad, Richard Olson, not to carry out any drone attacks while Islamabad was pursuing peace talks with domestic Taliban militants.

The Pakistani Taliban withdrew an offer to hold talks in May after their deputy leader was killed in a U.S. drone strike but warmed to negotiations again after Sharif took office in June. It's unclear if the government will be able to coax the militants back to the table again, especially since Fazlullah is known to be such a hard-liner.

Pakistani officials have criticized the drone strikes in public, saying they violate the country's sovereignty and kill too many civilians. But the government is known to have secretly supported at least some of the attacks, especially when they targeted enemies of the state.

The Pakistani Taliban is an umbrella organization of militant groups formed in 2007 to overthrow the government and install a hard-line form of Islamic law. Based in the country's remote tribal region, the group also wants Pakistan to end its support for the U.S. fight in Afghanistan. The Afghan and Pakistani Taliban are allies but have generally directed their attacks on opposite sides of the border.

Fazlullah, believed to be in his late 30s, served as the Pakistani Taliban's leader in the northwest Swat Valley but is now believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. He rose to prominence through radio broadcasts demanding the imposition of Islamic law, earning him the nickname "Mullah Radio."

His group began infiltrating the valley in 2007 and spread fear among residents by beheading opponents, blowing up schools, holding public floggings, forcing men to grow beards and preventing women from going to markets.

The military invaded Swat in 2009 after a peace deal with the militants fell apart. The offensive pushed most of the fighters out of the valley, and Fazlullah escaped to Afghanistan. But periodic attacks continue in Swat.

Fazlullah and his group carried out the attack on Malala, who was shot in the head while on her way home from school in October 2012. She was targeted after speaking out against the Taliban over its interpretation of Islam, which limits girls' access to education.

The shooting sparked international outrage, and Malala was flown to the United Kingdom, where she underwent surgery to repair the damage to her skull.

She has since become an even more vocal critic of the Taliban and advocate for girls' education, earning her international acclaim, including the European Parliament's Sakharov Award, its top human rights prize. On her 16th birthday, she delivered a speech at the United Nations in New York. She was considered a front-runner for this year's Nobel Peace Prize and met with Obama at the White House.

Malala's representatives said she declined to comment on Fazlullah's appointment. Attempts to reach her father also were unsuccessful.

Fazlullah also claimed responsibility for the deaths of a Pakistani army general and two other soldiers in a roadside bombing near the Afghan border in September. The killings outraged the military and raised questions about whether the Taliban had any real interest in negotiating peace.

Imtiaz Gul, head of the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies, said Fazlullah became the Pakistani army's "enemy No. 1" after the attack on the general.

Fazlullah is the first leader of the Pakistani Taliban not to come from the Mehsud tribe based in South Waziristan. The group's first leader, Baitullah Mehsud, also was killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2009.

Some Mehsud commanders were unhappy with the decision to appoint Fazlullah but eventually agreed under pressure from some of the group's senior members, said a Pakistani intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to journalists.

Khalid Haqqani was chosen as the new deputy leader of the Pakistani Taliban, said Bhitani, the head of the shura. The new deputy is from the northwest Pakistani district of Swabi and bears no apparent relation to the Afghan Haqqani network that is fighting U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

___

Abbot reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana and Asif Shahzad contributed to this report from Islamabad.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-11-07-AS-Pakistan-Taliban/id-bdba90a966d341fc957a86f8e9ba5c6c
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Watch the visualization of a tech sound your kids will never know

You know what's missing from technology these days? Sound. We have noises but no sound. We open our laptops and we're automatically connected to Wi-Fi. Our phones only squeak for alerts, they don't provide a soundtrack for the future. The old dial up modem handshake though? Now that was real sound. That was like hearing technology happen. This is what that sound looks like. This is something your kids will never know.

Microsoft Office Web Apps takes great leap toward Office equality

What are the most striking features of the new version of Office Web Apps? The ones that aren't there.

It isn't the fact that the Save button has been nixed (shades of Google Docs!) or that multiple users can edit the same document in real time and not stomp all over each other's work. It's how little -- as opposed to how much -- variation there is between OWA and its desktop counterparts.

That small margin makes a big difference.

Better collaborative editing than the desktop
Tony Bradley at PCWorld covers in detail all the new goodies in OWA, which still consists only of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The biggest is simultaneous co-authoring: Many users can log into OWA, open the same document, and work on it simultaneously. Flags within the document tell you where each user is.

One particularly smart touch here is how Microsoft has set different levels of editing granularity for each document type. For Word, it's a paragraph; for Excel, it's a cell; for PowerPoint, it's a slide. They're good commonsense defaults, and in my conversation with Microsoft's people, they hinted at the possibility that it could be made even more fine-grained.

From a practical standpoint, it's unlikely two people will attempt to edit the same sentence at once. But if Microsoft can nudge the line of thinking a smidge further in that direction, it's a sign of how completely Web apps could be able to eclipse their desktop cousins. For one, the desktop versions of these apps don't have anything like the simultaneous-editing features found in OWA -- a case where the Web app actually sports a feature superior to the desktop app.

This brings up the first of two big questions about OWA. Do Web apps need to displace their desktop counterparts?

The answer may be different depending on whether you're asking Microsoft or end-users. End-users may enjoy the convenience of OWA, but there comes a point where OWA simply can't deliver. The longer and more complex the document, the greater the odds OWA -- or your browser -- will simply gag.

There's little question that Microsoft needs to create a product portfolio off the desktop that's as valuable and rich as the one the company has created on it. But I doubt it can move people off desktop editions of Office and into OWA anytime soon, and not just because OWA's feature set is lacking.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/t/office-software/microsoft-office-web-apps-takes-great-leap-toward-office-equality-230424
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UNH, UC Davis launch network to study environmental microbes

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Nov-2013

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Contact: Beth Potier
beth.potier@unh.edu
603-862-1566
University of New Hampshire

DURHAM, N.H. A grant to the University of New Hampshire and the University of California, Davis, will help biologists identify an abundant yet largely unknown category of organisms, leading to better understanding of the vital environmental functions they play.

The National Science Foundation awarded the two universities $500,000 to develop a Research Coordination Network on eukaryotic biodiversity. The work will apply new genome sequencing technology to study and classify microscopic eukaryote species like nematodes, fungi, and single-celled animals.

These small yet complex organisms are invisible to the eye but abundant in marine and terrestrial environments from sandy beaches to garden plots. "If you're making a sandcastle, there are thousands and thousands of these creatures in a handful of sand. They provide key ecosystem services," says co-principal investigator W. Kelley Thomas, Hubbard Professor in Genomics and director of UNH's Hubbard Center for Genome Studies. They process waste, cycle nutrients, and even "eat" spilled oil, he says.

"I call them the 'dark matter' of biology," says Holly Bik, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis and co-principal investigator on the project. "They are in every single environment, but no one looks at them." Bik worked with Thomas as a postdoctoral researcher at UNH.

The traditional taxonomic approach to biodiversity involves looking at an organism and describing the features legs, wings, teeth, leaves that make it similar to or distinct from other organisms. Because taxonomy is far easier and more efficient to apply to cats and cows and pine trees than to microscopic organisms like nematodes, knowledge of the Earth's biodiversity shows a distinct bias toward larger species.

Now, new high-throughput DNA sequencing technology makes it possible to identify and classify these organisms much more quickly and comprehensively, describing each species with a short "barcode" of several hundred nucleotides.

The goal of this new network is to bring together researchers from different fields: taxonomists expert in identifying organisms; ecologists who study these ecosystems; genome scientists and computational biologists who can figure out how to analyze sequence data from these relatively complex animals.

The team aims to organize an annual "catalysis" meeting to bring researchers together, and they will also sponsor symposia at other scientific meetings. The program will bring scientists from around the world to UNH to collaborate toward better understand global patterns of biodiversity and ecosystem function. In addition, it will support an expanded relationship with two biodiversity experts (Eyualem Abebe at Elizabeth City State University and Jyotsna Sharma-Srinivasan at The University of Texas, San Antonio). These partners serve significant populations of undergraduates from underrepresented groups and expand the potential diversity of scientists that will ultimately address long standing questions in biodiversity.

The network will also develop undergraduate training programs on taxonomy and genomics, based at UNH. Activities like "bioinformatics bootcamps" will enhance students' research skills through interdisciplinary training.

"If we want the field to move forward we need to train the next generation of scientists," Bik says.
###

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling 12,300 undergraduate and 2,200 graduate students.

Photographs available to download: http://unh.edu/news/releases/2012/sept/kelleythomas.jpg

Caption: W. Kelley Thomas, Hubbard Professor in Genomics and director of UNH's Hubbard Center for Genome Studies.

Credit: Mike Ross, UNH Photographic Services

http://www.unh.edu/news/releases/2013/11/images/eukaryote-8347.jpg

Caption: A marine nematode.

Credit: James Baldwin and Manuel Mundo, UCR

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UNH, UC Davis launch network to study environmental microbes

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Nov-2013

[

| E-mail

]

Share
Contact: Beth Potier
beth.potier@unh.edu
603-862-1566
University of New Hampshire

DURHAM, N.H. A grant to the University of New Hampshire and the University of California, Davis, will help biologists identify an abundant yet largely unknown category of organisms, leading to better understanding of the vital environmental functions they play.

The National Science Foundation awarded the two universities $500,000 to develop a Research Coordination Network on eukaryotic biodiversity. The work will apply new genome sequencing technology to study and classify microscopic eukaryote species like nematodes, fungi, and single-celled animals.

These small yet complex organisms are invisible to the eye but abundant in marine and terrestrial environments from sandy beaches to garden plots. "If you're making a sandcastle, there are thousands and thousands of these creatures in a handful of sand. They provide key ecosystem services," says co-principal investigator W. Kelley Thomas, Hubbard Professor in Genomics and director of UNH's Hubbard Center for Genome Studies. They process waste, cycle nutrients, and even "eat" spilled oil, he says.

"I call them the 'dark matter' of biology," says Holly Bik, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis and co-principal investigator on the project. "They are in every single environment, but no one looks at them." Bik worked with Thomas as a postdoctoral researcher at UNH.

The traditional taxonomic approach to biodiversity involves looking at an organism and describing the features legs, wings, teeth, leaves that make it similar to or distinct from other organisms. Because taxonomy is far easier and more efficient to apply to cats and cows and pine trees than to microscopic organisms like nematodes, knowledge of the Earth's biodiversity shows a distinct bias toward larger species.

Now, new high-throughput DNA sequencing technology makes it possible to identify and classify these organisms much more quickly and comprehensively, describing each species with a short "barcode" of several hundred nucleotides.

The goal of this new network is to bring together researchers from different fields: taxonomists expert in identifying organisms; ecologists who study these ecosystems; genome scientists and computational biologists who can figure out how to analyze sequence data from these relatively complex animals.

The team aims to organize an annual "catalysis" meeting to bring researchers together, and they will also sponsor symposia at other scientific meetings. The program will bring scientists from around the world to UNH to collaborate toward better understand global patterns of biodiversity and ecosystem function. In addition, it will support an expanded relationship with two biodiversity experts (Eyualem Abebe at Elizabeth City State University and Jyotsna Sharma-Srinivasan at The University of Texas, San Antonio). These partners serve significant populations of undergraduates from underrepresented groups and expand the potential diversity of scientists that will ultimately address long standing questions in biodiversity.

The network will also develop undergraduate training programs on taxonomy and genomics, based at UNH. Activities like "bioinformatics bootcamps" will enhance students' research skills through interdisciplinary training.

"If we want the field to move forward we need to train the next generation of scientists," Bik says.
###

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling 12,300 undergraduate and 2,200 graduate students.

Photographs available to download: http://unh.edu/news/releases/2012/sept/kelleythomas.jpg

Caption: W. Kelley Thomas, Hubbard Professor in Genomics and director of UNH's Hubbard Center for Genome Studies.

Credit: Mike Ross, UNH Photographic Services

http://www.unh.edu/news/releases/2013/11/images/eukaryote-8347.jpg

Caption: A marine nematode.

Credit: James Baldwin and Manuel Mundo, UCR

[

| E-mail

Share

]

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-11/uonh-uud110713.php
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Senate OKs gay rights bill banning discrimination

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, talks to reporters after the Senate cleared a major hurdle and agreed to proceed to debate a bill that would prohibit workplace discrimination against gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Nov. 4, 2013. The bipartisan vote increases the chances that the Senate will pass the bill by week's end, but its prospects in the Republican-led House are dimmer. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate approved legislation outlawing workplace discrimination against gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, demonstrating the nation's quickly evolving attitude toward gay rights nearly two decades after Congress rejected same-sex marriage.

Fifty-four members of the Democratic majority and 10 Republicans voted Thursday for the first major gay rights bill since Congress repealed the ban on gays in the military three years ago. The vote in favor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act was 64-32.

Two opponents of a similar measure 17 years ago, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, the presidential nominee in 2008, and Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, backed the measure this time.

"We are about to make history in this chamber," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine and a chief sponsor of the bill, said shortly before the vote.

The enthusiasm of the bill's supporters was tempered by the reality that the Republican-led House, where conservatives have a firm grip on the agenda, is unlikely to even vote on the legislation. Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, maintains his longstanding opposition to the measure, arguing that it is unnecessary and certain to create costly, frivolous lawsuits for businesses.

Outside conservative groups have cast the bill as anti-family.

President Barack Obama welcomed the vote and urged the House to act.

"One party in one house of Congress should not stand in the way of millions of Americans who want to go to work each day and simply be judged by the job they do," Obama said in a statement. "Now is the time to end this kind of discrimination in the workplace, not enable it."

Gay rights advocates hailed Senate passage as a major victory in a momentous year for the issue. The Supreme Court in June granted federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples, though it avoided a sweeping ruling that would have paved the way for same-sex unions nationwide. Illinois is on the verge of becoming the 15th state to legalize gay marriage along with the District of Columbia.

Supporters called the bill the final step in a long congressional tradition of trying to stop discrimination, coming nearly 50 years after enactment of the Civil Rights Act and 23 years after the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"Now we've finished the trilogy," Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a chief sponsor of the disabilities law, said at a Capitol Hill news conference.

The first openly gay senator, Democrat Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, called the vote a "tremendous milestone" that she will always remember throughout her time in the Senate.

Democrats echoed Obama in pushing for the House to act, with Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois reminding the GOP leader of the history of his party.

"The Republican Party in the United States of America came into being in the 1980s over the issue of slavery, and the man who embodied the ideals of that Republican Party was none other than Abraham Lincoln, who gave his life for his country to end discrimination," Durbin said. "Keep that proud Republican tradition alive."

In the Senate, opponents of the legislation remained mute through three days of debate, with no lawmaker speaking out. That changed on Thursday, as Republican Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana said the legislation would force employers to violate their religious beliefs, a direct counter to rights embodied in the Constitution.

"There's two types of discrimination here we're dealing with, and one of those goes to the very fundamental right granted to every American through our Constitution, a cherished value of freedom of expression and religion," Coats said.

The Senate rejected an amendment sponsored by Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania that would have expanded the number of groups that are covered under the religious exemption. Opponents argued that it would undermine the core bill.

If the House fails to act on the bill, gay rights advocates are likely to press Obama to act unilaterally and issue an executive order barring anti-gay workplace discrimination by federal contractors.

Backers of the bill repeatedly described it as an issue of fairness.

"It is well past time that we, as elected representatives, ensure that our laws protect against discrimination in the workplace for all individuals, that we ensure ... some protections for those within the LGBT community," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who described the diversity in her state.

Murkowski's support underscored the generational shift. Seventeen years ago, when a bill dealing with discrimination based on sexual orientation failed by one vote in the Senate, the senator's father, Frank, voted against it. That was the same year that Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act.

Current federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, race and national origin. But it doesn't stop an employer from firing or refusing to hire workers because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

The bill would bar employers with 15 or more workers from using a person's sexual orientation or gender identity as the basis for making employment decisions, including hiring, firing, compensation or promotion. It would exempt religious institutions and the military.

By voice vote Wednesday, the Senate approved an amendment from Republican Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire that would prevent federal, state and local governments from retaliating against religious groups that are exempt from the law.

Likely Senate approval of the overall bill reflects the nation's growing tolerance of gays and the GOP's political calculation as it looks for support beyond its core base of older voters. A Pew Research survey in June found that more Americans said homosexuality should be accepted rather than discouraged by society by a margin of 60 percent to 31 percent. Opinions were more evenly divided 10 years ago.

Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia have approved laws banning workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and 17 of those also prohibit employers from discriminating based on gender identity.

About 88 percent of Fortune 500 companies have adopted nondiscrimination policies that include sexual orientation, according to the Human Rights Campaign. About 57 percent of those companies include gender identity.

Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., did not vote.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-11-07-Gay%20Rights-Senate/id-a127626cfdca475c9f0281003988fe43
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NFL preps its biggest game for the biggest stage

FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2013 file photo, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell answers questions during an NFL Super Bowl XLVII football game news conference at the New Orleans Convention Center in New Orleans. Feb. 2, 2014, is a day that will be remembered forever in not only the NFL, but in New York and New Jersey, as the Super Bowl will be played outdoors in a northern market for the first time ever. Indeed, Goodell has overcome quite a few challenges in his tenure, but this one may be the toughest. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2013 file photo, Maddie Cooney, 6, just gets her chin high enough for a photo inside a Minnesota Vikings mannequin at the NFL Experience in New Orleans. Feb. 2, 2014, is a day that will be remembered forever in not only the NFL, but in New York and New Jersey, as the Super Bowl will be played outdoors in a northern market for the first time ever. Indeed, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has overcome quite a few challenges in his tenure, but this one may be the toughest. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)

Fans in the stands at Super Bowls past only think they've seen it all.

They've been sun-burned in Los Angeles, soaked in Miami and buffeted by winds at stops in between. Deafened during flyovers. Titillated at halftime, blacked out mid-game and even moved to tears by tributes to servicemen, veterans and the victims of 9/11.

Even so, this next Super Bowl promises those in attendance something different: The chance to freeze their rear ends off.

On Feb. 2, 2014 — the date could still be changed if a Nor'easter rolls in off the Jersey Shore — every one of the 82,000 or so ticketholders entering MetLife Stadium will receive a gift bag. Inside are a seat cushion, muffler, ski gaiters, three pairs of hand- and foot-warmers, lip balm and a package of tissues, plastered with enough logos to make a NASCAR driver jealous.

The Super Bowl has been played in northern cities four times before — inside climate-controlled domes — but never outdoors. The average daily low for East Rutherford, N.J., in early February is 22 degrees, with temperatures typically falling throughout the night, when the game will be played. Snow, wind and rain, or all three at once, is not out of the question. Exactly how much protection all that swag provides against Mother Nature's wrath remains to be seen.

"We can't provide them with coats," said Frank Supovitz, the NFL's vice president in charge of preparations for the game. "But we will be strongly encouraging them to stay in their seats."

Which begs the question: If the game is for the fans, why stage it outdoors in the New Jersey-New York metro area precisely when the trusty Farmer's Almanac, hardly alone among forecasters, is predicting a blizzard?

Money.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and his owners are taking advantage of a lull in the tourism calendar to turn a swath of Manhattan into a playground and make cash registers sing. A 180 foot-tall toboggan slide will be plopped down in Times Square, and a stretch of Broadway from 34th Street to 48th will be closed to traffic, renamed "Super Bowl Boulevard," and converted into a rollicking theme park, merchandise shop and concert venue called the "NFL Experience."

For a week, kids will punt, pass and kick while their parents shop for replica jerseys in locales where bankers and account executives usually gobble down lunch. It won't be the only place on an already crowded spit of land where jaded New Yorkers trade elbows with their guests. As many as 200,000 out-of-towners will be cast in the role of Jack Lemmon in the movie of the same name, dazzled by the goings-on and trying not to get fleeced by savvy hoteliers and street vendors.

Already, reports are circulating about prices being tripled, with modest hotel rooms in Midtown jacked to $1,000 a night, and even more modest accommodations across the Hudson River in New Jersey, close to MetLife Stadium, offered at the princely sum of $600. That's on top of what's already the highest ticket prices ever — ranging from $500 to $2,600 — a hike the NFL candidly acknowledged was intended to make life tough on scalpers.

But hustlers won't be the only folks forced to improvise.

Plans for the event have been three years in the making, but depending on weather, they might not be finalized until the last minute. Moving fans across the region, even aided by the nation's most extensive public transportation network, presents a logistical nightmare — even before security considerations are factored in.

"You've got two states, separated by a river, and people from the five boroughs and eight or nine counties in New Jersey all heading for the same place in a matter of hours," said Al Kelly, who heads up the host Super Bowl committee. "What we have is a series of contingency plans where priorities shift according to the day and in some cases hour by hour. ... If a storm hits one day, we'll shift resources to clearing certain roads and bridges; if it lands somewhere else at a different time, we could be forced to change the entire blueprint.

"The one thing we better be," Kelly said finally, "is nimble."

But it's not just the region's reputation on the line.

By waiving the normal Super Bowl specifications to grease New York's winning bid in 2010 — previously, bid cities were required to average 50-degree temperatures during game week — Goodell and his owners are out to prove the proposition Frank Sinatra laid out in "New York, New York." Namely, that if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

Since taking over as commissioner in 2006, Goodell has made securing new stadiums or renovating existing ones for his already wealthy owners — almost always with some level of taxpayer-financing — every bit as much a signature issue as player safety. It's no coincidence that all five of the stadiums that have, or will, come online during his tenure have already been awarded the big game.

Nor is Goodell above dangling the carrot of a future Super Bowl as a reward to cities and states willing to throw tax dollars into stadium pots. With 19 of the league's 32 teams situated within winter's reach — six already have domed stadiums — a successful Super Bowl outdoors could put the entire U.S. map in play for his pitch.

New York might seem like a tough place to set a precedent. It's already a nexus for many of the world's financial, entertainment and media empires, and chaotic on its quietest day. Just rising above that clutter is no small feat. And even if the NFL does a bang-up job, it won't turn around and ask the region's taxpayers for help anytime soon. MetLife Stadium opened for business in April, 2010, with the $1.6 billion construction cost covered jointly by the co-tenants, New York's Giants and Jets, using private funds.

"The other thing that's important," said Giants co-owner John Mara, the third generation of his family to run the club, "is that all of us, across the NFL for many years, said over and over that so many of the most memorable games ever played were played in extreme weather.

"So why not here?"

The coldest Super Bowl on record was played in Tulane University's stadium in 1972 — temperature at kickoff: 39 degrees — back when the big game was still a small event. More relevant in this case were the 2000 and 2011 Super Bowls, when late-arriving storms turned Atlanta and Dallas, respectively, into ghost towns. Though both games were played in domes, much of Atlanta was frozen over and inaccessible; Dallas did a face-plant in the four inches of snow that fell early in the week, mostly shutting down instead of shoveling out.

At the moment, the NFL is one of the slickest, best-run conglomerates on the planet. It has the kind of monopolistic hold on American sports that Microsoft once exercised over technology. The league takes the lion's share of sports-related TV dollars, ad revenues and airtime, and routinely crushes rivals in head-to-head, time-slot matchups. That's why the date of the Super Bowl has creeped from its traditional Sunday spot late in January to the first week of February, which just happens to be the start of sweeps month.

Next year's big game will be viewed by 100 million-plus people in the United States, and depending on whose numbers are crunched, it's already the most-watched annual sporting event around the world. Only the Olympics and the original futbol — with its World Cup and UEFA Champions League final showcases — can offer an argument. So no matter how many fannies are frozen off inside MetLife, the fans are essentially extras in a show practically guaranteed to be a hit.

Last year's Super Bowl, matching Baltimore against San Francisco inside New Orleans' Superdome, joined nearly two dozen of its predecessors on the short list of most-viewed television broadcasts in U.S. history. That despite a 34-minute stretch early in the third quarter when an electrical failure cut the lights over much of the stadium, delaying the game and sending fans at home scurrying to their refrigerators.

No one was surprised those fans returned in droves soon after to watch a game that wasn't decided for the Ravens until the final play. But it mystified some, and outraged others, that the power went out in a building to which taxpayers have contributed, in installments over the years, about $1 billion to build and then renovate after Hurricane Katrina swept through in 2005.

Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, who retired after that game, and his old sidekick, Terrell Suggs, came up with a conspiracy theory of their own. Both pointed a finger at Goodell, suggesting without so much as a shred of evidence that he threw the switch so the 49ers could climb back into the game.

"You're a zillion-dollar company, and your lights go out? No," Lewis said. "No way."

Apparently, he won't have to worry about that this time around, no matter how cold it gets.

"The one thing I feel really confident about," Mara said, "is that the lights won't go out."

___

Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke@ap.org and follow him at Twitter.com/JimLitke.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-11-07-Super%20Bowl%202014-Getting%20Started/id-d96dfb4f404b40e9b4621e181b7eaecb
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