U.S. power grid needs cybersecurity protection: panel (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The threat of cyberattacks on the U.S. power grid should be dealt with by a single federal agency, not the welter of groups now charged with the electric system's security, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported on Monday.

While acknowledging there is no absolute insurance against such attacks, the MIT researchers said a single U.S. agency would be better able to address the problem than the disparate federal, state and local entities responsible for various aspects of safeguarding the power grid.

In a report on the future of the U.S. electric grid, through 2030, the team recommended that the federal agency should work with industry and have the appropriate regulatory authority to enhance cybersecurity preparedness, response and recovery.

To cope with an expected increase in renewable sources such as wind and solar power, where energy is often generated far from the densely populated areas where it is used, the panel recommended granting more authority to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to site transmission facilities that cross state lines.

Other recommendations include:

- Utilities with advanced metering technology should start the transition to customer prices that reflect the time-varying costs of supplying power, to improve the grid's efficiency and make rates lower.

- The electric power industry should fund research and development in computational tools for bulk power systems, methods for wide-area transmission planning, procedures for responding to cyberattacks and models of consumer response to real-time pricing.

- To improve decision-making, more detailed data about the bulk power system, results from "smart grid" demonstration projects and other measures of utility cost and performance should be compiled and shared.

(Reporting by Deborah Zabarenko; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111205/tc_nm/us_energy_usa_grid

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Hsieh PJM OpEd: Screening For Cancer vs. Screening For Terrorists

The November 30, 2011 edition of PJMedia has published my latest OpEd, "Screening For Terrorists vs. Screening For Cancer".

My theme is that the seemingly contradictory policies of the government of terrorist screening vs. cancer screening actually demonstrate a common theme.

Here is the opening:

As the holiday travel season approaches, millions of American air passengers will become painfully reacquainted with Transportation Security Agency (TSA) screening measures. Passengers must submit to either medically unnecessary X-rays or intrusive gropings.

Yet in the realm of health care the federal government has adopted a new policy of discouraging routine screening tests for many cancers. Although these two policies may seem superficially contradictory, they demonstrate an underlying common theme of the government seeking ever-greater control over our bodies and our freedom.

In particular:
Our government currently tells air travelers, "Submit to our screening despite the dubious effectiveness, bodily invasion, and needless emotional distress" while simultaneously telling patients, "Don't undergo cancer screening because it might lead to further bodily invasion and emotional distress."

Despite this seeming contradiction, in both cases the government is really saying, "We'll decide who can do what with your body." The American founding fathers would never have imagined that the federal government would someday presume to restrict citizens' medical or travel freedoms in such a fashion.

(Read the full text of "Screening For Terrorists vs. Screening For Cancer".)

Source: http://blog.modernpaleo.com/2011/12/hsieh-pjm-oped-screening-for-cancer-vs.html

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Obama defends American faith amid GOP critique (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Republican Mitt Romney accuses President Barack Obama of considering America "just another nation." To other GOP politicians running for the White House, Obama has apologized for the United States and is presiding over the nation's decline.

Now comes the counteroffensive.

The president of the United States is defending his faith in America, confronting GOP efforts to undercut his leadership and raise questions about his patriotism as he seeks re-election.

In the battle over "American exceptionalism," Obama used a recent trip to Asia to highlight America's role as the strongest and most influential nation on earth. In this election season, responding to the Republican critique is essential for Obama, the only incumbent ever compelled to show a birth certificate to defend his legitimacy.

"Sometimes the pundits and the newspapers and the TV commentators love to talk about how America is slipping and America is in decline," Obama said Wednesday at a New York fundraiser. "That's not what you feel when you're in Asia. They're looking to us for leadership. They know that America is great not just because we're powerful, but also because we have a set of values that the world admires."

"We don't just think about what's good for us, but we're also thinking about what's good for the world," he said. "That's what makes us special. That's what makes us exceptional."

Republicans have seized on "American exceptionalism," a belief among many in the nation that the U.S. is special among global powers, and tried to portray Obama as expressing ambivalence about the promise of his own country. The message resounds with party activists who still admire President Ronald Reagan, who memorialized America as that "Shining City on a Hill" during the 1980s.

"We have a president right now who thinks America's just another nation. America is an exceptional nation," Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, said during a GOP debate in Las Vegas last month. Even his campaign slogan ? "Believe in America" ? suggests that the current president doesn't.

Others have tried to use it to their advantage.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, in an interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly last month, said Obama had "traveled around the country making excuses for America, apologizing for America, saying that America is not an exemplary country."

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich criticized Obama after 16 Latin American and Caribbean nations filed "friend of the court" briefs in a Justice Department lawsuit against a tough new immigration law in South Carolina, home to an important GOP primary. "It makes you wonder what country does President Obama think he is president of," Gingrich said.

Obama has given detractors ample material for their attacks.

At a San Francisco fundraiser in October, the president talked about the importance of investing in education, new roads and bridges and other ways to build the economy.

"We used to have the best stuff. Anybody been to Beijing Airport lately?" Obama said, asking what has changed. "Well, we've lost our ambition, our imagination, and our willingness to do the things that built the Golden Gate Bridge and Hoover Dam." Republicans picked up on the comments, accusing Obama of calling Americans unambitious.

During a meeting with business executives in Honolulu last month, Obama was asked about impediments to investment in the U.S. He said many foreign investors see opportunity here, "but we've been a little bit lazy, I think over the last couple of decades." The "lazy" comments were quickly turned into an attack ad from Perry.

During a 2009 news conference, Obama was asked whether he subscribed to the concept of American exceptionalism. He said he believed in American exceptionalism, "just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism."

The president said he was "enormously proud of my country" and highlighted the nation's "core set of values enshrined in our Constitution" that ensure democracy, free speech and equality. Words that voters are likely to hear more of during the next year.

A Gallup poll in December 2010 found that 80 percent of Americans thought the U.S. had a unique character that made it the greatest country in the world. The survey found that 91 percent of Republicans agreed with the statement.

In the same poll, 34 percent of Republicans said Obama believed the U.S. was the greatest country in the world, while 83 percent of Democrats said he did.

The American exceptionalism argument has traditionally signaled U.S. strength overseas and the promotion of American values such as freedom of speech and religion. But with Obama's rise, it has taken on a new meaning.

At a time of economic discord, it builds on the notion that America's weakened economy could hurt its standing across the globe. It offers a critique of Obama's foreign policy credentials, even as troops begin heading home from Iraq and the U.S. role in Afghanistan is transitioning.

It also represents a subtle way to question Obama's patriotism, the seeds of which reside in the "birther" movement that questioned the legitimacy of Obama's presidency. Suspicions over Obama's citizenship eventually prompted the White House to produce the president's long-form birth certificate showing he was born in Hawaii.

Yet Democrats don't see this as a debilitating issue for the president, but more a matter of fodder in the Republican primary. Obama, they say, can draw upon it to show optimism in the country.

"Obama is powerful proof of American exceptionalism, that this country has certain set of ideals," said Democratic consultant Bob Shrum. "His election and his presidency is a testament to the character of the country."

Obama has been assertive in recent weeks about America's unique role in the world as it shifts away from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. During his nine-day Asian trip last month, the president reiterated the U.S.'s growing role in the region and stressed that "American leadership is still welcome."

___

Follow Ken Thomas on Twitter at http://twitter.com/AP_Ken_Thomas

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111205/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_defending_america

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DNA highlights Native American die-off

Brief, dramatic population decline after European contact left genetic mark

Web edition : 6:52 pm

Genetic evidence now backs up Spanish documents from the 16th century describing smallpox epidemics that decimated Native American populations.

Native American numbers briefly plummeted by about 50 percent around the time European explorers arrived, before rebounding within 200 to 300 years, say geneticist Brendan O?Fallon of ARUP Laboratories in Salt Lake City and anthropologist Lars Fehren-Schmitz of the University of G?ttingen in Germany. Population declines occurred throughout North and South America around 500 years ago, the researchers report in a paper published online December 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

O?Fallon and Fehren-Schmitz analyzed chemical sequences in ancient and modern mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited from the mother, to calculate the number of breeding females in the Americas over time. Based on those results, O?Fallon estimates that a Native American population of several million fell to roughly half that size once European explorers entered the continent.

?If disease was the primary cause of mortality, surviving Native Americans would have been more resistant to infection after initial epidemics, helping them bounce back quickly,? O?Fallon says.

Researchers disagree about when people first reached the Americas. Whenever initial human settlers arrived, Native American numbers expanded rapidly between 15,000 and 10,000 years ago, several thousand years later than previous DNA-based estimates, the scientists say. Population size then stabilized until suddenly plummeting as the era of European contact dawned, they find.

Several earlier genetic investigations uncovered no signs of mass deaths among Native Americans around the time they first encountered Europeans (SN: 2/16/08, p. 102).

?These new results confirm what?s known from historic sources, but the quality of ancient DNA data raises potential concerns,? remarks geneticist Phillip Endicott of Mus?e de l?Homme in Paris. An unknown number of chemical sequence changes in mitochondrial DNA preserved in Native Americans? bones may have resulted from contamination in the ground or after being handled by excavators, Endicott says. These sequence configurations, if intact, provide crucial clues to population trends.

O?Fallon and Fehren-Schmitz analyzed partial sequences of ancient Native American DNA ranging in age from 5,000 to 800 years old. The researchers also examined mitochondrial DNA of 137 people representing five major Native American sequence patterns found in different parts of North and South America.

In the new analysis, only one, relatively rare mitochondrial DNA group repeatedly branched into new genetic lineages over the past 10,000 years. The other four groups display genetic splits bunched within the past few hundred years.

Reasons for these population differences are unclear, O?Fallon says. A closer examination of each of the five Native American genetic groups is needed to confirm that the new estimate of contact-era population losses is accurate, comments anthropological geneticist Connie Mulligan of the University of Florida in Gainesville.


Found in: Anthropology, Genes & Cells and Humans

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/336707/title/DNA_highlights_Native_American_die-off

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Italian gov't to convene on new measures Sunday

In this picture taken Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011, Italian Premier Mario Monti talks to journalistas at Chigi Palace, Premier's office, in Rome. Monti briefed political leaders Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011, on his package of austerity and economic growth measures ahead of a critical week of Italian and European decision-making to confront the continent's debt crisis. Politicians gave few details about the individual measures Monti outlined, but described them as "severe'' but necessary since Italy had put off tough economic reforms for too long. (AP Photo/Mauro Scrobogna, LaPresse) ITALY OUT

In this picture taken Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011, Italian Premier Mario Monti talks to journalistas at Chigi Palace, Premier's office, in Rome. Monti briefed political leaders Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011, on his package of austerity and economic growth measures ahead of a critical week of Italian and European decision-making to confront the continent's debt crisis. Politicians gave few details about the individual measures Monti outlined, but described them as "severe'' but necessary since Italy had put off tough economic reforms for too long. (AP Photo/Mauro Scrobogna, LaPresse) ITALY OUT

(AP) ? Premier Mario Monti has called a Cabinet meeting in Rome on Sunday to approve emergency austerity and growth measures aimed at saving the euro currency from collapse.

Monti is under extreme pressure to come up with speedy and credible measures that will persuade markets to stop betting against the common currency.

The Cabinet was originally scheduled to meet Monday, but was moved up following Monti's weekend of meetings with political parties, unions, business groups and consumer lobbies.

The premier hasn't disclosed details of his rescue plan, but has said it includes both austerity cuts and measures to boost growth in Italy's anemic economy. He has promised it would be socially equitable, and that it would go after those who hadn't paid their share of taxes before.

The various parties briefed have said the package likely includes reinstating an unpopular home property tax abolished by Berlusconi, raising the sales tax and the income tax at the highest brackets by a few percentage points, and requiring Italians to work more than the 40 years now needed to receive a pension.

The head of Italy's industrial lobby said Sunday that the survival of the common euro currency depends on Italy's coming up with very strong austerity and growth measures ? followed by a concerted effort at the European level so that Italian sacrifices are not in vain.

Confindustria President Emma Marcegaglia told reporters after meeting with Monti that the measures are "very heavy."

The coming days "will decided if the euro will survive or not. The first move to save the euro is in Italian hands, with a very strong measures," Marcegaglia said. The measures will be "fundamental to saving Italy and to saving the euro."

Italian borrowing costs have spiked, which could spell disaster if Italy is unable to keep up on payments to service its enormous debt of ?1.9 trillion ($2.57 trillion), or 120 percent of its GDP.

Unlike Greece, Portugal and Ireland, which got bailouts after their borrowing rates skyrocketed, the eurozone's third-largest economy is considered to be too big to bail out. An Italian default would be disastrous for the 17-member eurozone and reverberate throughout the global economy.

Union head Raffaele Bonnani, however, urged Monti to reconsider raising the pension age across the board, saying that workers in hard labor should be allowed to retire without added requirements, and that women who join the work force after raising children might have to work well into old age if the 40-year seniority requirement were raised.

But he said he was against calling a general strike at this sensitive moment, and would instead pursue a policy of negotiation with the government.

Marcegaglia said the measures were concentrated on raising taxes ? and to balance that she called for an immediate look at ways to cut political and bureaucratic spending. "This kind of fiscal pressure is not sustainable," she said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-12-04-Italy-Financial%20Crisis/id-fd7ca3ecde174829befdb9778d43174d

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Stealthy cellphone software stirs outcry

(AP) ? Technology bloggers are asking if our cellphones are spying on us after a security researcher said a piece of software hidden on millions of phones was recording virtually everything people do with them.

Amid a broad outcry, Sen. Al Franken is calling for an investigation. A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the software's maker, Carrier IQ Inc. of Mountain View, California

The software, which Carrier IQ says is used on some 150 million mobile devices, appears relatively innocuous. It does watch what owners of Sprint Nextel Corp. and AT&T Inc. smartphones do with them, including what people type and the numbers they dial. But it doesn't seem to transmit every keystroke to the company. Instead, it kicks into action when there's a problem, like a call that doesn't go through, and it lets the phone company know.

"It is software that is developed in partnership with carriers with the intent to improve network performance. As far as we can tell, it meets this description in execution," said Tim Wyatt, principal engineer at Lookout, a cellphone security company.

"In line with our privacy policy, we solely use CIQ software data to improve wireless network and service performance," AT&T said in a statement.

Carrier IQ says the data its software gathers is stored by the phone companies or at Carrier IQ's facilities. It doesn't sell the data to third parties. Phone companies, of course, already are custodians of a wealth of private information, including whom you call, where you surf and what your text messages say.

The brouhaha started a few weeks ago, when a programmer named Trevor Eckhart documented Carrier IQ's workings with videos on his blog. The software company threatened him with a lawsuit if he didn't take the information down. The Electronic Frontier Foundation took on Eckhart's case, and the company backed down.

Eckhart posted another video this week, showing Carrier IQ's software logging keystrokes on an HTC EVO 3D from Sprint.

A central privacy worry is what kind of data Carrier IQ is retaining.

Andrew Coward, a Carrier IQ vice president, said the software doesn't record every keystroke or send information about all of them back to the company. The only keystrokes it cares about are specific administrative commands, including those instructing the software to phone "home." The rest it discards, Coward said.

"We never expected to need the content of SMS messages, so we didn't code for it," Coward told The Associated Press in an interview.

Apple Inc. has said it has stopped supporting Carrier IQ in most of its products. Separately, the company came under fire last year over location-tracking features of the iPhone and made a software change to keep data on users' movements for less time.

For now, there's no easy way to uninstall the Carrier IQ software without unsanctioned third-party software. Coward said it is "too early to tell" whether the company will make any substantial changes to the software because of the uproar.

___

Svensson reported from New York.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2011-12-02-Cellphone%20Privacy/id-5dd168806d2946459d143407ba0072cb

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Fire injures monk, destroys Colo. Buddhist temple (AP)

WESTMINSTER, Colo. ? A fire in the Denver suburb of Westminster has injured a monk and destroyed the Lao Buddhist Temple.

Westminster Fire Department spokeswoman Diana Allen said the cause is under investigation but that there is no reason to believe it was intentionally set. The fire was reported about 6 a.m. Monday.

Allen says the monk suffered minor burns and smoke inhalation, but his injuries are not life-threatening.

Temple secretary Sy Pong identified the monk as Ounkham Veunnasack (AHN'-kam VEN'-nah-sak). Pong says four to six monks lived at the temple.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111205/ap_on_re_us/us_temple_fire

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NYC ban on after-school worship services stands (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The Supreme Court rejected on Monday a plea from a tiny evangelical church in the Bronx to overturn New York City's ban on religious worship services at public schools.

The justices left in place a federal appeals court ruling that upheld the city's policy, which allows prayer and religious instruction but draws a line at worship.

"We're very disappointed," said Pastor Robert Hall of the 48-member Bronx Household of Faith, which has been pressing its case for 17 years. "We think this is a dangerous precedent that allows the state to make a distinction between various types of religious activity."

Hall's congregation has been holding its Sunday service at P.S. 15 since 2002.

The city said it risked blurring church-state separation if it allowed worship services in public schools.

About 60 groups had been allowed to worship in public buildings pending Supreme Court action, but the city said Monday that the practice will end Feb. 12.

Said Jane Gordon, a senior counsel for the city: "We view this as a victory for the city's schoolchildren and their families. The department was quite properly concerned about having any school in this diverse city identified with one particular religious belief or practice."

Hall said his church might have to rent a smaller space and hold two services.

"I'm concerned that other school districts that now permit religious groups to worship will reconsider," said Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defense Fund, who argued the church's case.

He said that with the defeat in the courts, the issue will move to legislatures where laws permitting worship can be considered.

New York City Councilman Fernando Cabrera said he would introduce legislation on Thursday that would allow worship in schools after school hours.

"This case was never about special treatment," he said. "It was about fairness and I fully intend to continue this fight until we see action."

___

Associated Press Writer Jim Fitzgerald in New York contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111205/ap_on_re_us/us_supreme_court_church_school_space

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Bombs targeting pilgrims kill 22 in Iraq's Hilla (Reuters)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) ? Three bombs tore through crowds of Shi'ite pilgrims celebrating a major ritual in Iraq's Hilla city on Monday, killing least 22 - mostly women and children - and wounding 60 more, local police and witnesses said.

The attacks, at the height of Ashura, which commemorates the death of Prophet Mohammad's grandson Imam Hussein and defines Shi'ite Islam, underscored Iraq's fragile security as the last U.S. troops withdraw from the country by the end of the year.

In the first attack, a car bomb blasted the end of one Shi'ite procession, killing 16 mainly women and children, wounding 45 others and leaving bloody pools, shoes and tore clothes scattered across the street, police and witnesses said.

"A powerful and horrible explosion went off behind us, smoke filled the area," said Hadi al-Mamouri, who was taking part in the ritual. "I could only hear the screams of women and I could only see the bodies of women and children on the street."

A second attack involving two roadside bombs killed at least six more people at another procession in Hilla and wounded 15 more, police sources said.

The attacks came as the last 10,000 American troops prepare to withdraw by the end of 2011, more than eight years after the invasion that ousted Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein and allowed the country's Shi'ite majority to ascend.

On Monday, an Iraqi Sunni Muslim insurgent group with links to Hussein's banned Baath party vowed to continue attacks on U.S. personnel staying in Iraq even after troops withdraw.

Sunni Islamist insurgents often target Shi'ite shrines and ceremonies in an attempt to inflame sectarian tensions still simmering close to the surface in Iraq.

Violence has eased sharply since its worst years in 2006-2007 when Sunni and Shi'ite armed groups killed thousands in intercommunal assassinations and bombings. But Sunni insurgents and Shi'ite militias still carry out deadly attacks.

Iraq's security forces say they are generally ready to contain the stubborn insurgencies, but they acknowledge gaps in their abilities such as air defense and intelligence gathering once the American military depart.

(Reporting by Baghdad newsroom; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111205/wl_nm/us_iraq_violence

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