Cruise Ship Bug Takes to the Skies

60-Second Health | Health

Norovirus, famous for ruining cruises, sickened successive crews and passengers on an Air New Zealand plane. Katherine Harmon reports

December 21, 2011?|

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Holiday travel is a recipe for infection. And recent studies have shown how easily the infamous cruise ship bug, norovirus, can be transmitted on planes.

After a passenger puked on an Air New Zealand flight, crew members tidied up, then clocked out after the plane landed. ?Not only did the crew that cleaned up the mess get sick, but on every successive flight at least one or more crew members got sick with typical symptoms of norovirus.? David Freedman, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, at the recent meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

In fact, almost half of all crew members that worked the plane over the next five days picked up the virus. Planes aren?t scrubbed thoroughly between flights, and norovirus can linger on surfaces for days. But ?in looking at the typical disinfectants that are used by airlines, none of the routine disinfectants would be considered effective against norovirus.?

So, when traveling, wash your hands often. And keep your fingers crossed.

?Katherine Harmon

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]??
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Home sales up. Is the housing market finally turning around?

Sales of previously owned homes rose in November, gaining for the second month in a row. And home-sales volume is up 12 percent from a year ago, says the National Association of Realtors.

The housing market shows more signs of being on the mend ? although the road to full recovery still has some miles ahead.

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Sales of previously owned homes rose in November, gaining for the second month in a row, the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday. Home-sales volume is up 12 percent from its level a year ago, the group said.

The number of unsold homes now stands at a seven months' supply, down from more than nine months as recently as July, the realtors association said.

These indicators, housing-market analysts say, reflect progress in a housing market still struggling to recover after a historic boom and bust. On Tuesday, home builders reported a rise in new-home starts last month, and they said permits (an early gauge of construction in the pipeline) are increasing.

Also, over the past year, the volume of mortgages in delinquency has been falling.

Still, loan delinquencies and foreclosures remain unusually high. And although mortgage rates have dipped to about 4 percent, many would-be buyers have trouble getting approval.

"The increase in sales ... suggests that housing has passed the worst," according to an analysis by Capital Economics in Toronto.

For its part, the National Association of Realtors emphasized the positive trend, even as it revised past numbers to reveal that home sales have been weaker over the past four years than many observers realized.

?Sales reached the highest mark in 10 months, and ... a genuine sustained sales recovery appears to be developing,? NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement accompanying the numbers. ?It looks like more people are realizing the great opportunity that exists in today?s market for buyers with long-term plans.?

The NAR revisions to reports from prior months were big: For the period of 2007 through 2010, sales and inventory were revised downward by 14.3 percent. That means, for instance, that NAR is now reporting sales of 4.2 million homes in 2010, where its previously reported a figure of 4.9 million.

Data problems emerged since 2007 for several reasons, the group said: "For sale by owner" transactions fell sharply (a shift not initially captured by NAR), some sales of newly built homes were incorrectly included in the existing-home tally, some properties were counted in more than one metro area, and there were some "issues related to house flipping" (quick resale of homes).

As sale transactions were overestimated, so were the numbers for homes on the market. Thus the revisions did not greatly affect estimates of "months supply" of homes for sale.

The data downgrade is largely about the rearview mirror, however. A look at the present, with the numbers now adjusted, shows that sales appear to be on the rise, along with home building.

Granted, some big challenges remain.

The NAR report cited a high number of "contract failures," in which deals to sell a home fall through because of things like declined mortgage applications or home appraisals that fail to match the negotiated price.

Perhaps the market's biggest problem is the "shadow inventory" of homes that are likely to come on the market, such as through foreclosure. Although the seven-month supply shown in the NAR data is not that high, another five months of supply may sit uncounted on the sidelines. That estimate comes from CoreLogic ? a firm that tracks housing-market trends such as homes with seriously delinquent loans that are not yet in foreclosure.

Over time, if an economic recovery gains traction, that shadow inventory should decline as more homeowners find ways to avoid foreclosure or sell their homes.

The share of loans that are delinquent has improved over the past year, according to another data firm, Lender Processing Services. But about 1.8 million properties have mortgages at least 90 days past due.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/dc5knqYt8Bs/Home-sales-up.-Is-the-housing-market-finally-turning-around

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First Earth-sized planets found beyond solar system (Reuters)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) ? Astronomers have found a pair of Earth-sized planets orbiting a star similar to the sun, though neither are believed to be suitable for life, scientists on NASA's Kepler telescope team said on Tuesday.

The discovery follows confirmation earlier this month of a super-Earth sized planet, called Kepler-22b, that circles the right distance from its parent star for liquid water to exist on its surface. Water is believed to be a key ingredient for life.

"Kepler-22b has the right temperature, but it is too big. (The planets) we're announcing today are just the right size, but too hot," astronomer David Charbonneau with Harvard University, told reporters during a conference call.

"But you can bet that the hunt is on to find a planet that combines the best of both worlds, a true Earth twin," he said.

The newly discovered planets, called Kepler-20e and 20f, have at least three gas-giant siblings, one of the larger planetary systems found to date.

But the family is nothing like our solar system, where rocky worlds like Venus, Earth and Mars are grouped together closer in toward the sun while gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn are segregated in the outer regions.

The two Earth-like and three Neptune-sized planets in the Kepler-20 family are interspersed and all orbit closer to the parent star than our solar system's innermost planet, Mercury.

"Rocky planets and gas giants happily mingle together. This is the first time we've seen anything like this," Charbonneau said.

Kepler-20e and 20f, which are believed to be too hot for liquid water, probably are not habitable - at least not today.

"If Kepler-20f was formed with water, which I think is likely, then it could have held on to its water for several billions of years," said astronomer Linda Elkins-Tanton with the Carnegie Institute in Washington D.C.

"And that means that this planet could have been habitable in the past for a long period," she said.

The system is located about 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Lyra.

Light travels at about 186,000 miles per second.

(Editing by Kevin Gray and Sandra Maler)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111220/sc_nm/us_space_planets

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Delta to launch new service between Rochester and LaGuardia (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

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Video: Lowe's CEO Responds to All-American Muslim Controversy (Funny or Die) (Little green footballs)

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Witnesses testify in Bradley Manning Wikileaks case (Reuters)

FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) ? Bradley Manning, the suspected source of the largest leak of classified U.S. documents in history, spent his 24th birthday in military court on Saturday listening to investigators detail how they pieced together the case against him.

Manning was a U.S. Army intelligence analyst in Iraq when he is alleged to have illegally downloaded massive data files from the military's classified network and became a source for anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

U.S. officials say WikiLeak's successive data dumps last year, including sensitive diplomatic cables, endangered national security and Manning faces charges including aiding the enemy which could send him to prison for life.

Manning, wearing military fatigues and dark-rimmed glasses, was led into courtroom at Fort Meade, Maryland, uncuffed on the second-day of pre-trial hearings. He listened intently as prosecutors attempted to show they had enough evidence to go to trial under a general court marshall.

That evidence included chat logs in which Manning appears to disclose his activities to former hacker Adrian Lamo, who turned the intelligence analyst in to authorities, triggering the U.S. military investigation in May, 2010.

In Internet chats with Lamo, Manning said he would bring in CDs and load them with downloaded data from the military's Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, known as SIPRNet, Lamo told Reuters in a previous interview.

The prosecution is seeking a general court martial on 22 criminal charges.

If convicted of all counts, Manning would face a maximum punishment of life imprisonment, reduction in rank to the lowest enlisted pay grade, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and a dishonorable discharge, the Army says.

Searches of Manning's belongings turned up multiple instances in which classified information was improperly transferred to portable storage devices, including an SD memory card found through a search of Manning's belongings in the basement of his aunt's home in Potomac, Maryland.

One of the items found among his belongings was a copy of a gunsight video that showed a 2007 helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists. The video was released publicly by WikiLeaks last year.

The prosecution did not present that video as evidence but one witness directly blamed Manning for its broad release.

MENTAL, EMOTIONAL ISSUES

"Now over 5 million people have viewed it and the 5 million -- or 5 billion, whatever the number is -- they're all unauthorized individuals," Special Agent Toni Graham, with the Army Criminal Investigation Division of the Military Police, said, testifying remotely by telephone.

Manning's defense attorneys since the start of proceedings have raised questions about the classification of evidence Manning is alleged to have leaked. On Saturday, they asked about the gunsight video.

They also drew attention to concerns about Manning's mental state, including his struggle with homosexuality. At the time the files were leaked, being openly gay was prohibited in the U.S. military, a ban it ended earlier this year.

Graham confirmed she had found a folder with printed materials related to gender identity, but disregarded them as irrelevant to the investigation.

"We already knew that Pfc Manning was a homosexual. ... We knew he was interested in those topics," she said, adding that he had a "very limited" number of friends.

Manning was quiet during Saturday's proceedings, occasionally taking notes or twirling a pen in his hands. He sometimes turned to speak softly to his attorneys but did not address the court.

In his Web chats with Lamo, Manning appeared to acknowledge giving materials to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

He wrote to Lamo: "I'm a high profile source ... and I've developed a relationship with Assange," according to details of the chats confirmed by Lamo to Reuters.

The Justice Department is investigating Assange and one of his attorneys, Jennifer Robinson, was in the courtroom Saturday.

Assange is in Britain fighting extradition to Sweden over accusations of rape and sexual assault made by two female former WikiLeaks volunteers in August 2010. Britain's Supreme Court said on Friday it had granted permission for Assange to appeal his case.

(Writing by Phil Stewart)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111217/ts_nm/us_usa_defense_manning

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WowWee's AR gaming toys for iOS look like fun | TUAW - The ...

WowWee is beginning to see the value in connected toys that work with the iPhone and iPad. The toy maker is working on a line of toys that include an iOS app and a collectable that interacts the phone or tablet. One game is a zombie invasion that has four collectibles to go along with an iPad game. The figures are conductive, so you use them to control the player on your screen. Another game includes a small airplane model that you fly by attaching it to your phone.

Each set will retail for $9.99 and goon sale in April of next year. It's an intriguing concept, but one that'll probably appeal to adults more than kids. Kids may enjoy the games, but the collectibles, especially the foam airplane, would probably last no more than a few days in the hands of your average ten-year-old. I do think, though, this is beginning of a new kind of toy that mixes physical toys with digital entertainment. It's almost the best of both worlds- your child can practice their fine motor skills, while, at the same time, improve their computing skills.

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Source: http://www.tuaw.com/2011/12/16/wowwees-ar-gaming-toys-for-ios-look-like-fun/

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