Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is likely to have a very long day when she testifies before Congress about the Affordable Care Act website problems.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is likely to have a very long day when she testifies before Congress about the Affordable Care Act website problems.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
The hottest hot seat in Washington is the one occupied by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, whose office confirmed Monday she'll testify about the Internet disaster that is HealthCare.gov, the Affordable Care Act website.
It's not yet clear when she'll go before Congress, but it won't be soon enough for the Republicans who are calling for her resignation. Sebelius originally declined to appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Thursday, saying she had a scheduling conflict.
Many Democrats are also fuming at the shambolic roll out of the federal health exchange website, which isn't just an embarrassment to the administration but a threat to President Obama's legacy.
When she does testify, here are five questions Sebelius will almost certainly get:
What did she know and when did she know it?
This is a Washington classic, a staple of any investigatory effort. Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the House committee holding Thursday's hearing, has signaled that he wants to know why Sebelius and others told lawmakers the federal government would be ready to go on Oct. 1 when that was far from true.
"Top administration officials repeatedly testified everything was on track, but the broad technological failures reveal that was not the case," Upton said in a news release. "Either the administration was not ready for launch, or it was not up to the job."
How many people have actually "enrolled" in health insurance through the health exchanges?
HHS on Sunday said there were "nearly a half million applications for coverage." But that's a vague number, as is the definition of enrollment. To some, it means submitting an application; to others, it means actually paying for insurance. The administration has been notably reticent about providing details. Which is why the Republican National Committee is trying to pry them out through a Freedom of Information Act request. Expect plenty of questions from House Republicans seeking hard numbers.
How can anyone trust that the problems will be fixed in time when past Obama administration assurances proved so wrong?
The Affordable Care Act's open enrollment period is scheduled to end Dec. 15. In a speech Monday that defended the law while also expressing frustration with the website, Obama said: "We are doing everything we can possibly do to get the websites working better, faster, sooner. We got people working overtime, 24/7, to boost capacity and address the problems."
Still, experts question whether the website can be made to function as well as it needs to in the remaining time. Expect much skepticism about any assurances Sebelius gives.
Do the problems with Obamacare support delaying the individual mandate for a year?
This is likely to be a major line of questioning for Sebelius from Republicans. Obama previewed her likely response when he said that Obamacare is "not just a website" — his point being that the law itself is working just fine, and the flaws of one component aren't enough to delay it. Sebelius is likely to be forced to repeatedly push back against this line of questioning.
Given the scope of the problem, shouldn't she resign?
This is also likely to be a recurring theme during the hearing. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., a longtime acquaintance, has called for her resignation, as have Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and several House members.
Sebelius has shown no signs that she is considering stepping down and was prominently seated in the front row for Obama's Monday speech. If Sebelius, a holdover from the first term, did step down, it would not only give Obamacare's Republican opponents their biggest trophy yet but would also create more turbulence at a critical moment for the law. So it's unlikely to happen. But that won't stop Republicans from repeatedly posing the question.
This summer, as workers labored away at a construction site at the southern tip of Manhattan, a team of archaeologists following their progress made an amazing discovery: Booze—or more specifically, the bottles it came in—from the late 1700s. Right underneath our feet.
Finally, all the madness has settled down in Jon Fitch's life.
From his upset loss to Demian Maia, to his controversial cut from the UFC roster, to his submission loss in under a minute to Josh Burkman in his World Series of Fighting debut, 2013 has been memorable for the American Kickboxing Academy veteran, but not always for the best reasons.
But on Monday's edition of The MMA Hour, Fitch said that's all in the past. And not a moment too soon: He returns to action Saturday night at WSOF 6 in Coral Gables, Fla., where he meets unheralded Marcelo Alfaya in a welterweight main-card bout.
"I have my stuff together much more for this training camp," Fitch said. "Much more focused for this training camp. A lot of the dust has settled and gone by from all the stuff that happened in the last year. Being released from the UFC and the loss to Demian Maia, I put all that stuff behind me also. It's been much more focused for this training camp and this fight."
The move from the UFC to WSOF hasn't been the only change in Fitch's career. He's relocated from the Bay Area to Syracuse, N.Y., to help run the Pacific Health Club in nearby Liverpool, a full-service gym which will include MMA training. Fitch, however, will continue to base his training camps with AKA when he's preparing for a fight.
"I'll be coming back and training with AKA," Fitch said. "It's in the contract that I come back out for training in California. I'm trying to build something out there, we don't quite have the bodies around for me to be able to do that. [If in] 3-5 years if I'm still in the area, maybe it's something I'd consider. But we have such a huge group of guys at AKA that it would be stupid not to be there training with them."
Two of those AKA guys, of course, were in the news over the weekend. Cain Velasaquez, the UFC heavyweight champion, defended his crown with a brutal victory over Junior dos Santos in a trilogy fight. Meanwhile, his main training partner, Daniel Cormier, handily defeated Roy Nelson in what is expected to be his last fight at heavyweight before dropping down to 205.
When pressed on who would win a head-to-head battle, Fitch said the tie goes to the guy with the size.
"[Cormier] is not a true heavyweight," Fitch said. He might be 225, 230 soaking wet. He's not a heavyweight. He's so good as an athlete and a fighter that he can get away with beating heavyweights up, but he's not a true heavyweight. Just based on size, you have two guys who are equally skilled, equal work ethic, equal punching power, equal everything, you're going to put your money on the guy who weighs more."
That's conjecture, of course. But Fitch's fight with Alfaya is reality. The American Top Team fighter has been competing since 2002, but went nearly two years without competing following a knockout loss to Jake Ellenberger in Bellator in 2009. He returned in 2009, however, and has won three straight, including a 25-second knockout win in his last fight in January.
"He's a tough guy," Fitch said. "Good jiu-jitsu, heavy-handed. He hasn't had a super-active career in the last three years, but he had some good wins. He had a 30-second knockout in last fight. He's a serious threat so I have to take him as a serious threat and do whatever I can to put him away as fast as I can."
And while he's focused on Saturday's bout, Fitch has to admit he has his eyes on a rematch with Burkman, who choked him out in 41 seconds in June. Burkman meets Carl on Saturday in the main event, which will determine the first WSOF welterweight champ.
"That would work out best for everyone involved," said Fitch, who has three fights left on his WSOF deal. "I think the fans, the organization and me and Josh would be a big fight, there would be a lot of eyeballs on it. We both have to take care of business this weekend."
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dollar gained and global equity markets traded at five-year highs on Monday, buoyed by a benign outlook for stocks as investors awaited a backlog of U.S. economic data that may yield clues on when the Federal Reserve will begin to pare its stimulus program.
Wall Street traded near break-even on the realization the U.S. fiscal impasse that was resolved last week by pushing decisions into early next year will likely keep the Fed's bond-buying in place well into 2014, which would be good for stocks.
The United States is enjoying moderate growth with tame inflation, a Goldilocks economic climate that is neither too hot nor too cold but has been distorted by the Fed's intervention.
"I wouldn't bet against the market in the short term. Investors as a group seem to have decided that the Fed is on board for the foreseeable future," said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial in Waltham, Massachusetts. "It's Goldilocks's evil twin."
MSCI's world equity index <.miwd00000pus>, which tracks shares in 45 countries, was up as much as 0.7 percent before flattening, while the FTSEurofirst 300 index <.fteu3> of leading European shares rose 0.23 percent to close at a provisional 1,280.66.
Solid corporate earnings from the likes of Philips , whose shares jumped 6.5 percent after the Dutch maker of healthcare equipment and energy-efficient lighting reported a near tripling of its third-quarter net profit, lifted European shares.
The S&P 500 hit a record high early in the session, boosted by gains in Apple after a bullish research note, but lackluster results from McDonald's Corp. weighed on the Dow and S&P, which reversed gains to trade slightly lower.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 12.54 points, or 0.08 percent, at 15,387.11. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 0.72 points, or 0.04 percent, at 1,743.78. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 6.72 points, or 0.17 percent, at 3,921.00.
The day's U.S. economic data supported views of modest growth and combined with the prospect of renewed political gridlock at the beginning of 2014, the Fed's stimulus program may stay intact for months, if not more.
"This is a weird case, I acknowledge, but as long as things don't get too good, it's actually better. We want to grow a little bit but not fast enough to pull the stimulus back," McMillan said.
U.S. home resales fell in September and prices rose at their slowest pace in five months, the latest signs higher mortgage rates were taking some edge off the housing market recovery.
The National Association of Realtors said on Monday that home sales fell 1.9 percent in September to an annual rate of 5.29 million units. August's sales pace was revised down to 5.39 million units from the previously reported 5.48 million units.
U.S. Treasuries prices dipped ahead of Tuesday's release of employment data for September, after the partial U.S. government shutdown for more than two weeks delayed economic releases and increased concerns that the closures will weigh on growth.
"The (data) expectations are probably that it has a better chance of being stronger because it was pre-government shutdown," said Charles Comiskey, head of Treasuries trading at Bank of Nova Scotia in New York.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 5/32 in price to yield 2.605 percent.
The dollar climbed against the yen and the Swiss franc as a few investors positioned for an expected strong U.S. jobs data reading on Tuesday, which will provide new fodder for the debate over when the Fed will begin to scale back monetary stimulus.
Economists polled by Reuters expect jobs growth of around 180,000 and an unemployment rate steady at 7.3 percent.
"For now, all eyes will turn to U.S. nonfarm payrolls data tomorrow, with markets anticipating a print near the 180K level," said Boris Schlossberg, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset Management in New York. "If the numbers are close to expectations, the greenback could see a relief rebound as the week proceeds."
The dollar rose 0.44 percent against the yen to 98.13 yen, inching toward a near three-week high of 99.00 yen set last Thursday. Against the Swiss franc, the dollar was up 0.03 percent at 0.9020 franc.
The dollar index was up 0.09 percent at 79.726 <.dxy>.
U.S. crude slipped below $100 per barrel on pressure from strong supply, but losses were limited by hopes the Fed will delay curbing its money-printing program until next year.
Stocks of U.S. crude oil gained 4.0 million barrels, almost double the forecast for a build of 2.2 million barrels, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Brent crude futures for December delivery slipped 24 cents to $109.70 a barrel.
U.S. crude oil futures for November delivery fell by $1.05 to $99.76 a barrel.
(Additional reporting by Richard Hubbard in London; Editing by Dan Grebler and Leslie Adler)
In the wake of Charlie Hunnam's abrupt departure from "Fifty Shades of Grey," the studio is left to scramble desperately for another actor to star opposite Dakota Johnson.
Universal Pictures and Focus Features haven't yet resorted to posting a woman-seeking-man personal ad on Craigslist. But in the wake of CharlieHunnam's abrupt departure from Fifty Shades of Grey -- after what sources say was increasing conflict with the high-profile film's creative team -- the studio is left to scramble desperately for another actor to star opposite Dakota Johnson in the role of billionaire S&M fan Christian Grey so the project can meet a looming Nov. 1 start date.
Universal chairman Donna Langley, producers Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti, director Sam Taylor-Johnson and author EL James are said to have drafted a list of four men they want to read for the role. Although the list is being kept under NSA-level secrecy, THR.com revealed Oct. 13 that British TV stars Jamie Dornan, 31, and Christian Cooke, 26, are among the targets. Both actors came close to capturing the part the first time around but lost to Hunnam because the Sons of Anarchy star is a bigger name. (True Blood's Alexander Skarsgard also is being considered.)
Dornan could be emerging as a front-runner. Born in Northern Ireland, he's a former Calvin Klein model, dated Keira Knightley for two years and played Sheriff Graham on the first season of ABC's Once Upon a Time. According to a source, Dornan was contacted by Langley even before Hunnam officially dropped out Oct. 12. But a Dornan confidant says no overtures had been made at press time to the actor, who stars in British series The Fall, on which he plays a killer terrorizing Belfast. The fact that Dornan's wife, actress-singer Amelia Warner, is pregnant also could complicate matters.
The last thing Universal wants is another actor to emerge as its Fifty Shades protagonist only to waffle. The studio is reeling over Hunnam's exit less than three weeks before the start of production. Sources say his discomfort with the hoopla around the project had been mounting for at least four weeks before he bailed, which officially was blamed on his Sons schedule not allowing him time to prepare (the FX series wraps production Oct. 21). After signing Sept. 2, Hunnam faced a public frenzy on social media sites, where fans of the book congregated to fawn over and complain about his casting. Universal was forced to hire bodyguards for the actor at a recent Sons premiere, and two appearances to promote the show were canceled -- one at Goulet Motosports in Hawkesbury, Ontario, on Sept. 14, and one at Rocky's Harley-Davidson in London, Ontario, on Oct. 13.
In addition, Hunnam, who also is a writer (he penned the gothic horror screenplay Vlad for Brad Pitt's Plan B and Summit Entertainment), is said to have submitted his own very detailed script notes on Kelly Marcel's adaptation of the runaway best-seller. The notes were well received, according to sources, but that only led to Hunnam seeking further script approval, which was denied. "That's Charlie, that's who he is. He's particular," says one source.
According to another source, Hunnam, who was to be paid about $125,000 for the film, began butting heads with the creative team, including Taylor-Johnson. The conflict reached a fever pitch in early October, though everyone involved thought the issues had been resolved. But the discord spiked again Oct. 11. Hunnam's team at CAA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners strongly advised him to stay on the project for fear that his exit would embarrass Langley -- new to the chairman job -- and burn a bridge with one of the major studios. That same day, Universal hired writer Patrick Marber -- no stranger to taboo sex themes with his Oscar-nominated screenplay Notes on a Scandal -- to do a polish and bolster the characters. But by then, Hunnam, whose heart it seems never was in the project, had decided to decamp. The next morning, the studio announced his departure, and James tweeted, "I wish Charlie all the best." Universal and CAA declined comment.
Hunnam isn't the first actor to have doubts about playing the dungeon-loving Christian Grey. James' first choice, Robert Pattinson, never engaged with producers. Garrett Hedlund was heavily courted this summer and even received an informal offer, but the Tron: Legacy star passed in July because he couldn't connect with the character. Now he is in Australia to shoot the Angelina Jolie-directed Unbroken.
Fortunately for Universal, its leading lady, Johnson, 24, remains firmly in place, ready to take on the virgin-turned-sexpert Anastasia Steele, a role that has greater dimension than the Grey character. But with the clock ticking, the start of production likely will need to be pushed back at least a week. Still, the studio says it remains committed to making its Aug. 1, 2014, release date.
For her part, the ever-involved James (she has approval rights on cast) is in Los Angeles the week of Oct. 14 as the hunt for a new Christian Grey continues. As the author writes no fewer than 44 times in Fifty Shades: "Oh my."
The 2013 AFI Fest will include the world premiere of Peter Berg's Lone Survivor on Tuesday, Nov. 12, it was announced today. The showcase also announced additional gala and special screenings of awards hopefuls like August: Osage County (Friday, Nov. 8), SpikeJonze's Her and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
There will also be a gala screening of BernardoBertolucci's The Last Emperor 3D on Sunday, Nov. 10.
The showcase will also include special screenings of Ralph Fiennes' The Invisible Woman, Stephen Frears' Philomena, Errol Morris' documentary The Unknown Known: The Life and Times of Donald Rumsfeld, FrankPavich's Jodorowsky's Dune and AsgharFarhadi's The Past (Le Passe).
The AFI Fest previously announced that it would open with the North American premiere of Disney's Saving Mr. Banks, starring Tom Hanks, and close with a gala screening of the Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis. Other previously announced centerpiece galas include the world premiere of Out of the Furnace (Saturday, Nov. 9), a screening of Alexander Payne's Nebraska with a tribute to Bruce Dern (Monday, Nov. 11) and a screening of Ben Stiller's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Wednesday, Nov. 13).
The 2013 AFI Fest runs from Nov. 7-14 in Los Angeles.
In this undated photo provided by the University of Rochester Medical Center, Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, left, points to images of brain scans of mice joined by her colleague Lulu Xie, of the University of Rochester Medical Center. The team, who observed the brains of mice during the sleep and awake states, has published a study in the journal Science that found the brain does a better job of clearing out cellular waste during sleep, a finding that may lead to new ways to treat Alzheimer̢۪s and other brain disorders. (AP Photo/University of Rochester Medical Center )
In this undated photo provided by the University of Rochester Medical Center, Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, left, points to images of brain scans of mice joined by her colleague Lulu Xie, of the University of Rochester Medical Center. The team, who observed the brains of mice during the sleep and awake states, has published a study in the journal Science that found the brain does a better job of clearing out cellular waste during sleep, a finding that may lead to new ways to treat Alzheimer̢۪s and other brain disorders. (AP Photo/University of Rochester Medical Center )
LOS ANGELES (AP) — When we sleep, our brains get rid of gunk that builds up while we're awake, suggests a study that may provide new clues to treat Alzheimer's disease and other disorders.
This cleaning was detected in the brains of sleeping mice, but scientists said there's reason to think it happens in people too.
If so, the finding may mean that for people with dementia and other mind disorders, "sleep would perhaps be even more important in slowing the progression of further damage," Dr. Clete Kushida, medical director of the Stanford Sleep Medicine Center, said in an email.
Kushida did not participate in the study, which appears in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
People who don't get enough shut-eye have trouble learning and making decisions, and are slower to react. But despite decades of research, scientists can't agree on the basic purpose of sleep. Reasons range from processing memory, saving energy to regulating the body.
The latest work, led by scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center, adds fresh evidence to a long-standing view: When we close our eyes, our brains go on a cleaning spree.
The team previously found a plumbing network in mouse brains that flushes out cellular waste. For the new study, the scientists injected the brains of mice with beta-amyloid, a substance that builds up in Alzheimer's disease, and followed its movement. They determined that it was removed faster from the brains of sleeping mice than awake mice.
The team also noticed that brain cells tend to shrink during sleep, which widens the space between the cells. This allows waste to pass through that space more easily.
Though the work involved mouse brains, lead researcher Dr. Maiken Nedergaard said this plumbing system also exists in dogs and baboons, and it's logical to think that the human brain also clears away toxic substances. Nedergaard said the next step is to look for the process in human brains.
In an accompanying editorial, neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro said scientists have recently taken a heightened interest in the spaces between brain cells, where junk is flushed out.
It's becoming clearer that "sleep is likely to be a brain state in which several important housekeeping functions take place," she said in an email.
The study was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. In a statement, program director Jim Koenig said the finding could lead to new approaches for treating a range of brain diseases.
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Follow Alicia Chang at http://twitter.com/SciWriAlicia
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The commuter train that struck and killed two San Francisco Bay Area transit workers didn't have a front-facing video recorder, but interviews, inspections, audio recordings and camera footage from the train's cab should provide enough evidence to determine a cause, a federal investigator said Sunday.
Jim Southworth, the National Transportation Safety Board's railroad accident investigator-in-charge, confirmed that Saturday's accident involved a Bay Area Rapid Transit train that wasn't carrying any passengers because of the labor strike that has shut down the system since Friday.
But whether the work stoppage by members of the system's two largest unions or the way BART management deployed non-striking workers during the shutdown played a role in the fatalities will not be known for weeks or months, Southworth said.
"My concern coming out here, as it is for every investigation, is to find out what happened, to gather the facts," he said. "Whether the strike plays a role in that I can't say at this time."
BART officials said on Sunday that they could no longer discuss the accident because of the ongoing NTSB investigation.
BART's assistant general manager has said that the four-car train with several employees aboard was returning from a routine maintenance trip and was being run in automatic mode under computer control when it struck the workers who were inspecting a section of track in the East Bay city of Walnut Creek.
Neither BART nor the county coroner has released the names and ages of the victims — one a BART employee and the other a contractor. They were the sixth and seventh workers to die on the job in the system's 41-year history.
Southworth said it is too early to know how fast the train was going or if workers saw or heard it coming. He and a colleague hope to interview the person who was operating the train and BART dispatchers as soon as Monday.
Even if the strike ended immediately, the ongoing investigation at the collision site means it would probably take a few days before trains could run on those specific tracks, he said.
"These accidents occur in an instant, but they take very long to investigate," he said.
The NTSB has been promoting improved safety measures for track maintenance crews since the May death of a foreman who was killed by a passenger train in West Haven, Conn., spokesman Eric Weiss said.
In June, the board urged the Metro-North Railroad to provide backup protection for crews that were relying on dispatchers to close tracks while they are being worked on and to light the appropriate signals.
The investigators now in California will be checking to see if BART uses "shunts" — a device that crews can attach to the rails in a work zone that gives approaching trains a stop signal — or any other of the backup measures the NTSB recommended for the Metro-North system, Weiss said.
"Obviously, we are very concerned anytime anyone dies in transportation accidents, but we're very interested in the issue of track worker deaths right now," he said.
A 2007 report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that between 1993 and 2002 a total of 460 railroad workers died on the job, 132 of them were pedestrian workers struck by trains and other rail vehicles. Of all the accidents, 62 involved local passenger trains.
Although freight trains are required to have forward-facing cameras, there is no standard practice for subway trains, Weiss said.
Meanwhile, with no indication that the striking BART workers would be back on the job Monday, the region was preparing for another day of gridlock on freeways and bridges clogged with commuters who would ordinarily be traveling by train. BART, the nation's fifth-largest commuter rail system, has an average weekday ridership of 400,000.
BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said Sunday that transit officials and labor leaders have been in contact over the weekend, but the two sides did not have any plans to return to the bargaining table.
BART presented what it called its last and final offer to its unions a week ago but is open to restarting the negotiations if that is what the federal mediator overseeing the process wants, Trost said. The system's directors plan to hold a special closed meeting on Monday, she said.
"The tragedy has redoubled everyone's commitment to a quick resolution so we can move forward in a spirit of cooperation to provide service to the Bay Area," she said.
Amalgamated Transit Union local president Antonette Bryant said over the weekend that she would take BART's final contract before members for a vote this week, but expects it will be rejected.
LYON -- Days after directorOlivier Dahan lashed out at Harvey Weinstein over cuts to the forthcoming Grace of Monaco, Quentin Tarantino deflected additional criticism of the producer.
"You have to take the good with the bad," the Django Unchained director told reporters on Saturday.
In an interview in the French newspaper Liberation, Dahan had vented about Weinstein."It's right to struggle, but when you confront an American distributor like Weinstein, not to name names, there is not much you can do," he said.
In an emotional Prix Lumiere ceremony on Friday, Weinstein cited Tarantino as building Miramax and saving The Weinstein Company.
The following day during an afternoon press conference, Tarantino credited Weinstein for much of his career despite his sometimes contentious relationship with directors. "Harvey offered me a home and a family to make my films. It is a home and a family, but like a lot of homes and families it can be pretty f---ed up sometimes," he joked. "C'est la vie!"
"Nevertheless, at the end of the day, I don’t think my career would have been able to stay completely on the trajectory of my own whims that it has without Harvey’s constant backing," he added.
"We have a really terrific partnership. And frankly there’s a few people in the early days that if I had never met them and if they hadn’t found something in my work I would never have made a movie," he said, citing his longtime collaborators. "Harvey Keitel is one, Richard Gladstein at Live Entertainment and Lawrence Bender is one." Keitel and Bender were present at the award ceremony Friday night, where they paid an emotional tribute to the director.
He also kept uncharacteristically tight-lipped about the anticipated next Kill Bill project or his next film. "One of the problems of my career has been that I tend to have a big mouth, so this time I won't. But I am tinkering," he said, adding that he is also writing a film book as well as finishing a script.
The avid cinephile reminisced about the early days of traveling the world from film festival to film festival. "It's film festivals that created me, that launched me, especially in that first year with Reservoir Dogs going all around the world. I would go to the Sao Paolo film festival and do a bunch of interviews in Brazil," he said. "So when it came time for Miramax to sell the foreign rights they knew who I was and wanted to buy the rights. Miramax was unaware of how popular I had become in all these countries I had visited and they all wanted the Tarantino film."
"I’m a little discouraged with film festivals these days because of digital projection, because I remember going to film festivals and it was always 35 mm and you had to get that print and people always ended up doing it and it was exciting," he said. "Now going to other countries and watching everything on digital is depressing to me."
Itching for a better smartphone camera, but can't afford to buy an unlocked device? You're in luck: Samsung's Galaxy S4 Zoom appears to be coming to AT&T. Images of the AT&T branded smart camera (complete with carrier identification and official apps) appeared on Twitter today, hinting that a AT&T ...
One of the nine released Lebanese Shiite pilgrims who were kidnapped by a rebel faction in northern Syria in May 2012, center, kisses his wife upon his arrival at Rafik Hariri international airport, in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013. Two Turkish pilots held hostage in Lebanon and nine Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Syria returned home Saturday night, part of an ambitious three-way deal cutting across the Syrian civil war.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
One of the nine released Lebanese Shiite pilgrims who were kidnapped by a rebel faction in northern Syria in May 2012, center, kisses his wife upon his arrival at Rafik Hariri international airport, in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013. Two Turkish pilots held hostage in Lebanon and nine Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Syria returned home Saturday night, part of an ambitious three-way deal cutting across the Syrian civil war.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
BEIRUT (AP) — A key international conference aimed at ending Syria's civil war will be held in Geneva in late November, according to an announcement by the Arab League chief on Sunday that followed weeks of diplomacy to finalize the meeting.
Even as the announcement was made, violence continued in Syria. A suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden truck detonated his load at a government checkpoint on the edge of the central city of Hama, killing at least 30 people, according to both activists and the state media.
League chief Nabil Elaraby made the announcement at a news conference at the pan-Arab organization's headquarters in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, after talks with the Arab League-U.N. envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi.
The proposed conference on Nov. 23 and 24, will attempt to get Syria's rival sides to agree on a transitional government in that country based on a plan adopted in Geneva in June 2012.
Syria's conflict, now into its third year, has left over 100,000 dead. It has devastated the economy and the country's delicate social fabric. It has caused 5 million Syrians to flee their homes to other places within the country, and driven another 2 million abroad.
A seasoned Algerian diplomat and an international troubleshooter, Brahimi said he planned to visit Qatar and Turkey on Monday as part of his preparations for the Geneva conference.
Elaraby said "many difficulties" face the proposed Geneva conference. He did not elaborate.
Syria's fractured and squabbling opposition movement immediately criticized the plan, saying they were not consulted. They said they could not accept any negotiations that allowed for the Syrian President Bashar Assad to remain as head of state in any transitional period.
The talks have been put off repeatedly in the past, in part because of fundamental disagreements over Assad's fate.
The Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, the main alliance of political opposition groups, has said in the past that it will only negotiate if it is agreed from the start that Assad will leave power at the end of a transition period. Many rebel fighters inside Syria flatly reject negotiating with Assad's regime.
The regime has rejected such a demand, saying Assad will stay at least until the end of his term in mid-2014, and he will decide then whether to seek re-election. The regime has said it refuses to negotiate with the armed opposition.
"This is a conspiracy against the Syrian people," said Bassam al-Dada, an official with the rebel Free Syrian Army. "The most important request of the Syrian people — the distancing of Bashar (Assad) from the transitional period — was ignored," he said.
He said the Western-backed SNC would meet Nov. 1 to discuss the matter further.
Many rebels think the government will exploit peace talks, but has no intention of making concessions.
Islam Alloush, a spokesman for one rebel group, Liwaa al-Islam, said that holding a conference that involved the Syrian regime could make the conflict worse, by emboldening government forces to act more harshly on the ground.
"This is very, very sensitive. We have to be extremely careful," Alloush said. "It could produce more negative results," he said.
Meanwhile, Syrian rebels drove a truck laden with over a ton of explosives into the government post at the eastern entrance of Hama, the state news agency SANA said. A nearby truck carrying gasoline cylinders was caught up in the explosion, prompting a series of other blasts. Footage aired on Syrian television showed rubble, fires, and bodies on the ground.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra, or al-Nusra Front, had carried out the attack. Both SANA and the Observatory said at least 30 had died.
It was the second deadly assault on a checkpoint in two days. On Saturday, rebels led by al-Nusra fighters set off a car bomb while assaulting a checkpoint near Damascus, killing 16 soldiers.
The high-profile role played by al-Nusra and other al-Qaida-linked militants, who stage some of the most aggressive attacks, is yet another obstacle standing in the way of a negotiated settlement.
Also Sunday, activists said they were still searching for news of imprisoned Syrian women who were meant to be freed as part of an ambitious three-way hostage release deal that was implemented Saturday.
A pro-government Syrian newspaper, al-Watan, said Sunday 128 women were released, citing "media sources."
But Syrian activists contacted throughout the country said they had not been able to confirm if any women were freed.
Syrian officials would not comment, and official state media did not mention the issue.
The hostage deal released nine Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Syria and two Turkish pilots held hostage in Lebanon. They returned home Saturday night.
The deal, mediated by Qatar and Palestinian officials, also was meant to include freeing dozens of women held in Syrian government jails to satisfy the rebels who abducted the pilgrims a year and a half ago. The Turkish pilots were kidnapped in August by gunmen in Lebanon to pressure Turkey to help release the Lebanese pilgrims. Turkey is believed to have some clout with some brigades of Syrian rebels.
Their abductions showed how the chaos from the Syrian civil war, now in its third year, has spilled across the greater Middle East.
The hostage deal is one of the more ambitious negotiated settlements to come out of Syria's civil war, where the warring sides remain largely opposed to any bartered peace. It suggests that the parties — and their regional backers — may be more prepared to deal with each other than at any other previous time in the conflict.
Liberty already controls number two Dutch operator UPC (1.67 million homes) and has built up a 28.5 percent minority stake in Ziggo ahead of its takeover bid.
But in an official statement, Ziggo said Liberty's offer was “considered inadequate and there is no certainty that Ziggo will receive any revised offer.” Financial details of the bid were not disclosed, but at current prices, a takeover would have cost Liberty at least $6 billion (€4.5 billion).
Malone's cable group is looking to consolidate operations across Europe. Early this year, Liberty acquired Britain's Virgin Media in a stock-and-deal worth around $15.8 billion. The group controls Germany's second-largest cable operator, UnityMedia, and tried to buy number one cabler, Kabel Deutschland (KDG), but was recently outbid by U.K. mobile group Vodafone, which paid $10 billion for KDG.
Scientists develop heat-resistant materials that could vastly improve solar cell efficiency
Public release date: 16-Oct-2013 [
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Contact: Mark Shwartz mshwartz@stanford.edu 831-915-0088 Stanford University
Scientists have created a heat-resistant thermal emitter that could significantly improve the efficiency of solar cells. The novel component is designed to convert heat from the sun into infrared light, which can than be absorbed by solar cells to make electricity a technology known as thermophotovoltaics. Unlike earlier prototypes that fell apart at temperatures below 2200 degrees Fahrenheit (1200 degrees Celsius), the new thermal emitter remains stable at temperatures as high as 2500 F (1400 C).
"This is a record performance in terms of thermal stability and a major advance for the field of thermophotovoltaics," said Shanhui Fan, a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University. Fan and his colleagues at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (Illinois) and North Carolina State University collaborated on the project. Their results are published in the October 16 edition of the journal Nature Communications.
A typical solar cell has a silicon semiconductor that absorbs sunlight directly and converts it into electrical energy. But silicon semiconductors only respond to infrared light. Higher-energy light waves, including most of the visible light spectrum, are wasted as heat, while lower-energy waves simply pass through the solar panel.
"In theory, conventional single-junction solar cells can only achieve an efficiency level of about 34 percent, but in practice they don't achieve that," said study co-author Paul Braun, a professor of materials science at Illinois. "That's because they throw away the majority of the sun's energy."
Thermophotovoltaic devices are designed to overcome that limitation. Instead of sending sunlight directly to the solar cell, thermophotovoltaic systems have an intermediate component that consists of two parts: an absorber that heats up when exposed to sunlight, and an emitter that converts the heat to infrared light, which is then beamed to the solar cell.
"Essentially, we tailor the light to shorter wavelengths that are ideal for driving a solar cell," Fan said. "That raises the theoretical efficiency of the cell to 80 percent, which is quite remarkable."
So far, thermophotovoltaic systems have only achieved an efficiency level of about 8 percent, Braun noted. The poor performance is largely due to problems with the intermediate component, which is typically made of tungsten an abundant material also used in conventional light bulbs.
"Our thermal emitters have a complex, three-dimensional nanostructure that has to withstand temperatures above 1800 F (1000 C) to be practical," Braun explained. "In fact, the hotter the better."
In previous experiments, however, the 3D structure of the emitter was destroyed at temperatures of around 1800 F (1000 C). To address the problem, Braun and his Illinois colleagues coated tungsten emitters in a nanolayer of a ceramic material called hafnium dioxide.
The results were dramatic. When subjected to temperatures of 1800 F (1000 C), the ceramic-coated emitters retained their structural integrity for more than 12 hours. When heated to 2500 F (1400 C), the samples remained thermally stable for at least an hour.
The ceramic-coated emitters were sent to Fan and his colleagues at Stanford, who confirmed that devices were still capable of producing infrared light waves that are ideal for running solar cells.
"These results are unprecedented," said former Illinois graduate student Kevin Arpin, lead author of the study. "We demonstrated for the first time that ceramics could help advance thermophotovoltaics as well other areas of research, including energy harvesting from waste heat, high-temperature catalysis and electrochemical energy storage."
Braun and Fan plan to test other ceramic-type materials and determine if the experimental thermal emitters can deliver infrared light to a working solar cell.
"We've demonstrated that the tailoring of optical properties at high temperatures is possible," Braun said. "Hafnium and tungsten are abundant, low-cost materials, and the process used to make these heat-resistant emitters is well established. Hopefully these results will motivate the thermophotovoltaics community to take another look at ceramics and other classes of materials that haven't been considered."
###
Other authors of the study are Nicholas Sergeant, Linxiao Zhu and Zongfu Yu of Stanford; Andrew Cloud, Hailong Ning, Justin Mallek, Ber Kalanyan, Gregory Girolami and John Abelson of Illinois; and Mark Losego and Gregory Parsons of North Carolina State University.
This article was written by Mark Shwartz, Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford University.
Related information:
Fan Research Group
http://www.stanford.edu/group/fan/
Braun Research Group
http://braungroup.beckman.illinois.edu/
Global Climate and Energy Project
http://gcep.stanford.edu/
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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.
Scientists develop heat-resistant materials that could vastly improve solar cell efficiency
Public release date: 16-Oct-2013 [
| E-mail
| Share
]
Contact: Mark Shwartz mshwartz@stanford.edu 831-915-0088 Stanford University
Scientists have created a heat-resistant thermal emitter that could significantly improve the efficiency of solar cells. The novel component is designed to convert heat from the sun into infrared light, which can than be absorbed by solar cells to make electricity a technology known as thermophotovoltaics. Unlike earlier prototypes that fell apart at temperatures below 2200 degrees Fahrenheit (1200 degrees Celsius), the new thermal emitter remains stable at temperatures as high as 2500 F (1400 C).
"This is a record performance in terms of thermal stability and a major advance for the field of thermophotovoltaics," said Shanhui Fan, a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University. Fan and his colleagues at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (Illinois) and North Carolina State University collaborated on the project. Their results are published in the October 16 edition of the journal Nature Communications.
A typical solar cell has a silicon semiconductor that absorbs sunlight directly and converts it into electrical energy. But silicon semiconductors only respond to infrared light. Higher-energy light waves, including most of the visible light spectrum, are wasted as heat, while lower-energy waves simply pass through the solar panel.
"In theory, conventional single-junction solar cells can only achieve an efficiency level of about 34 percent, but in practice they don't achieve that," said study co-author Paul Braun, a professor of materials science at Illinois. "That's because they throw away the majority of the sun's energy."
Thermophotovoltaic devices are designed to overcome that limitation. Instead of sending sunlight directly to the solar cell, thermophotovoltaic systems have an intermediate component that consists of two parts: an absorber that heats up when exposed to sunlight, and an emitter that converts the heat to infrared light, which is then beamed to the solar cell.
"Essentially, we tailor the light to shorter wavelengths that are ideal for driving a solar cell," Fan said. "That raises the theoretical efficiency of the cell to 80 percent, which is quite remarkable."
So far, thermophotovoltaic systems have only achieved an efficiency level of about 8 percent, Braun noted. The poor performance is largely due to problems with the intermediate component, which is typically made of tungsten an abundant material also used in conventional light bulbs.
"Our thermal emitters have a complex, three-dimensional nanostructure that has to withstand temperatures above 1800 F (1000 C) to be practical," Braun explained. "In fact, the hotter the better."
In previous experiments, however, the 3D structure of the emitter was destroyed at temperatures of around 1800 F (1000 C). To address the problem, Braun and his Illinois colleagues coated tungsten emitters in a nanolayer of a ceramic material called hafnium dioxide.
The results were dramatic. When subjected to temperatures of 1800 F (1000 C), the ceramic-coated emitters retained their structural integrity for more than 12 hours. When heated to 2500 F (1400 C), the samples remained thermally stable for at least an hour.
The ceramic-coated emitters were sent to Fan and his colleagues at Stanford, who confirmed that devices were still capable of producing infrared light waves that are ideal for running solar cells.
"These results are unprecedented," said former Illinois graduate student Kevin Arpin, lead author of the study. "We demonstrated for the first time that ceramics could help advance thermophotovoltaics as well other areas of research, including energy harvesting from waste heat, high-temperature catalysis and electrochemical energy storage."
Braun and Fan plan to test other ceramic-type materials and determine if the experimental thermal emitters can deliver infrared light to a working solar cell.
"We've demonstrated that the tailoring of optical properties at high temperatures is possible," Braun said. "Hafnium and tungsten are abundant, low-cost materials, and the process used to make these heat-resistant emitters is well established. Hopefully these results will motivate the thermophotovoltaics community to take another look at ceramics and other classes of materials that haven't been considered."
###
Other authors of the study are Nicholas Sergeant, Linxiao Zhu and Zongfu Yu of Stanford; Andrew Cloud, Hailong Ning, Justin Mallek, Ber Kalanyan, Gregory Girolami and John Abelson of Illinois; and Mark Losego and Gregory Parsons of North Carolina State University.
This article was written by Mark Shwartz, Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford University.
Related information:
Fan Research Group
http://www.stanford.edu/group/fan/
Braun Research Group
http://braungroup.beckman.illinois.edu/
Global Climate and Energy Project
http://gcep.stanford.edu/
[
| 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.
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