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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Big hail, wild winds sweeping through Plains, Upper Midwest

By Daniel Arkin, Staff Writer, NBC News

Large hail and damaging winds were expected to pummel the northern Plains and Upper Midwest on Friday evening, according to the National Weather Service forecast, with storms already reported to have hit parts of South Dakota and Nebraska.

Brief but brutal storms battered eastern South Dakota on Friday afternoon, ripping through homes and trees, according to NBC station KDLT in Sioux Falls.

At least four tornadoes were seen sweeping through rural areas of Nebraska?s southern Panhandle, according to the Omaha World-Herald.

Storm watchers reportedly spotted a twister and golf-ball-sized hail in the city of Sidney on Friday afternoon, the newspaper reported. There were similar sightings in the cities of Colton, Brownson and Potter.

Harsh hail and wild winds could roll into Wisconsin and Michigan overnight, according to Dr. Greg Forbes, a severe weather expert with The Weather Channel. The Upper Midwest may also be due for a weekend of heavy rainfall, Forbes added.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2da0b348/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A60C210C190A80A4190Ebig0Ehail0Ewild0Ewinds0Esweeping0Ethrough0Eplains0Eupper0Emidwest0Dlite/story01.htm

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Cat Health Problems Pet Owners Often Overlook (PHOTOS)

From Vetstreet's Dr. Marty Becker:

Cats have a reputation as low-maintenance pets, perfect for people who don?t have the time to care for an animal. That?s not true, of course, but it can be difficult to convince some people otherwise. "Cats take care of themselves," is something I hear a lot, and it makes me wince every time.

What?s largely happening is not that our cats are fending for themselves ? as so many people assume ? but rather that because they?re so good at hiding signs of illness, we don?t realize how sick they are until they?re very sick indeed. And sometimes when I do see cats as a practicing veterinarian, I see not only what people brought them in for ? an abscess, perhaps, or a limp or a chronic cough ? but life-threatening issues the cats' owners hadn't even noticed.

These are serious problems that seem painted in the boldest hues to my eye, yet appear to be invisible to many cat owners. And it happens all the time.

Are You Missing the Big Picture?
Sometimes, even when I point out these problems, cat owners don?t think they?re as important as I do. They may accept my diagnosis, for example, but not follow up or follow through on treatment plans. It really saddens me to think of the misery these cats are in. Don't be guilty of neglecting your cat's health; check out these five feline health problems people don?t worry about as much as they should ? and talk to your veterinarian about any that sound familiar.

(Story continues below slideshow)

Feline Obesity
Many of us are living in glass houses when it comes to weight (both ours and our pets'), which may be one of the reasons your veterinarian is reluctant to bring it up. And many veterinarians are doubly sensitive when it comes to discussing an overweight pet with an overweight owner, not wanting to hurt any feelings. But you need to take a good look at your cat, and you need to know what you are allowing when you let him get and stay overweight. Let me be blunt: Fat kills. And even when it doesn?t contribute to the development of a disease or condition that leads to euthanasia, it makes your cat?s life miserable.
Hyperthyroidism
You might think it?s wonderful how much energy your senior cat has, but if hyperthyroidism is at the bottom of all this activity, it?s really not a good thing at all. And while obesity is a problem, as I?ve noted, an increase in energy ? coupled with extreme weight loss ? is often due to <a href="http://www.vetstreet.com/dr-marty-becker/my-older-cat-is-losing-weight-should-i-just-feed-her-more" target="_blank">hyperthyroidism</a>, the overproduction of thyroid hormone by the thyroid gland. Hyperthyroidism is easily treated or managed, which makes ignoring the symptoms even more tragic for your cat.
Urinary Tract Disease
Litterbox problems are one of the most common reasons why cats are given up for adoption. Many people don?t realize that these problems may stem from health issues, such as infections or stones in the urinary tract, rather than bad behavior. If you think your cat is missing the box ?for no reason? or ?out of spite? or even ?because he?s stupid,? you need to reassess ? and talk with your veterinarian. Don?t give up your cat, and don?t resolve to ?live with? the mess. Find out if an illness is causing the problem, and then take care of the problem. You and your cat will both be happier.
Dental Disease
Letting a cat live with dental disease is nothing less than a form of animal cruelty, in my opinion. That?s because of the constant pain your cat is in: Think about what you go through when you break a single tooth, then imagine having a mouthful of rotted teeth and infected gums. Imagine the pain of trying to eat! A comprehensive dental examination is an essential part of <a href="http://www.vetstreet.com/dr-marty-becker/what-is-stomatitis" target="_blank">diagnosing feline dental problems</a>, which may not be as obvious as those in dogs, in part because cats are so good at hiding signs of pain. Once you know what the problems are, work out a plan for treatment ? which may include extractions ? to end your cat's suffering.
Achy-Breaky Joints
Arthritis may be incurable, but pain from those aching joints can be treated. We understand this when it comes to our own discomfort and pain. When we hurt, we see a doctor and ask for solutions and treatments. Your cat can't tell you where it hurts or ask you to make an appointment with the vet, but I guarantee you she's suffering all the same. The aches and pains of old age can be managed, but only if you talk to your veterinarian.

"Chronic" Doesn?t Mean "Untreatable"
Ongoing problems with your cat?s health sometimes start slowly and get worse over time. In other words, these issues can creep up on us, so we may not pay much attention to them, or we might overlook them entirely. That?s why I want you to step back right now and look at your cat. Be brutally honest: Are you ignoring chronic health issues that are making your cat miserable? Are you sure you aren?t?

If your cat hasn?t seen a veterinarian in a while, it?s time to schedule that comprehensive exam. And take heart: For every one of these often chronic conditions there are things that can be done to stop, treat or even reverse the damage. All you need to do is recognize the problem and work with your veterinarian for your cat?s better health.

Also on Vetstreet:
5 Health Problems Dog Owners Ignore
How Old Is My Pet in People Years?
Looking for a Cuddly Cat? Here Is a Breed You'll Like
Why Does My Cat? Meow at Me?
5 Reasons Cats Are Given Up for Adoption ? and How to Avoid These Problems

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/22/cat-health-problems_n_3478807.html

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Snapchat Has A Patent That Could Help It Become The Defacto Camera App

Snapchat could use a different weapon to be the first camera app opened: speed. Snapchat has a patent, ?Single mode visual media capture,? on its technology that allows the user to take a picture by tapping the camera button and a video by holding down the same camera button. Photos are simply taken by the tap, and videos end when you release the camera button, or after ten seconds.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/7J_PXImrGhk/

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Saturday, June 22, 2013

Vietnam province earmarks $21 mln for English teaching ...

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Source: http://talkvietnam.com/2013/06/vietnam-province-earmarks-21-mln-for-english-teaching-2/

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Gerrit Cole pitches Pirates past Angels 5-2

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Gerrit Cole throws to the Los Angeles Angels during the first inning of a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Pittsburgh Pirates' Jordy Mercer celebrates his two-run home run against the Los Angeles Angels during the second inning of a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Jered Weaver throws to the Pittsburgh Pirates during the first inning of a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Los Angeles Angels designated hitter Albert Pujols, right, talks with Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher Ryan Reid before their baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Pittsburgh Pirates' Pedro Alvarez celebrates his home run against the Los Angeles Angels during the second inning of a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) ? Gerrit Cole wasn't nervous about making his first major league road start in his backyard until he heard "Calling All Angels," the syrupy Train ballad played before every game at Angel Stadium.

"I've probably been listening to that song here since I was like 6 years old," said Cole, the Pittsburgh Pirates phenom with pure Southern California roots. "I might have a couple of Rally Monkeys at home."

Once the music faded, Cole shook off his homecoming jitters and kept rolling on an outstanding start to his career.

Cole pitched four-hit ball into the seventh inning in his native Orange County, earning his third straight victory in the Pirates' 5-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night.

The Pirates' 22-year-old right-hander out of Orange Lutheran High School and UCLA dazzled the Angels, repeatedly hitting 100 mph on the stadium radar gun. He struck out five and retired 11 straight before Albert Pujols' leadoff homer in the seventh, leaving later in the inning to a warm ovation from his hometown fans.

"It was a lot of fun to see everybody and be back in California," Cole said. "I wasn't expecting to be back here for another few months, so it was great."

Cole (3-0) is the first Pittsburgh pitcher to win his first three career starts since Myrl Brown in 1922. He even outpitched Angels ace Jered Weaver (1-4), who yielded nine hits and four runs over six rocky innings in his fourth straight winless start.

After beating Cy Young winners Tim Lincecum and Zack Greinke in his first two starts, it's clear Cole can hold his own against the majors' best ? and still keep a sense of humor about his rising star.

"That's like $400 million worth of pitching," Cole said. "We've just been scoring runs and giving me a chance."

Until they ran into Cole, the Angels had won six of eight while enjoying perhaps the best offensive stretch of their disappointing season. Los Angeles had scored at least five runs in six of its last eight games, including 10 runs and 17 hits while rallying from a seven-run deficit to beat Seattle on Thursday.

"That's a power arm, there's no doubt about that," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "The ball comes out hot. I think we had some good at-bats against him and hit some balls hard, but for the most part, he was pounding the zone with good stuff and pitched a good game for those guys."

Cole, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 draft, was born in nearby Newport Beach, Calif., and went to high school 15 minutes from Angel Stadium, racking up 121 strikeouts with an 0.46 ERA as a senior.

After three years at UCLA, Cole rocketed through the Pirates' system and made his major league debut in Pittsburgh to much fanfare 10 days ago. The 6-foot-4 power pitcher hasn't disappointed, beating San Francisco and the Dodgers in Pittsburgh before besting Weaver, who finished second in last year's AL Cy Young voting.

"He pitched like he was pitching in front of his friends and family," Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said. "He was geared up. He got after it. It was like he was pitching in his hometown, and he wasn't going to let anybody down."

Pedro Alvarez and Jordy Mercer homered in the second inning of the Pirates' first game in Anaheim since 2007.

Jason Grilli pitched the ninth for his NL-leading 26th save.

Cole retired Los Angeles' first seven hitters before back-to-back singles by Hank Conger and Peter Bourjos in the third, but he escaped the jam and didn't allow another baserunner until the seventh.

The Angels finally got to Cole when Pujols led off with his 488th career homer off the fake rock pile in left-center field. That was the first major-league homer allowed by Cole, and he followed up by issuing his first career walk to Mark Trumbo.

Howie Kendrick then hit a liner back to the mound that hit Cole on the upper left thigh, but he stayed in the game.

"It's pretty sore," Cole said. "Got me right on the thigh. Good thing I've got fat legs."

The Angels finally chased Cole on Alberto Callaspo's RBI single, and the Anaheim crowd cheered the local kid on the way to the dugout.

Weaver hasn't been his usual dominant self in five starts since returning from a 45-day stint on the disabled list. After he gave up Alvarez's 17th homer to lead off the second inning, Mercer followed with a two-run shot, his fourth of the season.

"The last three starts it just kind of seems like there's one inning that's a blow-up inning, and I've just got to learn to stay away from that," Weaver said. "It's frustrating. I'm not doing a whole lot to help the team right now. I just have to keep battling, and hopefully things will turn around."

The Pirates added another run in the fourth when Bourjos, normally a spectacular fielder, lost track of Starling Marte's two-out fly to center. The ball landed well behind him for an RBI triple.

Josh Hamilton sat out with a sore right wrist, and the $125 million slugger isn't likely to start a game this weekend while the Angels give him some rest. Hamilton, who was available off the bench, was in a 3-for-26 skid in the first seven games of the Angels' homestand.

NOTES: Pittsburgh improved to 2-5 at the Big A, getting its only previous win here on June 11, 2002. ... RHP Billy Buckner, selected from Triple-A Salt Lake before the game to take injured Jason Vargas' roster spot, pitched 2 2-3 sharp innings of relief for Weaver, giving up one hit and one walk. ... Mike Trout went 0 for 4, but made a full-stretch diving catch on Gaby Sanchez's drive into the left-field corner in the fifth.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-22-Pirates-Angels/id-21ec981b3314497593ab604b5092db8f

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The numbers game muddies NSA surveillance debate

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Seeking to win over public trust, the Obama administration has been throwing around a lot of numbers as it tries to describe ? in as much detail as possible without jeopardizing national security ? the terror plots it says were thwarted by the government's sweeping surveillance of U.S. communications.

There's 50, 12, 10 and four. You also hear 20 and 90 in statements and official testimony, and even 702 and 215, though those aren't for estimates of plots.

The numbers game is just part of the effort to convince skeptical Americans that the recently disclosed National Security Agency spy programs are vital in detecting and stopping extremist plots. But the approach has produced relatively limited, often vague information, and it has ended up confusing many in Congress as lawmakers grapple with how to assure people that their privacy rights are protected along with their security.

There are questions about effectiveness that still lack answers, "and we've gotten some answers that need further clarity," House Intelligence Committee member Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Thursday. He was referring to the so-called 215 program, which refers to the section of the anti-terror Patriot Act that authorizes the NSA to collect Americans' phone records.

And, he added, "we also should ask in those cases where it was successful, how dated were the records."

Another NSA program ? known as 702 ? authorizes the agency to sweep up Internet usage data from all over the world that goes through nine major U.S.-based providers.

Officials have used the rest of the numbers in Capitol Hill testimony over the past week as they have sought to allay Americans' concerns that the programs violate their privacy.

Top officials told Congress that the programs have been key in thwarting at least 50 terror plots across 20 countries. And, they said, an estimated 10 to 12 of those plots were directed at the U.S. They publicly offered four examples among the 50-plus cases:

?An NSA-provided phone record led authorities to identify a terrorist financier in San Diego who was arrested in 2007.

?The NSA's surveillance of Internet usage in 2009 revealed that a Chicago man, David Headley, was plotting to bomb a Danish newspaper that had published a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad, Deputy FBI Director Sean Joyce said. The FBI had been tipped off that Headley was involved in the deadly 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

?Information from the NSA's Internet usage surveillance of overseas operatives helped thwart a 2009 plot to blow up the New York City subway system. NSA Director General Keith Alexander said this information led investigators to Najibullah Zazi in Colorado. And the phone records collection gave investigators the connections between Zazi and his associates. Zazi ultimately pleaded guilty and provided information that helped send two of his friends to prison.

?A plot to blow up the New York Stock Exchange was thwarted in its early planning stages because the NSA was able identify an extremist in Yemen who was in touch with Khalid Ouazzani in Kansas City, Mo., Joyce said. This enabled investigators to identify co-conspirators and prevent the attack he said. Ouazzani pleaded guilty in May 2010 in federal court in Missouri to charges of conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization, bank fraud and money laundering. Ouazzani was not charged with the alleged plot against the stock exchange.

The administration has yet to provide firm numbers of precisely how many plots have been stopped worldwide because of these programs ? in part because intelligence officials are still trying to figure that out.

"The reason I'm not giving you a specific number is we want the rest of the community to actually beat those up and make sure that everything we have there is exactly right," Alexander said Tuesday during a House intelligence committee hearing. "I'd give you the number 50-X, but if somebody says, 'Well, not this one. Actually, what we're finding out is there's more. They said you missed these three or four.'"

Alexander said, "These programs are immensely valuable for protecting our nation and securing the security of our allies." And the NSA's authorization to sweep up Internet usage data has contributed to 90 percent of the information used to thwart at least 50 terror plots Alexander and his deputy told lawmakers.

On Wednesday, outgoing FBI Director Robert Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee that there are 10 to 12 cases in which the phone records surveillance program, authorized in the Patriot Act, contributed to breaking up terror plots.

He said that "of those, domestically, I think there will be anywhere from 10 or 12 where 215 was important in some way, shape or form."

But later in the same hearing, Mueller said he's not actually sure if it was the phone records authorization that helped thwart terror attacks in the 10 to 12 cases.

"I'm not sure whether all of them are 215. They're a combination or the other," Mueller said, referring to the phone records program and Internet usage programs.

FBI spokesman Paul Bresson referred requests for clarification to the NSA and National Counterterrorism Center. He said Mueller "was obviously unclear on the breakdown" since the FBI is not compiling the list of cases.

The confusion has, predictably, given rise to demands for more transparency by the intelligence agencies.

A growing number of Democratic and Republican lawmakers are pushing plans to open secret court orders authorizing the surveillance. Schiff, who filed House legislation on Thursday to match a similar Senate proposal, said it aimed at "allowing Americans to know how the court has interpreted the legal authorities" to ensure they are not being overly or improperly intrusive.

Additionally, a group of mostly Democratic senators are seeking to amend the Patriot Act to require the government to cite specific suspected links to terrorism or espionage before asking the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to approve the collection of Americans' phone records.

But the legislation isn't likely to be approved quickly, and confusion continues to hang over Congress and its constituents.

Noting frustration, Republican House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers said trying to balance support for classified intelligence programs against a transparent democracy is always a challenge. But all concerned agree the current situation has fueled public skepticism.

"The public trusts their government to protect the country from another 9/11-type attack," Rogers said this week, "but that trust can start to wane when they are faced with inaccuracies, half-truths and outright lies about the way the intelligence programs are being run."

___

Associated Press writers Kimberly Dozier and Donna Cassata contributed to this report.

Follow Eileen Sullivan on Twitter at https://twitter.com/esullivanap and Lara Jakes at: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/numbers-game-muddies-nsa-surveillance-123648000.html

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UK Ministry of Defence's UFO department was disbanded three years ago, had 'no defense purpose'

National Archive documents recently released show that the UK government's very own UFO department, which had reported on sightings for over 50 years, was shut down three years ago. The department apparently never revealed any "potential threats" to the country, so the Ministry of Defence closed both the hotline and email address that fielded the public's sightings of UFOs. A civil servant briefed the current defence minister, Bob Ainsworth, saying: "The level of resources diverted to this task is increasing in response to a recent upsurge in reported sightings, diverting staff from more valuable defence-related activities." The recently released files also covered some of the sightings reported from across the UK in 2009, which included, perhaps unsurprisingly, Stonehenge.

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