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Sunday, March 24, 2013
NASA Shuts Down Database During Security Inquiry
[unable to retrieve full-text content]As part of a security investigation, the agency shut down a large public database used by professionals and students, and it restricted foreign nationals? access to its facilities.
Real estate investment partnership launches new website ...
(PR NewsChannel) / March 22, 2013 / NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.?
Real estate investment partnership, Dominion Partners, is pleased to announce the launch of its new, redesigned website.
Filled with information on everything from the Partnership?s history, strategy, and contact information, the new site serves as a one stop shop for those interested in learning more about the Partnership.
?Our goal was to design a website that would easily demonstrate both the ?spectrum and specific emphasis of our business,? says Igor Korbatov, a founding partner of Dominion.
?Whether it?s our goals, strategies, history, or social responsibility projects, all of the information is at viewers? fingertips.?
Dominion Partners (www.dpllc.com)?was organized for the purpose of making opportunity driven real estate investments, with a focus on housing and profit/non-profit partnerships.?
Dominion Partners? investments are based on a systemic technology driven approach to each stage of the project investment cycle, including sourcing opportunities, due diligence and selection, project analytics, and project disposition.
With distinctive competencies in its strategic technology driven approach, extensive relationships, asset and portfolio management, and experienced team, the Partnership focuses on maximizing its returns by relying on a fundamental value approach to investing.
The Partnership is also dedicated to the goal of corporate social responsibility which produces returns to all stakeholders. Committed to embracing responsibility for the company?s actions, the Partnership encourages positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders, and all other members of the public sphere.
Focusing on helping local and national non-profit organizations implement strategic and sustainable efforts with neighborhood stabilization, and community support, the Dominion Partners achieves these goals through promoting housing stabilization, its corporate citizenship, the Center for Global Change, and the Vanetik Foundation.
?We believe that our business model is a positive sum game ? not a zero sum game.? By creating symbiotic relationships with communities, non-profits, and other stakeholders, we can leverage efficiencies and produce superior benefits, not just for our business but for all those that we touch and concern? explains Korbatov. ??
About Dominion Partners: Dominion Partners is a limited partnership founded for the purpose of making sound opportunistic real estate investments. The Partnership invests in undervalued ?real estate assets, both directly and through one or more subsidies and affiliates, ?commercial, residential, industrial, multi-family, non-performing notes, mortgages, and other debt instruments related to real estate assets that are fundamentally valuable. The Partnership is dedicated to working with ?non-profit organizations with a ?focus on neighborhood stabilization and community improvement.
Dominion Partners website: www.dpllc.com
MEDIA CONTACT
Glenn Selig
PR firm: The Publicity Agency
Email:?glenn@thepublicityagency.com?
?Phone: 813-708-1220 x7777 | Cell: 813-300-5454
SOURCE:??Dominion Partners
This press release is distributed by PR NewsChannel. Your News. Everywhere.
Source: http://www.prnewschannel.com/2013/03/22/real-estate-investment-partnership-launches-new-website/
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Saturday, March 23, 2013
Family gets deadline for farm animal removal (Providence Journal)
Planck satellite creates most detailed map ever of cosmic microwave background radiation
The European Space Agency's Planck satellite has been gathering data since its launch in 2009, slowly building up a map of the cosmic microwave background radiation -- a distant remnant of the Big Bang. The resulting image, seen above, is the most detailed ever put together of the cold glow that uniformly covers the universe, taking us all the way back to just a 380,000 years after the explosive inflation that gave birth to all matter, energy and time. There were some surprises, including more extreme temperature fluctuations between hemispheres than predicted by the standard model and confirmation of a pronounced cold spot that can no longer be dismissed as an artifact of previous satellite instruments. For more about just what Planck has taught us, along with a few more visualizations, check out the source link.
Via: Wired
Source: European Space Agency
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/22/planck-satellite-cosmic-microwave-background/
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Reid: Background checks will be in Senate gun bill
FILE - In this March 14, 2013 file photo, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. Gun control legislation the Senate debates next month will include an expansion of federal background checks for firearms buyers, Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday, March 21, 2013, in a victory for advocates of gun restrictions. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
FILE - In this March 14, 2013 file photo, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. Gun control legislation the Senate debates next month will include an expansion of federal background checks for firearms buyers, Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday, March 21, 2013, in a victory for advocates of gun restrictions. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Democrats who vowed a crackdown on guns after the horrific Newton, Conn., school shooting are touting prospects for Senate passage of expanded federal background checks, even as they acknowledge there isn't enough support to restore a ban on assault-style weapons.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday that a measure likely to be debated in his chamber next month will include tougher laws and stiffer sentences for gun trafficking and increased school safety grants.
Closing background check loopholes will be the core of the legislation, just as it was the cornerstone of President Barack Obama's proposals for stemming gun violence following the December slayings of 20 first-graders and six staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
Including expanded checks in the gun legislation signals that Democrats feel they can win bipartisan support for the measure or are happy to dare Republicans to reject the entire gun-control package and face political consequences in next year's elections.
Reid, D-Nev., said he hoped a trio of senators would craft a bipartisan background check compromise. If not, he said, senators would consider a stricter version that allows fewer exemptions approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote.
"This moves the ball forward on gun safety in the Senate," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., one of the senators hunting a background check deal.
Schumer said he hoped an accord could be ready when the Senate returns from its upcoming two-week spring break. Moderate Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who has an A-rating from the National Rifle Association, and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., are also involved.
The background check system is aimed at preventing criminals and others from acquiring firearms. It currently applies only to sales by federally licensed gun dealers, not private transactions at gun shows or online.
The fate of the overall legislation remains uncertain, with Democrats all but sure to need Republican support for it to survive. Action would then shift to the GOP-run House, where leaders have shown no taste for expanding background checks for private purchases.
Earlier, Reid decided to exclude a proposed assault weapons ban from the bill, fearing it would sink the legislation, but will allow a vote on the plan as an amendment. The ban's sponsor, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., seems sure to lose due to opposition from Republicans and moderate Democrats.
An Associated Press-GfK poll showed more than 8 in 10 people support broadening the background check requirement to gun shows. Other surveys show similar overwhelming support.
Critics appeared unbowed. The NRA and others say criminals ignore background checks in getting guns illegally, and warn the expansion would lead to a federal registry of gun owners.
"We remain as committed as we have been to opposing gun bans," said Andrew Arulanandam, an NRA spokesman. He declined to comment on a potential compromise but said if the Senate considers Schumer's version of background checks, "we will do whatever we can to defeat it."
The NRA wants Congress to fund more armed guards at schools, step up prosecutions of people who file false gun applications and increase the background check system's access to state records of people with mental and other problems.
Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said of Reid's announcement, "I don't know how the leader expects members to vote on an ever-changing piece of legislation that has yet to gain bipartisan support."
In a hint of possible movement, one option that Schumer, Manchin and Kirk are considering would require background checks and record-keeping for private sales at gun shows and commercial sales online. It would exclude in-person, noncommercial transactions between people who know each other. The idea was described by two lobbyists and Senate aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private talks.
Other exclusions could include gun transactions between relatives and acquisitions by people with state-issued concealed carry permits, and there would be an online background check system for people in remote areas. Veterans officially determined to have some psychological problems would be given a way to appeal that decision, which would otherwise bar them from getting firearms.
Schumer has insisted on record-keeping for all private gun sales, saying the files are needed to keep the system effective. That led to stalemated talks with conservative leader Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who says the data would lead to federal records on gun owners.
If not included in the overall gun bill, an expansion of background checks could have been offered as an amendment. It likely would have needed support from 60 of the 100 senators to prevail ? a difficult hurdle for Democrats.
"In order to be effective, any bill that passes the Senate must include background checks," Reid said in a written statement.
Gun control backers lauded the decision. Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, called it "a tremendous step and we recognize there is still a tough road ahead." He said his group would activate supporters to contact lawmakers.
"The majority leader's been a pretty steady guide throughout, and this a good example," said Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg helps lead.
Reid said that besides the assault weapons ban, he will allow votes on amendments including those related to high-capacity ammunition magazines and mental health. Many states poorly report mental health records to the federal background check system.
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Friday, March 22, 2013
Buy a Nook tablet, get a free e-reader
Barnes & Noble is kicking off a seriously nice limited time deal where buyers of a Nook tablet will be given a free Nook e-reader to complete the set. The tablet was already a good buy, but the addition of the e-reader makes this offer nearly irresistible.
The 9-inch Nook HD+ tablet has a nice full HD screen (1920x1280) and solid specs, as well as an eye-grabbing design. It's not the biggest, smallest, cheapest, or most advanced tablet on the market, but it's still a good device (we'd advise spending the extra $30 to double your storage to 32GB).
Adding a free e-reader to go along with it really sweetens the pot. The Nook Simple Touch doesn't light up like the latest generation of e-paper devices, but it's a solid, simple reading device ? and at 100 percent off, the price sure is right.
You can take advantage of the deal by buying a Nook HD+ any time during the week starting Sunday the 24th and ending on the 31st.
Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.
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'Let's start over': Muslims hope Pope Francis will salvage relations
Angelo Carconi / AP
Pope Francis is driven through the crowd in in St. Peter's Square for his inaugural Mass at the Vatican on Tuesday, Mar. 19, 2013. Francis took his name from Francis of Assisi, who was known for his concern for the poor and downtrodden, and for a 13th century encounter with the Sultan of Egypt.
By Kari Huus, Staff Writer, NBC News
Catholics and Muslims have come a long way since the Crusades, but during the tenure of Pope Benedict XVI, relations between the world?s two largest religions hit the skids.
So it was with relief and renewed optimism that prominent Muslims and interfaith advocates cheered the newly anointed Pope Francis.
"We are hoping for better relations with the Vatican after the election of the new pope," Mahmud Azab, adviser for inter-faith affairs at Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning in Cairo, told AFP. "We congratulate the Church of St. Peter and all Catholics around the world."
From the start, Benedict put less energy in reaching out to other religions than his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, who blazed the trail for Catholic relations with Muslims and other religions through his tireless travels and scores of meetings and prayer with imams around the world.
Under John Paul, the Vatican launched the World Day of Prayer for Peace in 1986, which was at first a hard sell for prominent Muslims, said Father Thomas Michel, who has a PhD in Islamic studies and headed John Paul?s office for Islam?for 13 years.
"By the second one [World Day of Prayer for Peace in 1993] Muslims could see he didn?t have any other agenda ? that he wasn?t going to get them all together and convince them to become Christians," said Michel, now a professor of Christian-Muslim relations at Georgetown University.
"By the time of the third, in 2002, there were so many leaders of Muslims organizations there wasn?t room for them on the podium? I don?t think Muslims changed so much, but what changed was the level of trust."
Mohammed brought 'evil and inhuman'
But when Benedict gave a controversial speech at the University of Regensburg in Germany in 2006 ? a little more than a year after his installation as pope ? he sparked fury across the Muslim world by quoting a Byzantine Emperor as saying, "show me just what Mohammed brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman."
Channi Anand / AP file
Muslim protestors rally in Jammu, India on Sept. 15, 2006 after Pope Benedict XVI made a controversial speech at the University of Regensburg in Germany.
In response to the pope's comments ? though some argued they had been misunderstood ? 138 leading Muslim scholars from around the world signed an open letter of protest to Benedict. In some countries there were protests and attacks on churches.
"It was a very strained period of the relationship," said John Esposito, professor of International Affairs and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University.
The Vatican took measures to patch up the fallout from Regensburg speech ? which?Vatican officials reportedly called "the accident."?
They held formal meetings with the Muslim leaders who had launched a "common word" initiative emphasizing the shared principles at the core of Christian and Islamic scriptures.
In October 2006, Benedict traveled to Turkey, making a symbolic visit to the ornate Blue Mosque in Instanbul where he emphasized his desire for reconciliation between Muslims and Christians.
And in 2009, Benedict traveled to Jordan and visited the site where Jesus was baptized, emphasizing the "common history" of Christianity and Islam. Even so, he stopped short of praying with his Muslim hosts in a mosque, or taking his shoes off to enter the prayer hall.
Dialogue resumed, but the relationship remained cool.
There are some early signs that Pope Francis could pick up where Pope John Paul II left off.
Reports from Argentina citing local?Muslim leaders suggest that Francis ? formerly Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires ? was a friend to the Muslim community.
One report out of the country said that in 2006 Bergoglio spoke out against the Regensburg speech, according to the Daily Telegraph of London.
Quick response to Francis
"Pope Benedict's statements don't reflect my own opinions," he said in a local press interview, according to the report. "These statements will serve to destroy in 20 seconds the careful construction of a relationship with Islam that Pope John Paul II built over the last twenty years."
That report has not been confirmed by NBC News.
But a lot of Muslim optimism about Francis is based simply on hunches about his character.
The initial impression of the pope ? as a man who values simplicity, openness, and the ability to connect with all people ??is appealing to Muslims, said Esposito.
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Cardinals from around the world gathered in the Vatican to elect the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
For the new pope?s installation ceremony, he noted: "They went out of their way to talk about how people of all major faiths are invited. From the other side, it?s interesting to see how quick Muslims were? to say how they look forward to working with him."
He referred to public statements issued by prominent imams as well as larger Muslim civil rights groups including the Council on American Islamic Relations and the Muslim Public Affairs Council.
Michel saw the same optimism about Pope Francis in a flood of email from Muslims.
"They are so happy and looking forward to working with him," he said. "He?s coming in as every pope does with a real fund of good will and they are really hoping that he will be someone he can work with."
Building trust and influence
If Francis establishes a relationship of trust with Muslims, it could have impact beyond just warm and fuzzy feelings, some observers believe.
A pope with a new approach could be important in a Muslim-majority country like Pakistan, where minority Christians -- most of them Catholics -- suffer persecution, says Jeff Siddique, a Muslim-American in Seattle who was born in Pakistan.
"If (Pope Francis) can build a relationship with the leadership in Pakistan, he may be able to convince them that protecting the Christians in Pakistan is a good thing to do," he said.
Likewise, he may be able to restart discussions with Al-Azhar University in Egypt, which cut off dialogue with the Vatican in 2011 after Benedict called for greater protections for non-Muslims after a suicide bomber attacked a church in Egypt, killing 23 people. Al-Azhar cut ties over what it said was Benedict?s "repeated treatment of Islam in a negative way."
To have an influence across religions requires a foundation of trust, said Michel.
"When they trust each other they can speak freely,"?he said. "If people come on as scolds or know-it-alls, they get their backs up and won?t accept it."
For some seeking clues about the pontiff?s position on Christian-Muslim relations, his choice of Francis ? after Francis of Assisi ? has significance beyond his emphasis on simplicity and concern for the poor and downtrodden.
A 13th century story describes how St. Francis left the camp of the crusaders who were attacking the walled Egyptian city of Damietta, and dared to cross enemy lines to meet with Malik al-Kamil, the sultan of Egypt. He risked being killed, but instead, he had a fruitful conversation with the Muslim leader and left unharmed.
The encounter is played up in newer biographies as a pivotal moment of engagement between the two religions.
"We?re seeing the church interpret Francis in modern times as a bridge," said Paul Moses, author of "The Saint and the Sultan," a 2009 book which explores the encounter. "To Muslims ears, the choice of Francis for a name should sound good," he told Religion News Service.
Did Francis choose this name as an overture to Muslims?
"I?d say that it?s pushing it to say this was a factor," said Michel. Nonetheless, he said other signs favor improving ties ? from both sides of the divide.
"I get the feeling of 'let's start over, let's start a new chapter. The last one was bumpy'."
Follow Kari Huus on Facebook
Related:
At inauguration, Pope Francis appeals for protection of poor, environment
Impromptu appearance, off-the-cuff address: Pope's Sunday surprises delight
Full coverage of Pope Francis from NBC News
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