Sprightly, a newly launching startup whose founding team has an extensive history working in female-focused businesses, including Refinery29, Etsy, Chloe+Isabel, and others, is debuting its content aggregation platform on Monday, with a focus on verticals like fashion, beauty, design, decor, and more. TechCrunch has early invites (see below).Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/QnVVUQLyc5U/
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With no fight this week, UFC president Dana White released a video blog that shows what he and his "idiot friends" do when visiting his place in Maine. Yes, there's plenty of NSFW language. Take a look and see what White and his friends are up to, including:
1. Talk one friend into trying the spiciest hot sauce ever.
2. Blow things up.
3. Shoot guns while calling each other a nickname for a cat.
4. Apple-picking, though it doesn't look like they're picking honeycrisp apples, the finest of all apple varieties.
5. Milk goats in a way that looks pretty uncomfortable for the goat.
6. Drive motorcycles.
[Also: Nick Diaz can cry foul all he wants, but he's not getting a rematch with GSP]
And a little advice for Nick the Tooth. I was once told at an Indian restaurant, after eating very spicy food, that beer or soda pop are your best bets to cool a burning mouth.
Memorable Moments from Yahoo! Sports:
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? Top seeds L'ville, Kansas in the way of All-Big Ten Final Four
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? Report: Seahawks may have multiple trade partners for Matt Flynn
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Good morning, AdLand. Here's what you need to know today:
Viral kings Rhett and Link, responsible for that I-can't-believe-it's-real ad for Ojai Valley Taxidermy, joined forces with The Martin Agency to make the most ridiculous ads for FreeCreditScore.com ever. There are four spots. They involve bubble wrap, llama rodeos, and picnic baskets of doom. Watch some here:
CBS?wants to get a tax break for its Super Bowl coverage.
These are the most unintentionally awful ad placements ever.
Google?has a new opt out tool.
People aren't happy about this?Nike?social media post starring Tiger Woods.
Are these the funniest beer ads of all time? Mashable thinks so.
Mario Diaz?is PointRoll's new CEO. He was previously at the New York Times.
Jonathan Levine, the director of "50/50," is now on the commercial roster for Caviar, Los Angeles.
Previously on Business Insider Advertising:
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This article aims to provide valuable information that will help small business owners to leverage the benefits of launching their business online. Is it really easy for them to handle their business and online stuff together? Well? I would say it?s not that easy, though it?s not that much harder as well!
Starting a local business and expecting local customers from offline marketing techniques like word of mouth publicity, local daily ads and other offline stuff is understandable but running your business online and targeting customers and sales on the web is another thing and it requires special tactics. I am going to explain some of those tactics in this article that will give you immense knowledge, confidence and determination to get started with your business online.
Steps to put your business online:
I do not think that the above mentioned points require much money and time to give a real boost to your online business. I haven?t mentioned any technicalities whatsoever such as On-Site Optimization, Search Engine Optimization, Paid Advertising and so on. Google can make things happen in two ways ? simple way or the technical way!
Let?s first get started with the simple way and when you will get time and money for the resources, you can always go for the technical method.
Conclusion
If you are one of those small business owners who think that you need to hire an SEO expert to bring your business online, will you will at least ?forget that perception and give this a try yourself?
Chirag Suri is the Co-director and business development Head at Cyber Flavors. Being a chief at an Internet marketing firm, I love to share and receive all digital industry-related information to remain updated with all latest news and trends.virginia beach jet crash ridiculously photogenic guy amanda bynes dui ghost ship tiger woods masters jet crash virginia beach petrino
A lot of the articles coming out about the recent Sloan Sports Analytics Conference ? a conference that was attended by our own Andres Alvarez and Arturo Galletti ? have focused on the SportVU tracking system. Using a system of cameras, SportVU tracks the position of the ball and all active players throughout the game. The data could be used to track the locations of on-court events ? shots, rebounds, assists, steals, turnovers, and blocks ? or learn about player movement, or field goal defense, or a myriad of other things. While the sample sizes are small for now, there is great promise that SportVU can contribute to the statistical analysis of basketball.
The number of teams electing to install SportVU increases every year. Right now exactly half of the league?s 30 teams have not installed SportsVU. The system currently costs between $75 000 ? $100 000 per year. That got us thinking: how does the cost of SportVU compare to some of the salaries that these non-SportVU teams pay? Below are salaries of 15 players ? one from each of the 15 non-SportVU teams ? as well as the number of years of SportVU each player?s 2012-13 salary would cover:
These 15 teams are paying these players a combined $21.2 million dollars this year, which would cover about 247.5 years of SportVU. And how much on court productivity are these teams getting from these 15 players? A paltry 1076 minutes played and a pathetic -1.4 wins ? not quite as bad as Norris Cole or Glen Davis, but close. I?ve put together two visualizations to illustrate how ridiculous this is:
Our 15 players are paid a combined total of $21.2 million, which is a more salary than every individual NBA player not named Kobe. Despite the money going to these players, they?ve only played 1076 combined minutes this year. This is way fewer minutes than Kobe, who is the current NBA leader; the same number of minutes as Keith Bogans; and?fewer minutes than Jeff Taylor, who is apparently an NBA player who plays on the Bobcats. Which should tell you how much of an impact these players have had this year.
You?ll REALLY have to squint to see the little yellow dot on the left. We assure you it?s there!
Instead of using that $21.2 million to pay for 1076 NBA minutes, these teams could install SportVU and pay for 2,676,049 minutes of SportVU. Another way to think of it is 16.5 years (including playoffs) of SportsVU for each of these 15 teams ? a period of time longer than the Hall-Of-Fame careers of Larry Bird (13 years), Magic Johnson (13 years), and Michael Jordan (15, if you count the last two in Washington).
Instead of signing creaky veterans like Jerry Stackhouse and Grant Hill, or adding that ever-important 13th man at the minimum, these teams could be gathering data that might give them a competitive edge. While the full benefit of SportVU on a team?s wins has yet to be cracked, surely it would be greater than that of players who usually sit on the bench (and who tend to hurt their teams? productivity when they do play). One thing?s for certain, though: it would definitely be cheaper. In addition to costing less per season, money going to SportVU has the added bonus of not counting against the salary cap or luxury tax line.
- Devin
Editor Dre: One last note. At bare minimum installing SportsVU would increase stats to give to hardcore fans. This is something most of us want. I?m fairly certain that pleasing some of your fanbase, even a very tiny segment, is a better investment than paying players to sit or lose
Source: http://wagesofwins.com/2013/03/12/paying-to-lose-vs-investing-in-the-future/
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Mar. 13, 2013 ? Researchers have discovered a unique monoclonal antibody that can effectively reach inside a cancer cell, a key goal for these important anticancer agents, since most proteins that cause cancer or are associated with cancer are buried inside cancer cells. Scientists from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Eureka Therapeutics have collaborated to create the new human monoclonal antibody, which targets a protein associated with many types of cancer and is of great interest to cancer researchers.
Unlike other human therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, which can target only proteins that remain on the outside of cancer cells, the new monoclonal antibody, called ESK1, targets a protein that resides on the inside of the cell.
ESK1 is directed at a protein called WT1, which is overexpressed in a range of leukemias and other cancers including myeloma and breast, ovarian, and colorectal cancers. WT1 is a high priority target for cancer drugs because it is an oncogenic protein, meaning that it supports the formation of cancer. In addition, it is found in few healthy cells, so there are less likely to be side effects from drugs that target it.
"This is a new approach for attacking WT1, an important cancer target, with an antibody therapy. This is something that was previously not possible," said David A. Scheinberg, MD, PhD, Chair of the Sloan-Kettering Institute's Molecular Pharmacology and Chemistry Program and an inventor of the antibody. "There has not been a way to make small molecule drugs that can inhibit WT1 function. Our research shows that you can use a monoclonal antibody to recognize a cancer-associated protein inside a cell, and it will destroy the cell."
The first studies of the antibody are showing promise in preclinical research as a treatment for leukemia as reported March 13, 2013, in Science Translational Medicine.
"ESK1 represents a paradigm change for the field of human monoclonal antibody therapeutics," said Cheng Liu, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Eureka Therapeutics. "This research suggests that human antibody therapy is no longer limited to targeting proteins present outside cancer cells, but can now target proteins within the cancer cell itself."
ESK1 was engineered to mimic the functions of a T cell receptor, a key component of the immune system. T cells have a receptor system that is designed to recognize proteins that are inside the cell. As proteins inside the cell get broken down as part of regular cellular processes, molecules known as HLA molecules carry fragments of those proteins -- known as peptides -- to the surface. When T cells recognize certain peptides as abnormal, the T cell kills the diseased cell.
In the current study, the investigators showed that ESK1 alone was able to recognize WT1 peptides and kill cancer cells in the test tube and also in mouse models for two different types of human leukemia. "We were surprised that the antibody worked so well on its own," said Dr. Scheinberg, senior author of the paper. "We had originally expected that we might need to use the antibody as a carrier to deliver a drug or a radioactive therapy to kill the cancer cells, but this was not necessary."
Additional studies must be done in the laboratory before ESK1 is ready to be tested in patients. But the monoclonal antibody was engineered to be fully human, which should speed the time it takes to move the drug into the clinic. Researchers expect that the first clinical trials, for leukemia, could begin in about a year.
The antibody was developed under a collaborative effort between Memorial Sloan-Kettering and Eureka, which have jointly filed for patent protection.
This work was supported by grants from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the National Cancer Institute, the Sloan-Kettering Institute's Experimental Therapeutics Center and Technology Development Fund, the Commonwealth Foundation for Cancer Research, the Tudor and Glades Foundations, the Merker Fund, the Lymphoma Foundation, and the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The original article was written by Julie Grisham.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/-aEGDCLAaM8/130313160757.htm
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Google says the executive in charge of its popular Android software for smartphones and tablet computers is stepping down from the job.
The unexpected change announced Wednesday marks the first time that the Android software has been overseen by someone other than Andy Rubin. He began working on the software at a startup that Google bought in 2005.
Rubin will replaced by Sundar Pichai, an executive who also oversees Google's Chrome Web browser and operating system.
In a blog post, Google CEO Larry Page said Rubin will continue working at the company in an undisclosed role.
Google Inc. began distributing Android for free to mobile device makers in 2008. The software is now used on more than 750 smartphones and tablets, making it the world's most popular mobile operating system.
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People offer prayer in a moment of silence in front of what is left of a disaster control center in an area devastated by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, Monday, March 11, 2013. Japan marked the second anniversary on Monday of the devastating disasters that left nearly 19,000 people dead or missing. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
People offer prayer in a moment of silence in front of what is left of a disaster control center in an area devastated by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, Monday, March 11, 2013. Japan marked the second anniversary on Monday of the devastating disasters that left nearly 19,000 people dead or missing. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
People observe a moment of silence in front of what is left of a disaster control center in an area devastated by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, in Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture, in Japan, Monday, March 11, 2013. Japan marked the second anniversary on Monday of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that left nearly 19,000 people dead or missing.(AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
People observe a moment of silence for the victims of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami during an event at a park in Tokyo, Monday, March 11, 2013. Japan marked the second anniversary on Monday of a devastating earthquake and tsunami that left nearly 19,000 people dead or missing. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)
People observe a moment of silence for the victims of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami during an event at a park in Tokyo, Monday, March 11, 2013. Japan marked the second anniversary on Monday of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that left nearly 19,000 people dead or missing. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)
People offer prayers as a Buddhist monk chants a sutra for tsunami victims to mark the second anniversary of the 2011 earthquake an tsunami on a beach in Arahama in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, Monday morning, March 11, 2013. Japan marked the second anniversary of the disasters, that killed nearly 19, 000 people in areas along Japan's northeastern coast. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO LICENSING IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE
TOKYO (AP) ? Japan marked the second anniversary on Monday of a devastating earthquake and tsunami that left nearly 19,000 people dead or missing and more than 300,000 people still displaced.
At memorial observances in Tokyo and in barren towns along the northeastern coast, those gathered bowed their heads in a moment of silence marking the moment, at 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, when the magnitude 9.0 earthquake ? the strongest recorded in Japan's history ? struck off the coast.
"I pray that the peaceful lives of those affected can resume as soon as possible," Emperor Akihito said at a somber service at Tokyo's National Theater.
Japan has struggled to clean up radiation from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, whose reactors melted down after its cooling systems were disabled by the tsunami, and rebuild lost communities along the coast. A new government elected in December has vowed faster action, but has yet to devise a post-disaster energy strategy ? a central issue for its struggling economy.
About half of those displaced are evacuees from areas near the nuclear plant. Hundreds of them filed a lawsuit Monday demanding compensation for their suffering and losses.
Throughout the disaster zone, the tens of thousands of survivors living in temporary housing are impatient to get resettled, a process that could take up to a decade, officials say.
"What I really want is to once again have a 'my home,' " said Migaku Suzuki, a 69-year-old farm worker in Rikuzentakata, who lost the house he had just finished building in the disaster. Suzuki also lost a son in the tsunami, which obliterated much of the city.
Farther south, in Fukushima prefecture, some 160,000 evacuees are uncertain if they will ever be able to return to abandoned homes around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, where three reactors melted down and spewed radiation into the surrounding soil and water after the tsunami knocked out the plant's vital cooling system.
The lawsuit was filed by a group of 800 people in Fukushima against the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that operates the now-closed Fukushima plant. It demands an apology payment of 50,000 yen ($625) a month for each victim until all radiation from the accident is wiped out, a process that could take decades.
Evacuees are anxious to return home but worried about the potential, still uncertain risks from exposure to the radiation from the disaster, the worst since Chernobyl in 1986.
While there have been no clear cases of cancer linked to radiation from the plant, the upheaval in people's lives, uncertainty about the future and long-term health concerns, especially for children, have taken an immense psychological toll on thousands of residents.
"I don't trust the government on anything related to health anymore," said Masaaki Watanabe, 42, who fled the nearby town of Minami-Soma and doesn't plan to return because the radiation in the ground is too high.
In Kawauchi, one of many towns with varying degrees of access restrictions due to radiation, village chief Yuko Endo is pinning his hopes on the success of a long decontamination process that may or may not enable hundreds of residents to return home.
Much of the area is off-limits, though some restrictions gradually are being lifted as workers remove debris and wipe down roofs by hand.
Many residents might give up on returning if they are kept waiting too long, he said.
"If I were told to wait for two more years, I might explode," said Endo, who is determined to revive his town of mostly empty houses and overgrown fields. "After spending a huge amount of money, with the vegetable patches all cleaned up and ready for farming, we may end up with nobody willing to return."
A change of government late last year has raised hopes that authorities might move more quickly with the cleanup and reconstruction.
Since taking office in late December, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made a point of frequently visiting the disaster zone, promising faster action, and plans to raise the long-term reconstruction budget to 25 trillion yen ($262 billion) from 19 trillion yen (about $200 billion).
"We must speed up the reconstruction effort for the survivors who are living with heart and soul," Abe said in an address at the memorial service. "I believe that would be a way to serve justice for the perished, whose spirits are looking after us from the heaven."
Hopes for a significant improvement may be misplaced, said Hiroshi Suzuki, chairman of the Fukushima Prefectural Reconstruction Committee.
"There have been no major changes by the new government in response to the nuclear accident, though the budget has been increased," he said. "If the reconstruction budget continues to serve as a tool for expanding public works spending, then I believe local societies and economist will be undermined."
Another lingering problem is discrimination against evacuees from Fukushima.
Watanabe, who used to work for a company maintaining the nuclear plant's lighting systems, said his sons are sometimes shunned or taunted by classmates who say things like, "Don't come near me. You're radioactive."
Many fear their children will find it hard to find spouses due to worries over potential long-term harm from radiation, Suzuki said.
The struggles to rebuild and to cope with the nuclear disaster are only the most immediate issues Japan is grappling with as it searches for new drivers for growth as its export manufacturing lags and its society ages.
Towns impatient to rebuild face the stark reality of dwindling, aging populations that are shrinking still further as residents give up on ever finding new jobs in areas where the backbone industries of fish processing and tourism were wrecked by the tsunami or paralyzed by the nuclear crisis.
Decommissioning the nuclear plant could take 40 years as its operator works on finding and removing melted nuclear fuel from inside its reactors, disposing of spent fuel rods and treating the many tons of contaminated waste water used to cool the reactors.
Japan's 54 nuclear reactors shut down for regular inspections and then special tests to check their disaster preparedness, though two restarted last summer, to help meet power shortages. While polls show the majority of Japanese remain opposed to restarting more nuclear plants, Abe's government has indicated it favors restarting those that meet revised safety standards.
The government looks likely to back away from a decision to phase out nuclear power by the 2030s: Abe says it may take a decade to decide on what Japan's energy mix should be.
___
Associated Press writers Malcolm Foster and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Emily Wang in Kesennuma, Japan, contributed to this report.
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Samsung's most recent Chromebook may get the job done for those who rely mostly on websites and web apps, but there have still been some gaps in the web-based services it supports -- like Netflix. That's changed today, though, with Google announcing that it has collaborated with Netflix and Microsoft to enable HTML5 video streaming on the ARM-based Chromebook. That notably also makes it the first instance of Netflix using HTML5 for streaming instead of Silverlight, although there's no indication of it spreading to other devices just yet. As far as users are concerned, all you have to do is go to the Netflix website and log in to get started.
Filed under: Laptops, Samsung, Google
Source: Chrome (Google+), Google Groups
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/11/samsung-chromebook-netflix-html5-streaming/
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By Alistair Scrutton
NUUK (Reuters) - Voters in Greenland's capital will stream into the town's one polling station on Tuesday in a national parliamentary election in which mining, Chinese influence and the environment are core issues.
With sea ice thawing and new shipping routes opening in the Arctic, the former Cold War ally of the West has emerged from isolation as a geopolitical interest for governments seeking a share of untapped minerals and potential offshore oil and gas.
Prime Minister Kuupik Kleist, who in his youth hunted whales with a hand-held harpoon, has opened up Greenland to investors over the last four years.
The capital Nuuk has an art cinema, sushi bars, Thai restaurants and gleaming new office towers alongside older, grey Soviet-style housing estates.
Many of the 57,000 mostly Inuit inhabitants dotted along remote coastal towns and villages fear change has come too fast. Ice floes often are so thin that hunters can no longer use dog sledges.
And miners exploiting Greenland's resources may employ more foreigners than locals.
Revenues from mining may help wean self-governing Greenland off Denmark's roughly $600 million annual grant and lead to eventual independence. But they also bring worries of environmental damage to traditional hunting and fishing.
The main opposition leader Aleqa Hammond, who lost her father when young after he fell through ice on a hunting trip, has promised more taxes or royalties on foreign mining companies.
"Where is the voice of the people?" Hammond told Reuters last week. "People feel that the prime minister speaks on behalf of investors from outside."
The capital of 15,000 people overlooks a bay where whales can often be spotted. There are just two traffic lights and no roads or train links with the rest of the country - the only way in or out is by plane or boat.
Campaign posters vie with ice sculptures on the frigid main street for attention.
Polls show the results, which may not be known until late Tuesday night, could be close.
CHINESE INFLUENCE?
European Union officials have expressed concern about China's influence in Greenland, part of what some analysts say is a multi-pronged Arctic strategy by the world's most populous nation to secure needed resources.
One of the most controversial plans is a proposal for a $2.3 billion mining project by the British-based London Mining Plc near the capital Nuuk that could supply iron ore to China. Some 2,000 Chinese workers could be flown in for its construction.
Kleist's government passed a law that critics said allowed large companies to bring in cheap labor to work on construction projects. Hammond has promised to revise the law if she wins.
Another issue has been the mining of rare earths, essential in 21st century technology like smartphones. China currently has the lion's share of production.
Rare earths are often intertwined with uranium deposits. But Greenland is split over whether to jettison its zero tolerance policy on mining radioactive materials, which originates in Denmark. Kleist wants to keep the ban while Hammond would end it.
One rare earth deposit in southern Greenland, being explored by Australian-owned Greenland Minerals and Energy, could be one of the largest such mines outside of China.
"Everything is on hold for us with the election," said Ib Laursen, operations manager at Greenland Minerals and Energy.
(Editing by Michael Roddy)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mining-china-central-issues-greenland-election-231011941.html
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The Sony Electronic Viewfinder for Cyber-shot RX1 ($449.99 direct) is an add-on viewfinder for Sony's full-frame compact camera, the Cyber-shot DSC-RX1. It slides into the camera's multi-accessory hot shoe and gives you an eye-level look at what would typically be fed to the RX1's rear LCD.
The finder is identical in size and design to the similar FDAEV1S Electronic Viewfinder for select Sony NEX cameras. It shares the same 2.4-megapixel OLED design with that finder as well as the EVFs that are built into Sony's top-end interchangeable lens cameras like the Alpha 99 and NEX-6. The EVF is hinged, so it can tilt straight up to 90 degrees, but it isn't possible to lock it at any position.
Photographers who prefer to put their eyes up to the camera, and those who expect to use the RX1 on the brightest of days, will appreciate the clarity the EVF provides. It's smaller and comprises more pixels than the camera's rear LCD. This results in an image that is fantastically clear, which is especially helpful when focusing manually. You can set the camera to manually switch between the LCD and EVF via the Finder/LCD button on the left side of the eyepiece, or set the change occur automatically via an eye-sensor. Sony includes two eyepieces?one with a larger flexible rubber eyecup and one with a smaller ridged plastic eyecup.
The Electronic Viewfinder is one of two external finder options that Sony offers for the RX1. The other, a fixed optical finder, doesn't show you what your focus or depth of field will be?it simply provides approximate framing. The optical finder is priced even higher, at $600, but you can get away with using any shoe-mount optical finder that matches the field of view of a 35mm lens. Many of these are available used for very little money, as they were a popular accessory with vintage rangefinder cameras.
The OLED EVF is a more modern take on this concept, offering completely accurate framing, real-time preview of your depth of field and exposure, and the automatic magnification as a focus aid when manual focus is enabled. It's expensive, but so is the RX1?if you're going to spend $2,800 on the camera, you should budget the extra $450 for the EVF as it greatly enhances the shooting experience. Being able to bring up the camera to your eye is a welcome feeling for experienced photographers, and if you're shooting on a bright day it will eliminate the glare that sometimes makes using a rear LCD a difficult proposition. It would be nice if you were able to lock it in the 0, 45-, and 90-degree positions, and it would be nice if it was less expensive; but you can't argue with the clarity that the high-resolution OLED display provides.
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??? Sony Electronic Viewfinder for Cyber-shot RX1 (FDA-EV1MK)
??? Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX1
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/7NaH4cf0jIo/0,2817,2416356,00.asp
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FILE - In this Friday, Jan. 25, 2013 file photo, defense attorney Walter Madison explains why he withdrew his motion to have the rape trial of his client closed to the public, after a hearing at Jefferson County Juvenile Court in Steubenville, Ohio. A West Virginia judge has rejected requests that three juveniles be called to testify at the Ohio trial of two high school football players charged with raping a 16-year-old girl, a decision Madison says puts his client in "a tough situation." (AP Photo/Andrew Welsh-Huggins, File)
FILE - In this Friday, Jan. 25, 2013 file photo, defense attorney Walter Madison explains why he withdrew his motion to have the rape trial of his client closed to the public, after a hearing at Jefferson County Juvenile Court in Steubenville, Ohio. A West Virginia judge has rejected requests that three juveniles be called to testify at the Ohio trial of two high school football players charged with raping a 16-year-old girl, a decision Madison says puts his client in "a tough situation." (AP Photo/Andrew Welsh-Huggins, File)
FILE - This Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013 file photo shows activists from the online group KnightSec and Anonymous protest at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Steubenville, Ohio. Two high school football players go on trial this coming week on charges of raping a nearly passed-out-drunk 16-year-old girl during a night of partying in Steubenville. Around the football-powerhouse city, some are demanding to know why at least three other teens aren't facing charges, too. (AP Photo/Steubenville Herald-Star, Michael D. McElwain, File)
FILE - In this Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013 file photo, activists from the online group KnightSec and Anonymous protest at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Steubenville, Ohio. Two high school football players go on trial this coming week on charges of raping a nearly passed-out-drunk 16-year-old girl during a night of partying in Steubenville. Around the football-powerhouse city, some are demanding to know why at least three other teens aren't facing charges, too. (AP Photo/Steubenville Herald-Star, Michael D. McElwain, File)
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) ? Two high school football players go on trial this coming week on charges of raping a nearly passed-out-drunk 16-year-old girl during a night of partying in Steubenville. Around the football-powerhouse city, some are demanding to know why at least three other teens aren't facing charges, too.
After the athletes' arrest last summer, one of the many rumors that swirled around town proved all too true: Three boys, two of them members of Steubenville High's celebrated Big Red team, saw something happening that night and didn't try to stop it.
Instead, two pulled out their cellphones and took video and a photo.
The allegations shocked and roiled the city of 18,000, but prosecutors brought no charges against the witnesses, fueling months of furious online accusations of a cover-up to protect the team ? something law enforcement authorities have vehemently denied.
One blogger wrote a post was headlined: "Steubenville Big Red Rape Accusations: The Other Perpetrators."
"Anyone that they can show had firsthand knowledge and was partly in some way responsible for the event, the rape, they should be charged," said Jackie Hillyer, president of the Ohio chapter of the National Organization for Women. She is among those pressing, at a minimum, for charges of failure to report a crime, which is punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $250 fine.
Longtime Steubenville resident Willa Wade said: "I feel personally that if they were there, they knew it had happened, they did not report it or stop it, then they ought to be brought up on the same charges as anybody else."
The Ohio attorney general's office, however, told the three witnesses in a letter last fall that while they may not have conducted themselves "in a responsible or appropriate manner," their behavior "did not rise to the level of criminal conduct," and they would not be charged.
Legal experts said it is clear prosecutors sorely need the witnesses' testimony to make their rape case because there is little physical evidence against the defendants and the girl may have been too intoxicated to remember much.
"This prosecutor more than anything else wants to get a conviction of the culprits and he does not want to jeopardize that single-minded goal," said Christo Lassiter, a University of Cincinnati criminal law professor. "That's the conservative approach. Above all else, get the main culprit. If you can get the other folks along the line, fine."
Ma'Lik Richmond, 16, and Trent Mays, 17, go on trial Wednesday in juvenile court in Steubenville. They are charged with digitally penetrating the girl, first in the back seat of a moving car after a mostly underage, alcohol-fueled party Aug. 11, and then in the basement of a house. Witnesses said the girl was so drunk she threw up at least twice and had trouble walking and speaking. She was also photographed being carried by the two young men.
If convicted, they could be held in a juvenile jail until they turn 21. They have denied any wrongdoing.
The Associated Press normally does not identify minors charged in juvenile court, but Mays and Richmond have been widely identified in news coverage, and their names have been used in open court.
They were charged 10 days after the party, after a flurry of social media postings about the alleged attack led the girl and her family to go to police.
The scandal brought a barrage of accusations and insinuations, mostly online, with some townspeople supporting the defendants and others complaining that the football team has unusual sway over the city. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine's office took over the case after the local prosecutor stepped down because her son is a football player at 700-student Steubenville High.
Big Red football is a big deal in Steubenville. The stadium, dubbed Death Valley, sits on a hill above town, and the team is a nine-time state champion, with back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006. Man O' War, a red statue of a rearing stallion, shoots flames from its mouth each time a touchdown is scored.
Three students ? Anthony Craig and football players Mark Cole and Evan Westlake ? testified at a hearing in October, just days after receiving the letters assuring them they would not be prosecuted. Prosecutors said at the hearing that Cole and Craig would have been charged if they hadn't deleted the images on their cellphones.
At the same proceeding, Westlake was asked by a prosecutor why he didn't stop the alleged attack.
"I was stunned at what I saw," he said. "I just wanted ? I wanted to get out of there and I ?I ? I didn't know what to do, I mean."
The defendants' lawyers also raised the possibility that the witnesses did not know what they were seeing that night. Under questioning, the teen witnesses said that the girl was able to tell some of the boys the password to her smartphone and that they never heard her say "no" or "stop."
"So, you don't consider it a sexual assault?" attorney Adam Nemann asked Cole.
"I feel it's not my place to make that decision on whether it was or wasn't," Cole responded. "I can just tell you what I witnessed."
"And if this was a sexual assault I'm sure you would have called and told someone, right?" Nemann said.
"I would assume, yes," Cole said.
On a blog run by former Steubenville resident Alexandria Goddard, some anonymous posters have demanded others at the party be charged, including football player Cody Saltsman. Saltsman sued Goddard for defamation, and the case was settled with Goddard saying there was no evidence Saltsman was involved in the alleged attack.
Then, in January, a YouTube video was posted featuring another student, Michael Nodianos, apparently cracking jokes about the alleged rape just hours after it occurred, while others in the background chimed in. NOW is demanding prosecutors charge Nodianos with failure to report a crime, but Nodianos' lawyer said the young man had no "firsthand knowledge of the facts."
___
Andrew Welsh-Huggins can be reached on Twitter at https://twitter.com/awhcolumbus.
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The Great Coffee App launched a while back with great design, gorgeous music, but limited content. Now that they've presumably knocked back a dozen or more twenty-shots, developers Baglan Dosmagambetov and Alexander Nogay are back for a second cup, and it's filled to the brim with video.
That's right, the Great Coffee App has now added videos to show you how each and every one of the coffee-based beverages are prepared. If you're curious, that's Espresso, Espresso Ristretto, Espresso Lungo, Espresso Macchiato, Espresso Con Panna, Espresso Romano, Espresso Doppio, Latte, Americano, Cappuccino, Marocchino, Latte Macchiato, Caffe Mocha, Irish coffee, Cafeccino, Vienna coffee.
There's a huge intersection of geeks who love gadgets, geeks who love apps, and geeks who love coffee, so if you're one of us, and you're looking for a way to learn and enjoy more about coffee on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, check out the Great Coffee App. Now with video.
I tend to get my fancy beverage fix from latte and cappuccino. What are you drinking?
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/1P70AGEBIhs/story01.htm
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For millions of Hugo Ch?vez?s supporters, waiting in line for 12 hours or more is a small sacrifice for the opportunity to spend a few seconds in front of his coffin.
Supporters of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez hold a poster reading in Spanish 'Move forward commander!' outside the military academy where the late president's funeral ceremony took, in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday.
Rodrigo Abd/AP
EnlargeThey spend all day in line in the searing heat for a chance to pay their respects. For Hugo Ch?vez?s supporters, waiting in line for 12 hours or more to spend a few seconds in front of his coffin has become something of a required pilgrimage.
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?It?s something that all Chavistas should do. Something they need to do,? says Higdalia Az?car, who was not deterred by stories of daylong waits ?We came here for the love. We wouldn?t miss it.?
The line stretches for miles, weaving through shade and sunlight, past public parks and in front of the bleachers where Venezuelans watched Ch?vez salute military parades.
On Friday morning, state-run television said more than 2 millions Venezuelans had made the trip to the low-slung military academy where Ch?vez?s open casket has been since Wednesday.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro, who will be sworn in as interim president this evening, on Thursday extended the viewing for an additional seven days due to the response. Thereafter, Ch?vez?s body will be embalmed, much the way Russia?s Vladmir Lenin and China?s Mao Zedong were, and displayed in a glass case for eternity, Mr. Maduro says.
Once inside, visitors said they saw Ch?vez wearing his signature red beret and sash. Photography was not permitted, but visitors say that on Wednesday and Thursday, Ch?vez was dressed in a blue suit. That was swapped out this morning ? before his funeral ? for his military fatigues.
?I was filled with sadness when I approached his casket,? says Juana Uscategui, an elementary school teacher. She waited 15 hours in a wheelchair to catch a glimpse. ?When I finally saw, I was overcome with joy, as he was finally resting. He wore his red hat, his suit and medals. He was beautiful.?
For Lenin Benitez, a political organizer, it was a two-day journey.
After driving overnight from the state of Lara in the northwest, he queued up because it was ?necessary to see him again and to show to the world that Venezuela stood with their president.?
He adored the idea of embalming the president.
?In the rest of the world, people tell their children stories about fictitious heroes, like Batman and Robin,? Mr. Benitez says. ?Here in Venezuela, we can tell our story of Hugo Ch?vez and his deeds. But more than that, we can show him to our children and continue to inspire the revolution.?
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El nuevo Samsung Galaxy S4 se presentar? el pr?ximo 14 de marzo en un evento en Times Square (Manhattan, Estados Unidos). Ser? a partir de ese d?a cuando conoceremos todas y cada una de las caracter?sticas t?cnicas de este smartphone, candidato a buque insignia del cat?logo de la firma. A pesar de eso, parece que a estas alturas contamos con una ficha t?cnica provisional que dibuja un perfil bastante exacto de la que ser? la cuarta generaci?n de este dispositivo. Pero eso no es todo. Y es que hasta la fecha, por Internet tambi?n han corrido algunas im?genes que han ofrecido algunas pistas sobre el aspecto del nuevo Samsung Galaxy S4. No estamos ante fotograf?as que muestren su dise?o real, sino ante maquetas y conceptos desarrollados por dise?adores y profesionales del sector. Estos dise?os recogen las caracter?sticas f?sicas que hasta ahora se han filtrado y que componen, de manera m?s o menos acertada, su aspecto final. A continuaci?n, te mostramos parte de las propuestas que se han dado a conocer hasta fecha de hoy.
Uno de los aspectos que m?s llama la atenci?n y que se comparte en pr?cticamente todos los dise?os es la pantalla. Y es que seg?n todos los rumores, el nuevo Samsung Galaxy S4 se presentar?a equipado con un panel de 4,99 pulgadas (pr?cticamente cinco) con una resoluci?n FullHD 1080p. Estar?amos hablando de una pantalla que funcionar?a a trav?s de la tecnolog?a Super AMOLED+, un acierto en todos los terminales de Samsung. En este caso, la firma habr?a optado por una matriz RGB, dejando atr?s la tecnolog?a PenTile que se hab?a adoptado en el Samsung Galaxy S3. Entre otras prestaciones importantes, Samsung tambi?n a?adir?a una capa de cristal Corning Gorilla para proteger esta delicada pantalla de golpes y ara?azos accidentales, detalle que gustar? especialmente a aquellos usuarios que quieren mantener intacto el cristal de la pantalla hasta el ?ltimo d?a de vida de su terminal.
La firma, seg?n los rumores, tambi?n apunta a la incorporaci?n de dos procesadores. De hecho, la versi?n americana del tel?fono (probablemente equipada con un chip LTE) llegar?a equipada con un procesador Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 de cuatro n?cleos. La edici?n que se presentar? en Europa, y por ende en Espa?a, podr?a llevar un Samsung Exynos Octa de ocho n?cleos, caracter?stica que asegurar?a un rendimiento superior del terminal con respecto a ediciones anteriores y posicion?ndose como uno de los mejores smartphones del mercado. El tel?fono tambi?n llevar?a integrada una memoria RAM de 2 GB, m?s que necesaria para resolver con garant?as todos los procesos que podr? llevar a cabo un terminal de estas dimensiones t?cnicas.
Se espera, por otra parte, que Samsung tambi?n salte la barrera de los ocho megap?xeles para integrar en el nuevo Samsung Galaxy S4 una c?mara fotogr?fica de trece megap?xeles. La c?mara frontal tendr?a 2 megap?xeles y ser?a una aliada genial para aquellos que quieran hacer videollamadas o capturar autorretratos. Se presentar?a equipado con todas las opciones de conectividad necesarias. Esto incluye: redes LTE/4G (en algunos mercados), 3G, Wifi, Wifi Hotspot, Wifi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0 con A2DP, NFC o GPS asistido (aGPS) para que el usuario pueda navegar c?modamente por Internet, conectar otros dispositivos o disfrutar de nuevas tecnolog?as de transferencia de datos como la?Near Field Communication (NFC). Con el gestor asistido de mapas tendr? la opci?n de acceder a todos los servicios y aplicaciones que requieren de geolocalizaci?n y podr? utilizar el tel?fono como si fuera un navegador GPS dedicado para el coche o para obtener rutas a pie.
Pero si en algo m?s podr?a destacar el nuevo Samsung Galaxy S4 es en el apartado de las aplicaciones y funciones inteligentes, algo que ya nos sorprendi? en el Samsung Galaxy S3. Aparte de las ya cl?sicas Smart Stay, Direct Call, Screen Recorder, Burst Shot, Best Photo/Best Faces, Popup Note, Popup Play, Air View o Quick Command, el nuevo smartphone contar?a con el asistente S Voice mejorado, S Health,para controlar la salud del usuario, PlayStation 4 o Samsung KNOX, para preservar la seguridad del dispositivo en el terreno profesional. A todo esto, tendr?amos que a?adir nuevos sensores de imagen y una bater?a de iones de litio que podr?a llegar a una capacidad de 3.100 miliamperios. Todos estos detalles ser?n confirmados o desmentidos el pr?ximo 14 de marzo. Hasta entonces, te dejamos con algunas de las im?genes que en estos ?ltimos meses nos han ayudado a adivinar el aspecto que podr?a tener el Samsung Galaxy S4. ?T? con cu?l te quedas?
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tuexperto/LLTr/~3/Qfu1RGNiVKI/
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GAO, Mali (Reuters) - France will only hand over to African troops in Mali when security is restored, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told his forces during a surprise visit to the rugged north of the country where they are battling Islamist rebels.
Reviewing the ranks of French soldiers in the dusty Adrar des Ifoghas mountains, Le Drian paid homage to the courage of troops engaged in fierce fire-fights with al Qaeda militants in the desolate desert region near the Algerian border.
An eight-week, French-led offensive has broken the control of al Qaeda-linked Islamists over the northern two-thirds of the impoverished landlocked nation, though pockets of resistance remain in the desert and mountains.
"Our mission is to liberate Mali, strengthen the country, and to assure sovereignty," Le Drian said in Gao, the main town in northern Mali, shortly after he visited troops in the mountains. "The security of Mali, and the security of our country, go together," he said.
France launched a ground and air operation on January 11, saying the Islamist rebels' hold of Mali's north posed a risk to the security of West Africa and Europe.
Having halted a push southward by Islamist rebels, French forces have driven militants out of major towns and, alongside hundreds of Chadian soldiers, are now seeking to clear rebels from cave redoubts in the Adrar des Ifoghas.
"We are in the last phase, the most decisive phase," Le Drian said. "This phase entails some very violent combat. When the liberation of the whole country is complete, then we will hand over responsibility to African forces."
President Francois Hollande said on Wednesday that France would start to draw down its forces in Mali from April, a month later than previously forecast.
HOPES FOR U.N. PEACEKEEPING MISSION
France is keen to hand responsibility for operations in Mali to an 8,000-strong African-led force AFISMA, some three-quarters of which has already deployed to the landlocked country.
Paris is pushing for the Mali mission to be given a U.N. peacekeeping mandate once offensive military operations have finished. The Security Council is expected to discuss this in the coming weeks.
A Malian soldier who was involved in fighting with Islamists who killed a French soldier on Wednesday said the resistance was still fierce just 90 km from Gao.
"I cannot say how many (rebels) there were but gunfire was coming from every direction," the soldier told Reuters, asking not to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the press.
"We killed them all, but it is not over. They have reinforcements ... They are in the forests and they are not leaving," he added.
Chad has claimed to have killed al Qaeda's two top leaders in the region, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid and Mokhtar Belmokhtar.
Hollande said on Wednesday that "terrorist leaders" had been killed in the operation, but did not provide further details.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said DNA testing was being carried out on the bodies of hundreds of dead Islamist fighters.
"To identify the two or three leaders who have been cited, we have to carry out precise tests with DNA and that is what the army services are doing," he told RTL radio. "We should know fairly quickly."
France's Liberation newspaper reported on Thursday that a French citizen fighting in the Islamist ranks had been taken prisoner by the French.
Even once fighting is over, a durable peace in Mali will also require unifying the country's south, home to the capital Bamako, with the vast desert north, where Tuareg separatists launched a rebellion last year that was hijacked by Islamist fighters.
Many in southern Mali now feel deep resentment toward the northern Tuaregs and light-skilled Arabs, associated with the Islamist fighters, complicating prospects for peace.
President Dioncounda Traore's government, which aims to hold national elections in July, announced the creation of a Dialogue and Reconciliation Commission on Wednesday, charged with identifying human rights abuses during the conflict and deciding which armed groups were eligible to participate in talks.
(Additional reporting by Tiemoko Diallo in Bamako and Vicky Buffery in Paris; Writing by Daniel Flynn and David Lewis; Editing by Jon Hemming)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/france-secure-mali-handing-over-mission-191806811.html
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RIKEN
Mice can be cloned from other mice indefinitely, a new technique suggests.
By Tanya Lewis, LiveScience
Watch out, George Lucas, there's a new attack of the clones, and these ones are furry.
Japanese researchers have created a potentially endless line of mice cloned from other cloned mice. They used the same technique that created Dolly the sheep to produce 581 mice from an original donor mouse through 25 rounds of cloning, the scientists report in the March 7 issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell.
"This technique could be very useful for the large-scale production of superior-quality animals, for farming or conservation purposes," study leader Teruhiko Wakayama of?the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan,?said in a statement
The researchers used a cloning technique?called somatic cell nuclear transfer, in which a cell nucleus containing one individual's genetic information is inserted into an egg cell whose nucleus has been removed. Dolly the Sheep became the first cloned mammal in 1996 using this technique. Many other animals have been cloned since, but the technique has had a low success rate and attempts to "reclone" animals have often failed.
Genetic abnormalities that can accumulate over consecutive generations of clones may explain these failures, Wakayama said. [That's Odd! The 10 Weirdest Animal Discoveries]
In their study, Wakayama and colleagues grew the cloned cells in a solution containing trichostatin, a compound that interferes with enzymes that make changes to DNA. Using this technique, the cloning process was five times more successful.
The team successfully cloned the mice 25 consecutive times. In other words, they cloned one mouse, then cloned those clones, and so on. A total of 581 healthy mice were made, all of which were fertile and lived a normal life span of about two years. The efficiency of making the cloned cells neither worsened nor improved over the generations.
Related story: Mice get human brain cells and get smarter, too
"This is a very important set of results," geneticist George Church of Harvard Medical School told LiveScience. It's "not just that it's 25 sequential clonings, it's that they found a way to improve things five-fold," Church said. Figuring out what didn't work was equally important, he added.
No abnormalities accumulated in the mice, even after repeated cloning, the researchers found. "Our results show that repeated iterative recloning is possible and suggest that, with adequately ef?cient techniques, it may be possible to reclone animals inde?nitely," the authors wrote in the study.
In 2008, Wakayama's team created clones from the bodies of mice that had been frozen for 16 years. Other researchers have successfully recloned cows, pigs?and cats, but not beyond three generations. Scientists have also created stem cells from cloned human embryos, but ethical and scientific barriers to human cloning remain.
Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitter @tanyalewis314. Follow us @livescience, Facebook or Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/08/17241012-potentially-endless-line-of-mice-cloned?lite
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Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel walks with U.S. Marine General Joseph Dunford, commander of the International Security Force, upon Hagel's arrival near Camp Eggers in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, March 8, 2013. Hagel arrived in Afghanistan Friday for his first visit as Pentagon chief, saying that there are plenty of challenges ahead as NATO hands over the country's security to the Afghans. (AP Photo/Jason Reed, Pool)
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel walks with U.S. Marine General Joseph Dunford, commander of the International Security Force, upon Hagel's arrival near Camp Eggers in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, March 8, 2013. Hagel arrived in Afghanistan Friday for his first visit as Pentagon chief, saying that there are plenty of challenges ahead as NATO hands over the country's security to the Afghans. (AP Photo/Jason Reed, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel walks with U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham, left, and Gen. Joseph Dunford, Commander of the International Security Force, upon Hagel's arrival in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, March 8, 2013. This is Hagel's first official trip since being sworn-in as Obama's Defense Secretary. (AP Photo/Jason Reed, Pool)
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel greets U.S. troops stationed at Manas Air Force Base, Kyrgyzstan, Friday, March 8, 2013, before he boarded a C-17 military aircraft en route to Kabul, Afghanistan. Hagel arrived in Afghanistan Friday for his first visit as Pentagon chief, saying that there are plenty of challenges ahead as NATO hands over the country's security to the Afghans. (AP Photo/Jason Reed, Pool)
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel steps aboard a C-17 military aircraft before departing from Manas Air Force Base, Kyrgyzstan, en route to Kabul Afghanistan, Friday, March 8, 2013. Hagel arrived in Afghanistan Friday for his first visit as Pentagon chief, saying that there are plenty of challenges ahead as NATO hands over the country's security to the Afghans. (AP Photo/Jason Reed, Pool)
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks to the traveling press aboard his military aircraft, traveling between Andrews Air Force Base, Md. and Manas Air Force Base, Kyrgyzstan, en route to Afghanistan, Friday, March 8, 2013. Hagel arrived in Afghanistan Friday for his first visit as Pentagon chief, saying that there are plenty of challenges ahead as NATO hands over the country's security to the Afghans. (AP Photo/Jason Reed, Pool)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel arrived in Afghanistan Friday for his first visit as Pentagon chief, saying that there are plenty of challenges ahead as NATO hands over the country's security to the Afghans.
"We are still at war," Hagel said, warning the U.S. and its allies to remain focused on the mission while noting that the U.S. never intended to stay in Afghanistan indefinitely.
"That transition has to be done right, it has to be done in partnership with the Afghans, with our allies," said Hagel, who took over the Pentagon job a little more than a week ago. "Our country as well as Afghanistan, the region, and the allies have a lot at stake here. And our continued focus and energy and attention on Afghanistan is going to be very important."
He said it was vital to remember why the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in the days after the 9/11 attacks, including the need to rid the country of terrorists and a hostile government.
On the day of Hagel's arrival, there was a fresh reminder of the conflict. Defense officials said three men wearing Afghan army uniforms and driving an Afghan army vehicle forced their way onto a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan at midday and opened fire, killing one civilian contractor and wounding other U.S. troops.
Hagel told reporters traveling with him that he plans to talk to Afghan President Hamid Karzai about the recent order expelling U.S. commandos from Wardak Province. He would not say what his message to Karzai might be.
Karzai ordered that U.S. special operations forces leave within two weeks because of allegations that Afghans working with the commandos were involved in abusive behavior and torture.
The order comes despite worries that it could leave the region more vulnerable to al-Qaida and other insurgents. U.S. officials have said they have seen no evidence that American forces were involved in the abuse of Afghan civilians. Hagel is slated to meet with U.S. commanders and Afghan leaders and plans to make his first detailed assessment of the increasingly unpopular war.
His unannounced visit comes at a turning point in the conflict, as U.S. and NATO allies set their timetable for the withdrawal of combat troops and pressure mounts on the U.S.-led effort to train the Afghan forces. Hagel must manage the transition as the U.S. steps up what will be a difficult and expensive extraction of equipment from the country even as Congress slashes billions of dollars from the defense budget.
"I need to better understand what's going on there," Hagel told reporters during the flight to Kabul. He said he wants an assessment on the progress of the Afghan forces as they prepare to take over the security of their own country.
Hagel traveled to Afghanistan four times during his two terms as senator for Nebraska, including once in 2002 shortly after the war began, in 2006 and twice in 2008. His final two visits were in 2008, once in February with then Sens. Joe Biden and John Kerry ? now the vice president and secretary of state, and in July with then-Sen. Barack Obama.
While Hagel initially supported the Afghanistan war when he was senator, his enthusiasm diminished as the conflict dragged on for more than 10 years. He pointedly observed that militaries are "built to fight and win wars, not bind together failing nations." And in a radio interview this year, he acknowledged the nation's growing weariness with the war that has claimed the lives of more than 2,000 U.S. troops and wounded another 18,000, saying that "the American people want out" of Afghanistan.
His review of the war will likely be colored in part by his own military service. Hagel is the first Vietnam veteran to lead the Pentagon, and the first man to become defense secretary after serving only in the enlisted ranks. All the other secretaries with military service eventually served as officers. Hagel served in Vietnam alongside his brother, was wounded twice and was awarded two Purple Hearts.
There are currently about 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, down from a peak of about 100,000 in 2010. The U.S. troop total is scheduled to drop to about 32,000 by early next year, with the bulk of the decline coming over the winter months.
And, while there has been no final decision on the size of the post-2014 force, U.S. and NATO leaders say they are considering a range between 8,000 and 12,000. The size of that residual force is sharply smaller than what the top U.S. commander in the Middle East recommended. Gen. James Mattis, head of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this week that his personal recommendation was for a U.S. force of 13,600, with the expectation that NATO allies would contribute another 6,000 to 7,000.
Hagel would not say what his assessment of the final post-2014 numbers is yet. But, he added that, "it is the Afghan people who need to make, and will make, their own decisions about their future. We can help. We have helped, as well as our allies. But there does come a time when that should be transitioned."
And the transition, he said, is happening in a way that gives the Afghan people "a very hopeful future."
The U.S. is currently in the early stages of negotiating a bilateral security agreement with Kabul that would set the legal parameters for America's continued military and diplomatic involvement with the nation.
Another source of anxiety among the allies is Afghanistan's 2014 presidential election; Karzai, who has led the country since U.S. forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001, is not running and there is no obvious successor.
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