Digital communications enthusiasts will be heading to the Pacific Northwest this autumn for the 32nd annual ARRL/TAPR Digital Communications Conference (DCC), September 20-22, at Cedarbrook Lodge near Seattle, Washington. The ARRL/TAPR DCC is an international forum for radio amateurs to meet, publish their work and present new ideas and techniques. Presenters and attendees will have the opportunity to exchange ideas and learn about recent hardware and software advances, theories, experimental results, and practical applications.
The DCC is for all levels of technical experience ? not just the expert. Introductory sessions are scheduled throughout the conference to introduce new technical topics for both beginners and experts.
Amateurs are invited to submit papers for publication in the conference proceedings (you do not have to attend the conference to submit a paper).
Send papers by July 31 to:
Maty Weinberg
ARRL
225 Main St
Newington, CT 06111
?. . . or by e-mail to maty@arrl.org
For more information and conference reservations, call Tucson Amateur Packet Radio at: 972-671-8277, or go online to www.tapr.org/dcc.
TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan should stick with its expanded quantitative easing to achieve its inflation target, but this may not be enough to foster sustainable economic growth unless it is coupled with structural reforms, the OECD said on Tuesday.
Japan's government should stay with its plan to double the sales tax to 10 percent, compile a detailed plan to return to primary budget surplus in 2020 and boost revenue from other taxes, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said.
The size of fiscal consolidation needed means Japan does face the risk of a spike in interest rates that would hurt the financial system due to its large exposure to Japanese government bonds, the Paris-based think tank said.
"The new quantitative and qualitative monetary easing should be implemented to meet the new 2 percent price stability target, although this may not be enough," the OECD said in its economic survey of Japan.
"Pushing ahead with structural reform on a broad front is equally imperative to achieve sustained growth."
The BOJ earlier this month committed to open-ended asset buying to nearly double the monetary base to 270 trillion yen ($2.72 trillion) by the end of 2014 to end 15 years of deflation and achieve its 2 percent inflation target in two years.
At a news conference, OECD officials said they were uncertain when Japan would meet its inflation target but that they were willing to give the BOJ some leeway as long as prices are approaching the target.
"We don't know how quickly it will take for inflation to come back," said Randall Jones, a senior economist at the OECD.
"It would be okay if it took three years. What is important is that the BOJ has committed to continue its policy until the target is achieved."
Haruhiko Kuroda, the BOJ's new governor, has dubbed the policy quantitative and qualitative easing, because the BOJ is greatly increasing the size of asset purchases and changing the composition by focusing on longer-term government debt.
Japan's consumer prices are still showing small annual declines, and many private-sector economists doubt the BOJ can meet its price target by 2015.
The OECD forecast that Japan's core-core consumer prices, which exclude fresh food and energy, will rise around 0.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014 from the same period a year earlier.
It is important for Japan to end deflation because this lowers nominal gross domestic product (GDP), which worsens Japan's debt-to-GDP ratio, the OECD said. Japan's debt burden is already the worst among major economies at more than twice the size of its $5 trillion economy.
FISCAL DISCIPLINE
In order to repair public finances, the government should not use multiple tax rates when raising the sales tax, the OECD said. Some lawmakers have argued that the government should exempt food and other items from sales tax hikes.
Should doubts about fiscal discipline emerge, Japan's financial sector would be vulnerable as government debt accounts for about a fifth of all bank assets, the OECD said.
The OECD did turn more positive on Japan's growth prospects due to expectations for higher private consumption and an increase in capital expenditure as exports recover.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's stimulus spending and a decline in the yen also led the OECD to upgrade its forecasts.
Japan's economy will expand 1.4 percent both this year and in 2014, the OECD said. That is higher than its previous forecasts of 0.7 percent growth and 0.8 percent growth, respectively.
Labor market reforms to increase the number of female workers and improve productivity are also needed to help Japan's economy grow faster and help end deflation, the OECD said.
Abe's government will announce an economic growth strategy in June, and investors will look for signs of how far the government will push its structural reform agenda.
Rating agency Standard & Poor's said on Tuesday it saw more than a one-third chance that it would downgrade Japan's sovereign ratings because of uncertainty about whether the government's push to revive growth and end deflation will succeed.
"The continuing prospect of a downgrade arises from risks associated with recent government initiatives and uncertainty of their success," S&P said in a report.
"Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's plan to lift Japan out of deflation and spur economic expansion - known as 'Abenomics' - has three pillars: bold monetary easing, fiscal efforts to spur growth, and a strategy to induce private sector investment," it said.
"Of the three engines that Mr. Abe foresees reinvigorating the nation's economy, so far only one, monetary easing, has kicked into full gear. The others remain idle."
S&P has an AA- long-term rating on Japan's sovereign debt.
Stephen Hawking is brought onstage by a helper to give his presentation, "The Origin of the Universe," at Caltech on Tuesday.
By Rod Pyle Space.com
PASADENA, Calif. ? Our universe didn't need any divine help to burst into being, famed cosmologist Stephen Hawking told a packed house here at the California Institute of Technology Tuesday night.
Many people had begun queuing up for free tickets to Hawking's 8:00 p.m lecture, titled "The Origin of the Universe," 12 hours earlier. By 6:00 p.m. local time, the line was about a quarter-mile long.
Also on NBC News.com: Stephen Hawking says God?s not needed. So what?
A second auditorium and a Jumbotron-equipped lawn, which itself was jammed with an estimated 1,000 viewers, were needed to handle the crowd. At least one person was observed offering $1,000 for a ticket, with no success. [Big Bang to Now in 10 Easy Steps]
Stephen Hawking began the event by reciting an African creation myth, and rapidly moved on to big questions such as, Why are we here?
He noted that many people still seek a divine solution to counter the theories of curious physicists, and at one point, he quipped, ?What was God doing before the divine creation? Was he preparing hell for people who asked such questions??
After outlining the historical theological debate about how the universe was created, Hawking gave a quick review of more scientific cosmological explanations, including Fred Hoyle and Thomas Gold?s steady-state theory. This idea hypothesizes that there is no beginning and no end and that galaxies continue to form from spontaneously created matter.?
Rod Pyle / Space.com
Enthusiastic attendees started lining up 12 hours early for Stephen Hawking's 8:00 p.m. lecture at Caltech. The overflow crowd stretched for more than a quarter mile.
Hawking said this theory and several other ideas don't hold up, citing recent observations by space telescopes and other instruments.?
After giving a brief historical background on relativistic physics and cosmology, Hawking discussed the idea of a repeating Big Bang. He noted that in the 1980s, he and physicist Roger Penrose proved the universe could not ?bounce? when it contracted, as had been theorized.
Therefore, time began at the moment of singularity, and this has likely occurred only once, Hawking said. The age of the universe ? now believed to be about 13.8 billion years ? fits that model, as the number and maturity of observed galaxies seem to fit in the general scheme.
In another observation of modern religion, Hawking noted that in the 1980s, around the time he released a paper discussing the moment the universe was born, Pope John Paul II admonished the scientific establishment against studying the moment of creation, as it was holy.
?I was glad not to be thrown into an inquisition,? Hawking joked.
He closed by outlining "M-theory," which is based partly on ideas put forward years ago by another famed physicist, Caltech?s Richard Feynman. Hawking sees that theory as the only big idea that really explains what he has observed.
M-theory posits that multiple universes are created out of nothing, Hawking explained, with many possible histories and many possible states of existence. In only a few of these states would life be possible, and in fewer still could something like humanity exist. Hawking mentioned that he felt fortunate to be living in this state of existence.
Hawking closed the event with a familiar plea for continued exploration of the cosmos: ?We must continue to go into space for the future of humanity,? he said, adding, ?I don?t think we will survive another thousand years without escaping our fragile planet.?
Hawking has been battling the debilitating neurological disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disase, for 50 years.
The physicist has been spending a month or so at Caltech, as he does each year, sequestered with colleagues, such as fellow theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, to discuss many great mysteries of the cosmos.
Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?or?Google+. Originally published on?Space.com.
Copyright 2013 Space.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Nearly 30 percent of women fail to pick up new prescriptions for osteoporosis, study findsPublic release date: 18-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vincent Staupe vstaupe@golinharris.com 415-318-4386 Kaiser Permanente
Study offers new insights on patient and physician characteristics that contribute to osteoporosis medication adherence
PASADENA, Calif., April 18, 2013 Nearly 30 percent of women failed to pick up their bisphosphonate prescriptions, a medication that is most commonly used to treat osteoporosis and similar bone diseases, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published this week in the journal Osteoporosis International. The failure to pick up these newly prescribed medications, called primary nonadherence, can lead to an increased risk of fractures for these patients.
The study examined the electronic health records of 8,454 women, ages 55 years or older, who were Kaiser Permanente Southern California members between December 2009 and March 2011 and were prescribed a new bisphosphonate medication. It found that 29.5 percent of these women did not pick up their prescription within 60 days of the order date. In particular, older women and those who utilized the emergency department in the prior year were less likely to pick up their bisphosphonate prescription. However, women taking other prescription medications and those who had been hospitalized in the prior year were more likely to pick up their bisphosphonate prescription, according to the researchers.
"Although bisphosphonates have been proven to reduce the risk of osteoporotic fracture, low adherence to these medications is common, which contributes to serious and costly health problems," said Kristi Reynolds, PhD, MPH, a research scientist at Kaiser Permanente and lead author of the study. "This study simultaneously examined patient and prescribing provider characteristics and helped identify certain factors associated with why patients failed to pick up their new prescriptions."
Researchers also found that women who received their bisphosphonate prescription from a physician practicing 10 or more years at Kaiser Permanente were more likely to pick up their medication than women who received the prescription from a physician practicing less than 10 years at Kaiser Permanente. In addition, women who received their new bisphosphonate prescription from providers specializing in rheumatology or internal medicine specialties were more likely to pick up the medication than those who received the prescription from providers in other primary care specialties.
Medication nonadherence occurs when a patient does not follow a clinically prescribed medication course, endangering his or her own health and possibly necessitating more aggressive treatment or hospitalizations later. Previous studies estimated that in the United States each year, medication nonadherence contributes to approximately 125,000 deaths and costs the health care system $290 billion. One in three patients prescribed a medication by their health care provider never pick it up from the pharmacy, and, among those who do, nearly 3 in 4 Americans do not take prescription drugs according to providers' orders.
Osteoporosis is a disease of the skeletal system characterized by low bone mass and deterioration of bone tissue, leading to an increased risk of bone fractures, typically in the wrist, hip and spine. Approximately 10 million Americans have osteoporosis, while about 34 million more are at risk for the disease, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation. Osteoporosis can occur in both men and women and at any age, but it is most common in older women, according to the National Institutes of Health.
"These findings suggest that health care providers must do a better job of identifying barriers and developing interventions that address the individual patient's needs and concerns at the time the prescription is ordered," Reynolds said. "The use of electronic health records, like the system in place at Kaiser Permanente, has helped us better understand and address primary nonadherence, which has historically been difficult to identify."
Kaiser Permanente can deliver transformational health research in part because it has the largest private electronic health system in the world. The organization's integrated model and electronic health record system, Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect, securely connect 9 million people, 533 medical offices and 37 hospitals, linking patients with their health care teams, their personal health information and the latest medical knowledge. It also connects Kaiser Permanente's epidemiological researchers to one of the most extensive collections of longitudinal medical data available, facilitating studies and important medical discoveries that shape the future of health and care delivery for patients and the medical community.
This study is a part of Kaiser Permanente's broader efforts to understand and prevent medication nonadherence. Last November, Kaiser Permanente researchers found that patients newly prescribed a cholesterol-lowering medication were more likely to pick it up from the pharmacy if they received automated phone and mail reminders. The study was one of only a few published studies to examine strategies for reducing primary nonadherence. Also last year, a study found that lower copayments and the use of a mail-order pharmacy may reduce racial and ethnic disparities in adherence to hypertension medication.
###
This study of medication nonadherance and osteoporosis was funded through a contractual agreement between Kaiser Permanente Southern California and Amgen, Inc.
Other authors include: Teresa N. Harrison, SM, and Rong Wei, MA, of the Department of Research & Evaluation, Kaiser Permanente Southern California; Paul Muntner, PhD, MS, of the Department of Epidemiology, University of Alabama Birmingham; T. Craig Cheetham, PharmD, MS, and Southida S. Vansomphone, PharmD, of the Pharmacy Analytical Service, Kaiser Permanente Southern California; Donald E. Morisky, ScD, ScM, MSPH, Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health; Stuart Silverman, MD, Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Cedars-Sinai/UCLA; Deborah T. Gold, PhD, Departments of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Sociology, and Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC; and Cynthia D. O'Malley, PhD, Center for Observational Research, Amgen, Inc., Thousand Oaks, Calif.
About the Kaiser Permanente Department of Research & Evaluation
The Department of Research & Evaluation conducts high-quality, innovative research into disease etiology, prevention, treatment and care delivery. Investigators conduct epidemiology, health sciences and behavioral research as well as clinical trials. Areas of interest include diabetes and obesity, cancer, HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular disease, aging and cognition, pregnancy outcomes, women's and children's health, quality and safety, and pharmacoepidemiology. Located in Pasadena, Calif., the department focuses on translating research to practice quickly to benefit the health and lives of Kaiser Permanente Southern California members and the general population. Visit kp.org/research.
About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve more than 9 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information go to: kp.org/newscenter.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Nearly 30 percent of women fail to pick up new prescriptions for osteoporosis, study findsPublic release date: 18-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vincent Staupe vstaupe@golinharris.com 415-318-4386 Kaiser Permanente
Study offers new insights on patient and physician characteristics that contribute to osteoporosis medication adherence
PASADENA, Calif., April 18, 2013 Nearly 30 percent of women failed to pick up their bisphosphonate prescriptions, a medication that is most commonly used to treat osteoporosis and similar bone diseases, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published this week in the journal Osteoporosis International. The failure to pick up these newly prescribed medications, called primary nonadherence, can lead to an increased risk of fractures for these patients.
The study examined the electronic health records of 8,454 women, ages 55 years or older, who were Kaiser Permanente Southern California members between December 2009 and March 2011 and were prescribed a new bisphosphonate medication. It found that 29.5 percent of these women did not pick up their prescription within 60 days of the order date. In particular, older women and those who utilized the emergency department in the prior year were less likely to pick up their bisphosphonate prescription. However, women taking other prescription medications and those who had been hospitalized in the prior year were more likely to pick up their bisphosphonate prescription, according to the researchers.
"Although bisphosphonates have been proven to reduce the risk of osteoporotic fracture, low adherence to these medications is common, which contributes to serious and costly health problems," said Kristi Reynolds, PhD, MPH, a research scientist at Kaiser Permanente and lead author of the study. "This study simultaneously examined patient and prescribing provider characteristics and helped identify certain factors associated with why patients failed to pick up their new prescriptions."
Researchers also found that women who received their bisphosphonate prescription from a physician practicing 10 or more years at Kaiser Permanente were more likely to pick up their medication than women who received the prescription from a physician practicing less than 10 years at Kaiser Permanente. In addition, women who received their new bisphosphonate prescription from providers specializing in rheumatology or internal medicine specialties were more likely to pick up the medication than those who received the prescription from providers in other primary care specialties.
Medication nonadherence occurs when a patient does not follow a clinically prescribed medication course, endangering his or her own health and possibly necessitating more aggressive treatment or hospitalizations later. Previous studies estimated that in the United States each year, medication nonadherence contributes to approximately 125,000 deaths and costs the health care system $290 billion. One in three patients prescribed a medication by their health care provider never pick it up from the pharmacy, and, among those who do, nearly 3 in 4 Americans do not take prescription drugs according to providers' orders.
Osteoporosis is a disease of the skeletal system characterized by low bone mass and deterioration of bone tissue, leading to an increased risk of bone fractures, typically in the wrist, hip and spine. Approximately 10 million Americans have osteoporosis, while about 34 million more are at risk for the disease, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation. Osteoporosis can occur in both men and women and at any age, but it is most common in older women, according to the National Institutes of Health.
"These findings suggest that health care providers must do a better job of identifying barriers and developing interventions that address the individual patient's needs and concerns at the time the prescription is ordered," Reynolds said. "The use of electronic health records, like the system in place at Kaiser Permanente, has helped us better understand and address primary nonadherence, which has historically been difficult to identify."
Kaiser Permanente can deliver transformational health research in part because it has the largest private electronic health system in the world. The organization's integrated model and electronic health record system, Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect, securely connect 9 million people, 533 medical offices and 37 hospitals, linking patients with their health care teams, their personal health information and the latest medical knowledge. It also connects Kaiser Permanente's epidemiological researchers to one of the most extensive collections of longitudinal medical data available, facilitating studies and important medical discoveries that shape the future of health and care delivery for patients and the medical community.
This study is a part of Kaiser Permanente's broader efforts to understand and prevent medication nonadherence. Last November, Kaiser Permanente researchers found that patients newly prescribed a cholesterol-lowering medication were more likely to pick it up from the pharmacy if they received automated phone and mail reminders. The study was one of only a few published studies to examine strategies for reducing primary nonadherence. Also last year, a study found that lower copayments and the use of a mail-order pharmacy may reduce racial and ethnic disparities in adherence to hypertension medication.
###
This study of medication nonadherance and osteoporosis was funded through a contractual agreement between Kaiser Permanente Southern California and Amgen, Inc.
Other authors include: Teresa N. Harrison, SM, and Rong Wei, MA, of the Department of Research & Evaluation, Kaiser Permanente Southern California; Paul Muntner, PhD, MS, of the Department of Epidemiology, University of Alabama Birmingham; T. Craig Cheetham, PharmD, MS, and Southida S. Vansomphone, PharmD, of the Pharmacy Analytical Service, Kaiser Permanente Southern California; Donald E. Morisky, ScD, ScM, MSPH, Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health; Stuart Silverman, MD, Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Cedars-Sinai/UCLA; Deborah T. Gold, PhD, Departments of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Sociology, and Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC; and Cynthia D. O'Malley, PhD, Center for Observational Research, Amgen, Inc., Thousand Oaks, Calif.
About the Kaiser Permanente Department of Research & Evaluation
The Department of Research & Evaluation conducts high-quality, innovative research into disease etiology, prevention, treatment and care delivery. Investigators conduct epidemiology, health sciences and behavioral research as well as clinical trials. Areas of interest include diabetes and obesity, cancer, HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular disease, aging and cognition, pregnancy outcomes, women's and children's health, quality and safety, and pharmacoepidemiology. Located in Pasadena, Calif., the department focuses on translating research to practice quickly to benefit the health and lives of Kaiser Permanente Southern California members and the general population. Visit kp.org/research.
About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve more than 9 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information go to: kp.org/newscenter.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Apr. 17, 2013 ? This year, astronomers around the world have been celebrating the 50th anniversary of X-ray astronomy. Few objects better illustrate the progress of the field in the past half-century than the supernova remnant known as SN 1006.
When the object we now call SN 1006 first appeared on May 1, 1006 A.D., it was far brighter than Venus and visible during the daytime for weeks. Astronomers in China, Japan, Europe, and the Arab world all documented this spectacular sight. With the advent of the Space Age in the 1960s, scientists were able to launch instruments and detectors above Earth's atmosphere to observe the Universe in wavelengths that are blocked from the ground, including X-rays. SN 1006 was one of the faintest X-ray sources detected by the first generation of X-ray satellites.
A new image of SN 1006 from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals this supernova remnant in exquisite detail. By overlapping ten different pointings of Chandra's field-of-view, astronomers have stitched together a cosmic tapestry of the debris field that was created when a white dwarf star exploded, sending its material hurtling into space. In this new Chandra image, low, medium, and higher-energy X-rays are colored red, green, and blue respectively.
The Chandra image provides new insight into the nature of SN1006, which is the remnant of a so-called Type Ia supernova . This class of supernova is caused when a white dwarf pulls too much mass from a companion star and explodes, or when two white dwarfs merge and explode. Understanding Type Ia supernovas is especially important because astronomers use observations of these explosions in distant galaxies as mileposts to mark the expansion of the Universe.
The new SN 1006 image represents the most spatially detailed map yet of the material ejected during a Type Ia supernova. By examining the different elements in the debris field -- such as silicon, oxygen, and magnesium -- the researchers may be able to piece together how the star looked before it exploded and the order that the layers of the star were ejected, and constrain theoretical models for the explosion.
Scientists are also able to study just how fast specific knots of material are moving away from the original explosion. The fastest knots are moving outward at almost eleven million miles per hour, while those in other areas are moving at a more leisurely seven million miles per hour. SN 1006 is located about 7,000 light years from Earth. The new Chandra image of SN 1006 contains over 8 days worth of observing time by the telescope. These results were presented at a meeting of High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society in Monterey, CA.
This work involved Frank Winkler, from Middlebury College in Middlebury, VT; Satoru Katsuda from The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) in Saitama, Japan; Knox Long from Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD; Robert Petre from NASA -Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, MD; Stephen Reynolds from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC; and Brian Williams from NASA -GSFC in Greenbelt, MD.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.
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By Reggie Kumar and Jason Kandel, NBCLosAngeles.com
A neighborhood in?southern California?remained locked down on Monday after the discovery of a body of a man who neighbors said blew himself up outside his home.
The incident happened at 8 p.m. Sunday in the 3100 block of Bermuda Drive near Labrador Drive in Costa Mesa.
Someone noticed a man on the ground in a front yard and called an ambulance.
The man declined an offer of help. It wasn't until later, police and neighbors said, that he blew himself up.
"He was under his own power to get back to his own residence," said Sgt. Jerry Hildeman, of the Costa Mesa Police Department. "We believed we didn?t have any reason to go further."
The police came back and found the man dead. They believe he was wearing two pipebombs. They say it's unclear whether he committed suicide or accidentially killed himself.
Personnel from the Orange County Sheriff's Bomb Squad and Orange County Fire Authority Hazardous Materials Unit were combing through the home Monday morning after finding a second explosive that they detonated.
FBI agents assisted local authorities in case there were any federal laws broken, said Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokeswoman.
Authorities said they would continue to look for additional explosives before rendering the home safe and allowing residents back into the neighborhood.
Laurie Raphoon, a neighbor, was one of the residents who was evacuated.
She said she was shocked when she heard an explosion. She said it happened after a neighbor, who she described as in his late 40s or early 50s, collapsed outside his home and refused to be taken to a hospital.
"Neighbors were trying to convince him to go to the hospital," Raphoon said. "An hour or two later we heard an explosion."
BALI, Indonesia (AP) ? Indonesian investigators on Sunday began working to determine what caused a new Lion Air passenger jet to miss a runway while landing on the resort island of Bali, crashing into the sea without causing any fatalities among the 108 on board.
The National Transportation Safety Committee is examining the wreckage of the Boeing 737-800 that snapped in half before coming to a stop in shallow water near Bali's airport on Saturday, said Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan.
He said aviation authorities had already removed the plane's flight data recorder and were planning to tow the aircraft to a beach. Divers were searching for the cockpit voice recorder located in the tail. Experts are examining what could have caused the crash, including whether wind shear may have played a role.
The crash marked Lion Air's sixth accident in 11 years, and has renewed questions about how safe it is to fly in Indonesia. The country has struggled to clean up its poor air safety record while improving oversight.
All 101 passengers and seven crew members were safely evacuated from the budget carrier's flight, which came from Bandung, the capital of West Java province. Some swam from the wreckage, while others were plucked from the water by rescuers in rubber boats. Dozens suffered injuries, but most had been released from local hospitals by Sunday.
"I couldn't wait to land in Bali when the cabin suddenly turned dark. I heard a sound like an explosion and water was coming in," recalled Irawati, a 60-year-old woman who uses one name, like many Indonesians.
"I heard people shouting frantically: 'The plane crashed! Get out! Get out!' I did not even have the energy to move my body," she said. "I was so weak and frightened, and I was asking a flight attendant for help before I passed out."
Irawati told The Associated Press from her hospital bed that when she regained consciousness, the pilot and co-pilot were putting a life jacket on her and helping her down a rubber ladder. She was then pulled onto a surfboard by rescuers. She suffered neck injuries.
Another survivor, Andi Prasetyo, said there was no warning of any problem.
"The cabin crew had already announced that we would be landing shortly, and I was so excited when I saw the ocean getting closer, but suddenly ... it fell," he said. "I can't believe that the plane actually landed on the sea, and everything changed to dark. It was full of horrific screaming. None of us remembered about the life jackets under our seats. Everybody rushed to get out of the plane."
Officials said there were three foreigners on board ? two Singaporeans and a French national ? all of whom suffered slight injuries.
Lion Air spokesman Edward Sirait said the plane crashed about 50 meters (164 feet) ahead of the runway. The weather was cloudy with rain at the time of the incident.
He said the Boeing 737-800 Next Generation plane was received by the airline last month and was declared airworthy. The plane had landed in two other cities on Saturday prior to the crash.
Given that the aircraft was new, Sydney-based aviation expert Tom Ballantyne said a technical or mechanical problem would seem unlikely. He said it was fortunate that the plane landed flat in shallow water rather than nose-diving or hitting deep water, where it could have quickly been submerged.
"I'm surprised. The airplane split in two upon impact," he said, estimating it was likely traveling close to 300 miles (483 kilometers) per hour.
"It was coming into land and hit the water very hard. It's a miracle nobody was killed," Ballantyne said.
It was unclear whether human error may have played a role in the accident, and Sirait said the pilot was experienced, logging 10,000 flying hours. However, Indonesian aviation analyst Ruth Simatupang, a former investigator at the National Safety Transportation Committee, suspects some sort of miscalculation involving the landing.
"Something was obviously wrong with the pilot, and wind shear is a possibility that could lead to an unstable approach," she said. Sudden changes in wind speed or direction can lift or smash aircraft into the ground during landing.
The pilot and co-pilot will be grounded for two weeks for tests to ensure they were healthy during the flight and for questioning by investigators. They also have undergone alcohol and drug testing, and the preliminary results were negative, Herry Bakti Gumay, a Transportation Ministry official, told a news conference Sunday. In the past two years, three pilots, one co-pilot and a flight attendant from Lion Air have been arrested for illicit drug use.
The airline said it planned to suck the remaining fuel from the undamaged tanks in the plane's wings before towing it at high tide to avoid destroying the area's coral reefs. Bali is one of Asia's most popular destinations, drawing millions of vacationers with its world-class surf and beautiful beaches.
Rapidly expanding Lion Air is Indonesia's top discount carrier, holding about a 45 percent market share in the country, a sprawling archipelago of 240 million people that's seeing a boom in both economic growth and air travel. The airline has been involved in six accidents since 2002, four of them involving Boeing 737s and one resulting in 25 deaths, according to the Aviation Safety Network's website.
Lion Air is currently banned from flying to Europe due to broader safety lapses in the Indonesian airline industry that have long plagued the country. Last year, a Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet-100 slammed into a volcano during a demonstration flight, killing all 45 people on board.
Indonesia is one of Asia's most rapidly expanding airline markets, but is struggling to provide qualified pilots, mechanics, air traffic controllers and updated airport technology to ensure safety.
Lion Air, a private company which started flying in 2000, signed a $24 billion deal last month to buy 234 Airbus planes, the biggest order ever for the French aircraft maker. It also gave Boeing its largest-ever order when it finalized a deal for 230 planes last year. The aircraft will be delivered from 2014 to 2026 as the airline positions itself to take on AirAsia, which dominates budget travel in the region.
___
Karmini reported from Jakarta, Indonesia. Associated Press writer Margie Mason contributed to this report from Jakarta.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits the public transport company PVGS Personenverkehrsgesellschaft mbH on April 12, 2013 in Salzwedel, eastern Germany. (AP Photo/Pool/Ronny Hartmann)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits the public transport company PVGS Personenverkehrsgesellschaft mbH on April 12, 2013 in Salzwedel, eastern Germany. (AP Photo/Pool/Ronny Hartmann)
BERLIN (AP) ? It's a spectacle that Germans are getting tired of: southern European protesters burning their flags and waving placards comparing Chancellor Angela Merkel to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, all in reaction to Berlin's insistence on reforms and austerity in return for bailout funds.
And it's enough to make people like Berlin businessman Horst Freiberg, who never felt much love for the euro currency, pine more than ever for the return of the German mark.
"I'd immediately vote for a party that wants to abolish the euro," said Freiberg, who has run a small business selling ink stamps in central Berlin for more than 40 years. "How can you have one currency with banana republics like Cyprus and Greece? And they always accuse us of being Nazis. It's sick."
Such sentiments are still the exception in Germany, where a sense of obligation to help fellow Europeans in distress is rooted in shame for the crimes of the Third Reich. But a new political party hopes to capitalize on simmering fears that the euro crisis could deepen and drag down Europe's biggest economy. It aims to garner enough votes from people like Freiberg in September elections to reach the 5 percent minimum needed for seats in Parliament.
Called Alternative for Germany, the main goal of the party founded by academics and economists is the "orderly dissolution" of the euro, said Frauke Petry, a business owner and party spokeswoman. The stance puts the party in sharp opposition to Merkel's position that there can be no Europe without the preservation of the single currency, with her repeated insistence that "if the euro fails, Europe will fail." While still a fledgling movement, the new party could hurt Merkel by sapping support from her main coalition partner ? which she has relied on for a stable government.
"For us the euro is at the heart of many problems," Petry told The Associated Press. "The way decisions are being made in Europe right now shows that many democratic mechanisms don't work anymore," she said. Alternative for Germany wants to introduce Swiss-style national referendums so voters can have a say on important matters ? including economic rescue packages.
For all the talk about what they don't like, however, the party has been short on what they do like and its leaders were slammed in an editorial this week in the top-selling Bild newspaper as "political amateurs."
The conservative tabloid has never shied away from accusing southern Europeans of being lazy, nor has it stopped deploring the cost Germany shoulders to bail out other nations, but turning against the euro itself remains unthinkable.
"They can craftily explain what is wrong with rescuing the euro, but they have no concept on how the future of Europe should look," Bild wrote.
Experts believe the party has little chance of garnering enough of the protest vote to reach the 5 percent threshold. But it could draw enough voters away from Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right coalition to force her into an alliance with the opposition or give the opposition an outright majority.
More than 7,000 people have applied to join the party even before its founding congress in Berlin on Sunday, said Petry.
"There is space for an anti-euro party in Germany," said Oskar Niedermayer, a political scientist at Berlin's Free University. "So far this position hasn't really been represented in the German party system."
Underlining the potential appeal, a recent poll showed that even though 69 percent of Germans now back the euro ? up from about 50 percent last year ? a significant minority of 27 percent said they'd like to see a return to the mark. The survey of 1,003 people was conducted April 2-3 for the business daily Handelsblatt.
Abandoning the euro currency would have significant costs, especially for Germany as a heavily export-oriented economy. According to analysts' estimates, it could easily knock down the country's annual output by a double digit percentage figure.
"I think the Germans know, and to some extent accept, that they have to pay the bill for saving the euro," said Ursula Weidenfeld, an economist and author. "They just want to make sure that they aren't paying more than necessary."
Other nations like the Netherlands, Austria and Finland have also insisted on the same austerity measures that Germany has demanded in exchange for European bailouts, but as the bloc's largest economy and the largest single contributor to the funds, most of the anger has been directed at Germany and Merkel.
Some of Merkel's voters are now beginning to wonder whether their country ? and their savings ? should be tied to the struggling euro project, and Weidenfeld said support for the euro "could quickly change if a new rescue package has to be negotiated."
Should the eurozone's woes spread to fully engulf Italy or Spain ? the bloc's third- and fourth-largest economies ? and require them to ask for a bailout, German voters could panic, said Niedermayer.
In Germany's election in September, the issue poses the greatest threat to the Free Democratic Party, Merkel's junior coalition partner which has a pro-business platform. Because the party has polled only slightly above five percent, even the loss of a few thousand voters could mean disaster.
"It's not impossible that this new party could sap half a percent from the FDP and thereby kick them out of parliament," said Niedermayer. That could create a huge headache for Merkel, who may find it hard to form a workable majority in parliament without the FDP.
Merkel's own party, too, could suffer if conservative voters see Alternative for Germany as a credible way to express their frustration about her leadership.
Economist Rudolf Hickel told Germany's Deutsche Welle, however, that even though there is anti-euro sentiment out there, Alternative for Germany doesn't have broad enough appeal to effectively tap it.
"They are professors and frustrated economists," he said. "If the party were headed by a populist, I'd consider them dangerous."
Amateur Guan Tianlang, of China, tees off on the 10th hole during the fourth round of the Masters golf tournament Sunday, April 14, 2013, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Amateur Guan Tianlang, of China, tees off on the 10th hole during the fourth round of the Masters golf tournament Sunday, April 14, 2013, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) ? Guan Tianlang has made history. The 14-year-old eighth-grader from China, who is the youngest player to make the cut at the Masters, shot a 3-over par 75 on Sunday and finished the tournament 12 over.
BALI, Indonesia (AP) ? Indonesian investigators on Sunday began working to determine what caused a new Lion Air passenger jet to miss a runway while landing on the resort island of Bali, crashing into the sea without causing any fatalities among the 108 on board.
The National Transportation Safety Committee is examining the wreckage of the Boeing 737-800 that snapped in half before coming to a stop in shallow water near Bali's airport on Saturday, said Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan.
He said aviation authorities have already removed the plane's flight data recorder and are now planning to tow the aircraft onto land and retrieve the cockpit voice recorder located in the tail.
All 101 passengers and seven crew members were safely evacuated from the budget carrier flight coming from Bandung, the capital of West Java province. Some swam from the wreckage while others were plucked from the water by rescuers in rubber boats. Dozens suffered injuries, but most had been released from local hospitals by Sunday.
"I couldn't wait to land in Bali when the cabin suddenly turned dark. I heard a sound like an explosion and water was coming in," recalled Irawati, a 60-year-old woman who uses one name like many Indonesians. "I heard people shouting frantically: 'The plane crashed! Get out! Get out!' I did not even have the energy to move my body. I was so weak and frightened, and I was asking a flight attendant for help before I passed out."
She told The Associated Press from her hospital bed that when she regained consciousness, the pilot and co-pilot were putting a life jacket on her and helping her down a rubber ladder. She was then pulled onto a surf board by rescuers. She suffered neck injuries.
Another survivor, Andi Prasetyo, who is now staying at a hotel, said everything appeared fine until the crash happened.
"The cabin crew had already announced that we would be landing shortly, and I was so excited when I saw the ocean getting closer, but suddenly ... it fell," he said. "I can't believe that the plane actually landed on the sea, and everything changed to dark. It was full of horrific screaming. None of us remembered about the life jackets under our seats. Everybody rushed to get out of the plane."
Officials said there were three foreigners on board ? two Singaporeans and a French national ? all of whom suffered slight injuries.
Authorities initially said the plane overshot the runway before hitting the water, but Lion Air spokesman Edward Sirait said at a news conference that the plane crashed about 50 meters (164 feet) ahead of the runway. The weather was cloudy with rain at the time of the incident.
"It apparently failed to reach the runway and fell into the sea," said Sirait.
He said the Boeing 737-800 Next Generation plane was received by the airline last month and was declared airworthy. The plane had landed in two other cities on Saturday prior to the crash.
The pilot was experienced, logging 10,000 flying hours, Sirait said. It was unclear whether human error may have played a role in the accident.
The pilot and co-pilot will be tested to ensure they were healthy during the flight, and they will also undergo drug testing, said Ervan of the Transportation Ministry. Five pilots from Lion Air have been arrested for illicit drug use in the past two years.
Rapidly expanding Lion Air is Indonesia's top discount carrier, holding about a 50 percent market share in the country, a sprawling archipelago of 240 million people that's seeing a boom in both economic growth and air travel. The airline has been involved in six accidents since 2002, four of them involving Boeing 737s and one resulting in 25 deaths, according to the Aviation Safety Network's website.
Lion Air is currently banned from flying to Europe due to broader safety lapses in the Indonesian airline industry that have long plagued the country. Last year, a Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet-100 slammed into a volcano during a demonstration flight, killing all 45 people on board.
Indonesia is one of Asia's most rapidly expanding airline markets, but is struggling to provide qualified pilots, mechanics, air traffic controllers and updated airport technology to ensure safety.
Lion Air, which started flying in 2000, signed a $24 billion deal last month to buy 234 Airbus planes, the biggest order ever for the French aircraft maker. It also gave Boeing its largest-ever order when it finalized a deal for 230 planes last year. The planes will be delivered from 2014 to 2026 as the airline positions itself to take on AirAsia, which dominates budget travel in the region.
UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey now knows who she will face in her next bout. In a fight with huge implications, Cat Zingano won by TKO over Miesha Tate at 2:55 of the third round at "The Ultimate Fighter" finale on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
Zingano found herself in trouble early in the fight as she was caught in several of Tate's submission attempts in what proved to be a thrilling bout. Both a kneebar and an armbar appeared to be tight, but Zingano worked out of every attempt Tate tried. In the third round, the fight turned for Zingano as she hit Tate with several, well-timed knees from the clinch. Zingano finally finished the bout with an elbow.
Now, Zingano, the first mother to ever fight in the UFC, will coach against Rousey on the next season of "The Ultimate Fighter." Their teams will face off on the reality show that will air on the soon-to-be launched Fox Sports 1, and then Zingano and Rousey will fight for the UFC women's bantamweight belt.
Zingano and Rousey are already looking forward to facing each other.
"It's going to come down to heart, to technique, to speed. It's going to be a battle. You're going to watch," Zingano said after the bout.
Rousey admitted the fight wasn't exactly what she expected, but she already learned something about her future opponent.
"Cat really showed that she was able to perform under pressure. I'm going to be ready for that," Rousey said.
Though Rousey has only been a professional MMA fighter for two years, she zoomed to the top of the women's MMA world since switching to fighting after winning an Olympic bronze medal in judo. She has seven straight fights by first-round, armbar wins, including her defeat of Liz Carmouche in her UFC debut in February.
Zingano is also undefeated as a professional. Like Rousey, she is 7-0, but has finished opponents through knockouts and submissions. With a wrestling and jiu-jitsu background, she is a more well-rounded fighter than many of Rousey's previous opponents. Zingano showed her power against Tate, so it will be interesting to see if she will be able to muster the same kind of power against Rousey.
Women fighting in the UFC is still new, as the Tate-Zingano bout was just the second female bout in UFC history. The women's bantamweight division is quickly growing, though; it has added several fighters since Rousey was originally signed as the first women in the UFC. Adding TUF castmembers to the mix will help it the division develop depth even faster.
Why did James Hansen retire on April 2 after 32 years as director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies? As he told the enterprising students of Columbia University's Sustainability Media Lab who captured him in the following video, "I want to devote full time to trying to help the public understand the urgency of addressing climate change." It's not exactly the "spend more time with my family" excuse often give by retiring government officials, but his family is nonetheless the reason for this change. He's worried about preventing " climate chaos" and instead preserving the relatively stable climate of the past 10,000 years--when human civilization developed and flourished--for his five grandchildren. That means full-time activism for the 72-year-old, and perhaps the risk of getting arrested at more coal-mine or tar-sand protests. "We can't burn all the fossil fuels without guaranteeing that young people and future generations are going to suffer the consequences of that," Hansen noted in the video of our loading of what he calls the " climate dice." "We don't make [the fossil fuel companies] pay for the climate impacts, which are already significant. The taxpayer picks up these costs or just the public. If you get asthma from air pollution, you pay the health cost, not the fossil fuel company." His preferred solution? A cap-and-dividend system in which a price is put on any carbon-based fuel and the revenues collected are distributed to every taxpayer to offset increasing energy costs. After decades spent trying to move society as a scientist--including the first testimony to the U.S. Congress urging action on global warming in 1988--he will now focus on educating and influencing the public and policy leaders as an activist. Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news. ? 2013 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.
LONDON (AP) ? Foreign ministers from the G-8 nations on Thursday condemned North Korea's aggressive rhetoric and the development of its nuclear missile programs, saying that Pyongyang's recent actions threaten international security.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague told a press conference that if North Korea conducts another missile launch or nuclear test, the G-8 ministers have "committed ourselves" to take further "significant measures" ? such as asking for more sanctions at the United Nations Security Council.
His remarks came just hours after North Korea delivered a fresh burst of rhetoric with claims it had "powerful striking means" on standby amid speculation that it is preparing to test a medium-range missile during an upcoming national celebration in the country.
In a communique following a meeting in London, the G-8 foreign ministers said Pyongyang's "current aggressive rhetoric" will only isolate North Korea. They urged North Korea to refrain from "further provocative acts" and engage in credible talks on abandoning all existing nuclear programs.
"G-8 foreign ministers condemned in the strongest possible terms the continued development of its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," the communique stated.
North Korea's decisions to launch a long-range rocket in December and conduct an underground nuclear test in February "seriously undermine regional stability, jeopardize the prospects for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula and threaten international peace and security," the communique said.
The statement added that ministers are concerned about Pyongyang's plans to re-open its Nyongbyon nuclear facility.
Germany's foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said North Korea's provocations are escalating a tense situation.
"This war rhetoric is not in any way acceptable and the G-8 has a united position on this," he said on the sidelines of the meeting.
The two-day talks among eight world powers focused on North Korea and the civil war in Syria. They also got some celebrity wattage from an appearance by Angelina Jolie, a U.N. special envoy for refugees who has teamed up with Hague to campaign for an end to sexual violence in war.
Hague ? flanked by Jolie and the U.N. special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Zainab Bangura ? announced that G-8 ministers pledged $36 million in additional funding to fight sexual violence in conflict.
Calling the issue "the slave trade of our generation," Hague said the ministers also agreed to declare that rape and serious sexual violence in conflict constitute war crimes and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions.
Jolie welcomed the "long overdue stand" on sexual violence, saying that the international political will to combat sexual violence has been "sorely lacking."
Sexual violence has been used as a weapon in several conflicts, including the civil war in Syria, the Bosnian war, and during fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
On Syria, where the U.N. estimates that a two-year civil war has killed more than 70,000 people, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Syrian opposition leaders in London on Wednesday to discuss ways to step up nonlethal aid to rebels fighting against President Bashar Assad.
But there was no mention of assisting the rebels in Thursday's G-8 statement, reflecting divided opinion among the nations ? the U.S., U.K., France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia ? on how to address the Syria conflict.
The watered-down language in particular could reflect the position of Russia, which has consistently opposed actions that would increase pressure on Assad.
The communique said ministers are "appalled" at the deaths in Syria and the fact that the war has forced more than a million people to flee to neighboring countries. The ministers "reaffirmed their commitment" to supporting a political transition in Syria and condemned the ongoing use of heavy weapons against residential areas.
"The humanitarian situation in Syria is deplorable and continues to worsen," the communique said, urging greater humanitarian assistance and improved access to the Syrian people.
Hague offered slightly stronger language than the communique in a press conference after the talks, saying the Assad regime has shown a "flagrant disregard" for human rights and life.
"The world has failed" Syria so far, and "it continues to do so," he told reporters.
Britain and France have been pushing for the European Union to lift or amend its arms embargo on Syria, which prohibits any weapons from being sent to the Arab state.
The embargo requires a unanimous agreement by EU countries, and it will either be renewed or allowed to expire at the end of May. Hague said earlier this week that no decisions have been made on whether the U.K. will allow it to expire.
An expiration would effectively clear the way for Britain ? or any nation ? to make its own decision about whether to arm rebels.
On Thursday, Hague reiterated that if the situation in Syria continues to deteriorate, there will be a "strong case" for amending or lifting the arms embargo.
___
AP reporter Martin Benedyk contributed to this report from London.
Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd
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A new study predicts increasingly bumpy skies for future air travelers. It finds that over the next 50 years, planes will experience between 10-40 percent more turbulence. Melissa Block talks to researcher Paul Williams about the findings.
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MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
Bring on the air sickness bags and light up the fasten seatbelt sign. A new study finds that flights are going to become more turbulent due to climate change. Paul Williams led the study. It's been published in the journal Nature Climate Change and he joins me now from Vienna. Welcome to the program.
PAUL WILLIAMS: Hi, Melissa, it's a pleasure to be here.
BLOCK: Your study finds that by 2050, we might see the frequency of turbulence on flights across the Atlantic doubling and also getting stronger. This has to do with the jet stream. Can you explain why?
WILLIAMS: Well, climate change is accelerating the jet stream, making the wind speeds faster. And this is making the atmosphere more susceptible to the particular instability that causes clear air turbulence to break out.
BLOCK: Clear air turbulence, in other words, not turbulence caused by a storm, right? And is that more dangerous because of what pilots can detect on their radar?
WILLIAMS: That's exactly right. We all know that if a plane flies through a cloud or a thunderstorm, that is a pretty bumpy experience, but that's not the kind of turbulence we've looked at here. We're talking about the kind of turbulence you experience when you're flying above the clouds and above storms. You could literally say it comes out of the blue. You're flying through clear blue skies, maybe the seatbelt sign is switched off and people are wandering about the plane.
The conditions seem to be smooth and all of a sudden, you can hit turbulence unexpectedly that the pilot could not see from the cockpit window and the fancy electronics onboard the plane can also not detect this kind of turbulence. So it's particularly dangerous to air passengers. It's not just about drinks being knocked over. This is actually a serious problem that does injure many people.
BLOCK: Now, we just were talking about the jet stream. Does this only affect flights going across the Atlantic?
WILLIAMS: So far, we've only crunched the numbers over the North Atlantic sector, but the jet stream, in fact, does not stop in the Atlantic sector. It goes all the way around the world and comes back on itself forming a closed loop. And it is becoming more intense everywhere. So it would be a reasonable hypothesis to suggest that the sort of increases we're seeing in the Atlantic sector may also be seen in the Pacific sector and in other parts of air space.
But we haven't crunched the numbers yet. That's what we really want to do next.
BLOCK: Well, do you figure that airlines will have to reconfigure their flight patterns, will have to change how they fly, where they fly?
WILLIAMS: Well, a pilot taking off from perhaps New York in the middle of this century to come across the Atlantic to somewhere in Europe will be looking at twice as much airspace containing turbulence. Now, they're going to face a choice that they could just grit their teeth and decide to fly right through those extra patches of turbulence or if the turbulence is particularly strong, they might instead decide to try to fly around it or above it or below it.
All of this, of course, means that journey times could lengthen if flight paths have to become more wiggly and less of a straight line. This is an increase in journey times, maybe more delays at airports and also, perhaps more importantly, an increase in fuel consumption. And I should mention that fuel is the number one cost to airlines. So any increase in fuel consumption will, of course, imply increased costs to the airlines.
And ultimately, of course, it could be passengers who see the ticket prices going up to pay for that.
BLOCK: Well, the irony there, too, I suppose would be that if you're increasing fuel consumption, you're also increasing the contribution to global warming which will be causing the turbulence in the first place, right?
WILLIAMS: Right. There's a sort of feedback there and it's a bit like poetic justice that maybe the atmosphere is somehow seeking its revenge on planes for causing this problem in the first place.
BLOCK: I've been talking with Paul Williams. He's an atmospheric scientist at the University of Redding. Thanks so much for talking to us.
WILLIAMS: Thanks, Melissa.
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EL PASO, Tex. (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's unprecedented effort to ease monetary policy will face its biggest test when it comes time to withdraw the policy accommodation, a top Fed official said on Wednesday.
Once the economy begins to grow more quickly and banks start lending out more of the money that they now hold on the sidelines, "We are going to have to titrate or taper back the way that money flows back into the system," Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher said at the University of Texas at El Paso.
If the Fed fails to do so at the right rate, inflation could start to take hold, he warned.
Fisher repeated his view that he would not favor an immediate end to the Fed's asset purchases, but wants an end to them because they are less effective than they were at the beginning. He said and his colleagues at the Fed last month had a "serious discussion" about when and whether to taper bond buys.
(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey now knows who she will face in her next bout. In a fight with huge implications, Cat Zingano won by TKO over Miesha Tate at 2:55 of the third round at "The Ultimate Fighter" finale on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
