Hip-hop mogul Sean Combs has launched his own channel for cable. Revolt TV aims to bring a new generation - and its love of social media - to music television. Guest host Celeste Headlee discusses the venture with NPR television correspondent and critic Eric Deggans.
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, destroyed weapons and ammunitions carried by Syrian rebels like at the site after they were killed by Syrian government forces according to SANA, near the Otaiba area, near Damascus, Syria, Friday, Oct. 25, 2013. Syrian government troops on Friday ambushed rebels near the capital, Damascus, killing at least 40 opposition fighters, state media reported. The ambush was part of the military's offensive against rebel strongholds around President Bashar Assad's seat of power. (AP Photo/SANA)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, destroyed weapons and ammunitions carried by Syrian rebels like at the site after they were killed by Syrian government forces according to SANA, near the Otaiba area, near Damascus, Syria, Friday, Oct. 25, 2013. Syrian government troops on Friday ambushed rebels near the capital, Damascus, killing at least 40 opposition fighters, state media reported. The ambush was part of the military's offensive against rebel strongholds around President Bashar Assad's seat of power. (AP Photo/SANA)
U.N. and Arab League envoy on Syria Lakhdar Brahimi listens to a journalist during a join press conference in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013. (AP Photo)
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria's state media say government forces have retaken a Christian town north of Damascus after a week of clashes with al-Qaida-linked fighters who had recently captured key parts of it.
The state-run SANA news agency says the army "restored security and stability" to the town of Sadad early on Monday.
The town had been in opposition hands since last week, when al-Qaida-linked groups captured a checkpoint that gave them control of the western part of the town.
The fighting came as the U.N.-Arab League envoy headed to Syria for his first trip to the country in almost a year. Lakhdar Brahimi had arrived in Beirut earlier on Monday and left for Damascus.
Brahimi is trying to prepare a peace conference on Syria supposed to take place in Geneva next month.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-28-ML-Syria/id-ddfc45598b9348ba8a948b1f7b507b28Mingdong Chen, a suspect in the murder of a five people in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood, is taken by police from the 66th precinct, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013 in New York. The Chinese immigrant, who neighbors said struggled to survive in America, was arrested in the stabbing death Saturday night of his cousin's wife and her four children. (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano)
Mingdong Chen, a suspect in the murder of a five people in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood, is taken by police from the 66th precinct, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013 in New York. The Chinese immigrant, who neighbors said struggled to survive in America, was arrested in the stabbing death Saturday night of his cousin's wife and her four children. (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano)
Women gather on the steps of an apartment building opposite the scene of a brutal fatal stabbing, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in New York. Police say a mother and her four young children were killed in a late night stabbing rampage at a Sunset Park, Brooklyn, home. A Chinese immigrant, 25-year-old Ming Don Chen, was arrested Sunday on five counts of murder in the deaths of his cousin's wife and her four children. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Crime scene detectives investigate the scene of a multiple fatal stabbing Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in New York. Police said a mother and her four young children were stabbed to death in a brutal rampage just before 11 p.m. Saturday in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. The New York Police Department said a suspect, 25-year-old Ming Don Chen, a Chinese immigrant, was arrested Sunday on five counts of murder in the deaths of his cousin's wife and her four children in the stabbing rampage in their Brooklyn home. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
A crime scene detective leaps up the steps at the scene of a multiple fatal stabbing Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, in New York. Police said a mother and her four young children were stabbed to death in a brutal rampage just before 11p.m. Saturday. The working-class neighborhood is home to many Chinese immigrants. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Crime scene specialists work at the scene of a fatal stabbing, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Police say a mother and her four young children were killed in a late night stabbing rampage at the Sunset Park, Brooklyn home, far right. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
NEW YORK (AP) — When relatives of a Chinese immigrant mother of four young children banged on the family's door, it opened to a grisly sight: a man dripping with human blood who is now charged with stabbing the five to death with a butcher knife.
Mingdong Chen, 25, faced five counts of murder Sunday, a day after the brutal killings of his cousin's wife and her four children in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood.
Two girls, 9-year-old Linda Zhuo and 7-year-old Amy Zhuo, were pronounced dead at the scene, along with the youngest child, 18-month-old William Zhuo — all found in a back bedroom, police said. Their brother, 5-year-old Kevin Zhuo, and 37-year-old mother, Qiao Zhen Li, were found in the kitchen and taken to hospitals, where they also were pronounced dead.
The five "were cut and butchered with a kitchen knife," said Chief of Department Philip Banks III, the New York Police Department's highest-ranking uniformed member.
The victims died of stab wounds to their necks and torsos, and Chen has implicated himself in the killings, Banks said.
"It's a scene you'll never forget," he said.
Chen had been staying with the family on the first floor of the two-story brick house for about a week.
He was unemployed after being fired from a string of restaurant jobs he couldn't hold down for more than a few weeks at a time, according to neighbors and relatives in the working-class neighborhood dominated by a large community of immigrants from China.
Almost a decade after coming to the United States as a teenager, he still was fluent only in Mandarin Chinese, Banks said.
"He was bouncing around," said Banks.
Chen apparently was jealous of fellow immigrants' successes in America.
"He made a very soft comment that since he came to this country, everybody seems to be doing better than him," Banks said.
The children's father, his cousin, was not home late Saturday evening; he was working at a Long Island restaurant, one neighbor said.
The mother tried to call him because she was alarmed about Chen's "suspicious" behavior earlier in the evening, Banks said.
When she couldn't reach her husband, Li called her mother-in-law in China, who also could not immediately reach her son. The mother-in-law then reached out to her daughter in the same Brooklyn neighborhood, Banks said.
The sister-in-law and her husband went to the house at about 11 p.m. and kept banging on the door till someone answered, police said.
It was Chen, "and they see that he's covered with blood," Banks said. "They don't know who this person is."
The couple fled, called 911, and detectives investigating another matter nearby responded quickly, Banks said.
Yuan Gao, a cousin of the mother, came by the house Sunday and stood on the tree-lined street with well-tended row houses, half a block from the neighborhood thoroughfare, its open air markets, Chinese restaurants and shops bustling with Sunday morning shoppers. Many walked over to the house, milling around and discussing the most horrible crime they could remember.
But almost none spoke English, and the few who did remained tight-lipped.
Some said that at Chen's last temporary home, days before the killings, late-night arguments were loud enough to be heard outside.
Gao said he had moved to the area recently and was staying with whoever would take him for brief periods of time.
Bob Madden, who lives a block away, was walking his dog on Saturday night when he saw the young man being taken away in a police cruiser.
"He was barefoot, wearing dungarees, and he was staring, he was expressionless," Madden said.
The suspect was in custody Sunday, but is still awaiting arraignment. It was unclear whether he had an attorney.
Banks said Chen had at first resisted arrest and, while being processed, assaulted a police officer.
Neighbor May Chan told the Daily News it was "heartbreaking" to learn of the deaths of children she often saw running around and playing.
"They run around by my garage playing. They run up and down screaming," Chan said.
"The father was freaking out," she said. "He just came home from work and saw the police and they told him. He was hysterical."
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-28-Brooklyn%20Stabbings/id-fe3dc71c9fb74e5f9b43d408f0eda5abEIGHT STATES COMMIT TO 3.3 MILLION NEW ZERO EMISSION CARS AND TRUCKS BY 2025
October 24, 2013
Today the governors of eight states announced an ambitious partnership to accelerate the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles. Together, the states will develop fueling infrastructure and EV-ready building codes, purchase electric vehicles for state fleets, and expand incentives and public education programs to dramatically increase number of plug-in electric and fuel cell vehicles.
The eight states are: California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune released the following statement:
"The Sierra Club applauds these eight states for leading the way nationally with this ambitious plan to slash carbon pollution by putting 3.3 million new electric and zero-emission cars and trucks on American streets. When it comes to fighting climate disruption, EVs are where the rubber hits the road.
"This announcement is possible because the president's strong new fuel economy standards have put electric vehicles in the fast lane. Sales doubled in the first half of 2013, and more models are available now than ever before. Last month, more than 35,000 people attended events in 98 cities across the country during National Plug In Day.
"Today's announcement will ensure that all new cars won't just use less gas, many won't use gas at all.
"The facts speak for themselves, EVs are cleaner and more efficient than internal combustion engines and U.S. automakers have roared back to life by betting big on efficiency and the new innovative auto technologies that Americans demand."
One of rock's most beloved and contrarian figures has died. Lou Reed epitomized New York City's artistic underbelly in the 1970s, with his songs about hookers and junkies. He was 71.
Reed died Sunday morning on Long Island of complications from a liver transplant earlier this year, his literary agent, Andrew Wylie, said.
The famous iconoclast actually got his start as a staff songwriter pumping out pop tunes in a wannabe hit factory called Pickwick Records. Reed recalled his days as a frothy pop lyricist in a 1989 NPR interview.
"When I first started out I really liked the spontaneity of it, cause you know I've got a B.A. in English — not that that means I should be good at it, but it gives me some kind of background in it," he said. "I thought I was pretty fast."
Lou Reed was fast. In more ways than one. He went from hit factory to Andy Warhol's Factory, the epicenter of trashy, avant-garde experimentation in '60s New York. Warhol mentored Reed and his band, The Velvet Underground. He urged them to keep things gritty. The band's Welsh co-founder, John Cale, told NPR in 2000 that the band was never easy listening.
"We were not user-friendly at all," he says. "Anyone listening to a bass guitar and regular guitar coming out of the same amp — it couldn't have been a really great listening experience."
Beyond their sound, The Velvet Underground disturbed even hard-core scenesters with graphic songs about debauchery and doing drugs. In an interview on WHYY's Fresh Air, drummer Moe Tucker remembered performing the song "Heroin": "We got fired from the Cafe Bizarre," she said. "The woman came rushing up to us and said, 'If you play one more song like that you're fired.' "
They did, and they were, and the band's albums did not sell very well. Reed left and embarked on a spotty solo career that reflected his up and down life enthralled with New York's darker corners and the hustlers who hid there.
"Walk on the Wild Side" became Reed's only Top 40 hit, partly because a number of radio station programmers had no idea what it was really about. The album it came from, Transformer — co-produced by David Bowie — brought Reed critical acclaim and attention. Which Reed, in characteristic fashion, hated. That played out in interviews, including one in 1989 with NPR's Bob Edwards, who asked Reed about his choice of subjects.
"I mean, it might be harder to write about a chair," he said. "As a matter of fact, it would be harder to write about a chair. I mean, I could write a song about a chair: Who sat in this chair. Who built this chair. How long had this chair been here. You could do that."
And a few years later, while promoting his album The Raven, Reed vented to another NPR host, who wanted to know how other journalists had somehow mixed up Reed's original lyrics with the writings of Edgar Allan Poe.
"Well, if you're deaf, dumb and retarded, it's easy. I can't believe people interview me for this stuff and don't notice," he says. "I grade them and I put them on my website when they fail really badly, to warn other people, other musicians: 'Watch out for this interviewer.' It's like talking to a squirrel."
As ornery as Reed was with journalists, he was often supportive of other artists. He influenced REM, The Replacements and Talking Heads, and he collaborated with musicians ranging from Metallica to a young woman he met at a concert.
"I just said, 'Hey, hey Lou Reed. This is Emily Haines.' " Haines talked to NPR in 2012 about her band, Metric. She said Reed asked her if she would rather be in The Beatles or The Rolling Stones. She said The Velvet Underground. Then she asked if he would sing on her album. "I just asked him, and he said, 'Yes.' "
When Reed was not onstage or working with other artists, he was happiest in New York City, where he mellowed into a Lower Manhattan elder statesman, riding his bike, practicing tai chi and taking photos. He could get cranky about his own composition.
"I did not place that stupid bird there," he said in an interview he gave Weekend Edition in 2006, walking around his neighborhood with his camera. "The light comes and goes so quickly when it's perfect. You know that. There's a certain time in the morning, certain time around dusk, where the light is golden."
An ephemeral moment, like Warhol's Factory. Or a city sunset. "And I wanted to catch that," he said. Lou Reed caught it — on celluloid and vinyl.
In this photo taken Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013, a man walks between a pair of 12-foot high views of Yosemite National Park, made by David Hockney using an iPad, at an exhibit in San Francisco. A sweeping new exhibit of Hockney’s work, including about 150 iPad images, has opened in the deYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park, just a short trip for Silicon Valley techies who created both the hardware and software for this magnificent reinvention of fingerpainting. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
In this photo taken Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013, a man walks between a pair of 12-foot high views of Yosemite National Park, made by David Hockney using an iPad, at an exhibit in San Francisco. A sweeping new exhibit of Hockney’s work, including about 150 iPad images, has opened in the deYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park, just a short trip for Silicon Valley techies who created both the hardware and software for this magnificent reinvention of fingerpainting. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
In this photo taken Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013, a man records how a painting made by David Hockney using an iPad takes shape at an exhibit in San Francisco. A sweeping new exhibit of Hockney’s work, including about 150 iPad images, has opened in the deYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park, just a short trip for Silicon Valley techies who created both the hardware and software for this magnificent reinvention of fingerpainting. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
In this photo taken Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013, David Hockney gestures while explaining how he used an iPad to paint at an exhibit opening in San Francisco. A sweeping new exhibit of Hockney’s work, including about 150 iPad images, has opened in the deYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park, just a short trip for Silicon Valley techies who created both the hardware and software for this magnificent reinvention of fingerpainting. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
In this photo taken Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013, people watch how a painting made by David Hockney using an iPad takes shape at an exhibit in San Francisco. A sweeping new exhibit of Hockney’s work, including about 150 iPad images, has opened in the deYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park, just a short trip for Silicon Valley techies who created both the hardware and software for this magnificent reinvention of fingerpainting. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Happily hunched over his iPad, Britain's most celebrated living artist David Hockney is pioneering in the art world again, turning his index finger into a paintbrush that he uses to swipe across a touch screen to create vibrant landscapes, colorful forests and richly layered scenes.
"It's a very new medium," said Hockney. So new, in fact, he wasn't sure what he was creating until he began printing his digital images a few years ago. "I was pretty amazed by them actually," he said, laughing. "I'm still amazed."
A new exhibit of Hockney's work, including about 150 iPad images, opened Saturday in the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, just a short trip for Silicon Valley techies who created both the hardware and software for this 21st-century reinvention of finger-painting.
The show is billed as the museum's largest ever, filling two floors of the de Young with a survey of works from 1999 to present, mostly landscapes and portraits in an array of mediums: watercolor, charcoal and even video. But on a recent preview day, it was the iPad pieces, especially the 12-foot high majestic views of Yosemite National Park that drew gasps.
Already captured by famed photographer Ansel Adams, and prominent painters such as Thomas Hill and Albert Bierstadt, Hockney's iPad images of Yosemite's rocks, rivers and trees are both comfortingly familiar and entirely new.
In one wide open vista, scrubby, bright green pines sparkle in sunlight, backed by Bridalveil Fall tumbling lightly down a cliff side; the distinct granite crest of Half Dome looms in the background. In another, a heavy mist obscures stands of giant sequoias.
"He has such command of space, atmosphere and light," said Fine Arts Museums director Colin Bailey.
Other iPad images are overlaid, so viewers can see them as they were drawn, an animated beginning-to-end chronological loop. He tackles faces and flowers, and everyday objects: a human foot, scissors, an electric plug.
Some of the iPad drawings are displayed on digital screens, others, like the Yosemite works, were printed on six large panels. Hockey's technical assistants used large inkjet prints reproduce the images he created on his IPad.
Exhibiting iPad images by a prominent artist in a significant museum gives the medium a boost, said art historians, helping digital artwork gain legitimacy in the notoriously snobby art world where computer tablet art shows are rare and prices typically lower than comparable watercolors or oils.
"I'm grateful he's doing this because it opens people's mind to the technology in a new way," said Long Island University Art Historian Maureen Nappi, although she described Hockney's iPad work as "gimmicky."
Writing about the historic shift of drawing from prehistoric cave painting to digital tablets in this month's MIT journal "Leonardo," Nappi said that while iPad work is still novel, the physicality of painting and drawing have gone on for millennia.
"These gestures are as old as humans are," she said in an interview. "Go back to cave paintings, they're using finger movements to articulate creative expressions."
Hockney, 76, started drawing on his iPhone with his thumb about five years ago, shooting his works via email to dozens of friends at a time.
"People from the village come up and tease me: 'We hear you've started drawing on your telephone.' And I tell them, 'Well, no, actually, it's just that occasionally I speak on my sketch pad,'" he said.
When the iPad was announced, Hockney said he had one shipped immediately to his home in London, where he splits his time with Los Angeles.
He creates his work with an app built by former Apple software engineer Steve Sprang of Mountain View, Calif., called Brushes, which along with dozens of other programs like Touch Sketch, SketchBook Mobile and Bamboo Paper are being snapped up by artists, illustrators and graphic designers.
Together, the artists are developing new finger and stylus techniques, with Hockney's vanguard work offering innovative approaches.
"David Hockney is one of the living masters of oil painting, a nearly-600-year-old technology, and thus is well positioned to have thought long and hard about the advantages of painting with a digital device like the iPad," said Binghamton University Art Historian Kevin Hatch in New York.
Hatch said a "digital turn" in the art world began about 25 years ago, as the Internet gained popularity, and he said today most artists have adapted to using a device in some way as they create art.
A similar shift happened almost 100 years ago with the dawn of photography, he said, when innovations such as the small photograph cards and the stereoscope captured the art world's imagination.
And Hatch said there are some drawbacks to the shift to tablet art.
"A certain almost magical quality of oil paint, a tactile, tangible substance, is lost when a painting becomes, at heart, a piece of code, a set of invisible 1's and 0's," he said.
Hockney, who created 78 of the almost 400 pieces in the de Young show this year, isn't giving up painting, or drawing, or video, or tablets, any time soon. When asked where he sees the world of art going, he shrugged his broad shoulders and paused.
"I don't know where it's going, really, who does?" he said. "But art will be there."
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-27-Hockney's%20iPad%20Art/id-99a6abc34ea94999ac0abe55752f1272
2013 iPad buyers guide: How to choose the perfect new iPad Air or Retina iPad mini, or less expensive iPad 2 or iPad mini for you!
Once you're sure you're buying an iPad and now, the next step is to decide which iPad you're going to get. And this year, it's a tougher decision than ever. The new iPad Air and Retina iPad mini are identical in every way but screen size, 7.9- vs. 9.7-inches the only differentiator. If money is incredibly tight, though the old iPad 2 is a bit cheaper, and the old iPad mini, a cheaper still. No matter which one you choose, however, you'll be paying hundreds of dollars. Either a few, or a lot. So do you go with big or small, old or new? Which iPad should you get?
Apple's 2013 iPad lineup consists of 4 different models, the iPad Air, Retina iPad mini, iPad 2, and iPad mini. The iPad Air and Retina iPad mini have 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB storage options, in either Wi-Fi only, or Wi-Fi and cellular models. The iPad 2 and iPad mini come only with 16GB, but still have Wi-Fi only, or Wi-Fi + cellular models. That makes for a dizzying array of possibilities.
Yes, both the new Retina iPad mini and the old iPad 2 start at $399. Wacky.
The original iPad mini starts at $299, making it the cheapest iPad ever. The iPad 2 starts at $399. Both cost less up-front than the new Retina iPad mini, which starts at $399, and the new iPad Air which starts at $499. That can be a considerable difference up front, $200 or $100 at the very least, depending on the exact model and options you choose. That's real money, in your pocket, for rent, for food, for car payments, for school, or for other important things in your life.
However, if you keep an iPad over the course of a year or two, $100 or $200 isn't that much spread over the course of that time. In some cases, it's less than $10 a month, for a much better screen, a much better processor, and more.
If you have absolutely no money to work with, the iPad mini is good tablet and the iPad 2 an okay one. I'd recommend the Retina iPad mini over the same priced iPad 2 every day of the week, but if you absolutely need the bigger screen and that's all the money you have, that's what you need and what you have.
If money isn't your biggest consideration, go for the iPad Air or Retina iPad mini.
Apple is pretty good about supporting older devices. The 2011 iPad 2 is still be sold in stores, after all, and is compatible with iOS 7. However, compatibility comes with compromise. Older generation iPads have older generation hardware. They have lower screen density - standard instead of Retina - and outdated processors - Apple A5 instead of Apple A7. They also don't come with any storage options over 16GB - not 32GB, and certainly not 128GB.
So, while the iPad 2 and original iPad mini might have gotten iOS 7 this year, and be able to run iOS 7 apps, the odds of them being able to run iOS 8 or iOS 9 in a couple of years isn't great.
Alternatively, the iPad Air and Retina iPad mini, their awesome Retina displays, beefy 128GB storage options, and monstrous Apple A7 processors should last you for years to come.
The iPad mini launched in October of 2012, and comes with a Lightning adapter. Aside from that, it's all old tech. Standard display instead of Retina, and Apple A5 processor instead of Apple A7. The current version does come with Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi + cellular options, but with only 16GB of storage, which isn't much these days.
If there's any way for you to save up an additional $100 for the Retina iPad mini, or better still, $200 for the 32GB Retina iPad mini, you'll have a much, much better experience. Otherwise, if you really want an iPad, and you've got $299 earmarked for it and not a penny more - or you're equipping a school or business by the score - get the iPad mini.
It's just not highly recommended, especially because of the limited storage.
The iPad 2 launched in April of 2011. It has no Lightning connector, a standard display instead of Retina, an Apple A5 processor instead of an Apple A7, and while it has Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi and cellular options, it maxes out at 16GB of storage, which can be hard to manage.
You might want to consider a Retina iPad mini for the same $399. If you can save up even $100 more, a 32GB Retina iPad mini is great, and a 16GB iPad Air is also go. For $200 more, you can get a state-of-the-art 32GB iPad Air. Otherwise, if you really want a full-sized iPad, and you've got $399 in your pocket and that's it - or you're equipping students or employees by the score - the iPad 2 is an option.
We just don't recommend it.
The Retina iPad mini comes packed with 7.9-inches of 2048x1536 Retina display and a smoking fast Apple A7 processor. It's identical in every way but size, weight, and price to the iPad Air. That means choosing between them comes down to $100 and just about 2-inches.
If price is a consideration, the Retina iPad mini is a fantastic tablet, and starts at just $399. If size is a consideration, the Retina iPad mini is better if you want to travel with it, use it as a mobile hotspot, and otherwise value portability the most. (It'll fit in a back jeans pocket if it has to.) Likewise, if you already travel with a laptop, the Retina iPad mini is a great companion device.
The iPad Air is the current top-of-the-full-size-line iPad. It has a 9.7-inch, 2048x1536 Retina display and screamer of an Apple A7 processor. Aside from size, weight, and price, however, it's pretty much identical to the Retina iPad mini. So, your choice boils down to an extra $100 for an extra 2-inches.
If money is no object, the iPad Air starts at $499 and is the best big tablet on the market today. If size is something you're debating, the iPad Air is primed for people who use it around the house, office, or school, and otherwise put productively ahead of portability. (Those extra inches can come in handy.) Likewise, if you don't travel with a laptop, the the larger real-estate and keyboard size can make the iPad Air a much better replacement device. - iPad Air: Everything you need to know
If you're still having trouble choosing between the iPad mini, iPad 2, Retina iPad mini, or iPad Air, jump into our iPad discussion forums and the best community in mobile will happily help you out.
Bottom line, don't spend money you don't have, but don't skimp if you don't have to. Your iPad will be one of the most often-used, most important possessions in your life for months and maybe years to come. Get as much iPad as you can reasonably afford, and then enjoy!
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Women gather on the steps of an apartment building opposite the scene of a brutal fatal stabbing, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in New York. Police say a mother and her four young children were killed in a late night stabbing rampage at a Sunset Park, Brooklyn, home. A Chinese immigrant, 25-year-old Ming Don Chen, was arrested Sunday on five counts of murder in the deaths of his cousin's wife and her four children. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Women gather on the steps of an apartment building opposite the scene of a brutal fatal stabbing, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in New York. Police say a mother and her four young children were killed in a late night stabbing rampage at a Sunset Park, Brooklyn, home. A Chinese immigrant, 25-year-old Ming Don Chen, was arrested Sunday on five counts of murder in the deaths of his cousin's wife and her four children. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Crime scene detectives investigate the scene of a multiple fatal stabbing Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in New York. Police said a mother and her four young children were stabbed to death in a brutal rampage just before 11 p.m. Saturday in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. The New York Police Department said a suspect, 25-year-old Ming Don Chen, a Chinese immigrant, was arrested Sunday on five counts of murder in the deaths of his cousin's wife and her four children in the stabbing rampage in their Brooklyn home. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
A crime scene detective leaps up the steps at the scene of a multiple fatal stabbing Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, in New York. Police said a mother and her four young children were stabbed to death in a brutal rampage just before 11p.m. Saturday. The working-class neighborhood is home to many Chinese immigrants. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Crime scene specialists work at the scene of a fatal stabbing, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Police say a mother and her four young children were killed in a late night stabbing rampage at the Sunset Park, Brooklyn home, far right. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Medical Examiner Transport personnel prepare to place a loaded body bag into their vehicle after exiting the residence of a crime scene in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013 where five people, including a toddler, were stabbed to death in New York. Emergency responders found three of the victims dead at the residence just before 11 p.m. Saturday. Two others were taken to Brooklyn hospitals, where they were pronounced dead. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
NEW YORK (AP) — A Chinese immigrant who neighbors said struggled to survive in America was arrested Sunday on five counts of murder in the stabbing deaths of his cousin's wife and her four children in their Brooklyn home — using a butcher knife.
The suspect, 25-year-old Mingdong Chen, implicated himself in the killings late Saturday in the Sunset Park neighborhood, police said.
"They were cut and butchered with a kitchen knife," said Chief of Department Philip Banks III.
Two girls, 9-year-old Linda Zhuo and 7-year-old Amy Zhuo, were pronounced dead at the scene, along with the youngest child, 1-year-old William Zhuo — all attacked in a back bedroom, police said. Their brother, 5-year-old Kevin Zhuo, and 37-year-old mother, Qiao Zhen Li, were taken to hospitals, where they were also pronounced dead.
Chen is a cousin of the children's father and had been staying at the home for the past week or so, Banks said.
Chen came to the United States from China in 2004, the chief said, but neighbors say he could never hold down a job.
"He made a very soft comment that since he came to this country, everybody seems to be doing better than him," the chief said. "We're not really sure what that means."
The chief said Chen still speaks only Mandarin Chinese despite being in the U.S. for almost a decade.
On Saturday night, Chen apparently had been acting in a "suspicious" way that concerned Li, Banks said. She tried to call her husband, who wasn't home, but couldn't reach him.
Banks said Li then called her mother-in-law in China, who also was unsuccessful in reaching her son. The mother-in-law reached out to her daughter in the same Brooklyn neighborhood, Banks said.
She and her husband came to the house and banged on the door. When it opened, they faced a grisly sight: a man they didn't know, covered with blood. The couple called 911, and officers investigating another matter nearby responded quickly, Banks said.
"It's a scene you'll never forget," he said. The victims had wounds in their necks and torsos.
Chen was in custody and not immediately available to comment; it was not clear whether he had a lawyer. Banks said he had at first resisted arrest and, while being processed, assaulted a police officer.
Bob Madden, who lives nearby, was out walking his dog Saturday night when he saw a man being escorted from the two-family brick house by police. He was barefoot, wearing jeans, and "he was staring, he was expressionless," Madden said.
Yuan Gao, a cousin of the mother, came by the house Sunday and stood on the street, along with the neighborhood's mostly Chinese residents.
Some said that at Chen's latest temporary home, days before the brutal killings, late-night arguments were loud enough to be heard outside.
Gao said Chen was emotionally unstable. "He's crazy," she said.
Gao also said Chen kept getting fired from various restaurant jobs after only a few weeks.
Fire department spokesman Jim Long said emergency workers responded just before 11 p.m. to a 911 call from a person stabbed at the residence in Sunset Park, a working-class neighborhood.
Neighbor May Chan told the Daily News it was "heartbreaking" to learn of the deaths of children she often saw running around and playing.
"They run around by my garage playing. They run up and down screaming," Chan said.
Other neighbors said they had heard loud arguments emanating from the home late on several nights before the murders.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-27-US-Brooklyn-Stabbings/id-1313f6b4be0344f0857e4697bea329feLegendary rock musician Lou Reed has died at the age of 71. According to Rolling Stone, the songwriter and guitarist died Sunday, Oct. 27, but the cause of death is still unknown. He recently underwent a liver transplant in May.
PHOTOS: Stars we've lost in 2013
Reed was best known for forming The Velvet Underground in the late 1960s. He was a guitarist, vocalist and a principal songwriter, and made four original albums with the band. After splitting from the group in 1970, the American rock musician continued with a solo career.
Reed released several albums during his lifetime, including the self-titled Lou Reed, Berlin, Sally Can't Dance, Rock 'n' Roll Animal, Metal Machine Music and Coney Island Baby. But the musician really broke into mainstream with his second solo album, Transformers, in 1972.
Some of his best known songs include "Sweet Jane," "Rock and Roll," "Walk on the Wild Side," "Satellite of Love" and "Femme Fatale."
"All through this, I've always thought that if you thought of all of it as a book then you have the Great American Novel, every record as a chapter," he said in an interview with Rolling Stone in 1987. "They're all in chronological order. You take the whole thing, stack it and listen to it in order, there’s my Great American Novel."
The Brooklyn native is survived by his wife Laurie Anderson. Reed and the performance artist dated for several years beginning in the early '90s before marrying in 2008.
The excitement of WWE Hell in a Cell starts long before Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton enter WWE's most foreboding structure to battle for the vacant WWE Title. Tonight, the WWE Universe will get exclusive insights from some of their favorite Superstars and Divas during the WWE Hell in a Cell Kickoff, which streams live at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT.
How to watch Hell in a Cell
The pay-per-view precursor — which will be available in Spanish on YouTube — will feature expert panel analysis from some of your favorite WWE personalities. Josh Mathews will host a panel of R-Truth, Kaitlyn and Dolph Ziggler on the English-language Kickoff, while returning favorite Rey Mysterio will appear on the Spanish-language broadcast.
Catch your favorite Superstars and more when the WWE Hell in a Cell Kickoff streams live this Sunday, Oct. 27, at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT on WWE.com, the WWE App, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo!, Google+, Pheed, Pinterest, Samsung SMART TVs, Xbox Live and the Sony Entertainment Network.
BOSTON (AP) — Slain Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was named as a participant in an earlier triple homicide by a man who was subsequently shot to death while being questioned by authorities, according to a filing made by federal prosecutors in the case against his brother, surviving bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
According to the filing made Monday, Ibragim Todashev told investigators Tamerlan Tsarnaev participated in a triple slaying in Waltham on Sept. 11, 2011.
In that case, three men were found in an apartment with their necks slit and their bodies reportedly covered with marijuana. One of the victims was a boxer and friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
Todashev, a 27-year-old mixed martial arts fighter, was fatally shot at his Orlando home during a meeting with an FBI agent and two Massachusetts state troopers in May, authorities said. He had turned violent while being question, according to authorities.
The filing is prosecutors' attempt to block Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from getting certain information from authorities, including investigative documents associated with the Waltham slayings.
"The government has already disclosed to Tsarnaev that, according to Todashev, Tamerlan Tsarnaev participated in the Waltham triple homicide," prosecutors wrote.
According to prosecutors, the ongoing investigation into the 2011 slayings is reason not to allow Dzhokhar Tsarnaev access to the documents he's seeking.
"Any benefit to Tsarnaev of knowing more about the precise 'nature and extent' of his brother's involvement does not outweigh the potential harm of exposing details of an ongoing investigation into an extremely serious crime, especially at this stage of the proceeding," prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors also said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is not entitled to the information because his brother's criminal history will be relevant, if at all, only at a possible future sentencing hearing.
A phone message left for a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office was not immediately returned Tuesday night. A message left for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's federal public defender was also not immediately returned.
Authorities allege that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 20, and 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, ethnic Chechens from Russia, planned and carried out the twin bombings near the finish of the marathon on April 15. Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces 30 federal charges, including using a weapon of mass destruction and 16 other charges that carry the possibility of the death penalty.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a gunbattle with police as authorities closed in on the brothers several days after the bombings.
Google last week announced a beta service that will offer protection from Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS) to human rights organizations and media, in and effort to slow the amount of censorship that such attacks cause.
The announcement of Project Shield came during a presentation at the Conflict in a Connected World summit in New York. The gathering included security experts, hacktivists, dissidents, and technologists, in order to explore the nature of conflict and how online tools can both be a source of protection and harm when it comes to expression, and information sharing.
"As long as people have expressed ideas, others have tried to silence them. Today one out of every three people lives in a society that is severely censored. Online barriers can include everything from filters that block content to targeted attacks designed to take down websites. For many people, these obstacles are more than an inconvenience—they represent full-scale repression," the company explained in a blog post.
Project Shield uses Google's massive infrastructure to absorb DDoS attacks. Enrollment in the service is by invitation only at the moment, but it could be expanded considerable in the future. The service is free, but will follow page speed pricing, should Google open enrollment and charge for it down the line.
However, while the service is sure to help smaller websites, such as those ran by dissidents exposing corrupt regimes, or media speaking out against those in power, Google makes no promises.
"No guarantees are made in regards to uptime or protection levels. Google has designed its infrastructure to defend itself from quite large attacks and this initiative is aimed at providing a similar level of protection to third-party websites," the company explains in a Project Shield outline.
One problem Project Shield may inadvertently create is a change in tactics. If the common forms of DDoS attacks are blocked, then more advanced forms of attack will be used. Such an escalation has already happened for high value targets, such as banks and other financial services websites.
"Using Google's infrastructure to absorb DDoS attacks is structurally like using a CDN (Content Delivery Network) and has the same pros and cons," Shuman Ghosemajumder, VP of strategy at Shape Security, told CSO during an interview.
The types of attacks a CDN would solve, he explained, are network-based DoS and DDoS attacks. These are the most common, and the most well-known attack types, as they've been around the longest.
In 2000, flood attacks were in the 400Mb/sec range, but today's attacks scale to regularly exceed 100Gb/sec, according to anti-DDoS vendor Arbor Networks. In 2010, Arbor started to see a trend led by attackers who were advancing DDoS campaigns, by developing new tactics, tools, and targets. What that has led to is a threat that mixes flood, application and infrastructure attacks in a single, blended attack.
"It is unclear how effective [Project Shield] would be against Application Layer DoS attacks, where web servers are flooded with HTTP requests. These represent more leveraged DoS attacks, requiring less infrastructure on the part of the attacker, but are still fairly simplistic. If the DDoS protection provided operates at the application layer, then it could help," Ghosemajumder said.
"What it would not protect against is Advanced Denial of Service attacks, where the attacker uses knowledge of the application to directly attack the origin server, databases, and other backend systems which cannot be protected against by a CDN and similar means."
Google hasn't mentioned directly the number of sites currently being protected by Project Shield, so there is no way to measure the effectiveness of the program form the outside.
In related news, Google also released a second DDoS related tool on Monday, which is possible thanks to data collected by Arbor networks. The Digital Attack Map, as the tool is called, is a monitoring system that allows users to see historical DDoS attack trends, and connect them to related news events on any given day. The data is also shown live, and can be granularly sorted by location, time, and attack type.
By David Morgan and Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two months before the troubled October 1 launch of Obamacare exchanges, a key administration official overseeing the program assured a congressional oversight panel that work was on track to roll out a tested website that would make it easy for Americans to enroll in affordable health insurance coverage.
"This is a large and complicated endeavor that I am proud to lead, and every decision is being made by my prior work experience," Marilyn Tavenner testified on August 1 before the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, describing the launch of the Healthcare.gov website.
Come Tuesday, the former nurse who heads the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will again find herself before a House committee - this time, to explain how Healthcare.gov failed when the administration flipped the on switch. She will face Republicans eager to prove, thus far unsuccessfully, that the White House orchestrated decisions that may have stalled the system.
Lawmakers on both sides of the partisan aisle are growing increasingly impatient with website snafus that they say are frustrating the public and adding to taxpayer costs. The White House has scrambled to fix technical issues and disputes Republican allegations that political motives were behind changes in the website's function.
Tavenner's scheduled testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee is expected to offer insight into the decision-making. A key player, she was cleared to visit the White House 425 times between December 2009 and June 2013, including for several meetings with Obama himself, visitor logs show.
One Oval Office meeting with Obama in March would have occurred as some technology officials in her agency publicly fretted about the possibility that the complicated website would malfunction, telling an insurance forum they were working to avert problems.
Tavenner, 62, who was confirmed for her job by the Senate in May, was optimistic about the rollout when questioned by skeptical Republican senators at an April hearing.
Tavenner is expected to be a critical witness this week because "she's more responsible for decisions made at CMS that probably led to this disaster," said Joe Antos, a healthcare analyst with the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank.
A committee aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: "We expect her to be forthcoming. We think she'll be a very serious witness, and she's certainly integral."
Tavenner appears one day before her boss, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, is due to testify before another panel in the Republican-controlled chamber.
Committee aides hope that Tavenner can describe system problems at the more complicated back end of the federal marketplace, where consumers determine their eligibility for premium subsidies and enroll in coverage. Aides and experts fear new crippling problems could emerge as enrollment picks up in November and early December.
LAST-MINUTE DECISION
There is also intense interest in Washington in learning who decided at the last minute to deny visitors to Healthcare.gov the ability to browse insurance plans without first creating a website account. That decision is widely blamed for the bottlenecks that helped paralyze the system as millions of visitors flooded the marketplace in the first days of enrollment and during the ensuing weeks.
"That (decision) had to be made at the highest possible levels, meaning in my view the White House. That's a strategic call about selling the reform," Antos said.
White House visitor logs, which provide a public record of who visits with administration officials, have not yet been released for the August period when potential problems with the website launch may have been discussed.
Republicans also want to know who in the administration decided to make Tavenner's agency the "quarterback" or system integrator for the huge information technology system behind Healthcare.gov. Analysts say that decision - rather than giving the job to the private sector - also may have created problems.
Last week, the administration announced that it was handing the job over to a private contractor as part of the effort to fix the online enrollment system.
CMS, the agency that oversees the massive federal Medicare and Medicaid programs, already had plenty to do before it took charge of implementing Obamacare, the Senate's leading Republican Mitch McConnell said in May, after voting against Tavenner's confirmation.
Tavenner, who had served as acting administrator for more than a year, was nonetheless easily confirmed by the Senate on a 91-7 vote. Promising to run the agency like a business, she won accolades from leading Republicans who looked favorably on her career as a nurse and later as an executive for Hospital Corporation of America. She left HCA after 25 years to become Virginia's health and human resources secretary.
Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a fellow Virginian, introduced Tavenner at her Senate hearing. He said he differed with Obama's healthcare policy, "but if there is anyone that I trust to try and navigate the challenges, it is Marilyn Tavenner."
House Republican lawmakers at Tuesday's hearing are expected to focus not just on the healthcare website, but on the Affordable Care Act and its impact, aides said.
"The website is terrible ... but the real problem is the law, which is causing people to lose coverage that they already have," one Republican aide said.
Democrats will ask Tavenner what steps the administration will take to fix the reported website problems, one House Democratic aide said.
The Democrats may focus on positive experiences of some of the 700,000 people who have filled out applications as a first step toward enrollment, including some who have been denied insurance previously because of pre-existing conditions, the Democratic aide said.
Nonetheless, Democrats view the hearing as a largely political event staged by Republicans as part of their continued criticism of Obamacare, he said.
On Friday, aides to committee Republicans were reviewing what Tavenner said on the record to Congress about the healthcare website before it went live, and comparing that with the actual rollout.
(Additional reporting by Gabriel Debenedetti; Editing by Marilyn Thompson, Martin Howell and Mohammad Zargham)
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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 24-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Diana Yates
diya@illinois.edu
217-333-5802
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. After taking an in-depth look at the basic biology of a fungus that is decimating bat colonies as it spreads across the U.S., researchers report that they can find little that might stop the organism from spreading further and persisting indefinitely in bat caves.
Their report appears in the journal PLOS ONE.
The aptly named fungus Pseudogymnoascus (Geomyces) destructans causes white-nose syndrome in bats. The infection strikes bats during their winter hibernation, leaving them weakened and susceptible to starvation and secondary infections. The fungus, believed to have originated in Europe, was first seen in New York in the winter of 2006-2007, and now afflicts bats in more than two dozen states. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, P. destructans has killed more than 5.5 million bats in the U.S. and Canada.
The fungus thrives at low temperatures, and spreads to bats whose body temperature drops below 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) when they are hibernating in infected caves. Previous research has shown that the fungus persists in caves even after the bats are gone.
The new study, from researchers at the Illinois Natural History Survey at the University of Illinois, found that the fungus can make a meal out of just about any carbon source likely to be found in caves, said graduate student Daniel Raudabaugh, who led the research under the direction of survey mycologist Andrew Miller.
"It can basically live on any complex carbon source, which encompasses insects, undigested insect parts in guano, wood, dead fungi and cave fish," Raudabaugh said. "We looked at all the different nitrogen sources and found that basically it can grow on all of them. It can grow over a very wide range of pH; it doesn't have trouble in any pH unless it's extremely acidic."
"P. destructans appears to create an environment that should degrade the structure of keratin, the main protein in skin," Raudabaugh said. It has enzymes that break down urea and proteins that produce a highly alkaline environment that could burn the skin, he said. Infected bats often have holes in their skin, which can increase their susceptibility to other infections.
The fungus can subsist on other proteins and lipids on the bats' skin, as well as glandular secretions, the researchers said.
"P. destructans can tolerate naturally occurring inhibitory sulfur compounds, and elevated levels of calcium have no effect on fungal growth," Raudabaugh said.
The only significant limitation of the fungus besides temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius has to do with its ability to take up water, Raudabaugh said. Its cells are leaky, making it hard for the fungus to absorb water from surfaces, such as dry wood, that have a tendency to cling to moisture. But in the presence of degraded fats or free fatty acids, like those found on the skin of living or dead animals, the fungus can draw up water more easily, he said.
"All in all the news for hibernating bats in the U.S. is pretty grim," Miller said.
"When the fungus first showed up here in Illinois earlier this year we went from zero to 80 percent coverage in a little more than a month," he said. The team led by U. of I. researchers that discovered the fungus in the state found a single infected bat in one northern Illinois cave, he said. Several weeks later most of the bats in that cave were infected.
Although many studies have been done on the fungal genome and on the bats, Miller said, Raudabaugh is the first to take an in-depth look at the basic biology of the fungus.
"Dan found that P. destructans can live perfectly happily off the remains of most organisms that co-inhabit the caves with the bats," Miller said. "This means that whether the bats are there or not, it's going to be in the caves for a very long time."
###
The Illinois Natural History Survey is a division of the Prairie Research Institute at the U. of I.
This study was funded through awards given by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources State Wildlife Grants Program (project number T-78-R-1) and the Section 6 Endangered and Threatened Species Program (project number E-54-R-1) to the Illinois Natural History Survey.
Editor's notes: To reach Andrew Miller, call 217-244-0439; email amiller7@illinois.edu. To reach Daniel Raudabaugh, email raudaba2@illinois.edu.
The paper, "Nutritional Capability of and Substrate Suitability for Pseudogymnoascus destructans, the Causal Agent of White-Nose Syndrome," is available online.
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.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 24-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Diana Yates
diya@illinois.edu
217-333-5802
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. After taking an in-depth look at the basic biology of a fungus that is decimating bat colonies as it spreads across the U.S., researchers report that they can find little that might stop the organism from spreading further and persisting indefinitely in bat caves.
Their report appears in the journal PLOS ONE.
The aptly named fungus Pseudogymnoascus (Geomyces) destructans causes white-nose syndrome in bats. The infection strikes bats during their winter hibernation, leaving them weakened and susceptible to starvation and secondary infections. The fungus, believed to have originated in Europe, was first seen in New York in the winter of 2006-2007, and now afflicts bats in more than two dozen states. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, P. destructans has killed more than 5.5 million bats in the U.S. and Canada.
The fungus thrives at low temperatures, and spreads to bats whose body temperature drops below 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) when they are hibernating in infected caves. Previous research has shown that the fungus persists in caves even after the bats are gone.
The new study, from researchers at the Illinois Natural History Survey at the University of Illinois, found that the fungus can make a meal out of just about any carbon source likely to be found in caves, said graduate student Daniel Raudabaugh, who led the research under the direction of survey mycologist Andrew Miller.
"It can basically live on any complex carbon source, which encompasses insects, undigested insect parts in guano, wood, dead fungi and cave fish," Raudabaugh said. "We looked at all the different nitrogen sources and found that basically it can grow on all of them. It can grow over a very wide range of pH; it doesn't have trouble in any pH unless it's extremely acidic."
"P. destructans appears to create an environment that should degrade the structure of keratin, the main protein in skin," Raudabaugh said. It has enzymes that break down urea and proteins that produce a highly alkaline environment that could burn the skin, he said. Infected bats often have holes in their skin, which can increase their susceptibility to other infections.
The fungus can subsist on other proteins and lipids on the bats' skin, as well as glandular secretions, the researchers said.
"P. destructans can tolerate naturally occurring inhibitory sulfur compounds, and elevated levels of calcium have no effect on fungal growth," Raudabaugh said.
The only significant limitation of the fungus besides temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius has to do with its ability to take up water, Raudabaugh said. Its cells are leaky, making it hard for the fungus to absorb water from surfaces, such as dry wood, that have a tendency to cling to moisture. But in the presence of degraded fats or free fatty acids, like those found on the skin of living or dead animals, the fungus can draw up water more easily, he said.
"All in all the news for hibernating bats in the U.S. is pretty grim," Miller said.
"When the fungus first showed up here in Illinois earlier this year we went from zero to 80 percent coverage in a little more than a month," he said. The team led by U. of I. researchers that discovered the fungus in the state found a single infected bat in one northern Illinois cave, he said. Several weeks later most of the bats in that cave were infected.
Although many studies have been done on the fungal genome and on the bats, Miller said, Raudabaugh is the first to take an in-depth look at the basic biology of the fungus.
"Dan found that P. destructans can live perfectly happily off the remains of most organisms that co-inhabit the caves with the bats," Miller said. "This means that whether the bats are there or not, it's going to be in the caves for a very long time."
###
The Illinois Natural History Survey is a division of the Prairie Research Institute at the U. of I.
This study was funded through awards given by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources State Wildlife Grants Program (project number T-78-R-1) and the Section 6 Endangered and Threatened Species Program (project number E-54-R-1) to the Illinois Natural History Survey.
Editor's notes: To reach Andrew Miller, call 217-244-0439; email amiller7@illinois.edu. To reach Daniel Raudabaugh, email raudaba2@illinois.edu.
The paper, "Nutritional Capability of and Substrate Suitability for Pseudogymnoascus destructans, the Causal Agent of White-Nose Syndrome," is available online.
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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