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With Brian in our nation's capital, it's up to Tim and Peter to hold things down remotely, once again. Get ready for a double dose of Engadget editor-in-chief action on this week's podcast, just after the break.
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/7V8vV8oaDZY/
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FILE - This Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009 file photo shows Syrian President Bashar Assad, seen, during a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, unseen, at the presidency in Tehran, Iran. Syrian President Bashar Assad says he won't step down before elections are held in his war-ravaged country. The Syrian leader's comments, published Saturday in the Argentine newspaper Clarin, highlight the difficulties the U.S. and Russia face in getting the Assad regime and Syria's political opposition to the table at an international conference envisioned for next month. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
FILE - This Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009 file photo shows Syrian President Bashar Assad, seen, during a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, unseen, at the presidency in Tehran, Iran. Syrian President Bashar Assad says he won't step down before elections are held in his war-ravaged country. The Syrian leader's comments, published Saturday in the Argentine newspaper Clarin, highlight the difficulties the U.S. and Russia face in getting the Assad regime and Syria's political opposition to the table at an international conference envisioned for next month. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad at the Dabaa military air base, in Homs province, Syria, Thursday, May 30, 2013. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported ongoing clashes in the town on Thursday. The Observatory called for urgent aid to the injured inside the town, most of which is now controlled by Assad?s troops, including the Dabaa military air base just outside Qusair. (AP Photo/SANA)
This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad at the Dabaa military air base, in Homs province, Syria, Thursday, May 30, 2013. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported ongoing clashes in the town on Thursday. The Observatory called for urgent aid to the injured inside the town, most of which is now controlled by Assad?s troops, including the Dabaa military air base just outside Qusair. (AP Photo/SANA)
BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian President Bashar Assad said the regime has received the first shipment of sophisticated Russian anti-aircraft missiles, and the main Western-backed opposition group announced Thursday that it will not participate in peace talks ? a double blow to international efforts to end the country's devastating civil war.
Assad's comment on the arrival of the long-range S-300 air defense missiles in Syria, which was made in an interview with Lebanon's Hezbollah-owned TV station, could further ratchet up tensions in the region and undermine any efforts to hold any peace talks.
However, American officials said they have no evidence that the Assad regime has received a shipment of S-300s. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Israel's defense chief, Moshe Yaalon, said earlier this week that Russia's plan to supply Syria with the weapons was a threat and that Israel was prepared to use force to stop the delivery.
"Syria has received the first shipment of Russian anti-aircraft S-300 rockets," Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV quoted Assad as saying. The Syrian leader added: "All our agreements with Russia will be implemented and parts of them have already been implemented."
The station released Assad's comments on the Russian missiles in print, through its breaking news service Thursday morning. An official at Al-manar confirmed to The Associated Press that the remarks were from the exclusive interview the TV was to air in full later Thursday.
The shipment of the missiles, if confirmed, comes just days after the European Union lifted an arms embargo on Syria, paving way for individual countries of the 27-member bloc to send weapons to rebels fighting to topple Assad's regime.
The developments raise fears of an arms race ? not just between Assad's forces and the opposition fighters battling to topple his regime, but also in the wider Middle East.
Israel has carried out several airstrikes in Syria in recent months that are believed to have destroyed weapon shipments bound for Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite group that along with Iran and Russia is a staunch Assad ally. It is not clear whether Israeli warplanes entered Syrian airspace in these attacks.
With the Russian missiles in Syria's possession, the Israeli air force's ability to strike inside the Arab country could be limited since the S-300s would expand Syria's capabilities, allowing it to counter airstrikes launched from foreign airspace as well.
The S-300s have a range of up to 200 kilometers (125 miles) and the capability to track and strike multiple targets simultaneously. Syria already possesses Russian-made air defenses, and Israel is believed to have used long-distance bombs fired from Israeli or Lebanese airspace.
When Israeli warplanes struck near the capital of Damascus, targeting purported Iranian missiles intended for Hezbollah earlier this month, Syria did not respond.
But on Wednesday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem told Lebanon's Al-Mayadeen TV that Damascus "will retaliate immediately" if Israel strikes Syrian soil again.
It was the regime's most serious warning to Israel since the beginning of the conflict in March 2011 but it was not clear if there was a link between al-Moallem's remark and the Russian shipment.
Israel had no immediate reaction on the Russian shipment but Silvan Shalom, a Cabinet minister from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party, told Israel Radio that the Jewish state will "take actions" to make sure advanced weapons don't reach rogue groups.
Meanwhile, the Syrian National Coalition's decision not to attend U.S.-Russian sponsored talks with representatives of the Assad regime torpedoes the only plan for trying to end Syria's two-year conflict that the international community had been able to agree on.
"The talk about the international conference and a political solution to the situation in Syria has no meaning in light of the massacres that are taking place," a spokesman for the Syrian National Coalition, Khalid Saleh, told reporters in Istanbul, where the opposition has been holding week-long deliberations on a strategy for the Geneva talks.
He said the group will not support any international peace efforts in light of Iran's and Hezbollah's "invasion" of Syria.
Saleh was referring to the increasingly prominent roles of Iran and the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group in backing Assad's forces on the ground.
"The National Coalition will not participate in an international conference and will not support any efforts in light of Iran's malicious invasion of Syria," he added.
The opposition's announcement came just a day after al-Moallem said the government would attend the planned peace conference in Geneva but laid out terms that made it difficult for the opposition to accept.
Al-Moallem said Assad will remain president at least until elections in 2014 and might seek another term, and that any deal reached in such talks would have to be put to a referendum.
Russian news agencies reported Thursday that U.S., Russian and U.N. diplomats will meet Wednesday in Geneva to discuss preparations for the Syria conference. The reports, citing an unnamed Russian Foreign Ministry official, were published before the coalition announced it would skip the talks.
The U.S. strategy has been to try to launch a dialogue between the regime and the opposition that would set a timetable for Assad's removal, said Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center. "That policy is now in tatters," he said.
In Syria, Assad's forces backed by Hezbollah fighters fought pockets of resistance in the strategic town of Qusair near the border with Lebanon. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the government controls most of Qusair following a fierce, 12-day battle with opposition forces.
Thursday's sporadic clashes came as government troops were mopping up in northern and western parts of Qusair, said the Observatory, which relies on information from a network of activists on the ground.
The Syrian army on Wednesday took control of nearby Dabaa air base, dealing a major blow to the rebels in Qusair, an overwhelmingly Sunni town in western part of the country that has been controlled by the opposition since early last year.
The government launched an offensive on Qusair on May 19 and Hezbollah militants joined the battle, drawing the Lebanese Shiite group deep into the civil war next door.
More than 70,000 people have been killed in the 26-months-old Syrian conflict that has had increasingly sectarian overtones. Members of Syria's Sunni Muslim majority dominate the rebel ranks and Assad's regime is mostly made up of Alawites, an offshoot sect of Shiite Islam.
Both sides in the conflict value Qusair, which lies along a land corridor linking two Assad's strongholds, the capital of Damascus and an area along the Mediterranean coast that is the Alawite heartland. For the rebels, holding the town means protecting their supply line to Lebanon, just 10 kilometers (six miles) away.
The Coalition on Thursday launched an urgent appeal for relief efforts to rescue what it said were over 1,000 wounded people in the Syrian town of Qusair near the border with Lebanon.
"It is not reasonable, it is not logical that people and civilians are getting killed minute by minute while the international community continues in a standstill," Saleh said, speaking to reporters in English.
___
AP writers Albert Aji in Damascus and Karin Laub in Beirut contributed to this report.
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May 29, 2013 ? Forty-two may or may not be the answer to everything, but it likely defines the temperature limit where animal life thrives, according to the first laboratory study of heat-loving Pompeii worms from deep-sea vents.
The research was published May 29 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Bruce Shillito and colleagues from the University Pierre and Marie Curie, France.
The worms, named Alvinella pompejana, colonize black smoker chimney walls at deep-sea vents, thrive at extremes of temperature and pressure, and have thus far eluded scientists' attempts to bring them to the surface alive for further research. Many previous studies conducted at these sites has suggested the worms may be able to thrive at temperatures of 60 C (140 F) or higher. As Shillito explains, "It is because several previous papers had come to this conclusion that Alvinella had become some sort of thermal exception in the scientific world. Before these studies, it was long agreed that 50 C was the limit at which animal life survived."
In this new study, researchers used a technique that maintains the extreme pressure essential to the worms' survival during their extraction, allowing them to bring Pompeii worms to their labs for testing. They found that prolonged exposure to the 50-55 C range induced lethal tissue damage, revealing that the worms did not experience long-term exposures to temperatures above 50 C in their natural environment. However, their studies found that the temperature optimum for survival of the worms was still well over 42 C, ranking them among the most heat-loving animals known.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/7PfFhazNpYY/130529190940.htm
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Nasa's Curiosity rover has confirmed what everyone has long suspected - that astronauts on a Mars mission would get a big dose of damaging radiation.
The robot counted the number of high-energy space particles striking it on its eight-month journey to the planet.
Based on this data, scientists say a human travelling to and from Mars could well be exposed to a radiation dose that breached current safety limits.
This calculation does not even include time spent on the planet's surface.
When the time devoted to exploring the world is taken into account, the dose rises further still.
This would increase the chances of developing a fatal cancer beyond what is presently deemed acceptable for a career astronaut.
Cary Zeitlin from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and colleagues report the Curiosity findings in the latest edition of Science magazine.
They say engineers will have to give careful consideration to the type of shielding that is built into a Mars-bound crew ship. However, they concede that for some of the most damaging radiation particles, there may be little that can be done to shelter the crew other than to get them to Mars and the partial protection of its thin atmosphere and rocky mass as quickly as possible.
At the moment, given existing chemical propulsion technology, Mars transits take months.
"The situation would be greatly improved if we could only get there quite a bit faster," Dr Zeitlin told BBC News.
"It is not just the dose rate that is the problem; it is the number of days that one accumulates that dose that drives the total towards or beyond the career limits. Improved propulsion would really be the ticket if someone could make that work."
New types of propulsion, such as plasma and nuclear thermal rockets, are in development. These could bring the journey time down to a number of weeks.
Curiosity travelled to Mars inside a capsule similar in size to the one now being developed to take astronauts beyond the space station to destinations such as asteroids and even Mars.
For most of its 253-day, 560-million-km journey in 2011/2012, the robot had its Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) instrument switched on inside the cruise vessel, which gave a degree of protection.
RAD counts the numbers of energetic particles - mostly protons - hitting its sensors.
The particles of concern fall into two categories - those that are accelerated away from our dynamic Sun; and those that arrive at high velocity from outside of the Solar System.
This latter category originates from exploded stars and the environs of black holes.
These galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) impart a lot of energy when they strike the human body and will damage DNA in cells. They are also the most difficult to shield against.
Earth's thick atmosphere, its magnetic field and its huge rock bulk provide protection to people living on its surface, but for astronauts in deep space even an aluminium hull 30cm thick is not going to change their exposure to GCRs very much.
The RAD data revealed an average GCR dose equivalent rate of 1.84 milliSieverts (mSv) per day during the rover's cruise to Mars. (The Sievert is a standard measure of the biological impacts of radiation.) This dose rate is about the same as having a full-body CT scan in a hospital every five days or so.
Number reassessmentDr Zeitlin and his team used this measurement as a guide to work out what an astronaut could expect on a Mars mission, assuming he or she had a similarly shielded spacecraft, travelled at a time when the Sun's activity was broadly the same and completed the journey in just 180 days - Nasa's "design reference" transit time for a manned mission to Mars. They calculated the total dose just for the cruise phases to and from Mars to be 660mSv. The team promises to come back with the additional number from surface exposure once Curiosity has taken more measurements at its landing location on the planet's equator.
Source: UK HPA / Nasa
But even this 660mSv figure represents a large proportion of the 1,000mSv for career exposure that several space agencies work to keep their astronauts from approaching. Reaching 1,000mSv is associated with a 5% increase in the risk of developing a fatal cancer. There would likely be neurological impairment and eyesight damage as well. Nasa actually works to keep its astronauts below a 3% excess risk.
"If you extrapolate the daily measurements that were made by RAD to a 500-day mission you would incur exposures that would cause most individuals to exceed that 3% limit," explained Dr Eddie Semones, the spaceflight radiation health officer at Nasa's Johnson Space Center, who added that experts were reviewing the restriction.
"Currently, we're looking at that 3% standard and its applicability for exploration-type missions, and those discussions are going forward on how to handle that and what steps need to be taken to protect the crew."
All this should be set against the dangers associated with space travel in general, such as launching on a rocket or trying to land on another planet. It is a dangerous business.
It also needs to be considered in the context of the risks of contracting cancer during a "normal" lifetime on Earth, which is 26% (for a UK citizen).
Complex calculationThe space agencies have quite deliberately set conservative limits for their astronauts but it seems clear they would have to relax their rules somewhat or mitigate the risks in some other way to authorise a Mars mission.
However, the scenario for commercial ventures could be very different. Two initiatives - Inspiration Mars and Mars One - have been announced recently that propose getting people to Mars in the next 10 years using existing technologies.
Privateer astronauts that participate in these projects may regard the extra risks associated with radiation to be an acceptable gamble given the extraordinary prize of walking on the Red Planet.
Dr Kevin Fong is director of the Centre for Space Medicine at University College London, UK, and has written about the dangers associated with space exploration. He said that what Dr Zeitlin and colleagues had done was help remove some of the uncertainty in the risk assessment.
"Radiobiology is actually really tricky because how the body will respond to exposure will depend on many factors, such as whether you're old or young, male or female," he told BBC News.
"What's important about this study is that it characterises the deep space radiation environment for the first time in a vehicle whose shielding is not orders of magnitude different from that which you would expect to put a human crew inside."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22718672#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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More Americans disapprove of Obama's presidential actions than approve, a new Quinnipiac poll shows. That's a reversal of the situation less than a month ago. The IRS scandal, especially, may be a factor.
President Obama waves as he boards Air Force One before his departure from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Thursday. Political controversy appears to be dragging down Obama's approval rating, a new poll indicates.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
EnlargeIs political controversy dragging down President Obama?s approval rating? That?s what the results of a new Quinnipiac University poll appear to indicate.
Skip to next paragraph Peter GrierWashington Editor
Peter Grier is The Christian Science Monitor's Washington editor. In this capacity, he helps direct coverage for the paper on most news events in the nation's capital.
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The survey finds Mr. Obama?s job performance numbers underwater, with 45 percent approving of his presidential actions and 49 percent disapproving. That represents a reversal from a May 1 Quinnipiac survey, when 48 percent of respondents approved of Obama?s performance and 45 percent disapproved.
Obama?s standing with self-identified Republicans and Democrats stayed pretty much the same. The difference in the latest poll was independents, who gave the president a negative 37 percent to 57 percent rating, compared with a negative 42 percent to 48 percent rating on May 1.
This slide occurs at a time when the White House has been dogged by criticism about its actions in the wake of last September?s fatal attacks on a US building in Benghazi, Libya, the apparent targeting of conservative nonprofit groups by the IRS, and the Justice Department?s surreptitious investigation of journalists? communications.
In the Quinnipiac survey, a plurality of voters dismissed the Libya investigation as ?just politics.? They appeared to take the IRS matter much more seriously, however. By a margin of 76 percent to 17 percent, respondents said a special prosecutor should investigate the IRS charges.
?There is overwhelming bipartisan support for a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS,? said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute, in a press release.
It?s important to note, however, that this is just one poll. The RealClearPolitics rolling average of major polls still has Obama?s rating above water (barely), with 48.7 percent approving of his actions and 48 percent approving.
Some other individual surveys that asked questions over the same days as Quinnipiac found much different results. Gallup?s latest rolling job approval rating, which includes responses collected up until May 28, has a 50 percent positive score for the president, with 43 percent disapproving of his job performance.
That?s not any different from the beginning of the month. On May 1, Gallup reported an identical 50 percent to 43 percent Obama job-performance split.
The bottom line is that it still may be too early to tell if current political controversies will be a continued drag on Obama?s polls. Overall, the RealClearPolitics average has bounced around over the past month, showing no clear trend of either down or up.
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NEW YORK (AP) ? Seven months after Superstorm Sandy, the Red Cross still hasn't spent more than a third of the $303 million it raised to assist victims of the storm, a strategy the organization says will help address needs that weren't immediately apparent in the disaster's wake.
Some disaster relief experts say that's smart planning. But others question whether the Red Cross, an organization best known for rushing into disasters to distribute food and get people into shelter, should have acted with more urgency in the weeks after the storm and left long-haul recovery tasks to someone else.
"The Red Cross has never been a recovery operation. Their responsibility has always been mass care," said Ben Smilowitz, executive director of the Disaster Accountability Project, a nonprofit group that monitors aid groups. "Stick with what you're good at."
Storm victims could have used more help this past winter, said Kathleen McCarthy, director of the Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Civil Society at the City University of New York.
"People were cold. Homes mildewed. There wasn't enough decent housing," she said. "Given the lingering despair, it's hard to understand the argument that 'We are setting that money aside.'"
As Americans open their wallets to assist tornado victims in Oklahoma, the Red Cross is again emerging as one of the most important relief organizations on the ground and also one of the most prodigious fundraisers for victims. As of Thursday, it had raised approximately $15 million in donations and pledges for the tornado response, including a $1 million gift from NBA star Kevin Durant and numerous $10 donations, pledged via text.
The Red Cross was also the No. 1 recipient of donations after Sandy. The organization said it still had $110 million remaining from its pool of storm donations as of mid-April, which were the most recent figures available.
Red Cross officials pledged that all the money in its Sandy fund will eventually be spent on the storm recovery and not diverted to other disasters or used to support general Red Cross operations.
Over the next few months, the Red Cross expects to spend as much as $27 million of its remaining Sandy donations on a program providing "move-in assistance" grants of up to $10,000 to families displaced by the storm. About 2,000 households have been assisted by the program so far, with an additional 4,000 waiting for an eligibility determination.
Part of the delay in spending, officials said, is to wait to see how the hardest-hit states allocate a $60 billion pot of federal relief dollars and address gaps in the government aid package.
"We are waiting to see where the greatest need is going to be over time," said Josh Lockwood, CEO of the Red Cross Greater New York Region. "We are more concerned with spending our resources wisely rather than quickly."
Some disaster relief experts said holding funds in reserve was indeed a smart move.
Much of the toughest and most expensive relief work after a natural disaster comes not during the initial months but during the long-term rebuilding phase after the public's attention has waned and new donations have stopped flowing, said Patrick Rooney, associate dean at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
"It would be splashier, perhaps, to spend the money right away while the media is still there and the donors are still looking," he said. "But the important needs, from the cost perspective and the recipient perspective, take place after the headlines are gone and after the cameras are gone."
Red Cross officials noted that a year after a tornado killed 158 people in Joplin, Mo., it found itself providing a new round of mental health services to survivors. The cholera epidemic that killed thousands of people following a massive earthquake in Haiti, where the Red Cross was also criticized for not spending donations faster, also didn't start until nearly a year after the disaster.
The Red Cross says it is planning substantial grants to other nonprofit groups doing Sandy recovery work and is doing much of its current work in conjunction with charitable partners with local ties.
Red Cross volunteers working in conjunction with the organizing group New York Cares are going out several days a week to muck and clean flooded homes and remove mold. Red Cross staff and caseworkers have been holding "unmet needs roundtables" in hard-hit communities, trying to identify victims not covered by traditional aid programs.
"Our experience shows that as the recovery goes on, the needs of survivors will evolve," said Roger Lowe, Red Cross senior vice president. "It's important to make sure some money is available for those needs no one can predict right now."
Other organizations that raised large sums for the relief effort have also held back money while they evaluated the wisest way to spend it.
The Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund, led by Mary Pat Christie, the wife of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, raised $32 million after the storm but didn't begin awarding grants on a large scale until April. So far, it has given about $11 million, with the biggest grants going to local organizations building or repairing housing.
The United Way, which raised $9.7 million in a Sandy recovery fund for New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and some parts of Pennsylvania, said it has spent about $4 million of that total to date, though another $2.5 million is set to go out soon.
"We always knew, from the very beginning, that our fund and our resources would be for longer-term strategies," said United Way of New York City President Sheena Wright. "We feel good about the timeframe."
That strategy of holding some cash to spend later contrasts with the approach taken by the Robin Hood Foundation, which was in charge of distributing more than $70 million raised by a Dec. 12 benefit concert by Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones and other music royalty.
That fund was depleted entirely by April, with grants given to 400 relief organizations ranging from food banks to legal services to volunteer rebuilding groups.
Robin Hood spokeswoman Patty Smith said the foundation moved as fast as it could because it believed that delays in government aid were leaving big gaps in services.
Red Cross officials say they have the ability to meet both long-term and short-term needs, noting the organization has served 17 million meals and snacks, distributed 7 million relief items, mobilized 17,000 workers and volunteers, and provided 81,000 overnight stays.
Its efforts won over early critics like Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro, who assailed the Red Cross response in the days immediately after the storm but now praises it as having provided vital help.
"They've come a long way since Day One," Molinaro said.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/much-red-cross-fund-sandy-aid-still-unspent-064615771.html
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Her quest to get clean took her through rehab and methadone clinics and a string of ever more desperate situations, until finally even the detox center turned her away because she'd been there too many times. That?s when she found TROSA.
Tucked into a quiet neighborhood in Durham, N.C., TROSA ? Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers ? is an outpost for addicts who have run out of options. The people who come here are among the hardest cases in the substance abuse world. They?ve been battling addictions for years ? sometimes decades ? and have burned through whatever support networks they once had. They come with tragic pasts and mental health issues and criminal records. Some lived comfortable middle-class lives until their addictions drained everything away; others have been camping out in cars and under bridges for years. They come in their 20s and in their 50s. Many are high school dropouts. Some don?t know how to read.
But more remarkable than the people TROSA takes in are the ones it turns out. Unlike typical treatment centers, which run for a few weeks or months and focus mostly on getting clean, TROSA is a two-year, live-in program that helps addicts rebuild their lives from the ground up. People come here to get off the drugs but also to dig deep, to discover who they really are and what they?re capable of doing. Those who didn?t finish school will earn GEDs; others can attend college classes. Everyone who graduates from the program will leave with a job. And everything they need along the way, from toiletries to interview coaching, will be provided. For free.
This is the other unusual thing about TROSA: It costs nothing to attend. Instead of paying for housing or meals, the people who come here work. Nearly half the money needed to fund the program comes from businesses run by the residents themselves, including a moving company, a lawn care service, and a frame shop. Residents also take jobs in the offices, kitchens, and garage on campus. This model has earned TROSA a reputation among some on the streets as a ?work camp,? but staff and residents insist the work is a central piece of the recovery process. It helps people build job skills, resumes ? and most importantly, a work ethic. That work ethic, combined with the program?s overall mission, has generated a lot of good will and repeat business in the community. The moving company regularly pulls in ?best of? awards, and locals are quick to praise the drive and discipline of TROSA crews. As Marge Nordstrom, who has used the lawn care service for several years, explains, ?These are men [and women] who are trying to get their lives back together and learn a trade so they stay out of trouble. And if I can help them to do that, I?m game.?
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For Ashley Hill, it was the day she sat in a holding cell in a Georgia jail, waiting to be led off to prison. She was 21 years old and had been in and out of trouble ever since an arrest for possession at 17. She?d even done a six-month stint in rehab for cocaine addiction but had come out ?cross-addicted? to opiates; her peers in the program talked up the high so much she was hooked. By the time she was busted for her fourth or fifth probation violation, her lawyer told her there was nothing he could do. She watched the guards come to take her away, but by some lucky mathematical error in court ? a twist of fate she still can?t explain ? they led her out to her family instead. ?I got a second chance,? she says, ?so I knew I had to do something. I wasn?t getting any better.?
Her parents suggested TROSA, but to Hill it seemed extreme. She didn?t want to be so far from home for so long. She dragged her feet and found reasons to put off leaving. Finally, one night, she nearly overdosed. Her parents stood firm: If you don?t go now, we?re done. She went.
Later, the people who make it through the program will thank the staff and senior residents for this ?tough love,? but at the time it can be hard to swallow. For Hill, it was like nothing she?d ever known. At other programs, she says, ?you could fail drug tests, and your punishment was that you couldn?t go lay out at the pool that weekend.? Here, on top of the physical torment of withdrawal, she found herself being called out again and again ? sometimes for things she didn?t even realize she was doing. No one had ever held her so accountable for her behavior. She panicked. More than once she called her parents from the Blue Room to beg them to come pick her up. She didn?t know if she could make it.
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? * * *
In 1993, Kevin McDonald was working at a gang parolee program in Los Angeles when a group from Durham called. The city needed his help, they said; the drug situation was taking a steep toll. They knew he had set up a treatment program in Greensboro, N.C. ? could he do the same here? Eventually he accepted, and with just $18,000 and a four-burner electric stove, he set up shop in an abandoned elementary school in a ?transitional? part of town. The school was in shambles, the basement so flooded he thought it was a swimming pool. He paid the neighborhood kids a dollar a week to stop throwing rocks through the windows. He had no written marching orders ? just an understanding of how addicts think and a determination to give them another chance at life.
The word ?donated? figures prominently in a tour of TROSA ? if something wasn?t built by residents, chances are it was donated. ?This kitchen? Donated.? Conference table? Donated. Blue-and-white diner booths? You guessed it. An entire department is devoted to reaching out to companies across the country to ask for things the program needs; McDonald estimates their efforts saved the organization up to $3 million last year. Residents even drive to local bakeries each day to pick up unwanted pastries for the snack bar.
??You?ve got to hustle,? McDonald says with a wink, and this seems to be one of the keys to the program?s success over the years: seeing opportunity where others don't. As the organization has expanded, it has snapped up run-down buildings in overlooked parts of town and transformed them into useful spaces ? a pattern Durham Mayor Bill Bell says has had a ?very positive effect.? Instead of walling itself off, TROSA has made its presence felt throughout the city.
As he crosses the campus, McDonald calls out to every resident he passes: ?Hey, man, how you doing?? and ?Good to see you, man.? They clasp hands; sometimes they hug. This, too, is part of the therapy: to be recognized as visible, a human being.
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? * * *
One thing recovering addicts will tell you about themselves is that they are self-centered. That after being driven by their own needs for so long, they have forgotten how to care about other people.
Vinicent? Alexander came to TROSA after he looked up on Thanksgiving Day 2010 and realized he was sitting alone in his apartment with a bag of drugs. He had waded so far into his ?obsession? that he?d pushed everyone away. ?Something?s got to change,? he thought.
Because Alexander had run his own tailoring business for decades, the structure and discipline at TROSA weren?t so jarring; for him the hard part was being held responsible for other people's recovery. The proverb ?each one, teach one? is a core philosophy here, emblazoned on signs and repeated in the hallways. It means, essentially, that one day you come in and learn how to sweep the floors, and the next you?re showing someone else how to do it.
But Alexander ended up teaching far more than one. At the end of his first 30 days, instead of being sent out to train at the moving company or one of the other businesses, he was named intern crew boss, which meant that he was on call around the clock, serving as a mentor, enforcer, and father figure to new waves of people coming in. For more than a year, as he counseled the interns through various crises, he found himself reliving his own intense transition to recovery again and again. Soon he realized that helping others was doing more than anything else to change his way of thinking. It had awakened something in him. He had really started to care.
For this reason, even residents assigned to other training schools during the day are given a ?people business? to manage on the side ? a handful of more junior residents to monitor and guide. Often ?guiding? means laying down the law. Strict as the program is, it runs largely on the honor system ? so it?s up to the residents to blow the whistle when someone screws up. ?That?s a really hard thing,? Kevin McDonald says, ?because you want people to like you. And you don?t know how to get people to like you without [drugs]. ... But if you really care about somebody and they?re doing something wrong, you?ve got to say something.? Speaking up makes residents more invested in the whole process ? and reminds them what they?re here to do.
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? * * *
As visitors approach an office, the word ?Tour!? ripples through the room and instantly everyone rises. The men wear crisp button-down shirts and ties. The women are in slacks and business-casual blouses. One by one they introduce themselves.
My name is Krystal. Robert. Tyrone.
I?ve worked in this office five months. Eighteen months. Twenty-one months.
I started drinking alcohol when I was 11.
I?ve been using since I was 15, and my addiction was crack cocaine.
My addiction was opiates ? pills and heroin.
I started out using crystal meth, and then it was pretty much anything.
I was in my addiction for 13 years. It tore my life apart.
At TROSA this is an everyday part of the culture: owning your addictions, putting your story front and center, talking about the darkest chapters of your life in the same tone someone else might use to lament a bad investment they made years ago. This openness is also one of the main points of departure from programs that emphasize anonymity. McDonald appreciates what those organizations have done to help people, but to him the thinking is backward. ?You have to educate people,? he says ? which means sharing what you?ve done in the past and who you are now.
A common frustration for those who work in the substance abuse world is the belief that addiction is a choice, that addicts go back to using because they are weak. ?The perceptions haven?t caught up with the science,? says Paul Nagy, a clinical associate in Duke?s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences who serves as an adviser to TROSA. ?The science is very clear that it is a brain-based disorder.? A person may choose to use drugs at the beginning, but then the drugs create physical changes in the brain, disrupting the normal communication and reward systems in ways that inhibit the user?s self-control and drive more and more compulsive behavior. Some people are more susceptible to this than others, thanks largely to their genes. Recovery is a complex and ongoing process.
?We?re not lepers,? he says. ?We?re not society?s garbage. We?re not people who shouldn?t be around people.? TROSA members interact with the community through the moving company and other businesses, but they also go on speaking engagements around Durham in the hopes that their stories will inspire others to get help and shed light on the larger issue of substance abuse.
?People can?t ? from the top down ? acknowledge what a serious problem this is in our country today,? McDonald says. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, an estimated 21.6 million Americans needed special treatment for a drug or alcohol problem in 2011 ? but only 2.3 million received it. Many won?t admit they have a problem unless they?re pressured by loved ones or caught in the criminal justice system. Meanwhile they're out on the streets, posing a danger to themselves and possibly others.
Cumulatively, the effects of addiction are staggering. The National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that substance abuse costs the U.S. more than $600 billion annually ? factoring in health care, lost productivity, and crime ? and emphasizes that even that number doesn?t reflect the full destructive effect on society: the disintegration of families, domestic violence and child abuse, and failure in schools. More than 10,000 people are killed in alcohol-related driving accidents each year.
?Why wouldn?t we be doing more?? McDonald asks. By more, he means not just getting people into treatment, but also funding research and development into better ways to stop the destructive cycle of behavior. Over the years he?s seen so many people conquer their addictions only to suddenly relapse. ?Why does that moth go to that flame?? he says. ?That?s what we?ve got to figure out.?
In the meantime, he?s doing what he can to put a human face on the issue and raise awareness beyond TROSA?s gates. He hopes that among the dozens of groups that tour the center every year ? including students from Duke and other schools ? there are future leaders who will have a better understanding of what?s at stake, thanks to what they?ve seen and heard.
?That?s what we have to think about,? he says. ?Not just TROSA, but this whole field. Until somebody?s directly affected by [substance abuse], they don?t get it.?
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? * * *
Kevin McDonald started using alcohol when he was 13 years old. He was living in Germany, where his dad was stationed in the Air Force. He was a shy kid. His mother was abusive. He had trouble connecting with people. When the family moved back to California, McDonald tried to fall in with the hippie crowd ? ?weed, hash, regular stuff? ? but he didn?t quite fit there, either. Soon he turned to heroin and the rougher scene that came with it. The heroin took over his life and kept him from holding down a job. He overdosed multiple times but kept going back for more. His father didn?t understand why he couldn?t just quit. Eventually, McDonald began robbing pharmacies to feed his addiction. That?s when he landed in jail.
From there McDonald caught a lucky break ? after a few months, he was released into the Delancey Street Foundation, a therapeutic community in San Francisco that inspired the underlying model of TROSA. Hardened by years of abuse and paranoid from his time behind bars, McDonald was skeptical of these people who wanted him to share his feelings. He was in his early 30s then and hadn?t cried since he was a teen. ?I was thinking, ?I don?t know if I can handle this,?? he says. ?I was burnt, you know. I was crisp.? He spent his days and nights on edge, half-waiting to get jumped. But eventually the anxiety subsided, and he learned to open up. Here were people who truly wanted to know how he was doing every morning. Who wanted to give him tools he could use in the world. ?All I knew when I got there was anger and hate,? he says, ?and to change that around was life-saving.?
At TROSA, McDonald has borrowed many of the core elements of the Delancey Street model ? most importantly peer mentoring and job training ? but he?s also added other pieces over the years. Unlike Delancey Street, TROSA has a paid staff. They use evidence-based therapy and Seeking Safety (a program geared toward post-traumatic stress disorder) in their work with residents. McDonald has also brought in psychiatric support through Duke, which allows TROSA to help more people with mental health issues.
That mental health component has become increasingly important, says adviser Paul Nagy. In recent years he?s seen more and more residents come in with co-occurring disorders, especially depression and anxiety, and with histories of PTSD ? not from war but from ?life trauma? and abuse.
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? * * *
Behind a set of blacked-out glass doors a ?dissipation? is in full swing. Here, residents who have been at TROSA long enough to build a solid foundation gather for 24 hours to unleash whatever demons still need freeing. Some come to purge deep-seated guilt over the things they?ve done in the past ? to confess and seek forgiveness. Others come to work out anger at their families or fellow residents. ?It?s very raw,? McDonald warns, and indeed when the door opens the air is charged. A group of 15 to 20 residents sit facing one another on couches arranged in a square, the lights so dim their expressions are barely visible. A man is gesturing and shouting at his neighbor.
Equally horrific is what some of the residents have endured before coming here. Nearly everyone has been abused in some way, McDonald says. He tells the story of a recent graduate who grew up with a schizophrenic mom, was adopted by a violently abusive aunt, and then molested by her own father. He tells the story of Susan, who jumped off a bridge and broke her neck but survived ? only to be attacked with a claw hammer in an attempted rape.
Upstairs, in the intake office, resident Dawn Sakowski hears stories like these every day. Before she came to TROSA, Sakowski spent years on the streets of Philadelphia, living in abandoned cars and turning to prostitution and theft to fund her crack cocaine habit. From the calls she makes as she?s screening applicants, it?s clear: ?It?s still the same out there.? This week the reality of that hit home in a much more personal way, when her 22-year-old daughter was admitted to the program. Sakowski is glad she?s here, getting the help she needs, but ?it?s hard to see,? she says. She fights off tears as she speaks.
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? * * *
At TROSA, time is measured in days and months. At 30 days, residents can write and receive mail. Ninety days until phone privileges. Six months to a wristwatch and an MP3 player. At 12 months, they?re called onstage to receive a medal, and new worlds begin to open up: They?re allowed to date. Families can come to campus to visit and, soon after, they can visit their families at home. At 21 months, they go on ?work-out,? taking a job in the community.
Not everyone finds success at TROSA. The graduation rate hovers around 30%, and the average stay is 11 months. Most of those who leave do so in the first two months, when emotions are running high and the transition is most difficult. Some leave later, after six or 12 or 18 months, because they think they?ve healed enough to strike out on their own. Others are sent away ? for breaking the rules too many times, for health issues TROSA can?t accommodate, or for making threats. (Violence ? even the threat of it ? is not tolerated at TROSA; the program won?t accept rapists and certain other offenders for this reason. ?There are wolves and lambs in the substance abuse world,? McDonald explains. ?You?ve got to equal the playing field. There has to be a safe feeling.?)
Elisha Gahagan quit TROSA at six months. She thought she had everyone fooled into believing she was a ?goody-goody addict,? but then she broke a couple of rules and was presented with a contract. Suddenly she realized that these people were just like her; they could see through the manipulations and weren?t going to fall for her ?crap.? She decided she didn?t need their help ? she was off the drugs, she could handle herself now ? so she called her ex to pick her up. The kids were thrilled to have her home, but within hours she realized she hadn?t thought it through. She had nothing ? no change of clothes, no way to get to and from a job. Intense anxiety kicked in, and she found herself reaching for a beer. The kids watched her in disbelief. The next day she called TROSA and begged to return. When she came back, she started the program all over again.
?It was the best thing that could have ever happened to me,? she says, ?because at that point I realized what I was doing. Everything hit me. I?ve got to really dig deep. I?ve got to take advantage of this opportunity and find out who I am and why I do the things I do. And to try to change and be a different person.?
Those who stick it out through graduation receive jobs and diplomas, but also continued access to inexpensive TROSA-owned housing and transportation to and from work. When donations allow, they?re given a car. Some stay on to finish their studies or train for full-time positions on staff (more than half of the 50-person staff went through the program). As the rest venture out into the world, they can stay connected to TROSA through group activity nights and, if they need them, free meals. They?re still not ?cured,? Paul Nagy points out, even after two years ? because there is no permanent cure for addiction. They?ve started on the total life change required for recovery, but they will be working at it every day for the rest of their lives. And they?ll need all the help they can get.
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? * * *
It?s Sunday afternoon ? Mother?s Day ? and a group of black-robed graduates is gathering for a picture under a concrete awning. ?Everybody say, '1, 2, 3 ... sh-t!'? McDonald jokes. ?It?s a special occasion.?
Less than two miles away, Melinda Gates has just finished addressing 5,000 graduates on the campus of Duke University, and celebratory horns can still be heard in the distance. Here, as the crowd files into the TROSA gymnasium, there?s a different kind of energy: excitement mixed with relief, wariness, and hope.
As the ceremony begins, a static recording of ?Pomp and Circumstance? leads the graduates to the stage, where one by one they collect their diplomas and rings and stop in front of the microphone to address the audience. They offer variations on refrains one hears a lot at TROSA: ?This place saved my life? and ?I don?t know where I would be.?
?You talkin? 'bout a miracle?? asks Robert Murphy. ?You?re looking at it. Right here.?
TROSA is not a religious program, but nearly everyone thanks God. They thank the staff for that ?tough love? and ?extra therapy? they hadn?t known they?d needed. They assure the interns in the crowd that it will all make sense in the end.
Then they turn to the families, who are the other stars of this day. ?I?d like to ask my family to rise.? Each time, the crowd turns and erupts in applause.
Ashley Hill looks out at her parents: ?I apologize for the things I put you guys through. I can?t imagine what it was like for you to watch me go through that.?
Men of all ages speak to loved ones they left behind:
?You?ve got your son back.?
?You?ve got your brother back.?
?Y?all got your Daddy back.?
Will Crooks points out his brother, who graduated from law school the previous day: ?I am so proud of him.? He tells the crowd about his mother, who passed away when he was 19. ?I had to watch her as she slipped away,? he says, ?and I sat there and promised her, ?Mom, I?m going to change. I?m going to be a different man.? And today, I am changed. This is for my mother. Happy Mother?s Day, Mom.?
After the ceremony, Elisha Gahagan mingles with the graduates and staff. She shares a text message she just received from her 11-year-old daughter. ?Happy Mother?s Day,? it reads. ?I love you more than words can express.?
Gahagan finally collected her ring and diploma last year; today she works at TROSA as one of the president?s assistants. She still lives on campus but has reconnected with her kids and sees them regularly. Her life, she says, is complete: ?I look at everything, day in and day out, and it is so perfect right now that I wouldn?t change a thing. I wouldn?t change my past. I wouldn?t change the experiences that I had. This is how I had to get here. I?m just glad I got here.?
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/-y-all-got-your-daddy-back--145356461.html
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May 29, 2013 ? Global use of nuclear power has prevented about 1.84 million air pollution-related deaths and release of 64 billion tons of greenhouse gases that would have resulted from burning coal and other fossil fuels, a new study concludes. It appears in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Pushker A. Kharecha and James E. Hansen state that nuclear power has the potential to help control both global climate change and illness and death associated with air pollution. That potential exists, they say, despite serious questions about safety, disposal of radioactive waste and diversion of nuclear material for weapons. Concerned that the Fukushima accident in Japan could overshadow the benefits of nuclear energy, they performed an analysis of nuclear power's benefits in reducing carbon dioxide emissions and air pollution deaths.
The study concluded that nuclear power already has had a major beneficial impact, based upon calculations of prevented mortality and greenhouse gas emissions for the period 1971-2009. Nuclear power could prevent from 420,000 to 7 million additional deaths by mid-century, and prevent emission of 80-240 billion tons of the greenhouse gases linked to global warming, the study found. "By contrast, we assess that large-scale expansion of unconstrained natural gas use would not mitigate the climate problem and would cause far more deaths than the expansion of nuclear power," it notes. If the role of nuclear power declines significantly in the next 20-30 years, Kharecha added, the International Energy Agency predicts that achieving the major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that are required to mitigate climate change would require "heroic achievements" in the use of emerging low-carbon technologies, which have yet to be proven.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/9XRiV_ZUHLE/130529111343.htm
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May 28, 2013 ? Survival rates have increased significantly among patients who received blood stem cell transplants from both related and unrelated donors, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology today. The study authors attribute the increase to several factors, including advances in HLA tissue typing, better supportive care and earlier referral for transplantation.
The study analyzed outcomes for more than 38,000 transplant patients with life-threatening blood cancers and other diseases over a 12-year period -- capturing approximately 70 to 90 percent of all related and unrelated blood stem cell transplants performed in the U.S. It was led by Theresa Hahn, Ph.D., of Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI), in collaboration with the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research? (CIBMTR), the research arm of the National Marrow Donor Program? (NMDP) and Be The Match?.
"This study shows that we are making significant progress, on a national level, in survival after transplantation. Patients across the country have benefited from the collaborative efforts of the CIBMTR, the NMDP and clinical researchers at individual transplant centers," said Dr. Hahn, an Associate Member and Associate Professor of Oncology in RPCI's Department of Medicine and first author on the study. "Our results demonstrate that these efforts have yielded improvement in early survival rates, and we will continue to work together to further improve long-term survival."
At 100 days post-transplant, the study shows survival significantly improved for patients with myeloid leukemias (AML) receiving related transplants (85 percent to 94 percent) and unrelated transplants (63 percent to 86 percent). At one-year post-transplant, patients who received an unrelated transplant showed an increased survival rate from 48 to 63 percent, while the survival rate for related transplant recipients did not improve. Similar results were seen for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).
"The existence of the CIBMTR, which is a collaboration of the NMDP and the Medical College of Wisconsin, and its database of more than 330,000 patient outcomes made it possible for us to study whether and how the use of blood stem cell transplants, both related and unrelated, have changed over time," said Navneet Majhail, M.D., co-author of the study and medical director at the NMDP. "The significant improvements we saw across all patient and disease populations should offer patients hope and, among physicians, reinforce the role of blood stem cell transplants as a curative option for life-threatening blood cancers and other diseases."
In addition to improved survival, the authors note a significant increase in the overall number of patients receiving transplants. Related and unrelated transplant as treatment for ALL, AML, MDS and Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas increased by 45 percent -- from 2,520 to 3,668 patients annually. This is likely due to the use of reduced-intensity conditioning therapy and a greater availability of unrelated volunteer donors, a result of efforts by the NMDP and Be The Match to increase and diversify the Be The Match Registry?.
"As evidenced by this data, the transplantation community has clearly made momentous progress toward improving survival rates," said Jeffrey W. Chell, M.D., chief executive officer of the NMDP. "Together with our research arm, CIBMTR, and our global partners, we will continue advancing the science of transplant to extend the curative power of this therapy to more patients and more diseases and help all patients live longer, healthier lives."
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/7Wv65IOJbbc/130528180857.htm
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Xbox/Microsoft
Microsoft unveiled its new Xbox One entertainment system last week. But the company didn't think to nail down the XboxOne.com domain name or @XboxOne Twitter account before the roll-out. It is currently fighting for the rights to control the brand's online presence.
Who owns "XboxOne.com," "XboxOne.net" and the @XboxOne Twitter account? It?s not who you think.
Microsoft filed a complaint last week with the National Arbitration Forum (NAF), the regulatory body that oversees internet domain names, asking that the sites associated with the company?s newly revealed Xbox One device be turned over to Microsoft. The case was first reported by the video game news site Fusible.
The case is currently listed in the NAF database as ?pending.?
This appears to be a case of ?cybersquatting,? where someone buys a domain name he or she intends not to use, hoping that eventually a company or person affiliated with the domain will be willing to buy it.
Currently, the XboxOne sites don?t go anywhere, and it appears a British man grabbed the URLs at the end of 2011, long before the Xbox One was announced.
In fact, Microsoft didn?t even register the Xbox One trademark until May 21, the day it launched the entertainment system in Redmond.
At this point, the complaint has likely been sent to the domain owner, who will have 20 days to respond after the complaint is accepted by the NAF.
Then the case could go to an arbitrator who would help the parties work out a deal. Microsoft could also sue the domain?s owner in the U.S. under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, which was designed to protect corporate trademarks from being used to scam people by impersonating a company.
Facebook used the law earlier this year to successfully sue a group impersonating the social network on the site Fakebook.com, and it was awarded $2.8 million. Apple has also been aggressive in pursuing domain squatters.
Emily Parkhurst covers the technology industry for the Puget Sound Business Journal/TechFlash.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vertical_42/~3/8puMzLdaqaI/microsoft-doesnt-own-xboxonecom.html
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Social media marketing is now integrated with traditional marketing plans for 79% of marketers who answered the survey. Seeking to combine social media marketing and conventional advertising for optimal results, they can follow the ideas of others or come up with creative ones able to help businesses with customer bases over the internet.
According to the report, increasing exposure is the number one benefit of having a social media marketing strategy and this certainly stimulates the growing use of online communities among businesses of all sizes. Small and medium sized-businesses have to overcome barriers constantly and a cohesive social media marketing strategy can provide the right tools that will help them grown quickly.
The Key Small Business Statistics published in 2012 points out that 1,100,779 businesses in Canada are classified as small. In addition, Canadians are so highly engaged with social media that it is estimated that fully 53% of the population will have joined social media channels by 2014. This scenario illustrates the importance of having an efficient social media marketing strategy for local businesses interested in increasing sales and visibility.
For most successful businesses in Canada, having a social media marketing strategy has gone from an additional action to a ?must have?.? By adopting a social media marketing strategy, you will be able to interact more easily with clients, providing capability to provide customer service in real time as well as improve services and campaigns.
An efficient social media marketing strategy will allow you to target the right audience and get the expected results from your advertising initiatives.? Also, the cost to implement a social media marketing strategy is relatively low when compared to other traditional types of media.
iRISEmedia is an online advertising company specialized in SEO, social media marketing and online branding. Our team helps clients increase their reach and profitability by developing a customized and targeted social media marketing strategy. We service clients in Toronto, Ontario and throughout Canada as well as globally.
Caio Cabral currently is one of iRISEmedia.com's interns. Caio hails from Brazil, and has a Bachelors Degree from Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul.
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CANBERRA, Australia (AP) ? Australian officials on Tuesday refused to confirm or deny whether Chinese hackers had stolen the blueprints of a new spy agency headquarters as a news report claims. A tiny party essential to the ruling coalition's government demanded an inquiry into how much damage may have been done.
Australian Broadcasting Corp. television reported on Monday night that the plans for the 630 million Australian dollar ($608 million) Australian Security Intelligence Organization building had been stolen through a cyberattack on a building contractor. Blueprints that included details such as communications cabling, server locations and security systems had been traced to a Chinese server, the network reported.
Des Ball, an Australian National University cybersecurity expert, said China could use the blueprints to bug the building, which is nearing completion in Canberra, the capital, after lengthy construction delays.
Ball told the ABC that given the breach, ASIO would either have to operate with "utmost sensitivity" within its own building or simply "rip the whole insides out and ... start again."
Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, the minister in charge of the spy agency, on Tuesday refused to confirm or deny the report, citing a longstanding government policy of declining to comment on security matters.
Questioned about the alleged security breach in Parliament, Prime Minister Julia Gillard described the ABC report as "inaccurate" but refused to go into detail.
The minor Greens party, which the center-left Labor Party relies on to maintain its minority government, has demanded an inquiry into the future of the troubled building, which has been plagued by cost blowouts from an original budget of AU$460 million.
"It is time that we had an independent inquiry into the whole sorry history of the ASIO building and the extent to which the current hacking has compromised its capacity to ever be the building and serve the purpose for which it was intended," Greens leader Christine Milne told reporters.
She said no more money should be spent on the building until an inquiry was held into the truth of the hacking allegation and the extent of the alleged security compromise.
The alleged hacking would appear to be "an extremely serious breach" to Australia's intelligence-sharing allies, including the United States, Milne said.
Dreyfus didn't immediately respond to the Greens' call for an inquiry.
ASIO, Australia's main spy agency, has grown rapidly since the al-Qaida attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, and is constructing its new headquarters to house its growing staff. Staff numbers have trebled to almost 1,800 in a decade.
Tobias Feakin, a national security analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said that if a security breach has occurred, it could affect intelligence sharing with allies including the United States.
"There is no doubt that instances like this, if proved true, create a period of difficulty," Feakin said. "But one thing that would happen is that there would be mutual assistance provided to be able to plug that gap and no intelligence agency could possibly allow that kind of breach to continue."
Foreign Minister Bob Carr refused to discuss the allegations but said the claims do not jeopardize Australia's ties with its most important trading partner, China.
"It's got absolutely no implications for a strategic partnership," Carr said. "We have enormous areas of cooperation with China."
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