Engineers of the Future Design Star Trek-Inspired Tricorder Device

A group of college and high school students has designed a Star Trek-inspired sensing device that can beam environmental data to a smart phone. The team developed their project during a summer internship program run by the Wright Brothers Institute and the Air Force Research Laboratory. and shared their results at this fall’s World Maker Faire in New York City–a showcase of DIY ingenuity. The Summer at the Edge program gives student teams ten weeks to work on science and engineering projects. The tricorder device is the team’s response to a challenge from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: “Is there an effective way to integrate external sensors with smart phones and can we globalize this information?” Applications could range from data collection for research to educational hands-on activities to disaster-zone assessment. The description reminded the students of a Star Trek gadget. In the sci-fi television series, the tricorder is a hand-held device used to diagnose illness, scout alien planets and more. Several real-life tricorders have been developed or proposed and the 15-member student team decided to take a crack at designing their own. The device itself looks like a clear brick filled with computer parts and batteries. It is built around an open-source computing platform called an Arduino microcontroller and transmits data via Bluetooth. An environmental sensing pod connects to the controller and collects measurements on variables like temperature, wind speed and radiation levels. Users can view data collection in real time via Google maps or an interactive graph and monitor changes and search for patterns. The tricorder’s modular design lets the team swap functionalities while still using the same Arduino controller and software. To demonstrate, the team built an additional pod equipped with an infrared beam and motion detector–a security sensor. Along the way, the team faced some challenges. Getting the sensors and the tablet to talk to each other involved a lot of troubleshooting. “We were having a lot of trouble with the Bluetooth communications,” says Lujack Prater, a junior studying electrical engineering at Ohio State University, who worked on the software design. “It was a few days that we didn’t get it. We were working on it and working on it.” Then a breakthrough: “It was really exciting–I remember the first time we started getting data streaming to the tablet,” says Grace Crumrine, part of the hardware sub-team and a sophomore in electrical engineering at Ohio State University. “But it was completely corrupt and didn’t mean anything.” The team needed to iron out software glitches and calibrate their sensors. Crumrine explains that the wind sensor was just “spitting out analogue values and we didn’t know what they meant.” So they took the sensor for a ride. While her teammate drove, Crumrine stuck the sensor out the car window. They were able to determine which values corresponded to specific speeds by rolling down the road at five, then 10 miles per hour and so on. The EPA was impressed, says Rob Williams, head of the internship program and research director of the Air Force Research Laboratory‘s Discovery Lab. “The tricorder was one of the more ambitious research projects,” he adds. “I think it validated the model that we’ve been an advocate of–bringing together motivated students and giving them the opportunity to have fun learning while doing projects that have potential.” Other notable projects include a tablet-based virtual walkthrough of medical techniques to train physicians and a device that can detect the brain’s electrical signals to give quadriplegics control over robots. What’s the next step for Project Tricorder? Williams would like to find teachers and students around the country who want to use the team’s design. He says middle school students could use the device to see how technology can help protect the environment. The military could use it to download information to virtual command centers and guide decision-making during a search and rescue based on current conditions. The device’s multi-functionality and connection to a smart phone would be key advantage. Sensor pods could even be installed in remote or dangerous locations and still report via Bluetooth.

Lujack Prater and Grace Crumrine with their team's device at the World Maker Faire. Credit: Grace Crumrine

Both Prater and Crumrine say the program is hard work. Prater spent the first two weeks learning how to code and program Android devices. “You get so involved in the project that you forget what you are doing,” says Crumrine. “Then when you present it to people you see their face with all the excitement and astonishment. It is worth it.”

Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
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Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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John McAfee, Anti-Virus Software Creator, Wanted for Murder

By Johnny Dodd

11/12/2012 at 07:20 PM EST

John McAfee, in early photo

John Storey/Time Life Pictures/Getty

John McAfee, the high-tech pioneer whose anti-virus security software is installed on countless computers around the world, is on the lam from police in Belize who are investigating the murder of his neighbor.

The 67-year-old multimillionaire is a prime suspect in the Nov. 10 killing of Gregory Faull, says Vienne Robinson, assistant superintendent of the Belize's San Pedro police department, who spoke to Fox News.

"We are looking for him in connection with the murder," says Robinson, who adds that another suspect is currently in custody – although no charges have been filed yet.

Faull, who had recently filed a police complaint against McAfee for discharging firearms, was discovered by a housekeeper, according to a police report posted on gizmodo.com.

Faull, a 52-year-old builder from California, was reportedly lying face-up in a pool of blood with a bullet wound in the back of his head. On a nearby stair, police found a single 9-mm shell casing.

McAfee, whose former company was purchased by Intel in 2010 for nearly $7.7 billion, moved to Belize in 2008, intending to launch a company that manufactured herbal antibiotics from jungle plants.

In recent years, however, his strange behavior had alienated him from neighbors and others in the American expat community in the Central American country, according to reports.

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British medical journal slams Roche on Tamiflu

LONDON (AP) — A leading British medical journal is asking the drug maker Roche to release all its data on Tamiflu, claiming there is no evidence the drug can actually stop the flu.

The drug has been stockpiled by dozens of governments worldwide in case of a global flu outbreak and was widely used during the 2009 swine flu pandemic.

On Monday, one of the researchers linked to the BMJ journal called for European governments to sue Roche.

"I suggest we boycott Roche's products until they publish missing Tamiflu data," wrote Peter Gotzsche, leader of the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen. He said governments should take legal action against Roche to get the money back that was "needlessly" spent on stockpiling Tamiflu.

Last year, Tamiflu was included in a list of "essential medicines" by the World Health Organization, a list that often prompts governments or donor agencies to buy the drug.

Tamiflu is used to treat both seasonal flu and new flu viruses like bird flu or swine flu. WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said the agency had enough proof to warrant its use for unusual influenza viruses, like bird flu.

"We do have substantive evidence it can stop or hinder progression to severe disease like pneumonia," he said.

In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends Tamiflu as one of two medications for treating regular flu. The other is GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza. The CDC says such antivirals can shorten the duration of symptoms and reduce the risk of complications and hospitalization.

In 2009, the BMJ and researchers at the Nordic Cochrane Centre asked Roche to make all its Tamiflu data available. At the time, Cochrane Centre scientists were commissioned by Britain to evaluate flu drugs. They found no proof that Tamiflu reduced the number of complications in people with influenza.

"Despite a public promise to release (internal company reports) for each (Tamiflu) trial...Roche has stonewalled," BMJ editor Fiona Godlee wrote in an editorial last month.

In a statement, Roche said it had complied with all legal requirements on publishing data and provided Gotzsche and his colleagues with 3,200 pages of information to answer their questions.

"Roche has made full clinical study data ... available to national health authorities according to their various requirements, so they can conduct their own analyses," the company said.

Roche says it doesn't usually release patient-level data available due to legal or confidentiality constraints. It said it did not provide the requested data to the scientists because they refused to sign a confidentiality agreement.

Roche is also being investigated by the European Medicines Agency for not properly reporting side effects, including possible deaths, for 19 drugs including Tamiflu that were used in about 80,000 patients in the U.S.

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Online:

www.bmj.com.tamiflu/

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Noguez's council account offers leads in corruption probe

When John Noguez ran for Los Angeles County assessor in 2010, large donations started pouring into his City Council account in Huntington Park, where Noguez served as a councilman.

Of more than $100,000 that flowed through the account that year, mostly from downtown Los Angeles business owners. Only one $250 donation came from a Huntington Park address, records show. The vast majority came from downtown Los Angeles business owners.

Within months of Noguez's election, he and his top aides knocked at least $36 million off the assessed values of properties owned by donors to that Huntington Park fund, a Times investigation has found. Those reductions lowered the donors' property taxes and prompted the county to write tax refund checks worth more than $557,000 to them in the first year of Noguez's term.

The list of donors to the Huntington Park account offers new leads for investigators probing corruption in the assessor's office. Noguez is now in jail after his arrest last month on charges that he took $185,000 in bribes from a prominent tax consultant and campaign contributor to lower taxes for properties on the Westside and in the South Bay.

A Times review of records shows that many of the contributions to Noguez's City Council account came from corporate entities registered to commercial property owners in downtown Los Angeles — where Noguez spent years appraising buildings. Unlike Noguez's official campaign accounts for county assessor, the Huntington Park fund had no contribution limits, no restrictions on how the money could be spent, and its records were never posted online for public scrutiny.

By giving to the Huntington Park fund, a donor could exceed the $2,000 individual contribution limits imposed by the county for the 2010 campaign.

Most of the contributors to the Huntington Park account did not return phone calls requesting comment for this story. Those who did speak said any tax breaks they got after the election were appropriate and had nothing to do with their contributions.

"Noguez didn't do anything out of the ordinary, he's a very nice guy," said Ben Neman, who on March 2, 2010, made six separate $1,000 contributions to the Huntington Park account from companies he controls. Neman owns commercial property in downtown Los Angeles.

The companies are registered to the same address — Neman's office on South Los Angeles Street in the garment district.

Within months of the election, Noguez and his staff reduced the taxable value of properties that Neman's companies own by $8.1 million, records show, generating $103,555 worth of refund checks from the county.

Neman said that all of his reductions were warranted due to the drop in real estate values, and that Noguez did him no favors. He also said he didn't know which Noguez account his money had gone to because his secretary handled the details.

"To be honest with you, this is the first time I'm hearing about this Huntington Park account," Neman said.

Businessmen Robert Hanasab and his father, Moosa, wrote $1,000 checks to the Huntington Park account from three companies registered to them at their downtown office across from Pershing Square, the records show.

Months after Noguez's election, the assessed value of the properties owned by the Hanasabs were reduced by $7.5 million, generating refund checks worth $148,835, records show.

"I don't remember how or why we contributed to that particular account," said Robert Hanasab, who said he hosted a fundraiser for Noguez because "he seemed like he was on the side of fairness."

Hanasab and family members also contributed $4,150 to Noguez's county campaign accounts, records show. Hanasab said he never discussed any "particular property" with Noguez. Instead of receiving favors from the assessor, Hanasab said he was disappointed by how difficult the process of appealing a property's value remained even after the election.

"You'd still have to fight tooth and nail with the assessor to give you just what you deserve," Hanasab said.

Noguez spread the money from his Huntington Park account to other candidates running for local and state offices. Thousands went to consultants who also worked on his county assessor campaign.

There's nothing in state law that would have prohibited Noguez from accepting unlimited contributions to his Huntington Park account and spending it on his assessor race, according to Gary Winuk, chief of enforcement for the California Fair Political Practices Commission.

Law enforcement sources, who requested anonymity because the case is ongoing, said prosecutors are looking at the Huntington Park contributions for any evidence that Noguez accepted them in exchange for reducing property tax bills.

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The New Islamists: Tunisia Battles Over Pulpits and a Revolution’s Legacy

Moises Saman for The New York Times

Female students at the Grand Mosque in Kairouan, Tunisia, a site of anti-Western sermons.

KAIROUAN, Tunisia — On the Friday after Tunisia’s president fell, Mohamed al-Khelif mounted the pulpit of this city’s historic Grand Mosque to deliver a full-throttle attack on the country’s corrupt culture, to condemn its close ties with the West and to demand that a new constitution implement Shariah, or Islamic law.

“They’ve slaughtered Islam!” thundered Dr. Khelif, whom the ousted government had barred from preaching for 20 years. “Whoever fights Islam and implements Western plans becomes in the eyes of Western politicians a blessed leader and a reformer, even if he was the most criminal leader with the dirtiest hands.”

Mosques across Tunisia blazed with similar sermons that day and, indeed, every Friday since, in what has become the battle of the pulpit, a heated competition to define Tunisia’s religious and political identity.

Revolution freed the country’s estimated 5,000 officially sanctioned mosques from the rigid controls of the previous government, which appointed every prayer leader and issued lists of acceptable topics for their Friday sermons.

That system pushed a moderate, apolitical model of Islam that avoided confronting a dictator. When the system collapsed last year, ultraconservative Salafis seized control of up to 500 mosques by government estimates. The government, a proponent of a more temperate political Islam, says it has since wrested back control of all but 70 of the mosques, but acknowledges it has not yet routed the extremists nor thwarted their agenda.

“Before, the state suffocated religion — they controlled the imams, the sermons, the mosques,” said Sheik Tai’eb al-Ghozzi, the Friday Prayer leader at the Grand Mosque here. “Now everything is out of control — the situation is better but needs control.”

To this day, Salafi clerics like Dr. Khelif, who espouse the most puritanical, most orthodox interpretation of Islam, hammer on favorite themes that include putting Islamic law into effect immediately, veiling women, outlawing alcohol, shunning the West and joining the jihad in Syria. Democracy, they insist, is not compatible with Islam.

“If the majority is ignorant of religious instruction, then they are against God,” said Sheik Khatib al-Idrissi, 60, considered the spiritual guide of all Tunisian Salafis. “If the majority is corrupt, how can we accept them? Truth is in the governance of God.”

The battle for Tunisia’s mosques is one front in a broader struggle, as pockets of extremism take hold across the region. Freshly minted Islamic governments largely triumphed over their often fractious, secular rivals in postrevolutionary elections. But those new governments are locked in fierce, sometimes violent, competition with the more hard-line wing of the Islamic political movements over how much of the faith can mix with democracy, over the very building blocks of religious identity. That competition is especially significant in Tunisia, once the most secular of the Arab nations, with a large educated middle class and close ties to Europe.

The Arab Spring began in Tunisia, and its ability to reconcile faith and governance may well serve as a barometer for the region.

Some analysts link the assertive Tunisian Salafi movement to what they consider a worrying spread of violent extremism across North Africa — including an affiliate of Al Qaeda seizing control of northern Mali; a murderous attack on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya; a growing jihadi force facing Israel in the Sinai; and a mob looting an American school and parts of the United States Embassy in Tunis.

Senior government officials said the various groups share an ideology and are in contact with one another, suggesting that while they are scattered and do not coordinate their operations, they reinforce one another’s agendas. There have been several episodes of jihadists caught smuggling small arms from Libya to Mali or Algeria across Tunisia, for example, including two small trucks packed with Kalashnikovs and some manner of shoulder-fired missiles or grenades in June, said Ali Laarayedh, the interior minister.

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Tori Spelling Introduces Son Finn Davey

Mom & Babies
Celebrity Baby Blog

11/11/2012 at 08:00 PM ET

Michael Simon/Startraks

Meet Finn Davey McDermott!

Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott introduce their fourth child, posing inside the 10-week-old’s nursery in a set of recently released photos.

After a difficult pregnancy that included hospitalization and bedrest due to placenta previa, the actress delivered her son via c-section at 37 weeks.

“I would rub my belly and talk to Finn. I kept telling him, ‘We’re going to be fine’ and ‘I can’t wait to hold you,’” Spelling, 39, tells PEOPLE.

Now happy and healthy at home, Finn joins siblings Hattie, 13 months, Stella, 4, and Liam, 5½, as well as Jack, 14, McDermott’s son from a prior marriage.

Check back Monday, when PEOPLE.com will have an exclusive look at all of Finn’s nursery details.

Michael Simon/Startraks

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Food labels multiply, some confuse consumers

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Want to avoid pesticides and antibiotics in your produce, meat, and dairy foods? Prefer to pay more to make sure farm animals were treated humanely, farmworkers got their lunch breaks, bees or birds were protected by the farmer and that ranchers didn't kill predators?

Food labels claim to certify a wide array of sustainable practices. Hundreds of so-called eco-labels have cropped up in recent years, with more introduced every month — and consumers are willing to pay extra for products that feature them.

While eco-labels can play a vital role, experts say their rapid proliferation and lack of oversight or clear standards have confused both consumers and producers.

"Hundreds of eco labels exist on all kinds of products, and there is the potential for companies and producers to make false claims," said Shana Starobin, a food label expert at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment.

Eco-labels have multiplied in recent years in response to rising consumer demand for more information about products and increased attention to animal and farmworker welfare, personal health, and the effects of conventional farming on the environment.

"Credible labels can be very helpful in helping people get to what they want to get to and pay more for something they really care about," said Urvashi Rangan, director of consumer safety at Consumer Reports. "The labels are a way to bring the bottom up and force whole industries to improve their practices."

The problem, Rangan and other said, is that few standards, little oversight and a lot of misinformation exist for the growing array of labels.

Some labels, such as the USDA organic certification, have standards set by the federal government to which third party certifiers must adhere. Some involve non-government standards and third-party certification, and may include site visits from independent auditors who evaluate whether a given farm or company has earned the label.

But other labels have little or no standards, or are certified by unknown organizations or by self-interested industry groups. Many labels lack any oversight.

And the problem is global, because California's products get sold overseas and fruits and vegetables from Europe or Mexico with their own eco-labels make it onto U.S. plates.

The sheer number of labels and the lack of oversight create a credibility problem and risk rendering all labels meaningless and diluting demand for sustainably produced goods, Rangan said.

Daniel Mourad of Fresno, a young professional who likes to cook and often shops for groceries at Whole Foods, said he tends to be wary of judging products just by the labels — though sustainable practices are important to him.

"Labels have really confused the public. Some have good intentions, but I don't know if they're really helpful," Mourad said. "Organic may come from Chile, but what does it mean if it's coming from 6,000 miles away? Some local farmers may not be able to afford a label."

In California, voters this week rejected a ballot measure that would have required labels on foods containing genetically modified ingredients.

Farmers like Gena Nonini in Fresno County say labels distinguish them from the competition. Nonini's 100-acre Marian Farms, which grows grapes, almonds, citrus and vegetables, is certified biodynamic and organic, and her raisins are certified kosher.

"For me, the certification is one way of educating people," Nonini said. "It opens a venue to tell a story and to set yourself apart from other farmers out there."

But other farmers say they are reluctant to spend money on yet another certification process or to clutter their product with too much packaging and information.

"I think if we keep adding all these new labels, it tends to be a pile of confusion," said Tom Willey of TD Willey Farms in Madera, Calif. His 75-acre farm, which grows more than 40 different vegetable crops, carries USDA organic certification, but no other labels.

The proliferation of labels, Willey said, is a poor substitute for "people being intimate with the farmers who grow their food." Instead of seeking out more labels, he said, consumers should visit a farmers' market or a farm, and talk directly to the grower.

Since that's still impossible for many urbanites, Consumer Reports has developed a rating system, a database and a web site for evaluating environmental and food labels — one of several such guides that have popped up recently to help consumers.

The guides show that labels such as "natural" and "free range" carry little meaning, because they lack clear standards or a verification system.

Despite this, consumers are willing to pay more for "free range" eggs and poultry, and studies show they value "natural" over "organic," which is governed by lengthy federal regulations.

But some consumers and watchdog groups are becoming more vigilant.

In October, the Animal Legal Defense Fund filed a lawsuit against Petaluma, Calif., organic egg producer of Judy's Eggs over "free range" claims. The company's packaging depicts a hen ranging on green grass, and the inside reads "these hens are raised in wide open spaces in Sonoma Valley..."

Aerial photos of the farm suggest the chickens actually live in factory-style sheds, according to the lawsuit. Judy and Steve Mahrt, owners of Petaluma Farms, said in a statement that the suit is "frivolous, unfair and untrue," but they did not comment on the specific allegations.

Meanwhile, new labels are popping up rapidly. The Food Justice label, certified via third party audits, guarantees a farm's commitment to fair living wages and adequate living and working conditions for farmworkers. And Wildlife Friendly, another third-party audited program, certifies farmers and ranchers who peacefully co-exist with wolves, coyotes, foxes and other predators.

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Follow Gosia Wozniacka at http://twitter.com/GosiaWozniacka

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L.A.'s March election brings a flood of candidates

Ninety-two people have filed papers to run for city offices in the March 5 Los Angeles election, with three-fourths of them angling for seats on the 15-member City Council, according to a list posted Saturday by the city clerk.

With Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stepping down next year, 14 people are seeking to replace him, including City Controller Wendy Greuel, council members Eric Garcetti and Jan Perry, and former prosecutor Kevin James. Six people filed to run for city controller, a position being vacated by Greuel. Three are seeking to unseat City Atty. Carmen Trutanich: police and firefighter attorney Greg Smith, lawyer-advocate Noel Weiss and Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles).

A total of 68 people turned in papers saying they intend to run for the eight open council seats. That flood of interest was caused in large part by term limits, which will force the mayor and five council members to step down next year. Mayors are allowed to serve two four-year terms; council members can serve three.

"Whenever there's a seat open, it's a field day," said Robert Stern, who helped draft the city's campaign finance law. "It's 12 years of a very high salary and lots of power."

The deadline for candidates to file a declaration of intent was noon Saturday. The biggest response came from people seeking to replace Garcetti, who must stop representing his Echo Park-to-Hollywood council district after 12 years. Twenty people filed papers to run for his seat.

"Frankly, I think it's great," said Garcetti, who does not plan to endorse a replacement until the May runoff election, when the top two candidates remain. "It's a reflection of just how dynamic this district has become."

The candidate pool could shrink over the next month as some contenders fail to collect the signatures required to get on the ballot. But with six of the eight council races lacking an incumbent, the number of candidates will almost certainly be the largest in at least 12 years.

In South Los Angeles, 12 people are seeking to replace Perry, who was first elected to the council in 2001. In the west San Fernando Valley, eight filed papers to run for the seat being vacated by Councilman Dennis Zine, who was also elected in 2001 and is a candidate for city controller.

Eight people are aiming for the northeast Valley post held by Councilman Richard Alarcon, who was first elected in 1993 and is finishing his last term. Seven are seeking to replace Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who is retiring because of illness after two terms representing his coastal district. And five are running for the Eastside seat held by Councilman Ed Reyes, who also faces term limits.

Two incumbent council members also face challengers. Four people are looking to unseat Councilman Paul Koretz, who is running for reelection and represents a heavily Westside district. And two are challenging Councilman Joe Buscaino, who was elected in January to represent the district that stretches from Watts to San Pedro and is running for his first full four-year term.

In addition to the city contests, 23 people are running for three board seats at the Los Angeles Unified School District. Sixteen are seeking spots on the seven-member Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees.

The city clerk's list of declared candidates can be found at cityclerk.lacity.org/election/Candidates/declarat.pdf.

david.zahniser@latimes.com

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