Phoenix Police Fatally Shoot Man in Wheelchair
PHOENIX-- A man in a wheelchair has been fatally shot by Phoenix police after officers say he pointed a gun at them.
Police say two veteran officers went to the main bus and light rail station in downtown Phoenix around 2:20 a.m. Saturday after someone reported gunshots.
The Arizona Republic reports that witnesses told police the man assaulted a woman believed to be his girlfriend.
Police say the man became belligerent as officers approached, and he pulled a handgun from the waistband of his pants.
Police say both officers gave several commands for the man to drop the gun, and they fired when he raised the gun and pointed it at the officers.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene. His name hasn't been released.
Neither officer was injured.
Maine Company's Wreath-Laying Ceremony Expands at Arlington Cemetery
Portland, ME – Each December for the past 20 years, a Maine wreath company has arranged for 5,000 to 24,000 wreaths to be laid on graves at Arlington National Cemetery. This year, it has set its sights on placing wreaths on virtually all 220,000 headstones to pay tribute to the nation's veterans.
It's appropriate that every veteran at the cemetery receive a wreath to mark the 20th anniversary of the annual wreath-laying ceremony, said Karen Worcester, executive director of Wreaths Across America, a nonprofit that organizes the ceremony and is soliciting sponsorships and donations to pay for the effort.
Worcester is the wife of Morrill Worcester, who as president of Worcester Wreath Co. began shipping wreaths to Arlington in 1992.
"Arlington's where our project started, and our goal has always been to show that respect to every veteran that's passed," Karen Worcester said. "It's ambitious, but every person buried there is part of our heritage and our history."
The Arlington project is part of a larger effort by Wreaths Across America, which last year arranged for more than 200,000 donated wreaths to be laid at 500 veterans' cemeteries across the country and 24 overseas locations.
Morrill Worcester began shipping wreaths to Arlington in 1992 when his wreath company, located in the eastern Maine town of Harrington, found itself with 5,000 extra wreaths in mid-December, too late to bring to market. In 2006, he founded Wreaths Across America to coordinate other wreath-laying ceremonies.
Worcester is donating 25,000 of wreaths to Arlington National Cemetery this year, with the rest paid for through corporate sponsorships and donations from groups and individuals.
With the expanded Arlington wreath-laying effort, Wreaths Across America this year plans to distribute 400,000 wreaths in all.
To get the wreaths to Arlington, a convoy of nearly 50 tractor-trailer trucks will depart Maine in early December and drive to Arlington. The remembrance ceremony at Arlington, when volunteers will place wreaths on veterans' headstones, is scheduled for Dec. 11.
Obama: King 'Stirred Our Conscience'
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama saluted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sunday as a man who "stirred our conscience" and made the Union "more perfect," rejoicing in the dedication of a monument memorializing the slain civil rights leader's life and work.
"I know we will overcome," Obama proclaimed, standing the 30-foot (9-meter) granite monument to King on the National Mall. "I know this," the president said, "because of the man towering over us."
Obama and his wife, Michelle, and Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, joined a host of civil rights figures for the dedication on the sun-splashed Mall. Designed as what King described as a stone of hope hewn from a mountain of despair, the memorial is the first to a black man on the National Mall and its parks.
"He had faith in us," said Obama, who was 6 when King was assassinated in 1968. Obama told the crowd, "And that is why he belongs on this Mall: Because he saw what we might become."
The dedication has special meaning for the Obamas. The president credits King with paving his way to the White House. Before his remarks, he left signed copies of his inaugural speech and 2008 convention address in a time capsule at the monument site. The first couple and daughters Malia and Sasha made a more private visit to the site on Friday night, before the crowds and the cameras arrived.
In his talk, he focused on King's broad themes -- equality, justice and peaceful resistance -- as the nation confronts, 48 years after King's "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, some of the same issues of war, an economic crisis and a lingering distrust of government in some quarters.
Referring to citizen protests against the wealthy and powerful that have spread from Wall Street and Washington, even abroad, Obama said: "Dr. King would want us to challenge the excesses of Wall Street without demonizing those who work there."
The monument, situated between the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials in what the designers call a "line of leadership," was 15 years in the making. Several speakers noted that its designers could not have predicted then that the monument would be dedicated by the nation's first black president.
Obama urged Americans to harness the energy of the civil rights movement for today's challenges and to remain committed to King's philosophy of peaceful resistance.
"Let us draw strength from those earlier struggles," Obama said. "Change has never been simple or without controversy."
King didn't say in the famous 1963 speech that he thought there could be a black president, but he did indicate his belief in interviews that it would happen one day.
Quadruple Amputee Gets New Arms, Hands
Richard Mangino, who lost his arms and legs to a bloodstream infection, received two new hands and arms during a 12-hour operation last week, the Boston Globe reports.
Mangino, 65, who suffered the infection in 2002, received his new arms at Brigham and Women’s Hospital from a team of 40 surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, residents, radiologists and physician assistants who attached the left and right forearms and hand from an anonymous donor below Mangino’s elbows.
“It’s just like you can fly,” Mangino said during a press conference announcing the operation. “It’s like a bird that got its wings back.”
During an interview with the newspaper in August, Mangino -- who became a prolific artist after his amputations -- said he wanted new hands so he could experience the sense of touch again, resume playing the guitar and swimming, and “ride a bike without bumping into everybody else.”
Even as a quadruple amputee, Mangino tirelessly taught himself to do many of the things others take for granted, from dressing himself to picking up a dime from the floor. He relishes that he mastered shoveling waist-deep snow from his walkway last winter. But daily life was exhausting.
“I just want arms to be able to change my clothes without having to think how I am going to put them on, everyday,’’ said Mangino, who has three grown sons and two grandsons. “Everything is a challenge.”
His operation was the second double hand transplant attempted by the plastic surgery team at the Brigham, which has so far focused on face transplants. In May, the team transplanted an entirely new face and two hands onto Charla Nash, a Connecticut woman who was attacked by a chimpanzee.
Utilities Company Seeks to Evict Ground Zero Mosque Unless Developer Pays Up
Con Ed has given the Ground Zero mosque an ultimatum: Pay the $1.7 million you owe in back rent, or we’ll terminate your lease and take back our property.
Con Ed and mosque developer Park51 have an unusual, uneasy alliance, sharing ownership of a site slated to be one of the most controversial projects in city history.
The utility owns a former substation on the western half of the property, at 51 Park Place, and the mosque developers own a five-story building on the eastern half. The buildings were connected years ago and used to house a Burlington Coat Factory store.
Park51, which leases the substation from Con Ed, wants the two buildings so it can knock both down and build a $100 million, 15-story community center.
But the plan hit a major obstacle in August when Con Ed raised the rent from $2,750 a month, a rate set in 1972, to $47,437 a month, retroactive to July 31, 2008, The Post has learned.
When the mosque failed to fork over the $1.7 million, the utility fired off a letter demanding the money by Oct. 4 and threatening to evict.
Park51 principals responded with a lawsuit to stop the increase, calling Con Ed’s rent demands “outrageous.”
“Whether it is bowing to political pressure or seeking to retain the valuable premises for itself, Con Ed appears intent on proceeding with its wrongful termination,” argued Sharif El-Gamal, the lead Park51 developer.
Gamal’s group bought the building at 45-47 Park Place in 2009 for $4.8 million and, at the same time, paid $700,000 for the lease at the substation.
Court papers show that the appraised price for the Con Ed property is $10.7 million. But Gamal contends Con Ed’s math was faulty when it calculated the rent, saying it owes only $881,519 in back rent and should have to pay $25,875 a month going forward.
Gamal got a court order to temporarily prevent Con Ed from ending his lease.
Please click here for the entire article from The New York Post.
National Guard Joins Search for Missing Baby
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is sending members of the National Guard to Kansas City to help search for a missing baby.
Nixon said Saturday that 25 members of a guard police company will help look for Lisa Irwin, who was 10 months old when she was reported missing Oct. 4. Her parents say she disappeared from her crib sometime overnight.
Authorities also said today diapers found at a vacant Missouri house near where a missing baby was last seen have been there for quite some time, Fox News confirms.
A backpack was reportedly found along with the diapers but Kansas City Police Department's Steve Young said that it is not unusual to find such items when searching an abandoned house, but authorities will investigate it further.
Young also confirms that a handyman named Johnny Tanko, known as "Jersey," to the community has been taken into custody on a federal warrant but that he is not a suspect in the case of missing 10-month-old Lisa Irwin.
An anonymous donor offered a $100,000 reward for the return Lisa or information that leads to the conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance, according to a security consultant who says the donor also hired him to get involved in the case.
Bill Stanton, a New York-based security consultant for television networks, refused Friday to say who the donor was or how the reward would be administered.
Stanton, 47, also has not been clear about his role in Lisa Irwin's disappearance, often referring to himself as a private investigator, but then saying he is in Kansas City as a consultant. He is not licensed in Missouri to work as a private investigator.
"I hope this opens up someone's heart or someone's eyes and they realize this is serious, and we get Lisa home safe and sound," Stanton said at a news conference in front of the family's home, where the 10-month-old child was reported missing on Oct. 4.
"If someone brings that kid right now and says they found this child sitting on a park bench. They bring that kid right here, they get $100,000," he said.
No members of Lisa's family were at the news conference.
Jeremy Irwin and Deborah Bradley reported their daughter missing after Irwin returned from a late shift at work. The parents say she must have been abducted from her crib while her mother and two brothers slept.
Police and federal authorities have conducted extensive searches, including of several areas near the family's home. They also have questioned the baby's parents at length. Police have said there are no suspects in the case and they have no major leads.
FBI agents searched areas around the family's home again Friday in what FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton said was an effort to double-check areas that had already been searched at least once.
Det. Kevin Boehm, coordinator of Kansas City's Crime Stoppers TIPS Hotline, a nonprofit community organization that has been fielding hundreds of calls on the missing baby case, said the Hotline hasn't been contacted about the $100,000 reward.
TIPS offers up to $1,000 for any information that leads to an arrest, he said.
Boehm said individuals can offer their own rewards, but supplemental rewards are typically offered to generate more awareness when a case has gone cold or interest in the case begins to die down.
Interest in Lisa's disappearance has not waned, he said. The Hotline has been receiving a steady stream of calls since the baby was reported missing.
"We haven't entertained the idea of a supplemental reward at this point," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
University of Maryland Police Defend Tornado Warnings
University of Maryland police defended their decision Friday to send out three urgent alerts saying that a tornado could hit the campus within minutes, despite the fact that the National Weather Service had not issued a tornado warning for the area.
Thunderstorms rolled over the campus Thursday night when university police sent out an email at 6:28 p.m. indicating that a "tornado is forecast to strike campus within the next 13 minutes." A follow-up at 6:52 p.m. said a tornado could touch down within 10 minutes.
A third message at 6:59 p.m. said a tornado could strike within three to four minutes.
The sky darkened. Emergency sirens blared. Rain fell as panicked students, staff and faculty rushed to take cover. But no tornado appeared.
The National Weather Service had issued a tornado watch for the Washington metro area, indicating favorable conditions for tornado development. But it had not issued a tornado warning, indicating an imminent strike.
University of Maryland police said they sent out the messages based on warnings from AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions, which supplies the university with detailed forecasts of severe weather in the area. AccuWeather forecasts found a high probability that a tornado could hit the area Thursday night.
Last month marked the 10-year anniversary of the death of two University of Maryland students in a tornado that hit College Park. Fearing a repeat of that tragedy, University police spokesman Capt. Marc Limansky said they would have been remiss in not sending the warning messages based on AccuWeather's information.
"If (AccuWeather) sends out an alert, you can lay dollars to donuts there's going to be a storm here," Limansky said, adding that he remained confident in the service's predictions.
Eric Wilhelm, a senior meteorologist for AccuWeather, said there was real reason to believe that a tornado could have struck College Park Thursday evening. Wilhelm cited low humidity, a moist air mass and wind sheer as indicators that a tornado could have formed.
Wind sheer occurs when wind direction varies at different levels of the atmosphere. On Thursday night, winds were coming out of the southeast in the lower level of the atmosphere and out of the west in the higher atmospheric levels. That is a recipe for dangerous wind rotations, Wilhelm said.
Area meteorologists and several news outlets questioned why the university would send out emergency weather alerts to students when the National Weather Service had not issued a warning.
"Only the National Weather Service can issue watches and warnings. Period," Steve Rudin, a broadcast meteorologist for WJLA/ABC7, wrote on Twitter Thursday.
Some students on campus also questioned the decision.
"I think it was a little bit overkill to use the whole siren system and everything when nobody else really thought the storm was that dangerous," said Jessica Rothmeier, a sophomore civil engineering student at the university.
At the time when the two students were killed by the tornado in 2001, there was no university-wide emergency system in place, Limansky said. Some students said they were grateful for the warnings, even if no tornado arrived.
"It's always better to be overprepared than under," said Chris Woodruff, a sophomore civil engineering student. "If there had been anything going wrong, we would have been ready, which was nice."
"Capital News Service contributed to this report."
Pennsylvania Parents Of Boy Who Needs Shade Sue Over Awning
PITTSBURGH, P.A. -- The parents of a Pittsburgh boy who has health aversions to sunlight are suing their homeowners' association for permission to add a retractable awning to the front of their home.
Dan and Jaime Snyder's federal lawsuit says an awning would provide a shady place for 18-month-old Jonah to play. But the Summerset Neighborhood Association says awnings don't fit the designs of single-family homes in the plan.
The Snyders contend they're being denied the right to use their entire residence because of their son's disabilities. Jonah has glaucoma and another disease that affects his skin and is aggravated by sunlight.
The association hasn't responded to Thursday's lawsuit, but officials say they believe the group has a right to argue the boy isn't "disabled" under federal law.
Adult, Baby Zebra Escape Exhibit at Boston Zoo
BOSTON -- An adult zebra and endangered baby zebra have escaped from an exhibit at a Boston zoo that was then evacuated.
No injuries were reported Saturday after the zebras got loose from their enclosure at the Franklin Park Zoo at about 10:45 a.m. The baby soon returned to the enclosure, while the adult female was confined in one area of the zoo early Saturday afternoon as workers tried to get her back to the exhibit.
WBZ radio reports the zoo was evacuated as a precaution, but zoo officials say the public was never in danger.
The baby is a Grevy's zebra, a species primarily found in Kenya that numbers only 2,500 worldwide. It was the baby's first day in the exhibit.
Zoo workers are investigating how the animals escaped.
FBI Investigating Dead Newborn Found on Cruise Ship
The FBI is investigating the death of a newborn found aboard a Carnival cruise ship that returned to Port Canaveral, Fla., on Saturday.
Special Agent Dave Couvertier wrote in an email to The Associated Press on Saturday evening that the FBI's Evidence Response Team was activated that morning when the ship returned to its Florida base. He said the FBI is working with port authorities to investigate.
"We received preliminary information of a deceased newborn on the vessel (the Dream) and we are investigating the matter," Couvertier wrote. "We have been coordinating with Carnival Cruise Line which has been fully cooperative."
Florida Today reported on its website Saturday evening that an employee of the Carnival Dream ship found the dead newborn in a guest cabin. The newspaper reported that Carnival officials said the cruise line informed authorities in St. Maarten and that the mother, a 20-year-old U.S. passenger, was detained.
Couvertier wrote, "No one has been charged as we are still working on obtaining facts and gathering any available evidence. As a result, no information is being released regarding suspect(s) at this time."
He said he understands that the mother is not from Florida and has not returned to the U.S.
"Due to the international and jurisdictional aspects we are still working on obtaining facts and specific details about the incident," the agent wrote.
Messages left for Carnival by the AP weren't immediately returned.
After 3 Disasters, No Federal Help For Virgina Town
LOUISA, Va.--Residents of this rural community just outside Richmond know they may be lucky, seeing as how no one died in the earthquake, hurricane and tornado that have hit back-to-back-to-back in the past few months. That doesn't mean they aren't bitter: "Louisa cares: Because the feds don't," read Friday's headline atop the local newspaper.
The federal government has refused to help foot the $18 million tab for the damage from the disaster trifecta, most of which was caused by the earthquake, leaving people to host fundraisers and help out neighbors because few homes and businesses had insurance. But they say they can't do it alone.
Many look at how bad things could have been and note no one was killed in any of the disasters that began when the 5.8-magnitude earthquake began in Louisa County on Aug. 23 and rumbled all along the East Coast. The hurricane and tornado were far less destructive — the former bringing mostly heavy rain and wind gusts, the latter damaging only a plantation home dating to the 18th century. Still, they hope they're in the clear for a while.
"What's next and how much more does the good Lord think we can take?" asked 44-year-old Fran Grimm, as she helped set up for a community fundraiser in a muddy field near the local high school that closed after suffering cracked walls and damage to the roof from the earthquake. "It's a miracle that no one was hurt."
The disasters were themselves unlikely phenomena.
Although the area is in the seismically active central Virginia earthquake zone, the tremors are rarely felt. Only seven other tornadoes have rolled through the county since 1950, only one of which hit in October. And the county is located 150 miles from the coast, usually safe from hurricanes.
"It's a small town, you don't think about something like that happening like this, but it did," said Buddy Brooks, 72, while standing at a farmer's market and pumpkin stand in downtown Mineral, just a few miles from the town of Louisa. "It's the Lord's work I guess."
Gazing out the windshield while driving along the county's winding roads, nature's wrath isn't apparent in most places. But upon closer inspection, houses can be seen patched with plastic and wood planks where brick should be, windows torn from supports, and crumbled decks and chimneys.
The earthquake damaged nearly all the county's 200 pre-Civil War era homes, and the tremor brought down ceiling tiles, emptied shelves, and opened long cracks in concrete floors at businesses throughout the community. At one point, locals said some residents were living in tents because their houses were uninhabitable.
Last week, the state learned the Federal Emergency Management Agency had rejected its application for assistance for individuals whose homes or businesses were damaged in the earthquake. Gov. Bob McDonnell said he will appeal FEMA's decision, and he invited President Barack Obama to stop by Louisa County to see the damage firsthand while he's in Virginia next week promoting his jobs plan. Obama turned down the invitation on Friday.
"It's a small county that is facing some big challenges and is just asking for a little help," said Tucker Martin, a spokesman for McDonnell. "Earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes are natural disasters. The failure of the federal government to help Louisa citizens in this difficult time is a manmade one."
The county has documented about $18 million in damage to 900 houses, including more than two dozen that were destroyed in the earthquake. Only about two dozen had quake insurance, and most are looking at an average repair bill ranges from about $8,500 for minor repairs to about $73,000 for major damage. There are more than 460 homes with self-reported damage that the county hasn't even inspected.
Additionally, the county said damages to commercial properties and businesses tallied in at about $645,000, and buildings like churches and other non-profit groups had about $1 million in damages. Officials said costs related to replacing the local high school and an elementary school damaged by the earthquake will likely top $64 million.
As federal, state and local crews reassessed the quake-torn community, others prepared for the fundraiser featuring bands, vendors and local organizations to help raise money for their neighbors, a common sentiment these days.
"It seems like when things happen elsewhere, we're always there to help them and then it comes to us and there's nobody here," said 52-year-old Brenda Mastin of Mineral. "They're a little upset about not getting any help, but beside that, the county's really come together."
Support among neighbors has been especially important in this tight-knit community as the more recent tornado, and another 3.0-magnitude tremor on Wednesday had locals wondering what else is in store for the community. More than 40 aftershocks that have rattled the county since the August quake also are keeping residents on edge.
"Mother Nature is Mother Nature. She's unpredictable, and all you can do is recover afterward, and that's really how our community is handling it," county spokeswoman Amanda Reidelbach said. "The funds and support from the community is tremendous, but the extent of the damage ... it's not something that our local community or local government can repair."
Police Investigate New Information in Case of Missing Baby Lisa Irwin
Police in Kansas City investigating the disappearance of baby Lisa Irwin say that a backpack reportedly containing used diapers and baby wipes was found in the area of a vacant home near the Irwin residence, fox4kc.com reports.
Kansas City Missouri Police say that a man found the backpack containing diapers and baby wipes near the vacant home in the 3900 block of Chouteau Trafficway on Saturday. Diapers were also found in a wooded area across the street from the house.
According to at least one report, the diapers were soiled.
On Saturday evening, police spokesman Capt. Steve Young said that the diapers seem to have been there for some time, and said that it's not unusual to find objects like backpacks and diapers in abandoned houses, according to the station.
Young said that a KCPD crime scene unit will further investigate the scene.
The house was near an area where police were already searching for 10-month-old Lisa Irwin, who has been missing since Oct. 4, when her parents reported that she disappeared from her bedroom crib.
Meanwhile, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is sending members of the National Guard to Kansas City to help search for a missing baby.
Nixon said Saturday that 25 members of a guard police company will help look for Lisa Irwin, who was 10 months old when she was reported missing Oct. 4. Her parents say she disappeared from her crib sometime overnight.
On Saturday, the New York City private investigator hired by an anonymous benefactor to help the search for Baby Lisa said he hopes the $100,000 reward being offered "opens up ... someone's eyes."
The FBI scoured the woods near the family's home Friday and used metal detectors to scan their neighborhood.
The family has posted online videos, recorded when Lisa was 3 months old. Signs and pictures of the missing baby also have been displayed outside of her grandparents' home.
Police also announced that a handyman known as "Jersey" is not a suspect in Irwin's disappearance, according to fox4kc.com.
Johnny Tanko, known in the press as "Jersey," was taken into custody on an unrelated federal felony warrant on Saturday. There is no word on the nature of the federal felony warrant. Police did not comment on the nature of the warrant.
Click for more on the disappearance of baby Lisa Irwin from fox4kc.com
Philadelphia Police Find Four Malnourished People Locked in Basement
Four malnourished mentally disabled adults were found chained to a boiler in a locked basement room that was too small for an adult to stand up straight and also reeked of waste from the buckets they used to relieve themselves, police said Sunday. Three people were arrested.
Officers were investigating a report of squatters in a building Saturday when they found three men and a woman in a 15-by-15-foot room behind a steel door that was chained shut. The subbasement room they were in called to mind a Cold War-era bomb shelter and contained a makeshift bed, mattress and sheets, said Officer Tanya Little, a police spokeswoman.
"It was horrible," she said Sunday. "The space was very tiny and confined."
A Texas man and two Philadelphia residents were arrested and police spokesman Lt. Raymond Evers told The Philadelphia Inquirer that charges including kidnapping, conspiracy, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment were pending.
Police are investigating the possibility that the suspects were trying to make money through access to the victims' Social Security or disability checks, Little said. It wasn't clear how they know the victims.
The 29-year-old woman and the men, who are 31, 35, and 41, have the mental capacity of 10-year-olds, police said. They were taken to a hospital for treatment and listed in stable condition. Little said the victims appeared to have no physical problems other than malnourishment.
Little said that getting information from the victims had been difficult due to their disability, but they apparently had been brought to Philadelphia about 10 days before they were found. They had apparently been in West Palm Beach, Fla., and before that in Texas, she said.
"It's heartbreaking that people can do such horrifying things to other people," she said.
Three Killed, Four Injured in California Boating Accident
SAN DIMAS, Calif – Three women were killed and four other people injured in a boating accident Saturday at Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas, Calif.
The accident happened about 4:20pm local time at Puddingstone Lake in the park, 30 miles east of the Los Angeles city center, The San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported, citing fire department officials.
The deceased were riding a Sea-Doo jet ski when it crashed into a powerboat, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"It was a pretty severe accident in the middle of the water," Matt Levesque, a Los Angeles County Fire Department inspector, said.
The women, aged 25, 35 and 60, died at the scene. They were all members of the same family, KABC-TV reported.
Three men in the boat -- aged 22, 35 and 36 -- suffered critical injuries and were taken to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center for treatment.
A 22-year-old woman suffered minor injuries when she was thrown from the boat. She was taken to a hospital by ambulance, KTLA-TV reported.
A number of helicopters were rushed to the site to transport patients.
"At this point, there's nothing to indicate there was alcohol, but that could change later," Los Angeles County Chief Lifeguard Hugo Maldonado told KTLA-TV.
The crash was being investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Parks Bureau.
"It was a tragic, tragic accident," Imee Perius, a spokeswoman for the parks department, said.
92 'Occupy Wall Street' Protesters Arrested in New York City
A total of 92 "Occupy Wall Street" protesters were arrested early Sunday morning and Saturday as the movement filled New York City's Times Square, Fox News confirms.
Fourteen demonstrators sitting in the fountain in Washington Square Park were arrested early Sunday morning without further incident for violating the park's midnight curfew.
All others had left the park after being notified by police that they were subject to arrest if they remained past the curfew.
The confrontations Saturday began after a smaller group had broken off from an orderly procession of hundreds of protesters from Zuccotti Park to Washington Square Park earlier that morning.
The smaller group left Washington Square and headed to LaGuardia Place where 24 were arrested for criminal trespass after refusing to leave a Citibank at the manager's request, New York City Police Department Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne tells FoxNews.com.
The largest arrest was made after a "large disorderly" group was told to disperse three times and failed to do so, resulting in 42 arrests, Browne said.
Cops wearing riot gear stood guard around barricades near 6 p.m.
FoxNews.com has also learned that three officers were sent to a hospital after sustaining injuries Saturday.
Thousands of demonstrators turned out to protest corporate greed Saturday night, mixing with gawkers, Broadway showgoers, tourists and police to create a chaotic scene in the midst of Manhattan.
"Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!" protesters chanted from within police barricades. Police, some in riot gear and mounted on horses, tried to push them out of the square and onto the sidewalks in an attempt to funnel the crowds away.
Sandy Peterson of Salt Lake City, who was in Times Square after seeing "The Book of Mormon" musical on Broadway, got caught up in the disorder.
"We're getting out of here before this gets ugly," she said.
Sandra Fox, 69, of Baton Rouge, La., stood, confused, on 46th Street with a ticket for "Anything Goes" in her hand as riot police pushed a knot of about 200 shouting protesters toward her.
"I think it's horrible what they're doing," she said of the protesters. "These people need to go get jobs."
Earlier in the day, demonstrators paraded to a Chase bank branch, banging drums, blowing horns and carrying signs decrying corporate greed.
A few protesters went inside the bank to close their accounts, but the group didn't stop other customers from getting inside or seek to blockade the business.
Police told the marchers to stay on the sidewalk, and the demonstration appeared to be fairly orderly as it wound through downtown streets.
Among the demonstrators in New York withdrawing their money from Chase was Lily Paulina, 29, an organizer with the United Auto Workers union who lives in Brooklyn. She said she was taking her money out because she was upset that JPMorgan Chase was making billions, while its customers struggled with bank fees and home foreclosures.
"Chase bank is making tons of money off of everyone ... while people in the working class are fighting just to keep a living wage in their neighborhood," she said.
Other demonstrations in the city Saturday included an anti-war march to mark the 10th anniversary of the Afghanistan War.
Among the people participating in that march was Sergio Jimenez, 25, who said he quit his job in Texas to come to New York to protest.
"These wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were all based on lies," Jimenez said. "And if we're such an intelligent country, we should figure out other ways to respond to terror, instead of with terror."
FoxNews.com's Jana Winter and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Apple Wins, Samsung Tablet Banned in Australia
SYDNEY – Apple on Thursday won its legal bid to temporarily block the sale of Samsung's flagship tablet computer Down Under.
New South Wales Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett granted Apple an injunction against Samsung blocking the sale of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 device in Australia ahead of the final outcome of a lengthy patent battle between the two companies.
However, exact orders will not be released until Friday. This means Samsung could be allowed to sell a varied version of the tablet in Australia.
Still, the ruling comes as a major blow to Samsung. The company's lawyers have said that even a temporary ban would commercially kill the device Down Under as the company would not be able to take advantage of lucrative pre-Christmas sales.
Apple has repeatedly accused the Korean manufacturer of "blatant copying" of aspects of its mobile device technology.
The long-awaited judgment handed down at noon Thursday marked an important milestone in the tit-for-tat patent battle the between the two companies that now rages across Australia, the UK, the US, Japan, South Korea, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy.
At stake is Apple's dominance in the tablet computing market, which saw it ship 13.9 million iPads worldwide in the first half of the year. Samsung shipped two million of its Tab devices in the same period.
The legal battle between the two companies in Australia concerns two patents over touchscreen technology in its iPad devices.
Apple began legal proceedings against Samsung in Australia late July. It sought a legal injunction to block the sale of Galaxy Tab in Australia ahead of a final hearing over the two patents that could go on for many months.
Justice Bennett's ruling on Apple's application for a temporary injunction had been expected in the last weeks of September or early October however, owing to the complexity of the matter, it was not handed down until Thursday.
It is understood that the two patents in dispute are over detailed design of the touchscreens and their ability to enable vertical scrolling even when a person touching the screen does not move their finger in a precise vertical pattern.
Apple Co-Founder First in Line for New iPhone
LOS GATOS, Calif. – Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is apparently in a hurry to get ahold of a new iPhone 4S.
NBC11 is reporting that Wozniak was first in line when he showed up Thursday at the Apple store in Los Gatos.
With the new device going on sale Friday, Wozniak told the station that even though he has two new phones on the way, he plans on staying overnight outside the store.
Wozniak was one of about five people who were in line around 2 p.m. Thursday at the store.
He told NBC11 that while he waits, he plans on getting caught up on his email and chatting with fans.
Apple's latest iPhone hits stores Friday after already breaking a record on first-day pre-orders. People who want one can buy it in the U.S. starting at 8 a.m. in each time zone.
Full BlackBerry Service Restored, Research in Motion Claims
WATERLOO, Ontario – BlackBerry services were fully restored Thursday after days of disruptions that frustrated millions of users around the world, Research in Motion (RIM) said.
"We've now restored full services," co-chief executive Mike Lazaridis told reporters in a video apology, adding "you expect better of us. I expect better of us."
U.S. users woke up to empty in-boxes Thursday, even as BlackBerry services buzzed back to life across the globe. The messaging giant did not say whether the backlog caused by the outage and four days of trouble had been entirely cleared -- continuing the frustration for millions of users who have come to rely on their smartphones to remain connected to businesses and friends.
"Totally appalled at the lack of communication from RIM," wrote Lynn Murdoch on RIM's BlackBerry Facebook page on Wednesday. "Love my Berry, but furious at the fact that no one can actually give a time frame of how long its going to take to fix. Utterly disappointed!"
"I'm right at the edge where I might be saying goodbye to my BlackBerry," Tony Vitali, a BlackBerry user in New York, told Reuters. "The device freezes twice a day ... It's a very frustrating device."
Lazaridis had posted a video late Wednesday evening apologizing for the outage and saying that the company was still working to resolve issues. He warned of possible instability in the system as RIM restored service and did not forecast a time for a full recovery.
It is "too soon to say this issue is fully resolved," he had said at the time.
Thursday morning, Lazaridis said service was completely back, though some customers in Canada and Latin America who are sending messages to other regions may see intermittent message delays. The company said that services were completely restored in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where the problem originated Monday.
The outages, which disrupted email, messaging and Internet browsing, spread to North America on Wednesday.
In a hastily-organized conference call with reporters Wednesday afternoon, RIM's chief technology officer for software, David Yach, said the company did not see any signs of hacking or other security breaches.
Several U.S. government agencies affected by the disruptions said Wednesday they were in touch with RIM about the problems, but there were no indications from officials that RIM was suffering from anything other than an internal malfunction.
RIM has blamed the problem on a hardware failure in its network infrastructure. RIM routes users' email messages and other data through its own network, which the company says makes such communications more secure.
The intermittent service disruptions came at a vulnerable time for RIM, which has been struggling with dwindling BlackBerry shipments as it competes with Apple's iPhone and gadgets powered by Google's Android software.
Newscore contributed to this report.
Fans Get Wacky as Apple iPhone 4S Goes on Sale
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Russian Rocket Failure Shouldn’t Force Space Station Evacuation, NASA Tells Lawmakers
The International Space Station likely won't have to be evacuated despite the recent failure of a Russian rocket launched toward the orbiting lab, a panel told U.S. lawmakers Oct. 12 on Capitol Hill.
On Aug. 24, Russia's Progress 44 cargo vessel crashed in Siberia after the third stage of its Soyuz rocket failed. That rocket is similar to the one NASA and other space agencies depend on to loft astronauts, raising doubts about whether the issue could be fixed in time for a new crew to get to the station before its three remaining residents depart for Earth on Nov. 22.
A Russian commission recently pinpointed the Soyuz problem as a quality-control issue, not a major design flaw. And an independent NASA team agrees with that assessment, officials announced today, meaning the next manned Soyuz launch should take place as planned on Nov. 14.
That time frame would keep the orbiting outpost staffed, giving the new three-person crew about five days to learn the ropes from the departing space flyers.
"NASA's confident that our Russian partners identified the most likely failure cause and has a sound return-to-flight plan," Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA's human exploration and operations directorate, told members of the House of Representatives' Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
Fixing the problem
The Russian investigation determined that low fuel feed to the gas generator in the Soyuz's third-stage engine likely caused the Progress 44 crash. The fuel feed issue may have been caused by contamination in the fuel line or a valve.
After consulting in depth with the Russians, NASA formed its own team to look into the Soyuz problem, Gerstenmaier said.
"They did kind of a background check to make sure that the conclusions the Russians were drawing were reasonable," Gerstenmaier said. "We completed that review today within the agency, and we agree with the basic Russian findings."
Since the Progress 44 incident, the Russians have boosted their quality-control efforts, Gerstenmaier added. For example, they've increased the number of people inspecting Soyuz rockets and are videotaping some key assembly operations at the factory.
The engines for the next two Soyuz launches — the unmanned Progress 45 cargo mission on Oct. 30 and the Nov. 14 crewed mission — were built under the newer, stricter oversight, Gerstenmaier said.
So the problem that doomed Progress 44 shouldn't crop up again, the panelists said.
"We're confident that the two launches anticipated — one of Progress and the Soyuz launch, hopefully, in mid-November — will put the current issues to rest and return us to a steady-state operation," said Joseph Dyer, chairman of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel.
Station could operate without a crew
When it's fully crewed, the International Space Station (ISS) harbors six astronauts, who each stay aboard for five- or six-month stints. It currently hosts just three space flyers, and the next Soyuz launch would basically replenish this number rather than increase it.
If that launch gets delayed, the station would be completely de-staffed for the first time in more than a decade. But that wouldn't spell disaster for the orbiting lab, the panelists said.
"The station itself can be flown uncrewed from Mission Control," Gerstenmaier said.
Of course, NASA and its international partners would much prefer to keep the orbiting lab fully staffed. Crew members on board can fix maintenance or servicing issues that crop up, for example, which can't be done from the ground.
And with more crew members aboard the station, more scientific research can get done. On a fully de-staffed station, some experiments could go on as before, such as the recently installed $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which is hunting dark matter, antimatter and cosmic rays.
But many other projects would have to be dropped, or at least postponed, without astronauts on board to conduct them. And NASA hopes it doesn't come to that, officials have said.
"If the ISS needed to be de-crewed, the largest impact would obviously be to crew-tended research," Gerstenmaier said.
* Top 10 Soviet and Russian Space Missions
* Building the International Space Station
* 50 Great Russian Rocket Launch Photos
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Apple iPhone 4S Hits Store Shelves Worldwide
A faster iPhone with better software and an improved camera went on sale in seven countries on Friday as hundreds of buyers camped out for hours to be among the first to get one.
About 200 people were at Apple's Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan as the iPhone 4S went on sale at 8 a.m. Steve Wozniak, who created Apple with Steve Jobs in a Silicon Valley garage in 1976, was first in line at a store in Los Gatos, Calif.
Many said the event resembled a remembrance to Jobs, who died last week, a day after Apple Inc. announced the new phone.
Emily Smith, a 27-year-old user experience designer in New York, checked in to the line on the location-centric social network Foursquare. She got a virtual Steve Jobs badge that read: "Here's to the crazy ones. #ThankYouSteve."
Others joked that the 4S model stood "for Steve."
Many people came out despite the fact that they could have ordered phones online and had them shipped to their homes or offices.
Apple and phone companies in seven countries started taking orders for the iPhone 4S last Friday. Apple said Monday that more than 1 million orders came in, breaking the record set by last year's model, which was available in fewer countries and on fewer carriers.
The death of Jobs could be affecting sales. Marketing experts say products designed by widely admired figures such as Jobs usually see an upsurge in sales after their death.
Una Chen, a 24-year-old banker, said she was just happy to swap out her BlackBerry Bold for the new iPhone, particularly after a BlackBerry outage affected her phone this week.
"It's not good to have a phone and not be able to use it," Chen said.
Wozniak got in line at the California store even though he already had two new phones on the way. He told television station NBC11 on Thursday that while he waited for the store's opening Friday morning, he planned on getting caught up on his email and chatting with fans.
In the U.S., sales were beginning at 8 a.m. in each time zone. They were available at Apple stores, along with those of the three partner carriers, AT&T Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Wireless. Some Best Buy, Target and Walmart stores and authorized resellers also carried the phones.
The base model of the iPhone 4S costs $199 in the U.S. with a two-year contract. It comes with 16 gigabytes of storage. Customers can get 32 gigabytes for $299 and 64 gigabytes for $399. Customers have a choice of white or black.
The phones also debuted Friday in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Britain. They are coming to 22 more countries by the end of the month.
The phone -- Apple's fifth -- has a faster processor and an improved camera compared with last year's model. It has a new operating system that allows you to sync content without needing a computer. It also includes a futuristic, voice-activated service that responds to spoken commands and questions such as "Do I need an umbrella today?"
However, some customers and investors were disappointed that Apple didn't launch a more radical new model -- an iPhone 5. It's been more than a year since Apple's previous model was released.
The Original Human Language Like Yoda Sounded
Sentences like Yoda you form?
Many linguists believe all human languages derived from a single tongue spoken in East Africa around 50,000 years ago. They've found clues scattered throughout the vocabularies and grammars of the world as to how that original "proto-human language" might have sounded. New research suggests that it sounded somewhat like the speech of Yoda, the tiny green Jedi from "Star Wars."
There are various word orders used in the languages of the world. Some, like English, use subject-verb-object (SVO) ordering, as in the sentence "I like you." Others, such as Latin, use subject-object-verb (SOV) ordering, as in "I you like." In rare cases, OSV, OVS, VOS and VSO are used. In a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Merritt Ruhlen and Murray Gell-Mann, co-directors of the Santa Fe Institute Program on the Evolution of Human Languages, argue that the original language used SOV ordering ("I you like").
"This language would have been spoken by a small East African population who seemingly invented fully modern language and then spread around the world, replacing everyone else," Ruhlen told Life's Little Mysteries.
The researchers came to their conclusion after creating a language family tree, which shows the historical relationships between all the languages of the world. For example, all the Romance languages (Italian, Rumanian, French, Spanish) derive from Latin, which was spoken in Rome 2,000 years ago; that Latin family is itself a branch of an even larger tree, whose other branches include Germanic, Slavic, Greek, Indic and others. Together, all those languages make up the Indo-European language family, which fits like a puzzle piece with all the other language families in the world.
"These families — all families — are identified by finding words in a set of languages that are similar to each other but not found elsewhere," Ruhlen explained in an email.
In the language family tree, Ruhlen and Gell-Mann discovered a distinct pattern in how word orders change as languages branch off from their mother tongues. "What we found was that the distribution of the six possible word orders did not vary randomly. … Rather, the distribution of these six types was highly structured, and the paths of linguistic change in word order were clear," Ruhlen said.
Out of the 2,000 modern languages that fit in the family tree, the researchers found that more than half are SOV languages. The ones that are SVO, OVS and OSV all derive directly from SOV languages — never the other way around. For example, French, which is SVO, derives from Latin, which is SOV.
Furthermore, languages that are VSO and VOS always derive from SVO languages. Thus, all languages descend from an original SOV word order – "which leads to the conclusion that the word order in the language from which all modern languages derive must have been SOV," Ruhlen wrote.
Was it just an accident that the mother of all mother tongues was probably SOV, rather than one of the other five possibilities? The researchers think not. Predating Ruhlen's and Gell-Mann's work, Tom Givon, a linguist at the University of Oregon, argued that SOV had to have been the first word order, based on how children learn language. He found that the SOV word ordering seems to come most naturally to humans. [Why Are 'Mama' and 'Dada' a Baby's First Words?]
And if that's the case, it seems strange that languages switch word orders as they evolve. Indeed, no one really knows why word orders would switch. "We have found that word changes in very precise ways," Ruhlen said. "But the fact remains that half of the world's languages still have SOV word order because, in Murray's and my opinion, they have not changed word order at all. [Our data] shows how word order changes … but it is unpredictable if word order will change, and I really don't know why."
* How Colors Got Their Symbolic Meanings
* What If Neanderthals Had Not Gone Extinct?
* What Distinguishes Humans from Other Animals?
Copyright © 2011 TechMediaNetwork.com. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Apple Guru Upstart Prospers as New Business Alternative
A swarm of Apple gadgets with cracked screens, dead buttons, and lost data is leaving repair desks at the tech giant's slick retail stores-- and moving toward upstart shops like "Dr. Brendan's Mac Repair" which offer lower-cost repairs in New York City, the New York Post reports.
The chain has quickly grown into three stores since the first opened last fall with additions in Brooklyn and Greenwich, Conn., and has plans for several more New York-area stores in the coming year.
“Business in the East Village (section of New York) is already 300 percent of what it was in January,” says 30-year-old Brendan McElroy, who opened his first storefront on St. Marks Place last fall.
One of his clients is 33-year-old Perri Gorman who, in addition to getting her iPhone 4 repaired, recently paid to switch the body to a lime-green color with a bright pink home button totaling a cost of $160
“People are constantly stopping me on the street asking ‘Where did you get that?’” Gorman says.
McElroy built a reputation last year in his neighborhood by repairing iPhones out of his fifth-floor apartment--- a side gig he developed after fixing his own iPhone with parts he bought off eBay.
“I had as many as 20 to 30 customers a day coming into my living room,” McElroy told The Post, noting he had lured clients with flyers and ads on Craigslist. “The other tenants weren’t too crazy about that.”
Click here to read more stories about America's Future.
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The Geek Squad Solves Your Technology Problems
You've got tech questions, we've found the answers.
We've asked the tech experts at the Geek Squad to help you make the most of your technology, answering your thorniest tech questions. So if you're wondering what to buy, how to plug it in, or how to fix it, the Geek Squad can help.
This week, Geek Squad Counter Intelligence Agent Wesley Shook answers YOUR questions.
"We have a 2006 flat panel monitor that just quit operating, probably from a power failure. What can we do with it, besides using it for junk -- or shooting practice? --Anna Q.
Most of the time it is a cheaper and quicker option to replace the monitor, although it's very frustrating to have have to spend the extra money on the replacement.
Instead of shooting or throwing it off a cliff, why not bring into your local Best Buy store? We can recycle the monitor for $10 -- and you'll get a $10 Best Buy gift card.
"I have a Gateway laptop running the 64-bit version of Windows Vista. What can I do so my old games and programs (all the 32-bit ones) will work on the laptop?" -- David Funderburg
Unfortunately, you'll need to actually do a little research to ensure that the games will be able to run properly on the 64-bit operating systems. Some will be able to run after a direct installation, others will need to have patches or other items installed so they can operate within the operating system -- and some of them just won't be able to run due to system needs.
"I am plagued with pop-ups on my Win7 32-bit laptop. My 64-bit Win 7 system has no such problem. Both are running Norton Internet Security 2011 and are protected by a router. Is there anything I can do to keep these obnoxious pop-ups and pop-unders off my laptop?" -- Joe Black
I see this issue mostly on news-related websites (thanks for the ads, Netflix!). One thing to check is to make sure that the website sending you popups or popunders isn't added to your trusted websites.
Also, you could reset your Internet Explorer, Firefox, or other browser to its original settings. If you aren't comfortable with those, you can always take your laptop into your local Geek Squad and have an agent double check your settings. The issue with your laptop may not be an issue with the pop-up blocker, but other software.
"Is it really necessary to protect my computer with, for instance, Norton 360? Or do I just need to be careful about which website I visit?" -- Mike Piper
In a word, YES -- and this is a regular question that I get all the time.
The best analogy I can give is to ask, would you drive your car on the interstate without a windshield?
Due to virus programmers being able to adapt and add code to current websites and media streams, there are too many locations where you can pick up infections: viruses, malware, spyware and more. To answer your second question about being careful on the Internet, yes, this is something that all users need to do. Plain and simple, watch out.
When you do happen to run into issues, a good piece of security software can be the difference between having issues and surfing the Internet with confidence.
Got a question? E-mail us at AsktheGeeks@foxnews.com and we'll relay it to the Geek Squad. Next week, the Squad will answer the most interesting or most frequently asked questions.
'I Fed Bigfoot Blueberry Bagels,' Michigan Woman Says
There are new claims of bigfoot encounters -- in Siberia and rural Michigan -- that will likely add to the debate over whether the creatures really exist, although neither holds the smoking gun of a photograph, tissue sample or other scientific evidence.
A group of Russians claim a living "snowman" roams the cold Shoria Mountain area of southern Siberia. Meanwhile a woman in Newaygo County, Mich., told Discovery News that she has been interacting with and actually feeding a large family of close to 10 Bigfoot-like creatures who live in the woods near her home for the past two years.
"They get fish every day, a bucket of fruit, a bucket of dry dog food," said Robin Lynn Pfeifer, a 47-year-old resident of Newaygo County, north of Grand Rapids. "Their favorite thing is blueberry bagels. If I'm not baking them, I go to different stores to buy them."
"I tell them they are feeding the wildlife," Pfeifer said.
PHOTOS: 10 Reasons Why Bigfoot's a Bust
She said she has collected casts of many large footprints, but says the creatures are too shy and too clever for her to get a photograph. She describes the Bigfoots as ranging from six to nine feet tall and looking like humans, except for hairy coats and broad noses.
"The biggest one I've sat and looked at for 15 minutes was nine and a half feet tall," Pfeifer told Discovery News. "The large male is all black. Others are beige and white. The biggest footprint is 18 and a half inches long."
Skeptics say that big claims need big proof, and so far that hasn't happened when it comes to Bigfoot. Natural history and evolutionary scientists also ask how these creatures could have survived for so long without being detected, and where the evidence is of their body or bones or DNA.
Loren Coleman directs the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine and has been studying and writing about strange sightings of creatures for several decades. He says he's skeptical of anyone who comes forward with tales of lengthy Bigfoot encounters without providing serious evidence.
"All the Bigfoot contactees -- for some reason they never take photographs," Coleman said. "There's a lot of interest in finding these things, but we have to look of the credibility of the people feeding us the stories. I'm always careful of two kinds of people, the debunkers who have no interest and the true believers who will not bring any critical thinking."
Coleman said he hasn't met with Pfeifer, but is doubtful, comparing her story to people who meet with aliens from UFOs.
"They really believe they are having these experiences," Coleman said. "I don't know if its hallucinations or a psychological state."
PHOTOS: Six Mysterious and Famous Cryptids
Pfeifer, however, is convinced her encounters are real and she said she realizes that most people will not believe her because of the lack of proof, such as scat, hair, tissue or a good photograph.
She says the Bigfoot clan began visiting her home shortly after she and her husband and three children moved into a 10-acre rural property back in November 2009. The creatures also engage in some unusual behaviors, she said. Sometimes they make knocking sounds underneath the family home's crawl space, twist and braid a rope used to tie the family's pony, or construct elaborate stick structures in the woods.
Pfeifer said she's tried to snap their picture, but she has not been successful. When she set up automatic cameras in the trees near her home, the creatures turned them upside down.
"I want people to realize that they do exist," Pfeifer said. "They are not aggressive, they are more human-like than an ape and I'm very protective of them."
Michigan has a history of Bigfoot sightings -- and a network of residents who post their findings on a website.
Pfeifer has been traveling in Russia to meet with other Bigfoot believers -- scientists and amateurs alike -- who gathered in the Kemerovo region recently to talk about the existence of a Russian "snowman" in the cold Shoria Mountain area of southern Siberia.
Igor Burtsev of the Moscow-based International Center of Hominology said that after the meeting, researchers from the United States, Canada, Sweden and Estonia traveled for two days to an area that has reported sightings of a large, Yeti-like creature.
Burtsev said he is 95 percent positive that he has evidence to prove the creature's existence: some hair found near a cave entrance, grasses made into a bed, large footprints, and tree branches that form a certain pattern.
"We were just two days in the forest and we found many things," Burtsev said. "We found a lot of confirmation that they exist there."
Burtsev said that he visited Pfeifer's home for a week in June but did not see any of the Bigfoot creatures. The next step, Pfeifer said, is to record the creatures' unusual vocal sounds.
Jeff Meldrum, professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University, was at the meetings in Russia and has been sifting through the various claims about both the Russian Yeti in southern Siberia and Pfeifer's story of a Michigan Bigfoot.
"There's no substance to any of her claims," said Meldrum, who is an expert in the evolution of early hominid gait. "If there were 10 to 12 around her home, she should be opening up a museum with all the artifacts."
Flood Barriers Hold Firm in Shielding Bangkok
BANGKOK – Barriers protecting Bangkok from Thailand's worst floods in half a century held firm Sunday as the government said some water drenching provinces just north of the capital has begun receding.
That fueled hopes that Bangkok, a city of 9 million, could escape unharmed. But outside the capital, thousands of people remain displaced and hungry residents are struggling to survive in half-submerged towns. On Sunday, the military rescued terrified civilians from the rooftops of flooded buildings in the swamped city of Ayutthaya, one of the country's hardest-hit.
Bangkok has averted calamity so far thanks to a complex system of flood walls, canals, dikes and underground tunnels that are helping divert vast pools of runoff south into the Gulf of Thailand. But if any of the defenses fail, floodwaters could sweep through the tense city.
Ronnarong Wong-Ngern, a bare-chested construction worker in northwestern Bangkok, said residents there still worry that things could go wrong.
"I can't sleep at night," Ronnarong, 38, told The Associated Press as he stood beside a wall of sandbags built over a canal straddling one of the capital's northernmost borders. "Whenever it rains, all the men here get up and start adding new sandbags to these walls."
Seasonal rains that drench Southeast Asia annually have been extraordinarily severe this year, killing hundreds of people across the region. Thailand has been particularly affected. Nearly 300 people have died in the country so far, while more than 200 major highways and roads have been shut, along with the main rail lines to the north.
Despite widespread fears that disaster could touch Bangkok, the city has so far been mostly untouched. Heavy rains showered the capital for much of the day Sunday, but life was otherwise normal with shopping malls open and elevated trains crisscrossing the city.
Nationwide, the government says property damage and losses could total $3 billion dollars or more. The most affected provinces are just north of Bangkok, including Ayutthaya, a former capital which is home to ancient and treasured stone temples.
An Associated Press photographer who flew over Ayutthaya on Sunday in a Thai military helicopter saw the tops of historic pagodas rising out of the water like islands.
In Ayutthaya itself, troops in patrol boats rescued people who had taken refuge on rooftops after waters burst into the Bang Pa-In Industrial Estate.
"It's very scary, it's never been like this since I was born," one of them, Kwaikai Jeunglam, told Associated Press Television News. "Last night the water wasn't this high. Last night, it rose ... this morning, it rose a lot."
Speaking to reporters earlier Sunday, Agriculture Minister Theera Wongsamut expressed confidence the worst was over -- but stopped short of saying the threat to Bangkok had passed completely.
Theera said the largest mass of runoff water flowing south from the country's heavily inundated central plains had already passed through Bangkok's Chao Phraya river and into the sea, and water levels in river would rise no higher.
Floodwaters in the central provinces of Singburi, Angthong, and Ayutthaya had also begun to recede, Theera said.
A spokesman for the government's flood relief center, Wim Rungwattanajinda, said floodwaters have decreased in Nakhon Sawan province as well. Nakhon Sawan is also in central Thailand.
Another worry -- several days of higher-than-normal tides which have slowed runoff into the Chao Phraya -- has also eased. But similarly high tides are expected again at the end of the month.
Late Saturday, Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra said he was worried about barriers on the northwest side of the capital, saying they were not as strong as in other parts of Bangkok and water could flood around them and into the city from the west. But on Sunday, he said the situation was still under control.
Associated Press journalists who traveled to that area Sunday found no serious flooding in the district bordering Nonthaburi and Nokhon Pathom provinces. Canals were not overflowing and although some residents were still reinforcing sandbag walls, few were worried.
Over the last few days, government officials have voiced increasing confidence the capital would survive without major damage. On Sunday, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra echoed those sentiments again, saying "I believe Bangkok will be safe."
Yingluck spoke just after presiding over a ceremony in which an armada of more than 1,000 small boats stationed in dozens of spots on the Chao Phraya turned on their engines in an effort to help propel water down the river. It wasn't immediately clear what impact the effort would have.
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iPhone Owners Disappointed by New iPhone 4S
The latest Apple may not be so shiny.
The iPhone 4S will be Apple’s biggest iPhone launch yet when the handset becomes available on Friday. In fact, pre-orders have now sold out from all three major U.S. carriers that offer the new iPhone.
Yet despite the phone’s popularity out of the gate, there are still a substantial number of consumers who were hoping for more from Apple’s fifth-generation iPhone.
According to Retrevo’s survey of more than 1,300 U.S. consumers, 47 percent of current iPhone 4 owners said they were disappointed in Apple’s new iPhone 4S following its unveiling. Twelve percent were hoping for a bigger display, 21 percent were sad the new iPhone didn’t feature a revamped design and 29 percent wanted faster 4G networking.
“Although some expressed disappointment in the lack of 'iPhone 5' features, it appears that interest is high and demand will be strong for iPhone 4S especially among current iPhone owners,” Retrevo’s Andrew Eisner wrote on the company’s blog. “It also doesn’t appear likely that you’ll see many customers camping out in front of Apple stores around the country as we have for products in the past.”
Oddly, smartphone users in general were happier with the phone than current Apple iPhone customers. Fully 71 percent of smartphone owners said they were not disappointed in the iPhone 4S, while 29 percent were disappointed to some extent.
Read the rest of this story on BGR.com
This content was originally published on BGR.com
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NASA Buys Flights on Virgin Galactic's Private Spaceship
The space tourism company Virgin Galactic has struck a deal with NASA worth up to $4.5 million for research flights on the company's new private spaceliner SpaceShipTwo, Virgin Galactic officials announced Oct. 13.
Under the deal, NASA will charter up to three flights on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, an air-launched spacecraft designed to carry eight people on trips to suborbital space.
The announcement comes just two days after Virgin Galactic announced that Mike Moses, NASA's former deputy space shuttle program chief, had joined the company's ranks as vice president of operations.
"We are excited to be working with NASA to provide the research community with this opportunity to carry out experiments in space, said George Whitesides, president and CEO of Virgin Galactic, in a statement.
"An enormous range of disciplines can benefit from access to space, but historically, such research opportunities have been rare and expensive," Whitesides added. "At Virgin Galactic, we are fully dedicated to revolutionizing access to space, both for tourist astronauts and, through programs like this, for researchers."
NASA research flights
Each suborbital spaceflight for NASA could carry up to 1,300 pounds (590 kilograms) of scientific experiments, allowing up to 600 different payloads per mission, Virgin Galactic officials said.
The company will provide a flight test engineer on every mission to help monitor and conduct experiments as necessary, they added.
In the deal, NASA committed to chartering one flight with Virgin Galactic, with options for two more. If the space agency exercises those options and charters all three flights, the contract will be worth $4.5 million, officials said.
NASA shuttle veteran comes aboard
Virgin Galactic just announced Tuesday (Oct. 11) that it was hiring Mike Moses, NASA's former space shuttle launch integration manager, to become its vice president of operations.
In this role, Moses will oversee all operations at Spaceport America in New Mexico, the site of Virgin's commercial suborbital spaceflight program. The company is slated to dedicate its headquarters at the spaceport this coming Monday (Oct. 17).
Moses has considerable experience overseeing human spaceflight operations, most recently serving as NASA's deputy space shuttle program chief. He provided ultimate launch decision authority for the final 12 missions of the now-retired shuttle program, which lofted 75 astronauts to orbit.
"Bringing Mike in to lead the team represents a significant investment in our commitment to operational safety and success as we prepare to launch commercial operations," Whitesides said.
Moses had worked as a space shuttle flight controller for 10 years before being selected as a flight director in 2005. He said he was happy to be making the leap to the private sector.
"I am extremely excited to be joining Virgin Galactic at this time, helping to forge the foundations that will enable routine commercial suborbital spaceflights," he said in a statement. "Virgin Galactic will expand the legacy of human spaceflight beyond traditional government programs into the world’s first privately funded commercial spaceline."
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Online Dating Matures: 5 New Sites That Will Get You Lucky
Watch your back, Match.com!
The Internet has solved everything from dinner reservations to apartment hunting. Now a new wave of innovative companies promising to solve your dating 2.0 needs. And with packed schedules and never enough time, smart singles are embracing online dating, said Laurie Davis, Founder and CEO of eFlirtexpert, an online date coaching firm.
“Dating is evolving,” said Davis, who met her boyfriend on Twitter two years ago.
For decades, the online dating scene was limited to a handful of trusty incumbents: think Match.com, LavaLife, eHarmony. While such sites offer large pools of users and flashy statistics -- Match.com claims 12 couples were married or engaged today thanks to the site -- the experience can leave some users wanting.
“These big sites are necessary and they’re still great,” Davis told FoxNews.com. “But the niche sites that are popping up now are much more exciting because they’re giving you access to a much more select group of people.”
Some, like JDate and BlackSingles, have been around for years. But a bevy of new sites are looking to offer the granularity users are now craving.
Here are five sites offering a fresh approach to finding “the one” online.
1. Best Concept: HowAboutWe (400,000 dates posted. $28 per month)
Childhood friends and founders Brian Schechter and Aaron Schildkrout wanted to create a dating site that shifted the focus back to what’s really important -- the date. The result is one of the fastest growing sites in the scene. Instead of worrying about fancy algorithms or flashy profiles, members make their mark by proposing dates starting with three simple words: “how about we…”
Davis calls it truly innovative. "Their new formula helps singles connect in a more natural way. Proposing a date gives singles an immediate topic of conversation for emails and way to connect, and it’s a simple transition to dating offline."
2. Best Elite Site: Sparkology (Service has not opened to general public yet. Women: $15/month; Men: $15 for 5 women)
In Sparkology, founder Alex Furmansky looks to filter out many of the negative aspects of online dating -- dead accounts, fake profiles, spam -- by taking a more exclusive approach with a focus on service and quality. The community is invite-only and men must be verified grads of top universities.
“The opportunity lies in focusing on a specific demographic and offering them a superior experience that a middle-market behemoth could never match,” Furmansky told FoxNews.com.
Even the pricing structure encourages quality, Davis noted, with women buying monthly subscriptions while men buy “spark packs.” If a guy emails you first, Davis said, "he paid for that specific message, reducing the amount of copy-and-paste jobs that sometimes frequent online dating sites."
3. Best Mainstream Site: OKCupid (7 million members. Basic service: Free; Premium: $9.95/month)
While OKCupid has been around since 2004, it’s begun to make more of a name for itself in recent years, most notably due to a series of viral blog posts both criticizing the big players like Match.com and illuminating dating trends by mining its vast amount of user data.
The site generates matches through users’ activity and answers to questions; it boasted 7 million users as of September 2010 and was eventually acquired by the operators of Match.com for $50 million.
"Part of what makes the site brilliant is the incorporation of social networking aspects and gaming schematics. But at the end of the day, it is still undeniably a site to meet your next date," Davis told FoxNews.com.
4. Best Alternative: Ignighter (2 million members. $10 to $45/year)
Group activity takes the pressure off. That’s the idea behind Ignighter, which allows groups of friends to collaborate on a group profile. The site then suggests a list of possible matches and helps arrange group outings. Despite its U.S. roots, Ignighter has become a huge hit in India where cultural restrictions inhibit traditional one-on-one dates.
The focus on India has encouraged many U.S. entrepreneurs to explore the national territory by creating sites like DuoDater, FourTonight and DatingInGroups.
5. Most Buzzed About: Meexo (TBD)
Meexo isn’t out yet, but it’s an exciting look at what the future brings. The startup launched at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in Sept. and is part of a new breed of mobile-centric dating apps.
"Meexo ... is attempting to bridge the gap between location-based gaming and romance," Davis said. "Armed with their research into 'what women want,' the app could be the next best thing."
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Roborocks and Transformer Trucks: Kid-Pleasing Military Gear
Roborocks and Transformer Trucks: Kid-Pleasing Military Gear
How is a weapons fair like a daycare?
Munchkins accompanied parents serving in the Army and contingents of school children -- including a platoon from the youth reporters at A Back Pack Journalist -- took to the show floor exploring the latest in defense technology at the annual Association of the United States Army (AUSA) meeting this week in Washington, D.C., a family friendly showcase of the latest military gear.
The kids had a blast, thanks to “rock” watch dogs, super-size remote control cars and an Optimus-Prime style robot trucks – three of the top items cool for both the kids and the war fighters alike.
Rock or Watchdog?
It looks like a rock, but it thinks like a vigilant sentry.
Pretend rocks -- also known as Northrop Grumman’s Scorpion II unattended target recognition systems -- are perfect as look outs both for the backyard tree house and for safeguarding a perimeter around the forward operating base (FOB). Providing their owner with 24/7 surveillance, these Scorpions are also useful on the offensive for covertly staking out targets.
The sentinels will sleep until an encroaching enemy triggers it: It integrates sensors for activity or movement, day and night vision, and seismic and magnetic activity. With its EO and IR sensors, the Scorpion II can detect and recognize at up to approximately 2,600 feet away day or night. And Scorpion II can send information out securely through wireless RF.
Handily its open system architecture means it can adapt to new sensors from most vendors as well. The advanced design means a lower operating power and longer battery life -- sentinel rocks have a mission life up to six months or even longer.
More than 900 Scorpion systems are already in the field. The portable, easy-to-deploy Scorpion II has halved the weight, size and cost of its predecessor.
A Transformers-style robotruck
While not yet at Optimus Prime level, the Marine Warfighter Lab in Quantico and the Oshkosh Corp. are making serious headway on a robotic truck.
Logistic convoys are frequently attacked and under IED threat, so it's critical to get soldiers out of the cabs of vehicles if possible. One objective of the U.S. Armed Forces is to have one-third of operational ground combat vehicles unmanned by 2015 and TerraMax demonstrates the goalposts have moved closer to that end.
Known as the TerraMax, this robotic truck is based on Oshkosh’s Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement (MTVR) defense truck platform. Equipped with a military grade Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), it uses radar to avoid obstacles and very high definition LIDAR – Light Detection and Ranging-- to understand ground surfaces. Correctly interpreting standing water is always a big challenge for these robots; Oshkosh told War Games it has made excellent progress on that front.
The robotic truck can be manned, tele-operated and programmed to autonomously follow a route or a lead truck. If the lead vehicle in a convoy is attacked, it's easy for the operator to reprogram the truck to follow a new leader.
The TerraMax can be driven by an x-box-like console, and for the soldier managing the robotic convoy it is very similar to using a Blue Force Tracker. It can even set tire inflation, lock configuration, adjust thresholds and range of deviation in obstacle avoidance.
Raider II: a Speedy Robust Robotic Mule
Supersized remote-controlled vehicles are very cool. Robot ones are even cooler. The Raider II is both.
QinetiQ’s cutting-edge UGV Raider II, based on a chassis from Polaris Defense, is an automous mule powered by a 904cc, 24HP engine with a top speed of 35 mph. Operations up to 300 miles can be conducted on its nine-gallon tank that takes diesel often the preferred fuel in theatre. It can carry a 1,750 pound payload and tow a full ton. It can get through those narrow spaces, making this robomule a good choice for pushing and pulling mine rollers.
With a portable control unit, a solider can guide it from as far as a kilometer away. In autonomous mode, it can detect and avoid obstacles, navigate from waypoints and features very cool advanced "follow-me."
The stand out about Raider II is the autonomous security feature: sensors triggered by any approach. Once alerted, soldiers can use the various cameras and thermal sensors to work out whether it's just a curious local child or someone with malintent. An integrated speaker even lets the soldier communicate with the locals in these situations.
Raider II also features a multi-mount winch for self-recovery and helicopter lifting points. The cargo bed has two standard NATO litters and a medical kit, making it useful for not just resupply and reconnaissance but also MEDEVAC.
Surveillance rocks, thinking trucks and supersized remote controlled vehicles -- munchkin and war fighter crowd-pleasers alike.
Ballet dancer turned defense specialist Allison Barrie has travelled around the world covering the military, terrorism, weapons advancements and life on the front line. You can reach her at wargames@foxnews.com or follow her on Twitter @Allison_Barrie.
No Joke: BlackBerry Problems Began With 'The Office'
SLOUGH, England – Talk about a black comedy!
BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion's European hub -- a three-story building where engineers have been racing against the clock to fix an outage that left customers on five continents without email or instant messaging for days -- sits in an estate known to many as the setting for the BBC comedy "The Office."
The series, starring Ricky Gervais as a hapless manager in a paper-making company, mocked the tedium of corporate life in a widely mocked town known for its many roundabouts and concrete car parks.
Slough is the butt of many jokes among Britons. Comedian Jimmy Carr said of his hometown, "I grew up in Slough in the 1970s. If you want to know what Slough was like in the 1970s, go there now."
It's a more an apt location than the company knows: RIM has been the butt of many jokes and the target for worldwide anger over the past several days by business users unable to get their jobs done and consumers unexpectedly disconnected from their digital networks.
In one of thousands of Twitter messages poking fun at RIM, British technology entrepreneur Alan Sugar said: "If the BB server fault is in Slough they need Ricky Gervais to sort it."
It's no joke to smartphone maker RIM, however.
Inside the building, engineers have been racing against the clock to fix an outage that left customers on five continents without email or instant messaging for days.
Stephen Bates, head of its British arm, made an appearance in the office car park to update the media on Thursday, speaking over the roar of buses, trucks and cars passing by on the main road to Heathrow Airport.
"Thousands of people are working around the clock," Bates told Reuters.
He paused as a passing truck driver wound down his window and shouted "BlackBerrys are rubbish." An aide stepped in to say: "We've had a lot of that this week."
The town houses many multinational corporation's European headquarters. Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC opened a European HQ there in June. According to tech news website The Register, personal computer maker Dell also just decided to invest in a new data center in the town.
Nonetheless, Twitter users lamenting the interruption of their BlackBerry services swapped updated versions of a 1937 verse by English poet John Betjeman in which he denounced Slough's industrialization with the line "Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough! It isn't fit for humans now."
The 21st century version? "Come friendly bombs, and fall on Slough, I can't get Blackberry Messenger now."
News wires contributed to this report.
Russian 'Stealth Destroyer' Just a Sales Gimmick?
Russia plans to begin constructing a new generation of "stealth" destroyers in 2012 that will form the backbone of the combat power of Russia's surface fleet, Russian newspaper Pravda reported.
But since much of Russia's income comes from arms sales and exports, that new stealth technology might be simply hype designed to sell boats, Thomas Fedyszyn, director of the Europe-Russia Studies Group at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I. said.
"They're trying to sell this to India, Vietnam, Indonesia … as marketers, they would per force be required to make statements like this," he told FoxNews.com. (His opinions are his own, not that of the Naval War College, the academy noted.)
"The vast majority of warships built today boast stealthy features to one degree or another," agreed James Holmes, a fellow professor at the Naval War College specializing in Asian sea power. The U.S. has built stealthier ships for two decades, he said.
"Russia is already building stealthy ships for the Indian Navy," he told FoxNews.com.
The news echoes the August unveiling of Russia's first stealth fighter -- nearly two decades after the F-22 Raptor was unveiled, the first U.S. prototype stealth jet. Russia similarly described that plane as "the backbone" of the Russian air force, and of India's.
"Russia's cooperation with India on this project will help it promote the fifth-generation jet on the foreign market," Mikhail Pogosyan, president of United Aircraft Corporation, the state aviation holding company, told the RIA Novosti news agency.
Pravda nevertheless touted the technical might planned for the stealth destroyer: Over the next 20 years, the country plans to build 14 to 16 of the new destroyers, which will be outfitted with a variety of weapons, including anti-ships missiles, anti-submarine torpedoes, and cruise and anti-aircraft missiles. And it could replace three different types of vessel.
"It will leave behind large-anti-submarine ships with the help of state-of-the-art hardware. Its assault and anti-aircraft performance will outstrip present-day destroyers and guided-missile cruisers," a source from the Russian defense industry told Russian language newspaper Izvestia.
U.S. experts were less enthusiastic.
"I'm not persuaded that they will revolutionize surface warfare," Fedyszyn told FoxNews.com. "It's probably not a revolutionary stealth technology that makes them invisible to all things at all times," he said.
Russia does consider its navy a symbol of national pride and prestige, Holmes pointed out, clearly a second key motive behind the stealth boat hype.
How stealthy can a 10,000-ton ship be?
The sheer size of such a vessel would make it nearly impossible to make it absolutely invisible to every sensor, experts agreed. The improvements to the new Russian ships -- the exact type of stealth technology was not described -- were likely evolutionary tweaks similar to those put in place by other navies.
Every manufacturer making ships today is adding "stealth" technologies, from rubberized gaskets that silence pumps to softer, less-reflective angles to new materials that absorb radar signals rather than bounce them back.
"Everyone who's building ships these days is changing angles so they don't become radar beacons," Fedyszyn told FoxNews.com. "We build them stealthier than we used to build them."
Another form of stealth lies in heat dissipation. Modern stacks are designed to be cooler than they were made 25 years ago, when manufacturers simply didn't think about preventing a ship from showing up on infrared sensors.
"You have to have a much more powerful radar to pick up a 21st century destroyer than a 20th century destroyer," Fedyszyn added.
Ingalls Shipbuilding, the largest manufacturer of Arleigh Burke class destroyers for the U.S. Navy, has built several tweaks into the latest boats to boost stealth. A spokesman for Ingalls declined FoxNews.com requests for more information.
Invisibility technology is being built into countless military vehicles as well, notably the "invisible tank" being built by BAE Systems. One of the ways that company makes its tanks hide is Adaptiv -- an armor encasing that looks and feels as one imagines a dragon's scales to -- which turns tanks into chameleons, allowing them to disappear into the environment behind them.
That's easy to add to a tank. It's tougher on a destroyer.
"Could they also put in a completely radar absorbent material? Very unlikely," Fedyszyn told FoxNews.com.
The U.S. navy planned a next-generation destroyer of its own; called the Zumwalt class or DDG 1000, it was designed to be even stealthier than current generation destroyers -- and was largely cancelled due to cost overruns.
But that hasn't stopped shipmakers from quieting vessels and limited radar cross sections in every new generation.
"This isn't as big a story as the Pravda piece lets on. We've been incorporating stealth features for twenty years," Holmes told FoxNews.com.