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Time Machines: The military sphere

Welcome to Time Machines, where we offer up a selection of mechanical oddities, milestone gadgets and unique inventions to test out your tech-history skills. If you've ever played the arcade version of Missile Command or used a mechanical mouse, then you've sampled technology that originated in a ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/9DrazNc02o8/
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Ga. man gets life sentence in beating deaths of 8

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — Spared from a possible death sentence by a deal among lawyers, A Georgia man convicted of beating his father and seven others to death inside the mobile home they shared was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Guy Heinze Jr. was sentenced less than a week after a Glynn County jury found him guilty of malice murder for the Aug. 29, 2009, slayings. Prosecutors spared 26-year-old Heinze from a possible death sentence last week as part of a deal with defense attorneys that allowed them to avoid a hung jury.

Under Georgia law, Heinze faced an automatic life sentence once the death penalty was off the table. The only thing Superior Court Judge Stephen Scarlett had to decide was whether the defendant would ever be eligible for parole.

Heinze's attorneys have insisted he is innocent.

In a frantic 911 call made the morning the bodies were discovered, Heinze cried out: "My whole family is dead!"

Heinze's trial almost ended with a hung jury last week during the third day of deliberations. But prosecutors last Friday dropped the death penalty in a deal with Heinze's lawyers to allow the trial judge to dismiss one juror and replace him with an alternate. A guilty verdict was returned four hours later. Afterward, prosecutors said only that there had been "a situation" with the dismissed juror that contributed to the deadlock.

Prosecutors said Heinze had been smoking crack cocaine when he killed his father and the other victims, all members of an extended family. They said he killed the first victim in a dispute over a bottle of prescription painkillers he wanted to steal, then killed the others to avoid getting caught.

Each of the victims died from multiple crushing blows to the head from what police believe was a shotgun barrel, jurors heard. Autopsies showed they suffered a combined total of more than 220 wounds. The murder weapon was never found.

Although the attack happened in the middle of the night and most of the victims were found in bed, defense attorneys argued a single assailant couldn't possibly have inflicted such carnage. They insisted that Heinze would not kill loved ones over a bottle of weak prescription pills and that police ignored evidence and alternate suspects in a rush to accuse him.

Heinze had told police he found the victims' bodies after returning from a late night away from home.

The dead included Heinze's father, Guy Heinze Sr., 45. Rusty Toler Sr., 44, was slain along with his four children: Chrissy Toler, 22; Russell D. Toler Jr., 20; Michael Toler, 19; and Michelle Toler, 15. Also killed was the elder Toler's sister, Brenda Gail Falagan, 49, and Joseph L. West, the 30-year-old boyfriend of Chrissy Toler. Her 3-year-old son, Byron Jimerson Jr., ended up the sole survivor but suffered severe head injuries.

Heinze told police his father went to live with the elder Toler's family when they were both teenagers. The suspect said he considered Rusty Toler Sr. to be his uncle, and the man's children were his cousins.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-31-Mobile%20Home%20Slayings/id-6c59fb2807e44cd69bf71f116f9fbefd
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Pregnant women with hepatitis C may pass heartier viral strain to newborns, study suggests

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

28-Oct-2013

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Contact: Mary Ellen Peacock
maryellen.peacock@nationwidechildrens.org
614-355-0495
Nationwide Children's Hospital

Infants who get hepatitis C from their mothers during childbirth may inherit a viral strain that replicates more quickly than strains found in non-pregnant hosts, according to a new study published Oct. 27 in Nature Medicine. The findings, from a team in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, are the first to describe how a virus that has infected 180 million people worldwide takes advantage of immune changes during pregnancy.

About 1 percent of all pregnant women worldwide have hepatitis C, caused by a highly adaptable virus known as HCV that infects liver cells. In 3 to 5 percent of these pregnancies, the virus is passed to the newborns, accounting for the majority of new childhood HCV infections. Between 15 and 45 percent of people infected with HCV are able to mount an immune response sufficient to eradicate the virus. But in most cases, the virus eludes immunity, leading to a chronic infection that increases the risk of liver failure or liver cancer.

As part of a larger study of HCV in pregnant women and infants, researchers at Nationwide Children's followed two women with hepatitis C over a five-year period. Both women had two children during this time, and researchers were able to track the virus before, during and after pregnancy. Their analysis revealed surprising changes in HCV genomes that not only allowed the virus to thrive, but also ensured that the strain passed on by one of the women during childbirth was particularly good at replication, says Jonathan R. Honegger, MD, an infectious disease specialist and principal investigator in the Center for Vaccines and Immunity at Nationwide Children's.

"We found that better replicating versions of the virus emerged during pregnancy, and these 'fit' viruses were passed to the babies." Dr. Honegger says. "The findings actually provide unique insight into the impact of pregnancy on the mothers' control of viral infections, and also a striking illustration of this virus' ability to adapt to changing environmental pressures."

HCV persists in the general population, in part, because the virus outwits the immune system with mutations that can render it undetectable to CD8+ T-cells, important weapons in the body's antiviral immune arsenal. Although these viral variationscalled immune escape mutationsprotect the virus from attack by T-cells, they sometimes slow the virus replication machinery.

During pregnancy, T-cells are restrained to prevent the body from attacking the fetus as foreign tissue. Viral levels of HCV have also been known to increase during pregnancy, but whether this was related to changes in T-cell function was unknown. Working closely with Chris Walker, director of the Center for Vaccines and Immunity, and colleagues at Emory University and the University of North Carolina, Dr. Honegger found that during pregnancy, certain T-cell escape mutations were lost, resulting in a virus that could replicate far more quickly.

"This surprised us because the virus' immune escape mutations are usually stable in a patient," Dr. Honegger says. "The loss of these immune escape mutations from HCV during pregnancy provided strong evidence that the immune changes of pregnancy, intended to protect the fetus, significantly impaired the ability of CD8+ T-cells to exert pressure on the virus."

Loss of the escape mutations also meant that the babies got a version of the virus that was optimized for viral replication, Dr. Honegger adds. In the children they studied, the virus persisted and did not mutate in a way to suggest that it was under significant attack by their CD8+ T-cells.

"We don't yet know whether getting the fast-replicating, immune-susceptible version of the virus would be an advantage for the baby or the virus," says Dr. Honegger, who also is an assistant professor of pediatrics at The Ohio State University. "We suspect that if the baby doesn't mount a swift and strong immune response, then fast viral replication may increase the risk of persistent infection in the baby."

On the other hand, viral loads in the mothers dropped more than 1,000 fold by 12 weeks after delivery and viral genetic analysis showed that immune escape mutations had returned. "We interpreted this to mean that T-cell activity against hepatitis C in the liver increased sharply after delivery," Dr. Honegger says.

Researchers now are following a larger group of pregnant women with HCV, hoping to learn more about how viral mutations affect the way the body controls hepatitis C in pregnant women and infants.

"We believe that better understanding of the natural history of the infection in these patients will be critical for designing rational strategies to treat or prevent HCV in these populations."

###

Full citation: Honegger JR, Kim S, Price AA, Kohout JA, McKnight KL, Prasad MR, Lemon SM, Grakoui A, Walker CM. Loss of Immune Escape Mutations During Persistent HCV Infection in Pregnancy Enhances Replication of Vertically Transmitted Viruses. Nature Medicine. 2013 Oct 27. doi: 10.1038/nm.3351 [Epub ahead of print]

Funding: This work was supported by the US National Institutes of Health (R37-AI47367 to C.W, R56-AI096882 and R01-AI096882 to C.W and J.H., RO1-DA024565 and R01-AI95690 to S.L., R01-AI070101 and R01-DK083356 to A.G., T32-HD043003 and K12-HD043372 to J.H., and the Yerkes Research Center Base Grant P51RR-000165 (A.G.)), The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital (C.W. and J.H.), and the University of North Carolina University Cancer Research Fund (S.L.).

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

28-Oct-2013

[ | E-mail ] Share

Contact: Mary Ellen Peacock
maryellen.peacock@nationwidechildrens.org
614-355-0495
Nationwide Children's Hospital

Infants who get hepatitis C from their mothers during childbirth may inherit a viral strain that replicates more quickly than strains found in non-pregnant hosts, according to a new study published Oct. 27 in Nature Medicine. The findings, from a team in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, are the first to describe how a virus that has infected 180 million people worldwide takes advantage of immune changes during pregnancy.

About 1 percent of all pregnant women worldwide have hepatitis C, caused by a highly adaptable virus known as HCV that infects liver cells. In 3 to 5 percent of these pregnancies, the virus is passed to the newborns, accounting for the majority of new childhood HCV infections. Between 15 and 45 percent of people infected with HCV are able to mount an immune response sufficient to eradicate the virus. But in most cases, the virus eludes immunity, leading to a chronic infection that increases the risk of liver failure or liver cancer.

As part of a larger study of HCV in pregnant women and infants, researchers at Nationwide Children's followed two women with hepatitis C over a five-year period. Both women had two children during this time, and researchers were able to track the virus before, during and after pregnancy. Their analysis revealed surprising changes in HCV genomes that not only allowed the virus to thrive, but also ensured that the strain passed on by one of the women during childbirth was particularly good at replication, says Jonathan R. Honegger, MD, an infectious disease specialist and principal investigator in the Center for Vaccines and Immunity at Nationwide Children's.

"We found that better replicating versions of the virus emerged during pregnancy, and these 'fit' viruses were passed to the babies." Dr. Honegger says. "The findings actually provide unique insight into the impact of pregnancy on the mothers' control of viral infections, and also a striking illustration of this virus' ability to adapt to changing environmental pressures."

HCV persists in the general population, in part, because the virus outwits the immune system with mutations that can render it undetectable to CD8+ T-cells, important weapons in the body's antiviral immune arsenal. Although these viral variationscalled immune escape mutationsprotect the virus from attack by T-cells, they sometimes slow the virus replication machinery.

During pregnancy, T-cells are restrained to prevent the body from attacking the fetus as foreign tissue. Viral levels of HCV have also been known to increase during pregnancy, but whether this was related to changes in T-cell function was unknown. Working closely with Chris Walker, director of the Center for Vaccines and Immunity, and colleagues at Emory University and the University of North Carolina, Dr. Honegger found that during pregnancy, certain T-cell escape mutations were lost, resulting in a virus that could replicate far more quickly.

"This surprised us because the virus' immune escape mutations are usually stable in a patient," Dr. Honegger says. "The loss of these immune escape mutations from HCV during pregnancy provided strong evidence that the immune changes of pregnancy, intended to protect the fetus, significantly impaired the ability of CD8+ T-cells to exert pressure on the virus."

Loss of the escape mutations also meant that the babies got a version of the virus that was optimized for viral replication, Dr. Honegger adds. In the children they studied, the virus persisted and did not mutate in a way to suggest that it was under significant attack by their CD8+ T-cells.

"We don't yet know whether getting the fast-replicating, immune-susceptible version of the virus would be an advantage for the baby or the virus," says Dr. Honegger, who also is an assistant professor of pediatrics at The Ohio State University. "We suspect that if the baby doesn't mount a swift and strong immune response, then fast viral replication may increase the risk of persistent infection in the baby."

On the other hand, viral loads in the mothers dropped more than 1,000 fold by 12 weeks after delivery and viral genetic analysis showed that immune escape mutations had returned. "We interpreted this to mean that T-cell activity against hepatitis C in the liver increased sharply after delivery," Dr. Honegger says.

Researchers now are following a larger group of pregnant women with HCV, hoping to learn more about how viral mutations affect the way the body controls hepatitis C in pregnant women and infants.

"We believe that better understanding of the natural history of the infection in these patients will be critical for designing rational strategies to treat or prevent HCV in these populations."

###

Full citation: Honegger JR, Kim S, Price AA, Kohout JA, McKnight KL, Prasad MR, Lemon SM, Grakoui A, Walker CM. Loss of Immune Escape Mutations During Persistent HCV Infection in Pregnancy Enhances Replication of Vertically Transmitted Viruses. Nature Medicine. 2013 Oct 27. doi: 10.1038/nm.3351 [Epub ahead of print]

Funding: This work was supported by the US National Institutes of Health (R37-AI47367 to C.W, R56-AI096882 and R01-AI096882 to C.W and J.H., RO1-DA024565 and R01-AI95690 to S.L., R01-AI070101 and R01-DK083356 to A.G., T32-HD043003 and K12-HD043372 to J.H., and the Yerkes Research Center Base Grant P51RR-000165 (A.G.)), The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital (C.W. and J.H.), and the University of North Carolina University Cancer Research Fund (S.L.).

---

[ | E-mail Share ]

 

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/nch-pww102813.php
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Will Spying Tank U.S.-Europe Relationship?

Another day, another round of controversy about the NSA surveillance of foreign leaders. Will the White House have a response to the outrage voiced by Europeans and others?

Copyright © 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I'm Audie Cornish.

European leaders are meeting in Belgium today and they're fuming over revelations that the U.S. has spied on some of its closest allies. The Guardian newspaper cites documents from the leaker Edward Snowden, saying the U.S. eavesdropped on 35 world leaders.

As NPR's Ari Shapiro says, the White House is now trying hard to blunt the damage from these reports.

ARI SHAPIRO, BYLINE: When President Obama first took office he said one of his top priorities was rebuilding relationships with allies in Europe.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: In recent years, we've allowed our alliance to drift.

SHAPIRO: This was Strasbourg four years ago.

OBAMA: Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you, to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive.

SHAPIRO: Initially the courtship work, says International Relations Professor Chris Brown from the London School of Economics.

CHRIS BROWN: You could see this in all sorts of ways. I mean one obvious way would be the award of the Nobel Prize before he's actually done anything for peace.

SHAPIRO: But it didn't take long for Obama's sheen to dim when viewed from across the Atlantic. The president often said his primary focus was Asia, not Europe. And relationships worsened in a series of foreign crises, most recently Obama's back-and-forth over whether to strike Syria.

Mark Leonard directs the European Council on Foreign Relations.

MARK LEONARD: He has had some difficult run-ins with the (unintelligible) with lots of European countries. So on Syria, for example, the French president really did feel like he was hung out to dry by the vacillations in American policy.

SHAPIRO: And now the spying revelations appear to be the biggest blow to the alliance since President Obama took office. French President Francoise Hollande complained to the White House this week, after reports that the National Security Agency intercepted millions of calls and text messages from French people. German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to President Obama personally after reports that the NSA eavesdropped on her cell phone.

At a meeting of European leaders in Brussels this morning, Merkel said through an interpreter: The incident has severely shaken relations with the U.S.

CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL: (Through translator) This is not about me. It's about every citizen. We need to have trust in our allies and partners. And this trust now has to be rebuilt.

BROWN: There's a certain amount of posturing going on here.

SHAPIRO: Chris Brown, of the London School of Economics, says world leaders were not unaware that countries, even allies, spy on one another.

BROWN: But French and German public opinion is very upset by it. And so, the German government and the French government are going through expressions of outrage.

SHAPIRO: Today the administration responded to those expressions of outrage with an op-ed in USA Today. President Obama's counterterrorism adviser, Lisa Monaco, described an intelligence policy review that's underway, to make sure safety and security needs are balanced against the privacy concerns.

She writes: We want to ensure we are collecting information because we need it and not just because we can.

Ari Shapiro, NPR News, the White House.

Copyright © 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=240823221&ft=1&f=1004
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VIDEO: World Series Smackdown, Symphony Style

Boston Symphony Orchestra/YouTube

We could do another World Series preview, like Eyder's "Sox Vs. Cards: 5 Things To Know About The World Series" post from Monday.

We could simply remind everyone that Game 1 of the series between the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals is set for tonight (Wednesday), that game time is 8:07 p.m. ET and that it's being broadcast on Fox.

From 'Morning Edition': NPR's Mike Pesca previews the World Series

We could focus, as NPR's Mike Pesca did earlier today on Morning Edition, on the Cardinals' "steady efficiency" and the Red Sox' "sheer talent."

Or we could suggest everyone check out the interactive graphic The Associated Press has put together to have some fun with the "faces behind the whiskers" that many of the Boston players have grown.

Yes, we could (and maybe just did) do all that.

But if you'll allow us, we'll embrace our NPRishness and suggest that the best World Series-related thing out there today is a video smackdown put together by the brass sections of the Boston and St. Louis symphony orchestras.

Our friends at St. Louis Public Radio say it's what you get when you have "creative professional musicians from two baseball-crazy cities and add a World Series matchup."

As you'll see, they talk some trash — and combine on a medley of "Anything You Can Do" and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/23/240250027/video-world-series-smackdown-symphony-style?ft=1&f=
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Bears QB Cutler Out At Redskins With Groin Injury

LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler injured his groin while being sacked in the second quarter against the Washington Redskins on Sunday, and he was ruled out for the rest of the game.

Cutler stayed down on the ground for a few minutes, and clutched at the top of his left leg after he was tackled by 333-pound nose tackle Chris Baker with about 10 minutes left in the first half.

Cutler eventually got up and limped off the field. He soon was walking gingerly along the sideline toward the visitors' locker room.

Chicago's backup quarterback, Josh McCown, came in to replace Cutler. It was McCown's first appearance in a regular-season NFL game since 2011.

When Cutler left — on Baker's first career sack — the Redskins were leading 17-10. The hosts were still ahead at halftime, 24-17, with Chicago adding points on Devin Hester's 81-yard punt return for a touchdown.

Initially, the Bears announced that Cutler's return was "questionable," but at halftime, they ruled him out for the day.

Before leaving, Cutler was 3 for 8 for 28 yards and an interception that was returned 29 yards by linebacker Brian Orakpo for a touchdown.

By halftime, McCown had thrown only one pass, which fell incomplete. He ran twice for 10 yards.

Cutler came into Sunday's game with a 95.2 passer rating and 1,630 yards passing, along with 12 touchdown passes and six interceptions. He earned a 100-plus passer rating in each of Chicago's previous two games and was seeking to top that mark for a third consecutive game within a season for the first time since 2009.

___

Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich

___

AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=238477850&ft=1&f=
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Congress votes to end shutdown, avoid US default

WASHINGTON (AP) — Up against a deadline, Congress passed and sent a waiting President Barack Obama legislation late Wednesday night to avoid a threatened national default and end the 16-day partial government shutdown, the culmination of an epic political drama that placed the U.S. economy at risk.

The Senate voted first, a bipartisan 81-18 at midevening. That cleared the way for a final 285-144 vote in the Republican-controlled House about two hours later on the legislation, which hewed strictly to the terms Obama laid down when the twin crises erupted more than three weeks ago.

The legislation would permit the Treasury to borrow normally through Feb. 7 or perhaps a month longer, and fund the government through Jan. 15. More than 2 million federal workers would be paid — those who had remained on the job and those who had been furloughed.

After the Senate approved the measure, Obama hailed the vote and said he would sign it immediately after it reached his desk. "We'll begin reopening our government immediately and we can begin to lift this cloud of uncertainty from our businesses and the American people."

Later, in the House, Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., said, "After two long weeks, it is time to end this government shutdown. It's time to take the threat of default off the table. It's time to restore some sanity to this place."

The stock market surged higher at the prospect of an end to the crisis that also had threatened to shake confidence in the U.S. economy overseas.

Republicans conceded defeat after a long struggle. "We fought the good fight. We just didn't win," conceded House Speaker John Boehner as lawmakers lined up to vote on a bill that includes nothing for GOP lawmakers who had demand to eradicate or scale back Obama's signature health care overhaul.

"The compromise we reached will provide our economy with the stability it desperately needs," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, declaring that the nation "came to the brink of disaster" before sealing an agreement.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who negotiated the deal with Reid, emphasized that it preserved a round of spending cuts negotiated two years ago with Obama and Democrats. As a result, he said, "government spending has declined for two years in a row" for the first time since the Korean War. "And we're not going back on this agreement," he added.

Only a temporary truce, the measure set a time frame of early this winter for the next likely clash between Obama and the Republicans over spending and borrowing.

But for now, government was lurching back to life. Within moments of the House's vote, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, director of the Office of Management and Budget, issued a statement saying "employees should expect to return to work in the morning."

After weeks of gridlock, the measure had support from the White House, most if not all Democrats in Congress and many Republicans fearful of the economic impact of a default.

Boehner and the rest of the top GOP leadership told their rank and file in advance they would vote for the measure. In the end, Republicans split 144 against and 87 in favor. All 198 voting Democrats were supporters.

Final passage came in plenty of time to assure Obama's signature before the administration's 11:59 p.m. Thursday deadline.

That was when Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said the government would reach the current $16.7 trillion debt limit and could no longer borrow to meet its obligations.

Tea party-aligned lawmakers who triggered the shutdown that began on Oct. 1 said they would vote against the legislation. Significantly, though, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and others agreed not to use the Senate's cumbersome 18th-century rules to slow the bill's progress.

In remarks on the Senate floor, Cruz said the measure was "a terrible deal" and criticized fellow Republicans for lining up behind it.

McConnell made no mention of the polls showing that the shutdown and flirtation with default have sent Republicans' public approval plummeting and have left the party badly split nationally as well as in his home state of Kentucky. He received a prompt reminder, though.

"When the stakes are highest Mitch McConnell can always be counted on to sell out conservatives," said Matt Bevin, who is challenging the party leader from the right in a 2014 election primary.

More broadly, national tea party groups and their allies underscored the internal divide. The Club for Growth urged lawmakers to vote against the congressional measure, and said it would factor in the organization's decision when it decides which candidates to support in midterm elections next year.

"There are no significant changes to Obamacare, nothing on the other major entitlements that are racked with trillions in unfunded liabilities, and no meaningful spending cuts either. If this bill passes, Congress will kick the can down the road, yet again," the group said.

Even so, support for Boehner appeared solid inside his fractious rank and file. "There are no plots, plans or rumblings that I know of. And I was part of one in January, so I'd probably be on the whip list for that," said Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce came out in favor of the bill.

Simplicity at the end, there was next to nothing in the agreement beyond authorization for the Treasury to resume borrowing and funding for the government to reopen.

House and Senate negotiators are to meet this fall to see if progress is possible on a broad deficit-reduction compromise of the type that has proved elusive in the current era of divided government.

Additionally, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is to be required to produce a report stating that her agency is capable of verifying the incomes of individuals who apply for federal subsidies under the health care law known as Obamacare.

Obama had insisted repeatedly he would not pay "ransom" by yielding to Republican demands for significant changes to the health care overhaul in exchange for funding the government and permitting Treasury the borrowing latitude to pay the nation's bills.

Other issues fell by the wayside in a final deal, including a Republican proposal for the suspension of a medical device tax in Obamacare and a Democratic call to delay a fee on companies for everyone who receives health coverage under an employer-sponsored plan.

The gradual withering of Republicans' Obamacare-related demands defined the arc of the struggle that has occupied virtually all of Congress' time for the past three weeks.

The shutdown began on Oct. 1 after Cruz and his tea party allies in the House demanded the defunding of the health care law as a trade for providing essential government funding.

Obama and Reid refused, then refused again and again as Boehner gradually scaled back Republican demands.

The shutdown initially idled about 800,000 workers, but that soon fell to about 350,000 after Congress agreed to let furloughed Pentagon employees return to work. While there was widespread inconvenience, the mail was delivered, Medicare continued to pay doctors who treated seniors and there was no interruption in Social Security benefits.

Still, national parks were closed to the detriment of tourists and local businesses, government research scientists were sent home and Food and Drug Administration inspectors worked only sporadically.

___

Associated Press writers Donna Cassata, Alan Fram, Andrew Taylor, Henry C. Jackson, Bradley Klapper, Laurie Kellman, Julie Pace and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this story.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/congress-votes-end-shutdown-avoid-us-default-023746599--finance.html
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'Agents of SHIELD' Recap: One Big Thing About 'Eye-Spy'

[Warning: This contains spoilers from Tuesday night's episode of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD.]

We've spent three episodes with Coulson's ragtag band of go-getters, waiting for them to go and get a show worth Season Pass-ing. And, finally...

This Is How We Do It

The best Joss Whedon shows are about family. (Yes, you could say all Joss Whedon shows are about family, but no matter how many times Adele would refer to her “house,” nothing about the Dollhouse cast felt familial.) But every family has its share of friction, of static. There is always going to be the goofy brother (Xander) or the uncle no one likes but keeps inviting to dinner (Jayne) or the vampire that got his soul back and really likes punching puppets (Spike). But families — especially when everyone is grown — never get along all of the time.

And one of the problems of the first three episodes of Agents of SHIELD was that the ad hoc family that Joss and Jed of the House of Whedon, and Maurissa Tancheroen (who married into the House of Whedon), created had no tension. Everyone liked each other, well enough. Skye and Ward were so thin as characters, that what differences they had didn’t register. And no one challenged Coulson’s leadership – save Nick Fury (Samuel J. Jackson), in a cameo.

But with this episode (written by Jeffrey Bell; and the first not written by someone related to Joss), this show feels the way it should. There was real conflict within the team, specifically between Melinda May (Ming-na Wen) and Coulson. The “monster of the week” was new and different and personal and horrific – the girl with the X-ray eyes, Akela Amadour (Pascale Armand). The plotting was fast, smart and surprising. Skye (Chloe Bennet) had an actual reason to be involved in the drama (even if her, “Hey, A.C. … here’s where I’m gonna come into your office, drop some unrequested character backstory and then leave,” was kind of ridiculous). There was a hint of a real Big Bad, aside from the always-ludicrous Rising Tide, which Agents of SHIELD has been sorely lacking.

And Clark Gregg’s Agent Coulson was at the center of the action, where he should be, and the episode revolved around him as he revisited past sins in ways that forced May to call him on his bullshit.

PHOTOS: Two-Timing Superheroes: Ben Affleck and 10 Actors Who've Played Multiple Comic Characters

If I had to pick nits, here are a mere couple:

I would’ve found the “Ward has to seduce a burly Russian” far more interesting if he actually had to seduce the burly Russian. Why isn’t that a legitimate thing that spies would have to deal with? And why couldn’t Ward have done it in a fashion that doesn’t scream of gay panic? Don’t play it for humor, don’t play the “Ewww, I had to kiss a guy!” — and it would've sold Ward as the professional operator he keeps claiming to be.

I know it’s something they’re saving, but I really wanted someone with X-ray vision to take a good look at Coulson. They intimate as much when Akela asks, “He’s different. What did they do to him?” The secret of Coulson isn’t one that can last forever. And, given that the Nerds on the Bus now have X-ray specs, too, it’ll come out eventually. But I was hoping that it’d really start coming out here.

Line of the week comes from Skye: “Did you never learn that boy parts and girl parts are different? And our parts aren’t penises?”

Tune in later to see what the Sage and Fastidious Jim Steranko (@iamsteranko) thought.

E-mail: Marc.Bernardin@THR.com
Twitter: @marcbernardin

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FISA court renews NSA permission to collect call metadata

News that the NSA collects bulk phone call metadata (phone numbers, call times and duration) from Verizon and other backbone providers initially leaked out in June. Since then PRISM, Edward Snowden and any number of other national security related topics have been in the spotlight, and the new focus ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/4Tq6mj8yI8E/
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TMI Alert! Suzanne Somers Reveals She Does The Nasty Twice A Day! (VIDEO)

Suzanne Somers, who most of us remember as spunky Chrissy on “Three’s Company” back in the day, is now 66-years-old but she still has a very active sex life.

Suzanne appeared on “The Talk” this week and revealed she and her 77-year-old husband, Alan Hamel, normally have sex two times a day. You go girl!

We realize there are people out there cringing at the thought of older people with active sex lives, but we’re impressed!

Suzanne Somers told the ladies at “The Talk”, “[We have sex] a couple times a day… I’m going to be so sorry I said that…He’s on hormones and I’m on hormones. What is it about men at four in the morning? There’s some love at four in the morning and then I’m really awake at eight or so…we have busy mornings!”

Somers’ remarks came after Miley Cyrus appeared on the “Today” show and said couples don’t have sex after the age of 40.

She told Matt Lauer, “I heard when you turn 40, things start to go a little less sexual… So probably around 40, around that time, I heard that’s when people don’t have sex anymore.”

Lauer laughed and said, “Don’t say that”.

Suzanne Somers and Alan Hamel have been together for 46 years and married for 36!

Click thumbnails for larger pictures

Images: wenn.com

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