Newtown Shooting: Bushmaster Under Fire

When the private investment firm Cerberus Capital Management announced Tuesday it would unload its interest in Bushmaster – the company that built the weapon used in last week's mass murder of 20 Connecticut first graders -- it marked the beginning of what experts say is likely to be a challenging period for the North Carolina-based weapons manufacturer.

"They are looking at a taint on their brand and looking at a marketplace that could change dramatically with respect to their weapon," said Chris Lehane, a crisis public relations expert who worked in the Clinton White House. "To me the fact that Cerberus is pulling out is a pretty significant defining moment."

For years, Bushmaster has been marketing itself to testosterone-fueled male customers, issuing "man cards" to customers who want to be "card carrying men." Now, Lehane and others said the company is facing the prospect of being branded the weapon of choice for mass killers. The Newtown, Connecticut shooting marked the fourth time a Bushmaster has been implicated in a mass shooting since 1999, including the Beltway sniper case that left 10 dead and three more wounded.

Cerberus announced Tuesday it wanted distance from Bushmaster, calling the murder of 20 first grade children at Sandy Hook Elementary School a "watershed event." The investment firm, which is chaired by former Vice President Dan Quayle, noted in its statement that Bushmaster may not be an investment consistent with the interests of its clients. Its investors include the pension plans of firemen, teachers, and policemen.

Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo

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Lehane said the announcement could signal a shift in the way investors view companies that make military style weapons for a civilian market.

"It reminds me of the time when tobacco began to be associated with a negative light, or the divestiture movement surrounding companies in South Africa," he said. "Where financial markets believe they are going to pay a price."

In addition, a spokesman for Cerberus Group confirmed that the father of Stephen Feinberg, the founder of Cerberus Group, lives in Newtown.

Gun control groups have also lined up to criticize the weapons manufacturer, arguing that the company was selling civilian customers a weapon clearly designed for war.

"This thing is just a killing machine," said Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "[I]t's a weapon that can easily shoot hundreds of … In fact it's very similar to the weapon that James Holmes used to shoot up the movie theater in Aurora."

The company has not responded to phone calls seeking comment, but gun enthusiasts say the weapon's menacing appearance can appeal to civilians looking for a means to secure their homes, and its ease of use can appeal to those looking for a weapon for target shooting.

"The [assault rifle] platform is the most popular in the country," said Frank Cornwall, a firearms instructor in Connecticut. "Civilians have always bought similar type arms to the military. And this is a very versatile platform. Quite a popular hunting and target shooting gun."

Phillip Stutts, a crisis management consultant who worked for President George W. Bush, said he has been surprised by the silence of the gun manufacturer.

"Bushmaster doesn't have to take responsibility for this tragedy, but they have a responsibility to respond to this tragedy," he said. "And they haven't. They have to get out in front of this. It needs to be corrected ASAP."

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Fungal frog killer hops into crayfish

Crayfish are vulnerable to the same fungus that is killing frogs all over the world. The discovery helps explain how the disease spreads even after all the amphibians in an area have been wiped out. Worryingly, chemicals released by the fungus may alone be enough to kill.

Taegan McMahon of the University of South Florida, Tampa, and colleagues discovered infected crayfish in field surveys in Louisiana and Colorado. They found that up to 29 per cent of the animals carried the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Lab studies proved that crayfish can become infected and die, the first time this has been shown in non-amphibians.

Infected crayfish can pass the disease to tadpoles, and crayfish exposed to water from which the fungus had been filtered still died. McMahon says the distribution of crayfish around the world may explain why the fungus is so widespread.

She adds that it is "is certainly possible" that other invertebrates might carry the fungus. Her team are currently investigating this and are working on possible ways to stop the spread of the toxin.

"It's very compelling, their evidence for crayfish as a disease vector and for a toxic effect secreted in the water," says Trenton Garner at London's Institute of Zoology.

PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1200592110

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US schools yearn for security 'bubble' after shooting

WASHINGTON: Except in tragedy-hit Newtown, pupils returned to class around the United States on Monday, three days after an elementary school shooting massacre that triggered debate over school security.

Parents and teachers alike are intent now more than ever on making sure the "protective bubble" at schools is impenetrable to outside threats.

At Kensington Parkwood Elementary School just outside Washington, visitors must show credentials to enter the institution.

Just like any school day of the year, each student, each parent and each teacher -- even the principal -- must go through the main entrance's secured doors and check in with staff.

Unlike other institutions in the United States, where police and extra security guards have been deployed following the shooting that left 20 young children and six adults dead, the Kensington school is seeking a sense of normalcy.

"Today is a usual day," stressed school principal Barbara Liess. "Routine is one thing that's important for kids. That's how you build trust, that's how you build a sense of comfort."

Many parents have opted not to discuss the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, whose child victims saw their innocent lives cut short at just six or seven years old.

"My six-year-old understands that things happen in life; people come, people go, things live, things die, people live, people die, but it's just something I don't think they need to be exposed to," said Kensington parent Dori Matalia.

The school will follow guidance from education officials in Maryland's Montgomery County to avoid addressing the subject in class, unless individual students want to discuss the matter with a psychologist made available to them.

As with their peers across the nation, Kensington Parkwood students started the school day by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance -- an expression of loyalty to the nation -- with their right hands on their hearts, then heard the principal on closed circuit television.

But this morning is not exactly like all the others. Liess chose to remind students that "doors need to keep closed all the time... need to stay locked" and that "nobody can enter the building without going through the office."

Like Liess, other school administrators sent notices over the weekend to assure parents they were "committed" to the safety of students and their families.

St. Peter School in Washington said it had "carefully thought-out safety policies and procedures" in place to respond to emergencies, designed to respond to a variety of emergencies.

"Though I pray we never have to use it for such a situation, our Code Red is a lock-down response intended to prepare the community for a crisis much like the one that occurred (Friday) in Connecticut," St. Peter officials wrote to parents.

Kensington Parkwood plans to go through a security drill toward the end of the week when the school will be in lockdown. The drills usually take place four times per year, along with others to protect against hurricane threats.

Children are told to hide in cubbies or under their desks, and to keep quiet to make the building seem empty.

"Of course, this is an example of how horrific things can happen. But in general, school is the safest place for kids to be," said Liess.

"It would be great if every kid would be surrounded by a protective bubble and nothing could ever happen to them, but it's not reality. But as much as possible, that's what we create here."

Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, wondered how far a society like that in the United States, which cherishes its freedoms, could go.

"The school was doing everything right, the school was actually locked down," he said. "Even so, it's not enough to deter an individual that intends to break in the school while shooting... unless you turn schools into prisons with metal detectors.'

Domenech said the many shooting tragedies that have scarred the nation boil down to a "societal issue" about gun control and awareness of mental illness and potential violence.

- AFP/ck

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SpongeBob disappears from app store after privacy criticism

SpongeBob Diner Dash was pulled from Apple's app store after a complaint was filed claiming it violated children's online privacy.

(Credit:
Nickelodeon)

Anyone wanting to download the SpongeBob Diner Dash game from Apple's
iTunes app store today is out of luck.

Nickelodeon has removed the app from the store after an advocacy group filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission alleging the game violated children's online privacy rights by collecting their e-mail addresses without parents' permission.

According to the Center for Digital Democracy, which filed the complaint earlier today, cable network Nickelodeon and mobile game-maker PlayFirst are misleadingly marketing the game and are violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

SpongeBob Diner Dash is a free app marketed to children, in which popular cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants must "seat, serve and satisfy even the squirmiest of patrons" and cater to the greedy Mr. Krabs.

Apparently, the game is collecting users' e-mail addresses with promises of sending them a future newsletter. It does not ask for a home address or phone number. According to the New York Times, the app description said it gathered "personal user data as well as nonpersonal user data" and "user data collection is in accordance with applicable law, such as COPPA."

However, the Center for Digital Democracy says that the app does not provide "notice to parents or obtain prior parental consent, as required by the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act." Technically, COPPA only applies to children under 13 years old, so many app makers get around this issue by saying they're targeting older children.

The Center for Digital Democracy's complaint comes on the heels of a FTC report on mobile apps for children that was published last week. The report states that there is "little or no" privacy information available to parents from app vendors or in the
Android Google Play and Apple iOS app stores. It also found that "only 20 percent of the apps staff reviewed disclosed any information about the app's privacy practices."

The complaint filed by the Center for Digital Democracy with the FTC will probably not have any legal affect since the FTC does not have processes to file lawsuits. Instead, the complaint acts as letter that is urging the commission to investigate the privacy practices of the SpongeBob Diner Dash game.

"The FTC [needs to] take action to ensure that all companies targeting mobile apps to kids are complying with the law," attorney Laura Moy at Georgetown Law's Institute for Public Representation, which prepared the complaint on behalf of the Center for Digital Democracy, said in a statement.

This isn't the first complaint regarding a children's game that the advocacy group has lodged with the FTC. Last week, the game Mobbles was pulled from both the Apple App and
Google Android Play stores after the Center for Digital Democracy filed a similar complaint with the FTC. According to the advocacy group, the geolocation game in which children collect and care for virtual pets, also collected e-mail addresses without parental consent.

CNET contacted Nickelodeon for comment. We'll update the story when we get more information.

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GRAIL Mission Goes Out With a Bang

Jane J. Lee

On Friday, December 14, NASA sent their latest moon mission into a death spiral. Rocket burns nudged GRAIL probes Ebb and Flow into a new orbit designed to crash them into the side of a mountain near the moon's north pole today at around 2:28 p.m. Pacific standard time. NASA named the crash site after late astronaut Sally Ride, America's first woman in space.

Although the mountain is located on the nearside of the moon, there won't be any pictures because the area will be shadowed, according to a statement from NASA' Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

Originally sent to map the moon's gravity field, Ebb and Flow join a long list of man-made objects that have succumbed to a deadly lunar attraction. Decades of exploration have left a trail of debris intentionally crashed, accidentally hurtled, or deliberately left on the moon's surface. Some notable examples include:

Ranger 4 - Part of NASA's first attempt to snap close-up pictures of the moon, the Ranger program did not start off well. Rangers 1 through 6 all failed, although Ranger 4, launched April 23, 1962, did make it as far as the moon. Sadly, onboard computer failures kept number 4 from sending back any pictures before it crashed. (See a map of all artifacts on the moon.)

Fallen astronaut statue - This 3.5-inch-tall aluminum figure commemorates the 14 astronauts and cosmonauts who had died prior to the Apollo 15 mission. That crew left it behind in 1971, and NASA wasn't aware of what the astronauts had done until a post-flight press conference.

Lunar yard sale - Objects jettisoned by Apollo crews over the years include a television camera, earplugs, two "urine collection assemblies," and tools that include tongs and a hammer. Astronauts left them because they needed to shed weight in order to make it back to Earth on their remaining fuel supply, said archivist Colin Fries of the NASA History Program Office.

Luna 10 - A Soviet satellite that crashed after successfully orbiting the moon, Luna 10 was the first man-made object to orbit a celestial body other than Earth. Its Russian controllers had programmed it to broadcast the Communist anthem "Internationale" live to the Communist Party Congress on April 4, 1966. Worried that the live broadcast could fail, they decided to broadcast a recording of the satellite's test run the night before—a fact they revealed 30 years later.

Radio Astronomy Explorer B - The U.S. launched this enormous instrument, also known as Explorer 49, into a lunar orbit in 1973. At 600 feet (183 meters) across, it's the largest man-made object to enter orbit around the moon. Researchers sent it into its lunar orbit so it could take measurements of the planets, the sun, and the galaxy free from terrestrial radio interference. NASA lost contact with the satellite in 1977, and it's presumed to have crashed into the moon.

(Learn about lunar exploration.)

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Newtown Boy Remembered as 'Old Soul'

Dec 17, 2012 6:02pm

Family of Daniel Barden, who died in the Connecticut school shootings. From left, his brother James, 12, and his parents, Mark and Jackie. (Image Credit: ABC)

Though he was only in first grade, Daniel Barden was very much an “old soul,” his family said today.  He was one of the 20 children who died Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

At the age of 4, he displayed an empathy for others remarkable for a child so young.  It didn’t go unnoticed — teachers chose Daniel to be paired with a special education student at his school.

PHOTOS: Connecticut Shooting Victims

His mother, Jackie Barden, said she was always struck by “how unusual he was.”

“Our neighbors always said, ‘He’s like an old soul,’” Barden said during an interview on “Katie.”

He carried that kindness with him as he got older.

“He would hold doors open for adults all the time,” said his father, Mark Barden.

He laughed, remembering the times he’d be “halfway” across a parking lot and see his son still holding a door for strangers.

“Our son had so much love to give to this world,” Barden said. “He was supposed to have a whole lifetime of bringing that light to the world.”

Complete Coverage: Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

Daniel had two older siblings, James, age 12, and Natalie, age 10, who doted on their little brother.

“He was just so sweet and kind and thoughtful,” James said.

On Friday, 7-year-old Daniel, who was one of the 20 young victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School, woke up early.  He played foosball with his mother.

As usual, Daniel won, she said. The score was 10 to 8.

His father also taught him how to play “Jingle Bells” on the piano that morning.

“We did a lot in that half hour,” he said.

A celebration of Daniel’s life will be held Tuesday at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church. A funeral is scheduled for Wednesday.

SHOWS: Good Morning America

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Zebrafish made to grow pre-hands instead of fins

PERHAPS the little fish embryo shown here is dancing a jig because it has just discovered that it has legs instead of fins. Fossils show that limbs evolved from fins, but a new study shows how it may have happened, live in the lab.

Fernando Casares of the Spanish National Research Council and his colleagues injected zebrafish with the hoxd13 gene from a mouse. The protein that the gene codes for controls the development of autopods, a precursor to hands, feet and paws.

Zebrafish naturally carry hoxd13 but produce less of the protein than tetrapods - all four-limbed vertebrates and birds - do. Casares and his colleagues hoped that by injecting extra copies of the gene into the zebrafish embryos, some of their cells would make more of the protein.

One full day later, all of those fish whose cells had taken up the gene began to develop autopods instead of fins. They carried on growing for four days but then died (Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2012.10.015).

"Of course, we haven't been able to grow hands," says Casares. He speculates that hundreds of millions of years ago, the ancestors of tetrapods began expressing more hoxd13 for some reason and that this could have allowed them to evolve autopods.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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Obama vows to take action to stop mass shootings

NEWTOWN, Connecticut: US President Barack Obama vowed Sunday to use all his power to make sure that shooting tragedies like the one that left 20 small children and six adults dead in Newtown are not repeated.

"We can't accept events like this as routine," Obama told a poignant multi-faith vigil in the Connecticut town. "We as a nation are left with some hard questions. These tragedies have to end, and to end them we must change."

An impassioned Obama offered the "love and prayers of a nation" to families of the victims, saying all Americans stood by their side in mourning the tragic loss.

"I can only hope it helps for you to know that you're not alone in your grief; that our world, too, has been torn apart; that all across this land of ours, we have wept with you," Obama said.

"We've pulled our children tight, and you must know that whatever measure of comfort we can provide, we will provide. Whatever portion of sadness that we can share with you to ease this heavy load, we will gladly bear it.

"Newtown, you are not alone."

Earlier, officials formally identified Adam Lanza, 20, as the shooter who ran amok in the picture postcard town, confirming that he shot his mother several times in the head at the house they shared before going to his old school and embarking on a gruesome killing spree.

His child victims were just six and seven years old, a loss of innocence Obama blamed on an "unconscionable evil."

"In the face of indescribable violence, in the face of unconscionable evil, you've looked out for each other," Obama said.

Lanza used his mother's bushmaster .223 assault rifle to kill 26 people at the school, including 20 children aged either six or seven, before taking his own life with a handgun as police officers closed in and sirens wailed.

The president made an urgent call for Americans to do more to prevent a repeat of the countless shooting tragedies that have scarred the nation.

"Since I've been president, this is the fourth time we have come together to comfort a grieving community torn apart by mass shootings... and in between, there have been an endless series of deadly shootings across the country," he said.

"We can't tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change."

"I'll use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens, from law enforcement, to mental health professionals, to parents and educators, in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this," he said.

Obama acknowledged that "no single law, no set of laws can eliminate evil from the world or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society," but indicated that he would seek action.

"Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage?" he asked. "That the politics are too hard. Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?"

- AFP/ck

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iPhone 5 sales in China surpass 2 million in first weekend

Apple's iPhone 5.

(Credit:
CNET)

It's been just three days since Apple's iPhone 5 launch in China and already 2 million devices have already been sold. The tech giant announced today that this latest model of its popular smartphone is selling faster than ever in the Far East country.

"Customer response to
iPhone 5 in China has been incredible, setting a new record with the best first weekend sales ever in China," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. "China is a very important market for us and customers there cannot wait to get their hands on Apple products."

The iPhone 5 went on sale on Thursday in China and even before people could get their hands on the smartphone, hundreds of thousands of online reservations were already made for the device. The device is available through carriers China Telecom and China Unicom and, as of now, it's still not being offered on China Mobile -- the country's largest carrier.

China is of huge significance for Apple, it is the company's second biggest market -- after the U.S. -- and already accounted for about 15 percent ($23.8 billion) of the company's revenue for its fiscal year that ended in September.

When the iPhone 5 first launched in the U.S. in September, its sales topped 5 million units over first weekend -- which was a million higher than the
iPhone 4S. According to analysts at investment bank Canaccord Genuity, it is expected that Apple will sell 47.5 million iPhones in the current quarter, up from its prior forecast for 45 million. However, estimates for the first quarter of 2013 have been slightly lowered -- now 46 million instead of 47.5 million -- as the earlier-than-expected China launch is most likely pulling sales into this quarter.

Besides China, the iPhone 5 will also be on sale in more than 100 other countries by the end of the month. According to Apple, this makes the iPhone 5 the fastest iPhone rollout ever.

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Space Pictures This Week: Frosty Mars, Mini Nile, More

Photograph by Mike Theiss, National Geographic

The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, illuminates the Arctic sky in a recent picture by National Geographic photographer Mike Theiss.

A storm chaser by trade, Theiss is in the Arctic Circle on an expedition to photograph auroras, which result from collisions between charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere and gaseous particles in Earth's atmosphere.

After one particularly amazing show, he wrote on YouTube, "The lights were dancing, rolling, and twisting, and at times looked like they were close enough to touch!" (Watch his time-lapse video of the northern lights.)

Published December 14, 2012

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