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End ofThe Handbrake?
It's the teenage version of the American Dream: getting your driver's license.
But if you don't read the fine print on the rules and regulations, the big day could turn into a long delay, as one New Jersey girl we spoke to recently found out.
Her mistake was having a successful father who drives a Volvo S80 sedan, which the N.J. DMV says isn't approved for the road test. Not because it isn't intrinsically safe -- the car is constructed of high-strength steel, has more airbags than air and can autonomously brake if it detects an obstacle ahead -- but because it was lacking one piece of very old-fashioned technology: a handbrake.
N.J. is among several states that require road tests to take place in a car with a handbrake lever, so the official sitting in the passenger seat can intervene to stop the car if necessary. Unfortunately for our would-be new driver, the S80 is one of a growing number of cars that uses an electronic parking brake that is activated by a switch on the center console and may one day kill both hand- and foot-activated parking brakes in cars while leaving DMVs to rewrite their rule books.
Lucky for her, grandma's Honda Accord has a lever.
But the irony of this particular situation is that, while these devices have come to be colloquially known as “emergency brakes,†that's not what they are primarily designed to be used as. According to General Motors brake engineering expert Rob Cannon, the regulations that cover the devices in the United States simply require them to work as parking brakes, the “emergency†function is technically incidental.
Nevertheless, some drivers, particularly those with manual transmission cars who live in hilly areas, often rely on handbrakes to keep them from rolling backward as they pull away from an uphill stop, making them an expected feature in many smaller vehicles; something that's becoming less necessary thanks to the proliferation of “hill hold†features, which keep the main service brakes engaged for a few seconds as you move your foot from the brake pedal to the accelerator.
For larger vehicles with automatic transmissions, a foot-activated parking brake is often preferred by designers as it opens up prime real estate on the center console for more important features, like cup holders. But an electronic parking brake trumps both types on packaging and ease of use, if not price, which can be more than twice as much as traditional mechanical systems. Systems vary in design, but typically use an electrically-activated cable puller or a motor that directly engages the brake calipers. Along with taking up less room, the electronic systems are lighter and self-adjusting, so drivers don't need to worry about maintenance or having to pull the lever to the ceiling before the brake engages, if ever.
Given the high costs involved, however, electronic parking brakes are currently a trickle down technology. The $40,000 Chevrolet Volt has one, for instance, but the $17,000 Chevrolet Cruze does not, despite being built on the same platform as its battery-powered brother. Currently, the lowest priced car in GM's lineup that's fitted with the technology is the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu, which starts in the low $20s.
But some high-end automakers, like Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche, have already switched their entire lineups to electronic parking brakes. For some, this is not a welcome development.
Tanner Foust, host of "Top Gear" on History and a leading Hollywood stunt driver, makes his living causing cars go sideways, backwards and upside down, often with a little help from a handbrake. A two-time champion in the motorsport of drifting, he's one of a breed of drivers who have figured out how to use more than the steering wheel to control the direction of their vehicles with precision, but when it comes to electronic brakes, even he may have met his match.
“I have tried to adapt to electronically-activated handbrakes without much success," Foust says. "I was attempting a 180-degree spin with one not more than a week ago, to no avail.â€
When you pull the switch or hit the button, the systems still work like emergency brakes, but engage gradually and don't lock up the tires, as is required for a stylish skid.
Foust's loss is ours, as this can only mean less old-fashioned stunt driving in blockbuster movies and more CGI. Either that, or an overabundance of well-dressed bad guys driving economy cars. He concludes that “for the driver who wants to park like Ace Ventura or avoid 9-point embarrassment on skinny U-turns, then there really is no replacement for the good ol' handbrake.â€
Good advice, but not for use during your driver's test, regardless of what you're behind the wheel of.
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Fabulous US Factory Tours
10 must-see American factory tours
Who says America doesn't make stuff anymore? From cars to coffee, hot sauce to jumbo jets, we've got ten great places to see how the proverbial sausage is made.Â
Who says America doesn't make stuff anymore? From cars to coffee, hot sauce to jumbo jets, we've got ten great places to see how the proverbial sausage is made.
Ford Rouge Factory, Dearborn, MI
One of the most important sites in the history of the automobile, this city unto itself just ten minutes from downtown Detroit is where you'll now find the F-150 pickup truck in production. Besides the chance to see the action on the factory floor below you, visitors are also given a crash course (through the magic of multimedia) in the history of the site, the Ford Motor Company and the industry at large. (Also check out the top of the building, the world's largest green roof, at 10.4 acres.) All tours begin at the nearby Henry Ford museum complex, a destination unto itself.
Nearest airport: Detroit. Click here to see cheap flights.
Martin Guitar, Nazareth, PA
The choice of sensitive rockers everywhere was around long before rock 'n' roll was invented. Martin's history of manufacturing some of the world's greatest acoustic guitars begins back in the 1700s, when Christian Frederick Martin, Sr. left his German home at age 15 to apprentice with a Viennese guitar maker. Martin has been a presence in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley since 1833; one-hour tours of the plant are complimented by an on-site museum and a Pickin' Parlor, where visitors are welcome to play high-end and limited edition models.
Nearest Airport: Allentown, PA. Click here to see cheap flights.
Intelligentsia Coffee, Chicago, IL
One of the most popular roasters in the country â€" now served in some of the most popular cafes and restaurants in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles â€" offers its fans (or just the merely curious) this easy-going and fun tour at their main roasting facility in the Windy City. You'll learn the most correct, scientific methods for the perfect cup of coffee, find out how they go about finding the very best beans in countries you forgot existed, how to roast them correctly and â€" most importantly â€" you'll get all the freshly-brewed coffee you can drink.
Nearest airport: Chicago. Click here for cheap flights.
Boeing, Everett, WA
Go inside the world's largest building by volume â€" 472,000,000 cubic feet â€" for the chance to glimpse Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner in production, then head to the Future of Flight Aviation Center and get strapped into The Innovator, a seven-seat simulator that puts you in the cockpit for the ride of your life. Tip: The weak-stomached may want to sit this one out.
Nearest airport: Seattle. Click here for cheap flights.
Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, Louisville, KY
You've seen them in the hands of countless baseball greats, here's your chance to get right on the factory floor and see how the official bat of Major League Baseball is made. Each tour participant gets a mini-Slugger to take home as a souvenir; afterwards, stick around for the museum, a fun and informative look at the history of America's best-known bat.
Harley-Davidson, Menomonee Falls, WI
It may not be the sexiest bit of the hog, but you can't have a Harley without a proper powertrain, right? Visitors are welcomed in to observe operations at the 849,000 square-foot plant northwest of downtown Milwaukee, but that's just one stop on the grand tour here in the hometown of the Harley. Make sure to pay a visit to the company's fun and interactive downtown museum; also consider checking into the handsome, museum-adjacent Iron Horse Hotel, which has been the coolest place to stay in town ever since it opened a few years back.
Dogfish Head, Milton, DE
What was once a small Delaware brewery has grown to become one of the best on the East Coast. At heart, though, Dogfish Head is still the fun-loving little guy it was when it started out, so tours are casual and cool, samples are (but of course) offered. Make sure to check out the curious, on-premises Steampunk Treehouse, rescued from a recent Burning Man festival; this rather curious piece of functional sculpture is where the brewers are said to do their most creative thinking. If you didn't get enough to drink on the tour, check out their popular brewpub and restaurant in nearby Rehoboth Beach.
Tabasco Factory, Avery Island, LA
That familiar smell fills the air as you drive on to 2,200-acre Avery Island; there's no mistaking that you've arrived in the home of America's favorite hot sauce. (Tip: A visit is highly recommended for those with blocked sinuses.) But a tour through Tabasco's factory operation is just part of the experience here; the company-owned Jungle Gardens and Bird City â€" a beautiful, company-owned botanical garden and bird sanctuary, respectively â€" make a visit to the island a fun day out from either New Orleans or Cajun Country.
Mack Trucks, Macungie, PA
Are you an admirer of the mighty Mack? Put on your comfortable shoes and embark on a 1.5 mile walking tour of the famed truck's mighty manufacturing plant.(At this location, you'll see mostly construction vehicles being produced). Visitors to the site are also invited to visit the Mack Museum, featuring a wide range of vintage vehicles dating from the early 1900s up to 1979.
Airstream Factory, Jackson Center, OH
A tiny town set amid the central Ohio farmfields is the setting for the factory that produces those iconic silver travel trailers. It's a pilgrimage site for owners, who bring their houses on wheels here to be serviced, camping out at the on-site RV park. Whether you're curious about joining this elite group of nomads or not, the free, daily factory tour is good fun, even if just to see one of the country's most stubbornly unchanged companies in action.
George Hobica is a syndicated travel journalist and founder of the low-airfare listing site Airfarewatchdog.com.
Related Slideshow
Top 10 destinations for recent grads
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How Much Do \'Housewives\' Make?
'Real Housewives' make a lot more than real housewives.
The stars of Bravo's California franchises all make six figure salaries, except one, RadarOnline.com reports, with the white wine drinking, fancy car driving, plastic surgery having original 'Real Housewives of Orange County' raking in the biggest bucks.
Here's how their salaries break down, per season:
'Real Housewives of Orange County'
Vicki Gunvalson: $450,000.
Tamra Barney: $350,000
Gretchen Rossi: $300,000
Alexis Bellino: $200,000Â
Heather Dubrow: $30,000 (she's new)
'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills'
Lisa Vanderpump: $250,000Â
Adrienne Maloof: $200,000
Kyle Richards: $200,000
Taylor Armstrong: $175,000Â
Brandi Glanville: $125,000
Kim Richards: $100,000
Yolanda Hadid: $100,000
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UN rights chief warns of full civil war in Syria
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April 30, 2012: In this file photo, Syrian security forces, background, hold their machine guns and surround anti-Syrian regime mourners, foreground, during the funeral procession of the activist Nour al-Zahraa, 23, who was shot by the Syrian security forces on Sunday, in Kfar Suseh area, in Damascus, Syria.AP2012
GENEVA â€"  The U.N.'s top human rights official warned Friday that all-out civil war could engulf Syria unless countries that have backed international envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan rally around calls for an independent probe into the killing of more than 100 civilians last week.
As countries lined up at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council to express their horror about the Houla massacre, in which the global body said 49 children were among the dead, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights appealed for support for the six-point plan to halt the violence in Syria.
"Otherwise, the situation in Syria might descend into a full-fledged conflict and the future of the country, as well as the region as a whole could be in grave danger," Navi Pillay told the 47-nation council in a speech read out on her behalf.
It was the fifth time that the Geneva-based council called an urgent meeting on Syria, something the country's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Fayssal al-Hamwi, said was a sign that some countries are trying to divide his country.
Al-Hamwi, too, condemned the massacre in Houla but blamed it on "groups of armed terrorists" seeking to ignite sectarian strife.
U.S. Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe said there was no doubt that the regime of President Bashar Assad was responsible for the killing.
"There needs to be justice and accountability for those that committed these atrocities," she told the council.
A draft resolution proposed by Qatar, Turkey and the United States condemns the killings in Houla and states that "those responsible for serious violations of human rights must be held accountable," but doesn't suggest how.
European diplomats want the resolution to include a call for the U.N. Security Council in New York to consider referring the massacre to the International Criminal Court. This is something the rights council cannot do on its own.
And since Syria isn't a member of the ICC, under international law only the Security Council can refer it to the Hague-based tribunal.
"Mostly we are pressing for some stronger language on accountability," said Maria Ulff Moeller, a Danish diplomat whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union. "We can encourage the Security Council to refer the situation to the ICC, and it's something we are pushing for."
Human rights groups backed the EU position. "At this stage what we need is a strong resolution requesting ICC referral," said Juliette de Rivero, a spokeswoman for the group Human Rights Watch.
Other nations including the United States have been skeptical about invoking the International Criminal Court.
But Donahoe indicated that information collected by the rights council's investigators could be used for an ICC probe.
"We believe our role at the Human Rights Council is to provide the basis for a case that would be brought on crimes against humanity," she told reporters in Geneva. "This would provide a basis for the Security Council to refer the matter to the ICC."
The draft resolution also calls on Syria to allow the rights council's panel of experts to visit the country, something it has previously rejected.
The head of the panel, Brazilian professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro told Brazil's O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper on Thursday that "Houla is a warning of how a civil war would be."
He plans to present a report on the killings at a regular meeting of the council on June 27.
"The Syrians think that by impeding our access we won't be able to make it, but we have proven that we can do it," he was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, a different U.N. expert panel tasked with investigating allegations of torture worldwide said Friday it was deeply concerned at widespread and systematic violations of international law by Syrian authorities, often using militias known as Shabiha. The panel said its conclusions are based on "consistent, credible, documented and corroborated allegations."
Among the violations it cited are large-scale attacks, killing and torture of civilians including many women and children, summary executions, mass graves, sexual violence, secret detentions and arbitrary arrests.
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Waitress gets half-million dollar tax refund
Virginia Hopkins is a great waitress and she's used to getting great tips. But the one she got from her Uncle Sam on Tuesday nearly knocked her to the floor.
Virginia is owed a tax refund of $754, for which she has been waiting eagerly. But the check she opened was for more. A lot more: $434,712.
"I think I would have to work most of my life to earn that much money," she says. "Even with undeclared tips," she adds with a laugh.
Virginia's tips aside, she is clearly one of the most honest waitresses in the country. She didn't consider keeping the money even for a moment.
The problem is she didn't quite know how to go about returning half a million dollars to the U.S. government.
Virginia was on her way to work anyway, so she took the check with her. Virginia has been waiting tables at Johnny's Downtown Restaurant, a Cleveland institution, since it opened 19 years ago.
"I tell people I used to be a tall, slim brunette," she jokes. "Now I stand four-feet-eight with white hair. This is what happens after 20 years of waitressing."
She may not be tall or brunette any more, but she hasn't lost any of the personality that makes her one of the restaurant's favorite employees.
"She was laughing" when she brought the check in, says fellow employee Mary Lou Adams, who's been a bookkeeper at Johnny's for as long as Virginia has been a waitress. "She said, you'll never believe what I got in the mail."
Both workers and diners at the restaurant joined in the discussion of what Virginia should do.
"You have a million new best friends," Virginia says. "My grandchildren especially. They're teenagers." Her grandchildren thought half a million dollars just might get them into the sold-out Cleveland concert of the boy band One Direction.
It was not to be.
It was decided the best plan was for Virginia to hand carry the check into Cleveland's IRS office the next day.
"Would you believe I had to give them a photo id to prove it was me before I could give it back?" she says. "Otherwise they wouldn't even talk to me."
Once she'd convinced them she wasn't trying to scam the U.S. government by bringing in a large check, she says the IRS people were very polite. They took the check and promised to thoroughly investigate the error.
But Virginia will never learn why she was rich for a day. For privacy reasons, she says, the IRS will not reveal the results of their investigation.
Today is Virginia's day off. She says she's spending it "readjusting."
"It's not easy being poor after you've been rich," she jokes. But she did get something out of the experience.
A local television reporter happened to be eating at the restaurant when she came in with her riches, so now Virginia is a Cleveland celebrity.
Is she getting better tips?
"Last night was a good night," she admits. "Please tell me fortune goes with fame."
Virginia is still waiting for her $754 refund.
Also ReadArticle from YAHOO NEWS
May\'s jobs report disappoints across the board
Article from YAHOO NEWS
U.S. economy added 69K jobs in May, fewest in a year
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. employers created 69,000 jobs in May, the fewest in a year, and the unemployment rate ticked up. The dismal jobs figures could fan fears that the economy is sputtering.
The Labor Department also says the economy created far fewer jobs in the previous two months than first thought. It revised those figures down to show 49,000 fewer jobs created. The unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent in April, the first increase in 11 months.
Dow Jones industrial average futures, which were already down 100 points before the report, fell an additional 100 points within minutes of its release.
The yield on the benchmark on the 10-year Treasury note plunged to 1.46 percent, the lowest on record, suggesting investors are flocking to the safety of U.S. government bonds.
The price of gold, which was trading at about $1,550 an ounce before the report, shot up $30. For much of the past three years, investors have seen gold as a safe place to put their money during turbulent economic times.
The economy is averaging just 73,000 jobs per month over the past two months - roughly a third of 226,000 jobs created per month in the January-March quarter.
Weak job growth could damage President Barack Obama's reelection prospects. Mitt Romney, the Republican challenger, has made the economy the central theme of his campaign.
There are signs business confidence is waning. Companies have cut their spending on computers and machinery for two straight months, goods that signal investment plans. And some regional surveys suggest the factory activity is expanding at a slower pace.
Consumers are also more downbeat about the economy, according to some a May survey from the Conference Board. That could lead more Americans to cut back on spending, which drives 70 percent of economic growth.
Construction jobs plummeted 28,000, the steepest drop in two years. Professional services, government, hotels, restaurants and other leisure industries.
Not all industries cut jobs. Manufacturers added 12,000 jobs. Transportation and warehousing created nearly 36,000. Education and health care added
Businesses are facing a growing threat from Europe's financial crisis, which has worsened in recent weeks. The crisis is driving up borrowing costs for Spain and Italy and spreading to the banking system. Greece could be forced to exit the euro, which could push the region into a sharp recession. That could limit U.S. growth.
Article from YAHOO NEWS
DC: Green Lantern Is Gay
One of DC Comics oldest heroes is super-coming out.
The original Green Lantern - a DC Comics mainstay for the past 70 years - will be revealed to be a gay man in next week's issue of "Earth 2."
Alan Scott - formerly a married father of two who first appeared in 1940 - tips readers off to his sexuality early on in the comic when he gives his boyfriend a welcome home kiss.
"He's very much the character he was. He's still the pinnacle of bravery and idealism. He's also gay," "Earth 2" writer James Robinson told The Post.
The Emerald Guardian's sexuality was rebooted along with the rest of his fictional universe as part of DC's "New 52" initiative aimed at rejuvenating their characters.
Robinson said he decided to make the change because making the character young again meant erasing Scott's gay superhero son out of existence.
"The only downside of his being young was we lose his son, Obsidian, who's gay. So I thought, 'Why not make Alan Scott gay?'" Robinson recalled. "That was the seed that started it."
He ran his idea by the bosses at DC, "who signed off on it without hesitation."
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Sizemore: No More Drugs
In ‘Cellmates,' Tom Sizemore plays Leroy Lowe, grand dragon of the Texas Ku Klux Klan, who is sentenced to three years of hard labor on a prison work farm. His roomie in the joint is Emilio, a Hispanic field worker who has been put behind bars for fighting for labor rights. While in jail Leroy falls for Madalena, a beautiful Mexican maid who cleans the warden's office and he finds himself unexpectedly taking a new path in life.Â
Sizemore, who has appeared in movies like ‘Saving Private Ryan,' ‘Black Hawk Down,' and ‘Wyatt Earp,' was derailed for years by drug and legal problems, but he's three years sober now and his career is back on track. The 50-year-old actor talked to us about his troubled past, and how he's a much better actor now.Â
FOX411: This movie is a bit of a departure for you. It's a comedy, why did you decide to do it?
Tom Sizemore: Because of Jesse (Baget, the director and co-writer). I met him; he was clearly bright and had a unique kind of idea of a Ku Klux Klan member becoming redeemed and the healing power. I just thought it was interesting. He's the Grand Dragon of whatever but there's something very soft about him from the beginning. It was a lot of fun.
FOX411: Did you do any research like meet any KKK members?
TS: No! I actually have met a KKK member for another movie I did called ‘Sins of the Father' in 2000 about the Birmingham bombing.
FOX411: Ever have an eye opening experience like Leroy?
TS: Not in regards to something like racism but with drugs, yeah, I had a real eye opening experience with the destructive ability of drugs and the necessity of me not doing them.
"It feels so much better to be clean"
- Tom Sizemore
FOX411: What was your moment of clarity?
TS: (Laughs) There were several of them. I was tired of a lot of things for some time but I was more afraid that I'd made such a mess of things that I wasn't confident I could fix things. I called up Dr. Drew and told him I was lost and in trouble. He came to see me and that was the beginning.
You really have to give yourself over to the whole damn thing, as they say. I do what they, Dr. Drew and my sponsor Bob Forrest, say to do. If I don't know what to do, I don't do anything.
FOX411: Actors naturally have big egos, was that hard to surrender your ego?
TS: It's just about drugs and what comes with that, bad people, bad chicks -- excuse me -- bad women. Not necessarily bad, just women that do drugs. I'm older now. I was immature. I was coddled and there is a permissiveness that sometimes goes on with people who are successful as actors. Before you know it you have this monster and I had no idea I had this problem. I just gave myself up. They say you surrender. I used to think that it was garbage, bullshit, something about it didn't feel right, but I think it was more fear of doing it and that's why I felt that way. When I did it, it was comfortable but it was still hard. I still had some difficult times. I'm not going to get high today, I know that.Â
FOX411: Do you go to meetings?
TS: Yeah, I missed a couple of days because I had to travel and stuff. But as much as humanly possible. It's an hour long. It's not a big deal. I used to think it was a big deal. I fought it for so long. But it's easy once you get in the rhythm of it. It's just like anything else in life. It becomes a good habit. The drug thing was a bad habit. Let me tell you, you spend a lot less time staying clean than getting high. Getting the dope, it's crazy, it's like a job. I'm so glad it's over and all those assholes that come with it.
FOX411: You must have gotten rid of a lot of friends.
TS: Yeah those people are gone. But they don't want to be around you anyway, you're clean. They're getting high they don't want to be around you, you're a killjoy and you don't have any dope.
FOX411: You worked with directors like Ridley Scott, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. You really screwed it up!
TS: Yeah I screwed it up bad, but I'm about to do something, I can't say what it is, but it's of that ilk. I never hurt anybody; I only hurt myself and my family. I never did anything mean to anybody, I was just mean to myself.Â
FOX411: Do you think you're work is better now?
TS: It's definitely better. It's more controlled, it's more discreet. I'm more mindful of my choices. It feels so much better to be clean. I kind of have a good idea of what I'm going to do this time around because I didn't know what I was doing before.Â
FOX411: We always saw you in the vein of those great Warner Brothers stars from the 1940's like John Garfield and Humphrey Bogart.
TS: You like me!
FOX411: You're a good actor! You've got a guy's guy thing going on.
TS: I am a guy's guy. I'm all boy.
FOX411: Have you simplified your life?
TS: Yeah I've simplified what's in my head. Like what do you desire? Do you really desire to have sex with six women, or is that something you saw somewhere or something someone said to you? I really desire a partner.
FOX411: So let's put the word out for you.
TS: Oh stop!
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Google aims at China censorship with new tool
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Reuters
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(Reuters)
BEIJING â€"  Google has begun notifying Chinese users when they are using search terms that can trigger China's Internet blocks, in its boldest challenge in two years to Beijing's efforts to restrict online content.
The search giant unveiled on its Chinese site this week a new mechanism that identifies political and other sensitive terms that are censored by Chinese authorities.
For example, when users search for keywords like "carrot" -- which contains the character for Chinese president Hu Jintao's surname -- a yellow dropdown message says: "We've observed that searching for 'hu' in mainland China may temporarily break your connection to Google. This interruption is outside Google's control."
'We've observed that searching for 'hu' in mainland China may temporarily break your connection to Google. This interruption is outside Google's control.'
- Google warning to Chinese users
Google acknowledged on its official blog Thursday that users in China are having trouble accessing its services, saying failed searches can impair performance on the site. "Users are regularly getting error messages like 'This webpage is not available' or 'The connection was reset,' " the post said.
Google says it hopes the alerts "will help improve the search experience in mainland China," where Google's search and other services have been unstable since it entered a public spat with Chinese authorities over censorship over two years ago. A Google spokesman declined to comment further.
Chinese officials do not discuss their Internet restrictions, and its search terms are treated as state secrets. In its post, Google said the trigger terms were identified based on reviews of the outcomes of the 350,000 most popular search queries in China, not an official list.
The post does not mention censorship, or explicitly say Chinese authorities are the cause of the blocks.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said at a regular press briefing Friday that "there are more than 500 million Internet users in China, and they have access to plenty of information ... Like other countries, China also administers its Internet according to law."
China's restrictions include the names of top leaders as well as high-profile dissidents like blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng and references to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and crackdown.
The move is the most significant Google has made related to China's Internet restrictions since early 2010, when it publicly said it would not adhere to China's censorship policies and said it might have to shut down its Google.cn China site as well as its offices there.
Google ultimately kept its China offices but moved its web search and other services to Hong Kong, where it does not have to comply with regulations in mainland China.
Read more on Google's struggles with China in the Wall Street Journal.
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Collision for Milky Way?
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After its first close pass, Andromeda is tidally stretched out. The Milky Way, too, becomes warped.
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During the second close passage, the cores of the Milky Way and Andromeda appear as a pair of bright lobes. Star-forming nebulae are much less prominent because the interstellar gas and dust has been significantly decreased by previous bursts of star formation.NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI), T. Hallas, and A. Mellinger
Four billion years from now, the Milky Way galaxy as we know it will cease to exist.
Our Milky Way is bound for a head-on collision with the similar-sized Andromeda galaxy, researchers announced today (May 31). Over time, the huge galactic smashup will create an entirely new hybrid galaxy, one likely bearing an elliptical shape rather than the Milky Way's trademark spiral-armed disk.
"We do know of other galaxies in the local universe around us that are in the process of colliding and merging," Roeland van der Marel, of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, told reporters today. "However, what makes the future merger of the Andromeda galaxy and the Milky Way so special is that it will happen to us."
'We do know of other galaxies in the local universe around us that are in the process of colliding and merging.'
- Roeland van der Marel, of the Space Telescope Science Institute
Astronomers have long known that the Milky Way and Andromeda, which is also known as M31, are barrelling toward one another at a speed of about 250,000 mph (400,000 kph). They have also long suspected that the two galaxies may slam into each other billions of years down the road. [Milky Way Slams Into Andromeda (Artist Images)]
However, such discussions of the future galactic crash have always remained somewhat speculative, because no one had managed to measure Andromeda's sideways motion -Â a key component of that galaxy's path through space.
But that's no longer the case.
Van der Marel and his colleagues used NASA's Hubble space telescope to repeatedly observe select regions of Andromeda over a seven-year period. They were able to measure the galaxy's sideways (or tangential) motion, and they found that Andromeda and the Milky Way are indeed bound for a direct hit.
"The Andromeda galaxy is heading straight in our direction," van der Marel said. "The galaxies will collide, and they will merge together to form one new galaxy." He and his colleagues also created a video simulation of the Milky Way crash into Andromeda.
That merger, van der Marel added, begins in 4 billion years and will be complete by about 6 billion years from now.
A future cosmic crash
Such a dramatic event has never occurred in the long history of our Milky Way, which likely began taking shape about 13.5 billion years ago.
"The Milky Way has had, probably, quite a lot of small, minor mergers," said Rosemary Wyse of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who was not affiliated with the new study. "But this major merger will be unprecedented."
The merger poses no real danger of destroying Earth or our solar system, researchers said. The stretches of empty space separating the stars in the two galaxies will remain vast, making any collisions or serious perturbations unlikely.
However, our solar system will likely get booted out to a different position in the new galaxy, which some astronomers have dubbed the "Milkomeda galaxy." Simulations show that we'll probably occupy a spot much farther from the galactic core than we do today, researchers said.
A new night sky
And the collision will change our night sky dramatically. If any humans are still around 3.75 billion years from now, they'll see Andromeda fill their field of view as it sidles up next to our own Milky Way. For the next few billion years after that, stargazers will be spellbound by the merger, which will trigger intense bouts of star formation.
Finally, by about 7 billion years from now, the bright core of the elliptical Milkomeda galaxy will dominate the night sky, researchers said. (The odds of viewing this sight, at least from Earth, are pretty slim, since the sun is predicted to bloat into a huge red giant 5 or 6 billion years from now.)
In its 22-year history, Hubble has revolutionized the way humanity views the cosmos. The new finding is another step in that process, researchers said.
"What's really exciting about the current measurements is, it's not about historical astronomy; it's not about looking back in time, understanding the expansion of the universe," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate and a former astronaut who flew on three space shuttle missions that repaired Hubble .
"It's looking forward in time, which is another very human story," Grunsfeld added. "We like to know about our past - where did we come from? We very much like to know where we're going."
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Stars With TWO First Names
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Jobless rate Friday mornings now political indicator
Every four weeks between now and November, a single number issued from a spare, windowless room in the heart of the federal bureaucracy will set the battle lines for the presidential election.
The nation's monthly jobless rate -- disclosed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics the first Friday of every month -- is this year's dominant economic barometer. It's a baseline from which to gauge the political fortunes of President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney in an election that rides on the pace of a post-recession recovery.
Friday's number will be the first since Mitt Romney clinched the Republican presidential nomination. It also comes as Obama heads for Minnesota to push his proposal to expand job opportunities for veterans and to raise money for his campaign. In the meantime, the world anxiously awaits the impact of the European debt crisis, which could stall the recovery in the U.S.
Economists were expecting the report to show that employers added 158,000 jobs but that the unemployment rate did not change from April's 8.1 percent. No president since the Great Depression has sought re-election with unemployment as high as that, and past incumbents have lost when the unemployment rate was on the rise.
Romney wants this presidential election to be a referendum on Obama's 3 1/2 years in office. Obama wants it to be a choice between two distinct visions for the country.
The economy is central to each candidate's argument. While imprecise and a typically lagging indicator of economic performance, the unemployment number is nevertheless an undeniable marker of the human cost of a weak economy.
Obama is counting on an unemployment trajectory that has fallen from a high of 10 percent in October 2009 to 8.1 percent last month. The president likes to point to the 3.8 million jobs created since he became president, though 12.5 million remain unemployed. He highlights the resurgence of the auto industry following government bailouts of Chrysler and General Motors. And his campaign has mounted a step-by-step assault on Romney's economic record, from his days as a venture capitalist to his tenure as Massachusetts governor from 2003-2007.
"The imperative for an incumbent president is to define the race as a choice," said Matt Bennett of the centrist-Democratic group Third Way. "Part of doing that is to define yourself. Equally important, you have to define the other side so as to avoid it becoming a referendum on the president."
Romney, now freed from his primary contests, has aimed heavily at Obama's economic policies, arguing that they have slowed the recovery, not aided it. The Republican has emphasized his background in private business to argue that he's qualified to lead a nation in economic turmoil.
Political stunts by each campaign on Thursday illustrated how they intend to frame the election around economic themes.
In Boston, Obama's top campaign adviser, David Axelrod, staged a news conference to attack Romney's economic record during his governorship. Romney, Axelrod said, presided over a period marked by slow job growth, higher debt and more fees.
Romney, pressing his case against Obama, traveled to Freemont, Calif., to draw attention to the shuttered offices of a solar energy company that went bankrupt after receiving government loans though Obama's 2009 economic stimulus program.
On Friday, the Obama campaign released a new online video featuring several of Romney's former Republican political foes, including Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, criticizing Romney's economic record.
The campaign also said it would hold a series of conference calls with reporters to discuss Romney's "failure to fulfill the economic promises he made" when he was running for governor of Massachusetts.
Obama could face the highest unemployment rate on Election Day of any president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But his aides argue that the trend line is more important than the actual number. Jimmy Carter lost his re-election bid in 1980 to Ronald Reagan as unemployment climbed from 6 percent to 7.5 percent. George H.W. Bush lost to Bill Clinton in 1992 as unemployment rose from 6.9 percent to 7.6 percent.
But while Reagan faced an unemployment rate of 7.4 percent in October 1984, the rate had been dropping since the spring of 1983. He went on to win re-election.
Obama has few policy moves that would help his own trend line, and the European crisis is out of his control. That makes Obama's effort to frame the election a choice between him and Romney the only viable strategy.
Obama can find some solace in unemployment rates that have dropped sharply in several swing states. But those numbers can be deceiving and an employed voter is not necessarily an Obama voter.
A May Associated Press-GfK poll showed that 52 percent of those surveyed disapproved of Obama's handling of the economy while 46 percent approved.
Some Republicans note that even though employers might be hiring, many workers have had to settle for less.
"They are gainfully employed, but they are not happy," said Wes Anderson, a Republican pollster who has conducted surveys in several swing states.
"They don't like the job they're in and they're making less money."
And that, Republicans say, makes these voters a prime target for Romney.
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Seattle \'hero\': \'I would never hide under a table\'
SEATTLE â€"  The man had been banned from the artsy cafe for acting out, but that didn't stop him from walking in, taking a seat at the bar and trying to place an order. After the barista declined to serve him, he stood up, took out a gun and shot the man next to him.
Then he worked his way up the bar, calmly taking life after life from the people seated there or scrambling for cover. One man tried to stop him.
Grabbing the only weapons at hand - bar stools - he tossed them at the gunman, even as the man aimed at him, Seattle Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel said Thursday after reviewing harrowing surveillance video of the massacre. The tactic created enough of a delay in the shooting that two or three other customers were able to bolt out the door to safety.
"My brother died in the World Trade Center," the man later told Seattle police, who did not release his name but provided an account of the interview. After his brother's death, he said, he resolved that if something like this ever happened, "I would never hide under a table."
The Seattle Times late Thursday identified the man as Lawrence Adams, 56.
Adams told the newspaper that his brother, Stephen Adams, an employee at the Windows on the World restaurant, had been killed in the World Trade Center attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
He declined to give a detailed account of the shootings.
By the time Ian Lee Stawicki's rampage was over, five people had been shot in Cafe Racer - four fatally, including two musicians who frequently played there.
The gunman put his two .45-caliber handguns in his pocket, then bent down, picked a bowler-style hat off the head of one of his dead victims, placed it on his own head and walked out.
He fled first to downtown Seattle, where he shot a woman to death while stealing her black Mercedes sports-utility vehicle, then drove it to West Seattle, where he met up with an old friend who had no idea what he'd done, police said.
The friend eventually ditched Stawicki because he wasn't making any sense, and called police after learning about the shootings. Stawicki killed himself on a West Seattle street as officers moved in to arrest him.
"In my almost 30 years in this department, I've never seen anything more callous, horrific and cold," Deputy Police Chief Nick Metz said Thursday after reviewing video footage of the cafe killings.
Police late Thursday released 911 tapes from the shooting spree, including one from a man who phoned authorities from inside a bathroom at the cafe.
"Somebody came in and shot a bunch of people. I'm hiding in the bathroom. We need help right away," the man says, adding he didn't see the gunman. "I can see people laying on the floor.
"People are bleeding all over the place."
Wednesday's slayings further frayed nerves in an already jittery city that has seen 21 homicides so far this year - as many as Seattle had in all of 2011.
The gunman's father struggled Thursday to understand how his son could have gone on a shooting rampage and apologized to the victims' families.
"The first thing I can say, and it doesn't go very far at this point, is I'm so sorry," Walter Stawicki told The Associated Press, his voice quivering. "It sounds so trite, that I feel their grief. ... I just hope they understand he wasn't a monster out to kill people."
The 21 homicides this year have the city's leaders wondering what if anything can be done.
"The city is stunned and seeking to make sense of it," Mayor Mike McGinn said. "I think we have to start by acknowledging the tremendous amount of grief that's out there from the families and friends of the victims."
In just over a month, a young woman was killed in a seemingly random drive-by shooting in a popular nightlife district, and a father who was driving with his family was killed by a stray bullet fired during a fight involving people on the street.
While the city still has a low murder rate, pressure is growing on the police to curtail the violence at a time when the department is facing accusations of excessive force. Police have told residents to expect more officers on patrol in high-crime areas.
McGinn said the highest priority would be addressing the "epidemic of gun violence that's plaguing the city." He said he'll look at redeploying officers, as well as legislation.
Ian Stawicki, 40, had suffered from mental illness for years and gotten "exponentially" more erratic, his father said, but family members had been unable to get him to seek help.
"He wouldn't hear it," he said. "We couldn't get him in, and they wouldn't hold him. ... The only way to get an intervention in time is to lie and say they threatened you."
Walter Stawicki recalled a son who liked dogs, kids and plants. He joined the U.S. Army after graduating high school, but the Army honorably discharged him after about a year, he said.
Since then, Ian Stawicki had bounced around serving as a roadie for bands and helping his mother with gardening.
According to the Seattle city attorney's office, police cited Stawicki in 1989 for carrying a concealed knife and, in 2008, a girlfriend who lived with him claimed he had assaulted her and had destroyed her property. She later recanted, and charges were dismissed because she would not cooperate with prosecutors.
Stawicki obtained a concealed weapons permit in 2010 from the Kittitas County sheriff's office. The permit shows he owned six firearms.
Other than a couple of traffic tickets and a fistfight with his brother several years ago - charges were dropped - Stawicki had no criminal record, his father said.
"When you knew him and he liked you, he was the best friend you could have. He was an old-fashioned gentleman," he said. "But when he was having bad days, he scared people."
Walter Stawicki also said he knew his son had guns, but he was more concerned that Ian - a "beanpole" at 6-foot, 150 pounds - would get beat up while confronting someone.
Stawicki last spoke to his son the morning of the shooting. He recalled a cheerful conversation. "He handed the phone to his mother and I said, 'Gee, he sounds in a good mood.'"
The only survivor of the cafe shooting, Leonard Meuse, was upgraded from critical to serious condition at Harborview Medical Center.
Lawrence Adams told The Times that cafe employee Meuse was the real hero, phoning for help despite his gunshot wounds.
"The hero is Leonard," Adams said. "He had the presence of mind as the captain of the ship to do his job. He just kept doing his job."
A memorial in front of the cafe grew Thursday as people stopped by to drop off flowers, cans of beer and toy instruments. Two of the victims, identified by friends as Drew Keriakedes, 49, and Joe Albanese, 52, were old-time musicians and regulars at the cafe, where they often played or simply held court.
"They were the life of this place," said Janna Silver, who had known them for a few years. "They were very welcoming, and they'd talk to anyone."
Silver said Keriakedes officiated at her wedding at the cafe. He wore leather pants, a priest's collar and a sparkly red vest with nothing underneath. "He's one of the most irreverent people I've ever met," she said.
The King County medical examiner also identified another cafe victim, Kimberly Layfield, 36. The Albany Herald in Georgia reported that Layfield was a former resident of Albany. Layfield had lived in Seattle for 10 years, according to her aunt Sheilah Holland. Holland said Layfield returned to Seattle on Monday after spending three weeks at home with family and friends to celebrate her grandmother Freda Cochran's 103rd birthday.
The carjacked woman was identified as Gloria Leonidas, 52. The Seattle Times said she was a married mother of two from suburban Bellevue. The medical examiner's office does not release hometowns.
Formal identification of the other victims, as well as the victims' cause and manner of death, will be released Friday, the medical examiner's office said.
___
Associated Press writer Chris Grygiel contributed to this report. Dininny reported from Yakima, Wash.
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Oklahoma high school graduate killed by \'high-powered weapon\'
An Oklahoma teen was shot and killed the day after her high school graduation, just yards from her home, leading police to believe the bullet was fired from a "high-powered rifle."
Kayla Ferrante, 17, graduated from her Tulsa, Okla., high school Friday, a year early in order to jump-start a career working with special-needs students, which her family said was her passion.
After a family celebration Saturday, she went to a friend's house and later that night headed for home with her boyfriend driving.
"She was headed home with her boyfriend trying to make a midnight curfew and she was within a half block of her residence when shots were fired at the car they were in, striking her one time and ultimately causing her death," Det. Victor Regalado of the Tulsa Police Department said.
Regalado said "several" shots were fired, but the one that hit Kayla pierced the license plate on the back of the car, shot through the trunk and hit her in the back before passing through her.
"Based on the penetration, as well as some other things that we've collected, we were able to determine that it was a high-powered weapon," Regalado said. He declined to disclose the model of the weapon.
Kayla was rushed to a hospital where she died during surgery, according to authorities. Her boyfriend was not injured in the shooting.
With no witnesses or suspects, authorities are asking for the public's help and searching for a motive in the killing.
"There are a variety of potential motives, but nothing solid at this point," Regalado said. "We're exploring the fact that this could be a random shooting, that it was intentional, that either one of them could have been a target, or both."
Regalado said authorities are still investigating Kayla and her boyfriend's backgrounds, but preliminary investigations show, "Neither one of them appears to have been involved in any type of high-risk behavior, like drugs or gangs."
When asked whether there were any security cameras in the neighborhood that might have captured the shooting, Regalado said, "No comment."
He said authorities are asking for help from any potential witnesses or even people whose spouses or significant others might have arrived home late Saturday night and acted strangely.
"At this stage in the investigation, we're open to anything," he said. "There's somebody out there that saw something."
Kayla's family did not respond to a request for comment, but released a statement expressing gratitude for the community's concern and support and said they did not want Kayla to be "portrayed as an anonymous teenager who was shot or a crime statistic."
"She was a wonderful young woman who was a beloved daughter, big sister, niece, granddaughter, friend and girlfriend," the statement said. "She had found her calling in life, which was to work with children with disabilities and planned to volunteer at Little Lighthouse this summer, while also taking her first college course."
The family said Kayla was always concerned with others and would always help friends through difficult times and protect her little brother. She had recently gone on a mission trip to work with children.
"As her family and friends, we cannot understand who would do this or why and desperately want anyone with information to do the right thing and come forward," they wrote. "Kayla was doing nothing wrong. She wasn't in a place she shouldn't have been, she was just a girl coming home before curfew."
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