Hasta La Gadget!

WASHINGTON — In a bid to head off the “nuclear option” for changing the Senate filibuster, a bipartisan group of senators Friday offered watered-down reforms they suggested would restore Washington to a place the fabled Mr. Smith of the 1939 movie would recognize.

“What we’re proposing on a bipartisan basis is a way to end the major sources of gridlock around here,” said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), one of eight senators who crafted the proposal that would give the Senate two new ways to end filibusters.

The filibuster has been used nearly 400 times in the 112th Congress, which will go down as the least productive since the 1940s. The classic filibuster — made famous in the film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” starring Jimmy Stewart — involves a lawmaker taking to the floor and doggedly making his point.

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* Passage could hinge on success of “fiscal cliff” deal

* New York, New Jersey, Connecticut bore storm’s brunt

* Includes money to help mitigate future natural disasters

By Doug Palmer and David Lawder

WASHINGTON, Dec 28 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Friday approved a $60.4 billion aid package to pay for reconstruction costs from Superstorm Sandy, which ravaged mid-Atlantic and northeastern states, after defeating Republican efforts to trim the bill’s cost.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid urged the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to quickly take up the bill, which includes $12 billion to repair and strengthen the region’s transportation system against future storms.

“There is no time to waste,” Reid said.

Both chambers have to agreed on a package by Jan. 2, when the current term of Congress is expected to end, or restart the process of crafting legislation in 2013. The Senate approved the bill 62-32, with most Republicans voting no.

“We beat back all of the crippling amendments,” said Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, which suffered the largest monetary damage in the storm.

“The century-old tradition of different parts of the country rallying to help those who are beleaguered because of difficult natural disasters continues,” Schumer said.

The bill’s chances in the next few days could depend on whether President Barack Obama and congressional leaders reach a deal to avert the “fiscal cliff” of tax increases and spending cuts set to begin taking effect in the new year.

House Republican leaders have not yet decided whether to take up the Senate bill, a Republican aide said.

The bill also provides $17 billion in Community Development Block Grants to help rebuild homes, schools, hospitals and other buildings destroyed by the late October storm, help small businesses and improve the power infrastructure.

Senate Republicans complained the $60.4 billion reconstruction package requested by Obama is more than the annual budgets for the departments of Interior, Labor, Treasury and Transportation combined.

HOUSE ACTION UNCLEAR

Senator Dan Coats, an Indiana Republican, offered an alternative that would have provided $23.8 billion in funding to help victims of the storm through the end of March and give Congress time to determine additional needs.

“Let me just say, we simply are allowing three months for the Congress of the United States, the representatives of the taxpayers’ dollars, to assess, document and justify additional expenditures that go beyond emergency needs,” Coats said just before his amendment was defeated.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers, a Republican from Kentucky, would still prefer to pass a stop-gap bill to meet immediate needs and wait to do another package after better estimates come in, a committee aide said.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated about $8.97 billion of the Senate bill would be spent in 2013, with another $12.66 billion spent in 2014 and $11.59 billion spent in 2015.

The Senate bill is considerably less than the $82 billion in aid requested by New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, the states that bore the brunt of damage from the storm.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, was in Washington this month, lobbying lawmakers for the larger amount.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund now has less than $5 billion available.

The damage to New York and New Jersey coastal areas was on a scale not seen since Hurricane Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast and flooded New Orleans in 2005. Two weeks after that storm hit, Congress approved $62.3 billion in emergency appropriations.

Lawmakers passed numerous subsequent emergency funding requests over several years to cover damages from Katrina, which topped $100 billion. A number of Gulf State Republicans supported the Sandy relief bill.

Republicans were successful in requiring offsetting spending cuts for $3.4 billion in mitigation work to prevent future disasters. Some Democrats said this would set a precedent for future disaster aid bills.

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Smartphones are a lot of things — convenient, powerful, and feature-rich. They’re also exceedingly complicated to many older users who are accustomed to 12-button panels and curly phone cords. This past summer, Fujitsu revealed that its Raku Raku smartphone, a handset designed specifically for senior citizens, would be arriving in Japan via NTT Docomo. Now the company, facing a saturated market in Japan, is branching out and will launch the handset in the United States and Europe.

This information comes from Fujitsu’s president himself, who told the newspaper Asahi, “As the Japanese market has already hit a peak, we have to sell devices overseas to increase our sales numbers.” The Raku Raku will be modified for its respective overseas markets, although no information on what changes will be in place for the US and European versions have been offered.

The Japanese version of the phone offers many features designed specifically for easy-to-comprehend navigation and use. For example, the large icons on the handset’s display change colors when tapped to let the user know that it was pressed to make up for the lack of a physical button. The user interface is designed to offer simple menus and easily accessible features.

The handset has a 4-inch display with a resolution of 480 x 800, an 8.1-megapixel rear camera and 3.2-megapixel front camera, and is presently being sold in Pink, Navy, and Gold colors. There are no set dates for when the handset will hit the international markets, nor what carriers will offer it and the expected price range.

[via Asahi]

Fujitsu to bring its senior citizen-optimized Raku Raku smartphone to the US, Europe is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

There are some obvious choices in the Destined For Political Stardom category. Instead of the obvious, however, I’m going with a wild card pick: a person who may not become a political star for years to come.
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In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences and the University of Florida show that the anaerobic organism Carnobacterium can survive on the Red Planet. This comes after years of belief that any Earth microbes that make their way to Mars via devices sent there, such as the Curiosity rover, won’t survive the conditions. In light of this information, scientists have to be more careful than ever to avoid sending microbes to the Martian planet.

The scientists involved in the project harvested the bacteria from between 40 to 65-feet in the Siberian permafrost. This location was chosen because of its harsh conditions; according to the study, the microbes were harvested from permafrost that had an average temperature of 19 degrees Fahrenheit. Once harvested, they were grown into larger cultures in a lab for the experiment.

Once the larger culture was grown, the scientists exposed them to Mars-like conditions, such as very low-oxygen environment and extremely cold temperatures. The project took place over the course of a month, and out of 10,000 isolates subjected to the Martian conditions, all but six of them died. The six that remained, in an unexpected plot twist, thrived under the conditions.

The surviving Carnobacterium are, alas, not limited to the deep Siberian permafrost, and are instead found across the world, and on common items, such as ready to eat meal packaging. This information turns previously held beliefs upside down, and demonstrates the need for extra diligence in ensuring that humans do not contaminate Mars with Earth microbes.

[via io9]

Earth microbes can survive on Mars, study finds is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.