There?s good news, ladies: A new type of birth control pill has been approved by the FDA! Quartette has a combination of?levonorgestrel/ethinyl estradiol and ethinyl estradiol and can help prevent breakthrough bleeding.
According to?Dr.?James A.?Simon, clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the?George Washington?University School of Medicine:
?Breakthrough bleeding can be experienced with any birth control pill, especially during the first few months, and is one of the reasons a large number of women discontinue extended regimens. The estrogen in Quartette increases at specific points and provides four short light periods a year. Breakthrough bleeding decreases over time, which might help encourage patient adherence.?
Approval for the new drug came after a clinical trial in which Quartette was found to be 97% effective at preventing pregnancy. It works differently than most 30-day birth control pills:?Quartette features a 91-day oral regimen, in which the dose of estrogen increases at three set point points over the first 84 days, while the amount of progestin remains the same. This is then is followed by seven days of 10 micrograms of ethinyl estradiol.
I?m in favor of any and all options that give a woman greater choice to prevent pregnancy. Many woman have problems with hormonal birth control, so perhaps Quartette might be a good option for women that have tried other pill regimens that didn?t work for their body or lifestyle. Breakthrough bleeding is a really common complaint, so if Quartette can prevent that for some pill-users, it really sounds like a great development for women.
This photo provided by the Virginia State Police shows the scene following a 75-vehicle pileup on Interstate 77 near the Virginia-North Carolina border in Galax, Va., on Sunday, March 31, 2013. Virginia State Police say three people have been killed and more than 20 are injured and traffic is backed up about 8 miles. (AP Photo/Virginia State Police, Sgt. Mike Conroy)
This photo provided by the Virginia State Police shows the scene following a 75-vehicle pileup on Interstate 77 near the Virginia-North Carolina border in Galax, Va., on Sunday, March 31, 2013. Virginia State Police say three people have been killed and more than 20 are injured and traffic is backed up about 8 miles. (AP Photo/Virginia State Police, Sgt. Mike Conroy)
This photo provided by the Virginia State Police shows the scene following a 75-vehicle pileup on Interstate 77 near the Virginia-North Carolina border in Galax, Va., on Sunday, March 31, 2013. Virginia State Police say three people have been killed and more than 20 are injured and traffic is backed up about 8 miles. (AP Photo/Virginia State Police, Sgt. Mike Conroy)
This image provided by WXII Channel 12 news, shows the scene following a 75-vehicle pileup on Interstate 77 near the Virginia-North Carolina border in Galax, Va., on Sunday, March 31, 2013. Virginia State Police say three people have been killed and more than 20 are injured and traffic is backed up about 8 miles. (AP Photo/WXII, William Bottomley) MANDAORY CREDIT: WXII,WILLIAM BOTTOMLEY
This image provided by WXII Channel 12 news, shows the scene following a 75-vehicle pileup on Interstate 77 near the Virginia-North Carolina border in Galax, Va., on Sunday, March 31, 2013. Virginia State Police say three people have been killed and more than 20 are injured and traffic is backed up about 8 miles. (AP Photo/WXII, William Bottomley) MANDAORY CREDIT: WXII,WILLIAM BOTTOMLEY
GALAX, Va. (AP) ? Nearly 100 vehicles crashed Sunday along a mountainous, foggy stretch of interstate near the Virginia-North Carolina border, killing three people and injuring 25 others.
Police said traffic along Interstate 77 in southwest Virginia backed up for about 8 miles in the southbound lanes after the accidents. Authorities closed the northbound lanes so that fire trucks, ambulances and police could get to the series of chain-reaction wrecks.
Virginia State Police determined there were 17 separate crashes involving 95 vehicles within a mile span near the base of Fancy Gap Mountain, spokeswoman Corinne Geller said. The crashes began around 1:15 p.m. Sunday when there was heavy fog in the area.
"This mountain is notorious for fog banks. They have advance signs warning people. But the problem is, people are seeing well and suddenly they're in a fog bank," said Glen Sage of the American Red Cross office in the town of Galax.
Since 1997, there have been at least six such pileups on the mountain but Sunday's crash was the most deadly, according to The Roanoke Times. Two people died in crashes involving dozens of vehicles in both 2000 and 2010.
Overhead message boards warned drivers since about 6 a.m. Sunday to slow down because of the severe fog, Geller said. The crashes were mostly caused by drivers going too fast for conditions.
At the "epicenter" was a wreck involving up to eight vehicles, some of which caught fire, Geller said. Photos from the accident scene showed a burned out tractor-trailer and several crumpled vehicles badly charred. Those taken to hospitals had injuries ranging from serious to minor.
School buses took stranded people to shelters and hotels.
Nina Rose, 20, and her mother, were driving home to Rochester, N.Y., when they encountered the pileup.
"With so much fog we didn't see much around it," Rose told the Roanoke newspaper. "As we got further up we just saw a bunch of people standing on the median, just with their kids and families all together. There were cars smashed into other cars, and cars just underneath other semi-trucks."
Darrell Utt, 17, of Moore County, N.C., was stuck in the northbound lanes for about three hours as he traveled to Huntington, W. Va.
"It was really foggy at first," he said. "We probably saw over 50 tow trucks. We saw about five cars come down and three semi-trucks. One of them, it didn't even look like a car, it looked like a chunk of metal."
Utt said motorists were calm, despite the traffic jam.
"There was no road rage or anything, everyone understood the severity of how bad this was before we even began to figure out what exactly happened," he said.
Authorities reopened the northbound lanes Sunday night and hoped to have the other side cleared later in the evening.
Police did not immediately release the names of those killed.
It's time for CrunchWeek, that very special time each week when a few of us writers gather around the TechCrunch TV cameras to shoot the breeze about the biggest and most interesting stories from the past seven days.
As of late, Amanda Bynes has not only been posting increasingly odd and inappropriate tweets, but has been displaying a lot of odd behavior as well. The 26 year old actress was pictured walking through New York?s Times Square, which wouldn?t be that weird? if she wasn?t pretending to be a ghost while holding a blue shirt over her head. Maybe she was trying to conceal her identity and got a little carried away? I mean, I get people like to play pretend every once and a while, but this is just taking it a little too far. The star was also pictured leaving McDonalds where she ordered a soft drink and a coffee and was said to have consumed them at the same time. Earlier this week Bynes also tweeted a picture of herself with the caption ?Looking pudgy and I broke my nail.? I really don?t know who that girl sees in the mirror if she thinks she?s ?pudgy? I don?t think people can get any thinner. Bynes has been running into some legal trouble as of late as well with two hit and run cases. To top it off, her behavior is becoming increasingly spastic and bizarre [...]
Sometimes even a four-inch smartphone screen may not seem enough. If so, would 200 inches do?
The iPower Sight can ? according to the manufacturer, iPowerUp ? take what is on your phone, tablet or computer screen and enlarge it, projecting an image up to 200 diagonal inches from a device that is itself pocket-size.
Both measures may be a shade optimistic. No doubt the projector is small, at about 4 by 4 by ? of an inch and just over three ounces, but you would still need a pretty big pocket. And while it can project a focused image at up to 200 inches, you wouldn?t want to do that unless you had a completely darkened room and a nicely reflective projection screen.
It was easy enough to watch an image enlarged to around 50 inches on a white wall on an overcast day. Considering the size of the projector, the quality was quite good. The Sight uses a DLP chip, which is covered with minuscule mirrors to reflect LED light to the screen. It is the same technology that has long been used in many full-scale, high-end projectors.
The Sight?s lamp kicks out 85 lumens, which is brighter than most similarly sized projectors, and it has resolution of 854 by 480 pixels, which qualifies as high definition, but you will not want this to replace your 1080p plasma TV. Unlike your TV, the Sight can run about two hours on battery power, or plugged in for a movie marathon.
The videos I projected from YouTube looked good. Noise didn?t distract me from Psy?s horsie dance, but I could find it if I looked for it.
The projector?s built-in speaker is as anemic as the one you would find on your phone or tablet. If you want to add some quality sound, you will need to connect to a separate speaker dock.
If what you?re looking for is a decent picture from a small package, perhaps for presentations, entertaining the kids on a trip or making video games wall-size in a dorm room, the iPower Sight is far, far superior to huddling around your phone.
Currently the projector is only available direct from iPowerUp for $350.
It may be time to retire the groundhog and start tracking Arctic sea ice for a better prediction of late-winter weather.
On March 15, the Arctic sea ice reached its maximum extent ? the most ice the frigid North would see this year, according to the National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colo. Changes in Arctic ice, and its total extent, may be affecting weather further south, scientists think.
The ice covered 5.84 million square miles (15.13 million square kilometers), the sixth-lowest area on record since 1979. Most of the ice was young, first-year ice, freshly frozen. The Arctic also has multiyear ice, frozen year-round, which is stiffer and thicker, and contains much less brine than first-year ice does. However, its slice of the total ice pie has been shrinking in recent years.
During the 2012 to 2013 winter season, the sea ice grew a record 4.53 million square miles (11.72 million square km). This massive growth was primarily due to last year's missing ice: A record-low ice minimum in September 2012 meant more ocean was exposed, leaving a greater area uncovered to refreeze this winter, the NSIDC said in a statement.
The big swings between summer and winter ice indicate a shift toward a more pronounced seasonal cycle in the Arctic, according to the NSIDC.
The shift is changing the ratio of thin, first-year ice to thick, multiyear ice, which is more resistant to summer melting and winter storms. First-year ice increasingly dominates the Arctic ice pack, the NSIDC said.
This year, the relatively fragile first-year ice was buffeted by a powerful Arctic storm in February, extensively fracturing the ice. Cracking from storms happens every year. This year, however, the rifts extended from Canada to Alaska ? although they quickly refroze.
Less Arctic ice also means more of the ocean and atmosphere can warm from the sun. Scientists think this warming shifts the jet stream, steering cold storm systems further south. March brought freezing temperatures and strong winter storms to the United States, Europe and Russia.
Email Becky Oskin or follow her @beckyoskin. Follow us?@OAPlanet, Facebook?or Google+. Original article on LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Researchers unveil large robotic jellyfish that one day could patrol oceansPublic release date: 28-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Steven Mackay smackay@vt.edu 540-231-4787 Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech College of Engineering researchers have unveiled a life-like, autonomous robotic jellyfish the size and weight of a grown man, 5 foot 7 inches in length and weighing 170 pounds.
The prototype robot, nicknamed Cyro, is a larger model of a robotic jellyfish the same team headed by Shashank Priya of Blacksburg, Va., and professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech unveiled in 2012. The earlier robot, dubbed RoboJelly, is roughly the size of a man's hand, and typical of jellyfish found along beaches.
"A larger vehicle will allow for more payload, longer duration and longer range of operation," said Alex Villanueva of St-Jacques, New-Brunswick, Canada, and a doctoral student in mechanical engineering working under Priya. "Biological and engineering results show that larger vehicles have a lower cost of transport, which is a metric used to determine how much energy is spent for traveling."
Both robots are part of a multi-university, nationwide $5 million project funded by U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare Center and the Office of Naval Research. The goal is to place self-powering, autonomous machines in waters for the purposes of surveillance and monitoring the environment, in addition to other uses such as studying aquatic life, mapping ocean floors, and monitoring ocean currents.
Jellyfish are attractive candidates to mimic because of their ability to consume little energy owing to a lower metabolic rate than other marine species. Additionally, they appear in wide variety of sizes, shapes and colors, allowing for several designs. They also inhabit every major oceanic area of the world and are capable of withstanding a wide range of temperatures in both fresh and salt waters. Most species are found in shallow coastal waters, but some have been found in depths 7,000 meters below sea level.
Partner universities in the project are Providence College in Rhode Island, the University of California Los Angeles, the University of Texas at Dallas, and Stanford University. Priya's team is building the jellyfish body models, integrating fluid mechanics and developing control systems.
Cyro is modeled and named after the jellyfish Cyanea capillata, Latin for Llion's Manemain jellyfish. Jellyfish, with "Cyro" derived from "cyanea" and "robot." As with its predecessor, this robot is in the prototype stage, years away from use in waters. A new prototype model already is under construction at Virginia Tech's Durham Hall, where Priya's Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems is based.
"We hope to improve on this robot and reduce power consumption and improve swimming performance as well as better mimic the morphology of the natural jellyfish," Villanueva said, adding that the project also allows researchers such as himself to better understand aquatic creatures live. "Our hopes for Cyro's future is that it will help understand how the propulsion mechanism of such animal scales with size."
A stark difference exists between the larger and smaller robots. Cyro is powered by a rechargeable nickel metal hydride battery, whereas the smaller models were tethered, Priya said. Experiments have also been conducted on powering jellyfish with hydrogen but there is still much research to be done in that area.
In both cases, the jellyfish must operate on their own for months or longer at a time as engineers likely won't be able to capture and repair the robots, or replace power sources.
"Cyro showed its ability to swim autonomously while maintaining a similar physical appearance and kinematics as the natural species," Priya said, adding that the robot is simultaneously able to collect, store, analyze, and communicate sensory data. This autonomous operation in shallow water conditions is already a big step towards demonstrating the use of these creatures."
How does the robot swim? Its body consists of a rigid support structure with direct current electric motors which control the mechanical arms that are used in conjunction with an artificial mesoglea, or jelly-based pulp of the fish's body, creating hydrodynamic movement.
With no central nervous system, jellyfish instead use a diffused nerve net to control movement and can complete complex functions. A parallel study on a bio-inspired control system is in progress which will eventually replace the current simplified controller.
As with the smaller models, Cyro's skin is comprised of a thick layer of silicone, squishy in one's hand. It mimics the sleek jellyfish skin and is placed over a bowl-shaped device containing the electronic guts of the robot. When moving, the skin floats and moves with the robot, looking weirdly alive.
"It has been a great experience to finally realize the biomimetic and bio-inspired robotic vehicles," Priya said. "Nature has too many secrets and we were able to find some of them but many still remain. We hope to find a mechanism to continue on this journey and resolve the remaining puzzles."
###
Video on Cyro Jellyfish Robot: http://vimeo.com/62880818
[ | 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.
Researchers unveil large robotic jellyfish that one day could patrol oceansPublic release date: 28-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Steven Mackay smackay@vt.edu 540-231-4787 Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech College of Engineering researchers have unveiled a life-like, autonomous robotic jellyfish the size and weight of a grown man, 5 foot 7 inches in length and weighing 170 pounds.
The prototype robot, nicknamed Cyro, is a larger model of a robotic jellyfish the same team headed by Shashank Priya of Blacksburg, Va., and professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech unveiled in 2012. The earlier robot, dubbed RoboJelly, is roughly the size of a man's hand, and typical of jellyfish found along beaches.
"A larger vehicle will allow for more payload, longer duration and longer range of operation," said Alex Villanueva of St-Jacques, New-Brunswick, Canada, and a doctoral student in mechanical engineering working under Priya. "Biological and engineering results show that larger vehicles have a lower cost of transport, which is a metric used to determine how much energy is spent for traveling."
Both robots are part of a multi-university, nationwide $5 million project funded by U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare Center and the Office of Naval Research. The goal is to place self-powering, autonomous machines in waters for the purposes of surveillance and monitoring the environment, in addition to other uses such as studying aquatic life, mapping ocean floors, and monitoring ocean currents.
Jellyfish are attractive candidates to mimic because of their ability to consume little energy owing to a lower metabolic rate than other marine species. Additionally, they appear in wide variety of sizes, shapes and colors, allowing for several designs. They also inhabit every major oceanic area of the world and are capable of withstanding a wide range of temperatures in both fresh and salt waters. Most species are found in shallow coastal waters, but some have been found in depths 7,000 meters below sea level.
Partner universities in the project are Providence College in Rhode Island, the University of California Los Angeles, the University of Texas at Dallas, and Stanford University. Priya's team is building the jellyfish body models, integrating fluid mechanics and developing control systems.
Cyro is modeled and named after the jellyfish Cyanea capillata, Latin for Llion's Manemain jellyfish. Jellyfish, with "Cyro" derived from "cyanea" and "robot." As with its predecessor, this robot is in the prototype stage, years away from use in waters. A new prototype model already is under construction at Virginia Tech's Durham Hall, where Priya's Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems is based.
"We hope to improve on this robot and reduce power consumption and improve swimming performance as well as better mimic the morphology of the natural jellyfish," Villanueva said, adding that the project also allows researchers such as himself to better understand aquatic creatures live. "Our hopes for Cyro's future is that it will help understand how the propulsion mechanism of such animal scales with size."
A stark difference exists between the larger and smaller robots. Cyro is powered by a rechargeable nickel metal hydride battery, whereas the smaller models were tethered, Priya said. Experiments have also been conducted on powering jellyfish with hydrogen but there is still much research to be done in that area.
In both cases, the jellyfish must operate on their own for months or longer at a time as engineers likely won't be able to capture and repair the robots, or replace power sources.
"Cyro showed its ability to swim autonomously while maintaining a similar physical appearance and kinematics as the natural species," Priya said, adding that the robot is simultaneously able to collect, store, analyze, and communicate sensory data. This autonomous operation in shallow water conditions is already a big step towards demonstrating the use of these creatures."
How does the robot swim? Its body consists of a rigid support structure with direct current electric motors which control the mechanical arms that are used in conjunction with an artificial mesoglea, or jelly-based pulp of the fish's body, creating hydrodynamic movement.
With no central nervous system, jellyfish instead use a diffused nerve net to control movement and can complete complex functions. A parallel study on a bio-inspired control system is in progress which will eventually replace the current simplified controller.
As with the smaller models, Cyro's skin is comprised of a thick layer of silicone, squishy in one's hand. It mimics the sleek jellyfish skin and is placed over a bowl-shaped device containing the electronic guts of the robot. When moving, the skin floats and moves with the robot, looking weirdly alive.
"It has been a great experience to finally realize the biomimetic and bio-inspired robotic vehicles," Priya said. "Nature has too many secrets and we were able to find some of them but many still remain. We hope to find a mechanism to continue on this journey and resolve the remaining puzzles."
###
Video on Cyro Jellyfish Robot: http://vimeo.com/62880818
[ | 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.
Jack Ruderman, 9, smiles as he learns how to surf. One of the camp lifeguards, Radael Ruiz, 36, helps him get the board in the correct position for the wave. Cayla Nimmo // Photo Editor
On the shores of Miami Beach, 27 staff members and 12 campers take to the waves this week to put their surfing skills to the test during the University of Miami-Nova Southeastern University?s Center for Autism and Related Diseases? (UM-NSU CARD) Surf Camp.
The annual program located at South Pointe Park hosts 12 children between the ages of 8 and 12 who have autism. These high- and low-functioning children spend the week of their spring break learning how to surf.
Of the 7,000 families at CARD, these 12 children are selected after going through an interview process to evaluate their ability to thrive on their own without familiar faces.
?This is a camp to focus on their abilities, instead of their disabilities,? said Maricarmen Saleta, an educational specialist at UM-NSU CARD who helped plan the program in 2007.
After meeting Michael Alessandri, executive director of CARD, Saleta moved to Miami in 2005 and began working for him at UM-NSU CARD. In 2007, Julio Magrisso, assistant director of the recreation division for the city of Miami Beach, saw a documentary about a similar camp in California for children with disabilities. Immediately inspired, he contacted Alessandri, who passed the project on to Saleta, and the two groups began co-planning the camp.
The weeklong program, funded by the Autism Society of Miami and private sponsors acquired at CARD?s annual ?Tropical Nights? fundraiser, is free to campers and their families.
The program first took place in 2008 and hosted two sessions. However, each year since, they have only been able to offer one session due to funding.
The city already had a summer Surf Camp organized for ordinary kids, so it was easy to adapt the same staff and instructors for CARD?s program, said Edith Guerra, a Miami-Beach Parks and Recreation Supervisor who has worked for the camp since its inception.
Guerra feels that the camp is an opportunity for everyone to recognize the true potential of the kids, regardless of their disabilities.
?When you get a chance to see the parents see what they?re children have learned, they?re just so surprised,? she said. ?They think, ?I never thought my child would be able to do something like this.??
The children enjoy it as much as the parents.
?I feel happy,? said 10-year-old camper Jake Stempel when asked about his surfing experience.
Jack Ruderman, a 9-year-old camper, agreed.
?I do it because I like to surf and ? I have a lot a friends,? he said.
In the future, CARD and Miami Beach are talking about expanding the recreational activities to other sports, according to Guerra. In addition to the surf program, CARD already hosts soccer and tennis programs.
Saleta hopes more children will be able to participate in this rewarding experience.
?It?s an amazing experience for these kids,? she said. ?It?s amazing to see their face when they get up on the board.?
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Concluding two days of intense debate, the Supreme Court signaled Wednesday it could give a boost to same-sex marriage by striking down the federal law that denies legally married gay spouses a wide range of benefits offered to other couples.
As the court wrapped up its remarkable arguments over gay marriage in America, a majority of the justices indicated they will invalidate part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act ? if they can get past procedural problems similar to those that appeared to mark Tuesday's case over California's ban on same-sex marriage.
Since the federal law was enacted in 1996, nine states and the District of Columbia have made it legal for gays and lesbians to marry. Same-sex unions also were legal in California for nearly five months in 2008 before the Proposition 8 ban.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, often the decisive vote in close cases, joined the four more-liberal justices in raising questions Wednesday about a provision that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman for purposes of federal law.
It affects more than 1,100 statutes in which marital status is relevant, dealing with tax breaks for married couples, Social Security survivor benefits and, for federal employees, health insurance and leave to care for spouses.
Kennedy said the Defense of Marriage Act appears to intrude on the power of states that have chosen to recognize same-sex marriages. When so many federal statutes are affected, "which in our society means that the federal government is intertwined with the citizens' day-to-day life, you are at real risk of running in conflict with what has always been thought to be the essence of the state police power, which is to regulate marriage, divorce, custody," Kennedy said.
Other justices said the law creates what Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called two classes of marriage, full and "skim-milk marriage."
If the court does strike down part of DOMA, it would represent a victory for gay rights advocates. But it would be something short of the endorsement of gay marriage nationwide that some envisioned when the justices agreed in December to hear the federal case and the challenge to California's ban on same-sex marriage.
Still, the tenor of the arguments over two days reflected how quickly attitudes have changed since large majorities in Congress passed the federal DOMA in 1996 and President Bill Clinton signed it into law. In 2011, President Barack Obama abandoned the legal defense of the law in the face of several lawsuits, and last year Obama endorsed gay marriage. Clinton, too, has voiced regret for signing the law and now supports allowing gays and lesbians to marry.
In 1996, the House of Representatives' report on the legislation explained that one of its purposes was "to express moral disapproval of homosexuality." Justice Elena Kagan read those words in the courtroom Wednesday, evoking a reaction from the audience that sounded like a cross between a gasp and nervous laughter.
Kagan's quotation gave lawyer Paul Clement, representing the Republican-controlled House of Representatives that has taken up defense of the law in place of the administration, some uncomfortable moments at the lectern.
"Does the House report say that? Of course, the House report says that. And if that's enough to invalidate the statute, then you should invalidate the statute," Clement said. But he said the more relevant question is whether Congress had "any rational basis for the statute." He supplied one: the federal government's interest in treating same-sex couples the same no matter where they live.
Clement said the government does not want military families "to resist transfer from West Point to Fort Sill because they're going to lose their benefits." The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is in New York, where same-sex marriage is legal, and Fort Sill is in Oklahoma, where gay marriages are not legal.
Opposing Clement was the Obama administration's top Supreme Court lawyer, Donald Verrilli, who said the provision of DOMA at issue, Section 3, impermissibly discriminates against gay people.
"I think it's time for the court to recognize that this discrimination, excluding lawfully married gay and lesbian couples from federal benefits, cannot be reconciled with our fundamental commitment to equal treatment under law," Verrilli said.
Both Verrilli and Roberta Kaplan, the lawyer for Edith Windsor, the 83-year-old New York woman who sued over DOMA, told the court that views about gay people and marriage have shifted dramatically since 1996 when the law was approved.
"Why are you so confident in that judgment? How many states permit gay couples to marry?" Justice Antonin Scalia asked Kaplan.
Nine, she said.
"So there's been a sea change between now and 1996," Scalia said, doubtfully.
But Chief Justice John Roberts jumped on the idea of a rapid shift in opinion to suggest that perhaps gays and lesbians do not need special protection from the court.
"As far as I can tell, political leaders are falling all over themselves to endorse your side of the case," Roberts said.
The justices stepped into the dispute after lower federal courts ruled against the measure.
The DOMA argument followed Tuesday's case over California's ban on same-sex marriage, a case in which the justices indicated they might avoid a major national ruling on whether America's gays and lesbians have a right to marry. Even without a significant ruling, the court appeared headed for a resolution that would mean the resumption of gay and lesbian weddings in California.
Supreme Court arguments are the most visible part of the justices' consideration of the cases before them, but they often play a relatively small role in rulings compared to the mountain of legal briefs that are filed in the weeks leading up to the public sessions.
Lawsuits around the country have led four federal district courts and two appeals courts to strike down DOMA's Section 3, which defines marriage. In 2011, the Obama administration abandoned its defense of the law but continues to enforce it.
The change in position led the court to consider the related questions of whether the House Republican leadership can defend the law in court because the administration decided not to, and whether the administration forfeited its right to participate in the case.
Roberts and Scalia seemed most interested in this sort of outcome, and the chief justice offered perhaps the most pointed comment of the day when he wondered why Obama continues to enforce a law he believes is unconstitutional.
"I don't see why he doesn't have the courage of his convictions and execute not only the statute but do it consistent with his view of the Constitution, rather than saying, 'Oh, we'll wait till the Supreme Court tells us we have no choice,'" Roberts said.
If the Supreme Court finds that it does not have the authority to hear the case, Windsor probably would still get the $363,000 estate tax refund for which she sued because she won in the lower courts. But there would be no definitive decision about the law from the nation's highest court, and it would remain on the books.
Windsor, who goes by Edie, married Thea Spyer in 2007 in Canada after doctors told them that Spyer would not live much longer. Spyer, who suffered from multiple sclerosis for many years, died in 2009 and left everything she had to Windsor.
There is no dispute that if Windsor had been married to a man, her estate tax bill would have been zero. Windsor was in court Wednesday, where she received a hug from House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi before the argument started.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York agreed with a district judge that the provision of DOMA deprived Windsor of the constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the law.
Reflecting the high interest in the cases, the court released an audio recording of Wednesday's argument, just as it did Tuesday for that day's proceedings.
Wednesday's audio can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/d626ybg . Tuesday's is at: http://tinyurl.com/dxefy2a .
A somewhat smaller crowd gathered outside the court Wednesday, mainly gay marriage supporters who held American and rainbow flags. "Two, four, six, eight, we do not discriminate," a group chanted at one point. "If this isn't the time, when is the time? When does equality come into play?" asked Laura Scott, 43, of Columbia, Md.
Wednesday's case is U.S. v. Windsor, 12-307.
___
Associated Press writer Jessica Gresko contributed to this report.
___
Follow Mark Sherman on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/shermancourt
Follow Jessica Gresko on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/jessicagresko
During a wedding we were piece of the team. Compromise plus negotiations were a big piece of creating the partnership function. Even inside wise marriages you are able to lose sight of elements which create up that we certainly are over time. Little compromises plus options prepared lengthy ago have left pieces of we behind. If a relationship was from balance or abusive, it is very probably which we gave more of oneself away.
When you see oneself suddenly about your, without a partner, reconnecting with a authentic self is an significant, plus occasionally forgotten, step inside a healing task.
After each ending, there is a new beginning. This really is a wonderful time to look at the planet by fresh eyes. What appeals to we? What doesn?t? What colors draw we inside? Do we choose quiet or perhaps a great deal of sensory input? What are the favorite tastes? What makes we smile? What is the favorite flower, track, spot to sit?
Who inside the planet are we?????
When we slow down plus pay attention to the way you feel regarding the small points we begin to keep in mind a authentic self. Reconnecting with this element of you?ll provide we the strength plus self-confidence you ought to move forward inside a unique lifetime with ease plus elegance.
Here are certain tips which could help we inside recalling whom we absolutely are:
1. Start surrounding oneself with aspects which warm the heart or lift a spirits.
2. Look for 1 gorgeous thing to enjoy every day.
3. Switch items up. It?s the planet plus we reach result in the options today.
4. List a top 5 values plus employ them because a mantra for a lifetime.
5. Select 5 family values with a kids to guide the new family lifetime.
6. Check in before generating options. Listen to a heart.
7. Start a daily log.
8. Write a vision for a hot existence.
9. Make a list of the details you?re passionate regarding.
10. Write 5 factors you?re grateful for each evening.
11. Revisit the dreams we utilized to have for the lifetime.
12. Explore different designs of music, house decor, plus clothing.
13. Bring out a cool side.
14. Give your children versatility to express their creativity because we express yours.
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Insect pests more plentiful in hotter parts of city than in cooler areasPublic release date: 27-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Souri Somphanith onepress@plos.org 41-562-412-17199 Public Library of Science
Urban warming effect increases scale insects on willow oaks in hotter parts of city
Higher temperatures in cities can be a key driver of insect pest outbreaks on trees in urban areas, according to research published March 27 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Emily Meineke from North Carolina State University and colleagues from other institutions.
The researchers found that a scale insect that exclusively feeds on oak trees was 13 times more abundant on willow oaks in the hottest parts of the city of Raleigh, North Carolina than in cooler areas of the same city, even when other factors, like natural enemies that would kill the insects, were similar in both areas. In a second experiment, they found scale insects collected from trees in hot areas had higher survival rates in hot greenhouses than in cool ones. However, insects originally from cooler urban areas remained low in number in both hot and cool greenhouses. The researchers found no differences in the rates of reproduction of insects in any of these groups. Thus, they suggest that the differences in abundance may be a result of differences in survival rather than a higher reproductive capacity.
Urbanization of an area changes the species that dwell in it. Previous studies have analyzed these effects in terms of loss of resources or changes to habitat, but this is the first research to focus on the effects of "heat islands" created in cities. Meineke explains that, "Urban warming can lead to higher insect pest abundance, a result of pest acclimation or adaptation to higher temperatures."
The study concludes that since current urban warming is similar in magnitude to the higher temperatures predicted by global warming in the next fifty years, their results may indicate potential changes in pest abundance as natural forests also grow warmer.
###
Citation: Meineke EK, Dunn RR, Sexton JO, Frank SD (2013) Urban Warming Drives Insect Pest Abundance on Street Trees. PLoS ONE 8(3): e59687. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0059687
Financial Disclosure: This work was supported by a grant from the USGS Southeast Regional Climate Science Center to RRD and SDF. RRD was also supported by NASA Biodiversity Grant (ROSES-NNX09AK22G) and an NSF Career grant (0953390). SDF was also supported by grants from USDA Southern Region IPM (2010-02678), North Carolina Nursery and Landscape Association, the Horticultural Research Institute, and the USDA IR-4 Project. EKM was also funded by the NCSU Department of Entomology and an EPA STAR Fellowship. (URLs: http://www.epa.gov/ncer/fellow/; http://ir4.rutgers.edu; http://www.doi.gov/csc/southeast/index.cfm; http://cce.nasa.gov/cce/biodiversity.htm; http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id = 503214; http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/entomology/; http://www.csrees.usda.gov/funding/rfas/ipm_southern.html; http://www.hriresearch.org; http://www.ncnla.com). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interest Statement: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
PLEASE LINK TO THE SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT (URL goes live after the embargo ends): http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0059687
Disclaimer: This press release refers to upcoming articles in PLOS ONE. The releases have been provided by the article authors and/or journal staff. Any opinions expressed in these are the personal views of the contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of PLOS. PLOS expressly disclaims any and all warranties and liability in connection with the information found in the release and article and your use of such information.
About PLOS ONE: PLOS ONE is the first journal of primary research from all areas of science to employ a combination of peer review and post-publication rating and commenting, to maximize the impact of every report it publishes. PLOS ONE is published by the Public Library of Science (PLOS), the open-access publisher whose goal is to make the world's scientific and medical literature a public resource.
All works published in PLOS ONE are Open Access. Everything is immediately availableto read, download, redistribute, include in databases and otherwise usewithout cost to anyone, anywhere, subject only to the condition that the original authors and source are properly attributed. For more information about PLOS ONE relevant to journalists, bloggers and press officers, including details of our press release process and our embargo policy, see the everyONE blog at http://everyone.plos.org/media.
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Insect pests more plentiful in hotter parts of city than in cooler areasPublic release date: 27-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Souri Somphanith onepress@plos.org 41-562-412-17199 Public Library of Science
Urban warming effect increases scale insects on willow oaks in hotter parts of city
Higher temperatures in cities can be a key driver of insect pest outbreaks on trees in urban areas, according to research published March 27 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Emily Meineke from North Carolina State University and colleagues from other institutions.
The researchers found that a scale insect that exclusively feeds on oak trees was 13 times more abundant on willow oaks in the hottest parts of the city of Raleigh, North Carolina than in cooler areas of the same city, even when other factors, like natural enemies that would kill the insects, were similar in both areas. In a second experiment, they found scale insects collected from trees in hot areas had higher survival rates in hot greenhouses than in cool ones. However, insects originally from cooler urban areas remained low in number in both hot and cool greenhouses. The researchers found no differences in the rates of reproduction of insects in any of these groups. Thus, they suggest that the differences in abundance may be a result of differences in survival rather than a higher reproductive capacity.
Urbanization of an area changes the species that dwell in it. Previous studies have analyzed these effects in terms of loss of resources or changes to habitat, but this is the first research to focus on the effects of "heat islands" created in cities. Meineke explains that, "Urban warming can lead to higher insect pest abundance, a result of pest acclimation or adaptation to higher temperatures."
The study concludes that since current urban warming is similar in magnitude to the higher temperatures predicted by global warming in the next fifty years, their results may indicate potential changes in pest abundance as natural forests also grow warmer.
###
Citation: Meineke EK, Dunn RR, Sexton JO, Frank SD (2013) Urban Warming Drives Insect Pest Abundance on Street Trees. PLoS ONE 8(3): e59687. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0059687
Financial Disclosure: This work was supported by a grant from the USGS Southeast Regional Climate Science Center to RRD and SDF. RRD was also supported by NASA Biodiversity Grant (ROSES-NNX09AK22G) and an NSF Career grant (0953390). SDF was also supported by grants from USDA Southern Region IPM (2010-02678), North Carolina Nursery and Landscape Association, the Horticultural Research Institute, and the USDA IR-4 Project. EKM was also funded by the NCSU Department of Entomology and an EPA STAR Fellowship. (URLs: http://www.epa.gov/ncer/fellow/; http://ir4.rutgers.edu; http://www.doi.gov/csc/southeast/index.cfm; http://cce.nasa.gov/cce/biodiversity.htm; http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id = 503214; http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/entomology/; http://www.csrees.usda.gov/funding/rfas/ipm_southern.html; http://www.hriresearch.org; http://www.ncnla.com). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interest Statement: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
PLEASE LINK TO THE SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT (URL goes live after the embargo ends): http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0059687
Disclaimer: This press release refers to upcoming articles in PLOS ONE. The releases have been provided by the article authors and/or journal staff. Any opinions expressed in these are the personal views of the contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of PLOS. PLOS expressly disclaims any and all warranties and liability in connection with the information found in the release and article and your use of such information.
About PLOS ONE: PLOS ONE is the first journal of primary research from all areas of science to employ a combination of peer review and post-publication rating and commenting, to maximize the impact of every report it publishes. PLOS ONE is published by the Public Library of Science (PLOS), the open-access publisher whose goal is to make the world's scientific and medical literature a public resource.
All works published in PLOS ONE are Open Access. Everything is immediately availableto read, download, redistribute, include in databases and otherwise usewithout cost to anyone, anywhere, subject only to the condition that the original authors and source are properly attributed. For more information about PLOS ONE relevant to journalists, bloggers and press officers, including details of our press release process and our embargo policy, see the everyONE blog at http://everyone.plos.org/media.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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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.
These color-enhanced views of Deimos, the smaller of the two moons of Mars, were taken on Feb. 21, 2009, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Deimos is about 7.5 miles in diameter. Deimos has a smooth surface due to a blanket of fragmental rock or regolith, except for the most recent impact craters. It is a dark, reddish object, very similar to Mars' other moon, Phobos.
By Mike Wall Space.com
Humanity's quest to send astronauts to Mars may get a boost from a student design competition being held this week.
The Caltech Space Challenge, which runs from Monday through Friday (March 25-29) at the university's campus in Pasadena, asks two teams of students from around the world to design a manned mission to Phobos?or Deimos, Mars' two tiny moons.
"This is a technical feat that, by necessity, will spark innovation the world over," Nick Parziale, a Ph.D. student in aeronautics at Caltech and leader of one of the teams, said in a statement. "We hope the Caltech Space Challenge serves as a reminder that these incredibly difficult problems are tractable, and that these passionate and dedicated students are just the women and men for the job."
A total of 32 graduate and undergraduate students representing 21 universities and 11 different countries are participating in the competition, Caltech officials said. Scientists and engineers from Caltech, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and a number of aerospace firms will advise the student teams and judge their final designs, which will be presented Friday. [Photos: Mars Moon Phobos Up Close]
Many scientists view Phobos and Deimos as potential stepping stones to Mars itself, as well as locations from which astronauts could efficiently operate robots exploring the Red Planet's surface.
The two moons are both tiny, with Phobos measuring 14 miles (22 kilometers) across and Deimos?just 8 miles (13 km). They're probably former asteroids that Mars' gravity captured long ago, researchers say.
NASA is looking into sending astronauts to Phobos or Deimos as part of a broad investigation of manned Mars mission options. In 2010, President Barack Obama directed the space agency to get humans to the vicinity of the Red Planet by the mid-2030s.
Students participating in the design competition hope their work brings a manned journey to Mars a little closer to reality.
"Sending humans to the neighborhood of Mars, and back, is going to be one of the most challenging engineering feats ever attempted," Jason Rabinovitch, another Caltech aeronautics Ph.D. student and leader of the competition's other team, said in a statement.
"The Caltech Space Challenge is our way to continue to support and advance what is bound to be a long process of design, development and?innovation leading to human footprints on Martian soil," Rabinovitch added.
Public lectures associated with the design challenge will be given Monday through Wednesday. The public is also invited to attend the competition's final presentations on Friday afternoon. More details on the student contest are available at the?Caltech Space Challenge website.
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter?@michaeldwall.?Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?or?Google+. Originally published on?Space.com.
Copyright 2013 Space.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
In this 2009 photo, a pair of German merchant ships traverse the fabled Northeast Passage through the Arctic.
By John Roach, Contributing Writer, NBC News
Most of the sea ice that forms each fall and winter in the Arctic now melts each spring and summer, a recent change that is impacting global patterns of weather and trade as well as the U.S. military's strategic planning, experts told reporters during a briefing Tuesday.
"There are tremendous two-way and multiple interactions between the Arctic and the rest of the world," retired Rear Adm. David Titley said during the teleconference organized by Climate Nexus, a group trying to raise awareness about climate change.
Experts tied the melting ice in the Arctic to the recent spate of stormy winter weather in parts of the U.S. and Europe. They also noted that the prospect of ice-free summers in the Arctic as soon as 2030 is already impacting international trade and U.S. Navy plans to protect Arctic resources.
Maximum extent reached The briefing was held the day after the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) announced that the Arctic sea ice reached its maximum reach for the year on March 15, covering 5.84 million square miles. This is the sixth lowest maximum sea ice coverage in the 35-year satellite record.
"The last 10 years have been the lowest 10 years," said Walt Meier, a research scientist at the NSIDC. He added that while this year was low, "we actually have the largest growth of ice in our record from the minimum to the maximum" primarily because the ice was recovering from the record low in 2012.?
In addition to the shrinking extent of sea ice, the remaining ice is thinning perhaps twice as fast as the observed ice extent, noted Wieslaw Maslowski, an oceanographer at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School.
Changing weather patterns The changing sea ice dynamics are perhaps most felt outside of the Arctic via changes in weather patterns, noted Stephen Vavrus, a senior scientist with the National Institute Center for Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Jim Vaiknoras / AP
A storm system stretching from the Dakotas to the Florida Panhandle is predicted to bring snow to the mid-Atlantic states.
The melting ice, he explained, allows heat stored in the ocean to escape to the atmosphere where it changes the pressure patterns, including "the jetstream level winds that affect our weather in the middle latitudes."
In particular, he and colleagues hypothesize that the warming Arctic causes the jetsteam to slow down and meander like a river flowing through the plains. This, in turn, transports less warm air over the lands from the oceans.
"That essentially helps to refrigerate the land during the wintertime and we get more cold and more snow and more extreme cold as well," Vavrus said. "And we've seen examples of that in this past winter with the slowed westerly wind."
The same meandering jetstream, he noted, could also explain the unusually warm spring in 2012. If a meandering jetstream is like a river, some bends are favorable to cold outbreaks, others are favorable to extreme warmth.
"Just depending on how those jetstream waves happen to set up in a particular week or month or season, that could help to explain why you could get weather extremes of both types," he said.
More commerce, new conflicts? Less ice in the Arctic and the potential for ice-free summers is ratcheting up commercial interest in the region for oil and mineral extraction as well as use as a shipping route, developments that have the U.S. Navy studying how to establish an increased presence there.
"We see the potential for direct armed conflict in the Arctic to be very, very low," Titley said, but the military nevertheless is preparing its ships to be Arctic worthy, to establish infrastructure such as ports, and to strengthen communications and weather forecasting.
"The Arctic it is a very austere and harsh place," he said. "Even as it warms, it's a really hard place to operate."?
John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News. To learn more about him, visit his website.?
In this Sunday, March 24, 2013 image taken from video obtained from the Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Free Syrian Army fighters drops a shell into a firing tube, in Damascus countryside, Syria. (AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)
In this Sunday, March 24, 2013 image taken from video obtained from the Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Free Syrian Army fighters drops a shell into a firing tube, in Damascus countryside, Syria. (AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The United States is training secular Syrian fighters in Jordan in a bid to bolster forces battling President Bashar Assad's regime and stem the influence of Islamist radicals among the country's persistently splintered opposition, American and foreign officials said.
The training has been conducted for several months now in an unspecified location, concentrating largely on Sunnis and tribal Bedouins who formerly served as members of the Syrian army, officials told The Associated Press. The forces aren't members of the leading rebel group, the Free Syrian Army, which Washington and others fear may be increasingly coming under the sway of extremist militia groups, including some linked to al-Qaida, they said.
The operation is being run by U.S. intelligence and is ongoing, officials said, but those in Washington stressed that the U.S. is providing only nonlethal aid at this point. Others such as Britain and France are involved, they said, though it's unclear whether any Western governments are providing materiel or other direct military support after two years of civil war that according to the United Nations already has killed more than 70,000 people.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the program.
Officially, the Obama administration has been vague on the subject of what type of military training it may be providing, while insisting that it is doing all it can ? short of providing weapons to the rebels or engaging in its own military intervention ? to hasten the demise of the Assad family's four-decade dictatorship.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday the U.S. has "provided some logistical nonlethal support that has also come in handy for the Syrian rebels who are, again, fighting a regime that is not hesitating to use the military might of that regime against its own people.
"That is something we're going to continue to work to bring to an end," he told reporters.
It's unclear what effect the training has had in the conflict, which has become a quagmire with Assad's regime unable to snuff out the rebellion and Syria's opposition incapable thus far of delivering any serious blow to the ruling government's grip on Damascus and control over much of the country.
Some of the Syrians the U.S. is involved with are, in turn, training other Syrians inside the border, officials said.
They declined to provide more information because they said that would go too deep into intelligence matters. Defense Department officials insisted the Pentagon isn't involved with any military training or arms provisions to the Syrian rebels, either directly or indirectly. The CIA declined to comment.
The New York Times reported Monday that the CIA helped Arab governments and Turkey sharply increase their military aid to Syria's opposition in recent months, with secret airlifts or arms and equipment. It cited traffic data, officials in several countries and rebel commanders, and said the airlift began on a small scale a year ago but has expanded steadily to more than 160 military cargo flights by Jordanian, Saudi and Qatari planes landing in Turkish and Jordanian airports.
The training in Jordan, however, suggests the U.S. help is aimed somewhat at enhancing the rebels' capacity in southern Syria, the birthplace of the revolution two years ago when teenagers in the sleepy agricultural outpost of Dara'a scribbled graffiti on a wall and were tossed into jail, spurring Syria's own version of an Arab Spring uprising. Much of the violence since, however, has been in the northern of the country where rebels have scored several military successes after the Assad regime cracked down brutally on peaceful protesters.
Despite months of U.S. and international support to build a cohesive political movement, however, Syria's fractured opposition is still struggling to rally Syrians behind a common post-Assad vision. And the opposition coalition appears as much hampered by its political infighting as its military deficiencies against an Assad regime arsenal of tanks, fighter jets and scud missiles.
The coalition's president, Mouaz al-Khatib, resigned his position on Sunday because of what he described as restrictions on his work and frustration with the level of international aid. He said Monday he would still represent the opposition this week in Doha, where the Gulf state of Qatar will host a two-day Arab League summit starting Tuesday.
Al-Khatib's resignation comes only days after the opposition chose Ghassan Hitto, a long-time Texas resident, to head its interim government after intense wrangling over posts and influence that U.S. officials say has strained the opposition's unity and caused friction among its primary benefactors Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.
It's also unclear how al-Khatib's departure will affect the U.S. goal of political negotiations with amenable members of the Assad regime to end the civil war, given the moderate preacher's support for talks. Much of the Syrian opposition, including Hitto, rejects such talks.
"He's been a courageous leader," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said of al-Khatib.
"But the bottom line is what we're looking for is unity," Ventrell said. "We continue to support the coalition's vision for a tolerant, inclusive Syria. We want them to continue to work together to implement that vision."
Secretary of State John Kerry travels to Paris on Wednesday to meet French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius for talks expected to focus on arming Syrian rebels. The discussions also are expected to touch on the suspected use of chemical weapons in Syria, according to French officials.
U.S. officials say there are strong indications that chemical weapons weren't used in an attack last week in northern Aleppo, over which the regime and the rebels have issued counterclaims.
Washington has said it will support a U.N. investigation.
___
Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and Lara Jakes in Washington and Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.
More American homeowners will be able to use their properties as cash machines again after real estate equity jumped last year by the most in 65 years.
Where do Canada's mortgage rates go from here?
They can?t go lower, can they? And what if mortgage rates start to climb? Could that be the last straw for the housing market? Read more
Property owners recaptured US$1.6 trillion as home values climbed to the highest levels since 2007. The amount by which the value of the houses exceeds their underlying mortgages rose to US$8.2 trillion last year, a gain of 25%, according to Federal Reserve data.
Tuesday, the S&P/Case Shiller composite index showed U.S. single-family home prices rose in January, starting the year with the biggest annual increase in six-and-a-half years in a fresh sign the housing market recovery remains on track.
The index of 20 metropolitan areas gained 1% month-on-month in January on a seasonally adjusted basis, topping expectations for 0.9%. Prices have been gaining since last February.
On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, prices rose 0.1%.
Prices in the 20 cities climbed 8.1% year-over-year, also beating expectations for 7.9%. It was the biggest yearly increase since June 2006, when housing prices were on their way down as the market was starting to collapse.
An expanding group of homeowners is able to get cash from their properties as banks show more willingness to make home equity loans with the market?s recovery. Originations for so-called junior, or second, mortgages should rise 10% to almost US$83 billion this year, from about US$75 billion in 2012, said Shaun Richardson, a vice president at Icon Advisory Group, a mortgage analytics firm in Greensboro, North Carolina. About 6% of lenders eased equity-mortgage standards at the end of 2012, the most in 18 months, according to the Fed.
?Lenders are starting to come back into the marketplace,? said Greg McBride, a senior financial analyst at Bankrate Inc. ?We?re not going back to the wild, Wild West we saw during the real estate boom, but we are going to see more people spending their equity.?
Americans went on a spending spree in the five years before the 2006 peak of the real estate market, tapping about US$800 billion of their rising equity to spend on everything from cars and televisions to debt consolidation and college tuition.
Declared Worthless
At the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008, close to US$1 trillion of the loans were outstanding at U.S. banks and credit unions, an all-time high, according to the Fed. In the housing crash that followed, banks wrote off, or declared worthless, about US$251 billion of home equity loans, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
The year-old real estate recovery is helping to ease defaults. The volume of equity loans 90 days or more overdue dropped 25% in the fourth quarter to US$3.2 billion from the prior period, according to the FDIC. As a result, banks are beginning to view equity lending as a potential source of income, rather than losses, said Stuart Feldstein, president of SMR Research Corp., a consumer-lending research firm in Hackettstown, New Jersey.
?This could be the year banks see the home-equity business return to black ink, as long as defaults continue to decline,? Feldstein said.
Home-equity mortgages held by banks probably will yield a 0.2% return on assets this year, which is the after-tax income on outstanding loans, Feldstein said. Improvements in home prices and credit quality over the next two years should put profit back to the pre-bust level of 1% to 1.5% return on assets, he said.
Banks Retain
JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc., the top four U.S. banks by assets, hold US$319.6 billion of the loans, about half of the outstanding balance of US$652.6 billion, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Bank of America has the most home-equity loans, at US$102.6 billion.
Unlike first-lien mortgages, banks retain most of their equity originations on their books. Only about 2% are securitized on the secondary market, said Feldstein. There are two kinds of home-equity mortgages: lines of credit, known as Helocs, and closed-end loans borrowed in lump sums.
Helocs are adjustable loans tied to the prime rate, the interest charged by banks to their most creditworthy customers, with the addition of a margin pre-determined by the lender. The national average prime rate has been 3.25% since the end of 2008, as measured by Bloomberg.
Average Rates
The average rate for a Heloc last week was 5.11%, down from 5.22% a year ago, according to Bankrate.com, an interest-rate aggregator in North Palm Beach, Florida. That puts the average margin at close to 2%.
Closed-end loans, sometimes called He-loans, are usually fixed-rate junior mortgages. The average U.S. rate for a closed- end loan was 6.13% last week, according to Bankrate. A year ago, the rate was 6.39%. Lenders usually require borrowers to retain at least 20% equity, meaning the junior mortgages added to the primary loan can?t exceed 80% of a home?s value, Bankrate?s McBride said.
About US$6.5 trillion of residential real estate value evaporated after a wave of mortgage defaults sparked the 2008 financial crisis. The median U.S. home price hit bottom in 2012 after a 33% drop, as measured by the National Association of Realtors. In February, the median price was up 12% from a year earlier, the trade group said last week.
Take Risks
?Owners who have been sitting in their homes and watching their equity go up will be more likely to borrow and to spend, and more likely to take risks like looking for another house,? said Craig Focardi, senior research director at CEB TowerGroup. ?Having home equity is a financial cushion to the average consumer?s personal balance sheet.?
A reviving real estate market added to gross domestic product last year for the first time since 2005, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis in Washington. The economy probably will grow at a 1.9% pace in 2013, the fourth year after the end of the recession, according to the median forecast of 83 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Household Spending
Still, not everyone is spending. The amount households have in bank deposits, savings bonds, fixed-income mutual-funds and municipal securities increased US$500 billion last year, equaling the most since 2007, according to FTN Financial, based on Fed data, while net household debt increased US$10 billion, the least since 2005.
?You might qualify for a home equity loan, but still have concerns about the economy or job security,? said Icon Advisory?s Richardson. ?Or, you might be in that large group of people who need prices to come back a lot more before they qualify.?
Fed policy makers for four years have driven down fixed home-loan rates by purchasing mortgage-backed bonds to stimulate demand. Last week, the central bank said it would continue to buy securities at a pace of US$85 billion a month in their third round of so-called quantitative easing.
At the end of 2012, the average rate for a 30-year fixed primary mortgage fell to an all-time low of 3.3%, according to home-loan financier Freddie Mac in McLean, Virginia. Falling rates helped to boost home sales to 4.7 million last year, a gain of 8.4% from 2011.
?When we see some more history of home-price stability and improving employment data, there will be more people thinking about using their equity,? said Focardi, of CEB TowerGroup. ?Having equity gives a boost to confidence.?
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