Discovery's "Return of Jaws" program features a shark cam that tracks these predators of the oceans, including great white sharks off Cape Cod.
If you?re not among the ?Shark Week? faithful, it?s easy to wonder: How many TV shows can possibly be made about sharks before this programming event threatens to jump the shark? After all, Discovery is kicking off its 26th year of shark-centered programming on Aug. 4.
But recent buzz about the cheesy Syfy movie ?Sharknado? proves there?s an unending appetite for shows that star these predators of the seas. The campy made-for-TV flick starring Ian Ziering and Tara Reid debuted to just 1.4 million, but repeated airings have drawn more and more viewers, with the third delivering 2.1 million sets of eyeballs.
But compared to the sensation that is Discovery's "Shark Week," that's peanuts.
?It?s our biggest week of the year and brings in a lot of people who are not your core, common Discovery viewers,? Nancy Daniels, executive vice president of production and development for the network told TODAY.com. ?It?s a pop culture phenomenon people talk about.?
Ratings for "Shark Week" 2012 in the 25-54 demo were 39.6 percent higher than the network's prime-time average. The premiere event also reeled in more than 21 million cumulative viewers, according to Discovery. In addition to high ratings, the TV event also blew up on social media last year, with 2.6 million @SharkWeek tweets and 17.5 million people reached on Facebook.
"Shark Week," which kicked off in 1988, has since featured more than 150 shark-centric programs. This year, Discovery will add 11 more to the list, including, "Megalodon: The Monster Shark That Lives," about a search for a species thought to be extinct; "Return of Jaws," which features a robot submarine that tracks the deadly fish; "Voodoo Sharks," about bull sharks in the Louisiana bayou; and more.
Of the new offerings, Daniels said she?s especially excited about ?Megalodon.?
?For years we?ve found teeth of megalodon and we know they used to exist and we think they might still exist in ?Megaladon,? ? she said.
If it sounds like the cheesy Animal Planet programs about mermaids, ?I think you might need to watch it to check it out,? Daniels teased.
This year's "Shark Week" will also feature a first for the network: ?Shark After Dark,? a late-night talk show hosted by comedian Josh Wolf, best known for his regular appearances on ?Chelsea Lately.?
The live, one-hour show will be ?shark-centric? with shark experts as guests, Wolf told TODAY.com, but it will also feature celebrity guests, including ?Sharknado?s? Reid.
Launching a late-night talk show on Discovery is something network executives had been considering before settling on testing the chum-infested waters during ?Shark Week.? Daniels said ?Shark After Dark? will serve as a learning experience for the network as it considers a more permanent late-night program.
?Shark After Dark? will include some mentions of the night?s prime-time shows and previews of the next night?s offerings, but Wolf said it?s not a recap show like other after-shows. (Think AMC's "Talking Dead.")
?I?m gonna assume people tuning in have just watched ?Shark Week? so it?s only smart to comment on it,? Wolf said. Besides, he?s a fan of shark shows too: ?I?m one of those guys who?s always been obsessed with watching it.?
Wolf said he gets geared up for ?Shark Week? each year, but he?s hesitant to actually swim with sharks.
He?s not alone in his armchair enthusiasm. By mid-July, Twitter was lighting up with anticipation:
Discovery jump-started interest in ?Shark Week? this year with a promotional campaign that showed a shark snatching Snuffy the Seal as he was being returned to the ocean. (Slogan: ?It?s a bad week to be a seal.?)
Daniels credited Lara Richardson, Discovery?s senior vice president of marketing, for coming up with a campaign that plays off the frequent ?Shark Week? image of sharks breaching the ocean?s surface to chomp on seals. (Daniels revealed what viewers often see on ?Shark Week? are sharks attacking fake, decoy seals dragged behind boats in an effort to capture dramatic footage.)
The spot shocked some viewers with how dark it was, but it did the trick in drawing attention to "Shark Week" 2013. Just one month after the spot premiered in late June, the video already had more than 1.3 million views on YouTube.
As for competing networks trying to steal Discovery?s shark thunder, Daniels said she?s not concerned.
?(Syfy) figured out something we?ve known for a long time: Sharks are awesome and people love sharks,? she said. ?('Sharknado') just reaffirmed what we do every year for ?Shark Week.? ?
DORSET, Minn. (AP) ? Robert "Bobby" Tufts hasn't made it to preschool yet, but he's already been elected twice as mayor of a tiny tourist town in northern Minnesota.
Mayor Tufts' name was picked Sunday during annual Taste of Dorset festival to be mayor of Dorset for a second term. It has no formal city government and has a population of 22 to 28, depending on whether the minister and his family are in town.
Anyone could vote as many times as they like ? for $1 a vote ? at any of the ballot boxes in stores around town. The proceeds go toward organizing the festival.
Bobby was only 3 when he won election last year. His mother, Emma Tufts, said she and her son, who turns 5 in October, got choked up when his name was pulled for re-election Sunday.
The boy picked a random man out of the crowd to pick the name out of a clear tub. and the man was blindfolded twice, she said.
While this was happening, Bobby told the crowd how to musky fish, she said.
"He's been going since 3 o'clock yesterday with cameras on his face," she said Sunday afternoon. "He's having a long day but he's done really well. I'm surprised."
Asked how he felt during a phone interview, a tired Bobby made clear he was done answering questions. "I want to be with the boys," he told his mother.
They were on their way to dinner and then planned to go fishing or have a bonfire to celebrate. Bobby, of nearby Nevis, starts preschool this fall.
Emma Tufts said her son's agenda includes raising money for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Red River Valley in Fargo, N.D., and a new welcome sign for Dorset, which bills itself as the Restaurant Capital of the World.
They already raised $750 from a walk this summer and planned to donate half the proceeds of Sunday's T-shirt sales to the charity. He wants to do a snowshoe scavenger hunt this winter to raise money, she said.
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's army-backed rulers and allies of its deposed Islamist president gave the first signs on Saturday of a readiness to compromise, pressed by Western envoys trying to head off more bloodshed.
Faced with the threat of a crackdown on supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, diplomacy appeared to pick up pace, a month to the day since Egypt's army deposed President Mohamed Mursi and plunged the country into turmoil.
Recognizing for the first time the strength of popular protest against his one-year rule, Mursi's allies said they respected the demands of millions who took to the streets before his overthrow.
A spokesman said the Mursi camp, which has refused to abandon weeks of sit-in protests until he is reinstated, wanted a solution that would "respect all popular desires".
They told envoys from the United States and the European Union that they rejected any role in a political settlement for army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led Mursi's ouster, and wanted the constitution he suspended to be restored.
"I respect and hold in regard the demands of the masses that went out on June 30, but I will not build on the military coup," spokesman Tarek El-Malt told Reuters, relaying what the pro-Mursi delegation had told the envoys.
Asked whether the delegation had insisted on Mursi's reinstatement as part of any political deal, Malt, a member of the Brotherhood-affiliated Wasat party, said that was a detail for future discussion.
But given that Mursi's opponents insist he should not be part of the political solution, Malt said that "Sisi must also not be in the political equation". He said the pro-Mursi camp was ready to talk with the National Salvation Front, a loose alliance of leftist and liberal parties represented in the interim government installed by the army.
RAGE 'THE EASIEST THING'
In an interview with the Washington Post, Sisi appeared to rule out running for president himself, despite his growing popularity among some of the 84 million-strong population.
"You just can't believe that there are people who don't aspire for authority," Sisi told the interviewer when asked if he would stand for president. Asked "Is that you?", he replied, "Yes." The Post said the interview was conducted on Thursday.
Egypt's military has laid out a "road map" to elections in about six months. It promises a return to civilian government, having brought down the first freely elected president after 60 years of rule by military men.
The Brotherhood, an Islamist movement that spent decades in the shadows before winning power in elections after the 2011 fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, had spurned the road map.
But its supporters, camped out at two sites in Cairo, face the threat of being violently dispersed by security forces who shot dead 80 of them a week ago. Almost 300 people have been killed in political violence since Mursi's overthrow, and much of the movement's leadership is in custody.
The deposed president is being held in a secret location, under investigation on a raft of charges including murder.
Diplomats say the Brotherhood and its political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), understand that Mursi will not return as president, but they want a face-saving legal formula for him to step down.
"Those empowered to speak for the FJP understand that Mursi is not coming back. But they are maintaining that as a negotiating position," a Western diplomat said. Another diplomat said the Mursi bloc had shown flexibility in Saturday's talks.
Analysts say civilians in the new government are also trying to promote a political solution despite resistance from security services that want to take a hard line on the Brotherhood.
"Rage is the easiest thing. It is the easiest thing to say, 'Let's crush the Brotherhood'," interim Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei told Al-Hayat TV. "There is no solution in Egypt that can be based on exclusion. Salafists, Brotherhood, secularists, liberals, whoever, we are condemned to live together."
He said talks with outside envoys would focus on "specific steps" to reduce tensions. "We will discuss together how in the next 48 hours how we can halt the violence, reducing the number of protests."
'CONTACTS' WITH BROTHERHOOD
Stepping back from a threat to disperse the Brotherhood protests, the government said on Friday it would blockade the camps, but not storm them.
On Saturday, the Interior Ministry offered protesters a "safe exit" and political integration. Spokesman General Hany Abdel Latif said they had been "brainwashed".
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and European Union envoy Bernadino Leon were leading the diplomatic push, meeting Mursi's allies, interim Foreign minister Nabil Fahmy and interim President Adli Mansour. The United Arab Emirates, which has given the new government $3 billion in support, sent Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, who also met with Fahmy.
Fahmy told reporters there had been some contact with the Brotherhood.
"I wouldn't use the word negotiation. There have been contacts between different figures. There is no desire to use force if there is any other avenue that has any potential for success," he said.
The crisis in the Arab world's most populous country has posed a dilemma for the United States and other Western governments, which had advocated democracy following the overthrow of Mubarak but grew increasingly uncomfortable with Mursi's Islamist leanings.
Many Egyptians shared that concern, and frustration grew over Mursi's failure to solve social and economic problems.
The interim government gained the United States' approval on Thursday when Secretary of State John Kerry said the army had been "restoring democracy" when it toppled Mursi. Cairo remains central to U.S. policy in the Middle East, notably because of its peace agreement with Israel.
(Additional reporting by Michael Georgy, Tom Finn and Omar Fahmy in Cairo, Phil Stewart in Washington; Writing by Angus MacSwan and Matt Robinson; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Peter Cooney)
An inmate at Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center in Elk Grove, Calif., in May. California is under a court order to reduce prison crowding by tens of thousands.
By M. Alex Johnson, Staff Writer, NBC News
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Friday to let California delay the release of thousands of inmates from state prisons to relieve crowding.
In June, a lower court ordered California to release about 10,000 inmates ? nearly 8 percent of all state prisoners ? by the end of the year to improve to improve medical and mental health treatment. Gov. Jerry Brown last month asked the Supreme Court to delay the order, arguing that it would jeopardize public safety.
Justice Antonin Scalia, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, strongly dissented with the high court's 6-3 one-sentence order Friday, predicting a wave of?murders and rapes in the streets of California.?Justice Clarence Thomas also disagreed but didn't join Scalia's dissent.
Brown also blasted the decision Friday, saying, "California must now release upon the public nearly 10,000 inmates convicted of serious crimes, about 1,000 for every city larger than Santa Ana."
Rich Pedroncelli / AP file
California Gov. Jerry Brown, pictured at a news conference in Sacramento in January, called the Supreme Court's order dangerous Friday.
The legal issue was Brown's request for a stay of a ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for Northern California ordering the state to release about 9,600 inmates in the short term as part of larger proceedings requiring it to reduce its prison population by about 30,000.
The state argued that it had made "meaningful progress" by transferring thousands of "low-risk" inmates to county and local jails. Scalia and Alito agreed with that argument.
A spokesman for the coalition supporting the inmates didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. But Mike Bien, a lawyer representing inmates in the case, told Capital Public Radio of Sacramento that the decision was significant because it appeared that Brown was gambling everything on his request for a stay.
"They raised all their arguments," he said. "They filed hundreds of pages of documents. They used specially hired Supreme Court counsel at over a thousand dollars an hour to raise these arguments."
Even though the ruling was issued without explanation, Scalia managed to find that it came "at the expense of intellectual bankruptcy," writing in a blistering dissent (.pdf) that?it was "nothing more than a ceremonial washing of the hands ? making it clear for all to see, that if the terrible things sure to happen as a consequence of this outrageous order do happen, they will be none of this Court's responsibility."
The state had already taken steps to start moving some inmates out of state, releasing more low-risk inmates and expanding parole programs ? actions it said it was taking under protest.
Watch US News crime videos on NBCNews.com
Pete Williams of NBC News contributed to this report from Washington.
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This story was originally published on Fri Aug 2, 2013 3:28 PM EDT
LENOIR CITY (WVLT) -- When it comes to education, parents have several options from which to choose. Parents of thousands of children in Tennessee choose home schooling.
While some kids go back to class, the Rains dust off their books in the comfort of home.
"We just take it a day at a time and if there's something, you know, luckily we're still in the younger grades, but if there's something I'm a little unsure of, we can fall back and dad can help or we're part of a co-op group and we can kind of do it with other moms," said Farah Rains, a mother who home-schools.
Nick and Farah Rains made the decision to teach from home when Elysia, their oldest child, started preschool. Originally, it was a faith based decision, but the family was able to expand the definition of learning by teaching outside testing guidelines.
"We turn anything we do into a learning experience. So we view education as not just somewhere you go or a setting, but there's something to be learned wherever you go in life. That's some of the beauty of the home-school philosophy,? said Nick Rains, a father who home-schools.
All of the benefits of home schooling do come with stereotypes.
?There's a little bit of a stigma with the whole home-school lifestyle, with the choice of home-school," said Nick Rains.
The family of four doesn't fit the stereotype. Between its son's football practices and daughter's dance classes, the family is always on the go.
"I mean we're just so busy all the time. I can't imagine. Socialization has just never been an issue for us," said Nick Rains.
The Rains' education isn't stereotypical either. By home schooling,they can teach to the specific needs of each child. They help their son learn through visual and hands-on ways, while their daughter learns through listening.
"This was never about just classroom or not. This was about a priority in life," said Farah Rains.
The Rains say Tennessee's home-school guidelines make the process easy. The Rains are held accountable through an umbrella group that checks curriculum, attendance and grades.
While the family doesn't have to test, it chooses to through Stanford University. Doing that ensures sure the kids aren't just meeting expectations, they're exceeding them.
If a family is considering the home schooling option, it does come at a price. Curriculum can cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Even at that price, it's still a cheaper option than private school.
Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon traveled to Moscow this week to meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. At the top of the agenda was the long-delayed ratification of the agreement, signed last year by the two presidents, to extend the presence of Russia's 201st military base in Tajikistan until 2042. While Russia has already ratified the agreement, Tajikistan has been dragging its feet for reasons that remain unclear. But after the meeting in Moscow, Rahmon promised that the parliament would ratify the deal by this fall:
?I'd like to say that we treat this issue [of the Russian military base] very seriously,? Rahmon said, ?and we are firmly committed to fulfilling our obligations. Now that we have solved a range of issues concerning the base, and as our parliament is returning from holiday, we will solve this issue by the fall of 2013.?
The two sides also apparently discussed the $200 million in military aid that Moscow has promised Dushanbe. One detail that emerged is that this amount is to be disbursed over a period stretching until 2025. ?President Vladimir Putin?s orders are straightforward: to assess all risks and to help the Tajik armed forces face these risks,? Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said after the Putin-Rahmon meeting.
As usual with these sorts of meetings, details were scarce but speculation rampant. Much speculation centered around what the two discussed about Tajikistan's upcoming presidential elections. Political analyst Shokirjon Hakimov told the Tajikistan newspaper Avesta:
I think that as we approach the presidential elections in Tajikistan, considering the influence Russia has over the media and the Russian factor in the region as a whole, Rahmon will make some concessions and give the order to the Tajikistan parliament to ratify the agreement on the extension of the presence of the Russian military base, although many conditions of the agreement contradict the national interests of Tajikistan.
Even pro-presidential analyst and member of parliament Sukhrob Sharipov acknowledged that Putin's support in the elections was probably discussed "over tea," though he emphasized that the accumulated issues around the ratification of the base agreement would have necessitated the meeting anyway.
Still, no new details emerged about the particular elements of the base agreement, like the deals on labor migrants and supplies of gas and oil, which seem to have been sticking points. But Tajikistan's defense minister, Sherali Khairulloyev, stayed on in Moscow to work with Russian defense officials on the details about military cooperation, so perhaps some political decision was reached on that.
MONTREAL ? The Dan Hawkins era lasted only five games in Montreal.
The Alouettes, who have struggled to a 2-3 record to start the season, announced Thursday that Hawkins has been fired.
Jim Popp will step in as head coach for the third time in his 18 years as general manager of the Canadian Football League club.
The firing came during a bye week in the Alouettes schedule. The team's next game is Aug. 8 against the Toronto Argonauts.
The offence, which was Montreal's strength under former coach Marc Trestman, looked disorganized and lifeless under Hawkins, who was coaching a professional team for the first time in his career.
Owner Bob Wetenhall asked Popp to step in.
"Jim is the person most responsible for the success we have had over all these years," Wetenhall said in a statement. "I feel confident that he is the best person to coach our team at this time and I am very appreciative of him being willing to make this additional contribution to our franchise.
"He has the respect of our players as well as mine."
Hawkins was hired Feb. 19 after working as a broadcaster. He had previously coached mainly U.S. college teams, taking Boise State to four Western Athletic Conference titles from 2002 to 2005 before compiling a disappointing 19-39 record at Colorado from 2006 to 2010.
It was the second time in a row Montreal hired a coach with no CFL experience.
But while it worked with Trestman, who won two Grey Cups in a five-year stint before being named head coach of the NFL's Chicago Bears, Hawkins did not appear comfortable with the 12-man game.
He bowed out a winner, however. Despite the team's spotty play, the Alouettes are in second place in the weak East Division and are coming off a nervy 32-27 win over 1-4 Edmonton.
Popp first stepped in as coach to finish off a disastrous 2001 campaign under Rod Rust, but Don Matthews took over the following season.
He took over as coach again when Matthews fell ill during the 2006 season and brought the Alouettes to the Grey Cup game.
He stayed on for 2007, in which the rookie-laden club that was missing starting quarterback Anthony Calvillo for much of the season went 8-10 and lost in the first round of the playoffs to Winnipeg.
It was the team's only losing record since it returned to Montreal after a 10-year hiatus in 1996. Popp has been general manager all of that time.
His CFL regular-season coaching record is 10-13, with a 1-3 mark in playoff games.
The team did not say if Popp would coach on an interim basis or when the search for a new head coach would begin.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Astronomers have discovered a graveyard of comets. The researchers describe how some of these objects, inactive for millions of years, have returned to life leading them to name the group the ?Lazarus comets?.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday met top industrialists, including RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani and Tata Consultancy Services chairman N Chandrasekaran, in Mumbai and said the state was more investment friendly now with a "good work culture". The Chief Minister spoke to reporters after an hour-long closed door meeting with about 40 top industry leaders.
"Earlier, because of strikes, it was a minus point from the industry point of view," she said, adding that after Trinamool Congress came to power, the number of manhours lost due to strikes has declined. "The work culture is very good nowadays and we don't support any strike or a bandh. We believe that there should be a good relationship between industrialists and workers," Mamata said.
Her government had framed a detailed land use policy and created a 10,000 acre land-bank for industrial purposes apart from creating `an employment bank', she said. On the Singur land controversy, Mamata refused to comment saying it is a sub-judice matter, but added that ultimate solution will make both the industry as well as the farmers happy.
Mamata Banerjee woos India Inc, says Bengal better for investment now
"Whatever I've done for Singur, I'm proud to do. I'm in favour of industry and I am in favour of agriculture too. Don't worry, industry will also smile and agriculture will also smile," she said, reminding the audience that Chandrasekaran was present in the meet, while Shapoorji Pallonji, the largest shareholder in Tata Sons, had agreed to create a project of 20,000 houses.
It may be noted that Trinamool Congress opposition to land acquisition in Singur had forced Tata group move its small car (Nano) project out of West Bengal to Gujarat. Others who attended the meeting included Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank's Chanda Kochhar, Sanjiv and Harsh Goenka, Nitin Paranjpe of Hindustan Unilver, Sajjan Jindal, ITC's YC Deveshwar and Ashok Hinduja.
Listing the opportunities for investment in the state, Mamata claimed that Mukesh Ambani described West Bengal as a "gold mine" at the meeting. Accompanied by her finance minister Amit Mitra, Mamata, however, declined to give a specific target on the investment front saying she had presented her case to industrialists who will now prepare a plan.
"Today, we announced all projects where they can invest and now they will decide whether to invest. I am confident we will get investments," she said. She also debunked adverse reports on law and order issues, especially about the safety of women, and added had it been the case, her party would not have won 80 per cent of the seats in the local body polls last week. Her government had decided to create a financial hub in Kolkata which will also have `a World Trade Centre', she said.
Quarterback Sam Keller of the Arizona State Sun Devils during a game against the USC Trojans on October 1, 2005 in Tempe, Ariz. Keller has successfully sued EA to stop using his likeness.
Electronic Arts' college sports franchises have been sacked by a U.S. federal appeals court.
In a 2-1 vote, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court that EA had used the images in its video games of several ex-NCAA athletes without their permission in its NCAA football and basketball series. The decision comes two weeks after EA lost the rights to put the NCAA logo and name on its games beyond this year.
Circuit Judge Jay Bybee, writing for the majority of the court, said EA's game "literally recreates [Arizona State University quarterback Samuel] Keller in the very setting in which he has achieved renown."
Circuit Judge Sidney Thomas dissented, however, arguing that the games' creative elements "predominate over the commercial use of the athletes' likenesses" and that "Keller's impressive physical likeness can be morphed by the gamer into an overweight and slow virtual athlete, with anemic passing ability".
The decision could open up additional legal action against the video game publisher from other former college athletes who have been unhappy with their likenesses being used in the games without compensation.
In a statement, EA said it was "disappointed with the ruling against First Amendment protection in the Keller case. We believe the reasoning in Judge Thomas' dissent in that decision will ultimately prevail as we seek further court review."
(Read more: No porn please, we're British)
EA is already facing similar suits to the one ruled on today by the appeals court. The company asked a judge on Tuesday to dismiss the latest complaint, which was filed on behalf of a group of athletes led by Ed O'Bannon, a former star at the University of California, Los Angeles. Also, in May, a federal appeals court revived a similar suit from former Rutgers University quarterback Ryan Hart.
EA had argued in the case that using the athletes' likeness was protected under the free expression clause of the First Amendment. Judges disagreed in the case of college athletes, but?in a separate decision?agreed with EA in the case of former pro players.
The court unanimously upheld the dismissal of a suit by Hall of Famer Jim Brown, whose image was used in EA's Madden game.
EA has used the First Amendment argument before when facing legal action for images in its games. In 2011, Bell Helicopter parentTextron sued over the game maker's use of images of a trio of real world helicopters in "Battlefield 3."
Textron argued its choppers were used without permission and EA failed to pay licensing fees. EA claimed protection under the First Amendment and the use of the aircraft constituted fair use.
The case is still pending, though EA did lose an attempt to have the complaint dismissed a year ago.
(Read more:Xbox 180: Microsoft bows to consumer pressure, sets Xbox One free)
While the Madden franchise is a larger driver of revenues, EA still relied heavily on its NCAA franchise. But sales this year have been soft, say analysts. John Taylor of Arcadia Investment Corp. said he believes sales of the 2013 installment are off roughly 10 percent compared to the 2012 game.
And starting next year, the company won't be able to use the NCAA name. The league recently announced it would not negotiate a new contract with EA when the current one expires next June.
"We are confident in our legal position regarding the use of our trademarks in video games," the NCAA said at the time. "But given the current business climate and costs of litigation, we determined participating in this game is not in the best interests of the NCAA. ... The NCAA has never licensed the use of current student-athlete names, images or likenesses to EA. The NCAA has no involvement in licenses between EA and former student-athletes."
EA has vowed to continue making college sports games, however.
"Our relationship with the Collegiate Licensing Company [which manages the trademarks of the majority of the colleges in the game] is strong and we are already working on a new game for next generation consoles which will launch next year and feature the college teams, leagues, and all the innovation fans expect from EA Sports," said Andrew Wilson, executive vice president of EA in a statement.
Analysts say they don't expect the loss to have a material financial impact on Electronic Arts, noting that the NCAA was a co-defendant in the suit.
"The transgressor here is the NCAA, I believe," said Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities. "I don't believe EA said to the NCAA 'can we use licensed images of the players.' The NCAA said 'no' and EA said 'we're going to do it anyway'."
"The NCAA has the right to license the athletes image without compensation to the athlete if he's playing in a [real world] game," Pachter added. "The question is: Can it exploit the likenesses out of the game? That depends on the contract the player signs with the NCAA."
LONDON, July 31 (UPI) -- A British delegate said Wednesday before leaving for Myanmar he was "very concerned" about the status of reforms under way in the country.
Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow leads a delegation of British lawmakers this week to Myanmar, known also as Burma. He said he's expected to meet pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, policy makers and members of civil society during his visit.
Myanmar President Thein Sein, a former military commander, was feted in London by British Prime Minister David Cameron mid-July. Cameron congratulated the leader for democratic reforms embraced since 2010 general elections, though he expressed concern about violence targeting the minority Muslim community in the coastal state of Rakhine.
"Although I welcome the recent change of atmosphere in Burma, I remain very concerned about the ethnic violence and the pace of constitutional and democratic reform and said so directly to the president when I met him on July 16," the speaker said Wednesday.
Myanmar earned international praise for political changes that began with general elections in 2010 but human rights issues and religious conflict have overshadowed some of the reforms.
Myanmar's president freed 73 political prisoners last week. More than 600 were released last year as part of a political reform effort.
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Cracking how life arose on earth may help clarify where else it might existPublic release date: 30-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Nicholas Vasi nvasi@illinois.edu Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
A unique theory about how life arose on earth may reveal clues to whether and where else it might have arisen in the universe
Does life exist elsewhere or is our planet unique, making us truly alone in the universe? Much of the work carried out by NASA, together with other research institutions, is aimed at trying to come to grips with this question.
A novel and potentially testable theory of how life arose on earth, first advanced more than 25 years ago by Michael Russell, a research scientist in Planetary Chemistry and Astrobiology at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was further developed in a recent paper published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (PTRSL-B)the world's first science journalby Russell, Wolfgang Nitschke, a team leader at the National Center for Scientific Research in Marseille, France; and Elbert Branscomb, an affiliate faculty member at the Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
This just-released paper, together with a companion paper by Russell and Nitschke in the same journal issue significantly advance the hypothesis and bring it substantially closer to experimental testingan effort already underway by Russell and his collaborators who are developing experimental model systems that can recreate, and test, the essential principals of the theory.
Notably, the Russell theory provides potential explanations for several puzzling aspects of how life works, including, for example, how it taps into and exploits sources of energy.
This strange energy conversion process works by using externally supplied energy to constantly pump a lot more protons onto one side of a biological membrane than the other and then having them flow back "downhill" immediately, but only through a turbine-like molecular engine which creates a chemical fuel called ATP; a fuel that cells "burn" in order to power vital cell processes. This process would be an exact parallel to the hydroelectric generation of electrical energy if some other source of energy was first required to pump water up hill behind a dam to then flow down to drive turbines. The question is why is this strange and seemingly inefficient process used?
Russell's theory suggests an answer: when life began it wasn't necessary to pump protons, the proton gradient was already there for the taking. Russell's theory sees life coming into being as a natural physical consequence of a geochemical process called serpentinization that produced, for free, the system's major components: cell-like compartments surrounded by membranes, the right proton concentration differences between the inside and outside of these mineral membranes, and primitive, "mineral-based" forms of the "turbine" motors needed to make a molecule like ATP.
The process of serpentinization occurs when water gravitates down cracks in hot, newly formed ocean crust, where it reacts chemically with the minerals in the rocks in a reaction that produces an extremely alkaline (pH ~13) effluent, rich in hydrogen and methane and the metal molybdenum, so important as a catalyst in life. This effluent is then driven back to the surface where, in the ocean of early earth, it contacted cooler, acidic (~ pH 5.5), and CO2-rich water to create precipitates that form chimney-like submarine towers. These precipitates are highly structured with a myriad of cell-like compartments surrounded by mineral membranesakin to our own. And across these membranes, separating acidic ocean and alkaline effluent, stood essentially the same proton gradientin strength and directionthat the cells of all living things on earth are constantly recreating and then immediately using today.
"So, if the Russell theory is correct, it is suddenly obvious why we pump protons and use this silly method," Branscomb said. "We got stuck on this 'free lunch' energy system when life was born, developed a lot of fancy machinery to use it, and have never severed that umbilicus since."
Branscomb, a member of the IGB's Biocomplexity research theme led by Swanlund Professor of Physics Nigel Goldenfeld, was funded in part by a recently awarded, five-year grant totaling $8 million from the NASA Astrobiology Institute. The grant funds the University of Illinois's Institute for Universal Biology, a member of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, which includes many members of the Biocomplexity theme who are studying the origin and evolution of life. Find out more about Illinois's Institute for Universal Biology and the IGB's Biocomplexity theme.
"We have a sample of only one planet known to harbor life," Goldenfeld said. "Thus it is critical that we be creative in extracting the most information from Earthly life as possible, if we are to ever understand the existence, likelihood, and nature of life elsewhere in the Universe. Russell, Nischke, and Branscomb's work lays an intriguing foundation for that endeavor, by cleverly bringing together concepts from thermodynamics, geochemistry and biology to advance a major new hypothesis for life's origins."
###
For the complete feature article, visit http://bit.ly/163KggT.
[ | 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.
Cracking how life arose on earth may help clarify where else it might existPublic release date: 30-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Nicholas Vasi nvasi@illinois.edu Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
A unique theory about how life arose on earth may reveal clues to whether and where else it might have arisen in the universe
Does life exist elsewhere or is our planet unique, making us truly alone in the universe? Much of the work carried out by NASA, together with other research institutions, is aimed at trying to come to grips with this question.
A novel and potentially testable theory of how life arose on earth, first advanced more than 25 years ago by Michael Russell, a research scientist in Planetary Chemistry and Astrobiology at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was further developed in a recent paper published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (PTRSL-B)the world's first science journalby Russell, Wolfgang Nitschke, a team leader at the National Center for Scientific Research in Marseille, France; and Elbert Branscomb, an affiliate faculty member at the Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
This just-released paper, together with a companion paper by Russell and Nitschke in the same journal issue significantly advance the hypothesis and bring it substantially closer to experimental testingan effort already underway by Russell and his collaborators who are developing experimental model systems that can recreate, and test, the essential principals of the theory.
Notably, the Russell theory provides potential explanations for several puzzling aspects of how life works, including, for example, how it taps into and exploits sources of energy.
This strange energy conversion process works by using externally supplied energy to constantly pump a lot more protons onto one side of a biological membrane than the other and then having them flow back "downhill" immediately, but only through a turbine-like molecular engine which creates a chemical fuel called ATP; a fuel that cells "burn" in order to power vital cell processes. This process would be an exact parallel to the hydroelectric generation of electrical energy if some other source of energy was first required to pump water up hill behind a dam to then flow down to drive turbines. The question is why is this strange and seemingly inefficient process used?
Russell's theory suggests an answer: when life began it wasn't necessary to pump protons, the proton gradient was already there for the taking. Russell's theory sees life coming into being as a natural physical consequence of a geochemical process called serpentinization that produced, for free, the system's major components: cell-like compartments surrounded by membranes, the right proton concentration differences between the inside and outside of these mineral membranes, and primitive, "mineral-based" forms of the "turbine" motors needed to make a molecule like ATP.
The process of serpentinization occurs when water gravitates down cracks in hot, newly formed ocean crust, where it reacts chemically with the minerals in the rocks in a reaction that produces an extremely alkaline (pH ~13) effluent, rich in hydrogen and methane and the metal molybdenum, so important as a catalyst in life. This effluent is then driven back to the surface where, in the ocean of early earth, it contacted cooler, acidic (~ pH 5.5), and CO2-rich water to create precipitates that form chimney-like submarine towers. These precipitates are highly structured with a myriad of cell-like compartments surrounded by mineral membranesakin to our own. And across these membranes, separating acidic ocean and alkaline effluent, stood essentially the same proton gradientin strength and directionthat the cells of all living things on earth are constantly recreating and then immediately using today.
"So, if the Russell theory is correct, it is suddenly obvious why we pump protons and use this silly method," Branscomb said. "We got stuck on this 'free lunch' energy system when life was born, developed a lot of fancy machinery to use it, and have never severed that umbilicus since."
Branscomb, a member of the IGB's Biocomplexity research theme led by Swanlund Professor of Physics Nigel Goldenfeld, was funded in part by a recently awarded, five-year grant totaling $8 million from the NASA Astrobiology Institute. The grant funds the University of Illinois's Institute for Universal Biology, a member of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, which includes many members of the Biocomplexity theme who are studying the origin and evolution of life. Find out more about Illinois's Institute for Universal Biology and the IGB's Biocomplexity theme.
"We have a sample of only one planet known to harbor life," Goldenfeld said. "Thus it is critical that we be creative in extracting the most information from Earthly life as possible, if we are to ever understand the existence, likelihood, and nature of life elsewhere in the Universe. Russell, Nischke, and Branscomb's work lays an intriguing foundation for that endeavor, by cleverly bringing together concepts from thermodynamics, geochemistry and biology to advance a major new hypothesis for life's origins."
###
For the complete feature article, visit http://bit.ly/163KggT.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Round 1 ","synopsis":"Bridgestone Invitational tees off","photo":{"width":"231","seq_no":"1","content_id":"22973111","href":"$IMAGE_SERVER/u/photos/golf/img22973111.jpg","height":"130"},"href":"http://pgatour.cbssports.com/live/","title":"Watch: Bridgestone Invitational"},"headlines":[{"href":"http://pgatour.cbssports.com/live/","content":"Watch LIVE: WGC-Bridgestone Invitational"},{"href":"http://www.cbssports.com/golf/blog/eye-on-golf/22972456/tiger-woods-shoots-firstround-66-at-bridgestone-invitational","content":"Tiger shoots 66, chases eighth Bridgestone title"},{"href":"http://www.cbssports.com/golf/blog/eye-on-golf/22970697/video-tiger-woods-critical-of-pga-championship-greens","content":"![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vC8-nM_06OVH4NXpLBy5jW0itTyGY9M2ex4dBkSgIS2DbBQQ_J07R5K1DIeI-MQDdzem4iFSSj9nbWsMaXnFJ5GpGD2rojD3A_zsY2HgQ=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 30-Jul-2013
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