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Thursday, November 7, 2013

Jaguars, Buccaneers halfway to NFL history

Tampa Bay Buccaneers strong safety Mark Barron rests on the field after the Buccaneers lost 27-24 to the Seattle Seahawks in overtime of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)

San Francisco 49ers linebacker Corey Lemonier (96) tries to knock the ball out of Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Chad Henne's hand during the first half of an NFL football game at Wembley Stadium, London, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Mike Glennon walks off the field after the Buccaneers lost 27-24 to the Seattle Seahawks in overtime of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)

Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Cecil Shorts (84), right, evades the tackle of San Francisco 49ers free safety Eric Reid (35) during the NFL football game between San Francisco 49ers and Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium in London, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

Jacksonville and Tampa Bay are halfway to history — and not the kind anyone wants to celebrate, chronicle or recall.

Winless through eight games, the Jaguars and Buccaneers could join the 2008 Detroit Lions (0-16) and the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-14) as the only winless teams in NFL history.

It's not a spot either Florida franchise thought it would be in when the season began two months ago.

The Bucs finished 7-9 in 2012, and despite losing five of their final six games, were widely expected to show improvement in coach Greg Schiano's second year. They spent more than $130 million on cornerback Darrelle Revis and safety Dashon Goldson.

The Jags were coming off the worst season in the franchise's 18 years, a 2-14 debacle the led to the firing of general manager Gene Smith and coach Mike Mularkey. Under new GM Dave Caldwell and first-year coach Gus Bradley, it was a clear rebuilding project in Jacksonville. Nonetheless, the Jaguars figured things couldn't possibly get any worse.

Think again.

Now, at the midway point of the season, the teams located about 175 miles apart are making headlines and highlights as they approach history one loss at a time.

"Things happen for a reason, so obviously going 0-8 happened," Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew said. "But you have to learn from that. We're not going to run away from anything. That happened, and we have to face it head on."

There's still plenty of football remaining, with both teams getting eight more chances to avoid ending up in an elusive club that would make them a punch line for a lifetime.

But until one of them notches that first victory, the question lingers: Who has the best shot at going 0-16?

___

WHY THE BUCS: Their locker room could become as messy as a MRSA infection. Schiano botched quarterback Josh Freeman's benching, getting accused of rigging the captains vote and then of releasing confidential information about Freeman being in the league's substance-abuse program. Eventually, players might give up on Schiano, who is widely perceived as just another college coach in over his head since leaving Rutgers to take over a team that lost its final 10 games in 2011. The Bucs have dropped 13 of 14 dating to last season.

WHY THE JAGS: They have been bad — really bad. Jacksonville is the first team since the 1984 Houston Oilers to lose its first eight games by double digits, a stunning display of ineptitude on both side of the ball. The Jaguars can, however, point to having the league's toughest schedule so far. They played Kansas City, Seattle, Indianapolis, Denver and San Francisco — teams at or near the top of every power poll. There may be hope, though. Jacksonville's next seven games are against teams currently .500 or worse.

___

WHY THE BUCS: They can't seem to win close games. Tampa Bay has led in the fourth quarter four times, dropping all four in final 89 seconds of regulation or overtime. The Bucs led 21-0 at Seattle — one of the toughest places for visiting teams — last week before fading down the stretch. "At times, we've snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, which is really frustrating," said Schiano, whose team is 0-7 in games decided by three points or less during his tenure.

WHY THE JAGS: They won't have their best offensive player for the rest of the season. Receiver Justin Blackmon's latest violation of the league's substance-abuse policy landed him an indefinite suspension. Despite his troubles, countless roster moves and the surprising trade of left tackle Eugene Monroe, the Jaguars have a cohesive locker room. Even Jones-Drew, who's in the final year of his contract, appears fully vested in the new regime. "What else can you be?" Jones-Drew said. "It's a choice. You could be moping around and down if you want, but that's not going to solve anything."

___

WHY THE BUCS: They have a rookie quarterback. Although third-round draft pick Mike Glennon set NFL rookie records for the most completions and attempts over his first four starts, he's now 0-5, has been sacked 13 times and has failed to mount a game-winning drive. Glennon has completed 60 percent of his passes for 1,165 yards, with eight touchdowns and three interceptions. He's also gotten little help from the team's sputtering ground game. "The guy can make every throw," receiver Vincent Jackson said. "He is very decisive. He puts balls in places, usually where you can make a play on it. If it's not catchable, he's going to throw it away. He's not going to take a lot of chances. That just helps us as an offense when we're taking care of the football."

WHY THE JAGS: They have the worst quarterback situation in the league. The Jags already benched former first-round draft pick Blaine Gabbert in favor of backup Chad Henne. Together, they have four TD passes and 12 INTs, and have been sacked a whopping 28 times. Gabbert's struggles under pressure and his inability to stay healthy prompted the Jaguars to move on after he played just three games this season. No matter what happens the rest of the way, Jacksonville is surely to draft another quarterback in April — likely with one of the first few picks.

___

AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-11-07-FBN-Florida-Flops/id-7750e951d5a0447c9b0367cbc03041fe
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Camus' Stance On Algeria Still Stokes Debate In France

Algeria-born Albert Camus poses for a portrait in Paris following the announcement that he is being awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1957. Camus' views on his birthplace still stoke controversy.

AFP/Getty Images

A hundred years after his birth, French writer-philosopher Albert Camus is perhaps best-remembered for novels like The Stranger and The Plague, and for his philosophy of absurdism.

But it's another aspect of his intellectual body of work that's under scrutiny as France marks the Camus centennial: his views about his native Algeria.

Camus was born on Nov. 7, 1913, to a poor family that had settled generations earlier in French Algeria. His father died a year after his birth, and Camus' illiterate and deaf mother, who worked as a cleaning lady, raised him. His brilliance would deliver him from that world of poverty.

This photo from 1920 shows 7-year-old Albert Camus (center, wearing black suit) in the workshop of his Uncle Etienne in Algiers.

Apic/Getty Images

This photo from 1920 shows 7-year-old Albert Camus (center, wearing black suit) in the workshop of his Uncle Etienne in Algiers.

Apic/Getty Images

Camus is regarded as a giant of French literature. But according to Smithsonian contributor Joshua Hammer, it's Camus' North African birthplace that permeated his thoughts and shaped his writing.

"His two greatest novels, The Stranger and The Plague, were both set there, in Oran and Algiers. He wrote incredible lyrical essays about his life there," Hammer says. "So he's extraordinarily Algerian ... down to the core."

But Algeria has never reciprocated that love, says Hammer, who recently traced the writer's roots there. That's because Camus' French Algeria, much like apartheid South Africa, was divided into two worlds: an Arab world and the world of the pieds-noirs, or black feet, the name given to the million-plus Europeans who lived there.

"He represents an Algeria that essentially is banished from the map, an Algeria of the pieds-noirs. So this was the world that Camus knew. It was a very segregated society, he really didn't know the Arab world," Hammer says. "So that's what you saw reflected in his work."

During World War II, Camus joined the French Resistance against the Nazis and published an underground newspaper. It was his novel The Stranger, published in 1942, that brought him instant international acclaim. In 1947 came The Plague, a novel seen as a classic of existentialism.

In 1957, at the age of 43, Camus won the Nobel Prize for literature.

But it's Camus' politics, not his philosophy, that still makes waves in France. Though he hailed from the left, today he's embraced by conservatives. In the 1950s, Camus fell out with philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and the Paris left bank literary scene after he denounced communism.

Camus' stance on the Algerian war infuriated both the left and right at the time. He supported Arab aspirations for political rights, but he couldn't imagine an independent Algeria.

The topic remains sensitive in France, where 1 million pieds-noirs fled after the war ended in 1962. One Camus exhibit was canceled and two historians fired, reportedly to appease the sensitivities of the local pieds-noirs community.

Biographer Elizabeth Hawes says Camus was always more simple, seen from the U.S.

"Americans in general don't know anything about Algeria and they know very little about French intellectual politics. And so Camus was always just sort of a hero," Hawes says. "There was a lot of the mythic to Camus. He was great looking, and he was heroic, and there was the resistance, he was the outsider."

Camus' life was cut tragically short at the height of his career in a car accident in 1960. He was only 46. France is still grappling with his legacy.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/11/07/243536815/on-his-100th-birthday-camus-algerian-ties-still-controversial?ft=1&f=1032
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Developing methods for quantifying uncertainty and sensitivity for complex systems

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Nov-2013

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Contact: Janet Lathrop
jlathrop@admin.umass.edu
413-545-0444
University of Massachusetts at Amherst

AMHERST, Mass. Applied mathematicians Markos Katsoulakis and Luc Rey-Bellet of the University of Massachusetts Amherst will share a three-year, $2.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, with others, to develop new methods to assess and improve mathematical modeling of multi-scale, complex systems. Once developed, the new methods are expected to have applications in energy research and materials synthesis.

As Katsoulakis explains, predictive mathematical models and algorithms have long complemented theory and experiments in applied sciences and engineering, but such computational models are now more important than ever because of the increased complexity of the problems plus advances in computing capabilities. A recognition of the vast predictive potential of modeling and efficient simulation of complex systems, he points out, is the fact that the 2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded for the development of multi-scale models for complex chemical systems.

One of the primary practical applications planned by Katsoulakis and Rey-Bellet, with partners at Brown University and the University of Delaware, is to design highly efficient and cost-effective bimetallic catalysts using relatively inexpensive metals, allowing storage and production of clean hydrogen fuel from readily available sources such as ammonia.

Katsoulakis says, "The role of uncertainty and sensitivity quantification in this process turns out to be crucial, because the design of bimetallic catalysts rests on understanding how sensitive the catalyst's performance metrics are on its parent metals. Also, experiments have shown that performance depends on the micro-geometry of the arrangement of the two metals, that is structure and ordering of their layers. Given all the choices we have in selecting materials and geometries for the two-metal catalysts, this becomes a very complex system to model."

Being able to systematically evaluate which metal combinations in the catalyst are the most efficient and cost effective is one of the team's key goals. The challenge is an example of a model where new mathematical and computational techniques for assessing uncertainty and quantifying sensitivity can be extremely productive, the researchers say.

Over the next three years, the multi-institution team will develop new mathematical tools that describe uncertainty and model sensitivity using information theory, probability theory, statistical methods such as model selection and model reduction, rare events methods, multi-scale analysis and parameterization of coarse-grained models from finer scales and data.

Mathematical models are now routinely being asked to account for systems of
increasing complexity, that is handling millions or even billions of variables. In addition, a model must integrate data from different scales and must account for different spatial scales, for example from the molecular level all the way to the everyday macroscopic scale, and basic physical processes at different time scales.

The UMass Amherst mathematician says, "Interactions across scales are a unifying feature in all complex systems that we may experience in everyday life. Think of the effect that a single vehicle breakdown during rush hour may have to the overall traffic flow, even at very large distances from the scene." Taking all the different variables and mechanisms such as vehicle speeds, sizes, road network, weather, traffic volume and so on into account, represents a typical complex "multi-scale multi-physics" modeling, simulation and analysis problem that challenges current applied mathematical methods, he adds.

Handling real-life systems with unprecedented levels of complexity and multi-scale features requires not only more powerful computational capabilities, but also new mathematics, Katsoulakis explains. "Though high performance computing can allow us, for the first time, to simulate at least some complex systems, there are important concerns related to the effectiveness and reliability of the predictive computational models."

As in the traffic example, all such models depend on a large number of mechanisms and parameters but it is not immediately obvious which ones critically affect the final predictions and which ones can be ignored. Another, closely related, source of uncertainty is insufficient knowledge of a particular highly complex system.

Katsoulakis and Rey-Bellet believe that their research has great potential for wider impact in a number of fields because it will lay down the mathematical foundations for uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis in a broad class of complex systems typically encountered in physicochemical and biological processes, atmosphere and ocean science, and other types of complex networks.

Besides Katsoulakis and Rey-Bellet at UMass Amherst, collaborators are mathematician Petr Plechac and chemical engineer Dion Vlachos at the University of Delaware and applied mathematician Paul Dupuis at Brown University.

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Developing methods for quantifying uncertainty and sensitivity for complex systems

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Nov-2013

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Contact: Janet Lathrop
jlathrop@admin.umass.edu
413-545-0444
University of Massachusetts at Amherst

AMHERST, Mass. Applied mathematicians Markos Katsoulakis and Luc Rey-Bellet of the University of Massachusetts Amherst will share a three-year, $2.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, with others, to develop new methods to assess and improve mathematical modeling of multi-scale, complex systems. Once developed, the new methods are expected to have applications in energy research and materials synthesis.

As Katsoulakis explains, predictive mathematical models and algorithms have long complemented theory and experiments in applied sciences and engineering, but such computational models are now more important than ever because of the increased complexity of the problems plus advances in computing capabilities. A recognition of the vast predictive potential of modeling and efficient simulation of complex systems, he points out, is the fact that the 2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded for the development of multi-scale models for complex chemical systems.

One of the primary practical applications planned by Katsoulakis and Rey-Bellet, with partners at Brown University and the University of Delaware, is to design highly efficient and cost-effective bimetallic catalysts using relatively inexpensive metals, allowing storage and production of clean hydrogen fuel from readily available sources such as ammonia.

Katsoulakis says, "The role of uncertainty and sensitivity quantification in this process turns out to be crucial, because the design of bimetallic catalysts rests on understanding how sensitive the catalyst's performance metrics are on its parent metals. Also, experiments have shown that performance depends on the micro-geometry of the arrangement of the two metals, that is structure and ordering of their layers. Given all the choices we have in selecting materials and geometries for the two-metal catalysts, this becomes a very complex system to model."

Being able to systematically evaluate which metal combinations in the catalyst are the most efficient and cost effective is one of the team's key goals. The challenge is an example of a model where new mathematical and computational techniques for assessing uncertainty and quantifying sensitivity can be extremely productive, the researchers say.

Over the next three years, the multi-institution team will develop new mathematical tools that describe uncertainty and model sensitivity using information theory, probability theory, statistical methods such as model selection and model reduction, rare events methods, multi-scale analysis and parameterization of coarse-grained models from finer scales and data.

Mathematical models are now routinely being asked to account for systems of
increasing complexity, that is handling millions or even billions of variables. In addition, a model must integrate data from different scales and must account for different spatial scales, for example from the molecular level all the way to the everyday macroscopic scale, and basic physical processes at different time scales.

The UMass Amherst mathematician says, "Interactions across scales are a unifying feature in all complex systems that we may experience in everyday life. Think of the effect that a single vehicle breakdown during rush hour may have to the overall traffic flow, even at very large distances from the scene." Taking all the different variables and mechanisms such as vehicle speeds, sizes, road network, weather, traffic volume and so on into account, represents a typical complex "multi-scale multi-physics" modeling, simulation and analysis problem that challenges current applied mathematical methods, he adds.

Handling real-life systems with unprecedented levels of complexity and multi-scale features requires not only more powerful computational capabilities, but also new mathematics, Katsoulakis explains. "Though high performance computing can allow us, for the first time, to simulate at least some complex systems, there are important concerns related to the effectiveness and reliability of the predictive computational models."

As in the traffic example, all such models depend on a large number of mechanisms and parameters but it is not immediately obvious which ones critically affect the final predictions and which ones can be ignored. Another, closely related, source of uncertainty is insufficient knowledge of a particular highly complex system.

Katsoulakis and Rey-Bellet believe that their research has great potential for wider impact in a number of fields because it will lay down the mathematical foundations for uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis in a broad class of complex systems typically encountered in physicochemical and biological processes, atmosphere and ocean science, and other types of complex networks.

Besides Katsoulakis and Rey-Bellet at UMass Amherst, collaborators are mathematician Petr Plechac and chemical engineer Dion Vlachos at the University of Delaware and applied mathematician Paul Dupuis at Brown University.

###

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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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-11/uoma-dmf110713.php
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Arafat's mysterious death becomes a whodunit

FILE - In this May 31, 2002 file photo, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat pauses during the weekly Muslim Friday prayers in his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Al-Jazeera is reporting that a team of Swiss scientists has found moderate evidence that longtime Palestinian leader Arafat died of poisoning. The Arab satellite channel published a copy of what it said was the scientists' report on its website on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013.(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)

Swiss professor Francois Bochud, left, director of the Chuv Radiophysics Institute, IRA, and Swiss professor Patrice Mangin, right, director of the University Center of Legal Medicine in Lausanne, CURML, speak on a forensics report concerning the late President Yasser Arafat during a press conference at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, CHUV, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Thurday, Nov. 7, 2013. Swiss, French and Russian teams took samples of the remains after exhuming Arafat's body in Ramallah, and submitted results to the Palestinian Authority on Nov. 5. (AP Photo/Keystone, Laurent Gillieron)

Swiss professor Francois Bochud, left, director of the Chuv Radiophysics Institute, IRA, and Swiss professor Patrice Mangin, right, director of the University Center of Legal Medicine in Lausanne, CURML, pose with a forensics report concerning the late President Yasser Arafat during a press conference on of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, CHUV, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Thurday, Nov. 7, 2013. Swiss, French and Russian teams took samples of the remains after exhuming Arafat's body in Ramallah, and submitted results to the Palestinian Authority on Nov. 5. (AP Photo/Keystone, Laurent Gillieron)

A forensics report concerning the late President Yasser Arafat is presented during a press conference of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, CHUV, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Thurday, Nov. 7, 2013. Swiss, French and Russian teams took samples of the remains after exhuming Arafat's body in Ramallah, and submitted results to the Palestinian Authority on Nov. 5. (AP Photo/Keystone, Laurent Gillieron)

Palestinian Hanadi Kharma, paints a mural depicting the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank city of Nablus, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. Swiss scientists have found evidence suggesting Yasser Arafat may have been poisoned with a radioactive substance, a TV station reported on Wednesday, prompting new allegations by his widow that the Palestinian leader was the victim of a "shocking" crime. (AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh)

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Yasser Arafat's mysterious 2004 death turned into a whodunit Thursday after Swiss scientists who examined his remains said the Palestinian leader was probably poisoned with radioactive polonium.

Yet hard proof remains elusive, and nine years on, tracking down anyone who might have slipped minuscule amounts of the lethal substance into Arafat's food or drink could be difficult.

A new investigation could also prove embarrassing — and not just for Israel, which the Palestinians have long accused of poisoning their leader and which has denied any role.

The Palestinians themselves could come under renewed scrutiny, since Arafat was holed up in his Israeli-besieged West Bank compound in the months before his death, surrounded by advisers, staff and bodyguards.

Arafat died at a French military hospital on Nov. 11, 2004, at age 75, a month after suddenly falling violently ill at his compound. At the time, French doctors said he died of a stroke and had a blood-clotting problem, but records were inconclusive about what caused that condition.

The Swiss scientists said that they found elevated traces of polonium-210 and lead in Arafat's remains that could not have occurred naturally, and that the timeframe of Arafat's illness and death was consistent with poisoning from ingesting polonium.

"Our results reasonably support the poisoning theory," Francois Bochud, director of Switzerland's Institute of Radiation Physics, which carried out the investigation, said at a news conference.

Bochud and Patrice Mangin, director of the Lausanne University Hospital's forensics center, said they tested and ruled out innocent explanations, such as accidental poisoning.

"I think we can eliminate this possibility because, as you can imagine, you cannot find polonium everywhere. It's a very rare toxic substance," Mangin told The Associated Press.

Palestinian officials, including Arafat's successor, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, had no comment on the substance of the report but promised a continued investigation.

The findings are certain to revive Palestinian allegations against Israel, a nuclear power. Polonium can be a byproduct of the chemical processing of uranium, but usually is made artificially in a nuclear reactor or a particle accelerator.

Arafat's widow, Suha, called on the Palestinian leadership to seek justice for her husband, saying, "It's clear this is a crime."

Speaking by phone from the Qatari capital Doha, she did not mention Israel but argued that only countries with nuclear capabilities have access to polonium.

Israel has repeatedly denied a role in Arafat's death and did so again Thursday. Paul Hirschson, a Foreign Ministry official, dismissed the claim as "hogwash."

"We couldn't be bothered to" kill him, Hirschson said. "If anyone remembers the political reality at the time, Arafat was completely isolated. His own people were barely speaking to him. There's no logical reason for Israel to have wanted to do something like this."

In his final years, Arafat was being accused by Israel and the U.S. of condoning and even encouraging Palestinian attacks against Israelis instead of working for a peace deal. In late 2004, Israeli tanks no longer surrounded his compound, but Arafat was afraid to leave for fear of not being allowed to return.

Shortly after his death, the Palestinians launched their own investigation, questioning dozens of people in Arafat's compound, including staff, bodyguards and officials, but no suspects emerged.

Security around Arafat was easily breached toward the end of his life. Aides have described him as impulsive, unable to resist tasting gifts of chocolate or trying out medicines brought by visitors from abroad.

The investigation was dormant until the satellite TV station Al-Jazeera persuaded Arafat's widow last year to hand over a bag with her husband's underwear, headscarves and other belongings. After finding traces of polonium in biological stains on the clothing, investigators dug up his grave in his Ramallah compound earlier this year to take bone and soil samples.

Investigators noted Thursday that they could not account for the chain of custody of the items that were in the bag, leaving open the possibility of tampering.

However, the latest findings are largely based on Arafat's remains and burial soil, and in this case, tampering appears highly improbable, Bochud said.

"I think this can really be ruled out because it was really difficult to access the body," he said. "When we opened the tomb, we were all together."

Polonium-210 is the same substance that killed KGB agent-turned-Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.

"It's quite difficult to understand why (Arafat) might have had any polonium, if he was just in his headquarters in Ramallah," said Alastair Hay, a professor of environmental toxicology at the University of Leeds who was not involved in the investigation.

"He wasn't somebody who was moving in and out of atomic energy plants or dealing with radioactive isotopes."

___

John Heilprin reported from Lausanne, Switzerland. Associated Press writers Daniel Estrin in Jerusalem and Lori Hinnant in Paris and AP Medical Writer Maria Cheng in London contributed to this report.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-11-07-Arafat's%20Death/id-b9f661e6e8964bfdaa3e6520d9adf400
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Jason Carter to run for Ga. governor

Georgia Sen. Jason Carter, D-Decatur, talks to members of the media after filing his formal candidacy papers to run for governor at the State Ethics Commission Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013 in Atlanta. Carter is the grandson of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. (AP Photo/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, ) MARIETTA DAILY OUT; GWINNETT DAILY POST OUT; LOCAL TV OUT; WXIA-TV OUT; WGCL-TV OUT MBI (REV-SHARE)

Georgia State Sen. Jason Carter (D-Decatur) arrives for a news conference with his wife Kate, and son Henry, where he announced he has filed paperwork to run for governor, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013, in Atlanta. Carter is the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Georgia State Sen. Jason Carter (D-Decatur) announces he has filed paperwork to run for governor during a news conference Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013, in Atlanta. Carter is the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Georgia Sen. Jason Carter, D-Decatur, talks to members of the media after filing his formal candidacy papers to run for governor at the State Ethics Commission Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013 in Atlanta. Carter the grandson of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. (AP Photo/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, ) MARIETTA DAILY OUT; GWINNETT DAILY POST OUT; LOCAL TV OUT; WXIA-TV OUT; WGCL-TV OUT MBI (REV-SHARE)

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia has been a solidly Republican state for much of the past decade and there has been little good news for Democrats until now, with Jason Carter launching a bid for governor and joining Michelle Nunn on the ballot in 2014.

Democrats are expected to invest heavily in the state next year, which will come two short years before the 2016 presidential race and feature the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter and the daughter of former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn. The money will be used to build up the statewide organization — registering voters, setting up a broad donor network and recruiting grassroots supporters — in the hopes of eventually turning Georgia into a true battleground state.

"Senator Carter's entrance into the governor's race, along with Michelle Nunn's candidacy, has created an unbelievable amount of excitement and optimism among Georgia Democrats," said Tharon Johnson, an Atlanta-based Democratic strategist who led President Barack Obama's re-election effort in the South.

Jason Carter, a 38-year-old attorney and state lawmaker from Atlanta, said Thursday he plans to run for governor. The decision shakes up the 2014 race as Republican Gov. Nathan Deal seeks re-election. Deal already faces two primary opponents and will now have to deal with the prospect of a Carter campaign that is likely to be well-funded and focused on the governor long before the general election. Carter is not expected to face serious primary opposition.

When asked about Carter's announcement, Deal spokesman Brian Robinson said the governor was "focused on keeping Georgia the No. 1 place to do business and creating jobs and developing a skilled workforce."

There is no doubt Georgia Democrats still face a tough political climate, and it remains to be seen how much outside money will flow into the state and how well Nunn and Carter will appeal to independent voters. Republicans currently hold every statewide office and a large majority in the General Assembly. Both U.S. senators are Republican, as well as most of the congressional delegation. The state has voted for every Republican presidential nominee since 2000, with Obama receiving 45.5 percent of the vote last year.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, considered a likely Democratic candidate for statewide office in coming years, said Carter is one of the most talented politicians in the state because of his ability to connect with voters. Reed said work done now will only benefit Democrats in the long run.

"It's really an issue of resources," Reed said in an interview this week. "It's not about just messaging. You've got 600,000 unregistered African-American voters who nobody is communicating with in Georgia. You have more than 200,000 Latino voters that nobody is communicating with."

Republicans, meanwhile, feel confident Deal will win re-election, arguing he has made tough fiscal decisions during a challenging time and demonstrated an ability to create jobs and grow the economy. They point to comments made this summer by Reed, who said Deal had done a good job as governor. The two have partnered on major economic development deals and together advocated the Obama administration for money to deepen the Port of Savannah.

Eric Tanenblatt, an Atlanta-based GOP strategist who served as finance co-chair of the Mitt Romney presidential campaign, said Republicans cannot ignore the fact that Georgia's electorate is changing. The state has seen an influx of out-of-state residents and an increasing minority population.

"We are still a very conservative state and a Republican state," Tanenblatt said. "That being said, the demographics in Georgia are changing and the Republican Party needs to recognize that. And some in the party do, and I am hoping that others will start to recognize that as well."

Nunn, who is running for U.S. Senate, has some primary opposition but is considered a favorite to advance. Republicans have a crowded field of candidates in the Senate race, and a runoff is likely.

Meanwhile, Carter is pledging to build a coalition of urban and rural voters with a focus on education and the economy. He plans to stay in the state Senate for next year's legislative session.

"What you see in rural Georgia now is a systematic underfunding of education, and folks are ready to see that change," Carter said in an interview. "Folks in Georgia are less partisan than people think. They are going to vote for the candidate who is going to make education a priority and make the economy work for them."

So far Carter's path closely mirrors that of his grandfather. Jimmy Carter served two terms in the Georgia Senate before running for governor. Although Jimmy Carter lost his first bid in 1966, he won four years later.

The former president said in a statement that he was proud and excited about his grandson's announcement.

"Georgia faces serious challenges ahead and would greatly benefit from a smart and fresh leader focused on improving our schools, creating opportunities for a more prosperous middle class and restoring a sense of trust and transparency back to state government," Jimmy Carter said.

A big question will be how the former president will factor into the campaign. When Jason Carter first ran for office, his grandfather didn't start campaigning until a few days before the election. At the time, Jason Carter told The Associated Press he wanted to prove he could do the hard work on his own and didn't want to be "trading on my family name."

Carter said Thursday that his grandfather remains an important figure in his life.

"He's given me advice and it's the same advice that grandfathers give their grandsons: Work as hard as you can, always tell the truth and you will be OK," Carter said. "One of the most important things he has said is that it's much more important to be a good person than a good politician."

Carter's decision to run for governor was first reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Challenging Deal in the Republican primary are state schools Superintendent John Barge and Dalton Mayor David Pennington. On the Democratic side, former state Sen. Connie Stokes announced Thursday that she was exiting the race for governor and would instead campaign for lieutenant governor.

___

Follow Christina Almeida Cassidy on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Christina

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-11-07-Jason%20Carter-Governor/id-275755c93e224293a345fa0808a9d98e
Tags: jennifer nettles Brooke Greenberg Miriam Carey jim parsons Obama Syria

Google Voice numbers can now receive MMS from T-Mobile numbers

Still no outgoing MMS support, but it's a step in the right direction

Google announced that full MMS support will hit Google Voice in early 2014, but it has made at least one small step towards that goal today by adding T-Mobile MMS receive support. Just as has (theoretically) been the case with Sprint for some time now, Google Voice users receiving an MMS from a T-Mobile customer will have that picture emailed to them. You'll get a simple "MMS received" email to your Gmail account, along with the picture as an attachment, and you'll also get an SMS indicating that the picture was received.

There doesn't seem to be any noticeable delay, and we've just tested it ourselves and it seems to work just fine. Now this certainly isn't the most elegant solution ever, and it doesn't help us with outgoing MMS from Google Voice numbers, but it at least means that now when your friends and family send you pictures you'll get them if they're on Sprint or T-Mobile.

And now we play the waiting game until full-on MMS support comes to the service.

Source: +Alex Wiesen

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/2NVhCTXxLDA/story01.htm
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Syrian opposition mulls talks with government

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a man who was wounded when a bomb blast attacked the entrance of the main train station, lies on a hospital bed, in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013. Bombs targeting the entrance of a landmark Ottoman railway building in Damascus and a feared security agency in Syria's southeast killed more than a dozen people on Wednesday, activists reported. (AP Photo/SANA)

This image made from citizen journalist video posted by the Shaam News Network, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows smoke from shelling in Deir al-Zour, Syria, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013. Syria's 23 million people belong to a startling patchwork of different religious groups, and the three-year conflict has taken increasingly sectarian overtones in the past year. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network)

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a doctor, right, treats a man who was wounded where a bomb blast attacked the entrance of the main train station, in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013. Bombs targeting the entrance of a landmark Ottoman railway building in Damascus and a feared security agency in Syria's southeast killed more than a dozen people on Wednesday, activists reported. (AP Photo/SANA)

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria's main Western-backed opposition group is considering an invitation for informal meetings involving Syrian government representatives in Moscow that would focus on establishing humanitarian corridors, opposition figures confirmed Thursday.

It was not immediately clear when the talks might take place, or whether they would include direct contact between representatives of President Bashar Assad's government and the Syrian National Coalition. But if the two sides were to sit down together for discussions on humanitarian issues, it could boost the prospects for a proposed peace conference the U.S. and Russia have been trying to convene in Geneva.

The coalition has demanded that Assad step down in any transitional Syrian government as a condition for its going to Geneva. Syrian officials say Assad will stay in his post at least until his terms ends in 2014 and that he may run for re-election.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday that representatives of the opposition, who met with Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in Geneva, "responded positively" to a Kremlin offer to host "informal contacts in Moscow for the entire spectrum of Syria's social and political forces."

Bogdanov said the talks could focus on humanitarian problems as well as some political issues.

Kamal Labwani, a coalition member, said the opposition was considering whether to accept the Russian offer. But he said talks would be confined to experts from the coalition's humanitarian arm and government humanitarian organizations.

"The Russians called on the opposition to meet with the regime there, but then scaled it back to solving the humanitarian crisis," Labwani said. "They want to open a line of communication between the regime and the opposition through Russia."

Another Syrian opposition official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the proposed talks, said the opposition coalition has decided to send experts to Moscow for discussions limited to humanitarian corridors.

The coalition has long called on the international community to help secure aid to civilians, particularly in rebel-held areas that have been blockaded by government forces.

The civil war in Syria has touched off a humanitarian catastrophe across the region. More than 2 million Syrians have sought refuge abroad, while the U.N. said this week that more than 9 million Syrians — out of the country's pre-war population of 23 million — are in need of humanitarian assistance.

Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Wednesday that it is "outrageous" that "the Syrian regime is denying aid workers access to towns that they are besieging, even as it is allowing international chemical weapons inspectors into the country."

"The fact of the chemical weapons implementation only underscores how much this is an issue of will for the regime, and lack of will," Power said.

On Thursday, international inspectors said they have verified 22 of 23 declared chemical weapons sites after receiving video and photographic evidence showing that a facility near the contested northern city of Aleppo has been dismantled and abandoned.

The joint mission by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations, which is overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical arsenal, inspected 21 of the sites last month but had been unable to visit the remaining two because of fighting in the area.

The OPCW-U.N. statement said the Syrian government provided the joint mission with photographs and footage of the facility near Aleppo that confirmed the site has been dismantled and abandoned. It added that the building bore signs of "extensive battle damage." It was not clear when the damage occurred.

The images were shot with a tamperproof camera that inspectors had fitted with a GPS system so that the location of the camera could be tracked, the statement said. International inspectors have authenticated the photos and video.

The OPCW-U.N. mission has not disclosed the location of the last remaining site the inspectors need to verify.

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Isachenkov reported from Moscow. Associated Press writers Desmond Butler in Istanbul, Mike Corder in The Hague, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Ryan Lucas in Beirut contributed to this report.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-11-07-Syria/id-83514c058ce1439798a3b7176141b529
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