There is "no way" the NSA's newly revealed surveillance activities could have been legal, asserted Fred Cate, director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University. "There is obviously a big security issue here," Cate explained. "It puts us in an almost surreal position, especially as there is no way that the NSA could truly differentiate between U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens."
The National Security Agency has tapped fiber-optic cables that connect Google's and Yahoo's overseas servers and accessed vast amounts of data including email and other personal information, according to a Wednesday report in The Washington Post.
Included in the data culled by the NSA is information on hundreds of millions of users, many of whom are American, the Post reported, citing documents obtained by NSA contractor Edward Snowden along with interviews with other officials.
The NSA's acquisition directorate reportedly sent millions of records daily from internal Yahoo and Google networks to a data warehouse at the agency's Fort Meade, Md., headquarters.
'Not True'
The NSA balked at the idea that it was looking into the personal information of American citizens.
"NSA has multiple authorities that it uses to accomplish its mission, which is centered on defending the nation," NSA spokesperson Vanee Vines told TechNewsWorld. "The Washington Post's assertion that we use Executive Order 12333 collection to get around the limitations imposed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and FAA 702 is not true.
"The assertion that we collect vast quantities of U.S. persons' data from this type of collection is also not true," Vines added. "NSA applies Attorney General-approved processes to protect the privacy of U.S. persons, minimizing the likelihood of their information in our targeting, collection, processing, exploitation, retention and dissemination."
NSA is "a foreign intelligence agency," Vines concluded, "and we're focused on discovering and developing intelligence about valid foreign intelligence targets only."
'We Are Outraged'
Both Google and Yahoo stressed that they did not participate in the NSA's data collection.
"We have long been concerned about the possibility of this kind of snooping, which is why we have continued to extend encryption across more and more Google services and links," said David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer. "We do not provide any government, including the U.S. government, with access to our systems.
"We are outraged at the lengths to which the government seems to have gone to intercept data from our private fiber networks," Drummond added. "It underscores the need for urgent reform."
Similarly, "we have strict controls in place to protect the security of our data centers," Yahoo spokesperson Lauren Armstrong told TechNewsWorld. "We have not given access to our data centers to the NSA or to any other government agency."
'A Gross Violation'
It's unclear exactly how the NSA achieved this tap, but the Post report suggests that "anything flowing between Google's data servers would be vulnerable, which means both metadata and content of millions of emails, among other things," Trevor Timm, an activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, pointed out.
Was the surveillance legal?
"The U.S. government thinks it is," Timm told TechNewsWorld. "We think it's a gross violation of the privacy rights of Americans and those abroad.
"Congress will act to make sure this will never happen again, and tech companies will implement changes to make sure the NSA can't do it again even if they tried," he added.
"There is obviously a big security issue here," Cate explained. "It puts us in an almost surreal position, especially as there is no way that the NSA could truly differentiate between U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens, as they claim."
A Fine Line
Of course, these revelations are just the latest in what's becoming a long stream of leaks about government surveillance.
"The truth is, even with all the public leaks and media reporting to date, presumably there's still much we neither know nor have the ability to accurately/fairly understand in full context," Jeffrey Silva, senior policy director for telecommunications, media and technology at Medley Global Advisors, told TechNewsWorld.
"Questions about the legality and appropriateness of certain government surveillance -- especially in the post-9/11 world -- are apt to persist on an ongoing basis with every new revelation," Silva added.
"The government may need to make a stronger case, and repeat it often, that expanded surveillance is a price that must be paid in the post-9/11era if U.S. citizens want to be safe," he concluded. "At the same, there's the question of whether current level of government surveillance, that even if legal, amounts to overkill and an unnecessary intrusion on American privacy."
A Chill Down the Spine
In the bigger picture, the revelations are "like layers of an onion," suggested Tim Erlin, director of IT risk and security strategy at Tripwire. "This period of information security history will do more to spur a renewed interest in verifiable security, including end-to-end encryption and distributed systems for validation, than anything we've seen in a long time."
The fact is, however, "we've tacitly agreed to allow our personal data be aggregated in large organizations like Google, Yahoo and Facebook," Erlin told TechNewsWorld. "These companies have so much intelligence that they have become too attractive as intelligence targets."
Indeed, "the companies involved should be the ones with most concerns," said Cate. "This is not good for their business."
Moreover, "when you look at it with the tapestry of all the programs that we've seen come to light," he added, "that is when the cold chill goes down your spine."
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal appeals court on Thursday blocked a judge's ruling that found the New York Police Department's stop-and-frisk policy was discriminatory and took the unusual step of removing her from the case, saying interviews she gave during the trial called her impartiality into question.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the rulings by U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin will be stayed pending the outcome of an appeal by the city.
The judge ruled in August the city violated the Constitution in how it carried out its program of stopping and questioning people. The city appealed her findings and her remedial orders, including a decision to assign a monitor to help the police department change its policy and the training program associated with it.
During arguments, lawyers in the case said the police department hasn't had to do anything except meet with a monitor since the judge's decision. But the city said police officers are afraid to stop and frisk people now and the number of stop-and-frisks has dropped dramatically.
The three-judge appeals panel, which heard arguments on the requested stay on Tuesday, noted that the case might be affected in a major way by next week's mayoral election.
Democratic candidate Bill de Blasio, who's leading in polls, has sharply criticized and promised to reform the NYPD's stop-and-frisk technique, saying it unfairly targets minorities. He said he was "extremely disappointed" in Thursday's decision.
The appeals court said the judge needed to be removed because she ran afoul of the code of conduct for U.S. judges in part by compromising the necessity for a judge to avoid the appearance of partiality. It noted she had given a series of media interviews and public statements responding to criticism of the court. In a footnote, it cited interviews with the New York Law Journal, The Associated Press and The New Yorker magazine.
The judge said Thursday that quotes from her written opinions gave the appearance she had commented on the case in interviews. But she said a careful reading of each interview will reveal no such comments were made.
The 2nd Circuit said cases challenging stop-and-frisk policies will be assigned to a different judge chosen randomly. It said the new presiding judge shall stay all proceedings pending further rulings by it.
After a 10-week civil trial that ended in the spring, Scheindlin ruled that police officers violated the civil rights of tens of thousands of people by wrongly targeting black and Hispanic men with the stop-and-frisk program. She appointed an outside monitor to oversee major changes, including reforms in policies, training and supervision, and she ordered a pilot program to test body-worn cameras.
The Center for Constitutional Rights, which represented plaintiffs in the case, said it was dismayed that the appeals court delayed "the long-overdue process to remedy the NYPD's unconstitutional stop-and-frisk practices" and was shocked that it "cast aspersions" on the judge's professional conduct and reassigned the case.
The city said it was pleased with the federal appeals court ruling. City lawyer Michael Cardozo said it allows for a fresh and independent look at the issue.
Stop-and-frisk, which has been criticized by civil rights advocates, has been around for decades, but recorded stops increased dramatically under Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration to an all-time high in 2011 of 684,330, mostly of black and Hispanic men. A lawsuit was filed in 2004 by four men, all minorities, and became a class action case.
About 5 million stops have been made in New York in the past decade, with frisks occurring about half the time. To make a stop, police must have reasonable suspicion that a crime is about to occur or has occurred, a standard lower than the probable cause needed to justify an arrest. Only about 10 percent of the stops result in arrests or summonses, and weapons are found about 2 percent of the time.
Supporters of changes to the NYPD's stop-and-frisk program say the changes will end unfair practices, will mold a more trusted police force and can affect how other police departments use the policy. Opponents say the changes will lower police morale but not crime.
The judge noted she wasn't putting an end to the stop-and-frisk practice, which is constitutional, but was reforming the way the NYPD implemented its stops.
Contact: Kathleen Hamilton hamilton@poly.edu 718-260-3792 Polytechnic Institute of New York University
NYU-Poly researchers tease out cues that impact schooling fish behavior
Brooklyn, New York Recent studies from two research teams at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) demonstrate how underwater robots can be used to understand and influence the complex swimming behaviors of schooling fish. The teams, led by Maurizio Porfiri, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NYU-Poly, published two separate papers in the journal PLOS ONE.
These studies are the latest in a significant body of research by Porfiri and collaborators utilizing robots, specifically robotic fish, to impact collective animal behavior. In collaboration with doctoral candidate Paul Phamduy and NYU-Poly research scholar Giovanni Polverino, Porfiri designed an experiment to examine the interplay of visual cues and flow cueschanges in the water current as a result of tail-beat frequencyin triggering a live golden shiner fish to either approach or ignore a robotic fish.
They designed and built two robotic fish analogous to live golden shiners in aspect ratio, size, shape, and locomotion pattern. However, one was painted with the natural colors of the golden shiner, the other with a palette not seen in the species. The researchers affixed each robot to the inside of a water tunnel, introduced a live golden shiner fish, and observed its interactions with the robot. While the robot's position remained static, the researchers experimented with several different tail-beat frequencies.
"When the fish encountered a robot that mimicked both the coloration and mean tail-beat frequency for the species, it was likeliest to spend the most time in the nearest proximity to it," Porfiri said. "The more closely the robot came to approximating a fellow golden shiner, the likelier the fish was to treat it like one, including swimming at the same depth behind the robot, which yields a hydrodynamic advantage," he explained.
While flow cues created by tail-beat frequency proved to be a critical trigger for shoaling behavior, coloration proved slightly dominant. "Even at tail-beat frequencies that were less than optimal for the live fish, the shiners were always more drawn to the naturally colored robot," Porfiri added.
Robot speed and body movement were the main focus of another study, also published in PLOS ONE, in which Porfiri teamed with NYU-Poly postdoctoral fellow Sachit Butail and graduate student Tiziana Bartolini. This time, the subject was the zebrafish, and the robot was a free-swimming unit with the coloration, size, aspect ratio, and fin shape of a fertile female member of the species.
The researchers placed the robot in a shared tank with shoals of live zebrafish, aiming to determine if the fish would perceive the robot as a predator, and whether visual cues from the robot could be used to modulate the fishes' social behavior and activity. The team used a remote control to drive the robot in a circular swimming pattern, while varying its tail-beat frequency. For comparison purposes, they also exposed the fish to the robot in a fixed position, beating its tail.
Experiments showed that while the zebrafish clearly did not perceive the swimming robot as one of their ownthey maintained greater distance from the robot than they did to each otherthe robot was still an effective stimulus for modulating their social behavior.
When the robot was held still in the tank, the live fish showed high group cohesion, along with a strong polarizationmeaning the fish were likely to be close to each other and oriented in the same direction. As the robot's tail-beat frequency increased, it had a profound impact on the group's collective behavior, causing a spike in the cohesion and a small but detectable decrease in polarizationthe fish largely milled together and even matched their speeds to that of the robot as it reached a certain tail-beat frequency.
"This shows us that the fish are responding to more than one stimulusit's not just the flow cues, it's the combination of visual and flow cues that influence the collective response," Porfiri said.
Porfiri is a leading researcher in the field of ethoroboticsthe study of robot-animal interaction. Studies like these advance multiple areas of science, including the development of an experimental animal model based on lower-order species such as fish, with robots providing a consistent, infinitely reproducible stimulus. The use of robots to influence collective animal behavior is also viewed as a potential means to protect marine wildlife, including birds and fish, in the wake of environmental hazard.
###
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Mitsui USA Foundation.
The Polytechnic Institute of New York University (formerly the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and the Polytechnic University, now widely known as NYU-Poly) is an affiliated institute of New York University, and will become its School of Engineering in January 2014. NYU-Poly, founded in 1854, is the nation's second-oldest private engineering school. It is presently a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a 159-year tradition of invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. It remains on the cutting edge of technology, innovatively extending the benefits of science, engineering, management and liberal studies to critical real-world opportunities and challenges, especially those linked to urban systems, health and wellness, and the global information economy. In addition to its programs on the main campus in New York City at MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn, it offers programs around the globe remotely through NYUe-Poly. NYU-Poly is closely connected to engineering in NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai and to the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) also at MetroTech, while operating two incubators in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. For more information, visit http://www.poly.edu.
[
| 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.
The secret's in the (robotic) stroke
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
31-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Kathleen Hamilton hamilton@poly.edu 718-260-3792 Polytechnic Institute of New York University
NYU-Poly researchers tease out cues that impact schooling fish behavior
Brooklyn, New York Recent studies from two research teams at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) demonstrate how underwater robots can be used to understand and influence the complex swimming behaviors of schooling fish. The teams, led by Maurizio Porfiri, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NYU-Poly, published two separate papers in the journal PLOS ONE.
These studies are the latest in a significant body of research by Porfiri and collaborators utilizing robots, specifically robotic fish, to impact collective animal behavior. In collaboration with doctoral candidate Paul Phamduy and NYU-Poly research scholar Giovanni Polverino, Porfiri designed an experiment to examine the interplay of visual cues and flow cueschanges in the water current as a result of tail-beat frequencyin triggering a live golden shiner fish to either approach or ignore a robotic fish.
They designed and built two robotic fish analogous to live golden shiners in aspect ratio, size, shape, and locomotion pattern. However, one was painted with the natural colors of the golden shiner, the other with a palette not seen in the species. The researchers affixed each robot to the inside of a water tunnel, introduced a live golden shiner fish, and observed its interactions with the robot. While the robot's position remained static, the researchers experimented with several different tail-beat frequencies.
"When the fish encountered a robot that mimicked both the coloration and mean tail-beat frequency for the species, it was likeliest to spend the most time in the nearest proximity to it," Porfiri said. "The more closely the robot came to approximating a fellow golden shiner, the likelier the fish was to treat it like one, including swimming at the same depth behind the robot, which yields a hydrodynamic advantage," he explained.
While flow cues created by tail-beat frequency proved to be a critical trigger for shoaling behavior, coloration proved slightly dominant. "Even at tail-beat frequencies that were less than optimal for the live fish, the shiners were always more drawn to the naturally colored robot," Porfiri added.
Robot speed and body movement were the main focus of another study, also published in PLOS ONE, in which Porfiri teamed with NYU-Poly postdoctoral fellow Sachit Butail and graduate student Tiziana Bartolini. This time, the subject was the zebrafish, and the robot was a free-swimming unit with the coloration, size, aspect ratio, and fin shape of a fertile female member of the species.
The researchers placed the robot in a shared tank with shoals of live zebrafish, aiming to determine if the fish would perceive the robot as a predator, and whether visual cues from the robot could be used to modulate the fishes' social behavior and activity. The team used a remote control to drive the robot in a circular swimming pattern, while varying its tail-beat frequency. For comparison purposes, they also exposed the fish to the robot in a fixed position, beating its tail.
Experiments showed that while the zebrafish clearly did not perceive the swimming robot as one of their ownthey maintained greater distance from the robot than they did to each otherthe robot was still an effective stimulus for modulating their social behavior.
When the robot was held still in the tank, the live fish showed high group cohesion, along with a strong polarizationmeaning the fish were likely to be close to each other and oriented in the same direction. As the robot's tail-beat frequency increased, it had a profound impact on the group's collective behavior, causing a spike in the cohesion and a small but detectable decrease in polarizationthe fish largely milled together and even matched their speeds to that of the robot as it reached a certain tail-beat frequency.
"This shows us that the fish are responding to more than one stimulusit's not just the flow cues, it's the combination of visual and flow cues that influence the collective response," Porfiri said.
Porfiri is a leading researcher in the field of ethoroboticsthe study of robot-animal interaction. Studies like these advance multiple areas of science, including the development of an experimental animal model based on lower-order species such as fish, with robots providing a consistent, infinitely reproducible stimulus. The use of robots to influence collective animal behavior is also viewed as a potential means to protect marine wildlife, including birds and fish, in the wake of environmental hazard.
###
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Mitsui USA Foundation.
The Polytechnic Institute of New York University (formerly the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and the Polytechnic University, now widely known as NYU-Poly) is an affiliated institute of New York University, and will become its School of Engineering in January 2014. NYU-Poly, founded in 1854, is the nation's second-oldest private engineering school. It is presently a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a 159-year tradition of invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. It remains on the cutting edge of technology, innovatively extending the benefits of science, engineering, management and liberal studies to critical real-world opportunities and challenges, especially those linked to urban systems, health and wellness, and the global information economy. In addition to its programs on the main campus in New York City at MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn, it offers programs around the globe remotely through NYUe-Poly. NYU-Poly is closely connected to engineering in NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai and to the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) also at MetroTech, while operating two incubators in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. For more information, visit http://www.poly.edu.
[
| 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.
Magnetic 'force field' shields giant gas cloud during collision with Milky Way
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
31-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Charles Blue cblue@nrao.edu 434-296-0314 National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Doom may be averted for the Smith Cloud, a gigantic streamer of hydrogen gas that is on a collision course with the Milky Way Galaxy. Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) have discovered a magnetic field deep in the cloud's interior, which may protect it during its meteoric plunge into the disk of our Galaxy.
This discovery could help explain how so-called high velocity clouds (HVCs) remain mostly intact during their mergers with the disks of galaxies, where they would provide fresh fuel for a new generation of stars.
Currently, the Smith Cloud is hurtling toward the Milky Way at more than 150 miles per second and is predicted to impact in approximately 30 million years. When it does, astronomers believe, it will set off a spectacular burst of star formation. But first, it has to survive careening through the halo, or atmosphere, of hot ionized gas surrounding the Milky Way.
"The million-degree upper atmosphere of the Galaxy ought to destroy these hydrogen clouds before they ever reach the disk, where most stars are formed," said Alex Hill, an astronomer at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) and lead author of a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal. "New observations reveal one of these clouds in the process of being shredded, but a protective magnetic field shields the cloud and may help it survive its plunge."
Many hundreds of HVCs zip around our Galaxy, but their obits seldom correspond to the rotation of the Milky Way. This leads astronomers to believe that HVCs are the left-over building blocks of galaxy formation or the splattered remains of a close galactic encounter billions of years ago.
Though massive, the gas that makes up HVCs is very tenuous, and computer simulations predict that they lack the necessary heft to survive plunging through the halo and into the disk of the Milky Way.
"We have long had trouble understanding how HVCs reach the Galactic disk," said Hill. "There's good reason to believe that magnetic fields can prevent their 'burning up' in the halo like a meteorite burning up in Earth's atmosphere."
Despite being the best evidence yet for a magnetic field inside an HVC, the origin of the Smith Cloud's field remains a mystery. "The field we observe now is too large to have existed in its current state when the cloud was formed," said Hill. "The field was probably magnified by the cloud's motion through the halo."
Earlier research indicates the Smith Cloud has already survived punching through the disk of our Galaxy once and -- at about 8,000 light-years from the disk -- is just beginning its re-entry now.
"The Smith Cloud is unique among high-velocity clouds because it is so clearly interacting with and merging with the Milky Way," said Felix J. Lockman, an astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, W.Va. "Its comet-like appearance indicates it's already feeling the Milky Way's influence."
Since the Smith Cloud appears to be devoid of stars, the only way to observe it is with exquisitely sensitive radio telescopes, like the GBT, which can detect the faint emission of neutral hydrogen. If it were visible with the naked eye, the Smith Cloud would cover almost as much sky as the constellation Orion.
When the Smith Cloud eventually merges with the Milky Way, it could produce a bright ring of stars similar to the one relatively close to our Sun known as Gould's Belt.
"Our Galaxy is in an incredibly dynamic environment," concludes Hill, "and how it interacts with that environment determines whether stars like the Sun will continue to form."
###
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
[
| 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.
Magnetic 'force field' shields giant gas cloud during collision with Milky Way
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
31-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Charles Blue cblue@nrao.edu 434-296-0314 National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Doom may be averted for the Smith Cloud, a gigantic streamer of hydrogen gas that is on a collision course with the Milky Way Galaxy. Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) have discovered a magnetic field deep in the cloud's interior, which may protect it during its meteoric plunge into the disk of our Galaxy.
This discovery could help explain how so-called high velocity clouds (HVCs) remain mostly intact during their mergers with the disks of galaxies, where they would provide fresh fuel for a new generation of stars.
Currently, the Smith Cloud is hurtling toward the Milky Way at more than 150 miles per second and is predicted to impact in approximately 30 million years. When it does, astronomers believe, it will set off a spectacular burst of star formation. But first, it has to survive careening through the halo, or atmosphere, of hot ionized gas surrounding the Milky Way.
"The million-degree upper atmosphere of the Galaxy ought to destroy these hydrogen clouds before they ever reach the disk, where most stars are formed," said Alex Hill, an astronomer at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) and lead author of a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal. "New observations reveal one of these clouds in the process of being shredded, but a protective magnetic field shields the cloud and may help it survive its plunge."
Many hundreds of HVCs zip around our Galaxy, but their obits seldom correspond to the rotation of the Milky Way. This leads astronomers to believe that HVCs are the left-over building blocks of galaxy formation or the splattered remains of a close galactic encounter billions of years ago.
Though massive, the gas that makes up HVCs is very tenuous, and computer simulations predict that they lack the necessary heft to survive plunging through the halo and into the disk of the Milky Way.
"We have long had trouble understanding how HVCs reach the Galactic disk," said Hill. "There's good reason to believe that magnetic fields can prevent their 'burning up' in the halo like a meteorite burning up in Earth's atmosphere."
Despite being the best evidence yet for a magnetic field inside an HVC, the origin of the Smith Cloud's field remains a mystery. "The field we observe now is too large to have existed in its current state when the cloud was formed," said Hill. "The field was probably magnified by the cloud's motion through the halo."
Earlier research indicates the Smith Cloud has already survived punching through the disk of our Galaxy once and -- at about 8,000 light-years from the disk -- is just beginning its re-entry now.
"The Smith Cloud is unique among high-velocity clouds because it is so clearly interacting with and merging with the Milky Way," said Felix J. Lockman, an astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, W.Va. "Its comet-like appearance indicates it's already feeling the Milky Way's influence."
Since the Smith Cloud appears to be devoid of stars, the only way to observe it is with exquisitely sensitive radio telescopes, like the GBT, which can detect the faint emission of neutral hydrogen. If it were visible with the naked eye, the Smith Cloud would cover almost as much sky as the constellation Orion.
When the Smith Cloud eventually merges with the Milky Way, it could produce a bright ring of stars similar to the one relatively close to our Sun known as Gould's Belt.
"Our Galaxy is in an incredibly dynamic environment," concludes Hill, "and how it interacts with that environment determines whether stars like the Sun will continue to form."
###
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
[
| 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.
UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country researchers have developed and patented a new source of light emitter based on boron nitride nanotubes and suitable for developing high-efficiency optoelectronic devices
This news release is available in Spanish.
Scientists are usually after defect-free nano-structures. Yet in this case the UPV/EHU researcher Angel Rubio and his collaborators have put the structural defects in boron nitride nanotubes to maximum use. The outcome of his research is a new light-emitting source that can easily be incorporated into current microelectronics technology. The research has also resulted in a patent.
Boron nitride is a promising material in the field of nanotechnology, thanks to its excellent insulating properties, resistance and two-dimensional structure similar to graphene. And specifically, the properties of hexagonal boron nitride, the focus of this research, are far superior to those of other metals and semiconductors currently being used as light emitters, for example, in applications linked to optical storage (DVD) or communications. "It is extremely efficient in ultraviolet light emission, one of the best currently available on the market," remarked the UPV/EHU researcher Angel Rubio.
However, the light emission of boron nitride nanotubes takes place within a very limited range of the ultraviolet spectrum, which means they cannot be used in applications in which the emission needs to be produced within a broader range of frequencies and in a controlled way (for example in applications using visible light).
The research carried out by the UPV/EHU's NanoBio Spectroscopy Group has come up with a solution to overcome this limitation, and open up the door to the use of hexagonal boron nitride nanotubes in commercial applications.
They have shown that by applying an electric field perpendicular to the nanotube, it is possible to get the latter to emit light across the whole spectrum from the infrared to the far ultraviolet and to control it in a simple way. This ease of control is only to be found in nanotubes due to their cylindrical geometry (these are tubular structures with lengths in the order of micrometres, and diameters in the order of nanometres).
Rubio has been working with boron nitride nanotubes for nearly 20 years. "We proposed them theoretically, and then they were found experimentally. So far, all our theoretical predictions have been confirmed, and that is very gratifying," he explained. Once the properties of layered hexagonal boron nitride and its extremely high efficiency in light emission were known, this research sought to show that these properties are not lost in nanotubes. "We knew that when a sheet was rolled up and a tube was formed, a strong coupling was produced with the electric field and that would enable us to change the light emission. We wanted to show," and they did in fact show, "that light emission efficiency was not being lost due to the fact that the nanotube was formed, and that it is also controllable."
Boron absences
The device functions on the basis of the use of natural (or induced) defects in boron nitride nanotubes. In particular, the defects enabling controlled emission are the gaps that appear in the wall of the nanotube due to the absence of a boron atom, which is the most common defect in its manufacture. "All nanotubes are very similar, but the fact that you have these defects makes the system operational and efficient, and what is more, the more defects you have, the better it functions."
Rubio highlighted "the simplicity" of the device proposed. "It's a device that functions with defects, it does not have to be pure, and it's very easy to build and control." Nanotubes can be synthesised using standard methods in the scientific community for producing inorganic nanotubes; the structures synthesised as a result have natural defects, and it is possible to incorporate more if you want by means of simple, post-synthesis irradiation processes. "It has a traditional transistor configuration, and what we are proposing would work with current electronic devices," he stressed. The "less attractive" part, as specified by Rubio, is that boron nitride nanotubes are still only produced in very small quantities, and as yet there is no economically viable synthesis process on a commercial scale.
Beyond graphene
Rubio is in no doubt about the potential of the new materials based on two-dimensional systems, and specifically, of compounds that offer an alternative to graphene, like, for example, hexagonal boron nitride. Without prejudice to graphene, Rubio believes that the alternative field could have greater potential in the long term and needs to be explored: "It's a field that has been active for over the last fifteen years, even though it has been less visible. We have been working with hexagonal boron nitride since 1994, it's like our child, and I believe that it has opened up an attractive field of research, which more and more groups are joining."
###
Further information:
This research has been conducted by the NanoBio Spectroscopy Group (ETSF-Centre for Scientific Development, Department of Materials Physics, Faculty of Chemistry of the UPV/EHU), led by Prof ngel Rubio, in collaboration with Dr Ludger Wirtz (University of Luxembourg), Dr Claudi Attaccalite (University of Grenoble) and Dr Andrea Marini (CNR Italian Research Council - Rome), who are three veteran researchers in the group.
ngel Rubio is professor of Materials Physics of the UPV/EHU, head of the NanoBio Spectroscopy Group and Chairman of the ETSF-European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility of the UPV/EHU, as well as external director of the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society.
[
| 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.
UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country researchers have developed and patented a new source of light emitter based on boron nitride nanotubes and suitable for developing high-efficiency optoelectronic devices
This news release is available in Spanish.
Scientists are usually after defect-free nano-structures. Yet in this case the UPV/EHU researcher Angel Rubio and his collaborators have put the structural defects in boron nitride nanotubes to maximum use. The outcome of his research is a new light-emitting source that can easily be incorporated into current microelectronics technology. The research has also resulted in a patent.
Boron nitride is a promising material in the field of nanotechnology, thanks to its excellent insulating properties, resistance and two-dimensional structure similar to graphene. And specifically, the properties of hexagonal boron nitride, the focus of this research, are far superior to those of other metals and semiconductors currently being used as light emitters, for example, in applications linked to optical storage (DVD) or communications. "It is extremely efficient in ultraviolet light emission, one of the best currently available on the market," remarked the UPV/EHU researcher Angel Rubio.
However, the light emission of boron nitride nanotubes takes place within a very limited range of the ultraviolet spectrum, which means they cannot be used in applications in which the emission needs to be produced within a broader range of frequencies and in a controlled way (for example in applications using visible light).
The research carried out by the UPV/EHU's NanoBio Spectroscopy Group has come up with a solution to overcome this limitation, and open up the door to the use of hexagonal boron nitride nanotubes in commercial applications.
They have shown that by applying an electric field perpendicular to the nanotube, it is possible to get the latter to emit light across the whole spectrum from the infrared to the far ultraviolet and to control it in a simple way. This ease of control is only to be found in nanotubes due to their cylindrical geometry (these are tubular structures with lengths in the order of micrometres, and diameters in the order of nanometres).
Rubio has been working with boron nitride nanotubes for nearly 20 years. "We proposed them theoretically, and then they were found experimentally. So far, all our theoretical predictions have been confirmed, and that is very gratifying," he explained. Once the properties of layered hexagonal boron nitride and its extremely high efficiency in light emission were known, this research sought to show that these properties are not lost in nanotubes. "We knew that when a sheet was rolled up and a tube was formed, a strong coupling was produced with the electric field and that would enable us to change the light emission. We wanted to show," and they did in fact show, "that light emission efficiency was not being lost due to the fact that the nanotube was formed, and that it is also controllable."
Boron absences
The device functions on the basis of the use of natural (or induced) defects in boron nitride nanotubes. In particular, the defects enabling controlled emission are the gaps that appear in the wall of the nanotube due to the absence of a boron atom, which is the most common defect in its manufacture. "All nanotubes are very similar, but the fact that you have these defects makes the system operational and efficient, and what is more, the more defects you have, the better it functions."
Rubio highlighted "the simplicity" of the device proposed. "It's a device that functions with defects, it does not have to be pure, and it's very easy to build and control." Nanotubes can be synthesised using standard methods in the scientific community for producing inorganic nanotubes; the structures synthesised as a result have natural defects, and it is possible to incorporate more if you want by means of simple, post-synthesis irradiation processes. "It has a traditional transistor configuration, and what we are proposing would work with current electronic devices," he stressed. The "less attractive" part, as specified by Rubio, is that boron nitride nanotubes are still only produced in very small quantities, and as yet there is no economically viable synthesis process on a commercial scale.
Beyond graphene
Rubio is in no doubt about the potential of the new materials based on two-dimensional systems, and specifically, of compounds that offer an alternative to graphene, like, for example, hexagonal boron nitride. Without prejudice to graphene, Rubio believes that the alternative field could have greater potential in the long term and needs to be explored: "It's a field that has been active for over the last fifteen years, even though it has been less visible. We have been working with hexagonal boron nitride since 1994, it's like our child, and I believe that it has opened up an attractive field of research, which more and more groups are joining."
###
Further information:
This research has been conducted by the NanoBio Spectroscopy Group (ETSF-Centre for Scientific Development, Department of Materials Physics, Faculty of Chemistry of the UPV/EHU), led by Prof ngel Rubio, in collaboration with Dr Ludger Wirtz (University of Luxembourg), Dr Claudi Attaccalite (University of Grenoble) and Dr Andrea Marini (CNR Italian Research Council - Rome), who are three veteran researchers in the group.
ngel Rubio is professor of Materials Physics of the UPV/EHU, head of the NanoBio Spectroscopy Group and Chairman of the ETSF-European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility of the UPV/EHU, as well as external director of the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society.
[
| 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.
Women working in Head Start programs report poor physical and mental health
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
31-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Preston M. Moretz pmoretz@temple.edu 215-204-4380 Temple University
Women working in Head Start, the nation's largest federally funded early childhood education program which serves nearly one million low-income children, report higher than expected levels of physical and mental health problems, according to researchers at Temple University. Their findings are reported in the first-ever survey conducted on the health of Head Start staff.
In a paper published October 31 in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease, the Temple researchers, led by Robert Whitaker, professor of public health and pediatrics, reported that:
Six physical health conditionsobesity, asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes or prediabetes, severe headache or migraine, and lower back painwere each between 19-35 percent more common in Head Start staff than in the comparable U.S. population;
24 percent of the staff suffered from significant depressive symptomsenough to be diagnosed with depression;
28 percent reported that their physical or mental health was "not good" on half or more of the 30 days prior to the survey;
15 percent rated their overall health as either "fair or poor;" and
9 percent were absent from work 10 or more days in the last year due to illness.
The work of Head Start staff can be very emotionally demanding as they help children and families living in poverty who face multiple social risks, noted the researchers. Staff members also work for low pay, with teachers' salaries well below those of public school kindergarten teachers. One teacher who participated in the survey summarized her situation by writing, "My job is why I'm stressed all the time and my personal health suffers. I chose a demanding job, but the pay is bare minimum and isn't enough to get by."
The Temple researchers conducted an anonymous, online survey of staff working in 66 Pennsylvania Head Start programs. Of those who participated in the survey, the researchers focused on 2,122 female respondents, which included managers and classroom teachers of three and four year olds, as well as those making home visits to families of infants and toddlers participating in Early Head Start. The survey results were compared with previous national health surveys involving a large number of women whose social and demographic characteristics matched those in the Head Start survey.
"In the 50 years that the Head Start program has been in existence, many studies have reported on the health of the children and families," said Whitaker. "However, no study has ever examined the health of the staff, which is the group on which the program relies to achieve its goals. The staff must be well to do well by the children and their families."
The researchers noted several potential approaches to address the health of the staff, including:
Making staff wellness part of professional development activities;
Using available Head Start mental health resources for families and children to also address the mental health needs of the staff;
Adopting mindfulness-based stress-reduction techniques, now used in other emotionally demanding occupations like health care, to prevent and treat psychological distress in the staff;
Changing the workplace culture to increase co-worker support and monitor and adjust the demands placed on the staff;
Incorporating more movement into activities that are designed to promote children's cognitive and social development; and
Improving the quality of food served to staff and children.
"Those working in Head Start have been entrusted with the development and education of some of the nation's most vulnerable and disadvantaged children," said Whitaker. "The adults providing these services deserve a compassionate response to their health problems, which may be due in part to the stressful nature of their important jobs. Addressing the health of the staff may improve outcomes for children in Head Start."
###
The survey was a collaboration between Temple University's Department of Public Health and its Institute for Survey Research.
NOTE: Copies of this study are available to working journalists and may be obtained by contacting Preston M. Moretz in Temple's Office of University Communications at 215/204-4380 or pmoretz@temple.edu.
[
| 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.
Women working in Head Start programs report poor physical and mental health
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
31-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Preston M. Moretz pmoretz@temple.edu 215-204-4380 Temple University
Women working in Head Start, the nation's largest federally funded early childhood education program which serves nearly one million low-income children, report higher than expected levels of physical and mental health problems, according to researchers at Temple University. Their findings are reported in the first-ever survey conducted on the health of Head Start staff.
In a paper published October 31 in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease, the Temple researchers, led by Robert Whitaker, professor of public health and pediatrics, reported that:
Six physical health conditionsobesity, asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes or prediabetes, severe headache or migraine, and lower back painwere each between 19-35 percent more common in Head Start staff than in the comparable U.S. population;
24 percent of the staff suffered from significant depressive symptomsenough to be diagnosed with depression;
28 percent reported that their physical or mental health was "not good" on half or more of the 30 days prior to the survey;
15 percent rated their overall health as either "fair or poor;" and
9 percent were absent from work 10 or more days in the last year due to illness.
The work of Head Start staff can be very emotionally demanding as they help children and families living in poverty who face multiple social risks, noted the researchers. Staff members also work for low pay, with teachers' salaries well below those of public school kindergarten teachers. One teacher who participated in the survey summarized her situation by writing, "My job is why I'm stressed all the time and my personal health suffers. I chose a demanding job, but the pay is bare minimum and isn't enough to get by."
The Temple researchers conducted an anonymous, online survey of staff working in 66 Pennsylvania Head Start programs. Of those who participated in the survey, the researchers focused on 2,122 female respondents, which included managers and classroom teachers of three and four year olds, as well as those making home visits to families of infants and toddlers participating in Early Head Start. The survey results were compared with previous national health surveys involving a large number of women whose social and demographic characteristics matched those in the Head Start survey.
"In the 50 years that the Head Start program has been in existence, many studies have reported on the health of the children and families," said Whitaker. "However, no study has ever examined the health of the staff, which is the group on which the program relies to achieve its goals. The staff must be well to do well by the children and their families."
The researchers noted several potential approaches to address the health of the staff, including:
Making staff wellness part of professional development activities;
Using available Head Start mental health resources for families and children to also address the mental health needs of the staff;
Adopting mindfulness-based stress-reduction techniques, now used in other emotionally demanding occupations like health care, to prevent and treat psychological distress in the staff;
Changing the workplace culture to increase co-worker support and monitor and adjust the demands placed on the staff;
Incorporating more movement into activities that are designed to promote children's cognitive and social development; and
Improving the quality of food served to staff and children.
"Those working in Head Start have been entrusted with the development and education of some of the nation's most vulnerable and disadvantaged children," said Whitaker. "The adults providing these services deserve a compassionate response to their health problems, which may be due in part to the stressful nature of their important jobs. Addressing the health of the staff may improve outcomes for children in Head Start."
###
The survey was a collaboration between Temple University's Department of Public Health and its Institute for Survey Research.
NOTE: Copies of this study are available to working journalists and may be obtained by contacting Preston M. Moretz in Temple's Office of University Communications at 215/204-4380 or pmoretz@temple.edu.
[
| 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.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans blocked President Barack Obama's nominees to lead an influential federal court and a housing agency on Thursday, despite Democratic warnings of a return to last summer's partisan brawl over who wields power in the Senate.
In rapid succession, Democrats failed to overcome GOP delaying tactics against Patricia Millett to join the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Rep. Melvin Watt to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
The votes were 55-38 to free Millett's nomination for final passage and 56-42 for Watt's, but both fell short of the 60 votes needed to break the Republican procedural blockade.
The Millett nomination was the flashpoint because the D.C. circuit court rules on federal agency and White House actions, and Millett's confirmation would have given that court's judges a 5-4 tilt toward those chosen by Democratic presidents. Appointments to that court, which currently has three vacant judgeships, are lifetime positions.
Republicans argued that the D.C. court's workload was lighter than other districts and didn't merit an additional judge. They also said Democrats want to turn that court, considered second in power only to the Supreme Court, into a rubber stamp for Obama administration policies.
"This is the court that can rule for or against the executive orders of this administration," said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. "We need to maintain checks and balances of the government."
Democrats say caseload totals for the D.C. circuit are close to its 10-year average. They also say that when Republicans held the White House, they voted to fill the D.C. court's ninth seat with John Roberts, now the chief justice of the U.S.
They also said GOP opposition to Millett is based strictly on politics and warned they might use their 55-45 Senate majority to weaken the Senate minority party's powers to block nominations. Such a move would infuriate Republicans and might prompt retaliatory GOP procedural moves that could grind the Senate's work to a crawl.
"If Republican senators are going to hold nominations hostage without consideration of individual merit, we will have drastic measures," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
Some senior Democrats have been reluctant to limit minority party power in the Senate, saying it would hurt them whenever the GOP gains the majority. But many younger Democratic senators have been eager to streamline Senate rules.
"The conversation on rules changes can't come fast enough for me," Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said after Thursday's votes. He called the GOP procedural hurdles "a government shutdown by another tactic."
Last July, Democrats abandoned a threat to change Senate rules after Republicans agreed to supply enough votes for approval of several Obama nominations. Those included his choices to head the Environmental Protection Agency and the Labor Department.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., indicated early Thursday that Democrats might not act immediately, saying, "I appreciate" a suggestion by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that the two parties talk about the next steps.
"Always willing to do that," Reid said.
After the votes, Reid said the Millett vote was "hard to comprehend." Asked about the next steps, he said, "Time will only tell."
Reid switched his vote to "no" on the roll calls for both Millett and Watt, a procedural move that gives him the right to force fresh votes on both nominees.
Initially, Millett's nomination seemed to have a potential for a revival. She could get to 60 Senate votes when Reid switches back to "yes;" with certain support from Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who did not vote; and with the backing of all three senators who voted "present" Thursday: Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.
Millett was an assistant solicitor general, representing the administration before the Supreme Court, under both Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. She has argued 32 cases before the highest court.
Obama has also nominated attorney Cornelia "Nina" Pillard and U.S. District Judge Robert Wilkins to bring the court to its full strength of 11 judges, nominations that have yet to reach the full Senate.
Republicans are backing a bill by Grassley and others to eliminate one of the D.C. court's 11 judgeships and transfer two others to districts with heavier workloads.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency oversees government-owned mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Watt, D-N.C., is a 21-year House veteran who has served his entire tenure on the House Financial Services Committee. At the housing agency, he would succeed acting director Edward DeMarco, a George W. Bush appointee criticized by Democrats for not letting Fannie and Freddie reduce principal costs for homeowners risking foreclosure.
Democrats have praised Watt for having a pro-consumer record, including opposing risky Wall Street behavior that helped produce the 2008 financial industry collapse. He's won support from the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders.
Republicans said Watt was short on technical expertise needed to oversee Fannie and Freddie and said he lacked political independence.
He also faced opposition from the influential conservative groups Heritage Action for America and the Club for Growth. They warned Republicans that their votes on Watt would be counted in their ratings of 2014 candidates.
___
Associated Press writer Henry C. Jackson contributed to this report.
Andy Coulson arrives at The Old Bailey law court in London, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Former News of the World national newspaper editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson went on trial Monday, along with several others, on charges relating to the hacking of phones and bribing officials while they were employed at the now closed tabloid paper. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Andy Coulson arrives at The Old Bailey law court in London, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Former News of the World national newspaper editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson went on trial Monday, along with several others, on charges relating to the hacking of phones and bribing officials while they were employed at the now closed tabloid paper. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Rebekah Brooks and her husband Charlie Brooks arrive at The Old Bailey law court in London, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Former News of the World national newspaper editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson went on trial Monday, along with several others, on charges relating to the hacking of phones and bribing officials while they were employed at the now closed tabloid paper. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Former News of The World news editor Ian Edmondson arrives at The Old Bailey law court in London, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Former News of the World national newspaper editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson went on trial Monday, along with several others, on charges relating to the hacking of phones and bribing officials while they were employed at the now closed tabloid paper. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Former Royal Editor Clive Goodman arrives at The Old Bailey law court in London, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Former News of the World national newspaper editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson went on trial Monday, along with several others, on charges relating to the hacking of phones and bribing officials while they were employed at the now closed tabloid paper. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Andy Coulson arrives at The Old Bailey law court in London, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Former News of the World national newspaper editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson went on trial Monday, along with several others, on charges relating to the hacking of phones and bribing officials while they were employed at the now closed tabloid paper. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
LONDON (AP) — In a blockbuster declaration at Britain's phone hacking trial, a prosecutor said two of Rupert Murdoch's former senior tabloid executives — Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, later a top aide to Prime Minister David Cameron — had an affair lasting at least six years.
Prosecutor Andrew Edis made the disclosure Thursday during Coulson's and Brooks' trial on phone hacking and other charges, the first major criminal case to go to court in the hacking saga that has shaken Britain's political, judicial and media elite.
Brooks, Coulson and six other people are now on trial, including Brooks' current husband Charles. All deny the various charges against them, which range from phone hacking to bribing officials for scoops to obstructing police investigations.
Edis said the relationship between Brooks and Coulson was relevant to the hacking case because it showed they trusted one another and shared intimate information.
"Throughout the relevant period, what Mr. Coulson knew Mrs. Brooks knew, and what Mrs. Brooks knew Mr. Coulson knew," Edis said.
Edis said the affair began in 1998 and lasted about six years. If his timeline is correct, the affair ended before Coulson became Cameron's top communications director, which began after Cameron's election in 2010. Coulson started working for Cameron in 2007, when Cameron became leader of Britain's Conservative opposition party.
The affair covered the period when Brooks was the top editor of Murdoch's News of the World tabloid and Coulson was her deputy. Brooks edited the paper from 2000 to 2003, then went on to edit its sister paper, The Sun, and later became the chief executive of Murdoch's British newspaper division. Coulson edited the News of the World from 2003 to 2007.
The affair covered the crucial period in 2002 when the News of the World hacked the phone of murdered teenager Milly Dowler. Brooks has long denied knowing about that hacking. When the Dowler hacking case became public in 2011, the outrage in Britain was so great that Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old paper.
Edis said a February 2004 letter from Brooks showed there was "absolute confidence between the two of them in relation to all the problems at their work." He said the letter appeared to have been written by Brooks in response to Coulson's attempt to end the relationship.
"You are my very best friend. I tell you everything. I confide in you, I seek your advice," Brooks wrote, according to Edis. "Without our relationship in my life I am really not sure I will cope."
Edis said the affair was uncovered when police searched a computer found at Brooks' home in 2011 as part of the hacking investigation.
It's not clear whether the letter was ever sent.
Brooks married soap-opera star Ross Kemp in 2002. They later divorced and she married horse trainer Charles Brooks in 2009.
In his opening arguments Thursday, Edis said News of the World journalists, with consent from the tabloid's top editors, colluded to hack the phones of politicians, royalty, celebrities and even rival reporters in a "frenzy" to get scoops.
He said the "dog-eat-dog" environment led to routine lawbreaking that was sanctioned by those in charge of the Murdoch-owned tabloid: editors Rebekah Brooks and Coulson.
Jurors were shown email exchanges involving private investigator Glenn Mulcaire and News of the World news editor Ian Edmondson — one of the defendants — detailing the 2006 hacking of former government minister Tessa Jowell, royal family member Frederick Windsor and one-time Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who was the subject of a major kiss-and-tell story from a mistress.
Mulcaire also hacked the phones of two journalists at the rival Mail on Sunday tabloid who were working on their own story about the Prescott affair, the prosecutor said.
"In the frenzy to get the huge story ... that's what you do," Edis said.
Edis also played a recording of Mulcaire "blagging" — seeking information about a voicemail password from a service provider using a false name. He said Mulcaire — an "accomplished" blagger and hacker — made the recording himself, and also recorded some of the voicemails he hacked.
The prosecutor said the emails, the recordings and pages from Mulcaire's notebooks provided "very clear evidence" of hacking so widespread that senior editors must have known about it.
Edis said Mulcaire was paid almost 100,000 pounds a year under a contract that started in 2001 and ended when he was arrested in 2006 for hacking the phones of royal aides. He and the tabloid's royal editor Clive Goodman were briefly jailed and for years, Murdoch's media company maintained that hacking had been limited only to that pair.
That claim was demolished when the Dowler case became public in 2011. Murdoch's company has since paid millions in compensation to scores of people whose phones were hacked.
Rebekah Brooks, Coulson, Edmondson and former managing editor Stuart Kuttner all deny charges of phone hacking. The trial is expected to last roughly six months.
Mulcaire has pleaded guilty, along with three former News of the World news editors.
Edis said there are few records of what Mulcaire was paid to do by the newspaper, but that senior editors must have known of his illicit activity.
"The question is, did nobody ever ask, 'What are we paying this chap for?'" he said. "Somebody must have decided that what he was doing was worth an awful lot of money. Who was that?"
He said Rebekah Brooks, who edited the News of the World when Mulcaire was put on retainer "was actively involved in financial management" and sent editors stern emails about keeping costs down.
Under Coulson, who succeeded her as editor, Mulcaire's fee was increased to 2,019 pounds a week.
Edis said there was no evidence that Mulcaire's fees were ever questioned.
"You would question it — unless you knew all about it," Edis said.
___
Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Share