Companies Inch Closer to NASA Contracts for Manned Spaceflight

Three American companies continue their relentless slog forward to develop a spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to the International Space Station. And this week, NASA awarded contracts focused on working toward certification as part of its goal to once again have the capability to launch astronauts from the U.S. into low earth orbit.

The latest contracts for Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and SpaceX aim to certify the spacecraft to meet the agency’s safety requirements. All three companies have received previous funding under the Commercial Crew Program (CCP), and according to Phil McAlister, the director of NASA’s Commercial Spaceflight Development Division, the contracts are another step in ending NASA’s reliance on the Russian space program for transporting crews to the ISS.

“NASA and its industry partners are committed to the goal of safely and cost-effectively launching astronauts from home within the next five years,” McAlister said in a statement.

A few of the main safety challenges the companies are facing include launch abort capabilities and creating a spacecraft that can serve as a “safe haven” for the astronauts on board for at least 24 hours. The spacecraft will also have to be able to stay docked to the ISS for at least 210 days.

Both Boeing and SpaceX are developing a more traditional capsule spacecraft design, while Sierra Nevada is developing a lifting body vehicle more comparable to traditional shuttle orbiters.

This latest phase of the CCP will begin in January and continue through mid-2014. All aspects of the space flight are included in the process, ranging from the minutiae of craft itself to mission operations. The open competition will begin in mid-2014 and will include the testing and verifications needed for crewed demonstration flights to the ISS.

Earlier this summer NASA awarded more than $1 billion in funding for the development of the three space-launch systems.

With the demise of the space shuttle and the beginning of the NASA’s invitation for commercially operated services to develop new spacecrafts, the U.S. program has become, well, a bit confusing. And NASA’s love of acronyms has made the programs about as clear as alphabet soup. Both the manned and cargo missions are managed by NASA’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office. And yes, they call it C3PO.

The manned commercial program had seven participants as of last year and has used acronyms including CCP, CCDev2 and CCiCap. That number has now been narrowed down to the three partners participating in these final phases. Though a few companies, including Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, continue to work on their orbital spacecraft designs.

NASA has also awarded commercial contracts for hauling cargo to the ISS. These contracts are separate from the manned program being developed, and use the acronyms COTS and CRS. SpaceX, with its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecrafts, is the only company participating in both the manned and cargo contracts. SpaceX made its first official cargo delivery to the ISS in October, though it was the second time the company had been to the station after a demonstration flight in the spring. Orbital Sciences is the other company awarded a cargo contract and is expected to begin its demonstration flights early next year.

In addition to the two commercial programs NASA will be using to fly people and cargo the ISS, it’s also developing a new manned space program for trips beyond low earth orbit. The Space Launch System will boost the Orion spacecraft for exploration trips to deeper space, and NASA claims the moon and an asteroid are both on the list of destinations for an Orion crew.

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“Lincoln” leads Golden Globe movie nominations

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “Lincoln,” the tale of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln‘s battle to end slavery, ruled at the Golden Globe nominations on Thursday, while a very different movie take on slavery – “Django Unchained” – got a big boost in Hollywood’s crowded awards season.

Steven Spielberg’s portrayal of one of America’s most revered presidents won a leading seven nominations, including best drama, best director, best screenplay and best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role.

But “Lincoln” faces stiff competition at the Golden Globes from Ben Affleck’s Iran hostage drama “Argo” and Quentin Tarantino‘s dark and quirky slavery-era Western, “Django Unchained.”

The best drama nominees were rounded out by thriller “Zero Dark Thirty” about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, with four mentions, and the shipwreck tale, “Life of Pi,” with three.

The Golden Globe Awards, which will be given out by about 80 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) on January 13, are among the most widely watched honors programs leading up to the Oscars in February, although their ultimate choices for best movie rarely coincide.

‘LINCOLN’ SEEN AS OSCAR FRONTRUNNER

“Lincoln” is already regarded as an Oscar frontrunner after picking up multiple accolades from U.S. critics’ groups and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).

Producer Kathleen Kennedy said the film’s portrayal of Lincoln’s battles in Congress to get slavery abolished had struck a chord with Americans at a time of political gridlock in Washington.

“People have become frustrated with the political process, and the movie takes you on a journey that shows the democratic process is difficult but the end result is a very satisfying process…I think that’s what people are excited about after watching ‘Lincoln,’” Kennedy told Reuters on Thursday.

Tarantino’s violent and sometimes comic “Django Unchained,” starring Jamie Foxx, has fared less well – until now.

“This was a huge boost. ‘Django Unchained‘ was very much SAG snubbed. But now they are really back in the game,” Thelma Adams, contributing editor at Yahoo! Movies, told Reuters.

“It’s very gratifying to get this many nominations from the HFPA for a film I worked so hard on and am so passionate about,” Tarantino said in a statement.

Unlike the Academy Awards, the HFPA has separate categories for film dramas and comedies.

“Les Miserables,” the movie version of the worldwide hit stage musical, earned four Golden Globe nominations in the comedy/musical category, as did “Silver Linings Playbook,” about an unlikely romance between a man suffering from bipolar disorder and a young widow.

The stars of both films – Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway for “Les Miserables,” and Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper for “Silver Linings Playbook,” – will be among those competing for acting awards.

FROM STAGE TO SCREEN

“Les Mis” director, Tom Hooper, who failed to get a nomination for his work on the movie, acknowledged the challenge of translating the beloved musical to the big screen.

“Millions of people hold this musical so close to their heart. I had to make a film that honors that experience…and I needed to find a way to work, which is why I chose to do all live singing,” Hooper told Reuters.

The HFPA also opened the door to smaller, sometimes overlooked movies and performances, while largely snubbing high profile contenders such as the James Bond film “Skyfall,” which got just one mention, for Adele’s best original song.

Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom” and admired British senior ensemble film, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” were both nominated in the best musical or comedy category.

“They are precious little films that now have to be taken seriously,” said Tom O’Neil of awards website Goldderby.com.

In the acting race, Jessica Chastain’s CIA agent in “Zero Dark Thirty” will square off against Helen Mirren in “Hitchcock,” British actress Rachel Weisz in period drama, “The Deep Blue Sea,” France’s Marion Cotillard for “Rust and Bone,” and Naomi Watts in tsunami survival tale “The Impossible.”

Chastain said that aside from being a true-life thriller, “Zero Dark Thirty” also aimed at asking questions about society.

“To be involved in a movie that does that – the 9/11 hunt for Osama bin Laden pretty much defined this decade for us – and to be playing the woman who sacrificed so much to find him is such an honor,” the actress told Reuters.

Day-Lewis’s performance as Lincoln will compete against Denzel Washington’s alcoholic airline pilot in “Flight,” Richard Gere’s role as a corrupt financial executive in “Arbitrage,” John Hawkes as a severely disabled man in “The Sessions,” and Joaquin Phoenix’s drifter in the cult tale, “The Master.”

The Golden Globes also honor the year’s best TV shows. “Game Change,” the HBO film about Sarah Palin’s 2008 bid to become U.S. vice-president, led the nominations with five, followed by post-9/11 psychological thriller, “Homeland,” with four.

(Additional reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy and Eric Kelsey; Editing by Paul Simao and David Brunnstrom)

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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World’s Population Living Longer, New Report Suggests

A sharp decline in deaths from malnutrition and diseases like measles and tuberculosis has caused a shift in global mortality patterns over the past 20 years, according to a new report, with far more of the world’s population now living into old age and dying from diseases more associated with rich countries, like cancer and heart disease.

The shift reflects improvements in sanitation, medical services and access to food throughout the developing world, as well as the success of broad public health efforts like vaccine programs. The results are dramatic: infant mortality has declined by more than half between 1990 and 2010, and malnutrition, the No. 1 risk factor for death and years of life lost in 1990, has fallen to No. 8.

At the same time, chronic diseases like cancer now account for about two out of every three deaths worldwide, up from just over half in 1990. Eight million people died of cancer in 2010, 38 percent more than in 1990. Diabetes claimed 1.3 million lives in 2010, double the number in 1990.

But while developing countries made big strides – the average age of death in Brazil and Paraguay, for example, jumped to 63 in 2010, up from 28 in 1970 – the United States stagnated. American women registered the smallest gains in life expectancy of all high-income countries between 1990 and 2010. The two years of life they gained was less than in Cyprus, where women gained 2.3 years of life and Canada, where women gained 2.4 years. The slow increase caused American women to fall to 36th place in the report’s global ranking of life expectancy, down from 22nd in 1990.

“It’s alarming just how little progress there has been for women in the United States,” said Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a health research organizationfinanced by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation at the University of Washington that coordinated the report. Rising rates of obesity among American women and the legacy of smoking, a habit women in this country formed later than men, are among the factors contributing to the stagnation, he said.

The World Health Organization issued a statement Thursday saying that some of the estimates in the report differ substantially from those done by United Nations agencies, though others are similar. All comprehensive estimates of global mortality rely heavily on statistical modeling because only 34 countries – representing about 15 percent of the world’s population – produce quality cause-of-death data.

Health experts from more than 300 institutions contributed to the report, which measured disease and mortality for populations in more than 180 countries. It was published Thursday in the Lancet, a British health publication.

The one exception to the trend was sub-Saharan Africa, where infectious diseases, childhood illnesses and maternal causes of death still account for about 70 percent of all illness. In contrast, they account for just one-third in South Asia, and less than a fifth in all other regions. Sub-Saharan Africa also lagged in mortality gains, with the average age of death there rising by fewer than 10 years from 1970 to 2010, compared to a more than 25-year increase in Latin America, Asia and North Africa.

The change means that people are living longer, an outcome that public health experts praised. But it also raises troubling questions. Behavior affects people’s risks of developing noncommunicable diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes, and public health experts say it is far harder to get people to change their ways than to administer a vaccine that protects children from an infectious disease like measles.

“Adult mortality is a much harder task for the public health systems in the world,” said Colin Mathers, a senior scientist at the World Health Organization in Geneva. “It’s not something that medical services can address as easily.”

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Oregon shooter ID'd; he wielded AR-15, sparking chaos -- but why?

The gunman who killed two people and himself in a shooting rampage at an Oregon mall was 22 years old and used a stolen rifle

By Michael Muskal and Andrew Khouri

December 12, 2012, 11:07 a.m.

A young masked man, bent on a mission of destruction and death, entered an Oregon mall and opened fire, turning the holiday shopping season into a chaotic horror that could have been much worse, police officials said Wednesday.

Police identified the shooter as Jacob Tyler Roberts, 22, who killed two people and seriously wounded a third before turning a weapon on himself and ending his life Tuesday afternoon, officials said.

The man entered the Clackamas Town Center, a popular suburban mall several miles from downtown Portland, on Tuesday afternoon. He was wearing a hockey-style mask and a protective vest and began firing with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, stolen from someone the suspect knew, police said. There were also several magazines of ammunition.

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PHOTOS: Deadly shooting at Oregon mall

Police said it was unclear how many shots were fired, but there were estimates of between 10 to 20 shots before Roberts turned the weapon on himself.

Police were still searching for a motive but have ruled out the idea that the shooter was specifically targeting anyone.

“We do not understand the motive of this attack,” Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts said at a televised news conference. “There is no apparent relationship between suspect and victims.”

People at the mall helped push shoppers out of the building, according to a variety of videos shot on cellphones by some of the shoppers fleeing. Shoppers, including two emergency room nurses and one physician who happened to be at the mall, provided medical assistance to victims who had been shot, Roberts said.

He praised the 10,000 shoppers “who kept a level head, got themselves out of the mall, got others out. There are a number of heroes,” Roberts told reporters. “There is a whole group of people coming together to make a difference.”

While saying that the deaths and injuries were tragedies, Roberts noted: “We all need to be very thankful that this incident was not much worse.”

It was a typical shopping day some two weeks before Christmas as more than 10,000 people crowded through the stores at the mall with more than 1.4 million square feet of commercial space. It was 3:29 p.m. when the first call went to 911, police said.

TIMELINE: Deadliest U.S. mass shootings

“For all of us, the mall is supposed to be a place where we can take our families, especially during the holiday season,” Roberts said earlier on televised interviews. “Things like this are not supposed to happen.”

Witnesses told reporters of seeing a masked man carrying a long gun through the Macy’s toward the mall’s food court. Austin Patty, 20, who works at Macy's, told the Associated Press. There was a series of rapid-fire shots in short succession as Christmas music played, he said. Patty said he dove for the floor and then later fled.

The mall’s Santa, Brance Wilson, told reporters he was waiting for the next child to ask for Christmas presents when he heard shots ring out and the mall erupted into chaos.

“I heard two shots and got out of the chair. I thought a red suit was a pretty good target,” said Wilson, 68.

Families waiting for Santa scattered. More shots followed, and Wilson said he sought better cover.

Witnesses said they heard the gunman yell, “I am the shooter.”

More than 100 law enforcement officers responded to the scene, and at least four local agencies were working on the investigation, including the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is working to trace the shooter's weapon.

At his news conference, the sheriff said the rapid and large turnout helped keep the body count low by limiting the shooter’s ability to move around.

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Eric Schmidt Says Google Fiber Won't Stop With Kansas City

Kansas City is just the first stop for Google’s ultra-fast Google Fiber broadband network, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said today.

Speaking at The New York Times‘ Dealbook Conference on Wednesday, Schmidt corrected himself after initially referring to the first, and thus far only, Google Fiber network as an experiment.

“It’s actually not an experiment; we’re actually running it as a business,” Schmidt said. He described the influx of bandwidth hungry startups to the parts of Kansas City where the fiber has been laid and hinted at expansion of the service to “hopefully more cities.”

Sadly, Schmidt dodged the all-important question of where. “We’re trying to decide now,” he said.

There will be no lack of places dying to get the service, especially after Netflix just designated Google Fiber the “most consistently fast ISP in America.” The average speed in November of Netflix streaming over Google Fiber was 2.55 megabits per second. Second place was Verizon’s own fiber network at 2.19 megabits per second.

Still, just calling Google Fiber a business doesn’t mean it will be a viable one.

A recent report from Goldman Sachs highlighted by Business Insiderestimated that bringing the service to 50 million homes, or less than half of all U.S. homes, could cost as much as $70 billion. In its most recent quarter, Google had about $45 billion in cash on hand. In other words, Google would need to borrow money to embark on a massive fiber build out.

Is that really the business Google wants to be in? Not likely, at least not at that expense and scale. Google’s bread-and-butter is still its online advertising business, and its nascent content business. But if it turns out Google Fiber helps Google sell more (and more valuable) ads and content, that gives Schmidt’s comments a bit more weight. Google can justify funding a modest expansion of Google Fiber. Will it blanket the nation? Probably not. But just ask those happy Kansas City web heads; there’s always the chance your neighborhood could get lucky.

Michael V. Copeland is a senior editor at WIRED, where he focuses on all things related to the business of technology, but especially making sense of data analytics, where social is going next, and the collision between computer science and biological science. Prior to WIRED he was a senior writer at Fortune Magazine covering everything from electric cars to genomics and the latest in jet-powered surfboards.

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Follow @MVC on Twitter.

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Why Netflix’s future is in “House of Cards,” “Arrested Development” – not Disney

LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Netflix hailed as a “game-changer” its landmark deal last week to bring Disney movies to the streaming service. But while that deal may be significant, it pales in importance next to another looming development – the February debut of its original series “House of Cards.”

The economic benefits of the Disney deal, which gives the company streaming rights to much of Disney‘s catalog and straight-to-DVD movies as well as the exclusive rights to the studio’s new movies from 2016 to 2018, won’t be felt for years.

But the rollout of new, made-for-Netflix shows, which moves the company into a game owned by broadcast and cable – and follows a model set by everyone from HBO to AMC – will be a near-term bellwether of the company’s future success, analysts and observers say.

“You don’t identify a movie you watch on TV with a channel, but you definitely identify an original series with a channel,” Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, told TheWrap. “What Netflix is doing with its original series is getting something exclusive that makes you have to go to Netflix if you want to see it. It’s branding.”

They include the long-awaited rebirth of cult favorite “Arrested Development” and original pieces like Eli Roth’s “Hemlock Grove,” Jenji Kohan’s “Orange Is the New Black” and “House of Cards,” from director David Fincher and starring Kevin Spacey.

Like “Lilyhammer,” all episodes of the shows’ first seasons will be released at once, allowing for binge viewing by Netflix subscribers.

The Disney deal is momentous in that it marks the first time a digital pay-TV distributor has earned exclusive rights to a major studio’s new releases. Both analysts and studio executives say Netflix will pay more than $ 300 million a year for those rights, a startling sum for a company that has minimized the importance of films. Netflix has declined to discuss any figures.

Some analysts argue the Disney deal is a positive development, but one that will not move the needle when it comes to attracting new members.

“Netflix customers will like it when Disney movies show up, but not many people will want to sign up for Netflix because they have 15 new movies a year I want to see,” Pachter said.

That’s why Netflix bankrolled “Arrested Development,” a show canceled by Fox in 2006 that still has a small but loyal audience, one that will assuredly watch the new season on Netflix. That’s also why it has invested in so many new shows from established artists like Kohan, who created “Weeds,” and Roth, a successful horror filmmaker.

While the company’s first foray into original programming – Steven Van Zandt’s “Lilyhammer” – didn’t make much of a splash, the new shows debuting next year look far more promising.

It also has committed a reported $ 100 million for two seasons of “House of Cards,” as well as offering complete creative freedom to Fincher and his team.

The money the streaming service spends on its own shows is a pittance compared to what it shells out in licensing deals, but that original content will distinguish Netflix from competitors in broadcast, like HBO, and in digital, like Amazon.

“Everybody is trying to get their brand to the top of people’s minds, and sometimes that requires a substantial expenditure and doing something different, like original production,” Bill Carroll, vice president and director of programming at Katz Television Group, told TheWrap.

More than any of its competitors in the streaming-video market, Netflix is attempting to transform itself into a digitized form of HBO, which began by airing studio movies.

HBO later added lower-cost programming, such as stand-up comedy shows, and eventually original series and films. Showtime, Starz and others soon followed.

Because it is not locked into a schedule, Netflix can host an unlimited amount of programming and owns a wealth of information about its subscribers to tailor its offerings to specific viewers and track their success.

Figuring out just what constitutes a “hit,” however, will be difficult. As it has with previous original shows like “Lilyhammer,” Netflix will not release viewing numbers for its upcoming shows. The company stresses that immediate viewing is less important than developing a loyal following over time.

As for the Disney deal, Netflix already had rights to films from that studio and Sony under an agreement with Starz, which in September 2011 opted not to renew its deal.

“They got something they used to have and had to pay a lot more money for it,” Seth Willenson, a library-valuation expert, producer and former studio executive told TheWrap.

So what changed? Exclusivity.

Disney’s new releases will appear on Netflix during the same window when they would have been showing on an HBO or another pay channel. It also means that new rivals, such as Amazon and Hulu Plus, won’t be getting the latest “Avengers” sequel at the same time – or the upcoming series of new “Star Wars” films.

“The argument is that what they are getting now from Disney will only be on Netflix,” Vasily Karasyov, an analyst with Susquehanna told TheWrap. “What they were getting before was only on Starz. It’s more exclusive. They are trying to do what Starz did in the ’90s and buy up rights and put it on the map.”

At the UBS conference last week in New York, Chief Creative Officer Ted Sarandos teased the possibility of pursuing exclusive deals with more studios as well.

This new attraction to movies represents a change of tune for the Los Altos, Calif.-based company. After all, Netflix has been publicly dismissive in recent months of film’s importance to its service, stressing its viewers’ penchant for binge-watching television shows, like AMC’s “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men.”

About 60 percent of Netflix viewing time is spent on TV, a number that has only grown in recent years. Exclusivity increasingly motivates its decision-making on the TV side as well, which is one reason it allowed its deal with A&E Networks to expire in September, taking shows like “Storage Wars” and “Hoarders” off Netflix.

And nothing is more exclusive than content you fund yourself.

“It wants content unique to its platform,” Karasyov said. “No one says, ‘Come to my website because we have the same stuff everyone else does.’”

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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'Right-to-work' measure passes in Michigan Legislature

Controversial "right-to-work" legislation covering public-sector employees passed the Michigan House of Representatives on Tuesday, bringing it one step closer to being signed into law.

The House passed the bill, 58 to 51, as union opponents of the measure booed inside the Capitol and an estimated 12,000 people rallied outside. The state's Senate approved the bill last week.

The House is now scheduled to vote on a right-to-work bill for private-sector employees, which would cover Michigan's auto industry. If that measure passes, Michigan would become the 24th right-to-work state, meaning unions cannot require members to pay dues as a condition of employment.

Michigan is the fourth state in the Midwest to become embroiled in labor controversy since 2010, when a slate of Republican governors were swept into statehouses across the nation. The speed with which the right-to-work measure are being passed worries some labor experts, who say that it was once unimaginable that Michigan, where 17.5% of the workforce is unionized, would become a right-to-work state.

"Michigan could prove defining," said Harley Shaiken, a labor expert at UC Berkeley. "What happens here, given the role of unions historically in Michigan, and the larger political implications of right-to-work, will mean a lot."

But even as the Rev. Jesse Jackson rallied protesters on the steps of Lansing City Hall, labor leaders were hurriedly seeking ways to reverse the legislation down the road.

Michigan can't go the way of Ohio, where a referendum last year reversed legislation that would have restricted collective bargaining. Michigan's right-to-work legislation is attached to an appropriations bill, meaning it can't be reversed by referendum. Also, it may be too risky to wait and go the way of Wisconsin, where litigation continues after a judge struck down parts of a collective bargaining law.

However, in Michigan, there is an option of a "statutory initiative," which would be permitted if opponents of the bills can collect enough signatures to equal 8% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election, union leaders say. A so-called veto referendum could be triggered by collecting signatures equal to 5% of the votes cast.

A statutory initiative would allow voters to cast a ballot on right-to-work legisation in November 2014, when Gov. Rick Snyder, who has said he would support the legislation, will be up for reelection.

"There are multiple options for a referendum," a senior labor leader said Tuesday. "All options are on the table. This fight is far from over."

It’s unclear whether unions are promoting a referendum now to warn Snyder of the repercussions that signing the legislation would have.

Democrats including Sen. Carl Levin and Rep. John Dingell met with Snyder on Monday to urge him to veto the legislation. The governor promised to "seriously" consider their concerns, but Democrats remained worried that he would sign the bills.

“The governor has a choice: He can put this on the ballot, and let the voters make the determination, or he can jam it through a lame-duck session,” Dingell said Monday.

Snyder, a businessman before he became governor, was elected in 2010 by a landslide, beating his opponent by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. But only 35.5% of respondents said they thought he was doing an "excellent" or "good" job in a Michigan State University survey this fall, and that figure could fall as the controversy continues.

"I think this will pass, and be signed, and there will be a long struggle with the United Auto Workers and other unions,” said Kristin Dziczek, director of the labor and industry group at the Center for Automotive Research. "They’re going to focus their attentions on overturning this. I don’t think the war has even begun."

ALSO:

Obama blasts right-to-work in Michigan

Ohio votes to overturn new collective bargaining law

Protests re-ignite as Michigan right-to-work bill nears final OK

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Watch Live: Asteroid Toutatis Gives Earth a Cosmically Close Shave

Watch live as the 3-mile-wide asteroid 4179 Toutatis zips by the Earth today during a show from the Slooh Space Camera collaboration starting at noon PT (3 p.m. ET).

Toutatis is a well-known asteroid because it makes a flyby of our planet roughly every four years. The passing is often very near, with the object coming within just 10 million miles of Earth — about four times the distance between our planet and the moon — back in 2004. This year’s flyby will be a more ample yet still cosmically close 37 million miles, or about 18 times the Earth-moon distance. Toutatis was first spotted back in 1934 but then considered lost and only officially discovered in 1989.

Because it comes so close to Earth, Toutatis is classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid, though this does not imply that it will hit us. The chances of the object smashing into the planet are effectively zero for the next 600 years, but Toutatis has a somewhat chaotic orbit that makes long-term predictions difficult. The asteroid is about half the size of the one that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. A separate 65-foot asteroid named 2012 XE54, discovered only a few days ago, made a close approach to Earth earlier this morning.

Slooh will be tracking the asteroid from their telescopes in the Canary Islands during the afternoon show. Slooh president Patrick Paolucci will be on hand with Astronomy magazine columnist Bob Berman to discuss the asteroid. The Clay Center Observatory in Brookline, Massachusetts will also be providing a live-streaming high-definition video of Toutatis from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. PT (5 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET).

Video: Slooh Space Camera

Adam is a Wired reporter and freelance journalist. He lives in Oakland, Ca near a lake and enjoys space, physics, and other sciency things.

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FX orders “Tyrant” from “Homeland” producers

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – FX has ordered the Middle Eastern drama pilot “Tyrant” from “Homeland” producers Howard Gordon and Gideon Raff, as well as “Six Feet Under” and “Lost” producer Craig Wright.

The pilot follows an American family drawn into the troubles of a turbulent Middle Eastern nation. The series, written and created by Raff, was developed by Gordon and Wright. The pilot comes from Gordon’s shingle at 20th Century Fox Television, Teakwood Lane.

Gordon, Raff and Wright are executive producers in association with Keshet Broadcasting. If “Tyrant” becomes a series, Wright will serve as showrunner.

“We are thrilled to bring ‘Tyrant’ to FX,” said Nick Grad, FX’s executive vice president of original programming. “The brilliant and wholly original concept just blew us all away. It’s pretty amazing when you read a script and can instantly imagine it becoming one of the best shows on television. We’re grateful to the producers for choosing to bring it to FX and look forward to continuing our partnership with our friends at Fox 21.”

“‘Tyrant’ is exactly the type of project we aim to do at Fox 21 – working with extremely talented writer/creators to create provocative material with big, breakout characters and themes,” said Bert Salke, president of Fox 21. “This script has excited everyone who’s read it and it’s particularly gratifying to be back working with FX, with whom we have had such a successful partnership on the fantastic ‘Sons of Anarchy.’”

Production is tentatively slated to begin in the spring.

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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News Analysis: A Debate on Coated Aspirins and Aspirin Resistance

Millions of Americans take low-dose aspirin every day to prevent heart attacks and strokes. But a study published last week challenges some cherished beliefs about the familiar remedy, leaving some consumers to wonder if they should throw out their coated pills and others concerned that they unnecessarily may be taking expensive substitutes.

The study, published in the journal Circulation, by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, tested 400 healthy people for evidence that aspirin did not work in them, a phenomenon called “aspirin resistance.” Aspirin prevents blood platelets from sticking together, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Previous studies have estimated that anywhere from 5 to 40 percent of the population is resistant to aspirin’s effects.

But the study essentially found that the condition doesn’t exist: they could not document a single case of true aspirin resistance in their sample. What had appeared to be aspirin resistance, they said, actually was caused by the coating commonly used on aspirin pills intended to protect the stomach. The coating slowed the drug’s absorption into the body.

The study didn’t evaluate whether coated aspirin was less likely to prevent heart attacks or strokes, said Dr. Garret FitzGerald, one of the authors. And people who took the coated aspirin in his study eventually showed a response to it.

But people who seek out coated aspirin may be doing so unnecessarily, he said, especially since previous studies have not consistently shown that the coating even prevents gastric problems.

“There’s no rationale for you to be on coated aspirin,” said Dr. FitzGerald, who is a cardiologist and chairman of pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Some cardiologists have begun advising patients to seek out uncoated aspirin because other studies have suggested that the uncoated type may be more effective. But finding it isn’t so easy. Even cheaper store brands, like those sold by CVS and Wal-Mart, come with a so-called enteric coating. One of the few uncoated aspirins on the market is St. Joseph’s chewable variety — the old orange-flavored baby aspirin.

But other experts, like Dr. Steven E. Nissen, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, see no real harm in taking coated aspirin, which is cheap and readily available. Many major studies of aspirin have been conducted using the coated variety.

The new study also calls into question the very idea of aspirin resistance. Testing for the condition became more widespread in the early 2000s, as expensive prescription alternatives like the blood thinner Plavix (also called clopidogrel) gained popularity. Many cardiologists suspected that the timing was not a coincidence.

“Before clopidogrel, we had never heard of aspirin resistance,” said Dr. Sanjay Kaul, a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. “It seemed to be that this was driven mostly by marketing considerations.” The new study raises the possibility that many patients may have been falsely told that aspirin doesn’t work on them, Dr. Kaul and other experts said.

The University of Pennsylvania study was partially financed by Bayer, the world’s largest manufacturer of branded aspirin, much of which is coated. In a statement, Bayer challenged some of the study’s conclusions and methods, and also said there was evidence that the enteric coating can reduce gastric side effects.

Critics of Dr. FitzGerald’s study also argue that he should have studied aspirin resistance in patients with conditions like heart disease, rather than in healthy people.

But even these critics acknowledge that testing for resistance is probably not worthwhile. Dr. Nissen, who is critical of Dr. FitzGerald’s study, doesn’t test his patients for aspirin resistance. But he said he would be reluctant to switch a patient from another drug back to aspirin now if a test had previously shown they were aspirin-resistant. Changing treatments is always risky, he said.

“If the patient is not bleeding, is not having a complication, am I going to take it away?” Dr. Nissen wondered. “That’s the dilemma we face.”

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