Australian ag needs to work with foreign investors - Agriculture ...

AUSTRALIAN agriculture needs to work with foreign businesses in order to drive productivity, according to leading agribusiness experts.

Speaking during a panel session at last week?s Innovation Generation conference in Geelong, managing director of agricultural software business Agrimaster, David Egerton-Warburton said he was mystified by the current portrayal of foreign investment in Australian agriculture as a bad thing.

?I often ask farmers why are they against foreign investment, and no-one gives me a truly good answer.?

Mr Egerton-Warburton said Australian agriculture was suffering from a capital shortage and foreign investment was a logical place to source it.

?The bottom line is that we need a capital investment and foreign investors can provide that capital.?

Catherine Marriott, managing director of Influential Women, also has trouble understanding current attitudes to foreign investment.

?People saying they don?t want China taking over Australia or having a food shortage here are just being na?ve.?

Ms Marriot, who has experience working in the livestock sector in south-east Asia, said judicious arrangements between investors and farmers could have win-win outcomes for both parties - and Mr Egerton-Warburton agreed.

?Foreign investment is the most exciting opportunity in a generation,? he told the audience at the GrainGrowers event, targeted at young agribusiness participants.

?If, for instance, you?re a young farmer and you want to expand your farm, you probably don?t have the capital, but tapping into foreign capital could help you.

?I'd be running out and putting together a portfolio of what you can bring to the table and try and attract investment, show the investors how you can make them money.?

Michelle Jin, executive director of Westwell, a company which imports electronics into Australia and exports Australian agricultural commodities, said foreign investment would always lead to opportunities on the ground in Australia.

?You can?t take the land away, the investors will need to employ professionals and their preference is for people with understanding of the area.?

Mr Egerton-Warburton said foreign investors were happier to invest in agriculture than the mainstream Australian investment community, geared towards regular returns.

?They don?t have the appetite for volatility required when working with agriculture.?

He cautioned those looking to work with foreign investors needed to approach each deal on its merits.

?There are good and bad businesses in China, just the same as here in Australia, so you need to do your research and make sure you?re going to be working with a solid business.?

GrainGrowers chief executive Mark Allison said foreign investors had a different perspective behind their decision making.

?If a local is looking to buy more land it might be for economies of scale and synergies, but for a foreign investment they might see opportunities into an international market, its totally different.

?It can be seen as a threat in terms of added competition for land, but it can also be seen as an opportunity.?

Source: http://www.theland.com.au/news/agriculture/agribusiness/general-news/ag-needs-foreign-cash/2664336.aspx

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Union Berlin 3 - 0 Celtic: Lennon?s men lose again

JUST five days before their first competitive match of the season in the all-important Champions League qualifier against Cliftonville in Belfast, Celtic have not recorded a victory in their pre-season programme.

Scorers: Terodde 12, Brandy 55, Kreilach 87

A 3-0 defeat by German second division side Union Berlin will not go down well with their supporters, but there were at least some encouraging signs that their heroes are becoming more match sharp by the game. Add in the fine displays by youngsters Jackson Irvine, Tom Rogic and Mikey Miller and manager Neil Lennon will not have been too disappointed with the night?s work.

Lennon?s men had not won a match on their pre-season Continental tour before last night. Sevastapol of the Ukraine, Romanian side Cluj and another German second division outfit, Greuther Furth, had all taken the scalp of the Scottish champions, the latter putting six goals past a very shaky Celtic defence.

Celtic never really looked like correcting that record last night in a match to mark the opening of the main stand and official completion of Union Berlin?s An der Alten Forsterei stadium. That?s a remarkable story in itself, since thousands of fans worked unpaid on the project, and a raucous capacity crowd of just over 18,000 created an atmosphere which in itself made the match much more competitive than most friendlies.

After a couple of early corners to the home side, and with Celtic making absolutely no headway up front, Union took an 11th-minute lead, the chief surprise being that Fraser Forster, easily the man of the tour hitherto, completely misinterpreted the flight of Simon Terodde?s superbly struck snapshot volley from the edge of the box. Kelvin Wilson could have put more pressure on the scorer, but take nothing away from the goalscorer as it was a class effort.

The goal sparked a reaction from Celtic in that they became more composed and organised, captain Scott Brown?s return ensuring that the midfield was at least combative. How they will miss Victor Wanyama in that department, the big fellow?s absence an obvious loss in this pre-season tour.

At the back, Irvine and Wilson formed a solid partnership, the 20-year-old Australian looking very composed on the ball, as did the other Aussie in the team, midfielder Tom Rogic.

After 24 minutes, Forster kept his eye firmly on another volley, this time a spectacular effort by Martin Dausch off a knockdown by Soren Brandy, and the goalkeeper parried the ball away firmly.

Celtic had not had a shot on goal in the first half hour when Kris Commons won a corner, taking it himself and finding Giorgios Samaras whose effort was turned away.

Towards the end of the half, Celtic began to exert considerable pressure on their well-organised and technically sound hosts, and after Fabian Schonheim headed just over his own bar, Mikael Lustig headed the resultant corner narrowly wide.

At half time, Celtic sent on youngster Mikey Miller in place of Mikael Lustig at right-back, and more substitutions unsettled the side later on, but Lennon had said he would use these games to get players fit and to experiment, and he has stuck to the plan.

Ten minutes into a Celtic-dominated second half, a sucker punch gave Union a second goal. The SPL champions looked to have cleared the danger but the ball was knocked back in over the heads of a static defence and Soren Brandy reacted first to knock the ball past Forster.

After Irvine was booked for a foul in which television replays showed he made no contact, Marc Pfertzel looked to have put Union further ahead but he was correctly adjudged to have been offside.

Celtic searched constantly for a way back into the game, and Anthony Stokes had a shot deflected wide on 64 minutes before Irvine?s goalbound header from the corner was punched away by Daniel Haas.

Stokes? 68th minute shot was saved by Haas before Rogic fired one just wide from distance. Union were content to soak up the pressure and hit on the break, and three minutes from time they gained a third with the Celtic defence again caught napping, Damir Kreilach heading home Dausch?s pinpoint cross.

It will perhaps worry Lennon that his side is conceding an average of three goals a game, but if he gets it right against Cliftonville, all will be forgiven and forgotten.

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120 Martyrs of China

On July 9 the Church celebrates the feast of the 120 Martyrs of China. Religious persecution has a long history in China, especially persecution of Christians, thousands of whom have died for their faith in the last millennium.

On October 1, 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized 120 men, women, and children who gave their lives for the faith in China between the years 1648 and 1930. The martyrs include 87 native Chinese and 33 foreign missionaries. The majority were killed during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900.

?Chinese men and women of every age and state, priests, religious and lay people, showed the same conviction and joy, sealing their unfailing fidelity to Christ and the Church with the gift of their lives,? said the Holy Father during the canonization.

?Resplendent in this host of martyrs are also the 33 missionaries who left their land and sought to immerse themselves in the Chinese world, lovingly assimilating its features in the desire to proclaim Christ and to serve those people.?

Of the 33 foreign-born missionaries, most were priests and religious, including members of the Order of Preachers, Friars Minor, Jesuits, Salesians and Franciscan Missionaries of Mary.

One of the more well-known native martyrs was a 14-year-old Chinese girl named Ann Wang, who was killed during the Boxer Rebellion when she refused to apostasize. She bravely withstood the threats of her torturers, and just as she was about to be beheaded, she radiantly declared, ?The door of heaven is open to all? and repeated the name of Jesus three times.?

Another of the martyrs was 18-year-old Chi Zhuzi, who had been preparing to receive the sacrament of Baptism when he was caught on the road one night and ordered to worship idols. He refused to do so, revealing his belief in Christ. His right arm was cut off and he was tortured, but he would not deny his faith. Rather, he fearlessly pronounced to his captors, before being flayed alive, ?Every piece of my flesh, every drop of my blood will tell you that I am Christian.?

Augustine Zhao Rong was the first native Chinese priest to become a martyr. Born in 1746, he was served as one of the soldiers who escorted Bishop John Gabriel Taurin Dufresse to his martyrdom in Beijing. The witness of the bishop led Augustine to seek baptism at age 30. He was ordained a priest five years later and was martyred in 1815.

During the canonization Mass, Pope John Paul II thanked God for blessing the Church with the heroic witness of the 120 martyrs, whom he called ?an example of courage and consistency to us all.?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/catholicnewsagency/saintoftheday/~3/IiwUxDXqE9Y/saint.php

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The After Math: E3 2013 and WWDC 2013

Welcome to The After Math, where we attempt to summarize this week's tech news through numbers, decimal places and percentages.

It was a week where Engadget somehow managed dueling liveblogs. Apple revealed its new mobile operating system, while Microsoft revealed more of its plans for the Xbox One, kicking off a week of games news from E3 2013 in LA. Sony soon followed, showing off its console for real, and pricing it a hundred dollars less than Microsoft's next-gen console. Sure, the war isn't over yet, but Sony can arguably claim victory at this year's Los Angeles battle. So let's talk numbers, right after the break.

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Apple, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/16/the-after-math-e3-2013-and-wwdc-2013/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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AP Analysis: Iran president may help shield rulers

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) ? For a lesson in what Hasan Rowhani's reformist-backed presidency could mean for Iran, a promise Sunday by the ultra-powerful Revolutionary Guard to cooperate with him is a good guide.

Like the rest of Iran's ruling Islamic establishment, the Guard, which has kept a tight lid on any hints of opposition for years, is for the moment embracing Rowhani, even though he is almost certain to return once-silenced moderates into the political fold and restore the voice of liberal-leaning Iranians who danced in the streets after his stunning election victory.

The reason is because ? in one of the more curious twists of Iranian politics ? the opposition's accidental hero Rowhani also may become a lucky charm for the ruling system.

His surprise victory allows the Islamic leadership to seek a bit of legitimacy among liberals and others who felt they exiled off the political map after the crackdowns following massive protests in 2009 over the disputed re-election of the now-exiting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"They counted my vote!" some Rowhani supporters chanted in a mix of celebration and shock after the announcement of the results from Friday's election.

Rowhani's mild manifesto ? sprinkled with words like "moderation" and "dialogue" ? also could provide a honeymoon period for the leadership as a whole. Factions in Israel and the U.S. that have promoted military options against Iran's nuclear program may find themselves in search of an audience with Rowhani playing the role of tension-easer.

Interviewed on the American CBS TV network, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough called on Rowhani to follow through with his plan to improve relations with the West. "I see it as a potentially hopeful sign," McDonough said.

The ecstatic outpouring of Iranians dancing and celebrating in the streets Saturday night and Sunday reflected the hopes that Rowhani can bring an end to the domination of hard-liners for the past eight years under Ahmadinejad, with arrests against the opposition and restrictions on rights. Many saw the win as a slap to the ruling clerics, sending a message that they cannot keep the opposition bottled up.

Rowhani does have a people-power mandate that certainly will be factored in by Iran's rulers. But the scope of his win ? more than three times of votes of the runner-up ? doesn't give him any extra-credit powers. Iran's presidency is still without the tools to take any major initiatives without clearance from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei or, by extension, the Revolutionary Guard.

The ruling clerics ? not the president ? hold all the cards in policymaking and make every make decision such as nuclear efforts, dealings with the West or Iran's aid to its ally Bashar Assad in Damascus, who sent Rowhani a congratulations message Sunday that urged for the countries to remain united.

On Sunday, Rowhani had his first meeting as president-elect with Khamenei, who offered "necessary guidelines" to Rowhani, state TV said, without elaborating.

In reaction to the positive vibes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Sunday against being lulled by "wishful thinking" and urged for increased sanctions to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions. Some Israeli commentators have even joked ? with a dash of truth ? that Israeli hawks will miss Ahmadinejad as the best salesman for their policies.

The West and allies fear Iran could be moving toward a nuclear weapon. Iranian officials including the 64-year-old Rowhani ? a former nuclear negotiator ? insist the country's only seek reactors for energy and medical use.

"With a moderate in as president instead of Ahmadinejad, Israel has to change its tone," said Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born political analyst based in Israel. "The sell-by date of repeating the same line of 'all options remain on the table' has expired."

The U.S. and other world powers, meanwhile, are likely to move quickly to restart nuclear negotiations, which have failed to make any headway after four rounds since last year. This sets up a potential quandary for Iran.

The current nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, finished a distant third in the election and is something of Rowhani's antithesis, insisting that Iran cannot give an inch to its foes. So far, Iran's negotiating position has been that the West must ease sanctions up front as a first step before anything else can happen.

What the Iranian president can offer is advice and attempt to nudge views in his direction.

Rowhani has been at the negotiating table before as Iran's envoy beginning in 2003, just a year after Tehran's revived nuclear efforts were revealed. Rowhani has been highly critical of Iran's leadership for not showing more nimble tactics and allowing the economic squeeze to become so painful, with inflation now galloping at about 30 percent and critical oil exports cut in half.

In some ways, Rowhani's rise may owe a bit to the sanctions and the predictions by Washington that they will embolden dissent. During the street celebrations for Rowhani on Saturday, there were many chants about Iran's sinking economy and international isolation peppered among the calls for greater freedoms and political rights.

Rowhani knew where to strike in the campaign, constantly returning to economic woes. "Which family today doesn't have someone who isn't unemployed?" he asked. "If the administration had a plan, couldn't this be solved?"

The pro-reform Etemad daily carried a front page image of the smiling cleric Rowhani flashing a V-for-victory sign: "A salute to Iran and to the sheik of hope."

"Rowhani may face problems like sanctions, inflation and so," said Mirzababa Motaharinejad, a member of the pro-reform Mardomslari party. "But authorities will cooperate with him."

Up to a point. Iran has been here before and it didn't end well for reformists.

In 2001, reformist Mohammad Khatami steamrolled into his second term as president. The next four years were a stalemate as hard-liners allied with Khamenei blocked attempts at political reforms in parliament. Authorities gave up some ground on social freedoms ? letting women's head scarves slide back and permitting more Western films and music ? but there also were pinpoint strikes on dissent with arrests and newspaper closures. The establishment eventually

Now, the Revolutionary Guard and its nationwide paramilitary force, the Basij, are far stronger and more deeply integrated into every level of society, including monitoring social media.

It's unlikely Rowhani will push too hard anyway. He is moderate in the mold of his political patron, former President Akbar Heshami Rafsanjani, who wages selective battles against the Islamic establishment but manages to stay an insider with a post within the ruling hierarchy. Rowhani's candidacy was something of a consolation prize after the ruling clerics barred Rafsanjani from running. Rafsanjani will now play the role of shadow president, advising from the wings.

A test ahead could be whether Rowhani attempts to win the release of the candidates from the disputed 2009 election, Green Movement leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and former parliament speaker Mahdi Karroubi, who have been house arrest since early 2011. Chants at his rallies and victory celebrations urged for their freedom.

"There is a lot to be cautious about. Rowhani is part of the system. He has served in some of the highest positions in Iran, including within the military and national security establishment," said Alireza Nader, senior policy analyst at the Rand Corp., a Washington-based think tank that receives U.S. funding. "He is not a reformist. He appears as an alternative candidate when compared to people like former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This is a low bar."

___

Murphy, the AP's bureau chief in Dubai, has covered Iranian affairs for nearly 15 years.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-analysis-iran-president-may-help-shield-rulers-172803081.html

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Lenny Dykstra to Be Released From Prison

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/lenny-dykstra-to-be-released-from-prison/

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MACH system from MIT can coach those with social anxiety

Plenty of people out there have a serious phobia of public speaking and there are tons of other disorders, such as Asperger's, that severely limit a person's ability to handle even simple social interactions. M. Ehsan Hoque, a student at the MIT Media Lab, has made these subjects the focus of her latest project: MACH (My Automated Conversation coacH). At the heart of MACH is a complex system of facial and speech recognition algorithms that can detect subtle nuances in intonation while tracking smiles, head nods and eye movement. The latter is especially important since the front end of MACH is a computer generated avatar that can tell when you break eye contact and shift your attention elsewhere.

The software then provides feedback about your performance, helping to prep you for that big presentation or just guide you out of your shell. Experimental data suggests that coaching from MACH could even help you perform better in a job interview. What's particularly exciting is that the program requires no special hardware; it's designed to be used with a standard webcam and microphone on a laptop. So it might not be too long before we start seeing apps designed to help users through social awkwardness. Before you go, make sure to check out the video after the break.

Filed under: Science, Alt

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Via: Far East Gizmos

Source: MIT

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/B4taju61qVc/

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Sprint's updated contract lays out your choices when WiMAX ends

More than a year after Sprint stopped launching WiMAX phones, it added a new paragraph to its terms and conditions that indicate its impending breakup with the wireless standard. According to PCWorld, the change (originally noticed by an S4Guru forum user) was implemented on May 22nd. You can read it in its entirety after the break, but to summarize: if you have a WiMAX device, you'll eventually have to decide whether you want to keep using your phone without it, deactivate your contract or transition to the carrier's LTE network. You won't have to pay an early-termination fee if you choose deactivation, while you'll get a "standard" LTE device (Sprint didn't specify which) if you opt for transition. The Now Network didn't say how long it will continue supporting the flagging wireless standard, but it's clear as day it's focusing its efforts on widening its LTE coverage.

[Image credit: William Ross]

Filed under: Networking, Sprint

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Via: S4Guru, PCWorld

Source: Sprint

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Netherlands UFO: Why we want to believe

Netherlands UFO:?On May 25th, a woman snapped a photo of a UFO floating above a Netherlands castle. Why did it go viral?

By Elizabeth Barber,?Contributor / June 10, 2013

A detail of a photo shot by Corinne Federer shows a 'flying saucer' hovering above Muiderslot Castle, Netherlands.

Corinne Federer

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On the last Saturday in May this year, Corinne Federer and her mother took a trip to Muiderslot Castle, a moat-girdled fortress built in 1285?at the edge of the glossy river Vetch, near Amsterdam. Fortunately, for the Internet, Federer took pictures.

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When Federer later went through her photographs of the fortress, she spotted something odd, something hovering just above the cloud line: a UFO, in the classic saucer-shape, but with a single, decidedly un-aerodynamic S-shaped fin. Alien technology, for sure.

To no one?s surprise, the image ? a silvery UFO caught suspended over the Netherlands? marshy sprawl, admiring an earthly tourist attraction ? went viral.

And how could it not have? UFO sightings are part of our earthly lexicon. For decades, the flying saucer has represented our shared wish to stare up at the skies and hope for something more, something probably cooler than ourselves ? that, and our common suspicion of our governments and their secrets.

But the UFO is also suggestive of something else: our own biases.

The term UFO was coined in 1953, after the US Air Force decided it was time to standardize the term used to described the disks seen floating through the sky, in what was then a relatively new phenomenon. One of the earliest sightings ? as such reports came to be known ? was the 1947 Maury Island incident, in which a seaman claimed?to have seen six saucers in Puget Sound, as though interstellar travelers had nothing better to do in all the galaxies than investigate the woodsy, northwestern United States.

The UK was perhaps the first government to hop on the UFO trend, establishing a Flying Saucers Working Party?in 1950 to investigate the growing crop of claims. It concluded in 2001 that all known cases of UFOs were hoaxes or mistakes.

Today, there are a wealth of organizations?worldwide devoted to campaigning for the existence of UFOs, including a group of six former US legislators?who in May held a panel in Washington. on putting an end to a global ?truth embargo? on the existence of alien visitors.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/X-LggpiM7o4/Netherlands-UFO-Why-we-want-to-believe

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Ivory Coast inflation drops to 3.4 pct in May

By Iain Blair LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Forty-three years ago Black Sabbath released its debut self-titled album, a collection of songs inspired by occult themes and powered by heavy-metal guitar riffs. Now, three of the original band members - singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler - and drummer Brad Wilk, of Rage Against the Machine, are releasing a new album, "13," and planning to tour the world to promote it. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ivory-coast-inflation-drops-3-4-pct-may-140257011.html

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Hillary Clinton launches Twitter account (cbsnews)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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'Man Of Steel': Young Clark Kent Dishes On His Super Role

Dylan Sprayberry tells MTV News what it was like being a version of Superman.
By Todd Gilchrist, with reporting by Chris Kim

Dylan Sprayberry
Photo: MTV News

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1708682/man-of-steel-dylan-sprayberry-young-superman.jhtml

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TSX slumps to 1-month low as gold dives

By John Tilak and Alastair Sharp

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index slipped to a one-month low on Friday as a slump in gold miners, which followed a tumbling bullion price, offset strength in several other sectors after a robust U.S. jobs report.

The market's decline, its sixth straight daily drop, sharply contrasted with strong gains seen south of the border.

U.S. employers stepped up hiring in May in a show of economic resilience that analysts said suggests the Federal Reserve could begin to scale back its monetary stimulus later this year.

But fears that the Fed could turn off the monetary tap hit gold prices and diminished the precious metal's appeal as a safe-haven asset.

"The jobs numbers show evidence of a grinding recovery in the United States, which is measurably positive, but not robustly so," said Stephen Wood, chief market strategist, North America, at Russell Investments.

"The data suggests that there is no reason to think that the Fed's going to deviate significantly from their current policy position."

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index <.gsptse> closed down 36.03 points, or 0.29 percent, at 12,373.30, after earlier slipping to its lowest since May 2. Seven of the 10 main sectors on the index were higher.

The index lost 2.2 percent on the week.

The Canadian market has been pulled down by the natural resources sectors, which have been hit by volatile commodity prices.

"Within equities, we have a pretty large tilt toward U.S. stocks and a pretty large tilt away from Canadian stocks," said Geoff Stein, a portfolio manager with Fidelity Investments who helps manage about $55 billion in assets.

Stein is cautious about Canadian equities due in part to the weakness in the resource groups and the slowdown in the housing industry.

The benchmark Canadian index is in the red for the year, while the U.S. S&P 500 <.spx> has gained 15.2 percent.

Gold stocks gave back 5 percent and dragged the materials group down 3.4 percent.

Goldcorp Inc slid 5.1 percent and Barrick Gold Corp declined 4.9 percent.

Financials, the index's most heavily weighted sector, gained 0.3 percent. Manulife Financial Corp climbed 2.1 percent and had the biggest positive influence on the market.

(Editing by G Crosse)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tsx-may-open-higher-u-canada-jobs-data-123837391.html

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Join the Engadget HD Podcast live on Ustream at 8:30PM ET

It's Monday, and you know what that means; another Engadget HD Podcast. We hope you will join us live when the Engadget HD podcast starts recording at 8:30PM. If you'll be joining us, be sure to go ahead and get ready by reviewing the list of topics after the break, then you'll be ready to participate in the live chat.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/FtssKcjeOzc/

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Transform Any Unity Project Into a Relativistic Playground With OpenRelativity

From what I can tell (I just played their example game), its not a physics engine, just some tweaked shaders (and likely tweaked culling to match). The only stuff of real interest here are the rendering changes. There may be some physics in there, but the dynamics type physics wasn't very interesting/apparent.

It looks like the distortions are done in the vertex shader, which means you need high vertex densities for high distortions to look reasonable (geometry shader based tessellation would resolve this).

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/MAFCVyE6BwI/story01.htm

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Plans for Australia spy headquarters hacked by China: Report

CANBERRA, Australia: Australian officials on Tuesday refused to confirm or deny whether Chinese hackers had stolen the blueprints of a new spy agency headquarters as a news report claims. A tiny party essential to the ruling coalition's government demanded an inquiry into how much damage may have been done.

Australian Broadcasting Corp. television reported on Monday night that the plans for the 630 million Australian dollar ($608 million) Australian Security Intelligence Organization building had been stolen through a cyberattack on a building contractor. Blueprints that included details such as communications cabling, server locations and security systems had been traced to a Chinese server, the network reported.

Des Ball, an Australian National University cybersecurity expert, said China could use the blueprints to bug the building, which is nearing completion in Canberra, the capital, after lengthy construction delays.

Ball told the ABC that given the breach, ASIO would either have to operate with "utmost sensitivity" within its own building or simply "rip the whole insides out and ... start again."

Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, the minister in charge of the spy agency, on Tuesday refused to confirm or deny the report, citing a longstanding government policy of declining to comment on security matters.

He later said the lakeside glass and concrete structure did not need to be redesigned, and that ASIO will move in this year.

"This building is a very secure, state-of-the-art facility," said Dreyfus, adding that the ABC report contained "unsubstantiated allegations."

"I'm not going to comment on operational matters involving the Australian Security Intelligence Organization or any security matters," he said.

Questioned about the alleged security breach in Parliament, Prime Minister Julia Gillard described the ABC report as "inaccurate" but refused to go into detail.

The minor Greens party, which the center-left Labor Party relies on to maintain its minority government, has demanded an inquiry into the future of the troubled building, which has been plagued by cost blowouts from an original budget of AU$460 million.

"It is time that we had an independent inquiry into the whole sorry history of the ASIO building and the extent to which the current hacking has compromised its capacity to ever be the building and serve the purpose for which it was intended," Greens leader Christine Milne told reporters.

She said no more money should be spent on the building until an inquiry was held into the truth of the hacking allegation and the extent of the alleged security compromise.

The alleged hacking would appear to be "an extremely serious breach" to Australia's intelligence-sharing allies, including the United States, Milne said.

Dreyfus didn't immediately respond to the Greens' call for an inquiry.

ASIO, Australia's main spy agency, has grown rapidly since the al-Qaida attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, and is constructing its new headquarters to house its growing staff. Staff numbers have trebled to almost 1,800 in a decade.

Tobias Feakin, a national security analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said that if a security breach has occurred, it could affect intelligence sharing with allies including the United States.

"There is no doubt that instances like this, if proved true, create a period of difficulty," Feakin said. "But one thing that would happen is that there would be mutual assistance provided to be able to plug that gap and no intelligence agency could possibly allow that kind of breach to continue."

Foreign minister Bob Carr refused to discuss the allegations but said the claims do not jeopardize Australia's ties with its most important trading partner, China.

"It's got absolutely no implications for a strategic partnership," Carr said. "We have enormous areas of cooperation with China."

Source: http://timesofindia.feedsportal.com/c/33039/f/533964/s/2c7eae75/l/0Ltimesofindia0Bindiatimes0N0Cworld0Crest0Eof0Eworld0CChina0Esteals0Enew0EAustralia0Espy0Eagency0Eblueprints0EReport0Carticleshow0C20A30A37980Bcms/story01.htm

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How to Control Your Android Without Looking at It

It's getting dangerous just to walk and text at the same time much less do so behind the wheel of a car. But with Siri being just slightly less helpful than HAL, how are you supposed to surf the web and simultaneously travel safely? All you have to do is ask.

Become a Dictator: With touchscreen displays quickly becoming the norm for mobile devices, you have little choice but to look at what you're typing since you can't feel your way across the keyboard. But rather than try to split your attention between driving and typing, have your phone write it for you.

Send yourself a reminder note by tapping the mic icon and prefacing the message with, "Note to self." Gmail will deliver both the audio message and a transcription of it to your inbox. You can dictate outgoing emails as well, though it requires a few steps.

First tap the mic icon and say "send email." Next identify the recipient by saying "To [the contact name]", then state the subject of the email using "Subject: [whatever the email is about]", and finally input the message itself with the "Message" command and speaking the punctuation marks. Altogether it would sound something like this, "Send email to tips@gizmodo.com, subject a hot tip, message have I got a tip for you exclamation point." And for SMS texts, you only have to say "send text to" followed by the recipient and the message.

Get Directions: Whether you have someone riding shotgun or not, there's no reason for you to pull double duty as both driver and navigator. Instead, offload direction duties to Google Maps' navigation feature. Tap the microphone icon on the Google Search bar and say "Navigate to [your destination]" for turn-by-turn dictation, "Directions to [your destination]" for written instructions, or "Map of [your location]" for a basic map of the area. Unfortunately, "Take me to [Funkytown]" is not a valid command.

Get a Forecast: Sudden downpours are murder on a convertible's interior. Don't risk getting drenched waiting for the next radio weather report, simply ask your phone "What is the chance of rain today in [your location]." Google Search will read the current weather conditions aloud. You can also query it for a five-day forecast of any locale worldwide.

Refuel: The fuel warning light has been on for way too long now and unless you want to push your ride the rest of the way, you'd better find a gas station?fast. Luckily, all you have to do is ask, "Where is the nearest gas station?" and Google Search will pop a list of options with directions to each. They may not be the cheapest available (oh but to have that search feature) but any gas is better than running on fumes.

Now that you've found fuel for your ride, it's time to do the same for yourself. Tap the mic icon and say, "nearby restaurants" for a list of local eateries. You can also specify by cuisine ("nearby diners") or chain ("where's the nearest Taco Bell?").

Discover: Can't quite remember what that catchy tune is that's playing over the gas station's PA system? If you don't have the Sound Search app handy, you can still access the function through the search bar. Tap the mic icon, ask "what's this song," and hold your phone up to a speaker.

Once it names that tune, Search will pop a purchase link as well. And it's not just Sound Search, you can also quickly access Goggles functions without opening the app itself by using verbal commands. Tell your phone to, "scan a barcode" to do just that. It works for both linear and QR codes.

While these commands are handy when you're behind the wheel, they're by no means a complete list. Check out more helpful verbal cues here.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/how-to-control-your-android-without-looking-at-it-499095712

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'Star Trek Into Darkness' Spoiler Special: Burning Questions Answered

Co-writer Damon Lindelof exclusively addresses the mysteries surrounding the blockbuster.
By Josh Horowitz

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1707650/star-trek-into-darkness-spoiler-special-burning-questions-answered.jhtml

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New discovery of ancient diet shatters conventional ideas of how agriculture emerged

New discovery of ancient diet shatters conventional ideas of how agriculture emerged

Friday, May 17, 2013

Archaeologists have made a discovery in southern subtropical China which could revolutionise thinking about how ancient humans lived in the region.

They have uncovered evidence for the first time that people living in Xincun 5,000 years ago may have practised agriculture ?before the arrival of domesticated rice in the region.

Current archaeological thinking is that it was the advent of rice cultivation along the Lower Yangtze River that marked the beginning of agriculture in southern China. Poor organic preservation in the study region, as in many others, means that traditional archaeobotany techniques are not possible.

Now, thanks to a new method of analysis on ancient grinding stones, the archaeologists have uncovered evidence that agriculture could predate the advent of rice in the region.

The research was the result of a two-year collaboration between Dr Huw Barton, from the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester, and Dr Xiaoyan Yang, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Beijing.

Funded by a Royal Society UK-China NSFC International Joint Project, and other grants held by Yang in China, the research is published in PLOS ONE.

Dr Barton, Senior Lecturer in Bioarchaeology at the University of Leicester, described the find as 'hitting the jackpot': "Our discovery is totally unexpected and very exciting.

"We have used a relatively new method known as ancient starch analysis to analyse ancient human diet. This technique can tell us things about human diet in the past that no other method can.

"From a sample of grinding stones we extracted very small quantities of adhering sediment trapped in pits and cracks on the tool surface. From this material, preserved starch granules were extracted with our Chinese colleagues in the starch laboratory in Beijing. These samples were analysed in China and also here at Leicester in the Starch and Residue Laboratory, School of Archaeology and Ancient History.

"Our research shows us that there was something much more interesting going on in the subtropical south of China 5,000 years ago than we had first thought. The survival of organic material is really dependent on the particular chemical properties of the soil, so you never know what you will get until you sample. At Xincun we really hit the jackpot. Starch was well-preserved and there was plenty of it. While some of the starch granules we found were species we might expect to find on grinding and pounding stones, ie. some seeds and tuberous plants such as freshwater chestnuts, lotus root and the fern root, the addition of starch from palms was totally unexpected and very exciting."

Several types of tropical palms store prodigious quantities of starch. This starch can be literally bashed and washed out of the trunk pith, dried as flour, and of course eaten. It is non-toxic, not particularly tasty, but it is reliable and can be processed all year round. Many communities in the tropics today, particularly in Borneo and Indonesia, but also in eastern India, still rely on flour derived from palms.

Dr Barton said: "The presence of at least two, possibly three species of starch producing palms, bananas, and various roots, raises the intriguing possibility that these plants may have been planted nearby the settlement.

"Today groups that rely on palms growing in the wild are highly mobile, moving from one palm stand to another as they exhaust the clump. Sedentary groups that utilise palms for their starch today, plant suckers nearby the village, thus maintaining continuous supply. If they were planted at Xincun, this implies that 'agriculture' did not arrive here with the arrival of domesticated rice, as archaeologists currently think, but that an indigenous system of plant cultivation may have been in place by the mid Holocene.

"The adoption of domesticated rice was slow and gradual in this region; it was not a rapid transformation as in other places. Our findings may indicate why this was the case. People may have been busy with other types of cultivation, ignoring rice, which may have been in the landscape, but as a minor plant for a long time before it too became a food staple.

"Future work will focus on grinding stones from nearby sites to see if this pattern is repeated along the coast."

###

University of Leicester: http://www.leicester.ac.uk

Thanks to University of Leicester for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128302/New_discovery_of_ancient_diet_shatters_conventional_ideas_of_how_agriculture_emerged

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Larry Page Reminded Us Why We Love Google Today

Larry Page, Google's CEO and co-founder, closed out the Google I/O keynote today with a sentimental, almost subdued speech. He didn't sound like a CEO. He sounded like a guy in charge of a company he genuinely thought could change the world. And it was a wonderful reminder that Google used to be, can be, and in many ways still is, so much more than a company.

Page began with a story about his father, how the family used to drive across the country to see a robotics conference, and how lucky he was to be exposed to that at a young age. He argued that just the simple exposure to the broader world of technology was enough to open a cosmos of possibilities up to him. And you got the sense that he just wanted to use Google to drive the rest of us to whatever robotics conference is next.

About halfway into the speech, he came to a phrase that's as good a summation of Google over the past 18 months or so as anything. "We should be building great things that don't exist." Not focusing on the platform wars or sniping with other companies or aiming at small scale iterations. You aim for something like Glass, maybe, or something even more ambitious. You make what no one thinks is even possible yet. Consciously or not, Google's mirrored that philosophy recently, keeping its house in order with APIs and geek service, but expanding the scope of its aspirations, with Glass, the driverless cars initiative, or even crazy-affordable Chromebooks and high-speed internet.

Page argued that it's the small scale that we've been operating on that is what's really dissuading more projects like that. "If you're going to make a smartphone for a dollar, like one dollar, that's almost impossible," he responded to one question. "But if you took a longer view, like 50 years, you'd change how you look at your investments, and find a way to make money. You just need a deep understanding of what you're doing."

In his remarks and the Q&A that followed, Page focused on things that didn't have anything, directly at least, to do with Android or Chrome or developing, at times just brushing past questions that seemed too small for his agenda for the day. Asked about a Glass production run, he stumbled through some pseudo-PR speak before saying he was just exited about how he'd use Glass with his kids. There was lip service to how much he appreciated the developers in attendance, but he focused more on the ways the things that Google is doing can help real people in real ways.

Yes, that's a sales pitch, and naive in a myriad of ways if you want to be a cynic, but that's not how it came off. He was optimistic about search or Google Now making people's lives easier, or less time behind the wheel of a car and more time with your family, but sounded more wistful about them as a means to get AWAY from your computers. Like a guy who got that we love our phones, but that shouldn't be the whole picture, and that computers are supposed to be there to help us.

"We're not organized enough to solve that problem," he said. "And our computers aren't helping us do that. We have to make computer software on the internet that helps solve those problems, that solves, as a side effect, that helps people become educated about what they're looking for. We're trying to serve both modes, and trying to get computers to help you do that."

And sometimes, how that happens might seem a little crazy. Larry had a bunch of totally rational ideas, that in that rationality seem totally radical, about progress in legislation and the medical fields surrounding tech. "Like, the law can't be right if it's 50 years old," he said about the regulations in place, limiting what weird stuff Google might want to try. "It's before the internet. I think we need to, or the million watching, need to go into other areas and help those areas and help them understand technology. And we have't really. The other thing is we haven't built mechanisms for experimentations, because they aren't allowed by regulations because we don't want the world to change too fast."

A place, a mechanism, where people can just experiment. Do whatever the hell they want, free of laws and regulations and the glacial bureaucracy governing technologies it doesn't and likely never will understand. Crazy talk, basically, the kind of stuff you start throwing out a half hour before closing time in a bar argument. Except the guy saying it is Larry Page, and you feel almost compelled to believe him. Google's gone after medical advancements and lost?regulatory problems are too much unless someone locks down "technological leverage" to force an issue, as with DNA sequencing, Page says?but it's experienced enough that you wonder if Page's crazy ideas don't come from a place of deep understanding.

It's a magnetic way to think about the world. Page talked about his decision to disclose his vocal cords condition yesterday, and how a lot of people might not have because they were worried about their insurance?and that's dumb. "We should change the rules around insurance," he said, almost impossibly matter-of-factly, as if that's how the world works. "The whole point of insurance is to insure people." It was heartfelt enough that you believed he meant it, and he's Larry Page, so you had to stop and wonder, What if he's right, and then, What if he can do it?

If he can, the best chance is probably just brute cash flow. There are a lot of zeroes in Google, after all, and Washington might be lost in a talk about anything more advanced than a graphing calculator, but it has always understood zeroes. Google's been painted as a tech baron recently, pouring cash into lobbying Washington for this or that, but here, for a split second, you had to wonder if it's possible its heart's still in the right place.

Rooting for lobbyists. That's what Larry Page did today. He just talked about how he wishes Google could change the world, and oozed enough sincerity that we couldn't help but believe him, and in turn, in Google.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/larry-page-reminded-us-why-we-love-google-today-506915269

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Climate change will cause widespread global-scale loss of common plants and animals, researchers predict

May 12, 2013 ? More than half of common plants and one third of the animals could see a dramatic decline this century due to climate change, according to research from the University of East Anglia.

Research published today in the journal Nature Climate Change looked at 50,000 globally widespread and common species and found that more than one half of the plants and one third of the animals will lose more than half of their climatic range by 2080 if nothing is done to reduce the amount of global warming and slow it down.

This means that geographic ranges of common plants and animals will shrink globally and biodiversity will decline almost everywhere.

Plants, reptiles and particularly amphibians are expected to be at highest risk. Sub-Saharan Africa, Central America, Amazonia and Australia would lose the most species of plants and animals. And a major loss of plant species is projected for North Africa, Central Asia and South-eastern Europe.

But acting quickly to mitigate climate change could reduce losses by 60 per cent and buy an additional 40 years for species to adapt. This is because this mitigation would slow and then stop global temperatures from rising by more than two degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial times (1765). Without this mitigation, global temperatures could rise by 4 degrees Celsius by 2100.

The study was led by Dr Rachel Warren from UEA's school of Environmental Sciences and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. Collaborators include Dr.Jeremy VanDerWal at James Cook University in Australia and Dr Jeff Price, also at UEA's school of Environmental Sciences and the Tyndall Centre. The research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

Dr Warren said: "While there has been much research on the effect of climate change on rare and endangered species, little has been known about how an increase in global temperature will affect more common species.

"This broader issue of potential range loss in widespread species is a serious concern as even small declines in these species can significantly disrupt ecosystems.

"Our research predicts that climate change will greatly reduce the diversity of even very common species found in most parts of the world. This loss of global-scale biodiversity would significantly impoverish the biosphere and the ecosystem services it provides.

"We looked at the effect of rising global temperatures, but other symptoms of climate change such as extreme weather events, pests, and diseases mean that our estimates are probably conservative. Animals in particular may decline more as our predictions will be compounded by a loss of food from plants.

"There will also be a knock-on effect for humans because these species are important for things like water and air purification, flood control, nutrient cycling, and eco-tourism.

"The good news is that our research provides crucial new evidence of how swift action to reduce CO₂ and other greenhouse gases can prevent the biodiversity loss by reducing the amount of global warming to 2 degrees Celsius rather than 4 degrees. This would also buy time -- up to four decades -- for plants and animals to adapt to the remaining 2 degrees of climate change."

The research team quantified the benefits of acting now to mitigate climate change and found that up to 60 per cent of the projected climatic range loss for biodiversity can be avoided.

Dr Warren said: "Prompt and stringent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally would reduce these biodiversity losses by 60 per cent if global emissions peak in 2016, or by 40 per cent if emissions peak in 2030, showing that early action is very beneficial. This will both reduce the amount of climate change and also slow climate change down, making it easier for species and humans to adapt."

Information on the current distributions of the species used in this research came from the datasets shared online by hundreds of volunteers, scientists and natural history collections through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

Co-author Dr Jeff Price, also from UEA's school of Environmental Studies, said: "Without free and open access to massive amounts of data such as those made available online through GBIF, no individual researcher is able to contact every country, every museum, every scientist holding the data and pull it all together. So this research would not be possible without GBIF and its global community of researchers and volunteers who make their data freely available."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/XAcUhs4tZmA/130512140946.htm

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10 Tricks to Make Yourself a Google+ Master

Unless you happen to work for the search giant that created it, Google+ is probably not your social network of choice. Nevertheless, there's a ton of functionality hidden behind its walls, covering everything from photos to local searches as the influence of Google+ stretches across the company's multitude of other products. Here's how to get the most out of it.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/-oIiXYGTd3c/10-tricks-to-make-yourself-a-google-master-500513750

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Shenae Grimes Marries Josh Beech!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/shenae-grimes-marries-josh-beech/

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How &#39;human&#39; are birds compared to, say, dogs? - Improbable ...

One possible way of answering such a question might be to examine what kind of names people tend to give to them. Substantial groundwork was laid out in ?La pens?e sauvage? written in 1962 by the eminent French anthropologist and ethnologist (the late) Claude L?vi-Strauss. The book outlined his discoveries regarding subtle differences in the names given to birds, dogs, cows and racehorses etc. Dogs, he found, might have names like Fido or Sultan, whereas birds can be called Claude or Margot. Some have interpreted his findings to mean that that birds are more likely to be given ?human-like? names than are dogs or other pets, and so by extrapolation they might even be considered to be ?more human?. But, 45 years later, this concept has been challenged by by professor Ernest L. Abel Ph.D. (of the Obstetrics/Gynecology dept. at the School of Medicine, Wayne state
University, Detroit, US) who explains, in a 2007 paper for the journal Names: A Journal of Onomastics, (Volume 55,?Number 4, pp. 349-353) ?Birds are not More Human than Dogs: Evidence From Naming?.

?This study tested Levi-Strauss?s hypothesis that birds are more likely to be given human names than are dogs or other pets. The hypothesis was not supported. Instead, dogs (and cats) are much more likely to be given human names. The results were interpreted in terms of the relationships people feel with different kinds of pets. Pets housed outside the home are least likely to be given human names. Inside the house, pets kept in cages are less likely to be given human names than are pets allowed to roam freely within the home.?

The next year, professor Abel went on to further-refine understanding of bird-naming protocols with a paper for the journal Psychological Reports (Volume 102, Issue , pp. 271-272.) in which he explains how ? PARROTS ARE ?MORE HUMAN? THAN CHICKENS.

?Analysis of an Internet database of pets? names showed owners were more likely to give anthropomorphic names to pets living within homes than those living outside.?

For more examples of professor Abel?s work, see these previous Improbable articles :

??Human left-sided cradling preferences for dogs?

??Athletes, Doctors, and Lawyers with First Names Beginning with ?D? Die Sooner?? and

??A Marihuana Dictionary?

NOTE: For reasons of space we can?t list all the professor?s papers? ? such as :

? Sopranos but not tenors live longer.

? Mortality salience of birthdays on day of death in the Major Leagues.

? Football increases the risk for Lou Gehrig?s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

? Heaping in anniversary reaction studies: a cautionary note

? Use of electric blankets and association with prevalence of endometrial cancer

? Birth month and suicide among major league baseball players.

? An improved method for predicting which heavy drinkers become intoxicated.

etc etc etc

The image above is from ?M?tamorphoses du jour? by Grandville, as cited by L?vi-Strauss

Posted by Martin Gardiner on Friday, May 10th, 2013 at 8:00 am under Arts and science.

Source: http://www.improbable.com/2013/05/10/how-human-are-birds-compared-to-say-dogs/

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Most military sexual assault cases go unreported

The Senate Armed Services Committee hears from top officials of the Air Force, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, right, and Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley, left, during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 7, 2013. Besides funding for next year's Pentagon budget, the Air Force is dealing with controversy over sexual assaults and how the military justice system handles it. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The Senate Armed Services Committee hears from top officials of the Air Force, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, right, and Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley, left, during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 7, 2013. Besides funding for next year's Pentagon budget, the Air Force is dealing with controversy over sexual assaults and how the military justice system handles it. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., questions top officials of the Air Force, Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley, and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, about how they are dealing with the controversy over sexual assaults and how the military justice system handles it, during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 7, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The Senate Armed Services Committee hears from top officials of the Air Force, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, right, and Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley, left, during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 7, 2013. Besides funding for next year's Pentagon budget, the Air Force is dealing with controversy over sexual assaults and how the military justice system handles it. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The Senate Armed Services Committee hears from top officials of the Air Force, Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley, left, and and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 7, 2013. Besides funding for next year's Pentagon budget, the Air Force is dealing with controversy over sexual assaults and how the military justice system handles it. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? They are young, often low-ranking service members out on the weekend in the late night and early morning hours. Sometimes they've been drinking. Often those who sexually assault them are in the armed forces, too.

But in the vast majority of military sexual assault cases ? as many as 22,000 in 2012 ? the victim chooses not to report the attack or unwanted sexual contact.

Sexual assaults across the military are a growing epidemic. In releasing a massive report Tuesday, Pentagon leaders continued to struggle with how to combat the problem and give victims enough confidence in the system to come forward.

Despite a slew of new oversight and assistance programs, troubling new numbers estimate that up to 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted last year, according to results of a survey. Of those, fewer than 3,400 reported the incident, and nearly 800 of them simply sought help but declined to file complaints against their alleged attackers.

The statistics emerged against a backdrop of scandals, including an ongoing investigation into more than 30 Air Force instructors for assaults on trainees at a Texas base. And the report comes just days after the Air Force's head of sexual assault prevention was arrested on charges of groping a woman in a Northern Virginia parking lot.

Congressional outrage over these incidents and a decision by an Air Force officer to overturn a jury's guilty verdict in a sexual assault case is producing sweeping legislation that two House members plan to introduce on Wednesday.

Reps. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and Niki Tsongas, D-Mass., are proposing stripping an officer's authority to change or dismiss a court-martial conviction in major cases, such as sexual assault. Their bill would also require that an individual found guilty of rape, sexual assault, forcible sodomy and an attempt to commit any of those offenses be either dismissed or dishonorably discharged.

"Our effort is to try to get some standardized guidelines as to punishment for sexual assault convictions, taking it out of the chain of command and instilling some standards that can have a preventive effect on perpetrators," Turner said Wednesday. "We want the stories to stop of people who are guilty of sexual assault and then stay around to the anguish of the victims."

Turner said they worked with the Pentagon and the Senate on the bill that likely will be included in the massive defense policy measure that the House will consider this summer.

In a sharp rebuke Tuesday, President Barack Obama said he has no tolerance for the problem and said he had talked to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel about it. He said any military member found guilty of sexual assault should be held accountable, prosecuted and fired.

"I don't want just more speeches or awareness programs or training, or ultimately folks look the other way," the president said. "We're going to have to not just step up our game, we have to exponentially step up our game to go after this hard."

Hagel later gave a grim assessment, saying the military "may be nearing a stage where the frequency of this crime and the perception that there is tolerance of it could very well undermine our ability to effectively carry out the mission and to recruit and retain the good people we need."

The documents show that the number of sexual assaults reported by members of the military rose 6 percent to 3,374 in 2012. But a survey of personnel who were not required to reveal their identities showed the number of service members actually assaulted could be as many as 26,000, but they never reported the incidents, officials said Tuesday.

That number is an increase over the 19,000 estimated assaults in 2011.

The statistics highlight the dismal results that military leaders have achieved in their drive to change the culture within the ranks, even as the services redoubled efforts to launch new programs to assist the victims, encourage reporting and increase commanders' vigilance.

Hagel ordered a series of steps and reviews to increase officers' accountability for what happens under their commands and to inspect workstations for objectionable materials, according to memos and documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Hagel also told military leaders to develop a method to assess commanders and hold them accountable on their ability to create a climate "of dignity and respect." He has given commanders until July 1 to visually inspect workspaces to make sure they are free of degrading materials, and military leaders have until Nov. 1 to recommend ways to assess officers and hold them accountable for their command climates.

"Sexual assault is a crime that is incompatible with military service and has no place in this department," Hagel said in a new response plan. "It is an affront to the American values we defend, and it is a stain on our honor. DoD needs to be a national leader in combating sexual assault and we will establish an environment of dignity and respect, where sexual assault is not tolerated, condoned or ignored."

Across Capitol Hill, lawmakers demanded the Pentagon take more aggressive steps to address the growing problem and they announced renewed efforts to pass legislation to battle the problem.

This week's sexual battery arrest of Air Force Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, who headed the Air Force Sexual Assault Prevention and Response unit, provided a rallying point for lawmakers, who held it up Tuesday as an example of the Pentagon's failure to make progress despite the increased effort.

Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., introduced legislation Tuesday to provide any victim with a special military lawyer who would assist them throughout the process, prohibit sexual contact between instructors and trainees during and within 30 days of completion of basic training or its equivalent, and ensure that sexual assault response coordinators are available to help members of the National Guard and Reserve.

"Not only are we subjecting our men and women to this disgusting epidemic, but we're also failing to provide the victims with any meaningful support system once they have fallen victim to these attacks," Murray said.

The report says that of the 1.4 million active duty personnel, 6.1 percent of active duty women ? or 12,100 ? say they experienced unwanted sexual contact in 2012, a sharp increase over the 8,600 who said that in 2010. For men, the number increased from 10,700 to 13,900. A majority of the offenders were military members or Defense Department civilians or contractors, the report said.

Within the specific services, the Army showed a 16 percent decrease in the number of reported sexual assault cases, from 1,695 in 2011 to 1,423 in 2012.

The Navy said it saw a 32 percent increase, jumping from 550 in 2011 to 726 in 2012. The report said the Marines had more than a 30 percent increase in reported sexual assaults, from 333 in 2011 to 435 in 2012. And the Air Force had a 33 percent increase in reports, from 594 in 2011 to 790 in 2012.

___

Associated Press writer Richard Lardner contributed to this report.

___

Follow Lolita C. Baldor on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lbaldor

Follow Donna Cassata on Twitter: http://twitter.com/DonnaCassataAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-08-Sexual%20Assault-Military/id-6d713e0589544498ac1a9c7104353152

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