Obama taps his point man on sequester to head IRS

President Barack Obama on Thursday appointed Danny Werfel, an official with the Office of Management and Budget, as acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. Werfel replaces Steven Miller, the acting commissioner forced to resign Wednesday over the IRS having targeted conservative groups for special scrutiny.

Werfel, whose appointment will be effective May 22, "will lead efforts to ensure the IRS implements new safeguards to restore public trust and administers the tax code with fairness and integrity," the White House said in a statement. He will serve through the end of the fiscal year.

?Throughout his career working in both Democratic and Republican administrations, Danny has proven an effective leader who serves with professionalism, integrity and skill," Obama added in the statement. "The American people deserve to have the utmost confidence and trust in their government, and as we work to get to the bottom of what happened and restore confidence in the IRS, Danny has the experience and management ability necessary to lead the agency at this important time."

Werfel has been serving as the administration's point-person on the sequester.

Obama announced Wednesday night that Miller was asked to resign following the revelations that IRS employees targeted conservative-sounding groups applying for tax-exempt status. And the president added at a press conference earlier on Thursday that a replacement was imminent.

"We will be putting in new leadership that will be able to make sure that?following up on the IG audit?that we gather up all the facts, that we hold accountable those who have taken these outrageous actions," Obama said at a Rose Garden press conference with the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "As I said last night, it is just simply unacceptable for there to even be a hint of partisanship or ideology when it comes to the application of our tax laws."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-choose-omb-official-danny-werfel-head-irs-191121420.html

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Obama touts importance of U.S. ties with Latin America (Washington Bureau)

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Intel taps COO Krzanich as chipmaker's next CEO

FILE - In this Wednesday, March 28, 2007, file photo, Intel Corp. Vice President and General Manager of Assembly and Test Brian Krzanich makes his speech at the start of construction ceremony of the Assembly and Test Facility of Intel's chipset products at Saigon High Tech Park, Ho Chi Minh city, South Vietnam. Intel said Thursday, May 2, 2013, that it has chosen Krzanich, as its new CEO to steer the world's largest chipmaker in a world where PC sales are cratering while smartphones and tablets thrive. (AP Photo/Le Quang Nhat)

FILE - In this Wednesday, March 28, 2007, file photo, Intel Corp. Vice President and General Manager of Assembly and Test Brian Krzanich makes his speech at the start of construction ceremony of the Assembly and Test Facility of Intel's chipset products at Saigon High Tech Park, Ho Chi Minh city, South Vietnam. Intel said Thursday, May 2, 2013, that it has chosen Krzanich, as its new CEO to steer the world's largest chipmaker in a world where PC sales are cratering while smartphones and tablets thrive. (AP Photo/Le Quang Nhat)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011.Intel CEO Paul Otellini, holds up a Google Android phone running on an Intel chip during the keynote address at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. Intel said Thursday, May 2, 2013, that it has chosen Brian Krzanich, as its new CEO. Krzanich, who is 52, will replace Otellini on May 16, at the company's annual meeting. Otellini had announced his decision to resign in November. Otellini, 62, will be ending a nearly 40-year career with Intel, including an eight-year stint as CEO by the time he leaves. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Intel, one of the pillars of Silicon Valley, is following its traditions and promoting an insider to the job of CEO. The world's largest chipmaker is tasking Chief Operating Officer Brian Krzanich with steering it through an industry shake-up that is seeing tablets and smartphones overshadow Intel's base in personal computers.

Intel announced Thursday that Krzanich will replace Paul Otellini on May 16. Six months ago, Otellini, 62, announced his surprise decision to resign and will end a nearly 40-year career with Intel, including eight years as CEO.

Krzanich, who is 52 and spent his entire career at the company, comes out of a manufacturing organization where meticulous attention is required to churn out processors with billions of minute details.

Intel processors are the brains behind four out of every five PCs, but the company has been scrambling as PC sales plummet and people spend money instead on smartphones and tablet computers. Those mobile devices need processors that use less battery power, a technology Intel has only just mastered.

In an interview, Krzanich said he will tackle the challenge of declining PC sales by relying on the assets that Intel is built on: its engineering prowess and enormous, billion-dollar chip factories, which feature technologies that are years ahead of its competitors.

"Those assets will be focused more and more toward the ultra-mobility space ... tablets and phones," Krzanich told The Associated Press. "These are areas that we need to build a presence in, and we have the assets to bring to bear on it. And those are the same assets that have made us so successful in the past."

Krzanich's appointment was not surprising. The chief operating officer job is the traditional stepping-stone to the CEO post at Intel. Both Otellini and his predecessor, Craig Barrett, held that job before becoming CEO.

Krzanich isn't inheriting Otellini's title of president. It will go instead to software chief Renee James, 48, creating a two-person "executive office" at the head of the company. James had been another candidate for the CEO post, along with Stacy Smith, chief financial officer and director of corporate strategy.

Krzanich said the division of labor was his choice. He said he and James put together a strategy for getting into mobile chips, and when the board picked him as CEO, he requested that James become his second-in-command.

"The best way to go implement (the strategy) quickly is to have two people in the leadership team going forward so you can work twice as fast," Krzanich said.

Krzanich didn't elaborate on the strategy he and James developed. Analyst Doug Freedman at RBC Capital Markets said that even though Krzanich is an insider and the expected CEO pick, he could still be preparing to steer the company in new direction, one where Intel is less focused on being a technology driver and more focused on helping its customers develop their products.

"Our view is Krzanich's appointment was awarded as a result of changes in the future direction of the company, with these changes expected to become visible over the next few quarters," Freedman said.

Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy, said James' promotion is a reflection of the importance of software at Intel today. Of the employees needed to create a new smartphone chip, 60 percent to 70 percent will be working on the software the chip needs to work and communicate with the rest of the phone, he said.

Krzanich started at Intel Corp. in 1982 as a process engineer in New Mexico after graduating from college with a chemistry degree. He worked his way up through the manufacturing side of the business to become COO in January 2012.

Krzanich will be Intel's sixth CEO since its founding 45 years ago. The relatively slow turnover reflects Intel's success and its foundation as an operator of billion-dollar factories that take years to pay off.

Intel started out mainly as a maker of memory chips, but vaulted into the global limelight with the launch of IBM Corp.'s first PC in 1981. Intel supplied the central processor for that PC and has managed to maintain its position as the dominant supplier in the market, despite many challengers.

Now, however, PCs are losing their appeal, and the company is scrambling get into the market for chips for smartphones and tablet computers. That market has no equivalent of Intel as a dominant supplier. Instead, a bevy of companies create chip designs based on underlying blueprints supplied by ARM Holdings PLC of Britain, then contract with Asian chip factories to have them made.

ARM's blueprints were created with battery-powered devices in mind and have had a big advantage over Intel chips when it comes to prolonging battery life. Intel's chips were originally designed for machines that were plugged into a wall. Only recently have they matched the low power consumption of ARM chips.

But ARM chips are entrenched as the choice for iPhones, iPads and Android phones and are already undercutting Intel's financial performance and standing among investors. Last year, both Intel's earnings and stock price fell by 15 percent from 2011.

Intel still expects its sales to grow this year, propped up by the production of chips for business PCs and servers. It's also counting on a new generation of power-sipping processors to boost Intel's presence in tablets.

Moorhead said phone makers won't be able to ignore Intel once it introduces a new chip manufacturing process next year, which should give it a substantial advantage in the power and price of its chips. That could mean that phone makers would start buying Intel's chips, or have chips of their own designs made to order by Intel.

Otellini joined the Santa Clara, Calif., company after graduating from nearby University of California at Berkeley. He worked his way up the ranks before succeeding Barrett as CEO in May 2005.

Intel's board wasn't entirely satisfied with Otellini's performance last year. To reflect its disappointment, the board's compensation committee trimmed the cash portion of Otellini's incentive pay by 19 percent from the previous year to $5.23 million. But his overall pay package, including stock awards, grew 10 percent to $18.9 billion, and the board said it wanted to keep him when he revealed his decision to retire. The board had expected him to remain CEO until he turns 65 in 2015.

Intel said Krzanich will have an annual salary of $1 million and could get a $2.5 million cash bonus. In addition, he's getting stock and options worth $6.5 million, for a total possible 2013 compensation of $10 million.

James is a 25-year veteran of Intel and has led the company's expansion into providing software for a variety of applications, including smartphones. She was also in charge of dealing with software companies like Microsoft Corp.

Intel's stock rose 12 cents, or less than 1 percent, to close Thursday at $24.11.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-05-02-Intel-CEO/id-9b3aa9ea2a8f4cc19fc25fc962b2b4be

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PFT: Broncos' Miller goes into poultry business

Getty Images

The Jaguars have stood pat at quarterback in the offseason, good news for third-year pro Blaine Gabbert, who thus gets another chance to show he can be the club?s long-term answer at the position.

Whether Gabbert can seize the opportunity remains to be seen. But this is much is clear ? the Jaguars believe improving the pass protection even just a little bit could help Gabbert, and they have data that suggests as much.

In a story published Friday, Jaguars general manager David Caldwell told NFL.com?s Albert Breer that data provided by senior vice president of football technology and analytics?Tony Khan in the pre-draft process helped show how Gabbert?s performance related to the time he had to throw. Khan?s data, Breer reported, showed that?Gabbert ranked among the ?top-third? of the NFL at his position when he had 2.6 seconds before throwing.

In two NFL seasons, Gabbert has been sacked 62 times in 25 games (24 starts), and though he?s thrown more TDs than interceptions (21-17), he?s completed just 53.8 percent of his throws, and his play has come under criticism.

The statistics provided by Khan, Caldwell told NFL.com, did help the Jaguars decide to take an offensive tackle second overall.?According to Caldwell, the Jaguars had decided two weeks before the draft that they would be taking either Texas A&M?s Luke Joeckel or Central Michigan?s Eric Fisher with the No. 2 overall pick if Kansas City took one of the tackles first.

?What we did was fill a need where the value met the need,? Caldwell told NFL.com. ?It became clear two weeks prior, after we met with the scouting staff, the personnel staff, got their feedback, that the two highest-rated guys were the tackles. The coaches told us we needed to upgrade the line. So this was gonna be a solid pick; we felt we?d get a cornerstone, a pillar for the team.?

The Chiefs, of course, took Fisher, leaving Joeckel for the Jaguars. Joeckel is expected to ply right tackle for Jacksonville as a rookie, with veteran Eugene Monroe on the left side. Monroe, per Pro Football Focus statistics, gave up just five sacks a season ago, but Cameron Bradfield and Guy Whimper, who combined to start all 16 games at right tackle for Jacksonville in 2012, surrendered a combined 11 sacks, according to PFF.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/05/03/von-miler-is-in-the-poultry-empire-business/related/

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An anarchic region of star formation

May 2, 2013 ? The Danish 1.54-metre telescope located at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile has captured a striking image of NGC 6559, an object that showcases the anarchy that reigns when stars form inside an interstellar cloud.

NGC 6559 is a cloud of gas and dust located at a distance of about 5000 light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer). The glowing region is a relatively small object, just a few light-years across, in contrast to the one hundred light-years and more spanned by its famous neighbour, the Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8, eso0936). Although it is usually overlooked in favour of its distinguished companion, NGC 6559 has the leading role in this new picture.

The gas in the clouds of NGC 6559, mainly hydrogen, is the raw material for star formation. When a region inside this nebula gathers enough matter, it starts to collapse under its own gravity. The centre of the cloud grows ever denser and hotter, until thermonuclear fusion begins and a star is born. The hydrogen atoms combine to form helium atoms, releasing energy that makes the star shine.

These brilliant hot young stars born out of the cloud energise the hydrogen gas still present around them in the nebula [1]. The gas then re-emits this energy, producing the glowing threadlike red cloud seen near the centre of the image. This object is known as an emission nebula.

But NGC 6559 is not just made out of hydrogen gas. It also contains solid particles of dust, made of heavier elements, such as carbon, iron or silicon. The bluish patch next to the red emission nebula shows the light from the recently formed stars being scattered -- reflected in many different directions -- by the microscopic particles in the nebula. Known to astronomers as a reflection nebula, this type of object usually appears blue because the scattering is more efficient for these shorter wavelengths of light [2].

In regions where it is very dense, the dust completely blocks the light behind it, as is the case for the dark isolated patches and sinuous lanes to the bottom left-hand side and right-hand side of the image. To look through the clouds at what lies behind, astronomers would need to observe the nebula using longer wavelengths that would not be absorbed.

The Milky Way fills the background of the image with countless yellowish older stars. Some of them appear fainter and redder because of the dust in NGC 6559.

This eye-catching image of star formation was captured by the Danish Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (DFOSC) on the 1.54-metre Danish Telescope at La Silla in Chile. This national telescope has been in use at La Silla since 1979 and was recently refurbished to turn it into a remote-controlled state-of-the-art telescope.

Notes

[1] These young stars are usually of spectral type O and B, with temperatures between 10,000 and 60,000 K, which radiate huge amounts of high energy ultraviolet light that ionises the hydrogen atoms.

[2] Rayleigh scattering, named after the British physicist Lord Rayleigh, happens when light is scattered off particles of material that are much smaller than the wavelength of the light. It is much more effective for short wavelengths of light, that is, wavelengths corresponding to the blue end of the visible spectrum, so the result is a bluish diffuse light. This is the same mechanism that explains the blue colour of the daytime cloud-free sky.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by European Southern Observatory (ESO).

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/zRze14ddwwc/130502082252.htm

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Obama to tap Pritzker, Froman for economic jobs

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Thursday will nominate longtime fundraiser and philanthropist Penny Pritzker to run the Commerce Department and economic adviser Michael Froman as the next U.S. Trade Representative.

Pritzker, a Hyatt hotel heiress, is Obama's final pick to fill a Cabinet post that has been vacant since former Secretary John Bryson resigned after he said he suffered a seizure that led to a series of traffic collisions.

Froman is one of Obama's senior economic advisers and a former Citigroup executive. The Cabinet-level post performs as the administration's top adviser and negotiator on international trade. If confirmed by the Senate, Froman would replace Ron Kirk, a former Dallas mayor who stepped down as trade representative in February after serving in the post for all of Obama's first term.

Obama will announce both nominations from the White House Thursday morning before departing for Mexico.

If confirmed, Pritzker would become the fourth woman serving as secretary in Obama's current Cabinet. She also would be the wealthiest in the Cabinet by far, with Forbes estimating her net worth at $1.85 billion and ranking her as the 277th richest American.

Pritzker is a lifelong Chicagoan who has known Obama since the 1990s and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for both his presidential campaigns. She was his finance chairwoman in 2008, served as co-chair of Obama for America 2012 and gave $250,000 to help put on his inaugural festivities in January.

Obama has called her a fearless leader for his candidacy "who never wavered, never waffled and cracked the whip with grace and good cheer."

Obama selected her for his 16-member Presidential Economic Recovery Advisory Board in 2009. When that board expired, Obama included her in his 26-member Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

Pritzker has led several companies and currently serves as chair of investment firms Pritzker Realty Group and Artemis Real Estate Partners. She's also on the board of the Hyatt Hotels Corp., the chain co-founded by her father.

She's donated generously to education and the arts and resigned from the Chicago Board of Education in March as she was being vetted for the Commerce nomination.

Froman, Obama's deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, is steeped in the issues confronting the trade representative.

He has been Obama's main representative at international economic summits such as the meetings of the Group of Eight and Group of 20. He is responsible for coordinating White House policy on international trade, investments, energy, climate and development.

Froman served during President Bill Clinton's administration as chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin. He also worked as deputy assistant secretary for Eurasia and the Middle East and did a White House stint similar to his current job under Obama.

Before joining the Obama economic and national security teams he worked in various capacities at Citigroup, including managing partner of the Wall Street bank. He also has been a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations and a resident fellow at the German Marshall Fund.

Among the top ongoing trade issues are negotiations over the Trans-Pacific partnership, an Asia-Pacific trading bloc that is key to Obama's efforts to boost exports to Asia. Members include the U.S., Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, Vietnam, Chile, New Zealand, Brunei, Singapore and Peru. Last month, the U.S. approved Japan's entry into negotiations on the trading bloc.

___

Associated Press writer Nedra Pickler contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-tap-pritzker-froman-economic-jobs-103933479.html

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Local mayor suspended as Bangladesh disaster toll climbs to 430

By Ruma Paul

DHAKA (Reuters) - The mayor of the Bangladesh municipality where a factory building collapsed killing more than 400 people was suspended from office on Thursday, a government minister said, as rescuers pressed on with the task of recovering bodies from the wreckage.

The scale of the April 24 disaster has prompted a worldwide outcry at poor safety and pay in many factories making clothes for Western brands, with Pope Francis on Wednesday likening the conditions of workers who died to "slave labor".

The salvage operation remained slow despite the heavy machinery now being used to clear the rubble of Rana Plaza, in Dhaka's commercial suburb of Savar, with a handful more bodies found on Thursday taking the death toll to 430.

"We are working here round the clock," army spokesman Shahinul Islam said. "Rescue operations are taking time as everything is being done with utmost caution."

Junior minister for local government Jagangir Kabir Nanak told reporters that Savar's mayor, Mohammad Refat Ullah, had been suspended for approving the construction of Rana Plaza.

A senior official from the state-run Capital Development Authority (CDA) said last week that the Savar municipality did not have the authority to grant the permit it had issued for a five-storey building at the site, and that three more floors had been illegally added to the building.

"We won't spare anyone... actions will be taken against all who are responsible for the tragedy," Nanak said.

The building's owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, and his father, Abdul Khalek, are among eight people arrested so far, and police are seeking a fifth factory boss, Spanish citizen David Mayor.

There were about 3,000 people inside the complex, which was built on swampy land, when it collapsed. About 2,500 people have been rescued, many injured, but many remain unaccounted for.

About 40 unidentified victims were buried on Wednesday. One woman at the cemetery collapsed into tears when she recognized the body of her sister by her dress.

EU WARNING

The European Union has said it is considering trade action against Bangladesh, which has preferential access to EU markets for its garments, to pressure Dhaka to improve safety standards.

Duty-free access offered by Western countries and low wages have helped turn Bangladesh's garment exports into a $19 billion a year industry, with 60 percent of clothes going to Europe.

Any action by the EU on Bangladesh's duty-free and quota-free access would require the agreement of all member states and could take more than a year to implement.

Garment factories, which together produce about 80 percent of Bangladesh's exports, re-opened on Thursday as workers returned to their machines following days of sometimes violent protests over the disaster.

With local anger growing over the country's worst industrial accident, a delegation from the International Labour Organization met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka on Wednesday to offer support and press for action to prevent any more such incidents.

The EU had already urged Bangladesh to adhere to ILO standards in January after two factory fires, including one last November in which 112 people died.

A European Union official said the latest EU statement, issued late on Tuesday, was "a shot across the bows". "We want to turn up the diplomatic heat on them and get them to sit down and discuss this with us.

About 3.6 million people work in Bangladesh's garment industry, making it the world's second-largest apparel exporter behind China. The industry employs mostly women, some of whom earn as little as $38 a month.

Pope Francis added to pressure for change in his toughest remarks on workers' rights since his election on March 13.

"Living on 38 euros ($50) a month -- that was the pay of these people who died. That is called slave labour," Francis said in a private impromptu sermon at his personal morning Mass in his residence, Vatican Radio reported.

Clothes made in five factories at Rana Plaza were produced for retailers in Europe and Canada.

(Writing by Alex Richardson; Editing by Ron Popeski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/local-mayor-suspended-bangladesh-disaster-toll-climbs-430-083817338.html

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Some Disassembly Required: Exquisite Teardowns of Everyday Machines

There's an art to a good teardown. Todd McClellan, a Toronto photographer who?s disassembled everything from pianos to iPads, has perfected it.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/K4X0JH_-4G4/some-disassembly-required-exquisite-teardowns-of-every-487106890

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Ireland Baldwin Posts Letter To Tumblr - Business Insider

Until 17-year-old Ireland Baldwin recently started posting provocative modeling shots on her social media accounts, Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger's daughter was best known as the subject of her famous father's irate voicemails that were unfortunately made public.

During a bitter custody battle, the elder Baldwin called his young daughter a "thoughtless little pig," but in an open letter on her Tumblr, Ireland writes that the family is now in a better place.

?My dad has made some mistakes in the past. He has spoken out of place, he has let his temper get the best of him, and he has reacted towards things in ways he shouldn?t have? but he?s moved on,? writes the teen.

Peter Kramer/Getty

A young Ireland with her famous father, Alec Baldwin.

Ireland adds that it's difficult being compared to her beautiful mother, Kim Basinger.

"My mom is one of the most beautiful woman in the world. She is 5?9, I am 6?2. She is petite and fragile, and I am fit and?. more to love tehe,? the teen jokes.

Baldwin offers, ?I am proud to be my parent?s daughter, but I don?t want to forever be known as ?that rude thoughtless little pig? or ?Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger?s kid' ...?I AM NOT MY PARENTS."

Ireland, who?recently?signed?with IMG Models and Two Management, also asks that her?critics stop calling her "too fat to model."

?I get those comments about how I am too fat to model, how I am not model material, how I am an unattractive girl, how I am too tall, etc. I understand. I don?t look as glamourous as?Rosie Huntington-Whitely?when leaving the gym. I?m actually really sweaty. Like really sweaty ...?I understand that I am not a size .008. ?What I don?t fully understand, is what is the good in commenting on a photo of a 17 year old girl and calling her fat, ugly, etc??

She concludes, ?Before sending hateful replies and emails, consider all of this. Talk to me! I am friendly. I do not think I am better than anyone.?

Read the entire heartfelt blog post on Ireland's Tumblr here >

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/ireland-baldwin-posts-letter-to-tumblr-2013-4

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How A Holocaust Denier Fooled The Internet With Nazi Jetpack Soldiers

One of the great accomplishments of Nazi Germany's war machine was a jetpack that propelled their soldiers into the sky. It was a fantastical device whose story has been told many times on the web and it would be even more impressive if it weren't the propaganda of a Holocaust denier disguised as history.

I recently wrote The Great American Jet Pack which chronicles the history of the ?Individual Lift Device.? You know: The thing James Bond flew in the opening of Thunderball.

As you might imagine, I got to run down all sorts of crazy stories and wild rumors about things that flew or might have flown during the Cold War. One story that cropped up too often for me to ignore involved ? well, let me just give you the headline from Gizmodo because Gizmodo always does the best headlines: Real Bloody Flying Nazi Soldiers with Jet Packs.

According to the common story, (and we can?t blame Gizmodo, this story has a good amount of traction on the internet), the Germans developed a primitive man-rocket by strapping pulse jet engines (plural) to a soldier and saw successful tests where a soldier cleared 180 feet at a height of 50 feet. The dual pulse jet arrangement ?consumed very little fuel, never ran hot, and didn?t require special clothing.? And oh, American scientists at Bell stole the idea, which led to the development of the Bell rocket belt. All of it is nonsense.

Despite Wendell Moore?s well-documented invention of the rocket belt, stories and folklore abound of inventors whose roles in the creation of jet pack technology were somehow overlooked or suppressed. According to the Nazi jet pack story, the Germans experimented by strapping pulse-jet engines onto soldiers and launching them over obstacles on the battlefield. The pulse-jet was the same engine that powered the V-1 ?Buzz bomb,? and seems a highly unlikely thing to strap to anyone if you expected them to survive the experience. No one has any photographs of the Himmel St?rmer ? German for Sky Stormer ? and the story is shrouded in mystery.

It is said that Americans captured the technology along with some other secret weapons and brought some of the devices back to America. Some websites go so far as to say that Bell Aerospace obtained one of the devices and Wendell Moore dissected it before coming up with his own rocket belt which he would eventually patent. A book called The Rocketbelt Caper devoted two pages to the mythical device with the caveat, ?a lack of evidence suggests the Nazi rocket packs may have been pure propaganda.?

?Propaganda? implied that the Germans said they had one, which is something that was also not supported by any evidence.

Websites that described the Nazi jet packs cite each other for support and when pressed, the creators of some of the sites admitted they had no evidence that any such device ever existed. One site sold dolls ? ?action figures? ? made up to look like storm troopers wearing little jet packs and photographs of the dolls appeared on another website as evidence that the Himmel St?rmer was real. One writer claimed that the lack of evidence on the device proved its existence; if it wasn?t real, why had the US government hidden the evidence?

People familiar with jet belt and pulse jet technology point out that the Himmel St?rmer could not have possibly been real. The engine in a V-1, known as an Argus As 014, was 13 feet long. Presumably, that would be a rather difficult thing to strap to one?s back. Of course, the engine could be down-sized, but then the resulting engine would have been much less powerful. Could this have been done?

Disproving negatives can be a difficult thing. In this instance, it makes more sense to try and track down the ?Himmel St?rmer? story to its source. Where did the story start? A writer using the name Christof Friedrich first wrote about Nazi jet packs in a book called German Secret Weapons and Wonder Weapons of World War Two in 1976. He also wrote a book called The Hitler We Loved & Why.

His real name was Ernst Z?ndel and he ran his own publishing company in Toronto. At first, many of his books ? written under the pen name Christof Friedrich ? were about UFOs and how the Germans had developed advanced technology during World War II which was kept secret from the general populace. Z?ndel explained how Hitler ran Secret Nazi Polar Explorations, in a book by that title in 1978, and about Hitler at the South Pole, in 1979. Somehow, a few readers who didn?t see the lack of credibility in Z?ndel?s writing saw his German secret weapons book and believed it to be true. It wasn?t. One writer summarized Z?ndel?s theories:

Some hollow Earth believers exhibit not just fascination with but open sympathy for Nazi Germany. The chief figure in the Nazi hollow-Earth movement is a Toronto man named Ernst Z?ndel, who writes under the name Christof Friedrich. Z?ndel operates a clearinghouse for Nazi materials and contends, as do other neo-Nazis, that the Holocaust never took place. In UFOs ? Nazi Secret Weapons? (1976) he claimed that when World War II ended, Hitler and his Last Battalion boarded a submarine and escaped to Argentina; they then established a base for advanced saucer-shaped aircraft inside the hole at the South Pole. When the Allies learned what had happened, they dispatched Adm. Richard E. Byrd and a ?scientific expedition? ? in fact an army ? to attack the Nazi base, but they were no match for the superior Nazi weapons.

We do not know if the Nazi soldiers defending Antarctica after World War II flew Himmel St?rmers or not during their epic battle; Z?ndel didn?t mention the devices in that story. Perhaps a bigger concern was that Z?ndel had an ulterior motive for spinning his crazy UFO stories. He was a rabidly anti-Semitic Holocaust denier who used the UFO theories as a platform from which to preach his theories on what ?really? happened during World War II.

Maybe his book The Hitler We Loved & Why should have tipped off his readers but the other titles he published certainly should have, such as Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald: The Greatest Fraud in History, and Did Six Million Really Die? Z?ndel was a bizarre character in that he openly spoke about his beliefs and granted interviews to almost any journalist or reporter who approached him. One such writer named Frank Miele interviewed Z?ndel in 1993 and later wrote an article that included excerpts in Skeptic magazine. The article focused on Z?ndel?s revisionist statements regarding the Holocaust and Miele asked him about his UFO literature. Z?ndel told him that it was the people who believed in UFOs ? not the Holocaust deniers ? who were the ?real lunatic fringe.?

In a later phone conversation, Z?ndel told me that the UFO book was in fact a ploy. ?I realized that North Americans were not interested in being educated. They want to be entertained. The book was for fun. With a picture of the Fuhrer on the cover and flying saucers coming out of Antarctica it was a chance to get on radio and TV talk shows. For about 15 minutes of an hour program I?d talk about that esoteric stuff. Then I would start talking about all those Jewish scientists in concentration camps, working on these secret weapons. And that was my chance to talk about what I wanted to talk about.?

The ?UFO book? he was talking about was UFOs ? Nazi Secret Weapons? Clearly, Z?ndel has no credibility regarding anything he wrote about these topics. He wrote the books because they sold and he used them as an entr?e to talk shows because the topics were so popular. He had no evidence of UFOs, South Pole Nazi submarine bases, or of the Himmel St?rmer. He made them all up. The Himmel St?rmer was a figment of his imagination.

So, no: There never were Real Bloody Flying Nazi Soldiers with Jet Packs. But try telling that to Wikipedia. (Next time when we have a few minutes, I'll tell you about the crazy Romanian who has his whole country convinced that he invented the jet pack, and the Americans stole it from him.)

---

Steve Lehto wrote Chrysler's Turbine Car: The Rise and Fall of Detroit's Coolest Creation and The Great American Jet Pack: The Quest for the Ultimate Individual Lift Device both published by Chicago Review Press

Source: http://jalopnik.com/how-a-holocaust-denier-fooled-the-internet-with-nazi-je-482770651

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Star Trek Into Darkness Clip: Kirk and Harrison

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/star-trek-into-darkness-clip-kirk-and-harrison/

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FBI: 3 removed backpack from Boston suspect's room

BOSTON (AP) ? Three college friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were arrested and accused Wednesday of trying to protect him by going into his dorm room and getting rid of a backpack filled with hollowed-out fireworks three days after the deadly attack.

The three 19-year-olds were not accused of any role in the bombing itself. But in a footnote in the court papers outlining the charges, the FBI said that about a month before the attack, Tsarnaev told two of them that he knew how to make a bomb.

Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, both of whom came to the U.S. from Kazakhstan, were charged with conspiring to obstruct justice by concealing and destroying evidence. Robel Phillipos, who graduated from a Cambridge, Mass., high school with Tsarnaev, was charged with lying to investigators about the visit to Tsarnaev's room.

According to the FBI account, just hours after surveillance-camera photos of the Boston Marathon suspects were flashed around the world April 18, Tsnarnaev's friends suspected he was one of the bombers and removed the backpack along with a laptop from Tsarnaev's room at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.

One of them later threw the backpack in the garbage, and it wound up in a landfill, where it was discovered by law enforcement officers last week, authorities said.

The lawyers for the Kazakh students said their clients had nothing to do with the bombing and were just as shocked by the crime as everyone else. Phillipos' attorney, Derege Demissie, said outside court: "The only allegation is he made a misrepresentation."

At a court appearance, the Kazakh students did not request bail and will be held for another hearing May 14. Phillipos was held for a hearing on Monday. If convicted, Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov could get up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Phillipos faces a maximum of eight years behind bars and a $250,000 fine.

Three people were killed and more than 260 wounded on April 15 when two bombs exploded near the finish line. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died after a gunfight with police days later. His 19-year-old brother was captured and lies in a prison hospital.

Investigators have not said whether the pressure cooker bombs used in the attacks were made with gunpowder extracted from fireworks.

Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev have been held in jail for more than a week on allegations they violated their student visas. All three men charged Wednesday began attending UMass with Tsarnaev in 2011, according to the FBI.

Tazhayakov was allowed to return to the U.S. from Kazakhstan in January despite not having a valid student visa, a federal law enforcement official told The Associated Press. His student-visa status had been terminated because he was academically dismissed from the university, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The FBI said that before Tsarnaev's roommate let the three friends into the room, Kadyrbayev showed Tazhayakov a text message from Tsarnaev that read: "I'm about to leave if you need something in my room take it," according to the FBI. When Tazhayakov learned of the message, "he believed he would never see Tsarnaev alive again," the FBI said in the affidavit.

It was not clear from the court papers whether authorities believe that was an instruction from Tsarnaev to destroy evidence.

Once inside Tsarnaev's room, the men noticed a backpack containing fireworks, which had been opened and emptied of powder, the FBI said. The FBI said that Kadyrbayev knew when he saw the fireworks that Tsarnaev was involved in the bombings and decided to remove the backpack "in order to help his friend Tsarnaev avoid trouble."

Kadyrbayev also decided to remove Tsarnaev's laptop "because he did not want Tsarnaev's roommate to think he was stealing or behaving suspiciously by just taking the backpack," the FBI said.

After the three returned to Kadyrbayev's and Tazhayakov's apartment with the backpack and computer, they watched news reports featuring photographs of Tsarnaev. The FBI said Kadyrbayev told authorities the three men then "collectively decided to throw the backpack and fireworks into the trash because they did not want Tsarnaev to get into trouble."

Kadyrbayev said he placed the backpack and fireworks along with trash from the apartment into a large trash bag and threw it into a garbage bin near the men's apartment, according to court papers. When the backpack was later found, inside it was a UMass-Dartmouth homework assignment sheet from a class Tsarnaev was taking, the FBI said.

The court papers do not say what happened to the laptop.

In a footnote, the FBI said: "During these interviews, Tazhayakov also informed the FBI agents that while eating a meal with Dzhokhar and Kadrybayev approximately one month prior to the marathon bombing, Dzhokhar had explained to Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov that he knew how to make a bomb."

Robert Stahl, an attorney for Kadyrbayev, said his client "absolutely denies the charges" and didn't know that the backpack and fireworks were part of the bombing case. Kadyrbayev is "just as shocked and horrified by the violence in Boston that took place as the rest of the community is," the lawyer said.

He also denied that Kadyrbayev instantly recognized Tsarnaev's photo, saying: "His first inkling came much later."

Tazhayakov's lawyer, Harlan Protass, said Tazhayakov "feels horrible and was shocked to hear that someone he knew at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth was involved with the Boston Marathon bombing."

Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov lived at an off-campus apartment in New Bedford, about 60 miles south of Boston, and got around in a car registered to Kadyrbayev with a souvenir plate that read "Terrorista (hash)1." The car was pictured on Tsarnaev's Twitter feed in March.

The plate was a gag gift from some of Kadyrbayev's friends, meant to invoke his penchant for late-night partying rather than his political sentiments, Kadyrbayev's lawyer said last week.

Michael McKeown, 20, attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School with Tsarnaev and Phillipos.

"He wasn't a stupid kid," the Boston University sophomore said of Phillipos. "I'm surprised he would do something this foolish."

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Allen G. Breed in Raleigh, N.C., Michelle R. Smith in Providence, R.I.; and Rodrique Ngowi in Boston.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fbi-3-removed-backpack-boston-suspects-room-183431190.html

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