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Editor' s note : The staff at CNN. com has been intrigued by the journalism of Vice, an independent media company and Web site based in Brooklyn, New York. is Vice' s site devoted to the overlap between culture and technology. The reports, which are being produced solely by Vice, reflect a very transparent approach to journalism, where viewers are taken along on every step of the reporting process.
We believe this unique approach is worthy of sharing with our CNN. com readers. Brooklyn, New York ( ) - - It' s now become a somewhat common event, one that for most Americans is signaled by nothing more than a brief blip on the news. But a space shuttle launch is still one of mankind' s most complex and massive undertakings, a carefully- primed $ 1.
3 billion explosion that turns years of planning and construction into a spectacle that lasts only a few moments. To those who' ve witnessed it first- hand, it' s the spectacle of a lifetime.
People come to Florida from as far away as Michigan or Alaska or England or Italy, arriving in droves by car and motor home, toting binoculars, blankets and American flags.
They line up along a worn river bank in the towns near the launch pad on Cape Canaveral, waiting for days, then nail- biting hours, to see a group of people embark on a completely different kind of journey, this one powered by rockets that do zero to 17, 000 mph in 8. 5 minutes.
To the fans, this is the Super Bowl, NASCAR, the World Cup and Independence Day rolled into one. The astronauts strapped into the massive Space Transportation System aren' t just rocket jockeys. They' re rock stars. Last year, when Space Shuttle Endeavor was scheduled to leave the Earth at night for the last time on its way to the space station, Motherboard. tv producer David Feinberg and I joined those throngs of space pilgrims.
Inspired in part by films like & quot; The Right Stuff& quot; and the underground ' 80s documentary & quot; Heavy Metal Parking Lot, & quot; we traversed Cape Canaveral and nearby Titusville in an attempt to capture the launch from multiple angles. We spent time behind the scenes with some folks at NASA, but our main focus was on the excitement of the fans who had come from far and wide for a grueling space shuttle tailgate party. The long waits, cold weather, and even a 24- hour delay be damned.
To the masses who had assembled around campfires, on lawn chairs and behind cameras, the event was unmissable. Eventually, the lively camaraderie of the crowd and the anxious anticipation of watching mankind' s most complex vehicle perched on a launch pad under flood lights miles away gives way to the breathtaking sight and sound of a shuttle igniting the placid dark of a Florida night. It wasn' t just fireworks. This, the fifth- to- the- last shuttle launch, was another bittersweet milestone at the end of a chapter in America' s space story, an epic saga that began with the heady experiments of the space race and even now, on the eve of the space shuttle' s final two launches, still extends into the future, towards dreams of heavy- lift rockets, asteroid landings and Martian colonies.
Lately, those dreams have smashed against the reality of the Obama administration' s trimmed- down NASA budget, a new emphasis on commercial crews, and emerging doubts about the cost and relevance of manned spaceflight. Across the Space Coast, these shifts threaten to rock not only imaginations but livelihoods too. Locals worry about the deadening effect that the end of the shuttle program will have on an already depressed economy, and fans of spaceflight are left anxiously wondering where the country and humankind goes next. After next week' s scheduled final launch of Endeavour, the final and 135th shuttle flight is set to launch in June.
The shuttles will be packed up and shipped to museums, quiet testaments to a deafening dream of flight.
For now, there' s simply no better place to see the awe, the excitement, and occasional frustration surrounding America' s space project in its moment of twilight than from the crowded parking lots around Cape Canaveral - - the place where that dream, for a few moments, becomes an overwhelming, tear- jerking, mind- elevating reality.
free downloads music Obama pushes GOP on taxes in debt ceiling talks -
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Washington ( CNN) - - President Barack Obama called on lawmakers Wednesday to overcome the & quot; selfish& quot; norms of politics and & quot; do their job& quot; in order to strike a deal on raising the federal government' s current $ 14. 3 trillion debt ceiling by the start of August. People shouldn' t get & quot; spooked, & quot; but & quot; the yellow light ( is) flashing, & quot; he warned. & quot; This is urgent. & quot; Top economic analysts have warned of potentially catastrophic repercussions if the ceiling is not raised by August 2, including skyrocketing interest rates and a plummeting U.
S. dollar. The president blasted congressional Republicans for refusing to consider raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans as part of any deal.
Congress needs to be willing to & quot; take on their sacred cows and do tough things& quot; while moving away from & quot; maximalist positions, & quot; he said. He said Congress should cancel upcoming summer vacations if a deal isn' t struck by the end of the week. & quot; I want everybody to understand that this is a jobs issue. This is not an abstraction, & quot; he said. & quot; If the United States government, for the first time, cannot pay its bills - - if it defaults - - then the consequences for the U. S. economy will be significant and unpredictable.
And that is not a good thing. & quot; Obama made his remarks during a wide- ranging news conference covering the state of the economy, the wars in Afghanistan and Libya, and hot- button social issues such as same- sex marriage.
It came at a time of rising questions over Obama' s ability to maintain control of the political narrative and boost public confidence in his stewardship in the run- up to next year' s presidential election.
GOP leaders have shown no signs of yielding in their opposition to higher taxes as part of any grand bargain with the White House. Recent bipartisan talks led by Vice President Joe Biden collapsed over the tax disagreement. & quot; The president is sorely mistaken if he believes a bill to raise the debt ceiling and raise taxes would pass the ( Republican- controlled) House, & quot; Speaker John Boehner, R- Ohio, said after Obama' s news conference. & quot; A debt- limit increase can only pass the House if it includes spending cuts larger than the debt limit increase; includes reforms to hold down spending in the future; and is free from tax hikes, & quot; Boehner added. & quot; The longer the president denies these realities, the more difficult he makes this process. & quot; Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mc. Connell, R- Kentucky, insisted earlier in the day that Republicans will & quot; refuse to let the taxpayers take the hit when it comes to reducing the debt. & quot; The debate is & quot; about holding Washington accountable for a change, & quot; Mc. Connell said. & quot; It' s about refusing to subsidize the Democrats' irresponsible spending habits another day. & quot; For his part, the president ripped Republicans for protecting & quot; millionaires and billionaires, & quot; oil companies, hedge fund managers, and owners of corporate jets.
The wealthy, he said, can afford to pay higher taxes. & quot; You can still ride on your corporate jet. You' re just going to pay a little more, & quot; Obama said.
At the same time, the president pushed Congress to act on a series of pending measures to help strengthen the economy faster, including easing the ability of entrepreneurs to get patents, providing loans to private companies for infrastructure development, and approving free trade agreements. Obama noted that America' s economy has gone through a series of major structural changes. As a result, the country' s economic problems are & quot; not going to be solved overnight, & quot; he stressed.
Turning his attention overseas, Obama dismissed criticism that his administration failed to obtain clear congressional approval before committing U. S. military forces to the NATO- led campaign in Libya.
Some representatives and senators on both sides of the aisle argue the White House has violated the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which gives a president 60 days to get congressional approval for sending U. S. forces to war, followed by a 30- day extension to end hostilities. The combined 90- day period ended last week.
Obama insisted that the War Powers Resolution does not apply in the case of Libya.
The law was intended to avoid a repeat of a Vietnam- style war, he said. In contrast, & quot; this operation is limited in time and in scope. & quot; & quot; We have engaged in a limited operation to help a lot of people against one of the worst tyrants in the world, & quot; the president said. & quot; A lot of this fuss& quot; over the U. S. intervention in Libya & quot; is politics. & quot; It' s become a & quot; cause celebre for some folks in Congress, & quot; he asserted. & quot; We have done exactly what I said we would do& quot; in Libya, Obama argued. America' s allies & quot; have carried a big load when it comes to these NATO operations& quot; while & quot; we' ve sent reams of information& quot; to Capitol Hill. & quot; The noose is tightening& quot; around longtime Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi, he asserted. The president reiterated the administration' s stance that Gadhafi' s removal from power is & quot; the primary way that we can assure that the overall mission in Libya of people being protected& quot; is successful.
Obama' s claims regarding the War Powers Resolution echoed those made Tuesday by Harold Koh, a top State Department legal adviser, who argued before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the law does not apply to American forces in Libya because the U. S. mission is limited in terms of its scope, means, exposure of forces, and chances of escalation. In short, administration officials believe the U. S. role in Libya does not meet the law' s definition of hostilities. Obama, however, overruled contrary legal opinions put forward by both the Pentagon and the Justice Department' s Office of Legal Counsel in declining to seek congressional authorization, according to the New York Times.
On Afghanistan, Obama insisted that the United States and its allies & quot; can be successful in our mission, which is narrowly drawn. & quot; The president, who recently announced the withdrawal of 33, 000 American & quot; surge& quot; troops by next summer, declined to use the word & quot; victory& quot; in reference to winding down the Afghan military mission.
He instead stressed the success of U. S. forces in dismantling al Qaeda and preparing Afghan forces to assume responsibility for the country' s security.
Noting this week' s bombing of Kabul' s Inter- Continental Hotel, he warned that the violence in Afghanistan will likely continue for & quot; some time. & quot; Turning to the debate over same- sex marriage, Obama refused to provide new specifics about his personal opinion. A supporter of civil unions, he has indicated in the past that his views on the matter are & quot; evolving. & quot; He noted, however, that his administration has stopped defending the federal Defense of Marriage Act against legal challenges. Obama argued it is up to states to determine if they will legalize same- sex marriage, as New York recently did. & quot; The president, I' ve discovered since I' ve been in office, can' t dictate precisely how this process moves, & quot; the president said. The nation is & quot; moving toward greater equality, & quot; Obama added. & quot; I think that' s a good thing. & quot;
stafaband download mp3 Mystery cough? 8 possible culprits -
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( ) - - You' ve been coughing for weeks. How do you know if it' s just a hard- to- shake cold or something more serious?
A chronic cough, defined as lasting more than eight weeks, is not uncommon. Up to 40 percent of nonsmokers in the United States and Europe have reported a chronic cough at some point, and coughing is one of the five most common reasons for a doctor' s visit.
Only a doctor can tell for sure what' s behind your endless hacking. However, in a 2006 study of women with an average age of 48 who had a cough lasting for six months, 39 percent were found to have asthma, 9 percent had chronic upper airway cough syndrome ( commonly known as postnasal drip) , and 9 percent had gastroesophageal reflux disease ( GERD) .
In addition, another 11 percent had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD) , a serious, progressive disease that includes both emphysema and bronchitis. While not all people who develop COPD are smokers, people who smoke are at higher risk. Overall, 24 million Americans - - about 1 in 12 people - - have COPD, although half don' t know they have the disease.
Asthma and allergies Asthma is a chronic lung disease in which the airways in the lungs are prone to inflammation and swelling.
Along with chest tightness, shortness of breath, and wheezing, coughing is a characteristic symptom of asthma, one which tends to intensify at night or in the early morning. When the symptoms of asthma flare up suddenly, it' s known as an asthma attack.
Although it can begin at any age, asthma usually develops in childhood. Asthma triggers are different for everyone, and they can include exercise, colds, cigarette smoke and other airborne irritants, and certain foods. Asthmatics usually also have allergies.
Even in people without asthma, inhaling pollen, dust, pet dander, and other airborne irritants can trigger allergic rhinitis, an allergic reaction that can cause coughing, along with symptoms such as stuffy nose and sneezing. You may be able to determine whether your cough is caused by allergies by keeping track of whether it comes and goes in certain situations. If your coughing magically stops when you step into an air- conditioned room on a dry, pollen- heavy day, or if gets worse every time you pet Mittens, you probably have allergies. If you' re not sure what' s triggering your allergic cough, your doctor can give you a skin test or blood test to pinpoint the allergy. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease One condition that can cause a nagging cough is COPD, a lung condition that includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema.
COPD occurs when the airways and air sacs in the lungs become inflamed or damaged, most often due to smoking, and is more common after age 45. In COPD, the lungs produce excess mucus, which the body reflexively tries to clear by coughing.
COPD- related tissue damage can also make it particularly difficult to expel air from the lungs, which can make you feel short of breath. Your doctor may check you for COPD ( particularly if you have risk factors, such as smoking) , after ruling out other common causes of cough. To determine if you have COPD, your doctor is likely to conduct some tests, including spirometry, which involves inhaling as deeply as you can and then exhaling into a tube. Gastroesophageal reflux disease GERD is an ailment of the stomach and esophagus that occurs when stomach acid backs up into the esophagus due to a weak valve. The main symptoms?
Killer heartburn. But coughing is another common symptom of GERD, along with chest pain and wheezing. In fact, GERD is a fairly common, and unrecognized, cause of a chronic cough. Respiratory tract infection Coughing is one of the most common symptoms of colds and flu and other respiratory tract infections.
The other symptoms that accompany colds and flu, such as stuffy nose and a fever, are telltale signs that a viral infection is causing your cough. However, a cough can outlast all those other symptoms, perhaps because the air passages in your lungs remain sensitive and inflamed. When this occurs, it' s called chronic upper airway cough syndrome ( or postnasal drip) .
A more serious respiratory tract infection is pneumonia, which can be caused by bacteria or viruses. A cough, often producing a greenish or rust- colored mucus, is one of the characteristic symptoms of the illness, along with fever, chills, chest pain, weakness, fatigue, and nausea.
These symptoms may present differently depending on your age; older adults may not experience a fever, for instance, or they may have a cough but no mucus.
Pneumonia is treated with antibiotics and generally clears up within two or three weeks. As with the cold and flu, however, the cough can linger for much longer. A form of pneumonia known as mycoplasma, or walking pneumonia, shares the symptoms of pneumonia ( including cough) and is more common in people under the age of 40. People who have COPD can be more susceptible to such respiratory tract infections, and may experience exacerbations episodes of potentially life- threatening shortness of breath when they catch a cold or breath in air pollution or other irritants.
Air pollution Various pollutants and irritants in the air can cause a persistent cough.
Even short- term exposure to fumes ( such as diesel exhaust) can result in cough, phlegm, and lung irritation, for instance. Fumes can also exacerbate the symptoms of allergies or asthma. Similarly, mold spores found in and around homes can cause wheezing and coughing when inhaled.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans reported a sudden spike in persistent cough complaints among returning residents. This so- called Katrina cough was believed to stem from the mold caused by the flooding, as well as by dry weather and the construction dust that was then ubiquitous in the city. Acute bronchitis If you' re on the verge of recovering from a cold and suddenly develop a hacking, mucus- y cough, you probably have acute bronchitis, a condition in which the passageways in your lungs become infected and inflamed.
In addition to coughing and chest congestion, bronchitis can produce fever, chills, aches, sore throat, and other flu- like symptoms. These symptoms usually disappear within a few days, but the cough can persist for weeks. If your cough doesn' t go away, or if you develop acute bronchitis frequently, it may be a sign of a more serious condition.
Acute bronchitis acute means short- term is different from chronic bronchitis. Chronic bronchitis is a condition in which the lungs produce excess mucus due to ongoing irritation, and is considered a form of COPD. ACE inhibitors ACE inhibitors are a type of medication used to treat high blood pressure and heart failure.
About 42 million prescriptions for ACE inhibitors are written each year, and about 1 in 5 people who take the drugs develop a dry cough. In some people, the cough can persist for weeks after they stop taking the medication; women, African Americans, and Asians may be at greater risk of developing an ACE inhibitor cough than other people. You should never stop taking a prescribed medication without consulting with your doctor, and ACE inhibitors are important medications for lowering blood pressure ( a more serious condition than a cough. ) Consult your doctor if you think your cough is related to a medication.
Pertussis Also known as whooping cough, pertussis is a bacterial disease with symptoms that include a slight fever, a runny nose, and, most notably, a violent cough that can make breathing difficult.
Attempting to inhale air into the lungs between coughs can produce a distinctive, high- pitched whooping sound. After the initial stage, many people do not have a fever, but the chronic cough that accompanies pertussis can last for many weeks. Most infants receive a pertussis vaccine, but its effectiveness subsides after about 10 years. Inadequate vaccination for pertussis ( which is the & quot; P& quot; in the DPT shot) is one reason why the bacteria are making a comeback. Once a very rare cause of chronic cough, the number of pertussis cases in the United States has risen alarmingly in recent years, especially among adolescents and adults.
However, pertussis is still a relatively uncommon cause of chronic cough. to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from My. Home. Ideas. com Copyright
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( CNN) - - Facebook' s computer systems will soon be able to recognize familiar faces. Facebook is making changes to the process for tagging friends in photos uploaded to the social network, the company announced on Tuesday.
Starting in a few weeks, the system will scan all images posted to Facebook and suggest the names of people who appear in the frame.
Last year, Facebook began rolling the out to a test group. Facebook' s more than 500 million users have been automatically included in the database, but the company is allowing each person to choose whether to be identified by toggling a pane in the account' s . The option is called & quot; suggest photos of me to friends& quot; within the & quot; customize settings& quot; page. The tool would still scan that person' s face and figure out who it is, but it won' t display that information. People can still manually tag friends.
The news sparked a small brushfire of media hostility. Bloggers characterized the tool - - and Facebook' s decision not to ask before including everyone - - as unsettling while others urged readers to opt out. Facebook said on Wednesday it had made mistakes with the release. & quot; We should have been more clear with people during the roll- out process when this became available to them, & quot; a spokeswoman said. & quot; Tag Suggestions are now available in most countries, and we' ll post further updates to our blog over time. & quot; an application that would let someone snap a picture of a person' s face using a smartphone in order to find out who the subject is, Eric Schmidt, the search giant' s executive chairman and former CEO, said at a conference last week. Schmidt believed it to be the first time Google engineers had completed a project and decided to shutter it for privacy reasons, he said.
The work on has not gone to waste. It' s used to preserve privacy by blurring faces in Google' s Street View mapping project, Hartmut Neven, the engineering director for image recognition, said in a recent interview. When asked whether he would be frustrated if Facebook beat his team to releasing a face- recognition product, Neven said: & quot; Let them get burd first. There would be some backlash. & quot; Photo- management software such as Google' s Picasa and Apple' s i. Photo provide a similar feature.
They pore over a person' s snapshots in an attempt to group each person together by facial features. Google has not enabled this feature on the online version of its photo software, called Picasa Web Albums. Limited to a small sampling of the few hundred photos on a person' s computer, these systems . With the largest photo- sharing service in Facebook scanning millions of pictures daily, these algorithms are no doubt learning quickly. More than 100 million photos per day are uploaded to Facebook, according to a company statement.
The face- scanning feature actually runs counter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg' s comments to reporters in November. & quot; Before people- tagging came out, I think most people would have said that the best way to figure out who' s in photos was to have some face- recognition algorithm, & quot; he said. & quot; But it actually turns out that the best way is to just have people tagged. & quot; Some experts agree with Zuckerberg' s apparently outdated statements. & quot; Face technology will never work in gigantic- large databases, & quot; said Ipplex CEO Orang Dialameh, who has worked with Neven in the past. However, & quot; if you limit the database - - say, I' m trying to recognize someone in the 400 contacts that I have on Facebook, & quot; then face scanning could be effective, he said. Facebook users who have installed an app called Photo Finder can already have faces in their photos scanned and identified.
The 3- year- old app has looked at more than 23 billion images, said Gil Hirsch, the CEO of Face. com, which develops the service. With Facebook poised to offer essentially the same functionality, Face. com will instead focus on partnerships with developers, Hirsch wrote in an e- mailed statement Tuesday night. & quot; As long as their products provide value to consumers while protecting their privacy, we will always be supportive of companies using this technology, & quot; he said.
Your doctor or a mental health provider may suggest medications or behavior therapy or both to treat phobias. Most adults don' t get better on their own and may require some type of treatment.
The goal of phobia treatment is to reduce your anxiety and fear and to help you better manage your reactions to the object or situation that causes them. Medications Beta blockers. These medications work by blocking the stimulating effects of adrenaline on your body, such as increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, pounding heart, and shaking voice and limbs. Beta blockers can be very effective for people who have severe stage fright.
Antidepressants. Antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors ( SSRIs) are commonly used in the treatment of phobias. These medications act on the chemical serotonin, a neurotransmitter in your brain that' s believed to influence mood.
SSRIs include citalopram ( Celexa) , escitalopram ( Lexapro) , fluoxetine ( Prozac) , paroxetine ( Paxil) and sertraline ( Zoloft) . If SSRIs aren' t effective or cause intolerable side effects, such as restlessness, insomnia, headache, diarrhea or sexual problems, your doctor may prescribe another type of antidepressant, such as a monoamine oxidase inhibitor ( MAOI) . Sedatives. Medications called benzodiazepines help you relax by reducing the amount of anxiety that you feel.
They include lorazepam ( Ativan) , diazepam ( Valium) , alprazolam ( Niravam, Xanax) and chlordiazepoxide ( Librium) . Sedatives need to be used with caution because they can be addictive and should be avoided if you have a history of alcohol or drug dependence. Desensitization or exposure therapy focuses on changing your response to the object or situation that you fear, and may be helpful for specific phobias. Gradual, repeated exposure to the cause of your phobia may help you learn to conquer your anxiety.
For example, if you' re afraid of flying, your therapy may progress from simply thinking about flying to looking at pictures of airplanes, to going to an airport, to sitting in an airplane, and finally to taking a flight. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a more comprehensive form of therapy.
It involves working with a therapist to learn ways to view and cope with the feared object or situation differently. You learn alternative beliefs about your fears and the impact they have on your life. There' s special emphasis on learning to develop a sense of mastery and control of your thoughts and feelings. Specific phobias usually are treated with behavioral therapy.
Social phobias may be treated with antidepressants or beta blockers, along with behavior therapy. Agoraphobia, especially when it' s accompanied by a panic disorder, is usually treated with SSRIs and behavior therapy. & copy; 1998- 2011 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research ( MFMER) .
