Is it the End for Moore #39;s Law? - Computerphile
Moore #39;s Law has held true for 40 years, but many say it will soon end - Can chip designers avoid the laws of physics? Professor Derek McAuley explains how ch...

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Is it the End for Moore's Law? - Computerphile - Video

When I was a kid, I loved to read science fiction. I always wondered, "why couldn't I have been born a few hundred years in the future?", "what would life be like if such futuristic technology existed now?". The worlds envisioned by authors like Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke never seemed like fiction to me, but a glimpse of things to come.

Being a millennial I have lived through some radical paradigm shifts in technology. When I was in elementary school our administration office still had a rotary phone. I have lived through the invention of the internet, the explosion of information technology, the realization of nanotechnology, prototype invisibility cloaks, and the renaissance of not just space exploration, but of space tourism.

Listing the new technologies that have emerged, evolved, collided, and converged would be impossible, the breadth of progress made just this last decade alone is the subject of an exhaustive number of books. But for anyone paying even a little attention, the world has been trying to outrace our imaginations for the last few decades, to the point where our science fiction seems less like fantasy and more like a road-map of what we have yet to witness.

And we don't have to look outside our home to have a taste of what's still in store for us. According to Gartner, an industry analyst, sales for cell phones in the third quarter of 2013 reached roughly 450 million units sold, with about 55% of those being smartphones. Take a good look, in terms of raw computing power that little thing that fits right in your pocket is more powerful than a supercomputer 40 years ago.

According to analysts IDC, worldwide sales for tablets reached 49.2 million units sold in the first quarter of 2013, a 142.4% growth from the same time the year before. When tested using the Linpack Computing Benchmark, the iPad 2 was found to rival the performance of the Cray Supercomputer of 1985. The same iPad 2 that is sitting right next to me as I write this, and the same iPad that is now rumored to soon be discontinued, with Apple's iPad now in its 5th generation with the introduction of the iPad Air.

On my archaic 2009 iPhone, I can instant message friends, pinpoint my exact position on the globe, watch a movie, or take an online math class using Khan Academy's mobile app. I am able to Facetime my twin brother, who lives 3,000 miles away from me, with a camera the size of a speck of dirt. My desktop collects dust as I use my iPad to stream movies with services like Netflix or Hulu Plus, check my Facebook page, and play video games with better graphics than anything I ever played as a kid.

Ten years ago I remember having to take the Subway downtown to wait in line for a ticket if I wanted to see a movie, or walking a few blocks to Blockbuster to rent something already out of theaters. Remember VHS? I think most of us try not to. Now Blockbuster is out of business and ticket sales at movie theaters continue to slump, meanwhile with the tap of my finger I can watch a movie in high definition.

Most of the services and devices we take for granted today were mindbogglingly amazing just a decade ago. Today I read on Extremetech.com (my favorite technology news source) that the first 3D-printed skull had been implanted into a human being. Not even two minutes later I read that UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh will be conducting the first suspended animation human trials.

Wake up futurists, sci-fi geeks, and science nerds. We don't need to read science fiction novels anymore to escape into a wondrous future; the future has finally arrived. Want that rush of exhilaration? Just read the news.

Welcome home. Welcome to the world of tomorrow.

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Welcome to the World of Tomorrow

Charlie Mincey is shown at age 19 in his first race car in 1949 at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta. He raced for 33 years all over the South.

Today's dirt track automobile racers may have a hard time connecting the dots between the early days of their sport and running moonshine, but a Bradley County couple believe they have done that with their newest documentary, "It's a Dirt Track Life."

Producers Ron and Debbie Moore have scheduled the first showing of the 80-minute documentary for Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Museum Center at 5ive Points in Cleveland. The address is 200 Inman St. East.

According to Debbie Moore, the documentary explores the belief that dirt track racing originated from the unique driving skills of moonshine deliverymen. She said many of the drivers who were interviewed shared stories about that.

The Moores started last May with their interviews of pioneer dirt track racers and others involved in the "glory days" of the sport. In addition to interviews with about 20 men and women, the documentary includes home movies taken by friends and relatives of those involved in the early days of dirt track racing.

Also included are more than 200 vintage photographs of drivers and their cars -- some made from parts taken from junked vehicles.

Famed NASCAR racer Robert Glen Johnson Jr., better known as Junior Johnson, was convicted in 1956 of having an illegal still and served 11 months of a two-year prison sentence for it. He had started running "shine" for his father when he was 14.

On Dec. 26, 1986, President Ronald Reagan issued a pardon for Johnson, thus allowing him to vote.

While not quite as well known, Georgia Racing Hall of Fame member Charlie Mincey also made his mark in moonshine running. Mincey, who is included in the documentary, started hauling illegal liquor at the age of 14 and did so for the next five years before starting a 30-year racing career.

Mincey, who lived in Atlanta, would travel to Dawsonville, Ga., to pick up about 200 gallons of moonshine in his 1939 Ford and then travel back to Atlanta with a careful eye out for the law.

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Bradley County couple present dirt-racing documentary

Gun safety experts said this case is a reminder that gun owners need to take extra precaution.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police said the boy was inside a home on Glasgow Road near Moores Chapel at the time of the incident. MEDIC arrived on-scene shortly after 1 p.m. and found the child shot.

Police said family members were about to take the boy to the hospital when the paramedic arrived and took him to Carolinas Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Authorities have not yet released the name of the victim. Police said several adults in the home at the time of the shooting are cooperating with officers and that no foul play was involved.

Gun safety experts said every gun owner should own some type of gun lock.

"Gun owners sometimes get a little cocky. You just can't do that" said Larry Hyatt with Hyatt Gun Shop.

NC law requires that gun owners store their firearm in a manner in which it cannot be accessed or fired by a minor.

Neighbors said the incident served as a tragic reminder.

"See, that part of the block, there's a bunch of kids they all play behind this park. They get the basketball hoop. You see them, it's harder. It's even sadder when you see the kids," said neighbor John Thomas.

Police said no one has been charged at this point in time, but detectives will consult with the district attorney's office.

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Fatal accidental shooting serves as gun safety reminder

Nathan Trapuzzano (Provided Photo)

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) The murder of Nathan Trapuzzano could lead to new efforts aimed at identifying violent teenagers.

State Senator Jim Merritt is taking a lead role, arranging a meeting with Juvenile Judge Moores, police,and public safety officials to seek changes in the law that might prevent similar murders in the future.

Simeon Adams,16, is accused in the Trapuzzano killing.

Do we need a violent juvenile prison? asked Merritt.

Right now we have 70 young men in our detention facility, said Judge Moores. Twenty-one of them have gun charges.

Judge Moores is bothered by a lack of good parenting. Theres a huge parental supervision and responsibility issue, she said. That I dont see being addressed.

Too many kids have ADD, said Bill Stanczykiewicz of the Indiana Youth Institute. Adult deficit disorder.

He sees an example to follow in Boston. Over about an 8-year period, he said. They went from 60 juvenile homicides to zero and it was a combination of government, the health sector, schools, after school programs, the faith community all coming together to surround these kids with support and positive influences.

Or, he says, they will find negative influences.

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Trapuzzano murder sparks effort identifying violent teens

John Crowe is the top North American executive for Saint-Gobain, the $55 billion- a-year French construction- materials maker that traces its roots to the group that built Versailles for King Louis XIV. Crowe has been looking for a place to build another palace - in Pennsylvania - as Saint-Gobain's U.S. base and showroom.

To replace the company's aging U.S. headquarters near Valley Forge, Crowe scouted sites for "an absolutely spectacular building that will incorporate all aspects of what we know as a building-materials company in terms of energy efficiency and a sustainable, open, collaborative workplace," he tells me. Plus, a research and development center to replace the old labs in Blue Bell.

The search, extended by the recession, took Saint- Gobain six years. The company plans to announce this week that it has picked a potentially spectacular fixer-upper, an $80 million-plus expansion of the once-innovative but now-rusted and vacant complex built in 1969 by the former National Liberty Life Insurance Co. on 65 acres north of Malvern, close to the new State Route 29 ramp from the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Saint-Gobain picked Malvern after discarding University City and Conshohocken sites (too far for current staff), and after checking out DuPont Co.'s Building 730, which opened in 2012 at Chestnut Run outside Wilmington. Crowe was so taken with DuPont's open workspaces and a board monitoring computer and utility use in real time, he's ordered similar features.

"It met all their criteria," says Downingtown developer Eli Kahn, who is overseeing the project with partner J. Loew Associates. Kahn says he walked at least a dozen other CEOs through the site - including bosses at VWR, ViroPharma, and Bentley Systems - since National Liberty's successor, Aegon, moved out six years ago for a smaller Exton location.

Some were scared off, Kahn says, by the "appalling failure" of the steel surface on the building's exoskeleton. Designed to weather to a natural glow, it dumped rust down the glass walls. "The solution is what we're doing: ripping the skin off the building and putting up new windows outside the steel."

The new surface, built from Saint-Gobain's Sage Electrochromic Glass, the adjustable surface added to cool the Kimmel Center's Garden Terrace two years ago, will form what Crowe calls "a very dramatic multistory atrium." It recalls a smaller nearby project, CrossPoints, the new home of Teleflex Inc., whose new atrium entrance links and opens older suburban boxes.

The property has woods, fields, a wide pond. "Every view is spectacular," Kahn says. A river even runs through it - or at least a branch of Valley Creek, flowing below the lobby.

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PhillyDeals: French building firm chooses Malvern for new U.S. HQ

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The doubling of computing power every two years is referred to as Moore's Law. This law relates to the functions of digital electronic devices such as processing speed and memory capacity.

In 1965, the process described by Moore's Law was first written about by Gordon E. Moore, the co-founder on Intel. The phrase Moore's Law was "coined" by Professor Carver Mead in 1970.

Moore's Law interprets technological change in the 20th and 21st century and how it impacts social change.

In 1975, Gordon Moore definitively stated that computing power would double every two years. However, he was challenged by an Intel colleague who stated the power of integrated circuits within computers would double every 18 months.

In 1950, Alan Turing wrote a paper that predicted the advance ability of memory by stating computers would be able to store a billion words at a time.

On April 19, 1965, "Electronics" magazine published Gordon Moore's theory on size and memory, which explains how thousands of components will be built onto a space the size of a wafer.

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What Is Moore's Law? | eHow - eHow | How to Videos ...

PALO ALTO, Calif. Moore's Law -- the ability to pack twice as many transistors on the same sliver of silicon every two years -- will come to an end as soon as 2020 at the 7nm node, said a keynoter at the Hot Chips conference here.

While many have predicted the end of Moore's Law, few have done it so passionately or convincingly. The predictions are increasing as lithography advances stall and process technology approaches atomic limits.

"For planning horizons, I pick 2020 as the earliest date we could call it dead," said Robert Colwell, who seeks follow-on technologies as director of the microsystems group at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. "You could talk me into 2022, but whether it will come at 7 or 5nm, it's a big deal," said the engineer who once managed a Pentium-class processor design at Intel.

Moore's Law was a rare exponential growth factor that over 30 years brought speed boosts from 1 MHz to 5 GHz, a 3,500-fold increase. By contrast, the best advances in clever architectures delivered about 50x increases over the same period, he said.

Exponentials always come to an end by the very nature of their unsustainably heady growth. Unfortunately, such rides are rare, Colwell said.

"I don't expect to see another 3,500x increase in electronics -- maybe 50x in the next 30 years," he said. Unfortunately, "I don't think the world's going to give us a lot of extra money for 10 percent [annual] benefit increases," he told an audience of processor designers.

Colwell poured cold water on blind faith that engineers will find another exponential growth curve to replace Moore's Law. "We will make a bunch of incremental tweaks, but you can't fix the loss of an exponential," he said.

DARPA tracks a list of as many as 30 possible alternatives to the CMOS technology that has been the workhorse of Moore's Law. "My personal take is there are two or three promising ones and they are not very promising," he said.

DARPA's microsystems group has "a fair amount of money chasing" two programs. One is exploring approximate computing in a program called Upside; another is exploring the effects of spin-torque oscillators to settle on partial solutions at relatively low power.

Colwell ticked off a list of other routes to improving chips post-CMOS, including 3D stacking, new architectures and apps, new switching technologies, better human interfaces, and just plain creative marketing. "You laugh, but you will see this," he said, citing Intel's dolls of fab workers.

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Moore's Law Dead by 2022, Expert Says | EE Times

The U.S. Attorneys Office confirmed Wednesday that a man arrested in Brentwood on Tuesday was wanted by the FBI in connection with the 2009 killing of a Columbia man.

Rickey Eugene Big Rick Davis Jr., 33, of 802 Armstrong Lane, Columbia, was taken into custody Tuesday morning near the Macys department store at Cool Springs Galleria mall.

Brentwood Assistant Chief Tommy Walsh said the FBI had alerted BPD that Davis was going to be in the area that morning. Walsh said his officers were prepared to intercept Davis at Moores Lane but soon discovered his vehicle at the mall.

We took him into custody without any incident, fortunately, Walsh said.

A federal indictment naming Davis and three other men accused of killing Relland Stovall was unsealed Tuesday afternoon.

Davis, Deterines Cortae Weeda Cathey, 24, of Columbia, Avery Donte C-Mo Harwell, 25, of Mt. Pleasant, and Edward Christopher Big Newt Claude are alleged members of the Kitchen Crips gang whose members and associates engaged in narcotics trafficking and acts of violence, which operated principally in the Mount Pleasant and Columbia areas of Maury County, Tennessee, according to the indictment.

Harwell remains in state custody on other charges, David Boling of the U.S. Attorneys Office said. He also said another arrest was expected within the next 24 hours, but he did not specify which man was sought.

Columbia Police said Wednesday they are actively searching for Cathey, who is considered to be potentially violent and possibly armed.

According to the indictment, the four men were involved in a drive-by shooting on April 5, 2009, to avenge the shooting of a Kitchen Crips gang member earlier on that same date. A stray bullet struck Relland Stovall in the head while he was standing inside his home on White Street in Columbia.

Stovall, then 36, was developmentally disabled and worked with his brother Rolland Stovall as cafeteria aides at Highland Park Elementary School. The pair were known about town for walking together everywhere they went, and picking up trash from the road to keep the community clean.

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Brentwood arrest linked to Stovall slaying

At 8-years old, Andrew "Bunnie" Huang appreciated the fact that his Apple II came with schematics and source code because it allowed him to figure out how it worked.

"I was wondering what all these little black things on the board were and I would take the chips out and put them in backwards, even though my dad told me not to," said Huang during his EE Live! 2014 keynote on open-source hardware and the future of embedded systems. "He was right; you don't put the chips in backwards."

Today that information is guarded and protected in the hardware industry and Huang, now a research affiliate at MIT who holds a PhD in electrical engineering from the school, realized this change wasn't because hardware became too complex, but because it was too easy to improve, and Moore's Law was tough to keep up with.

If Moore's Law saw technology doubled every 18 months, that meant someone working on a linear improvement, like optimizing a process node, could be getting 80% performance improvement per year, and Moore's Law would be shipping something better by year two.

"So the problem has been that sitting and waiting has actually been a viable strategy versus innovation," said Huang. "This problem is particularly acute in hardware."

"Distribution is really the killer," said Huang. "In software, when you want to push a patch you copy to the server and you're done. But if you want to get your [hardware] out there, it can take months to years -- an eternity in software."

That means the software innovation cycle is well within a generation of Moore's Law, but for hardware the cycle can take longer than a single generation of Moore's Law, so the system has favored really big businesses.

"You can't just design a product and be a successful business, you design a series of products all at the same time," said Huang. "You have a pipeline with two to three products in the pipe, or else someone is going to beat you to the punch. So you need multiple teams of people and a lot of money to fund them."

Huang believes this has led to a veil of secrecy in the industry, because even though the details of hardware can't be hidden, reverse engineering takes time and companies use that to their advantage.

"The fact is it does take a few months to do the reverse engineering. If you're not shipping schematics and source code and you delay your competitor by a few months, you've actually bought a significant competitive advantage in the Moore's Law domain," said Huang.

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As Moores Law Slows, Open Hardware Rises

WASHINGTON Members of a group trying to unionize college athletes sought out potential congressional allies Wednesday as they braced for an appeal of a ruling that said full scholarship athletes at Northwestern University are employees who have the right to form a union.

Former Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter, the face of a movement to give college athletes the right to unionize, and Ramogi Huma, the founder and president of the National College Players Association, had meetings scheduled with lawmakers over a two-day period.

The goal is to make athletes have a seat at the table. Health and safety of athletes is the concern, especially to reduce the risk of brain trauma, Huma said outside the Capitol before heading to a meeting with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.

Among the others they expected to meet with were Rep. George Miller of California, the top Democrat on the House Education and Labor Committee; Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., whose district includes Northwestern; Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; and Rep. Tony Crdenas, D-Calif.

They intended to make clear one of their chief concerns, providing for athletes medical needs. Huma said the group also was concerned that the NCAA would lobby Congress to prohibit unionizing by college athletes.

We want to make sure they have an opportunity to hear from us directly, Huma said.

Stacey Osburn, director of public and media relations for the NCAA, said in a statement that Humas concern was unwarranted. A Northwestern official has said that the students were not employees and that unionization and collective bargaining were not the appropriate methods to address their concerns.

The law is fairly clear and consistent with Northwesterns position, so the NCAA has made no contacts with anyone in Congress attempting to ban the unionization of student-athletes, Osburn said.

Colter, however, called the decision a strong ruling and predicted it will be hard to overturn.

Last weeks ruling by a regional National Labor Relations Board director in Chicago said Northwestern football players on full scholarships are employees of the university and have the right to form a union and bargain collectively.

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College athletes take labor cause to Capitol Hill

Local More Local Stories US & World More US & World Stories By Kathy Lynn Gray The Columbus Dispatch Tuesday April 1, 2014 10:59 AM

An Indiana man found with nine homemade bombs in his van as he traveled across Ohio pleaded guilty today to possessing unregistered destructive devices.

Andrew Scott Boguslawski, 44, of Moores Hill, Ind., did not say anything after his plea in U.S. District Court in Columbus.

Boguslawski was driving from Pennsylvania to Indiana on Jan. 1 when he was stopped for speeding on I-70 west of Columbus in Madison County by State Highway Patrol troopers.

Troopers noticed a gun between his legs and found nine completed bombs, four nearly completed bombs, a military-style rifle and other firearms, according to his plea agreement.

The bombs were made from heavy plastic bottles and were filled with explosive powder, court records said.

Boguslawski, an Indiana National Guardsman, told troopers the explosives were smoke bombs used for suicide-bomber training, the troopers report said.

Investigators found photographs and videos of Boguslawski making bombs and of him and family members detonating them.

He originally was charged in state court, but his case was transferred to federal court last month.

Federal law requires registration for destructive devices.

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Indiana guardsman pleads guilty in homemade bomb case

Trevor Bayliss, the Kolkata Knight Riders and former Sri Lanka coach, is reportedly one of the four candidates to become England's head coach. Will it be the end of Ashley Giles?

Ashley Giles position as national team coach is increasingly becoming dicey after England were humiliated by the Netherlands in an inconsequential ICC World Twenty20 match in Chittagong on Monday. According to reports, the England and Wales Cricket Board has shortlisted Australian Trevor Bayliss for the head coach's job.

According to the Telegraph,, Bayliss, who is on the coaching staff of Indian Premier League team Kolkata Knight Riders, will be interviewed by the ECB to succeed Zimbabwean Andy Flower, who resigned as England's head coach after the Ashes whitewash. (Also read: 'England cricket needs total rethinking after Dutch disaster')

Giles will be interviewed over the next couple of weeks, too. Bayliss, who is the current New South Wales coach, has been part of the Sri Lankan national team along with Stuart Law. Former England head coach Peter Moores and Nottinghamshire coach Mick Newell will also be interviewed by the ECB.

On Monday, England suffered the ultimate humiliation of losing to an Associate ICC member. The 45-run defeat completed a miserable season for England, who have ODI and T20 series in Australia and the West Indies. Giles has managed the team for most of the games. But the defeat against the Dutch has been the lowest point. Being bowled out for 88 by Mudassar Bukhari, a former assistant manager of Burger King at Amsterdam airport, was indeed a reflection of the sad state of affairs.

"It never helps does it, losing to Holland," Giles said. "We wanted to leave here after what in some ways were some positive performances with a win. It has been a difficult winter. The sun will still come up tomorrow but sometimes it feels like it won't when you have days like that at the office and it wasn't good from anyone. I'm sure the ECB know that but there is not much more we can say except that it was unacceptable and embarrassing."

Giles, of course, is expecting a second chance to coach England. Another opportunity to rebuild England, with a Kevin Pietersen. Haven't the players let Giles down?

"We are all in this together. Don't get me wrong, when the guys go out there, there has to be some personal responsibility there as well, but we are a team, we stick together and we have all lost that match. It should hurt those guys as much as it hurts me and I hope it does," said Giles.

"I would hope they will know that is not acceptable. Those sorts of performances are not good. We are playing for our country, all of us, every time you put on an England shirt, bowl a ball, field a ball, hit a ball you have to have everything in it and we weren't today.

"It wouldn't be your ideal way to go out. I said yesterday that we would have the odd blip and they don't get much bigger than this. If there could be any bright side it was that it wasn't all on going through to the semis. You would have hoped the team would have reacted differently if it was. It was a little bit of complacency but we can't afford those sorts of performances in a year. It is just not good enough."

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England shortlist Trevor Bayliss for coach's role: reports

The Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

These are just a few of the many memories shared by friends and family of Rachel Schwartz of Russellville, who died March 30, 2014, following a nearly four-year battle with brain cancer. Rachel was 32. Her family was by her side.

To know Rachel was to love her, said her father, Ron Schwartz of Russellville. She was an adventurous, free-spirited soul who wasnt afraid to try anything. Most of the time, she was marching to her own drum, but at the same time wasnt weird about it. Most of all, she loved Jesus and served Him and His Church with all her heart. The world is a better place because of her life and a poorer place in her death. She will be missed immensely.

Mary Jane Pierce Sims, a friend from the many years Rachel lived in Hot Springs remembers, Rachel made me see the beauty in little things. I called her my rainbow because she brought brightness to my life. Rachel has always been there for me.

Rachel was born Aug. 19, 1981, in Russellville. She always loved education whether teaching or attending school. She was an art teacher at Lakeside Schools. She also taught at Centerpoint and Mountain Pine schools. She had an associate degree in theology from Christ For The Nations Institute in Dallas, a bachelors degree in communications from Dallas Baptist University and a bachelors degree in art education from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia. Before the latest round of surgeries and medicines, Rachel was pursuing a masters degree in counseling from Arkansas Tech University in Russellville.

Rachel had a beautiful singing voice, which she shared with the worship teams at Fellowship of Christians in Russellville and Lake Valley Community Church in Hot Springs.

Rachel is survived by her parents, Darla and Fred Rix of Russellville and Ron and Mary Schwartz of Russellville; brother and sister-in-law, Nathaniel and Niki Schwartz of Russellville; nieces, Ayden Schwartz and Kynli and Jayli Harrison; grandparents, Laverne Heilos of Paris, Van and Marilyn Moores of Little Rock (formerly of Russellville) and Carolyn Rix of Hot Springs and many aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. The family wants to say a special thank you to the Lakeside School District family for its unwavering support during this difficult time.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, April 3, at the Fellowship of Christians at 1680 Sparksford Drive in Russellville under the direction of Shinn Funeral Service of Russellville. Visitation to follow at the church.

In lieu of flowers, send donations to 20th Century Clubs Hope Away From Home Lodge, 4011 Maryland Avenue, Little Rock, AR 72204, http://www.hopeawayfromhome.org or Arkansas Hospice Foundation, 14 Parkstone Circle, North Little Rock, AR 72116 http://www.arkansashospice.org.

The online obituary and guestbook are available at http://www.shinnfuneral.com.

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Obituary: Rachel Schwartz

Wainuiomata River Swim-Spot Unsafe

Hutt City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council and Regional Public Health urge people to stay clear of the Wainuiomata River at Richard Prouse Park.

Regular water quality monitoring undertaken at the site has shown that counts of the indicator bacteria E. coli exceeded the national guideline for safe swimming on a number of occasions during the last month.

Health warning signs have been in place at the site since early March. Contact with this water could result in illnesses such as tummy upsets (diarrhoea and vomiting), and infections of skin, eyes, ear, nose or throat.

Hutt City Councils Manager for Environmental Inspections, John Pepper says, Additional specialist testing undertaken by Greater Wellington Regional Council indicates that the Wainuiomata Stream which drains the Moores Valley area is likely to be the main source of contamination at the swimming hole at Richard Prouse Park. The tests have shown that the pollution is a mixture of both human and animal faeces.

We are working with Greater Wellington Regional Council to investigate sources of the contamination in the Moores Valley area including septic tank discharges and stock access to streams. In the meantime, we advise people wanting to swim in the area to go further upstream to the swimming holes in the Wainuiomata Recreation Area. We will provide further information to the public regarding water quality and safety of swimming at this site.

ENDS

Scoop Media

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Wainuiomata River Swim-Spot Unsafe

The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the public and the press to sit in on arbitration of business disputes in Delaware, when a state judge acts as the arbitrator. That was the result of the Courts denial of an appeal by a group of Delaware judges, seeking to keep those proceedings closed to the public. If business firms do not like having a public audience, that could limit or even kill a four-year-old Delaware experiment.

That was one of several denials of review in significant cases. In addition, the Court agreed to add to its decision docket for next Term a new case on the appeal rights of state prisoners in federal habeas courts. It also sought the U.S. governments views on the deadline for filing a lawsuit claiming that the manager ofa retirement plan made faulty investment decisions, and on the right of an investor to sue over the filing of a defective stock registration statement, when the investor acquired an interest inthe stock before such a statement existed.

The Court offered no explanation, as usual, when it decided against reviewing the Delaware arbitration case, Strine v. Delaware Coalition for Open Government.

Ordinarily, arbitration proceedings are not public events, because they are a way to resolve private legal disputes without the formality of a court trial and without much of the expense of hiring trial lawyers and of paying for pre-trial and trial maneuvering. Delawares legislature wanted to keep arbitration a closed matter when it decided, in 2009, to allow state judges totake on the task of arbitrator in a closed system.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled, however, that this would turnarbitration into something like a civil courtroom trial, so they had to be open to the public and the press under a string of Supreme Court precedents on the right of First Amendment access to court proceedings.

The judges who were allowed to take on the task of business arbitrators were members of the states Court of Chancery the main state court deciding business disputes under Delaware state law. They are generally regarded as experts on commercial law, and thus their participation in arbitration was believed to be welcome by business firms and would encourage them to bring their disputes to Delaware for resolution.

The legislature adopted the experiment because, it said, it was concerned that other nations might be able to attract corporations to organize there by setting up user-friendly, closed systems of business arbitration. The system it created would give the firms involved in a dispute the right to call upon a Chancery Court judge to be the arbitrator. The records of such cases would only become public if the case ultimately led to an appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court developed the concept of a First Amendment right of access to court proceedings primarily for criminal cases. However, lower courts have extended that doctrine to civil trials. That was the basis of the Third Circuits ruling in the Delaware case.

The newly granted habeas case, Jennings v. Stephens, grew out of the killing of a police officer during the robbery of an adult bookstore in Houston in July 1988. The officer was killed by Robert Mitchell Jennings, who confessed to the shooting but claimed that the gun went off when the policeman tried to tackle him in the store.

Jennings was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. After failing with challenges in state court, he pursued in federal habeas court the claim that his defense lawyer did not perform adequately during the sentencing phase, by failing to bring out evidence that could have helped persuade the jury not to vote for a death sentence evidence of brain injury and a seriously deprived childhood, as well as the fact that he was born as a result of the rape of his mother, who told him she did not want him.

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Arbitration with public spectators? Maybe . . .

Thursday

Law:The fourth annual immigration symposium, co-sponsored by the UH Law Center, the Houston Bar Association and two other law schools, will be from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Texas Southern University law school on 3100 Cleburne St. Non-attorneys have free attendance.

Awareness:A mock wall symbolizingIsraeli Apartheid Week will be erected along with checkpoints to have students experience firsthand the Palestinian situation from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Butler Plaza in front of the M. D. Anderson Memorial Library.

Music:A flute master class will be given by guest artist Claire Jonson from 1 to 2 p.m. in the Moores School of Music Choral Recital Hall, Room 160.

Frontier Fiesta:The three-day festival of musicians, carnival rides and a cook-off will begin at 4 p.m. with a performance by A Great Big World at 10 p.m. in Lots 20A and 20C.

Art: An experimental film screening of two movies from contemporary artist Stephanie Barber will be shown from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Blaffer Art Museum.

Friday

Health:A free diabetes screening will be given to students, faculty and administrators from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the University Health Center.

Workshop:A marketing research seminar will discuss information processing for e-commerce sites from 10:30 a.m. to noon in Melcher Hall, Room 365B. Timothy Gilbride from Notre Dame University will be the guest speaker.

Energy:Americas trajectory into the future of energy and the upcoming challenges will be discussed by senior vice president of BP Felipe Bayon from 2 to 3 p.m. in the Cullen College of Engineering Lecture Hall, Room L2D2.

The rest is here:

Calendar: March 20 22

Some of America's best cancer hospitals are off-limits to many of the people now signing up for coverage under the nation's new health care program.

Doctors and administrators say they're concerned. So are some state insurance regulators.

An Associated Press survey found examples coast to coast. Seattle Cancer Care Alliance is excluded by five out of eight insurers in Washington's insurance exchange. MD Anderson Cancer Center says it's in less than half of the plans in the Houston area. Memorial Sloan-Kettering is included by two of nine insurers in New York City and has out-of-network agreements with two more.

In all, only four of 19 nationally recognized comprehensive cancer centers that responded to AP's survey said patients have access through all the insurance companies in their states' exchanges.

Not too long ago insurance companies would have been vying to offer access to renowned cancer centers, said Dan Mendelson, CEO of the market research firm Avalere Health. Now the focus is on costs.

"This is a marked deterioration of access to the premier cancer centers for people who are signing up for these plans," Mendelson said.

Those patients may not be able get the most advanced treatment, including clinical trials of new medications.

And there's another problem: it's not easy for consumers shopping online in the new insurance markets to tell if top-level institutions are included in a plan. That takes additional digging by the people applying.

"The challenges of this are going to become evident ... as cancer cases start to arrive," said Norman Hubbard, executive vice president of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

Before President Barack Obama's health care law, a cancer diagnosis could make you uninsurable. Now, insurers can't turn away people with health problems or charge them more. Lifetime dollar limits on policies, once a financial trap-door for cancer patients, are also banned.

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Concerns about cancer centers under health law

Crime & Safety Headlines More Crime&Safety Crime Stoppers More Crimestoppers Crime Databases More Databases Continuing stories More Ongoing Stories Local Stories from ThisWeek By Kathy Lynn Gray The Columbus Dispatch Wednesday March 19, 2014 4:15 PM

An Indiana man stopped on Jan. 1 in Madison County with nine bombs in his van has agreed to plead guilty to possessing unregistered destructive devices.

Andrew Scott Boguslawski has signed a plea agreement and is scheduled for a hearing on April 1 in U.S. District Court in Columbus, according to court records filed today.

The charge carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence and a fine of $250,000.

Boguslawski, 44, of Moores Hill, Ind., is an Indiana National Guard member and was stopped on I-70 west of Columbus as he drove from Pennsylvania to Indiana. He was arrested by State Highway Patrol troopers for speeding.

Troopers searched his van after noticing a firearm between his legs. They found nine completed bombs and four nearly complete bombs, as well as an assault rifle, three pistols, another rifle, ammunition and two improvised silencers, according to his plea agreement.

The bombs were heavy plastic bottles filled with explosive powder with a length of fuse inserted in the lid, court records said. Under federal law, destructive devices must be registered.

Boguslawski originally was charged in state court, but his case was transferred to federal court this month.

@reporterkathy

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Indiana man agrees to plea deal in bomb case

BORDENTOWN CITY Members of the citys Veterans Memorial Committee stood by their decision to refuse to fly a flag honoring and remembering military personnel, including the late Army SPC Benjamin Moore, during its committee meeting on March 6.

Members of the committee maintain the flag violates code.

We are very saddened by the decision of the Veterans Committee, said SPC Moores mother, Amy Moore, of Robbinsville, in an email on Sunday. They just dont get it. Our intent on presenting the committee the flag was to thank the community for their love and support we received back in January of 2011 when we lost our son.

The decision of the committee has put a huge divide in the community, she added.

Committee Chairman Bruce Throckmorton defended the decision.

We were requested to fly the Honor and Remember Flag, Mr. Throckmorton added. We sent a letter out to the Moores and thanked them and said that we would fly the flag at our earliest opportunity and we didnt.

Mr. Throckmorton noted that the committee realized that there were some substantial issues with the flag. A letter was then sent to the Moores explaining why it was inappropriate for it to fly at the memorial.

We felt it was a violation of the flag code, he added. There are no sanctions if you violate the flag code. The flag code tells you how you are to respect the flag.

The committee reviewed the flag code and reviewed it again.

Frankly, I was hoping we could come up with a compromise, Mr. Throckmorton said. Some way we could fly this flag because I know how much it means to many people in this community but I cant. I have studied the flag code and I believe its a violation.

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BORDENTOWN CITY: Committee stands by decision to not fly flag