Jahi McMath, Girl Left Brain Dead From Routine Tonsillectomy, To Be Kept On Life Support (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9wjdAmwSXClpkG7DDS6UPXDky0buAVu6lCT1Jiji6IMaOyn-RAQd88nYM2OIkakx-aT4VKWA2i86ssqdHtEfLYK-ffNei9Bkbj-ioZGob-HYJ9C_-rpB86oUy2mwmj9goLbtvjRHWOdk/s1600/n-JAHI-MCMATH-large570.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9wjdAmwSXClpkG7DDS6UPXDky0buAVu6lCT1Jiji6IMaOyn-RAQd88nYM2OIkakx-aT4VKWA2i86ssqdHtEfLYK-ffNei9Bkbj-ioZGob-HYJ9C_-rpB86oUy2mwmj9goLbtvjRHWOdk/s320/n-JAHI-MCMATH-large570.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A 13-year-old California girl declared brain dead after complications from a tonsillectomy should be kept on life support for the time being, a judge has ruled.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">The family of Jahi McMath says doctors at Children's Hospital Oakland wanted to disconnect life support after Jahi was declared brain dead on Dec. 12.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Friday's ruling by Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo came as both sides in the case agreed to get together and chose a neurologist to further examine Jahi and determine her condition. The judge scheduled a hearing Monday to appoint a physician.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">The girl's family sought the court order to keep Jahi on a ventilator. They left the courtroom without commenting.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">After her daughter underwent a supposedly routine tonsillectomy and was moved to a recovery room, Nailah Winkfield began to fear something was going horribly wrong.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Jahi was sitting up in bed, her hospital gown bloody, and holding a pink cup full of blood.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">"Is this normal?" Winkfield repeatedly asked nurses.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">With her family and hospital staff trying to help and comfort her, Jahi kept bleeding profusely for the next few hours then went into cardiac arrest, her mother said.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Despite the family's description of the surgery as routine, the hospital said in a memorandum presented to the court Friday that the procedure was a "complicated" one.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">"Ms. McMath is dead and cannot be brought back to life," the hospital said in the memo, adding: "Children's is under no legal obligation to provide medical or other intervention for a deceased person."</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">In an interview at Children's Hospital Oakland on Thursday night, Winkfield described the nightmarish turn of events after her daughter underwent tonsil removal surgery to help with her sleep apnea.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">She said that even before the surgery, her daughter had expressed fears that she wouldn't wake up after the operation. To everyone's relief, she appeared alert, was talking and even ate a Popsicle afterward.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">But about a half-hour later, shortly after the girl was taken to the intensive care unit, she began bleeding from her mouth and nose despite efforts by hospital staff and her family.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">While the bleeding continued, Jahi wrote her mother notes. In one, the girl asked to have her nose wiped because she felt it running. Her mother said she didn't want to scare her daughter by saying it was blood.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Family members said there were containers of Jahi's blood in the room, and hospital staff members were providing transfusions to counteract the blood loss.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">"I don't know what a tonsillectomy is supposed to look like after you have it, but that blood was un-normal for anything," Winkfield said.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">The family said hospital officials told them in a meeting Thursday that they want to take the girl off life support quickly.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">"I just looked at the doctor to his face and I told him you better not touch her," Winkfield recalled.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Despite the family's description of the surgery as routine, the hospital said in a memorandum presented to the court Friday that the procedure was a "complicated" one.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">"Ms. McMath is dead and cannot be brought back to life," the hospital said in the memo, adding: "Children's is under no legal obligation to provide medical or other intervention for a deceased person."</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">The family filed a request Friday for a temporary restraining order prohibiting the hospital from taking Jahi off life support or any of her other current treatment.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">At the hearing later, the hospital's attorney, Doug Straus, said two doctors unaffiliated with the hospital examined Jahi and concluded that she was brain dead. But he said, "We're happy to cooperate with the judge's suggestion that an independent expert be provided to confirm yet again that brain death is the outcome that has occurred here."</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">The family's attorney, Christopher Dolan, said the family wanted independent tests of their own because they do not believe the hospital's physicians are sufficiently independent.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">"There is mistrust and there is a conflict of interest," he said.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Judge Grillo said he would grant the restraining order in hopes that a resolution could be reached by Christmas to give the family peace of mind.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Hospitals do a barrage of sophisticated tests to determine brain death, said Dr. Cristobal Barrios, an associate professor and a trauma and critical care surgeon at the University of California, Irvine. He is not involved in Jahi's care and spoke about general hospital protocols.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">The tests include touching a patient's cornea to elicit a blink, moving a breathing tube to stimulate a gag reflex, tickling the back of the throat to bring on a cough, and applying pressure or pain.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">If the patient fails to respond to all of those tests, doctors remove the breathing tube for a few minutes. If there is any brain activity, the patient should begin breathing within a few minutes, he said.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">In some cases, doctors will also draw a blood sample, add radioactive tags and re-inject it into the body to track where it flows. If the blood doesn't flow to the brain, Barrios said, there is no brain activity.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Generally, two teams of specialists must run the tests and determine independently that the patient is brain dead, he said. At UC Irvine, those evaluations must take place 12 hours apart if the patient is a child.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Barrios said it's not unusual for family members to resist a diagnosis of brain death.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">While the hospital is not obligated to keep life support going after that diagnosis, Barrios has left brain dead patients hooked up for up to five days while family members move toward acceptance, he said.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">"I understand why sometimes for families it's devastating and confusing," he said.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">___</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Associated Press writer Gillian Flaccus in Santa Ana contributed to this report.</div></div>

Jahi McMath, Girl Left Brain Dead From Routine Tonsillectomy, To Be Kept On Life Support (BLOG)

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A 13-year-old California girl declared brain dead after complications from a tonsillectomy should be kept on life sup...

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19 Things You'll Only Appreciate If You Studied Abroad (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjufvVeQKuuTBfP63XK9BllIDr_nBIFjjBoImcDkL0ivHxNRyfX7ybOnKiqwZWQaqnf92alH19OUpzroyG89QiIJTvyjlCPLsWb3Sk-BNGCLdnr8Jg7LWz_z-BUFHy2xcA-6CBoraM2pY4/s1600/n-DONER-KEBAB-large570.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjufvVeQKuuTBfP63XK9BllIDr_nBIFjjBoImcDkL0ivHxNRyfX7ybOnKiqwZWQaqnf92alH19OUpzroyG89QiIJTvyjlCPLsWb3Sk-BNGCLdnr8Jg7LWz_z-BUFHy2xcA-6CBoraM2pY4/s320/n-DONER-KEBAB-large570.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Because as someone famous once said, "the best things you learn aren't learned in a classroom."</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><big style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">1. Contrary to every mother's belief, you won’t even feel sick if you eat gelato for every meal.</strong></big><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" />Or pizza. Or crepes. Or empanadas. Or anything in the top, bad-for-you section of the food pyramid. We’re on a budget here, people.</div><div id="_giphy_d2ItDZZumUI6Y" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; height: 284px; line-height: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 500px; padding: 0px; width: 500px;"><img height="284" src="https://d16jfyletng9p5.cloudfront.net/media/d2ItDZZumUI6Y/giphy.gif" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="500" /><img alt="Quantcast" border="0" height="1" src="http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-PdxaRL3tyJt0S.gif" style="border: none !important; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 1px !important;" width="1" /></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><big style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">2. Humans are inherently kind.</strong></big><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" />Strangers will go far, far out of their way to help you get around. All you must do is ask sincerely and thank copiously.<br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" /><img alt="453313253" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1505993/thumbs/o-453313253-570.jpg?1" style="border: 0px; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" /></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><big style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">3. Just because something is in a guidebook doesn’t mean you have to go look at it.</strong><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" />Exhibit A: <a href="http://www.brussels.be/artdet.cfm/4328" style="border: 0px; color: #239ab6; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_hplink">Manneken-Pis</a>.<br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" /><img alt="148742123" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1505991/thumbs/o-148742123-570.jpg?1" style="border: 0px; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" /></big></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><big style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">4. It’s better for everyone if we just pretend Euros are dollars.</strong></big><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" />Just forget the exchange rate, and stop converting every price to dollars in your head. It causes too much pain.</div><div id="_giphy_5885nYOgBHdCw" style="border: 0px; height: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 500px; padding: 0px; width: 0px;"><img height="0" src="https://d16jfyletng9p5.cloudfront.net/media/5885nYOgBHdCw/giphy.gif" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="0" /><img alt="Quantcast" border="0" height="1" src="http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-PdxaRL3tyJt0S.gif" style="border: none !important; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 1px !important;" width="1" /></div><big style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" /></big><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><big style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">5. Ryanair seats do not recline.</strong></big><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" />…but you could’ve guessed that from the prices.</div><div id="_giphy_6CTmBNi0zpmOA" style="border: 0px; height: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 500px; padding: 0px; width: 0px;"><img height="0" src="https://d16jfyletng9p5.cloudfront.net/media/6CTmBNi0zpmOA/giphy.gif" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="0" /><img alt="Quantcast" border="0" height="1" src="http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-PdxaRL3tyJt0S.gif" style="border: none !important; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 1px !important;" width="1" /></div><big style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" /></big><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><big style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">6. America is not the center of the universe.</strong></big><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" />There are other people living on this planet, and they live differently than we do, and they are really happy that way. It’s an awesome thing to realize.<br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" /><img alt="175929948" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1507640/thumbs/o-175929948-570.jpg?1" style="border: 0px; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><big style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-dner-kebab.htm" style="border: 0px; color: #239ab6; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_hplink">7. Doner kebab</a> as drunk food is one thousand times better than nachos as drunk food.</strong></big><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" />Mostly because nobody’s really sure which animal that shaved meat comes from. What a fun, mysterious taste bud adventure!<br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" /><img alt="doner kebab" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1507691/thumbs/o-DONER-KEBAB-570.jpg?4" style="border: 0px; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><big style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">8. Every person in a hostel is a potential best friend.</strong></big><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" />And sometimes they’ll agree to travel with you for days or weeks, after knowing you for a mere day. Voilà! Lifelong pals!</div><div id="_giphy_2JEcU3fHZcjGU" style="border: 0px; height: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 500px; padding: 0px; width: 0px;"><img height="0" src="https://d16jfyletng9p5.cloudfront.net/media/2JEcU3fHZcjGU/giphy.gif" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="0" /><img alt="Quantcast" border="0" height="1" src="http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-PdxaRL3tyJt0S.gif" style="border: none !important; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 1px !important;" width="1" /></div><big style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></big><br style="background-color: white; border: 0px; display: block; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" /><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><big style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">9. Trains don’t always depart when they say they will.</strong></big><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" />…or ever.</div><div id="_giphy_BdzRxLwEyioU0" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; height: 213px; line-height: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 500px; padding: 0px; width: 500px;"><img height="213" src="https://d16jfyletng9p5.cloudfront.net/media/BdzRxLwEyioU0/giphy.gif" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="500" /><img alt="Quantcast" border="0" height="1" src="http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-PdxaRL3tyJt0S.gif" style="border: none !important; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 1px !important;" width="1" /></div><br style="background-color: white; border: 0px; display: block; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" /><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><big style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">10. It is not only possible, but socially permissible, to wear the same outfit for seven days in a row </strong></big><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" />How else are you going to fit your suitcase into the easyJet carry-on box? All you really need are a few colored scarves… that way, people won’t notice the same T-shirt recurring in photo after photo.<br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="600" scrolling="no" src="http://instagram.com/p/hr4WjLNUZL/embed/" style="border-width: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="500"></iframe></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><big style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">11. English truly is the universal language.</strong></big><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" />And people who are learning English looove to practice it with you, even if they don't make sense.</div><div id="_giphy_kKD3A7QLIhhVm" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; height: 280px; line-height: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 500px; padding: 0px; width: 500px;"><img height="280" src="https://d16jfyletng9p5.cloudfront.net/media/kKD3A7QLIhhVm/giphy.gif" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="500" /><img alt="Quantcast" border="0" height="1" src="http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-PdxaRL3tyJt0S.gif" style="border: none !important; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 1px !important;" width="1" /></div><br style="background-color: white; border: 0px; display: block; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" /><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><big style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">12. Dinnertime in America is seriously warped.</strong></big><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" />Why did the Founding Fathers decide to eat at six when everybody else on the planet waits till 10?</div><div id="_giphy_hZwVU8ExuTuPC" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; height: 230px; line-height: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 500px; padding: 0px; width: 500px;"><img height="230" src="https://d16jfyletng9p5.cloudfront.net/media/hZwVU8ExuTuPC/giphy.gif" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="500" /><img alt="Quantcast" border="0" height="1" src="http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-PdxaRL3tyJt0S.gif" style="border: none !important; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 1px !important;" width="1" /></div><br style="background-color: white; border: 0px; display: block; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" /><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><big style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">13. Spontaneity is rewarded.</strong></big><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" />Like that time you snagged the one Euro flight to Finland in an online promo. Or when you bought a last-minute ticket to the show in Ibiza. They weren’t the most logical decisions, to be sure, but they’re memories you’ll replay in your mind forever.<br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" /><img alt="174464143" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1507620/thumbs/o-174464143-570.jpg?1" style="border: 0px; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" /></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><big style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">14. Nothing bonds you like traveling. </strong></big><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" />The way to know if you’re truly friends with someone? Food poisoning from the street fruit. Or a seven-hour bus delay. Or Wizz Air.</div><div id="_giphy_KrHaLUAF1vaZq" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; height: 283px; line-height: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 500px; padding: 0px; width: 500px;"><img height="283" src="https://d16jfyletng9p5.cloudfront.net/media/KrHaLUAF1vaZq/giphy.gif" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="500" /><img alt="Quantcast" border="0" height="1" src="http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-PdxaRL3tyJt0S.gif" style="border: none !important; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 1px !important;" width="1" /></div><br style="background-color: white; border: 0px; display: block; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" /><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><big style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">15. Studying abroad involves, on average, about four minutes of actual studying.</strong><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" />Shh, don’t tell.</big></div><div id="_giphy_GEouUbIuIAsxO" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; height: 220px; line-height: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 500px; padding: 0px; width: 500px;"><img height="220" src="https://d16jfyletng9p5.cloudfront.net/media/GEouUbIuIAsxO/giphy.gif" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="500" /><img alt="Quantcast" border="0" height="1" src="http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-PdxaRL3tyJt0S.gif" style="border: none !important; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 1px !important;" width="1" /></div><br style="background-color: white; border: 0px; display: block; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" /><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><big style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">16. Taxi drivers are some of the greatest people on Earth.</strong></big><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" />They just love to <em style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">talk</em>. And they’re so <em style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">enthusiastic</em>. And they <em style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">drive you places so you don’t get lost like usual</em>. <br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" /><img alt="doner kebab" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1507789/thumbs/o-DONER-KEBAB-570.jpg?1" style="border: 0px; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" /></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><big style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">17. Traveling solo reveals hidden talents. </strong></big><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" />You wouldn’t have thought you could navigate a Czech subway without a map… but you did. </div><div id="_giphy_11wsZr0jbXc15m" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; height: 250px; line-height: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 500px; padding: 0px; width: 500px;"><img height="250" src="https://d16jfyletng9p5.cloudfront.net/media/11wsZr0jbXc15m/giphy.gif" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="500" /><img alt="Quantcast" border="0" height="1" src="http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-PdxaRL3tyJt0S.gif" style="border: none !important; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 1px !important;" width="1" /></div><br style="background-color: white; border: 0px; display: block; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" /><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><big style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">18. The <a href="http://www.guinness-storehouse.com/en/Index.aspx" style="border: 0px; color: #239ab6; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_hplink">Guinness Storehouse</a> is a legitimate historical site.</strong></big><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" />No, we’re not proud of this fact. But at this point, it’s pretty much true.<br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" /><img alt="guinness storehouse" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1507808/thumbs/o-GUINNESS-STOREHOUSE-570.jpg?1" style="border: 0px; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" /></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><big style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">19. Study abroaders are incredibly lucky people.</strong></big><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" />Very few humans get to spend carefree months exploring the world beyond their hometown, let alone during college. To study abroad is a privilege, and an awesome one at that.<br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" /><img alt="165531339" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1507814/thumbs/o-165531339-570.jpg?1" style="border: 0px; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" /></div></div>

19 Things You'll Only Appreciate If You Studied Abroad (BLOG)

Because as someone famous once said, "the best things you learn aren't learned in a classroom." 1. Contrary to every mother...

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Slimming Advice For Men

<div style='font-style:italic;' class='uawbyline'>By Tommy Taylor</div><br /><br /> <div class='uawarticle'>A few men believe the stereotype that 'dieting' is only for girls. That is a shame, since a huge percentage of males are too heavy and also are affected by diet and weight-related illnesses including heart problems, diabetic issues, and even cancer. Although body image pressures may well be less on males than females, a lot of men still would like to shed weight. Many simply have no idea where to begin. Below are a few weight loss guidelines for guys that could offer them the information that they need to make weight reduction an appealing and realistic objective:<br /> <br /> Eat Less Food More Regularly Many men split all their eating between a couple of big meals. Because they're so busy, a lot of men miss breakfast time, have a very measly lunch, then gorge on dinner. This is the complete opposite of how their day should go. More foods needs to be consumed earlier on in the day, with amounts trailing off as the day goes by. On top of that, extra healthy snacks should really be consumed throughout the day which keeps the metabolism burning. Try having five or even six smallish meals/snacks during the day, with more targeted in the first half.<br /> <br /> PROTEIN Shakes or Smoothies Protein shakes or smoothies are not just for bodybuilders or sports athletes. A protein shake is an efficient method of getting a lot of the vitamins, minerals, protein, and carbs that you need for a day inside a convenient, easy, and tasty product. Add a shake to your own early morning or post-workout meals and you will have even more vigor, feel better, and overcome your food cravings.<br /> <br /> Weight Training Many men know about weightlifting, but a lot of them do it for specific motives associated with body image and composition. In particular, too many guys waste countless hours in the gym working on their bicep curls and bench presses. Instead, guys need to focus on entire body strength training to achieve the most reward from their workouts. They are going to use up calories, release far more growth hormone and testosterone, and have a much stronger and much more balanced shape as a direct result. Don't merely focus on the 'glamour muscles.'<br /> <br /> Cheat Day You shouldn't be frightened to mix in a cheat day every so often - a maximum of once per week. It will allow you to discharge a little psychological steam by having some foods you really like. This can also ramp up a metabolism which may have stalled if you've eaten too few calories during the week. If you have reached a plateau in your weightloss, eat a cheat dish in order to reactivate the body.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Shoot For Health And Fitness, Not Weight Inevitably, we wish to slim down because we want to become more healthy. It is thus short sighted to simply concentrate on calories in, calories out if we sacrifice the make up, balance, and healthiness of our diet in the process. Ensure you have a good amount of natural vitamins, minerals, and anti-oxidants in your diet. Stay away from nasty bad fats, and try restrict your refined sugar consumption.<br /> <br /> Build A Little Physical Exercise Into The Day Park further away and walk the distance, or perhaps take the stairs rather than the lift. This will provide you with modest chances of burning additional calories, and it will mount up gradually.<br /> <br /> Create Rituals As Tony Schwartz has explained, we are unsuccessful at making changes due to the fact many of us depend far too much on our own self-discipline. Strength of mind and self-discipline are usually extremely overrated - the majority of us don't possess as much of these resources as we would like to believe we have. Instead, we ought to create highly repeatable, engaging rituals in our day that are distinct, quantifiable, and measurable.<br /> <br /> </div><br /> <div class='uawresource'><br /> <div style='font-style:italic;' class='uawabout'><br /> About the Author:<br /> </div><br /> <div class='uawlinks'>Discover the <a href="http://bestloseweightplan.com">best weight loss plan</a>. Body wrap to the stars <a href="http://facebook.com/thebodywrap">It Works Body Applicators</a></div><br /> </div><br />

Slimming Advice For Men

By Tommy Taylor A few men believe the stereotype that 'dieting' is only for girls. That is a shame, since a huge percentage of ma...

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'Hobbit 2' Still Reigns at the Box Office, 'Anchorman 2' Stumbles (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioYVzQLYfMF3P9zKSNrUGCvMUVPC2eREeHlH0wGuB1Br_4fUxMjCLl5Jm7_p2HhZdXyZct1XSBaYEF1s3YrwC87e9UOfzSw-hgMYTLR5lSGIyMuqIyRC20c_isHLAYeaFdiHDYrhWZopo/s1600/131222-hobbit2-600x400-1387741640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioYVzQLYfMF3P9zKSNrUGCvMUVPC2eREeHlH0wGuB1Br_4fUxMjCLl5Jm7_p2HhZdXyZct1XSBaYEF1s3YrwC87e9UOfzSw-hgMYTLR5lSGIyMuqIyRC20c_isHLAYeaFdiHDYrhWZopo/s320/131222-hobbit2-600x400-1387741640.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">WINNER OF THE WEEK: Baggins. <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug-20131212" style="color: #003366; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><em style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.012em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug</em></a> did what everyone expected it to do: It earned an estimated $31.5 million, falling 57 percent from last weekend's debut. Still, that was enough for the film to remain at Number One. So far, it's earned $127.5 million, which is well behind the $150.0 million that the previous <em style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.012em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Hobbit</em> installment earned over its first 10 days. Yet it still gets to enjoy bragging rights, not just for being on top for two weeks, but also for beating…</div><div style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">LOSER OF THE WEEK: Burgundy. Pundits expected <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/anchorman-2-the-legend-continues-20131218" style="color: #003366; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues</em></a> to debut on top with a $40 million weekend. Instead, it opened with just an estimated $26.8 million for the weekend and a total of $40.0 million since its opening on Wednesday. The movie was massively hyped, but that may not have been enough to overcome a last-minute release-date shift and weak word-of-mouth (it earned just a B grade at CinemaScore).</div><div style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">Also underperforming was 3D toon <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Walking With Dinosaurs</em>. Expectations were already low for this one (about $8 or $9 million), since it would have to compete for the kiddie-toon dollar against the still-powerful <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Frozen</em> (Number Three this weekend, with an estimated $19.2 million). Even so, it premiered with just $7.3 million, debuting in eighth place.</div><div style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">DO THE 'HUSTLE': Now that the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations are out and the Oscar race is in full swing, the awards hopefuls are starting to push and shove their way into the multiplex. In their second weeks, <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/american-hustle-20131212" style="color: #003366; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">American Hustle</em></a> and <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/saving-mr-banks-20131212" style="color: #003366; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Saving Mr. Banks</em></a> both added about 2,100 theaters and, as a result, crashed the top five. <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Hustle </em>took fourth place with an estimated $19.1 million (though with only a $63,000 gap between its estimate and <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Frozen's</em>, it's possible that <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Hustle</em> will rise to third place when final numbers are released on Monday). In fifth place, <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Banks</em> earned an estimated $9.3 million. (And, just because the top 10 needed more shaking up, debuting in ninth place was Bollywood action sequel <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Dhoom 3</em>, earning an estimated $3.3 million on just 236 screens.)</div><div style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Dhoom 3</em> averaged an impressive $14,004 per venue, but the biggest per-screen average of the weekend belonged to <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/her-20131218" style="color: #003366; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Her</em></a>. Spike Jonze's awards-appeal drama, about a man (Joaquin Phoenix) who falls in love with his smartphone's operating system (voiced by Scarlett Johansson), opened on just six screens but earned an estimated $258,000, for an average of $43,000. It's hard to imagine a movie as offbeat as <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Her</em> doing as well as <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">American Hustle</em> or <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Saving Mr. Banks</em>, but that's an awfully good start.</div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Follow us: <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=bbJxak64Kr4kEzacwqm_6l&u=rollingstone" style="color: #003366; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@rollingstone on Twitter</a> | <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rf?id=bbJxak64Kr4kEzacwqm_6l&u=RollingStone" style="color: #003366; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">RollingStone on Facebook</a></span></div>

'Hobbit 2' Still Reigns at the Box Office, 'Anchorman 2' Stumbles (BLOG)

WINNER OF THE WEEK: Baggins.  The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug  did what everyone expected it to do: It earned an estimated $31.5 million...

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Jeffrey Rosen interviews Cass Sunstein about the NSA task force recommendations (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtHEnYkJx6lZd4PklsyJww7480CfVmwHO6ipqW9uJcfOb_X7tutcmMvf-ASZ2FlPrrnEsR23FfX3oUr86aNixEQ7OFKWXQ5ONWPINeeny3Hi8eh9nO9tAv7lxGglOzcPSAE-Dt3CXvCZs/s1600/NSAlogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtHEnYkJx6lZd4PklsyJww7480CfVmwHO6ipqW9uJcfOb_X7tutcmMvf-ASZ2FlPrrnEsR23FfX3oUr86aNixEQ7OFKWXQ5ONWPINeeny3Hi8eh9nO9tAv7lxGglOzcPSAE-Dt3CXvCZs/s1600/NSAlogo.jpg" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15711" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><em id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15716">On December 20, the day after the President’s Review Group on Communications and Intelligence Technologies issued its <a data-rapid_p="8" href="http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/929267/review-group-exec-summary-and-recs.pdf" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">recommendations for reform of American surveillance policies</a>, The New Republic’s legal affairs editor and National Constitution Center President, Jeffrey Rosen, interviewed Cass Sunstein, a member of the Review Group, about the recommendations in the report. An edited transcript of their conversations follows.</em></div><strong style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">JR:</strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"> Let’s run through the major recommendations, which you </span><a data-rapid_p="10" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/20/opinion/protecting-citizens-and-their-privacy.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0" style="background-color: white; color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; text-decoration: none;">summarized</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"> in </span><em style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">The New York Times</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">. Tell us about the first recommendation: that the government should stop storing bulk telephone metadata for domestic surveillance, and the data should be held by private third parties and only accessible by a court order.</span><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15638" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> The idea is that for the government to hold metadata of that magnitude creates risks to public trust, privacy and civil liberties. The risks shouldn’t be overstated. We didn’t find that government is trying to snoop on political dissenters or trying to go after people’s private lives, but there are risks in government ownership of such material through storage. The question is whether those risks are justified by national security needs, and our conclusion is they aren’t. You can have a more standard process by which the government doesn’t store otherwise private data but still has access by a showing of need. We think that transition to a more standard procedure– the data is held privately and the government has access only by a showing of need – strikes a better balance between privacy and security.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15734" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> Some civil libertarians think that even allowing private storage concedes too much. Did you consider recommending that the data not be collected and stored at all?</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15740" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> Under existing FCC law there’s an 18-month requirement of storage by the phone companies, which is motivated by a consumer protection rationale. The fact that many companies voluntarily keep this material for longer periods, and the fact that the FCC requires retention for reasons that have nothing to do with national security, seems to us suggestive that there are legitimate reasons to hold the material. The risks of private owning don’t seem high and the possibility of helping to protect the safety of the American people is real. In the face of that possibility, a system of private ownership and government access on the proper showing seems to strike the right balance.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> You recommend tightening the standard the government has to meet to access the data. How so?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> We believe if government has access to data, it has to be limited in scope, like a subpoena. The data have to be tightly and narrowly limited, and the government has to a reasonable belief that the material is relevant to an investigation that involves national security or foreign intelligence. The idea that there’s a reasonable belief the data is relevant to an investigation means the government is put to a kind of demonstration of relevance, and you have to get the court convinced of that relevance. So the model we’re trying to create is more like the conventional subpoena model, with judicial safeguards.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> The two previous administrations said the old standard of access to the data was just like a grand jury subpoena, but in fact it wasn’t.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> I’d want to leave to others the characterization of previous system. We believe that to see this as a standard subpoena with independent court approval is more consonant with our legal traditions. It deprives the government of nothing that it deserves to have access to and ensures appearance and reality of oversight.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> You recommend that the government shouldn’t have access to private information held by third parties (like telephone companies or Internet providers) without a court order. In her <a data-rapid_p="11" href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/10-1259.pdf" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">concurrence</a> in the Jones GPS case, Justice Sonia Sotomayor identified the “third party doctrine,” which holds that Americans have no constitutionally protected expectations of privacy in data held by third parties, as the biggest threat to privacy today. Were you trying to address the problems with the third party doctrine?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> Our group wasn’t thinking in constitutional terms, but we were saying that if people’s bank records are of concern to the government, the government should have access only if there’s sufficient reason to get them. We believe that whatever the Fourth Amendment was originally understood to mean, it’s right in the modern era to say that fact that people dealing with a credit card or internet company doesn’t mean it’s open season on their transactions or communications.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> Would implementing this and other recommendations require legislation, or could it be done by an administrative regulation?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> In each case, it depends on the program. There are things that the executive branch can do on its own that would be respectful of this kind of recommendation. We didn’t clearly separate the things that would require legislation and the things that are properly handled by the executive but certainly elements of what I just described could be done within the executive branch.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> The report talks a lot about the importance of transparency and urges Congress to pass laws authorizing telephone and Internet providers to disclose the now secret orders they get from the government telling them to turn over private data. Tell us about the transparency recommendations.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> They have several motivations. Justice Brandeis said sunlight is the best disinfectant, and we think accountability to the public in terms of what the government is doing is desirable in a democracy. The recommendation that the government disclose orders on its own and that Congress should authorize the companies to do so is partly motivated by the accountability goal. There’s also another interest. I don’t think anyone wants our national security policies to be having adverse effects on our economic goals. The idea that American companies would be at a competitive disadvantage for fear that their customers aren’t being allowed to communicate safely and securely with others, no one wants that. So the idea of the disclosure is to provide some mechanism for assurance about what government is actually asking. We think that because the requests aren’t are as numerous and alarming as some people fear, transparency is a good idea for that reason.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> You say that if the government happens to collect the data of Americans when they’re communicating with non-Americans, it shouldn’t be allowed to use that data in any legal proceedings against the Americans. What was the thinking behind that recommendation?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> If an American is communicating with someone outside the country, which is hardly unusual, and if the government lawfully but inadvertently picks up the material and finds out something about the American, we recommend that it can’t use that as evidence against the American if there’s no national security rationale. The idea is that section 702, [the part of the foreign intelligence law that justifies the surveillance of non-Americans], was about national security and if Americans are incidentally swept up because they’re talking to other people, that’s not legitimately used as evidence against Americans. It wasn’t intended as a program for surveillance of Americans.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> Some European countries have adopted controls on the use of data swept up in national security investigations. In Germany, for example, foreign intelligence information can’t be shared with law enforcement unless it relates to terrorism – evidence of low-level crimes can’t be introduced in court. But the Germans don’t distinguish so sharply between citizens and non-citizens. What was your model in making this recommendation?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> It was based on an understanding of what section 702 is about and how to square it with our ordinary privacy safeguards. We monitor not foreigners generally but foreigners who want to do violence to us, and if in course of legitimate monitoring of people who want to do us violence in Saudi Arabia, one person is American and it turns out to be an innocuous conversation – say, what you learn about an American involves gambling­ – that’s not the way we convict people of gambling, by listening in on their phone calls on unrelated matter. The idea was not necessarily to build on any particular model others have adopted but to ensure that the 702 program was focused on what the 702 program was about: communications by non-U.S. persons that are legitimately connected with a national security investigation.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> The report does say that the protections of the federal privacy act should apply to all people, citizens and non- citizens alike. Tell us about that recommendation.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> The basic idea is that there’s evident concern in a number of nations that the United States is spying on people. The fact is that such surveillance is done for national security purposes, not other purposes. That’s important and true, we think it’s very important to affirm that the use of any surveillance will never be done to target people’s political convictions, their religious beliefs or would never be done to go after trade secrets or promote the interest of domestic industries. We also think the Privacy Act, which the Department of Homeland Security actually has applied to non-Americans as a presumption, should be applied by all agencies to non-Americans so that there are fair information practices. That means that if people have access to information the government has, they can correct errors and restrict dissemination.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">We also think that there’s a very important part of U.S. law called minimization, where, inside the government, you’re not going to disseminate people’s names even if you have a query where you find them. The idea is that if you discover someone’s name in a foreign country, and there’s an investigation where the name pops up lawfully, once you know there’s no national security reason to have concern, you don’t disseminate. No nation treats foreign nationals outside of its territorial boarders exactly the same as it treats its own citizens, but these various steps would go a significant way toward affirming values that are constitutionally required or in our domestic law.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> Was there any consideration about applying the same surveillance standards for Americans as non-Americans?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> We thought long and hard about the options, but there are challenges about applying the same standards to non-Americans and Americans alike. The system doesn’t equally treat people outside the country exactly the same as people inside the country, but our recommendations would go a long way in that direction</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> The report says the president should require high-level approval of all sensitive intelligence requests against all non-citizens, including foreign leaders. What’s the idea there?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> This is a large recommendation, and it’s important to isolate what makes it large. If the United States is involved in hostilities with another nation or if it’s involved in some very tense conflict that doesn’t amount to hostilities, it’s perfectly legitimate to learn what you can to save lives. Every country does that. On the other hand, we don’t want to be recording material just because we can. If we have nations with whom we share values and interests, the fact that we can engage in surveillance doesn’t mean we should.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">There are many reasons for that. One has to do with respect. Another has to do with mainlining cooperative and congenial relations. The idea is you don’t just want the intelligence community, as honorable and impressive as it is, to be making the decision about the scope of surveillance. This should be done by very high-level policy makers. You want to have a process by which people with multiple perspectives — including economic perspectives, including treaty formation perspectives, including maintaining collegiality perspectives — are playing a role in the decision about the uses of surveillance.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Another way to put it, which I saw in government myself, is that often an entity, whether it’s the Department of Transportation of the Department of the Interior or the Environmental Protection Agency, has its own knowledge and perspective. That’s really important, but for an administration-wide decision, you want multiple people involved, including those who have a focus maybe that the particular department or agency doesn’t have foremost in its mind. The idea of senior policy level review is designed to ensure a broader perspective</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> The report recommends FISA Court reforms, including more transparency of decisions and a public interest advocate to represent civil liberties and privacy interests.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> This is an extremely important recommendation. We have a great deal of respect for the FISA court and its judges. We think the institution makes sense. When the court was created, it was thought most of its decisions would be deciding whether to issue a subpoena, and that was supposed to be a small fact based decision. But it turns out that some of its decisions involve large questions of law that depend not just on the facts but also on big judgments about how the law should be understood. For anything like that, an adversarial proceeding is really important. Ours is an adversarial system, and someone presenting privacy and civil liberties concerns will promote the public interest and make the court function more like a standard court does in cases that have high level stakes. In addition, as recent decisions have shown, a number of the FISA court’s decision belongs in the public domain. There’s no reason to keep them from the people, so to move toward declassification is a good idea</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Another thing we say is we’d like to change is the mechanism for composing the FISA court. It’s now the case that 10 of the 11 judges are Republican nominees to the federal bench. While we all have all the respect in the world for Chief Justice Roberts, and no one thinks he is trying to stack the bench in any way, it’s not ideal if any court of this importance has one or another party showing that kind of percentage domination. To split the choices among the various justices is one approach. The approach we recommend is toward decentralizing the appointment process. If we have a mix of choosers, we’ll almost inevitably have a mix of choices as a result.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">It would take Congress to enact that recommendation but everyone is on notice now that the 10 out of 11 from one party isn’t ideal and it wouldn’t be surprising if the next appointees show a better mix.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> You also say that Congress should strengthen the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, creating a new oversight body.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> There’s a current board called PCLOB that is understaffed and under resourced. It’s not in a position to provide the strong independent voice we think the system deserves. We think there should be a new board, whose mission would be to oversee not just terrorism related judgments but a broader array and be in a capacity to review and assess the protection of privacy and civil liberties throughout the government. This, by the way, is part of two- pronged institutional change. The other is we think there should be a privacy official within the white house, dual hatted both in the National Security Council and OMB whose portfolio is privacy protection to have an internal privacy person and an independent entity creates two levels of safeguards. One thing I saw in government is that it matters who is in the room. If you have someone in the room that has a privacy profile, that makes a difference</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> You say the U.S. should support international treaties and promise not to subvert or get around commercial encryption.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> One very important idea that has bipartisan support is that the Internet should be a free area where there won’t be suppression or dissent. We won’t create the Splinternet, which is something some people are worried about. One thing we’re recommending is that the US reaffirm policies stated in 2011, open policies for Internet governance. Also, the affirmation that we will respect encryption and not create backdoors. That’s not meant as a commentary on what’s been feared and claimed but it’s a forward-looking recommendation for U.S. policies consistent with our commitment to a genuinely free and open Internet.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> All the spying scandals dating back to the nineties have involved concerns about U.S. hacking and the government’s insistence on backdoors around commercial encryption.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> There’s a part of the report that discusses the allegations and what we understand to be the case. But the report is not a kind of retrospective assessment of existing practice. What the president asked us to do is to make recommendations for the future not to conduct an ex post evaluation of recent years. We did get careful briefing on existing practice, and our emphasis was informed by those briefings.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> You say that while classified information should be shared on a “need to known” basis, departments and agencies should have “work related” access. What’s the difference there?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> Here’s the way to understand that recommendation. There was an idea that was prominent in the intelligence community especially before 9/11, which was “need to know.” After 9/11, it was reasonably thought that could result in an inability to get a full picture of emerging threats. So there was an idea that some people appeared to speak for which was called “need to share.” That was designed to ensure against keeping things in buckets, which prevented the government from getting an adequate picture of what the threats were.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">What we propose instead is that there’s a need to share with people who need to know. By itself, the need to know model is inadequate if it doesn’t take on board the importance of separate buckets and the need to share model can create risks to national security and privacy when people are getting access to material merely because they’re curious. The idea of work related access says that if it’s necessary for your work, you get to see it, but not if you are interested in it or would like to be informed by it. We have a large number of reforms designed to reduce the risks that people inside or outside the government will see material even if it’s not necessary for their work. That’s important both for national security purposes – we don’t want people leaking practices which are secret – and it’s also important for privacy purposes – we don’t want the restrictions on dissemination of material to be violated by people seeing stuff simply because they’re curious.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> Security and privacy concerns sometimes conflict. Did either predominate in your deliberations?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> Both were important, but it’s fair to say that there are a range of recommendations designed to reduce insider threats, and those have an initial motivation as a national security protection. The risks that surveillance is designed to reduce can also be augmented if government releases classified information because it hasn’t adequately confined the number of people who have access to that information.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> Your report wouldn’t have been possible without the Snowden disclosures. Does he deserve our thanks?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> We believe there are internal processes for bringing to people’s attentions concerns about government practices. The right way to respond to concerns about existing practices is through internal channels that are ample and fair, and not through illegality.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> How likely is it that the White House and Congress will implement your recommendations?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> I don’t have a crystal ball. The president’s made clear that he’s taking it very seriously. I know from being there that if the president wants a report to be taken seriously, it will be taken seriously. I have all the confidence in the world that recommendations that withstand careful security will be considered very carefully. There are recommendations that could run into counter arguments that maybe we didn’t adequately appreciate, and those recommendations will be bracketed.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> What about Congress?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> I certainly don’t have a crystal ball with respect to Congress. We did meet with the heads of the Senate and Foreign Relations Committees both on the Republican and Democratic sides. They are very interested people with a range of views. We’ll see.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> What surprised you most about what you learned on the commission?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> That’s a great question. I had no clear expectation about what would happen. Maybe the biggest surprise was that there was no division on the group on any of the recommendations. The unanimity on 46 recommendations of 300 pages of text — it would have been a lot to expect going in that would happen with five pretty diverse people.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">We worked extremely congenially together, and we decided at the outset that if we had a difference of opinion, we’d note it. In other words, the majority thinks this and minority thinks that. It would have been reasonable to expect splits, but in the end, there was nothing on which we split.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> The report says that while privacy and security sometimes involves balancing, on some questions, there can be no balancing. Do your recommendations set out to protect privacy and security at same time?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> It’s true that sometimes a balance needs to be struck but some things compactly off limits. If some people are dissenters or worshiping at a particular alter, then to engage in surveillance of them for that reason is not ok with us. Our government does not and should not engage in surveillance to get trade secrets or to give an unjustified economic advantage to domestic companies. There are some considerations that don’t involve a balance because they’re legitimate grounds for surveillance. That distinction between illegitimate and legitimate grounds is an extremely important part of what distinguishing free country from an unfree one. Countries that aren’t free have surveillance to protect those in political power, to intimidate, to punish dissenters. It’s not as if the goals there are part of the balance. They are not part of the balance. Some grounds for surveillance are per se illegitimate.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> The report notes that some forms of surveillance haven’t made us more secure. Have any surveillance programs actually worked?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> Everyone agrees that section 702 is very useful. The 702 program, which involves non-U.S. persons, there are documented cases where that program has been a significant contributor. There is a consensus, and we see no reason to disagree with this, in the intelligence community about the importance of the 702 program. On the domestic side, the evidence is less overwhelming. I’ll let the report speak for itself, and here I’m just speaking for myself.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">I believe there is value in allowing the government to be able to get at metadata not because it holds it and stores it itself but because it’s gone through the normal legal process to contribute information to actual and prospective threats. So for 702 the record is unambiguous. For section 215 [of the Patriot Act] it doesn’t have the overwhelming character of the 702 program in terms of effectiveness.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> Section 215 of the Patriot Act has been the most controversial provision, especially as construed by the FISA Court, which would allow the government to seize any data that might be relevant to future investigations that don’t yet exist. How would your report change the construction of section 215?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> Probably most important thing in the report on section 215 is that the metadata material shouldn’t be held by the government any more. Many people are concerned that the government is holding and storing telephone metadata, and we share that concern. It’s not that government has been prying into people’s private life and going after dissenters. But there are risks if the government holds this material. There are risks to public trust, to privacy and liberty. We think that a better system is one in which private providers hold that information and the government can’t get access to it except by getting judicial authorization. The judicial authorization would be available on two conditions. First, the request has to be reasonable and focused in scope and breadth. You can’t get subpoena by saying I want everyone’s phone calls. Second, the government has to have not just a wish for material but reasonable grounds to believe that material its seeks is relevant to an investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine terrorist activity.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">If after the bombing in say, Boston, the government has reasonable grounds to figure out who was having conversations with a suspect, there’s a pretty good argument that the information sought is relevant and time may be of the essence. The idea of getting who is calling whom, that’s legitimate under standard legal rules, but the idea is that government isn’t holding material and the court will allow the government to have access only on a particular showing.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> So if your recommendations are adopted, the government couldn’t do the “three hops” analysis it’s doing now, where it investigates all the numbers called by a suspect, all the numbers those numbers call, and all the numbers those numbers call?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> No, not unless you specified what you wanted. Three hops would be a lot to ask for, and you’d’ have to explain why that is a good idea. Obviously, in the aftermath of an apparent terrorist attack either of the magnitude of what happened after 9/11 or the magnitude of what happened in Boston, our report didn’t specify what would be the acceptable requests. But if you had a terrible attack, the government might reasonably want more than it would if it just had a report of a possibility.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> Your group didn’t have access to <a data-rapid_p="12" href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115962/courts-nsa-ruling-against-metadata-collection-fourth-amendment-win" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Judge Richard Leon’s opinion</a> questioning the constitutionality of the metadata surveillance program. But it’s consistent with some of your recommendations.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS</strong>: I didn’t read the opinion after the report was finalized and I haven’t gone back and forth from one document to the other. Our report is free standing. The members of our group have a legal background, but we weren’t making a legal determination. Our task was to think about policy.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> How would shutting down the database work in practical terms?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> The idea would be that phone companies already have the information and voluntarily some of them hold the information for a long time. They would have it, and the government could get access if it needed it. The challenge for the government is what if the phone calls involve several carriers? Can they figure out this carrier was involved and this one and can they query them in away that is workable despite the fact that there talking to different entities? We believe that is technically feasible. The idea would be that government would go to carriers with a technical mechanism by which it could check the various numbers that are involved. We recognize that our judgment that this is technically feasible is an empirical judgment and not every one shares it. We suggest that if it turns out not to be feasible, an alternative worth considering would be another private entity that could hold the material. It would have to be a genuinely private entity. We would leave to others which that private entity should be. That’s not our preferred outcome, though. Our preferred outcome is that there’s a need to access the material, and you get to the people who have the metadata.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> So the current data collection system and the government database would have to be shut down?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> Yes, we would transition from a system where the government has the information to one, which is based on the status quo, where phone companies have the information.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15819" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> if you could pick a single recommendation to be implemented, what’s the most important?</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15813" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> I wouldn’t single any one. We’re committed to all 46.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15790" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><em id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15802">Jeffrey Rosen is the CEO and president of the National Constitution Center, and also the legal affairs editor of </em>The New Republic. <a data-rapid_p="13" href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116027/nsa-reform-report-panelist-cass-sunstein-metadata-storage" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15796" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><em id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15795">This article first appeared in The New Republic.</em></a></div></div>

Jeffrey Rosen interviews Cass Sunstein about the NSA task force recommendations (BLOG)

On December 20, the day after the President’s Review Group on Communications and Intelligence Technologies issued its  recommendations for r...

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Water in Ageing Spacesuit Caused Problems for Astronaut (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJotR-cXOuAf21mD6-QN4nX6C654LKAl7XMgUIEUffaOkN6juVKTO3W42Nz3fs5Oaz39aJTlbaaajxh110IGr0SVYZkvfsjziCv5qJoN_dB22YBbXTUxZEdwlcRmK-RYAH3rpLsRyAYc/s1600/ap_international_space_station_wy_131220_16x9_992.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJotR-cXOuAf21mD6-QN4nX6C654LKAl7XMgUIEUffaOkN6juVKTO3W42Nz3fs5Oaz39aJTlbaaajxh110IGr0SVYZkvfsjziCv5qJoN_dB22YBbXTUxZEdwlcRmK-RYAH3rpLsRyAYc/s320/ap_international_space_station_wy_131220_16x9_992.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_13513" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">NASA's Mission Control has revealed the problem that prompted the early end of the latest spacewalk: Water in one of the astronaut's 35-year-old spacesuits.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_13519" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The spacewalk ended short of its anticipated six-and-a-half-hour time frame when Mastracchio, the lead spacewalker, began complaining about chilly temperatures in his space suit.Expedition 38 Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio and fellow astronaut Michael Hopkins ran into trouble while they were conducting an urgent repair outside the <a data-rapid_p="13" href="http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/space-station.htm" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">International Space Station</a> during a spacewalk that lasted five hours and 28 minutes.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_13530" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The seven-time spacewalker said his feet were cold during at least part of the nearly five-and-a-half-hour walk and at times had to re-adjust temperature controls in his suit.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_13536" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Even before the emergency repair mission began,<a data-rapid_p="14" href="http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/nasa.htm" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">NASA</a> acknowledged it was working with aging spacesuits, which were designed in the same era of the space shuttle.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_13542" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"Because the suits are 35 years old we review the hazards every so often as a matter of course," NASA's ISS Program Manager, Mike Suffredini told ABC News Radio.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_13548" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The astronauts began working at 7:01 a.m. ET on Saturday to replace a degraded ammonia pump module associated with one of the station's two cooling loops that keep internal and external equipment cool, NASA said.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_13554" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The engineers raced to successfully remove, ahead of schedule, the cooling pump that has jeopardized operations aboard the ISS since it broke on Dec. 11.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The 780-pound pump is about the size of a double-door refrigerator and difficult to handle, with plumbing full of toxic ammonia, <a data-rapid_p="15" href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/nasa-astronauts-begin-urgent-spacewalking-repairs-21297124" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">The Associated Press reported</a>. Flight controllers tried but failed to fix the bad valve through remote commanding.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">During the repairs, the astronauts communicated with Mission Control Houston about the procedure. NASA's website offered the public a live video feed showing the astronauts and Mission Control.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">At one point, when Mission Control asked Mastracchio to extend the spacewalk, he balked.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"My vote would be to call it for today, but it's up to you guys if you really want to go out there," Mastracchio said.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The work of the two astronauts Saturday was part of a planned series of spacewalks to replace the ammonia pump module.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">While the astronauts successfully removed the pump on Saturday, plans to replace it two days later have been delayed. The pair will now spend Christmas Eve trying to finish the work, after NASA cancelled Monday's spacewalk to investigate what caused the latest malfunction.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">NASA says a third spacewalk would occur on Christmas Day if necessary to finalize the installation of the replacement pump module. It would be the first Christmas spacewalk for NASA.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_13558" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Mastracchio has conducted six previous spacewalks, and holds the record for the 14th longest total number of spacewalking hours. He wore extra safety gear to prevent a recurrence of helmet flooding that nearly drowned an Italian astronaut last summer. This was Hopkins' first spacewalk.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_13564" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The two astronauts received guidance on the spacewalk procedures from NASA astronauts Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, who replaced the pump at the same location during three spacewalks in August 2010, NASA said.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><em>ABC News' SUSANNA KIM, ABC News Radio and the AP Contributed to this report.</em></div></div>

Water in Ageing Spacesuit Caused Problems for Astronaut (BLOG)

NASA's Mission Control has revealed the problem that prompted the early end of the latest spacewalk: Water in one of the astronaut's...

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