WASHINGTON (AP) ? The former director of the CIA and National Security Agency says the government should release more information about its secretive surveillance programs to reassure Americans that their privacy rights are being protected.
Michael Hayden said Sunday he believes the public will be more comfortable with the programs that gather phone and Internet records from around the world if people know more about how they are carried out and why.
Hayden also defended a secret court that approves government requests to gather the records. Critics say the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has served as a rubber stamp to the requests instead of challenging government attorneys on whether the information is needed or gathered properly.
Hayden is now a security consultant and university professor. His comment came on CBS' "Face The Nation."
NASA has permanently turned off one of its prized workhorses, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) after a decade of its launch. (Photo : NASA/JPL-Caltech)
NASA permanently turned off one of its prized workhorses, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), after a decade of its launch.
After 10 years of service, NASA finally decided to retire?GALEX?that used its ultraviolet vision to study hundreds of millions of galaxies across 10 billion years of cosmic time.
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"GALEX is a remarkable accomplishment," Jeff Hayes, NASA's GALEX program executive in Washington said in a press statement. "This small Explorer mission has mapped and studied galaxies in the ultraviolet, light we cannot see with our own eyes, across most of the sky."
On Friday signals to decommission GALEX was sent by operators at Orbital Sciences Corporation in Dulles, Va. The signals were sent on June 28 at around 3.09 p.m. EDT. For the next 65 years the spacecraft will stay in orbit and then fall to Earth and then self burn before re-entering the Earth's atmosphere.
Prior to this, GALEX received an extension three times during which it met its prime objectives and conducted its set missions.
Few of the famous highlights of GALEX's mission included the discovery of a gargantuan comet-like tail behind a speeding star called Mira, spotting a black hole as it fed on a star and tracing giant rings of new stars around old and dead galaxies. It independently confirmed the nature of dark energy and it also identified the missing link in galaxy evolution.
?In May 2012, NASA loaned GALEX to Caltech. Since then GALEX had been used by investigators to study stars in Milky Way galaxy and other galaxies 5 billion light years away. GALEX scanned the sky for huge, feeding black holes as well as shock waves received from early supernova explosions.
"GALEX, the mission, may be over, but its science discoveries will keep on going," said Kerry Erickson, the mission's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.
?2013 ScienceWorldReport.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The window to the world of science news.
Dog buries puppy: A video of a dog compassionately burying a puppy in Iraq has gone viral. Why?
By Elizabeth Barber,?Contributor / June 25, 2013
A video of a dog compassionately burying a dead puppy has gone viral. That the video garners such attention among humans is perhaps a reflection on how we see the world ? as much as the how a canine in mourning behaves.
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Elizabeth Barber is an intern on The Christian Science Monitor?s Web desk. She holds a master?s degree from Columbia Journalism School and a bachelor?s degree in International Relations and English from SUNY Geneseo. Before coming to the Monitor, she was a freelance reporter at DNAinfo, a New York City breaking news site. She has also been an intern at The Cambodia Daily, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and at Washington D.C.?s The Middle East Journal.
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In the video, whose title translates from Arabic to ?dog buries his son in Iraq,? a dog gently sniffs the puppy ? found in a ditch with empty water bottles ? then proceeds to tenderly bury it, nudging with his nose the sand and dirt over the little body. In the background, three men talk inaudibly in Arabic while the dog works and then call out, in English, ?thank you very much? as the dog finishes and leaves.?
The video does not give any other information about the scene, such as where exactly it was shot, who took the video, the relationship between the two dogs, or how the puppy died.
The video, posted last week to YouTube, has since gone viral. There?s nothing that web audiences like more than animals behaving like people, especially when that animal is replicating our kindest, most selfless practices. Last month, an Oklahoma zoo captured a lion and a puppy "kissing."? Last year, a video of a dog assuming maternal duties for an abandoned kitten also went viral, as did another video of a dog trying to push a dog that a car had just hit and killed out of a road. Other videos of dogs standing sentry at the graves of their owners or crying for deceased animal friends have also made the Internet rounds.
Humans have a tendency to anthropomorphize the animal kingdom. But these videos arguably offer a portrait of a moral animal who embodies the best in human behavior.
"Grief is one of the basic emotions dogs experience, just like people, Dr. Sophia Yin, a San Francisco-based veterinarian and applied animal behaviorist, told HealthDay.com. Dogs also feel fear, happiness, sadness, anger, as well as possessiveness.
While dogs do experience emotion, the recognizable behavior through which dogs express that emotion is probably learned from humans, say some scientists. Studies have found that dogs have an extraordinary capacity to learn and mimic human behavior.?Two years ago,?researchers found?that dogs learn from their owner?s facial cues to perform good behavior when their owner is watching and to save the misbehavior until their owner?s back is turned, like a wised-up child pilfering from the cookie jar.
Does that mean this dog in Iraq learned from its owners how to mourn the loss of a child? We don't know. Certainly, Iraq has been a venue for some of the worst in human behavior in recent years. But the fact that "even dogs" can express compassion is perhaps why we respond so well to such videos: They are encouraging, hopeful reminders that such actions are natural to all beings, including humans.
OS X and iOS: Previously mentioned Sparkbox?an app that stores and organizes anything you find inspiring, like a private Pinterist?is available at a large discount today on multiple platforms. The Mac app drops from $20 to $6, and the iPhone app from $5 to $2.
When I first reviewed Sparkbox I really liked it because it provided a solid, free alternative to its competition on the Mac. Shortly after the review, Sparkbox started charging $20. While it serves as a handy tool for cataloging images and other inspiring things you find on the web (or on your computer, for that matter), we found it overpriced. Now you can pick it up?today only?for the much more reasonable price of $6. You can also find its iOS counterpart for $2 if you want that as well.
Sparkbox for Mac and iOS | Mac App Store / iTunes App Store
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN | Sun Jun 30, 2013 10:28am BST
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Reuters) - The Philippines hit out at China on Sunday over the "increasing militarization" of the South China Sea as tensions between the neighbours flared amid slow-moving regional efforts to forge a compromise over one of Asia's naval flashpoints.
The rebuke by Philippine Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario at a regional summit in Brunei came a day after China's state media warned of an inevitable "counterstrike" against the Philippines if it continued to provoke Beijing.
Friction between China and the Philippines over disputed territories in the oil and gas rich sea has surged since last year due to several naval stand-offs and fraying diplomatic efforts to forge a regional agreement on maritime conduct.
The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) hopes to persuade Beijing to join talks on a proposed Code of Conduct (CoC) this year, but China's naval action has alarmed some nations, particularly the Philippines and Vietnam.
Most recently, the Philippines accused China of encroaching on its territory after three Chinese ships converged just 5 nautical miles (9 km) from a small reef where the Philippines maintains a small military force.
This month the Philippines moved more troops and supplies to the reef, which is within its 200-nautical mile (370 km) economic exclusion zone. China, which does not recognise the zone, condemned it as an "illegal occupation".
Del Rosario said the "massive" presence of Chinese military and paramilitary ships at the Second Thomas shoal and at another reef called the Scarborough Shoal - the site of a tense standoff last year - was a threat to regional peace.
"The statement on counterstrike is an irresponsible one. We condemn any threats of use of force," Del Rosario told reporters in Brunei following a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers.
He said the ministers had discussed China's ongoing "illegal" occupation of the Scarborough Shoal, which is just 124 nautical miles (230 km) of the Philippine coast.
EXPANSIVE CLAIMS
China and the Philippines have accused each other of flouting a confidence-building 2002 "declaration of conduct" agreed by ASEAN and Beijing. China has appeared in little hurry to begin negotiations on a more comprehensive deal.
"A declaration of conduct is the foundation we need to lay before we can start working on a CoC," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in Brunei.
"Both sides have to create that basis before we can move forward. It is a process, a step-by-step process."
The worsening dispute comes as Philippine-ally the United States, which says it has a national interest in freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, shifts its military attention back to Asia. Secretary of State John Kerry is due to arrive in Brunei on Monday to join the regional summit.
Critics say China is intent on cementing its vast claims over the sea through its superior and growing naval might, and has little interest in rushing to agree a code of conduct with ASEAN nations, four of which have competing claims.
Divisions among ASEAN over the maritime dispute burst into the open a year ago when a summit chaired by Chinese ally Cambodia failed to issue a closing communique for the first time in the group's 45-year history.
(Additional reporting by Megha Rajagopalan; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
PRAGUE (AP) ? An international film festival in the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary is bestowing its Crystal Globe awards on actor John Travolta and director Oliver Stone for outstanding contributions to world cinema.
Travolta is receiving his award on Friday, the opening day of the 48th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Stone has to wait for the final day, July 6.
Fourteen movies are competing for top honors, including "A Field in England" directed by Ben Wheatley, and U.S.-Swedish production "Bluebird" by director Lance Edmands.
The grand jury is led by Polish director Agnieszka Holland.
The festival, known for its relaxed atmosphere, features some 200 movies.
JERUSALEM (AP) ? U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry kept up his frenetic Mideast diplomacy Saturday, shuttling again between Palestinian and Israeli leaders in hopes of restarting peace talks.
Kerry met for two hours with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman, Jordan in what was their second set of discussions in two days.
He planned more talks in the evening with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem after the two held two meetings over the past two days.
U.S., Israeli and Palestinian officials have declined to disclose details of the talks.
"Working hard," is all Kerry would say when a reporter asked him before the latest Abbas meeting whether he was making progress.
Kerry, who is on a two-week swing through the Mideast and Asia, has conducted the meetings at a breakneck pace. He even cancelled a stop in Abu Dhabi because of extended discussions on the Mideast peace process.
He had a four-hour dinner meeting with Netanyahu Thursday night in Jerusalem followed by a more than two-hour lunch with Abbas on Friday in Amman at the home of the Palestinian ambassador to Jordan. Then it was back to Jerusalem for another meeting with Netanyahu and dinner with Israeli President Shimon Peres.
On Saturday morning, he boarded a helicopter to fly back to Amman to meet again with Abbas, this time at the Palestinian president's residence there.
Later Saturday, he was to return to Jerusalem to meet with Netanyahu, Tzipi Livni, Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, and Isaac Molho, a Netanyahu envoy.
Kerry is scheduled to leave Jerusalem on Sunday to head to Brunei for a Southeast Asia security conference.
There is deep skepticism that Kerry can get the two sides to agree on a two-state solution, something that has eluded presidents and diplomats for years. But the flurry of meetings has heightened expectations that the two sides can be convinced to at least restart talks, which broke down in 2008.
So far, there have been no public signs that the two sides are narrowing their differences.
In the past, Abbas has said he won't negotiate unless Israel stops building settlements on war-won lands or accepts its 1967 lines ? before the capture of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in a Mideast war that year ? as a starting point for border talks. The Palestinians claim all three areas for their future state.
Netanyahu has rejected the Palestinian demands, saying there should be no pre-conditions for talks.
Abbas made significant progress with Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, in talks in 2007 and 2008, but believes there is little point in negotiating with the current Israeli leader.
Netanyahu has adopted much tougher starting positions than Olmert, refusing to recognize Israel's pre-1967 frontier as a baseline for border talks and saying east Jerusalem, the Palestinians' hoped-for capital, is off the table. Abbas and his aides suspect Netanyahu wants to resume talks for the sake of negotiating and creating a diplomatic shield for Israel, not in order to reach an agreement.
Abbas has much to lose domestically if he drops his demands that Netanyahu either freeze settlement building or recognize the 1967 frontier as a starting point before talks can resume. Netanyahu has rejected both demands. A majority of Palestinians, disappointed after 20 years of fruitless negotiations with Israel, opposes a return to talks on Netanyahu's terms.
___
Associated Press writer Karin Laub in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
U.S. President Barack Obama, left, shakes hands with South African President Jacob Zuma at the Union Building on Saturday, June 29, 2013, in Pretoria, South Africa. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. The White House issued a statement Saturday that President Barack Obama plans to visit privately with relatives of former South African President Nelson Mandela, but doesn't intend to see the critically ill anti-apartheid activist he has called a "personal hero." (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
U.S. President Barack Obama, left, shakes hands with South African President Jacob Zuma at the Union Building on Saturday, June 29, 2013, in Pretoria, South Africa. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. The White House issued a statement Saturday that President Barack Obama plans to visit privately with relatives of former South African President Nelson Mandela, but doesn't intend to see the critically ill anti-apartheid activist he has called a "personal hero." (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) ? President Barack Obama says he doesn't feel threatened by the fact that other countries, led by China, are investing in Africa. In fact, Obama says the more countries that come to Africa, the merrier.
Obama says he's touring three African nations this week because the United States needs to increase its engagement with a continent that's showing promise and possibility.
He says such interaction is good for the U.S. regardless of what other countries do.
But he cautions that Africa must be wary of outside investment and always ask how it will benefit when other countries come seeking its natural resources or to make other investments.
Obama spoke Saturday during a news conference in South Africa with President Jacob Zuma.
Acting quickly this week in Nashville, the site of the 2014 Final Four, the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament committee recommended revisions to the way its version of March Madness might look in the future.
Less than two weeks after suggestions were forwarded in a report by Val Ackerman, the new commissioner of the Big East, the committee decided to immediately allow institutions to host regional finals on home courts.
It will also establish a "Stakeholders' Summit" at the 2014 Women's Final Four to study other alterations.
"[The speed of change] all depends on where the changes need to be made," said Anucha Browne, vice president of the tournament championship committee. "There are things than can be implemented quickly and there are others which will require much more time and thought."
This summit, which is to include personnel from all corners of women's basketball, will consider the following changes beginning as soon as 2015.
?Shifting of weekend playing dates for the women's Final Four from Sunday-Tuesday to Friday-Sunday, with preliminary round game days aligned accordingly.
?Possible first- and second-round byes for as many as the top 32 seeds, so lower-seeded teams play in earlier rounds.
?Combining the women's Final Four with the Division II and Division III Women's Basketball Championships in Indianapolis in the Olympics year of 2016.
"There is great value in Val's recommendations and we spent a considerable amount of time during our meetings in discussion of the issues affecting the championship, while balancing decisions as to what is best for the student-athletes," said Carolayne Henry, chair of the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Committee and senior associate commissioner at the Mountain West Conference. "Decisions reached by the committee this week are just the tip of the iceberg as we set a prioritization schedule for next best steps for the game and championship."
Regional hosting will allow UConn, for instance, to play on what is considered its home court beginning with the 2014 tournament. That means third- and fourth-round games ? the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight ? could be played at Gampel Pavilion or the XL Center.
However, an institution that decides to bid for a regional will not also be allowed to host a subregional in the same championship season.
The committee prefers that host institutions be limited to a regional in no more than two consecutive years.
Two of Ackerman's most innovative proposals ? allowing Top 16 tournament seeds to host first- and second-round games and melding four four-team regionals into two eight-team events ? have been temporarily tabled, pending more study.
"I know [the NCAA] want more upsets," said South Florida coach Jose Fernandez, the past president of the Big East women's basketball coaches and an NCAA liaison. "If they want more upsets, how to do they think they are going to happen if you play on the home court of a top 16-seeded team? But if you are looking for an attendance boost [home court] will help."
The bid process for hosting first- and second-round and regional rounds for the 2014 and 2015 championship begins July 15. The NCAA is expected to announce sites in early September.
UConn, which hosted first- and second-round games last season, said it would bid for for any future tournament games if permitted by NCAA policy.
The committee will explore a variety of championship format options going forward for the 64 participants. That could include lower-seeded teams potentially meeting in the first two rounds, with the top 32 seeds earning byes.
That would mean the 33rd seed plays the 64th in a first-round game, and so forth down the line. The committee was undecided about where those games would be played, but it said to be strongly in favor of campus sites with the higher seed hosting.
June 28, 2013 ? Predicted increases in temperature and drought in the coming century may make it more difficult for conifers such as ponderosa pine to regenerate after major forest fires on dry, low-elevation sites, in some cases leading to conversion of forests to grass or shrub lands, a report suggests.
Researchers from Oregon State University concluded that moisture stress is a key limitation for conifer regeneration following stand-replacing wildfire, which will likely increase with climate change. This will make post-fire recovery on dry sites slow and uncertain. If forests are desired in these locations, more aggressive attempts at reforestation may be needed, they said.
The study, published in Forest Ecology and Management, was done in a portion of the Metolius River watershed in the eastern Cascade Range of Oregon, which prior to a 2002 fire was mostly ponderosa pine with some Douglas-fir and other tree species. The research area was not salvage-logged or replanted following the severe, stand-replacing fire.
"A decade after this fire, there was almost no tree regeneration at lower, drier sites," said Erich Dodson, a researcher with the OSU Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society. "There was some regeneration at higher sites with more moisture. But at the low elevations, it will be a long time before a forest comes back, if it ever does."
Similar situations may be found in many areas of the American West in coming decades, the researchers say, and recruitment of new forests may be delayed or prevented -- even in climate conditions that might have been able to maintain an existing forest. While mature trees can use their roots to tap water deeper in the soil, competition with dense understory vegetation can make it difficult for seedlings to survive.
Openings in ponderosa pine forests created by wildfire have persisted for more than a century on harsh, south-facing slopes in Colorado, the researchers noted in their report. And fire severity is already increasing in many forests due to climate change -- what is now thought of as a drought in some locations may be considered average by the end of the next century.
If trees do fail to regenerate, it could further reduce ecosystem carbon storage and amplify the greenhouse effect, the study said.
Restoration treatment including thinning and prescribed burning may help reduce fire severity and increase tree survival after wildfire, as well as provide a seed source for future trees, Dodson said. These dry sites with less resilience to stand-replacing fire should be priorities for treatment, if maintaining a forest is a management objective, the study concluded.
Higher-elevation, mixed conifer forests in less moisture-limited sites may be able to recover from stand-replacing wildfire without treatment, the researchers said.
Divorce early in childhood affects parental relationships in adulthoodPublic release date: 28-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lisa M.P. Munoz spsp.publicaffairs@gmail.com 703-951-3195 Society for Personality and Social Psychology
June 28, 2013 - Divorce has a bigger impact on child-parent relationships if it occurs in the first few years of the child's life, according to new research. Those who experience parental divorce early in their childhood tend to have more insecure relationships with their parents as adults than those who experience divorce later, researchers say.
"By studying variation in parental divorce, we are hoping to learn more about how early experiences predict the quality of people's close relationships later in life," says R. Chris Fraley of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Psychologists are especially interested in childhood experiences, as their impact can extend into adulthood, but studying such early experiences is challenging, as people's memories of particular events vary widely. Parental divorce is a good event to study, he says, as people can accurately report if and when their parents divorced, even if they do not have perfect recollection of the details.
In two studies published today in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Fraley and graduate student Marie Heffernan examined the timing and effects of divorce on both parental and romantic relationships, as well as differences in how divorce affects relationships with mothers versus fathers. In the first study, they analyzed data from 7,735 people who participated in a survey about personality and close relationships through yourpersonality.net. More than one-third of the survey participants' parents divorced and the average age of divorce was about 9 years old.
The researchers found that individuals from divorced families were less likely to view their current relationships with their parents as secure. And people who experienced parental divorce between birth and 3 to 5 years of age were more insecure in their current relationships with their parents compared to those whose parents divorced later in childhood.
"A person who has a secure relationship with a parent is more likely than someone who is insecure to feel that they can trust the parent," Fraley says. "Such a person is more comfortable depending on the parent and is confident that the parent will be psychologically available when needed."
Although there was a tendency for people to experience more anxiety about romantic relationships if they were from divorced families, the link between parental divorce and insecurity in romantic relationships was relatively weak. This finding was important, the researchers say, as it shows that divorce does not have a blanket effect on all close relationships in adulthood but rather is selective affecting some relationships more than others. They also found that parental divorce tends to predict greater insecurity in people's relationships with their fathers than with their mothers.
To help explain why divorce influences maternal relationships more than paternal ones, and to replicate the first study's findings, Fraley and Heffernan repeated their analysis with a new set of 7,500 survey participants. Unlike in the first study, however, they asked the participants to indicate which of their parents had been awarded primary custody following their divorce. The researchers speculated that paternal relationships were more insecure following divorce because mothers are more likely than fathers to be awarded custody.
The majority of participants 74 percent indicated that they had lived with their mothers following divorce or separation, while 11 percent indicated living with their fathers; the remainder lived with grandparents or other caretakers. The researchers found that people were more likely to have an insecure relationship with their father if they lived with their mother and, conversely, were less likely to have an insecure relationship with their father if they lived with him. The results were similar with respect to mothers.
While it is premature to speculate on the implications of this work for decision-making regarding child custody, the work is valuable as it suggests that "something as basic as the amount of time that one spends with a parent or one's living arrangements" can shape the quality of child-parent relationships, write Fraley and Heffernan.
"People's relationships with their parents and romantic partners play important roles in their lives," Fraley says. "This research brings us one step closer to understanding why it is that some people have relatively secure relationships with close others whereas others have more difficulty opening up to and depending on important people in their lives."
###
The study, "Attachment and Parental Divorce: A Test of the Diffusion and Sensitive Period Hypotheses," R. Chris Fraley and Marie E. Heffernan, was published online on June 28, 2013, and is forthcoming in print in September 2013 in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, a journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP).
SPSP promotes scientific research that explores how people think, behave, feel, and interact. The Society is the largest organization of social and personality psychologists in the world. Follow us on Twitter: @SPSPnews
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Divorce early in childhood affects parental relationships in adulthoodPublic release date: 28-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lisa M.P. Munoz spsp.publicaffairs@gmail.com 703-951-3195 Society for Personality and Social Psychology
June 28, 2013 - Divorce has a bigger impact on child-parent relationships if it occurs in the first few years of the child's life, according to new research. Those who experience parental divorce early in their childhood tend to have more insecure relationships with their parents as adults than those who experience divorce later, researchers say.
"By studying variation in parental divorce, we are hoping to learn more about how early experiences predict the quality of people's close relationships later in life," says R. Chris Fraley of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Psychologists are especially interested in childhood experiences, as their impact can extend into adulthood, but studying such early experiences is challenging, as people's memories of particular events vary widely. Parental divorce is a good event to study, he says, as people can accurately report if and when their parents divorced, even if they do not have perfect recollection of the details.
In two studies published today in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Fraley and graduate student Marie Heffernan examined the timing and effects of divorce on both parental and romantic relationships, as well as differences in how divorce affects relationships with mothers versus fathers. In the first study, they analyzed data from 7,735 people who participated in a survey about personality and close relationships through yourpersonality.net. More than one-third of the survey participants' parents divorced and the average age of divorce was about 9 years old.
The researchers found that individuals from divorced families were less likely to view their current relationships with their parents as secure. And people who experienced parental divorce between birth and 3 to 5 years of age were more insecure in their current relationships with their parents compared to those whose parents divorced later in childhood.
"A person who has a secure relationship with a parent is more likely than someone who is insecure to feel that they can trust the parent," Fraley says. "Such a person is more comfortable depending on the parent and is confident that the parent will be psychologically available when needed."
Although there was a tendency for people to experience more anxiety about romantic relationships if they were from divorced families, the link between parental divorce and insecurity in romantic relationships was relatively weak. This finding was important, the researchers say, as it shows that divorce does not have a blanket effect on all close relationships in adulthood but rather is selective affecting some relationships more than others. They also found that parental divorce tends to predict greater insecurity in people's relationships with their fathers than with their mothers.
To help explain why divorce influences maternal relationships more than paternal ones, and to replicate the first study's findings, Fraley and Heffernan repeated their analysis with a new set of 7,500 survey participants. Unlike in the first study, however, they asked the participants to indicate which of their parents had been awarded primary custody following their divorce. The researchers speculated that paternal relationships were more insecure following divorce because mothers are more likely than fathers to be awarded custody.
The majority of participants 74 percent indicated that they had lived with their mothers following divorce or separation, while 11 percent indicated living with their fathers; the remainder lived with grandparents or other caretakers. The researchers found that people were more likely to have an insecure relationship with their father if they lived with their mother and, conversely, were less likely to have an insecure relationship with their father if they lived with him. The results were similar with respect to mothers.
While it is premature to speculate on the implications of this work for decision-making regarding child custody, the work is valuable as it suggests that "something as basic as the amount of time that one spends with a parent or one's living arrangements" can shape the quality of child-parent relationships, write Fraley and Heffernan.
"People's relationships with their parents and romantic partners play important roles in their lives," Fraley says. "This research brings us one step closer to understanding why it is that some people have relatively secure relationships with close others whereas others have more difficulty opening up to and depending on important people in their lives."
###
The study, "Attachment and Parental Divorce: A Test of the Diffusion and Sensitive Period Hypotheses," R. Chris Fraley and Marie E. Heffernan, was published online on June 28, 2013, and is forthcoming in print in September 2013 in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, a journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP).
SPSP promotes scientific research that explores how people think, behave, feel, and interact. The Society is the largest organization of social and personality psychologists in the world. Follow us on Twitter: @SPSPnews
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Welcome back to Chicago, Lord Stanley. We think you'll notice how our Blackhawks have grown up.
Three years after a Champagne-soaked extravaganza on Michigan Avenue, the city hosted a more mature ? but equally, if not more, jubilant ? Grant Park celebration for a crowd estimated at over 2 million people. More mature, that is, if you don't count the expletive-laced anatomy lecture from goalkeeper Corey Crawford.
Chicago feted the club with a massive parade and rally Friday that broke the 2010 attendance record and perhaps will go down as the best-attended celebration in city history. Dressed in hockey sweaters on an 80-degree day, fans transformed Grant Park into a red sea that only a few final celebratory refrains of "Chelsea Dagger" could part.
Heeding Mayor Rahm Emanuel's call for the entire metropolitan area to enjoy a "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," the Blackhawks faithful skipped work, ditched meetings and feigned illness to celebrate the team's victory over the Boston Bruins this week. They lined the streets from the Near West Side to the lakeshore, then filled Grant Park in numbers so big they made the Taste of Chicago look like a cozy street fair.
The beer-guzzling players, drunken dancing and bullhorn speeches from three years ago may have vanished, but the fans' enthusiasm for the team and appreciation of the storied Cup's significance seemed to have increased exponentially.
"For the guys that were here in 2010, we didn't think there was a chance we could outmatch that performance by the fans, but you guys did somehow," captain Jonathan Toews said at the rally. "This shows how unbelievable this city is."
The celebration began early, with fans filling trains and buses before sunrise. At one point, Metra routes became so crowded that the commuter train service began to fall behind schedule and started skipping stops because of capacity concerns.
When rally organizers opened Hutchinson Field about 9 a.m., revelers sprinted toward the stage in the hope of getting an up-close spot. Among the first on the field was Alexander Smith of Naperville, who had covered his naked torso in red body paint and donned a faux-Native American headdress purchased from a Party City store.
"Go all-out," Smith said. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing."
With several hours to kill before the rally, fans passed time tossing beach balls and trying to keep hydrated with the free bottled water being passed out. The sun ? and, in some cases, an overindulgence in nonwater beverages ? proved too much for some as the Chicago Fire Department began treating people for heat exhaustion.
The Fire Department responded to 91 calls for medical assistance at the parade and in 42 cases transported people to area hospitals. In addition to the free water, fire officials used mist-generating fans to help cool the crowds.
"It did go well," Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said. "There was a lot of water being passed out, and people were in pretty good shape. The Cup survived."
But the overheated crowds proved testy at times, and police reported making six arrests, including one involving a Matteson man who police say was carrying two guns during the rally. The other five were for misdemeanors.
And, for many, seeing the Cup in person Friday was as thrilling as Dave Bolland's game-winning goal Monday night. Dozens flocked to the United Center before the parade in the hope of touching the storied trophy, even though it meant missing most of the other festivities.
Team owner Rocky Wirtz mingled with fans on his way into the building, shaking hands and posing for pictures in front of the Michael Jordan statue, which is currently draped in a Hawks sweater.
Stanley Cup caretaker Phil Pritchard also made it through a gantlet of fans to the administration entrance. He quickly came back out, however, after realizing at least one fan waiting there wanted his autograph, too.
A short time later, the team emerged from the building to the cheers of onlookers. Most wore flip-flops and shorts with their red sweaters. And many had ditched or significantly trimmed their playoff beards for the occasion, while Patrick Kane continued to sport his lucky mullet.
"It's an unbelievable feeling to bring the Cup back here," defenseman Brent Seabrook told reporters. "The city of Chicago did a great job. The fans and everybody coming out is awesome."
After driving through Loop streets that quickly filled with confetti, the team arrived at Grant Park to cheers of "Let's Go Hawks!" Unlike the 2010 rally at which many players spoke, only a few took the microphone at the homecoming party.
Kane, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs' most valuable player, continued a team tradition of awarding a gold-plated professional wrestling belt to the MVP of the last game. He gave it to Crawford, whom he described as the league's best postseason player.
U.S. President Barack Obama gestures during a news conference with South African President Jacob Zuma, not pictured, at the Union Building on Saturday, June 29, 2013, in Pretoria, South Africa. The president is in South Africa, embarking on the second leg of his three-country African journey. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
U.S. President Barack Obama gestures during a news conference with South African President Jacob Zuma, not pictured, at the Union Building on Saturday, June 29, 2013, in Pretoria, South Africa. The president is in South Africa, embarking on the second leg of his three-country African journey. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama met privately Saturday with the family of Nelson Mandela.
The meeting was held in Johannesburg at the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, which is part of the former South African president's foundation.
It lasted for about a half hour, enough time for a small crowd to gather outside in time for Obama's departure.
The White House didn't say which Mandela family members the Obamas met with.
The president and first lady will not meet with the ailing 94-year-old Mandela, who is hospitalized with a lung infection. The White House says that decision was made in accordance with the wishes of Mandela's family.
Illinois Republican Rep. Peter Roskam (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The Senate is poised to pass a comprehensive immigration bill this week. Immigration reform proponents will cheer! Immigrant activists will cry tears of joy! DREAMers will dream bigger dreams!
Not to be a heartbreaker, but this party probably won't last long.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives hasn't the slightest intention of passing the thing as a whole, says Illinois Republican Rep. Peter Roskam, a lawmaker responsible for counting Republican votes.
Roskam, who serves as the Republican chief deputy whip, made it clear on Thursday that House leaders do not plan to put the complete Senate bill to a vote on the floor of the lower chamber. Even if they did, it likely wouldn't pass.
?The House has no capacity to move that bill in its entirety. It just won?t happen," Roskam said during a meeting with reporters on Thursday morning. "It is a pipe dream to think that that bill is going to go to the floor and be voted on. The House is going to move through in a more deliberative process.?
While Senate members have agreed to take a comprehensive approach on the legislation?their bill would provide a pathway to legality for unauthorized immigrants and to spend billions on border security?House lawmakers intend to pass the bill in pieces, starting with a bill that shores up border security and then (maybe) another measure that deals with the 11 million people currently living in the United States illegally.
But that approach won't fly with Senate Democrats or President Barack Obama, who say they won't accept an immigration bill that doesn't have a pathway to legal status baked into the cake. Some might call it an impasse, a term more commonly referred to as just another day in Washington.
Unlike their counterparts in the Senate, who have taken steps to pass the bill quickly, the House is in no rush to act.
In one important way, the roles between the two chambers are reversed. There is a long-standing Washington tradition in which the House passes bills and the Senate ceremonially (and proudly) ignores them. This time, the House is the saucer that will cool the Senate's tea. Or, to put it another way, House Republicans want to slow-jam the immigration bill; Senate Democrats are thinking more Busta Rhymes.
For the moment, the House seems to be enjoying the role-reversal. Some aren't even reading the Senate version at all.
?I have not gone through chapter and verse on the Senate bill," Roskam said. "I don?t think I?m going to be voting on the Senate bill, so it?s not as if I?m marinating in study.?
One developer feature Google is really stressing these days is Google+ Sign-in, the company’s recently launched authentication tool for third-party sites and mobile apps. While the company will continue to support its standard Google Sign-in tool as well, it’s pushing hard to get users to switch to its new system. The Google+ version has the advantage (or not, depending on your perspective) of being linked directly to Google’s social network and profiles and?can therefore provide sites with easier registration system and more information about their users. A number of large companies have now integrated Google+ Sign-ins, and we are starting to get some data about how things are going. Mind you, these are somewhat self-selected Google partners, but the results are still pretty interesting.?Most companies don’t want to go on the record with their numbers, but Google just published a case study with Snapette that’s pretty much in line what we’ve been hearing, too. Snapette Case Study: 44.2% Use Google+ Sign-ins, Registrations Up 16% The latest numbers come from mobile shopping app Snapette, which launched in 2011, and this marks the first time we’re seeing some of these stats for a service that uses Google+ Sign-in. Just over 44 percent of the service’s users now use Google+ to sign in to their accounts. That’s a bit higher than the 40 percent acceptance rate Google itself cited earlier this year. Snapette also says it’s been seeing an uptick in user registrations since integrating this feature. The company says it saw “an increase in registered users of 16% above average growth” since it started using this tool.
Massachusetts is one of the most educated place in America. Those of you with children, when you relocate do your homework especially schools and it's curriculum. Check out this educational link and keep in mind these towns in MA: #3 Wellesley, #4 Brookline, #6 Needham (my office), #10 Newton
DETROIT (Reuters) - After years of pay cuts and reduction in their ranks, Detroit police officers and firefighters in the next week face a tough decision: Retire now or put their careers in the hands of Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr, who has the power to unilaterally cut their pay and benefits.
At least several dozen police officers and firefighters will retire early as they try to lock in benefits before Orr imposes new labor contracts, union officials told Reuters.
A large flight of veteran public safety workers could cause disruption in a city facing some of the nation's highest violent crime rates and a rash of arson fires. This in turn would raise the level of difficulty for Orr as he seeks to address Detroit's myriad urban problems.
Uncertainty over future pay and benefits for the city's 500 mid-level unionized police officers and 917 unionized firefighters is causing some to seek the exit, presidents of the two unions said.
Mark Young, president of the Detroit Police Lieutenants & Sergeants Association (LSA), said 200 of the 500 officers he represents are eligible to retire. He said many are "on the bubble" regarding a decision to retire before the union's contract expires next week.
By retiring now, members of the LSA and the Detroit Firefighters' Association could hope to lock in retirement benefits under their existing contract before Orr could impose cuts to pay and benefits -- a power granted him under Michigan's emergency manager law.
Contracts for the Detroit Firefighters Association, as well as for about 150 unionized emergency medical services workers, both expire June 30. The city's contract with the LSA expires July 6.
Any significant loss of lieutenants and sergeants could immediately damage the Detroit Police Department, said Eric Lambert, head of the criminal justice department at Wayne State University, located in the city.
"You lose the expertise and institutional knowledge if you have too many retire at once," said Lambert.
Orr has had little contact with leaders of public safety unions since his first few days after taking office on March 25, but he has said consistently that public safety is a top priority. He addressed union leaders along with creditors and pension trustees when he forecast large cost cuts and a possible bankruptcy filing in a large-group meeting two weeks ago.
Orr's spokesman, Bill Nowling, said the emergency manager knows a crowd of police officers and firefighters may soon leave. Orr's staff needs to and later this week intends to communicate "at least what our short-term intentions are," Nowling said.
"I know there are guys who are on the retirement bubble and they need all the facts," Nowling said. "We want everybody to make factual decisions and not emotional decisions. We want to provide them with the information to do that."
Orr is holding internal staff meetings and is "hopeful" he can clue the unions in on his plans in the next few days, Nowling added. After the internal sessions, Nowling said Orr can go say to union leaders, "This is what the future looks like, at least for the short-term, so everybody has a clear picture."
One possibility is that Orr may maintain terms of existing contracts for a period of time after expiration, Nowling added.
Police and firefighters are not eligible for Social Security checks because of their city-sponsored retirement funds, to which they contribute with every paycheck. But the city's police and firefighters pension systems are only 78 percent funded, according to estimates by Orr's office. The underfunding is below the 80 percent threshold at which the emergency law allows Orr to replace the board that manages the fund now.
Early retirement likely would not protect retirement benefits, regardless of whether Orr imposes changes or new terms are set under a possible bankruptcy filing. Orr earlier this month said there is a 50-50 chance that Detroit will enter bankruptcy.
"Whether you retire today or you retire two months from now, those two things are going to impact (retirement benefits)," said Nowling.
Dan McNamara, president of the Detroit Firefighters Association, said he is frustrated by the lack of communication from Orr's office.
So is Young, who said, "I have to know what to tell my membership. Right now, we're reduced to collective begging."
Even as Orr decides how to handle pay and benefits, Detroit's new police chief, James Craig, must begin restructuring the police department he will lead beginning July 1.
Craig will "drive the restructuring" of the police department, Nowling said.
Craig is expected to focus on "community policing," which calls for more personal contact between officers and residents. Lambert of Wayne State said that a delayed benefit of new officers may be more openness to new police tactics.
If large numbers of sergeants and lieutenants retire early, Nowling said, Craig will need to promote from within. Around 400 active police officers now working in administrative jobs could shift to patrol positions after some retraining, he added.
The 1,900-member Detroit Police Officers Association has a contract that extends through June 2014. Its members took a 10-percent pay cut last July.
Mark Diaz, president of the police officers union, said the union five years ago represented about 3,000 active officers.
There were more than 700 members in the LSA five years ago, said Young.
Five years ago, there were 1,300 firefighters in the city, and that number has dwindled to 917, said McNamara
Since the beginning of 2012, about 140 firefighters have retired and not been replaced. The department is strapped in trying to cover the city's 139 square miles, he said, and cannot afford even a handful of retirements.
"We're on our last legs everywhere we go," said McNamara.
(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by Chris Reese)
LONDON, United Kingdom ??Debenhams, Britain?s No. 2 department store group, posted slower sales growth for its latest trading period as unhelpful weather and a tough consumer environment took their toll.
But the 200-year-old firm, which trails John Lewis by annual sales, did say on Thursday it was comfortable with the market?s current expectations for pretax profit in 2013-14, reflecting a strong focus on stocks, margins and costs.
Analysts? consensus is a pretax profit of around 153 million pounds ($235 million).
Debenhams said sales at stores open over a year were flat in the 16 weeks to June 22 ? a period which includes its fiscal third quarter.
That outcome compares with a first half like-for-like sales rise of 3.1 percent and was below analyst forecasts of growth of about 2 percent.
?We consider this to be a robust performance in a market which has been impacted by the weak consumer environment as well as poor spring weather which dampened demand for new season ranges,? the firm said.
It highlighted market share gains in clothing, beauty and home and a 40 percent rise in online sales.
In line with previous guidance Debenhams said gross margin was expected to be flat for the full 2013-14 year.
European fashion retailers have suffered so far this year as a squeeze on disposable incomes has been exacerbated by an unusually cold spring and early summer.
Earlier this month global leader Spain?s Inditex , which owns the Zara chain, posted its weakest quarterly growth in net profit in four years, while No. 2 Sweden?s H&M missed forecasts for second quarter net sales.
However, there are still winners in Britain despite the tough trading conditions. John Lewis?s total sales were up 7.9 percent in the 20 weeks to June 15, while online fashion retailer ASOS recently reported a 45 percent jump in third quarter sales.
Debenhams had issued a profit warning in March, blaming snow in January for a drop in sales that it failed to recover fully in February despite additional promotions and discounts.
Shares in the firm closed Wednesday at 88.5 pence, valuing the business at 1.1 billion pounds. ($1 = 0.6520 British pounds)
By: James Davey; Editors: Neil Maidment and Jane Merriman
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It's been closed since Hurricane Sandy, but now, a mega toy store on the Brooklyn waterfront has finally bounced back. NY1's Jeanine Ramirez filed the following report.
With long lines and full shopping carts, it looked like Black Friday, traditionally the busiest holiday shopping day of the year, at a Toys R Us on Bay Parkway Friday. But on this Friday, it was the reopening of the store, eight months to the day after Hurricane Sandy destroyed it.
"It took eight months to rebuild what Sandy has done, and as you can see, today's a great day in Toys R Us history and for Brooklyn," said Steven Caruso, the store's co-manager.
The store is one of only two Toys R Us stores in the borough.
'We really had to go to Manhattan or further away to find a big Toys R Us store like this," said one shopper.
A temporary tent was put up in the parking lot while the building was being repaired, but it had limited inventory.
"To make sure the community knew we were still here," said Sal Lobosco, the store's co-manager. "We didn't want to leave the parking lot here."
The store sits on the waterfront, and Hurricane Sandy's surge came up through the piers and buckled the floors. After millions of dollars of damage, the store is now re-designed. It now combines Toys R Us and Babies R Us under one roof.
As part of the store's makeover, the entrances and exits were relocated.
"I'm so glad that it opened now," said one shopper. "It's hard to find stuff because I don't really know the store anymore because they changed the games to the back, but I mean, you're going to get used to it eventually."
"I feel like I need a map to be in here, 'cause it's so beautiful," said another. "And I'm glad that it's open. It's great for the community."
The Toys R Us was the last part of the Caesar's Bay shopping center to bounce back. The Kohl's, which was also damaged by the storm, reopened in April.
To welcome back the community, the Toys R Us is offering all kinds of sales and special events.
"I'm excited to get a pool here and all new summer stuff," said one shopper.
The crowds turned out for the store's reopening Friday. There were kids in pools that had no water, and some hidden in carts covered in toys.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) ? Dubbed "Recycled Rudd" in newspaper headlines, Kevin Rudd returned as Australia's prime minister Thursday, reviving his party's hopes of avoiding an election massacre but giving voters few clues where he plans to take the country.
Rudd was sworn in a day after wrenching the job back from Julia Gillard, his former deputy, who took over through her own internal coup three years ago but had a strained relationship with Australian voters from the start.
He is seen as more charismatic than Gillard, though his abrasiveness toward his fellow lawmakers helped lead to his 2010 downfall. In Parliament on Thursday, he urged lawmakers to be "a little kinder and gentler" toward each other following Gillard's ouster.
With Gillard as leader, the ruling center-left Labor Party had appeared headed for an overwhelming election defeat at the hands of the conservative coalition opposition, but Rudd's supporters said they now have a chance to win.
"What this fundamentally does is put us in a position where we can win the next election, and no one would have been talking about that even at the beginning of this week," said Richard Marles, a Rudd supporter who quit as a junior minister in March after an aborted leadership challenge by Rudd.
"We were looking at a very bad defeat. We were not in the contest," he added.
Gillard had set elections for Sept. 14, though Rudd can now decide to hold them as early as Aug. 3. Rudd on Thursday refused to commit to a date but said "there's not going to be a huge variation" from Sept. 14.
Rudd has said he will perform with renewed "energy and purpose," but has yet to spell out what will be different under his leadership. His government remains in a state of confusion, with a Cabinet yet to be named.
Marles said he expects Rudd will "reset some policies" in the next two weeks, including on the unpopular carbon tax levied on Australia's largest polluters and on how Australia deals with a growing number of asylum seekers reaching the country by boat.
"He's the best communicator that exists in Australian politics today," Marles said. "People just love him; they really relate to him and react to him and there is part of that I think is an intangible."
Successive opinion polls have suggested that the government would be more popular with Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat, at the helm than Gillard, a former lawyer and political staffer who was Australia's first female prime minister.
A poll by market researcher Nielsen published last week in Fairfax Media newspapers found that Labor under Rudd would be on equal pegging with the opposition at 50 percent voter support. Under Gillard, Labor trailed with only 43 percent of voter support, compared to 57 percent support for the opposition.
The poll was based on a random nationwide telephone survey of 1,400 voters on June 13-15 and had a 2.6 percent margin of error.
Nielsen director John Stirton was skeptical that the poll would translate to an election victory for Labor, saying that would assume a smooth leadership transition to Rudd, the party uniting behind him and his public popularity enduring until the election.
Under Gillard, polls had suggested that Labor could lose between 30 and 35 of their 71 lawmakers in the 150-seat House of Representatives, where parties form government.
Rudd forced Gillard out in nearly the same way she ousted him in 2010. Each faced a party leadership vote in the face of a revolt from Labor lawmakers, but while Rudd did not contest Gillard's earlier challenge, she went ahead with a vote that she lost 57-45.
Gillard tendered her resignation Wednesday night, and Governor-General Quentin Bryce commissioned Rudd as prime minister on Thursday.
Anthony Albanese was sworn in as deputy prime minister and Chris Bowen was sworn in as treasurer during the same ceremony. Rudd has yet to say when he will announce his complete Cabinet after seven ministers resigned following Gillard's ouster.
Since it holds fewer than half of the seats in Parliament, the Labor Party has required support from independent lawmakers and the minor Greens party to hang on to power. Those lawmakers were not obliged to support Rudd, though at least some of them did.
The opposition could have challenged Rudd's control of the government with a no-confidence motion, but it did not. Parliament was adjourned Thursday and it will not reconvene until after the elections.
The bitter rivalry and infighting between the Gillard and Rudd camps has damaged Labor's image. Rudd had tried twice previously to oust Gillard, last year and in February. Many took the fact that he never posed for a Parliament House portrait, as other former prime ministers had done, as a sign that he never gave up on returning.
"As we all know in this place, political life is a very hard life; a very hard life indeed," Rudd told Parliament before it adjourned. "Let us try ? just try ? to be a little kinder and gentler with each other in the further deliberations of this Parliament."
Opposition leader Tony Abbott demanded an explanation from Rudd of why Gillard was deposed with elections looming. Abbott also called for an election date to be confirmed.
"Politics is a tough business and sometimes it is far more brutal than it needs to be," Abbott said.
"This is a fraught moment in the life of our nation. A prime minister has been dragged down; her replacement owes the Australian people and the Australian Parliament an explanation," he added.
NEW YORK (AP) ? The funeral of James Gandolfini took place in one of the largest churches in the world and didn't stint on ceremony.
Still, the estimated 1,500 mourners who gathered Thursday in New York's Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine seemed part of an intimate affair. They came to pay their respects to a plain but complex man whose sudden death eight days before had left all of them feeling a loss.
During the service, Gandolfini was remembered by the creator of "The Sopranos" as an actor who had brought a key element to mob boss Tony Soprano: Tony's inner child-like quality.
For a man who, in so many ways, was an unrepentant brute, that underlying purity was what gave viewers permission to love him.
"You brought ALL of that to it," said David Chase in remarks he delivered as if an open letter to his fallen friend and "Sopranos" star.
Even though Gandolfini was indisputably a formidable man both on and off the screen, Chase also saw him as a boy ? "sad, amazed, confused and loving," he summed up, addressing his subject: "You could see it in your eyes. And that's why you are a great actor."
Susan Aston, who for decades was Gandolfini's dialogue coach and collaborator, spoke of how he wrestled to find truth in his performances.
"He worked hard," she said. "He was disciplined. He studied his roles and did his homework." But then, when the cameras rolled, his performance took over and, "through an act of faith, he allowed himself to go to an uncharted place. ... He remained vulnerable, and kept his heart open in his life and in his work."
The 51-year-old actor died of a heart attack last week while vacationing with his 13-year-old son in Italy. It was cruel end to a holiday meant to be part of a summer that Gandolfini was devoting to his family ? including his son and his 9-month-old daughter ? by even turning down a movie role, according to Aston, citing what she said was her final conversation with him.
Aston said he told her "I don't want to lose any of the time I have with Michael and Lily this summer."
The actor's widow, Deborah Lin Gandolfini, also spoke at the ceremony, as did longtime friend Thomas Richardson, who affectionately described Gandolfini as a man "who hugged too tight and held too long." But now facing a world without hugs from Gandolfini, Richardson invited the congregation to stand and share hugs with their neighbors.
"It is in hugging that we are hugged," he declared.
A private family wake was held for the actor Wednesday in New Jersey.
Broadway theaters paid tribute by dimming their lights briefly Wednesday night. Gandolfini was nominated for a Tony Award in 2009 as an actor in "God of Carnage."
For Thursday's service, celebrities and fellow actors helped make up the capacity audience.
Those from "The Sopranos" included Edie Falco, Joe Pantoliano, Dominic Chianese, Steve Schirripa, Aida Turturro, Vincent Curatola, Tony Sirico, Lorraine Bracco, Steve Buscemi and Michael Imperioli.
Others from the entertainment community included Julianna Margulies, Alec Baldwin, Chris Noth, Marcia Gay Harden, Dick Cavett and Steve Carell.
NBC News' Brian Williams was in attendance. So was New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
So was Saul Stein, 60, a resident of Harlem.
"I came to pay my respects today because he's a character I identify with, a family man," Stein said as he waited in line outside the church.
New Jersey accents were easy to hear among those hoping for a chance to get in. A few people spoke in Italian.
Of course, both New Jersey and Italian-Americans played a big part of "The Sopranos," which originally ran on HBO from 1999 to 2007.
Chase recalled a hot Jersey day early in the show's production that bonded him with Gandolfini ? with whom he shared Italian-American working-class roots ? for all times.
Waiting to shoot the next scene, Gandolfini was seated in an aluminum lawn chair with his slacks rolled up, black socks and black shoes exposed, and a damp cloth on his head in an effort to find some relief from the heat.
"I hadn't seen that done since my father used to do it, and my Italian uncle, and my grandfather," said Chase. "They were laborers in the hot sun of New Jersey."
"I was filled with love," Chase said, struggling to keep his composure, as he described the sight of Gandolfini in the broiling sun.
"I always felt we are brothers," he said, "based on that day."
___
Associated Press correspondent Bethan McKernan and Television Writer David Bauder contributed to this report.
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Public release date: 28-Jun-2013
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One developer feature Google is really stressing these days is Google+ Sign-in, the company’s recently launched authentication tool for third-party sites and mobile apps. While the company will continue to support its standard Google Sign-in tool as well, it’s pushing hard to get users to switch to its new system. The Google+ version has the advantage (or not, depending on your perspective) of being linked directly to Google’s social network and profiles and?can therefore provide sites with easier registration system and more information about their users. A number of large companies have now integrated Google+ Sign-ins, and we are starting to get some data about how things are going. Mind you, these are somewhat self-selected Google partners, but the results are still pretty interesting.?Most companies don’t want to go on the record with their numbers, but Google just published a case study with Snapette that’s pretty much in line what we’ve been hearing, too. Snapette Case Study: 44.2% Use Google+ Sign-ins, Registrations Up 16% The latest numbers come from mobile shopping app Snapette, which launched in 2011, and this marks the first time we’re seeing some of these stats for a service that uses Google+ Sign-in. Just over 44 percent of the service’s users now use Google+ to sign in to their accounts. That’s a bit higher than the 40 percent acceptance rate Google itself cited earlier this year. Snapette also says it’s been seeing an uptick in user registrations since integrating this feature. The company says it saw “an increase in registered users of 16% above average growth” since it started using this tool.
