Tory moves a step toward getting tough on crime | Canada | News ...

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Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson has announced in broad strokes what his government plans to do this legislative session to crack down on serious crimes and provide better support for victims.

We don?t have the details yet of the proposed changes. They?re expected to be tabled in the House of Commons in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here?s my wish list of what I hope is included in the changes.

Ottawa is proposing stiffer penalties for child sexual offenders. This one?s a no-brainer. Obviously we need much tougher laws for people who sexually assault children and youth. We don?t have to look much past the gong-show surrounding former disgraced hockey coach Graham James, who got a slap on the wrist from our justice system for repeatedly sexually abusing young hockey players over an extended period of time.

My hope is that government makes it easier to designate repeat sexual offenders as dangerous offenders who would be subject to indefinite sentences. Our justice system continually releases high-risk, repeat sex offenders into the community with public warnings that they?re likely to re-offend. It?s absolute madness and it has to stop.

Nicholson is proposing changes to Canada?s not-criminally responsible laws. This one is long overdue. We?ve seen numerous examples over the years of killers held not criminally responsible for their actions who are released back into the community after only a few years in a mental health facility The federal government has to put a stop to that. At the very least they have to make it far more difficult for psycho-killers like Vince Li ? who killed and decapitated Tim McLean on a Greyhound bus just outside of Portage la Prairie in 2008 ? to be released into the community. Li should never be released. But I?m hoping Ottawa at least brings in some type of mandatory minimum sentence for mental health patients who kill. Because what we have now brings the administration of justice into disrepute.

Ottawa plans to create a new federal bill of rights for victims of crime. If this proposal has teeth, it will be good news for victims, who are often ignored in the criminal justice system. The reality is, the justice system spends most of its time and resources housing and protecting the rights of criminals. The focus is almost entirely on the criminal and the victim essentially becomes a spectator in the case. Victims can?t even read their victim impact statements in court without justice officials hacking out large parts of what they want to say.

Victims need to be consulted more during the prosecution phase of their cases and more resources should be dedicated to helping them cope with their hardships. Why is it we spend hundreds of millions on resources for criminals but only a fraction of that for victims? Hopefully a new victims? bill of rights will help change that.

Ottawa is vowing to make bail provisions more effective. We have no idea what the federal government has planned for this one. But by ?more effective? we hope they?re talking about stricter laws that govern bail eligibility. Far too often we see repeat, violent offenders granted bail only to subsequently breach their court orders or worse, re-offend. We need much clearer rules on when bail should be granted and when it should denied. Right now that determination is left to the whim of judges who often don?t get it right.

Tougher bail conditions would go a long way towards helping keep our streets safe.

The federal Conservatives have a lot more work to do to ensure criminals are held accountable for their crimes, but Monday?s announcement was another step in the right direction.

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Source: http://www.winnipegsun.com/2013/02/04/tory-moves-a-step-toward-getting-tough-on-crime

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The Veritable Pocket Laboratory Cops Have to Carry to Test Drugs on the Street

The cops pull over a car doing 75 in a school zone. The driver is behaving errratically, so they pull him out of the car for a search and bingo: a small bag of white dust in the perp's pocket. But what is it—baking soda, cocaine, arsenic? To find out, they rely on this series of chemical tests. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/24QIMk9upV8/the-veritable-pocket-laboratory-cops-have-to-carry-to-test-drugs-on-the-street

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Fans bet record $98.9M in Nevada on Super Bowl

By HANNAH DREIER

Associated Press

Associated Press Sports

updated 5:57 p.m. ET Feb. 4, 2013

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Sports fans bet a record $98.9 million at Nevada casinos on the Super Bowl, the Nevada Gaming Control Board said Monday.

Unaudited tallies show 183 sports books made $7.2 million on the football action. The San Francisco 49ers started out as a 5-point favorite but the Baltimore Ravens won 34-31.

Odds makers say California fans drove the unprecedented handle, flooding Las Vegas and the Lake Tahoe area with wagers on the hometown team, which hadn't been in the Super Bowl since 1995.

"Northern Nevada gets swamped with 49er money," LVH book director Jay Kornegay said.

Bookmakers speculated that the popularity of 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who played his college football at Nevada, drove some of the betting among locals.

The previous record was set in 2006, when gamblers wagered $94.5 million on the Super Bowl between the Seattle Seahawks and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Book makers said they took a beating this year on proposition bets, including a long-shot on whether there would be a safety. Ravens punter Sam Koch took a safety for the final score with 4 seconds left.

Casinos retained 7.3 percent of the millions wagered, slightly less than the average hold during the past decade, which has fluctuated from lows of negative 2.8 percent to highs of 17 percent.

The 65 points scored in New Orleans easily exceeded the over/under of 49. Gamblers bet the line down 1 1/2 points before the game to give the 49ers a 3 1/2 handicap by kickoff.

Late money poured in for the "over" wager and for the 49ers, who have built a reputation as a second-half team, Kornegay said.

Johnny Avello, director of race and sports at Wynn Las Vegas, said the big plays that characterized Sunday's game and made it fun to watch were gloomy news for casinos, which offer a growing list of proposition bets on everything from whether quarterbacks will throw interceptions to whether teams will score in the final two minutes of the first half.

"Everything that could've happened yesterday almost did," Avello said. "All the props - `Will this guy pass by this much?' `Will this guy make this many receptions' - all of those were, `Yes."'

"The safety was awful," he added. "When we cashed last night, it seemed like everyone had a bet on a safety."

Casinos paid out at 9-to-1 for the safety. Fans who bet that the 49ers' final score would be on a safety cashed in at 50-to-1.

Sports books also paid out big last year when the New York Giants played the New England Patriots and the first score of the game was a safety. Next year, Avello plans to lower the odds for that outcome.

Nevada sports books have lost only twice on the Super Bowl in the past 20 years, most recently in 2008, when New York beat the Patriots, costing casinos a record $2.6 million.

Odds makers released numbers for next year's Super Bowl before fans even had time to stumble back to their hotel rooms Sunday night.

RJ Bell of Las Vegas-based Pregame.com made the Patriots 7-to-1 favorites, with the 49ers and Denver Broncos following close behind at 8-to-1.

Gamblers wanted to see the odds for another Super Bowl blackout, Kornegay said, but even Vegas can't offer that action.

"We have to stay on the field of play," Kornegay said. "But I'm pretty sure that some of the offshore books will have that bet next year."

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Hannah Dreier can be reached at http://twitter.com/hannahdreier

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/50699461/ns/sports-nfl/

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Into the quantum internet at the speed of light

Feb. 4, 2013 ? Not only do optical fibers transmit information every day around the world at the speed of light, but they can also be harnessed for the transport of quantum information. In the current issue of Nature Photonics, a research team of Innsbruck physicists led by Rainer Blatt and Tracy Northup report how they have directly transferred the quantum information stored in an atom onto a particle of light. Such information could then be sent over optical fiber to a distant atom.

Thanks to the strange laws of quantum mechanics, quantum computers would be able to carry out certain computational tasks much faster than conventional computers. Among the most promising technologies for the construction of a quantum computer are systems of single atoms, confined in so-called ion traps and manipulated with lasers. In the laboratory, these systems have already been used to test key building blocks of a future quantum computer. "Currently, we can carry out successful quantum computations with atoms," explain Andreas Stute and Bernardo Casabone, both PhD students at the University of Innsbruck's Institute for Experimental Physics. "But we are still missing viable interfaces with which quantum information can be transferred over optical channels from one computer to another."

What makes the construction of these interfaces especially challenging is that the laws of quantum mechanics don't allow quantum information to be simply copied. Instead, a future quantum internet -- that is, a network of quantum computers linked by optical channels -- would have to transfer quantum information onto individual particles of light, known as photons. These photons would then be transported over an optical-fiber link to a distant computing site. Now, for the first time, quantum information has been directly transferred from an atom in an ion trap onto a single photon. The work is reported in the current issue of Nature Photonics by a research team led by Tracy Northup and Rainer Blatt.

Quantum networkers

The University of Innsbruck physicists first trap a single calcium ion in an ion trap and position it between two highly reflective mirrors. "We use a laser to write the desired quantum information onto the electronic states of the atom," explains Stute. "The atom is then excited with a second laser, and as a result, it emits a photon. At this moment, we write the atom's quantum information onto the polarization state of the photon, thus mapping it onto the light particle." The photon is stored between the mirrors until it eventually flies out through one mirror, which is less reflective than the other. "The two mirrors steer the photon in a specific direction, effectively guiding it into an optical fiber," says Casabone. The quantum information stored in the photon could thus be conveyed over the optical fiber to a distant quantum computer, where the same technique could be applied in reverse to write it back onto an atom.

Support for this research was provided by the Austrian Science Funds and by the European Union.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Innsbruck.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. A. Stute, B. Casabone, B. Brandst?tter, K. Friebe, T. E. Northup, R. Blatt. Quantum-state transfer from an ion to a photon. Nature Photonics, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/NPHOTON.2012.358

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/computers_math/information_technology/~3/upzW0IicBvI/130204094602.htm

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Need Help With Your Home Improvement Projects? ? It's Germane

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Source: http://itsgermane.johnjermain.org/2013/02/03/need-help-with-your-home-improvement-projects/

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Clean a Dry Erase Board with Baby Wipes

If you've ever left dry erase ink on the board for a few days, you know it can sometimes be difficult to remove. Cleaning weblog How to Clean Things shares several methods for removing old dry erase ink, but being a parent my favorite is using baby wipes.

It may take a bit of scrubbing, but the moist wipe will remove the ink easily enough and is more convenient for me than pulling out vinegar or baking soda. Keep in mind that you can also use baby wipes to erase deodorant marks from dark clothes. If you don't have baby wipes on hand, check out the source link below for several other methods. Photo by Timothy Krause

How to Clean a Dry Erase Board | How to Clean Things

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/GFYeffWiUyM/clean-a-dry-erase-board-with-baby-wipes

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Term life? Rental? Solving the insurance puzzle - Salt Lake Tribune

Bloomberg Prices can vary widely on the same insurance policies from different companies, and people often are surprised to learn about what is covered and what?s not only after making a claim.

Insurance is not only a fundamental part of most consumers? financial lives, it?s also among the most confusing.

For many people, exerting effort to understand insurance in its various forms is unpleasant. Perhaps that?s because insurance is about protecting your finances against life?s most disturbing events ? car crashes, house fires, death.

Understanding a few of the key aspects will prompt you to get the correct insurance or rethink ? and reshop for ? the insurance you already have. That?s important because prices can vary widely on the same insurance policies, and people often are surprised to learn about what is covered and what?s not only after making a claim.

"There?s a lot of confusion about just what?s in their policies," said John Egan, managing editor for InsuranceQuotes.com. "Know what you?re paying for."

Here are answers to key questions frequently asked by consumers.

How much life insurance do I need?

At its simplest, life insurance is paycheck replacement if you die. In determining how much coverage you need, you?re trying to answer two questions: "Who relies on my paycheck and would suffer financial hardship if I died?" and "How much money would they be missing because I?m not working?"

Typically, you?re thinking about a spouse and children who would be hurting for money. You?re thinking about everything from rent or mortgage to kids? college educations.

Single, childless people who have nobody relying on their income might decide they need no life insurance.

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A single breadwinner in a young family of five might need a policy worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions.

"The amount is really the single-most important thing to get right," said Byron Udell, founder and CEO of AccuQuote.com.

A rule of thumb is to get term life insurance equal to about 10 times your annual gross income, but that also could be woefully inadequate, especially if you?re young and your dependents have many years left to rely on your income.

Calculate your own figure at such websites as http://tinyurl.com/lifehappens-calc, http://tinyurl.com/accuquote-calc and http://tinyurl.com/bankrate-insurcalc.

While traveling, should I buy rental-car insurance?

Probably not, if you already have auto insurance with collision and comprehensive coverage, which refers to non-collision events, such as theft, fire or vandalism. The rental-car insurance could be a waste of money.

To best answer this question, make two phone calls - to your auto agent and to the issuer of the credit card you will use to pay for the rental. Both are likely to include some coverage for use of a rental car.

"Before you get to the rental-car counter, you need to make sure you know what coverage you already have," Egan said.

Check to see whether your insurance company pays for the full value of a loss, including administrative fees, towing charges and what?s termed "loss of use," money the rental company loses because a damaged vehicle cannot immediately be re-rented.

How do I choose the right deductibles?

The simple answer is to choose auto and home insurance deductibles as high as you can stand. A deductible is the amount of money you have to pay before your insurance kicks in. If you opt for a higher deductible, your premiums will be lower but you?ll have bigger out-of-pocket expenses if you have a claim. For example, common advice is to increase your auto insurance deductible from $500 to $1,000, which could mean a 25 percent savings on premiums. Especially if you have an emergency fund of a few thousand dollars, you should opt for higher deductibles, say, $1,000 on auto and $2,500 on home.

"It?s a balancing act," Egan said. "You need to make sure your finances are in order so you can handle that higher deductible. Really, it?s a gut check."

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Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/55677792-79/insurance-com-org-http.html.csp

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