Jodi Arias: Who Is the Admitted Killer?

Jodi Arias is a woman that many can't keep their eyes off of--a soft-spoken, small-framed 32-year-old who last year won a jailhouse Christmas caroling contest. But she is also an admitted killer who is now on trial in Arizona for the 2008 murder of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander.

Sitting in a Maricopa County court, Arias, whose trial resumes today, cries every time prosecutors describe what she admits she did -- stab her one-time boyfriend Travis Alexander 27 times, slit his throat and shoot him in the head.

Arias grew up in the small city of Yreka, Calif. She dropped out of high school, but received her GED while in jail a few years ago. She was an aspiring photographer; her MySpace page includes several albums of pictures, one of which was called "In loving memory of Travis Alexander."

FULL COVERAGE: Jodi Arias Murder Trial

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"Jodi wanted nothing but to please Travis," defense attorney Jennifer Wilmot said in her opening statements, but added that there was another reality – that Arias was Alexander's "dirty little secret."

Arias' attorneys want the jury to believe she killed Alexander in June of 2008 in self defense, that he abused her, and she feared for her life when she attacked him in the shower of his Mesa, Ariz., home.

Alexander's family and friends say Arias was a stalker who killed him in cold blood. They say the 30-year-old was a successful businessman who overcame all the odds. His parents were drug addicts, and he grew up occasionally homeless until he converted to Mormonism and turned his life around.

Jodi Arias Trial: A Timeline of Events in the Arizona Murder Case

"He actually had everything going for him," said Dave Hall, one of Alexander's friends. "A beautiful home, a beautiful car, a great income."

Alexander kept a blog, and in a haunting last entry, just two weeks before his murder, he wrote about trying to find a wife.

"This type of dating to me is like a very long job interview," he wrote. "Desperately trying to find out if my date has an axe murderer penned up inside of her."

Alexander did date a killer. It's now up to the jury to decide if she killed in self defense.

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World's oldest pills treated sore eyes

In ancient Rome, physicians treated sore eyes with the same active ingredients as today. So suggests an analysis of pills found on the Relitto del Pozzino, a cargo ship wrecked off the Italian coast in around 140 BC.

"To our knowledge, these are the oldest medical tablets ever analysed," says Erika Ribechini of the University of Pisa in Italy, head of a team analysing the relics. She thinks the disc-shaped tablets, 4 centimetres across and a centimetre thick, were likely dipped in water and dabbed directly on the eyes.

The tablets were mainly made of the zinc carbonates hydrozincite and smithsonite, echoing the widespread use of zinc-based minerals in today's eye and skin medications. Ribechini says there is evidence that Pliny the Elder, the Roman physician, prescribed zinc compounds for these uses almost 250 years after the shipwreck in his seminal medical encyclopaedia, Naturalis Historia.

The tablets were also rich in plant and animal oils. Pollen grains from an olive tree suggest that olive oil was a key ingredient, just like it is today in many medical and beauty creams, says Ribechini.

The tablets were discovered in a sealed tin cylinder called a pyxis (see image above). The tin must have been airtight to protect its contents from oxygen corrosion.

"Findings of such ancient medicines are extremely rare, so preservation of the Pozzino tablets is a very lucky case," says Ribechini.

The cargo of the wreck, discovered in 1989, is rich in other medical equipment, including vials and special vessels for bloodletting. This suggests that one of the passengers may have been a physician.

Journal reference: PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1216776110

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Britain: Commentator rapped over Suarez 'cheat' claim

LONDON: A British television commentator who labelled Luis Suarez "a cheat" following his controversial goal in Liverpool's FA Cup win at Mansfield on Sunday, has been spoken to by his employer.

Jon Champion, an experienced football broadcaster, made his views clear while working for satellite station ESPN who were carrying live coverage of the match between Premier League side Liverpool and fifth-tier Mansfield at the non-league club's Field Mill ground.

The ball hit Suarez on the right wrist before he put Liverpool 2-0 up in a game they eventually won 2-1 but the Uruguay striker's goal was allowed to stand by the referee.

However, as ESPN showed a replay of the incident, Champion said: "That, I'm afraid, is the work of a cheat."

But an ESPN statement issued Monday distanced themselves from Champion's comment, saying: "We take our responsibility to deliver the highest standards of coverage to our viewers.

"ESPN's editorial policy is for commentators to be unbiased and honest, to call things as they see them.

"Inevitably this can involve treading a fine line on occasion, especially in the heat of the moment.

"Comments during the Mansfield v Liverpool match caused offence where none was intended and we have spoken to our commentator about this incident."

Sunday's incident was just the latest in a series of flashpoints that have dogged Suarez since his arrival in English football, with the most high-profile being his ban for racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra last season.

"If it was someone else we probably wouldn't even be discussing it," said Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers of Suarez's goal after Sunday's match. "Sometimes these sorts of things will follow players."

"That's part of his life. He deals with it remarkably well. He's got thick skin. He's had it throughout his life and his career in this country."

And Suarez received further backing, over this incident at least, from former Liverpool defender turned football pundit Alan Hansen.

"What exactly was Suarez supposed to do?" Hansen wrote in his column in Monday's Daily Telegraph.

"Run to the referee and tell him it hit his hand? His team-mates would go berserk, and his manager would not be too impressed either.

"The first thing to make clear is Liverpool's second goal in the third round cup tie was not a deliberate handball."

Hansen added: "He (Suarez) did exactly what anyone who has ever played professional football -- and anyone who plays in the future -- would do in the same situation.

"Yesterday, Suarez simply followed the golden rule every youngster is taught when he first plays football: 'Play to the whistle.' If that whistle does not come, it's the fault of the referee, not the player."

- AFP/jc

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Panasonic's E series LCDs are feature-rich

LAS VEGAS--In 2013, Panasonic is releasing its largest line of LCDs yet, with seven different series to choose from. While the WT60 and DT60 sit at the high end, it's the three types of E series that make up the bulk of the company's offering.

The E's are comprised of the 50-inch and 60-inch ET60; the E60 in four sizes (42-, 50-, 58-, and 65-inch screens); and the entry-level EM60 at 39 inches and 50 inches.

Unusually for Panasonic, the ET60 and E60 are blessed with an embarrassment of feature-riches. The most "gadgety" addition is Swipe & Share 2.0, which lets users tap their NFC smartphone against the TV to share content -- but, really, who's going to get up from their chair to use it? In addition, the TVs feature Voice Interaction/Guidance, which allows users to speak commands into their Panasonic remote or smartphone. For connectivity purposes they both include three HDMI ports and two USB ports.

With the new "Smart TV Alliance" affiliation, the ET60 and E60 also offer My Home Screen which allows each user in the home to create their own personal home screen with shortcuts to favorite content.

The entry-level EM60 forgoes these features, but includes a "media player" with two HDMI connections and one USB port.

The Panasonic E series will be available in the U.S. in the spring 2013 with pricing to be announced.

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How Fish Evolved to Climb Waterfalls With Their Mouths

When it comes to climbing waterfalls, the Nopili rock-climbing goby really puts its teeth into it.

The inch-long (2.5 centimeter) fish uses suckers in its mouth and belly to move up steep cliffs in its rugged Hawaiian habitat. (Related "pictures: "'Walking' Fish a Model of Evolution in Action.")

Watch a video of the fish climbing.

Because its freshwater habitat is easily disturbed—by a big storm, for instance—the fish often crawl up waterfalls to return upstream.

But how this odd creature evolved to trek vertical distances of up to a hundred feet (30 meters)—the energetic equivalent of a person running a marathon—was unknown, said Richard Blob, an evolutionary biologist at Clemson University.

Now, a new paper by Blob and colleagues in the journal PLOS ONE shows that the fish uses the same movements to climb as it does to eat algae.

Before Blob and his student team could study the fish, however, they had to catch one. That proved a bit tricky. For instance, a goby would watch as a wetsuited scientist, struggling against the current, inched closer—and then would scoot away. "You don't want to attach too much personality to these animals," but they almost had a mocking expression, Blob said with a laugh.

The Nopili rock-climbing goby has two suckers for climbing.

Photograph courtesy Takashi Maie

When enough fish were eventually caught, they were taken to a field laboratory in Hawaii. There the scientists filmed them feeding on algae-covered glass and—stimulated by falling water—climbing. "They'd climb up a garden hose if you gave it to them," Blob quipped. (Also see pictures: "Nine Fish With 'Hands' Found to Be New Species.")

By watching videos of both behaviors, the team concluded that the fish uses the same overall movements. For instance, the angle and distance at which the front part of the upper jaw protrudes are nearly identical during both behaviors.

This suggests that, at some point in its evolution, the Nopili rock-climbing goby repurposed one behavior for another—a known evolutionary phenomenon known as exaptation, in which a species will "take a structure or behavior and co-opt to do something totally different."

The classic example of exaptation is bird feathers, said Blob, "which may have evolved as an insulation structure before they were co-opted, or exapted, with some evolutionary changes for use in flight."

Though it's still unknown which behavior came first, the end result is a perfectly adapted fish.

"How finely tuned these fish are to this habitat is just amazing," said Blob.

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Accused Shooter Was 'Relaxed' After Massacre

Accused movie theater gunman James Holmes was "relaxed" and "detached" when police confronted him just moments after he had allegedly killed 12 people and wounded dozens more in the Aurora, Colo., massacre, a police officer testified today.

A preliminary hearing for Holmes began today in Colorado, with victims and families present. One family member likened attending the hearing to having to "face the devil."

The first two witnesses to take the stand were Aurora police officers who responded to the theater and spotted Holmes standing by his car at the rear of the theater.

Officer Jason Oviatt said he first thought Holmes was a cop because he was wearing a gas mask and helmet, but as he got closer realized he was not an officer and held Holmes at gunpoint.

Holmes allegedly opened fire at the crowded movie theater during a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" on July 20, 2012. In addition to wearing the body armor and gas mask, Holmes had dyed his hair red.

Click here for full coverage of the Aurora movie theater shooting.

Throughout the search and arrest, Holes was extremely compliant, the officer said.

"He was very, very relaxed," Oviatt said. "These were not normal reactions to anything. He seemed very detached from it all."

Oviatt said Holmes had extremely dilated pupils and smelled badly when he was arrested.

Arapahoe County Sheriff/AP Photo

Aurora, Colorado Gunman: Neuroscience PhD Student Watch Video

Officer Aaron Blue testified that Holmes volunteered that he had four guns and that there were "improvised explosive devices" in his apartment and that they would go off if the police triggered them.

Holmes was dressed for the court hearing in a red jumpsuit and has brown hair and a full beard. He did not show any reaction when the officers pointed him out in the courtroom.

This is the most important court hearing in the case so far, essentially a mini-trial as prosecutors present witness testimony and evidence—some never before heard—to outline their case against the former neuroscience student.

The hearing at the Arapahoe County District Court in Centennial, Colo., could last all week. At the end, Judge William Sylvester will decide whether the case will go to trial.

Prosecutors say they will present potentially gruesome photos and videos in addition to 911 calls from the night of the shooting that left 12 people dead and 58 wounded. They will aim to convince the judge that there is enough evidence against Holmes to proceed to a trial.

It is expected that the prosecution's witnesses will include the Aurora police lead detective, first responders, the coroner and a computer forensic specialist.

In an unusual move, defense attorneys may call two witnesses. Last week, the judge ruled that Holmes can call the witnesses to testify on his "mental state," but it is not clear who the witnesses are.

A court-imposed gag order days after the shooting has kept many of the details under wraps, so much of the information could be new to the public.

Hundreds of family members and victims are expected to attend the hearing.

Holmes has been charged with 166 counts of murder, attempted murder, possession of explosives and crime of violence. The district attorney has not decided whether to seek the death penalty, and Holmes' defense team believes Holmes is mentally ill. He has not entered a plea.

One of the attendees will be MaryEllen Hanson, whose great-niece Veronica Moser Sullivan, 6, was killed in the shooting. Veronica's mother Ashley was shot and is now a quadriplegic and suffered a miscarriage.

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Silent Skype calls can hide secret messages

Got a secret message to send? Say it with silence. A new technique can embed secret data during a phone call on Skype. "There are concerns that Skype calls can be intercepted and analysed," says Wojciech Mazurczyk at the Institute of Telecommunications in Warsaw, Poland. So his team's SkypeHide system lets users hide extra, non-chat messages during a call.

Mazurczyk and his colleagues Maciej Karaś and Krysztof Szczypiorski analysed Skype data traffic during calls and discovered an opportunity in the way Skype "transmits" silence. Rather than send no data between spoken words, Skype sends 70-bit-long data packets instead of the 130-bit ones that carry speech.

The team hijacks these silence packets, injecting encrypted message data into some of them. The Skype receiver simply ignores the secret-message data, but it can nevertheless be decoded at the other end, the team has found. "The secret data is indistinguishable from silence-period traffic, so detection of SkypeHide is very difficult," says Mazurczyk. They found they could transmit secret text, audio or video during Skype calls at a rate of almost 1 kilobit per second alongside phone calls.

The team aims to present SkypeHide at a steganography conference in Montpellier, France, in June.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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Football: Controversial Suarez goal hands Liverpool victory

MANSFIELD: Luis Suarez's controversial goal proved the difference as Premier League giants Liverpool beat fifth-tier Mansfield Town 2-1 in their FA Cup third-round clash on Sunday.

The Uruguayan international -- no stranger to controversy since his arrival in England in January 2011 -- clearly handled the ball before poking it into the net to give the visitors a 2-0 lead with just over half an hour to go.

The hosts' leading scorer Matt Green ensured an exciting finish with a 79th-minute strike.

Daniel Sturridge had opened the scoring seven minutes into his first outing following his £12 million move from European champions Chelsea.

Mansfield manager Paul Cox said he would give Suarez "the benefit of the doubt" over the goal, but Liverpool coach Brendan Rodgers admitted his forward had been fortunate.

"There is no doubt it was handball, but the officials have seen it was not deliberate," Rodgers told ESPN.

"I asked the fourth official if it was handball and he said it was. It is unfortunate for Mansfield and lucky for us we got the goal."

Mansfield's chief executive Carolyn Radford complained that her side deserved a second chance.

"I have enjoyed the day but it feels like it was stolen from us, whether it was deliberate or not," she said.

"It was not in our favour and we should have had at least a replay."

Liverpool were made to work hard for their win despite the 18-time English champions playing a side that was relegated from the Football League in 2008 and still struggling to get back out of the Conference National.

Rodgers made eight changes, with only Stewart Downing, Lucas Leiva and Andre Wisdom keeping their places from the side that beat Sunderland 3-0 at Anfield on Wednesday.

Cox was marking his 41st birthday, having tied the knot with his fiancee two days earlier.

Rodgers took his place on the bench in front of the condemned Bishop Street Stand, the hole in its roof -- so cherished by home fans they even sponsor it -- covered by a temporary television gantry.

Getting off to a settled start, Liverpool moved up the pitch and soon carved Mansfield open.

Sturridge could not have wished for a simpler chance to start his Liverpool career, the ball played expertly through the Stags defence by Jonjo Shelvey for the new signing to clip past goalkeeper Alan Marriott.

He could have had another a minute later, but Marriott rushed out to smother the ball.

In the 15th minute, Shelvey played in Sturridge again but with too much time on his hands, he hesitated and Marriott pulled of an excellent save.

Liverpool's slick passing had Mansfield chasing shadows at times.

The Stags had their first shot in the 33rd minute when Green cracked a strike from outside the penalty box that Brad Jones did well to keep out.

Mansfield started the second half firing on all cylinders.

Anthony Howell had a close-range shot on the turn that Lucas blocked, before Louis Briscoe had a thumping drive at Jones that the Liverpool goalkeeper could only stop with his fists.

The Stags had a quick succession of corners and Briscoe fired in a thunderous shot that Jones did well to parry.

Nine minutes into the second half, Rodgers brought on the Premier League's second-top scorer Suarez and Jordan Henderson for Sturridge and Suso.

Within five minutes, the Uruguay striker had the ball in the net, though it clearly hit his hand as he bundled in a rebound off Marriott.

Green ensured a roller-coaster finish when Lee Beevers brought down a high ball and centred it for the striker to blast beyond Jones, sending home fans into raptures.

However, the Reds survived a frantic final 10 minutes to set up a trip to third-tier strugglers Oldham Athletic in the fourth round on January 26 or 27.

- AFP/jc

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Iran develops software to control access to social networks

Iran's government is developing "intelligent software" designed to give citizens controlled and restricted access to banned social-networking sites, the chief of Iran's national police tells the local media.

"Smart control of social networks will not only avoid their disadvantages, but will also allow people to benefit from their useful aspects," Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghadam said, according to a 7Sobh report cited by AFP. "The designing of intelligent software to control social networking Web sites" is under way.

"Smart control of social networks is better than filtering them completely," he said.

Access to social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter is blocked by the country's government, which has been waging a battle against what it calls "inappropriate" content on the Internet. After blocking access to Google's search engine and YouTube in September, Iran's government launched a video-sharing site to promote Iranian culture.

The country's government cut off access to the Internet several times last year, the latest of which blocked access to all encrypted international sites outside the country that operate on Secure Sockets Layer protocol. Quite aware of the censorship they face, many Iranians use proxy servers over virtual private networks to circumvent government restrictions.

The country has reportedly been developing a national intranet in an effort to create a "clean Internet." All government agencies and offices have already been connected to the "national information network," and connecting citizens to the network is the next expected step, according to a Reuters report in September.

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GOP Leader McConnell: 'Tax Issue Is Finished'

Jan 6, 2013 10:19am

                                                                                                            (Image Credit: ABC News)

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. R-Ky., Sunday said he will not accept any new revenue in future deals with congressional Democrats and President Obama.

“The tax issue is finished.  Over. Completed,” McConnell told me on “This Week.” “That’s behind us. Now the question is what are we going to do about the biggest problem confronting our country and that’s our spending addiction.

“We didn’t have this problem because we weren’t taxing enough,” McConnell added.

He blamed Obama and Democrats for waiting to resolve budget issues until the last minute.

Read a transcript of the full interview with Sen. Mitch McConnell HERE.

“Why we end up in these last-minute discussions is beyond me. We need to function,” McConnell said. “I mean, the House of Representatives, for example, passed a budget every year.  They’ve passed appropriation bills.

“The Senate Democratic majority and the president seem to like these last-minute deals.”

McConnell said that the biggest issue facing the country in the next year is the deficit and spending. And he predicted that the issue would occupy the congressional agenda in the first three months of the year, overtaking Obama’s other priorities, including gun control.

“But the biggest problem we have at the moment is spending and debt,” McConnell said. “That’s going to dominate the Congress between now and the end of March.  None of these issues, I think, will have the kind of priority that spending and debt are going to have over the next two or three months.”

On the expected nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., as the secretary of Defense by Obama, McConnell said he would evaluate Hagel’s past statements before determining whether he could support his nomination in the Senate.

“I’m going to take a look at all the things that Chuck has said over the years and review that, and in terms of his qualifications to lead our nation’s military,” McConnell said. “The question we will be answering if he’s the nominee, is do his views make sense for that particular job?  I think he ought to be given a fair hearing, like any other nominee, and he will be.”

McConnell, who in 2008 praised Hagel for his clear voice and stature on foreign policy and national security, now says he will reserve judgment on his possible nomination until after a Senate confirmation hearing.

“I’m going to wait and see how the hearings go and see whether Chuck’s views square with the job he would be nominated to do,” he added.

Like “This Week” on Facebook here. You can also follow the show on Twitter here.

SHOWS: This Week

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