Police warn against the danger of sleeping with ... your cell phone

 Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Image 1 of 4 Goodbye, cell phone. Goodbye, bed. Goodbye, cell phone. Goodbye, bed. Image 2 of 4

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 Police warn against the danger of sleeping with ... your cell phone 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

 There is a chance your cell phone could set your head on fire, according to science (and the New York Police Department).

 Depending on how intimate you are with your phone, those who charge their smartphones under their pillow while they sleep could find themselves fanning out the flames of their smothered device.

 In an ominous and unexplained public service announcement, the 33rd Precinct in New York's Washington Heights sent out the following tweet Monday:

 Don't put your cellphone under a pillow when sleeping or when charging your device.Please share this tip and b safe! pic.twitter.com/uwD3PXgVQf — NYPD 33rd Precinct (@NYPD33Pct) February 16, 2016

 Those photos really do drive home the point, don't they?

 This isn't necessarily new news, but it does dredge up the fact that phones can get really hot while being charged. Sandwiching a device between a pillow and mattress could hotbox a cell phone into a potential fire.

 This isn't some newfangled wives' tale: this is an actual, observed phenomenon that a handful of people learn each year, as a Hamden, Conn., family experienced in 2015 when a teen's phone caught fire and torched his bed and pillow. Proper ventilation while charging a device is key.

 "The cell phone was left on the bed. These devices need areas to be ventilated," Hamden Fire Chief David Berardesca told the local NBC affiliate. "It is recommended that you leave these types of devices on a hard surface so the heat can dissipate. The batteries heat up, they could melt – in some cases, explode – and cause a fire."

 Nearly 472 retweets and 191 likes later — as of this writing — the police have not returned calls as to the reason for this tweet. The source of the photos could be from a 2014 Texas cell phone fire, as Gothamist reported, and it doesn't currently seem like there is an uptick in recent cell phone bed fires ... but place your phone on the nightstand, just in case. ||||| Add a location to your Tweets

 When you tweet with a location, Twitter stores that location. You can switch location on/off before each Tweet and always have the option to delete your location history. Learn more ||||| Fire officials are warning residents to be careful charging their devices after a cellphone ignited a bed and pillow in Hamden, Connecticut, overnight Friday, according to the fire department.

 "I saw the flames," said Hamden resident Kimberly Johnson, who said the fire broke out in her 15-year-old son's bedroom. "When I ran upstairs, his entire left side of the bed was on fire."

 Residents at 204 Franklin Road in Hamden ventilated the home and the fire was extinguished before emergency crews arrived around 4 a.m., but fire officials say it's a warning to residents about the dangers of charging electronics.

 "I was just scared because all I saw was the flames and my son was laying there," Johnson said.

 Chargers "need space to breathe" because they generate heat while in use, according to the Hamden Fire Department.

 "The cell phone was left on the bed. These devices need areas to be ventilated," said Hamden Fire Chief David Berardesca. "It is recommended that you leave these type of devices on a hard surface so the heat can dissipate. The batteries heat up, they could melt – in some cases, explode – and cause a fire."

 Never block the air vents on the back and sides of a laptop or leave charging devices on a bed while sleeping. Bedding and pillows can block airflow, fire officials said.

 Check power cords and chargeres regularly for damage, and throw them out if they're frayed. Damaged cords can emit electrical sparks and ignite a fire.

 Always unplug chargers that are not in use. They consume electricity even when the device is not charging.

 More information is available through the Hamden Fire Marshal’s Office at 203-407-3182. |||||

Write a summary.

– A tip from the NYPD: "Don't put your cellphone under a pillow when sleeping or when charging your device"—unless you want to set your head on fire. Deputy Inspector Wilson Aramboles of the NYPD's 33rd Precinct shared that message on Twitter on Monday alongside photos of a charred phone, battery, and pillow. It isn't clear if the photos are tied to a recent accident or an old one; Gothamist reports they might be from a 2014 incident in which a Texas teen's Samsung Galaxy S4 started a fire under her pillow. Either way, they "really do drive home the point," notes the San Francisco Chronicle. Cell phones need room to breathe, especially as they heat up while charging. While keeping a hot phone away from flammable materials like a pillow might seem like a no-brainer, some people choose to sleep with their phones nearby and rely on features like vibrating alarms. "It is recommended that you leave these types of devices on a hard surface so the heat can dissipate. The batteries heat up, they could melt—in some cases, explode—and cause a fire," a fire chief told NBC Connecticut last May after a teen's phone set fire to his bed. (An exploding cell phone actually killed a man in China.)


– Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead Saturday at a resort outside of Marfa, Texas, KVIA reports. According to the San Antonio Express- News, the 79-year-old appears to have died from natural causes. Scalia was the longest-serving justice currently on the Supreme Court, having been nominated by Ronald Reagan in 1986. In a statement, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called Scalia “a man of God, a patriot, and an unwavering defender of the written Constitution and the Rule of Law." “We mourn his passing, and we pray that his successor on the Supreme Court will take his place as a champion for the written Constitution and the Rule of Law," CBS DFW quotes Abbott's statement as saying. Scalia spent Friday hunting quail at the Cibolo Creek Ranch and told friends before going to bed that he wasn't feeling well, reports CNN. His body was found in his room after he didn't show up for breakfast Saturday. In a statement, Chief Justice John Roberts called Scalia an "extraordinary individual" who was "admired and treasured by his colleagues." The Chicago Tribune notes that the conservative judge's "sharply worded dissents and caustic attacks on liberal notions were quoted widely, and they had an influence on a generation of young conservatives," the paper states. Scalia's death gives President Obama the chance to get his third nominee onto the Supreme Court, CBS News reports, though that might be tough in an election year.

Expand this summary.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia found dead at West Texas ranch

 Associate Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead of apparent natural causes Saturday on a luxury resort in West Texas, federal officials said.

 Scalia, 79, was a guest at the Cibolo Creek Ranch, a resort in the Big Bend region south of Marfa.

 Scalia arrived at the 30,000-acre ranch on Friday and attended a private party with about 40 people that night, according to a federal official.

 He left the party and retired to bed earlier than others, according to Donna Sellers, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Marshals Service.

 When he failed to appear at breakfast, a person involved with the ranch went to his room, where he discovered his body. A priest was called to administer last rites.

 A federal official, who asked not to be named, said there was no evidence of foul play and it appeared that Scalia died of natural causes.

 RELATED: Inside the West Texas ranch where Antonin Scalia was found dead

 Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia, of the Western Judicial District of Texas, was notified about the death from the U.S. Marshals Service.

 U.S. District Judge Fred Biery said he was among those notified about Scalia's death.

 "I was told it was this morning," Biery said of Scalia's death. "It happened on a ranch out near Marfa. As far as the details, I think it's pretty vague right now as to how," he said. "My reaction is it's very unfortunate. It's unfortunate with any death, and politically in the presidential cycle we're in, my educated guess is nothing will happen before the next president is elected."

 RELATED: Ted Cruz, Donald Trump among those to react to Scalia's death on social media

 The U.S. Marshal Service, the Presidio County sheriff and the FBI were involved in the investigation.

 Officials with the law enforcement agencies declined to comment.

 A gray Cadillac hearse pulled into the ranch Saturday afternoon and left about 5 p.m. The hearse came from Alpine Memorial Funeral Home.

 Scalia's body was taken to El Paso, where it will be escorted back the nation's capital by U.S. marshals and U.S. Supreme Court Police.

 RELATED: Scalia 'respected and idealized' by St. Mary's law students

 Texas Gov. Greg Abbott released a statement Saturday afternoon, calling Scalia a man of God, a patriot and an "unwavering defender of the written Constitution."

 "He was the solid rock who turned away so many attempts to depart from and distort the Constitution," Abbott said. "We mourn his passing, and we pray that his successor on the Supreme Court will take his place as a champion for the written Constitution and the Rule of Law. Cecilia and I extend our deepest condolences to his family, and we will keep them in our thoughts and prayers."

 Scalia's death has far-reaching implications for the Supreme Court and a round of major cases the justices are set to decide this summer, including Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, which challenges the university's affirmative action policy, plus a case that contests Obama's immigration policy and another that reexamines the meaning of "one person, one vote," said former U.S. Rep. Charlie Gonzalez.

 RELATED: Key opinions by Justice Antonin Scalia

 President Barack Obama is unlikely to successfully name a new justice to replace Scalia before his second presidential term ends, Gonzalez said, because Congress will block any appointment he tries to make.

 "I don't see that the Republican-led Senate would confirm anybody chosen by President Obama," Gonzalez said.

 Gonzalez only met Scalia once, when he spotted the justice walking in the U.S. Capital to view a Supreme Court exhibit. Gonzalez asked him how Scalia was doing; Scalia said, "Fine."

 "I prevailed in my only exchange with the Supreme Court," Gonzalez said.

 The death immediately became an issue in the presidential race as during a GOP debate Saturday night, five of the six candidates taking part urged Republicans to block any attempt by the president to get his third nominee on the court.

 Only Jeb Bush said Obama had "every right" to nominate a justice during his final year in office.

 President Obama, in remarks to the nation, praised Scalia as a brilliant legal mind who influenced a generation of lawyers and students.

 The President also announced his intentions to nominate a successor, saying he plans to fulfill his constitutional responsibility to fill the vacancy.

 Scalia was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan.

 Staff writers Vianna Davila, Tyler White, Richard A. Marini and John MacCormack and the Associated Press contributed to this report. ||||| Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook | Twitter

 AUSTIN (CBSDFW.COM) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia “a man of God, a patriot and an unwavering defender of the written Constitution and the Rule of Law” in a statement issued Saturday afternoon that said the 79-year-old justice has died.

 CBS News tweeted Scalia was found dead at a West Texas ranch.

 BREAKING: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia found dead at West Texas ranch at 79 — CBS News (@CBSNews) February 13, 2016

 CBS News reported Scalia “appeared to die of natural causes,” according to a U.S. Marshals Service spokesperson.

 The replacement for Scalia, who was a fierce conservative on the court, would be President Barack Obama’s third Supreme Court nomination, CBS News reported. Former President Ronald Reagan nominated Scalia to the court in 1986.

 Many current and former political officials — including Abbott, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former President George W. Bush — weighed in with statements of mourning following reports of the justice’s death.

 Cruz, who is vying for the Republican presidential nomination, tweeted, “We owe it to [Scalia], and the nation, for the Senate to ensure that the next president names his replacement.”

 Justice Scalia was an American hero. We owe it to him, & the Nation, for the Senate to ensure that the next President names his replacement. — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 13, 2016

 In his statement, Cruz said Scalia “will go down as one of the few justices who single-handedly changed the course of legal history.”

 “As liberals and conservatives alike would agree, through his powerful and persuasive opinions, Justice Scalia fundamentally changed how courts interpret the Constitution and statutes, returning the focus to the original meaning of the text after decades of judicial activism,” Cruz’s statement continued. “He was an unrelenting defender of religious liberty, free speech, federalism, the constitutional separation of powers and private property rights. All liberty-loving Americans should be in mourning.”

 Abbott said Scalia set an example for citizens.

 “His fierce loyalty to the Constitution set an unmatched example, not just for judges and lawyers, but for all Americans,” Abbott’s statement continued. “We mourn his passing, and we pray that his successor on the Supreme Court will take his place as a champion for the written Constitution and the Rule of Law. Cecilia and I extend our deepest condolences to his family, and we will keep them in our thoughts and prayers.”

 Bush said Scalia will be missed.

 “Laura and I mourn the death of a brilliant jurist and important American, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia,” Bush’s statement said. “He was a towering figure and important judge on our nation’s highest court. He brought intellect, good judgment and wit to the bench, and he will be missed by his colleagues and our country.”

 North Texas Congressman Pete Sessions commented on Twitter about Scalia’s legacy.

 Justice Scalia's legacy is clear – he renewed our nation's belief in the rule of law and reinvigorated how we view the Constitution. — Pete Sessions (@PeteSessions) February 13, 2016

 “I pray that future generations of American patriots will continue to champion the Constitution like Justice Scalia did, and I pray for his family during this difficult time,” Sessions said in a statement.

 Sen. John Cornyn called Scalia “brilliant, principled and resolute in his beliefs.”

 “The author of some of the most consequential and best-written Supreme Court opinions, Justice Scalia will be remembered as a giant of American jurisprudence,” Cornyn’s statement read. “Justice Scalia’s commitment to the law was unwavering, and his devotion to his faith and to his family was unquestionable. Sandy and I are saddened by today’s news, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time.”

 Presidential contenders other than Cruz offered thoughts on Twitter regarding Scalia’s death, as well.

 The totally unexpected loss of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is a massive setback for the Conservative movement and our COUNTRY! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 13, 2016

 Jeanette & I mourn the loss of Justice Scalia, and our thoughts & prayers are with his wife Maureen & his family. pic.twitter.com/e03KRZRM6q — Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 13, 2016

 My thoughts and prayers are with Justice Scalia's family and his colleagues on the court who mourn his passing. pic.twitter.com/Y51xUMMEId — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 13, 2016

 Gov. Kasich's statement on the passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. pic.twitter.com/MAypwTGQR2 — John Kasich (@JohnKasich) February 13, 2016

 Statement on the passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia: pic.twitter.com/xazj9dDd5c — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) February 14, 2016

 My statement on the sad loss of a great man, Justice Scalia: https://t.co/H3GGBgk6LH — Dr. Ben Carson (@RealBenCarson) February 14, 2016

 At Mass, Columba & I prayed for Justice Scalia, who was devout in

 faith and has been brought home to God in heaven. https://t.co/Bumxa6Ikrs — Jeb Bush (@JebBush) February 14, 2016

 (©2016 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.) ||||| (CNN) U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the leading conservative voice on the high court, has died at the age of 79, a government source and a family friend told CNN on Saturday.

 His death set off an immediate debate about whether President Barack Obama should fill the seat in an election year. Obama said Saturday night that he plans to nominate a replacement, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the nomination should wait until the next president comes into office while top Democrat Harry Reid called for the seat to be filled "right away."

 Scalia died in his sleep during a visit to Texas. A government official said Scalia went to bed Friday night and told friends he wasn't feeling well. He didn't get up for breakfast on Saturday morning, and the group he was with for a hunting trip left without him.

 Someone at the ranch went in to check on him and found him unresponsive.

 The U.S. Marshals Service is helping to arrange for his body to be returned to his home in McLean, Virginia, an official told CNN, not to investigate his death.

 There will be no autopsy performed, a source familiar with the case confirmed to CNN. The decision for no autopsy was made both by the family and the Texas Justice of the Peace, the source said.

 Marshals were not at the resort in Texas where he died, but were called there after the fact, a law enforcement source told CNN. Mashals help supplement security for traveling justices.

 Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara pronounced Scalia dead over the phone Saturday afternoon, according to the Washington Post . Guevara told the Post she made the determination after being assured by law enforcement at the scene that "there were no signs of foul play."

 Guvara also spoke with Scalia's private physician in Washington and learned the 79-year-old had several chronic conditions. "He was having health issues," she told the Post. Based on her conversations, Guevara determined Scalia's heart stopped beating. "It wasn't a heart attack," Guevara told the Post. "He died of natural causes."

 In a statement, Chief Justice John Roberts said he and other justices were saddened to hear of Scalia's passing.

 "He was an extraordinary individual and jurist, admired and treasured by his colleagues," Roberts said. "His passing is a great loss to the court and the country he so loyally served. We extend our deepest condolences to his wife Maureen and his family."

 Obama called Scalia's son, Eugene, to offer his condolences to the entire Scalia family, Deputy White House Press Secretary Eric Schultz said.

 Political fight looming

 Scalia's death in an election year sets up a titanic confirmation tussle over his successor on the bench. The already challenging task of getting a Democratic president's nominee through a Republican-controlled Senate will be made even more difficult as the fight over Scalia's replacement will likely emerge as a dominant theme of a wild presidential election.

 Speaking while on a presidential trip to Rancho Mirage, California, Obama vowed to nominate a successor to Scalia, who he called "a towering legal figure."

 "There will be plenty of time for me to do so and for the Senate to fulfill its responsibility to give that person a fair hearing and a timely vote," Obama said. "These are responsibilities that I take seriously, as should everyone. They're bigger than any one party. They are about our democracy. They're about the institution to which Justice Scalia dedicated his professional life."

 Earlier Saturday, McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, called for the vacancy to be filled after Obama's presidency ends.

 "The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president," McConnell said in a statement.

 But Reid, who represents Nevada, called for the seat to be filled "right away."

 "With so many important issues pending before the Supreme Court, the Senate has a responsibility to fill vacancies as soon as possible," Reid said in a statement. "It would be unprecedented in recent history for the Supreme Court to go a year with a vacant seat. Failing to fill this vacancy would be a shameful abdication of one of the Senate's most essential Constitutional responsibilities."

 Major presence on high court

 Appointed to the court in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan, Scalia was a conservative icon who transformed the court by instilling in it his belief that judges should follow the precise words of the Constitution and not apply a modern interpretation.

 He was the first justice of Italian-American heritage and passed through confirmation with a unanimous vote.

 Scalia changed oral arguments as he became an active participant with tough questions for advocates.

 He will be best known, perhaps, for his landmark decision District of Columbia v. Heller, holding that the Second Amendment protects the right to posses a firearm at home. He was a critic of Roe v. Wade and dissented in last term's same-sex marriage cases.

 He wrote a stinging dissent in the same-sex marriage case Obergefell v. Hodges, calling the decision a "threat to American democracy."

 He believed that marriage should be decided by the people, not the courts.

 He was also concerned that some members of the bench might determine that the death penalty is unconstitutional.

 Scalia caused a stir as recently as December when he made controversial comments during a hearing about the future of a program at the University of Texas that takes race into consideration as one factor of admissions.

 Scalia pushed a point that had been made in some friend of the court briefs filed in the case. It concerns a theory called "mismatch" popularized by authors Stuart Taylor Jr. and Richard Sander that suggests affirmative action programs don't always benefit minorities.

 Although Roberts had mentioned the theory in a different case in 2013, Scalia's language was blunt.

 "There are those who contend that it does not benefit African-Americans to get them into the University of Texas, where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less-advanced school, a slower-track school where they do well," he said.

 "One of the briefs pointed out that most of the black scientists in this country don't come from schools like the University of Texas," he said.

 This term was slated to be every bit as blockbuster as last term. The court is considering a major challenge to public sector unions, a race-conscious admissions plan at the University of Texas, a big abortion case, voting rights, the contraceptive mandate and a challenge to Obama's immigration actions.

 Although in some of the cases Scalia probably indicated to his colleagues in conference which way he was going to vote, those preliminary votes aren't binding and are now void.

 "The entire tenor of this term has now changed," said Stephen Vladeck, a CNN contributor and a law professor at American University Washington College Law. "The court can try to go ahead, but on cases where they are split 4-4, their only options are to leave the lower court decision intact or to hold the case over until Justice Scalia's replacement is confirmed."

 If the Supreme Court is equally divided in a case, ruling 4-4, it means the lower court opinion stands and there is no precedent set by the high court.

 Conservative in thought, not in personality

 The jaunty jurist was able to light up, or ignite, a room with his often brash demeanor and wicked sense of humor, grounded always in a profound respect for American law and its constitutional traditions.

 "What can I say," was a favorite phrase of the man colleagues knew as "Nino."

 As it turned out, quite a lot.

 "Justice Scalia had an irrepressibly pugnacious personality," said Edward Lazarus, a former Supreme Clerk law clerk who wrote about the experience in "Closed Chambers."

 "And even in his early years of the Court, that came out at oral argument when he was the most aggressive questioner. And behind the scenes, where the memos he would write -- what were called 'Ninograms' -- inside the court had a real galvanizing effect on the debate among the justices."

 A sharp mind combined with a sharp pen allowed Scalia to make his point, both to the pleasure and disappointment of his colleagues and the public.

 "He could be belligerent, he was obviously very candid about he felt about things," said Joan Biskupic, a USA Today reporter who wrote a biography of Scalia. "He loved to call it as he saw it, completely not politically correct. In fact, he prided himself on not being PC on the bench in court."

 His New York and Mediterranean roots -- "I'm an Italian from Queens," he was fond of saying -- helped fashion a love of words and debate, combining street smarts with a well-calculated conservative view of the law and its limits on society.

 "He was very good with audiences that weren't predisposed to like him," said Paul Clement, a former Scalia law clerk. "He was incredibly disarming and charming in his own way."

 Scalia, a Catholic, regularly attended Red Mass before each term. He and his wife had nine children and more than 30 grandchildren.

 His best friend on the bench was Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whom he called his "best buddy" on the court. Last winter, they appeared together in a wide-ranging discussion on constitutional issues.

 "Why don't you call us the odd couple?" Scalia said.

 Political world reacts

 Reaction and condolences quickly poured in from politicians and presidential hopefuls. President George H.W. Bush, who was vice president when Scalia was appointed to the court, called him one of Reagan's "many enduring legacies to the United States."

 "Both his admirers and his detractors agreed that Justice Scalia was one of the sharpest constitutional intellects to ever serve on the bench," Bush said in a statement. "I considered him a personal hero, and Barbara and I were honored to call him a friend. Our heart breaks today for our country, but especially for his wife Maureen and his nine children and extended family. His death is a great loss for us all."

 GOP 2016 front-runner Donald Trump issued his condolences to Scalia's family in a statement but tweeted that his death was a "massive setback" for conservatives.

 "The totally unexpected loss of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is a massive setback for the Conservative movement and our COUNTRY!" Trump tweeted.

 The totally unexpected loss of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is a massive setback for the Conservative movement and our COUNTRY! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 13, 2016

 Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders also tweeted his condolences to Scalia's family.

 My thoughts and prayers are with Justice Scalia's family and colleagues, who mourn his passing. — Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) February 13, 2016

 Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who is a member of the Judiciary Committee, echoed McConnell's call for Obama to hold off on selecting a replacement.

 "Justice Scalia was an American hero. We owe it to him, & the Nation, for the Senate to ensure that the next President names his replacement," Cruz tweeted.

 Hillary Clinton said in a statement that she "did not hold Justice Scalia's views, but he was a dedicated public servant who brought energy and passion to the bench."

 But, she added, "The Republicans in the Senate and on the campaign trail who are calling for Justice Scalia's seat to remain vacant dishonor our Constitution. The Senate has a constitutional responsibility here that it cannot abdicate for partisan political reasons." ||||| Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the fiery conservative who used a sharp intellect, barbed wit and a zeal for verbal combat to fight against the tide of modern liberalism, has died.

 Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the intellectual cornerstone of the court's modern conservative wing, whose elegant and acidic opinions inspired a movement of legal thinkers and ignited liberal critics, died Feb. 13 on a ranch near Marfa, Texas. He was 79. The cause of death was not immediately known. "Justice Antonin Scalia was a man of God, a patriot, and an unwavering defender of the written Constitution and the Rule of Law," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement, the first official notice of Scalia's death. "His fierce loyalty to the Constitution set an unmatched example, not just for judges and lawyers, but for all Americans. We mourn his passing, and we pray that his successor on the Supreme Court will take his place as a champion for the written Constitution and the Rule of Law." Scalia, the first Italian American to serve on the court, was nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 and quickly became the kind of champion to the conservative legal world that his benefactor was in the political realm. An outspoken opponent of abortion, affirmative action and what he termed the "so-called homosexual agenda," Scalia's intellectual rigor, flamboyant style and eagerness to debate his detractors energized conservative law students, professors and intellectuals who felt outnumbered by liberals in their chosen professions. "He has by the force and clarity of his opinions become a defining figure in American constitutional law," Northwestern University law professor Steven Calabresi said at a Federalist Society dinner honoring Scalia at the 20-year mark of his service on the Supreme Court. He took his seat Sept. 26, 1986. Scalia was the most prominent advocate of a manner of constitutional interpretation called "originalism," the idea that judges should look to the meaning of the words of the Constitution at the time they were written. Rich in history as well as rugged West Texas landscapes and big sky, the Cibolo Creek Ranch where Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia passed away has long been a secluded retreat for celebrities from business leaders to rock stars and actors. Scalia, 79, was found dead on Saturday morning when... He mocked the notion of a "living" Constitution, one that evolved with changing times, as simply an excuse for judges to impose their own ideological views. Critics countered that the same could be said for originalism - and that the legal conclusions Scalia said were dictated by that approach meshed neatly with the justice's views on the death penalty, gay rights and abortion. It is hard to overstate Scalia's impact on the modern court. Upon his arrival, staid oral arguments before the justices became jousting matches, with Scalia aggressively questioning counsel with whom he disagreed, challenging his colleagues and often dominating the sessions. He asked so many questions in his first sitting as a justice that Justice Lewis Powell whispered to Justice Thurgood Marshall: "Do you think he knows the rest of us are here?" Scalia was just as ready for combat outside the court. He relished debating his critics at law schools and in public appearances, although he sometimes displayed a thin skin. He tired of questions about his prominent role in the court's 2000 decision in Bush v. Gore, which halted a recount of the presidential vote in Florida and effectively decided the presidency for Republican George W. Bush. His response to those who raised questions years later: "Get over it." Despite his impact on the legal world, Scalia's views were too far to the right for him to play the pivotal roles on the court that his fellow Reagan nominees - Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy - eventually assumed. Scalia was far better known for fiery dissents than landmark majority opinions. One exception was the court's groundbreaking 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller. An avid hunter and a member of his high school rifle team, Scalia wrote the court's 5-to-4 ruling that held for the first time that the Second Amendment afforded a right to gun ownership unrelated to military service. "His views on textualism and originalism, his views on the role of judges in our society, on the practice of judging, have really transformed the terms of legal debate in this country," Elena Kagan said about Scalia when she was dean of Harvard Law School, alma mater to both. "He is the justice who has had the most important impact over the years on how we think and talk about law." After Kagan was nominated to the court by President Barack Obama, she and Scalia became friends and hunting buddies - despite their distinct ideological differences and the fact that Kagan had never shot a gun. They went to Wyoming together in 2012 in hopes of Kagan bagging a big-game trophy like the elk, nicknamed Leroy, whose mounted head dominated Justice Scalia's Supreme Court chambers. But she shot only a white-tailed deer, which Justice Scalia later laughingly said "she could have done in my driveway" at his suburban Virginia home. The sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia will have an immediate impact on numerous cases now pending before the Supreme Court, including several that were expected to split along ideological or political lines with 5-4 votes. Instead, some of those votes now could deadlock, 4 to 4, meaning a... Antonin Gregory Scalia - "Nino" to family, friends and colleagues - was born in Trenton, New Jersey, on March 11, 1936, and grew up in the New York City borough of Queens. His father, Salvatore, came through Ellis Island at 17; he learned English and became a professor of romance languages at Brooklyn College. Scalia's mother, the former Catherine Panaro, was a second-generation Italian American and an elementary school teacher. Not only was Nino their only child, he was the only child of his generation on either side of the family. The whole extended clan doted on him, biographer Joan Biskupic reported in her biography "American Original," and expected achievement. "You're not everybody else," Catherine would say, according to Biskupic. "Your family has standards, and it doesn't matter what the standards of (others) are." In 1953, he graduated first in his class at St. Francis Xavier, a military prep school in Manhattan, and won a naval ROTC scholarship but was turned down by his first choice of college, Princeton. A devout Catholic, he attended his second choice, Georgetown University, where he was the valedictorian of the class of 1957. In his graduation speech, he exhorted his fellow students: "If we will not be leaders of a real, a true, a Catholic intellectual life, no one will!" Scalia then entered Harvard Law School, where he was editor of the law review and graduated magna cum laude in 1960. That same year, he married Maureen McCarthy, a Radcliffe student he'd met on a blind date. She, too, came from a small family, but they made up for it, with five sons and four daughters and literally dozens of grandchildren. "We didn't set out to have nine children," Justice Scalia told Lesley Stahl on the CBS show "60 Minutes." "We're just old-fashioned Catholics, playing what used to be known as 'Vatican Roulette.' " He added that the other four sons were relieved when their brother Paul decided to "take one for the team" and become a priest.

 The Scalias moved around. After traveling across Europe for a year while he was a Harvard Sheldon Fellow, the newlyweds moved to Cleveland, where Scalia joined the Jones Day firm in 1961. On the cusp of becoming partner, he left private practice in 1967 to become a law professor at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. In 1971, he became general counsel to the new Office of Telecommunications Policy in the Nixon administration; the agency spurred development of the nascent cable industry. From 1972 to 1974, he was chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States, followed by three years as assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel. After Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, won election to the White House, Scalia returned to academia as a professor at the University of Chicago law school. Then Reagan came into office in 1981 and the next year nominated Scalia to the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. His name quickly appeared on short lists of potential Supreme Court nominees. Gavin Averill / AP U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia died Feb. 13, 2016, at age 79 in Texas. U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia died Feb. 13, 2016, at age 79 in Texas. (Gavin Averill / AP) (Gavin Averill / AP) Reagan in 1981 made good on a campaign promise to appoint the court's first woman with his choice of O'Connor, then an Arizona state judge and former legislator. His next chance to leave an imprint came five years later, when Chief Justice Warren Burger announced that he was stepping down. The president decided to elevate Justice William Rehnquist to the chief's job, and Scalia and fellow D.C. Circuit Judge Robert Bork became the finalists for the opening. Bork was the more experienced jurist and a conservative icon, but the 50-year-old Scalia was almost a decade younger and brought the added political benefit of being Italian American. Scalia got the nomination. After a testy Senate battle over Rehnquist's elevation, Scalia sailed through his confirmation hearings and was approved 98 to 0. Future vice president Joseph Biden, then a Democratic senator from Delaware and a stalwart of the Judiciary Committee, later said that his vote for Scalia was the one he most regretted - "because he was so effective." Scalia set out immediately to make his views known - and became exactly the conservatives had hoped for. He had been an influential early supporter of the Federalist Society, a group that political scientist Steven Teles called "the most vigorous, durable and well-ordered organization to emerge from (the) rethinking of modern conservatism's political strategy." Reliance on legislative history as a key element of interpreting statutes was once commonplace. But Scalia railed against the practice, saying that only the words of the statutes matter - a view known as textualism. He likened judges' use of secondary sources such as committee reports or statements made by members of Congress during floor debates to "looking over the faces of the crowd at a large cocktail party and picking out your friends." Even though most justices continued to think legislative history was valuable in interpreting statutes, lawyers arguing before the court learned that they would be upbraided by Scalia for mentioning it. He refused to join opinions that cited legislative history, even in a footnote. Similarly, Scalia redefined and popularized originalism. His approach to understanding the Constitution focused not on the framers' intent but on the meaning of the words to ordinary citizens in 1787. He rejected the notion that the framers wanted the Constitution to be a "living" document designed to accommodate changing circumstances and social values. Nervous anxiety unexpectedly coursed through the decorous, overflow crowd at the University of Chicago Divinity School late Friday. A stocky black man took to a microphone at a death penalty symposium and confronted a panelist whom he disdains. "You have innocent people on Death Row!" declared... "The starting point, in any case, is the text of the document and what it meant to the society that adopted it,"Scalia said at his confirmation hearing. He added that this approach guarded "against the passions of the moment that may cause individual liberties to be disregarded." Liberals, he said, should like such an approach, because it constrained conservatives such as him from turning their personal opinions into public policy. To illustrate, he often said that the Constitution doesn't provide a right for a woman to have an abortion, but it also does not forbid states from making the procedure legal and accessible. He cited his vote on flag-burning - he agreed with the court's majority that the guarantee of free speech allows the practice - as one instance when his allegiance to the Constitution outweighed his personal views. "If it was up to me, if I were king," he said, "I would take scruffy, bearded, sandal-wearing idiots who burn the flag, and I would put them in jail." But he did not note many other examples of originalism dictating views that contradicted his personal beliefs. Even when he wasn't writing for the majority, his opinions provided an influential template for conservative lawyers and politicians. His writing style was certain and clever: "Frequently an issue of this sort will come before the Court clad, so to speak, in sheep's clothing," Scalia wrote in his lone dissent in Morrison v. Olson. ". . . But this wolf comes as a wolf." But he could also be acerbic and dismissive of his opponents. "No justice in Supreme Court history has consistently written with the sarcasm of Scalia," Erwin Chemerinsky, now dean of the University of California at Irvine law school, wrote in a widely noted law review article. "No doubt, this makes his opinions among the most entertaining to read. . . . But I think that this sends exactly the wrong message to law students and attorneys about what type of discourse is appropriate in a formal legal setting and how it is acceptable to speak to one another." New Yorker writer Margaret Talbot thought that Scalia's writing made him a rock star, especially among young conservatives. Of all the justices, she wrote, "Scalia is most likely to offer the jurisprudential equivalent of smashing a guitar onstage." Scalia's blunt critiques may have cost him in finding common ground with some of his colleagues. Students of the court believe that his sharp-tongued put-downs of O'Connor - he once said her reasoning in a case could "not be taken seriously" - affected their relationship. Ron Edmonds / AP President Ronald Reagan speaks at a news briefing at the White House in Washington on June 17, 1986, where he announced the nomination of Antonin Scalia, left, to the Supreme Court as a result of Chief Justice Warren E. Burger's resignation. William Rehnquist is at right. President Ronald Reagan speaks at a news briefing at the White House in Washington on June 17, 1986, where he announced the nomination of Antonin Scalia, left, to the Supreme Court as a result of Chief Justice Warren E. Burger's resignation. William Rehnquist is at right. (Ron Edmonds / AP) (Ron Edmonds / AP) He could also be a provocateur outside the courtroom. A reporter once asked him as he was leaving church if he caught flak for his Roman Catholic beliefs, and Scalia responded by flicking his fingers under his chin, a Sicilian insult. Unlike his colleagues, Scalia eagerly discussed constitutional issues and his personal opinions in public. On several occasions, his out-of-court activities prompted critics to question his impartiality. He once went duck hunting with Vice President Richard Cheney, who at the time was the subject of a lawsuit by the Sierra Club seeking the names of people who participated in the vice president's energy task force. Scalia refused to recuse himself from the case, which the Supreme Court had agreed to hear.

 In 2006, he spoke against giving alleged terrorists jury trials - right before the court was set to hear a case on detainee rights, prompting a group of retired generals and admirals to file a friend-of-the-court brief asking him to recuse himself from hearing the appeal filed by Osama bin Laden's alleged driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan. He participated in that case but had to sit out one that challenged the use of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. In remarks to a Knights of Columbus rally before the case arrived at the Supreme Court, he suggested that an appeals court had erred in agreeing with the challenger. That said, Scalia often played the role of charming rogue. In less-partisan times, he was a fixture at Georgetown parties; he loved opera and led carol-singing at the court's annual Christmas parties. Every year when Boston University law professor Jay Wexler compiled the number of times the notation "laughter" appeared in transcripts of the court's oral arguments, Scalia was the leading instigator. Nothing illustrated the dynamic so well as his close friendship with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, with whom he was in frequent disagreement. The two served together on the D.C. Circuit and respected each other's intellect. Scalia and his wife, and Ginsburg and her husband, Martin, celebrated most New Year's Eves together. Ginsburg said no one made her laugh as much as Scalia did. "I love him. But sometimes I'd like to strangle him," she once said. Scalia once wrote in a law review article that legal views are "inevitably affected by moral and theological perceptions." After donning his black robe, he would insist that his religious faith and personal views did not determine the outcome of cases because his textualist, originalist approach insulated him from bias. He believed that judges should defer to elected officials on matters of social policy. But Scalia's faith was integral to his identity. He objected to Vatican II and drove out of his way to find churches that celebrated Mass in Latin. Justice Antonin Scalia, the longest-serving member of the current Supreme Court and an intellectual leader of the conservative legal movement, died Saturday, and his death set off an immediate political battle about the future of the court and its national role. Scalia, 79, was found dead at a... He was the court's most outspoken member on the subject of religion. He urged fellow intellectuals to proudly be "fools for Christ" and used an interview in 2013 to underscore his belief in the existence of the Devil, whose latest maneuver, he said, was "getting people not to believe in him or in God." Scalia wanted to lower the wall of separation between church and state, endorsing school prayer, nativity displays on public property and public money for religious schools. But he insisted that there was no such thing as a "Catholic ," and said his views were shaped by an understanding of the Constitution and a belief that a judge's role is limited. "Don't paint me as anti-gay or antiabortion or anything else," Scalia said at an appearance in 2015. "All I'm doing on the Supreme Court is opining about who should decide: Is it a matter left to the people, or is it a matter of my responsibility as a of the Supreme Court?" Scalia narrowly read individual rights and disdained policies designed to remedy discrimination against women and minorities. He was the lone dissent in a case challenging the state-run Virginia Military Institute's right to exclude female applicants. Scalia believed that discrimination should be judged on an individual basis rather than by treating minorities as an aggrieved group; in his view, policies meant to address discrimination against a group in effect discriminated against individuals. "I owe no man anything, nor he me, because of the blood that flows through our veins," he wrote in a 1979 essay. He was part of majorities that made it harder for workers to bring discrimination claims. He and O'Connor clashed when the court said the University of Michigan Law School could consider race as part of a comprehensive review of an applicant because of the benefits a racially diverse class would bring. In dissent, he wrote: "This is not, of course, an 'educational benefit' on which students will be graded on their Law School transcripts (Works and Plays Well with Others: B+) or tested by the bar examiners (Q: Describe in 500 words or less your cross-racial understanding.)" For much of the public, the perception of Scalia was formed in the polarized court's ruling in Bush v. Gore. Scalia wrote for himself when the court issued an emergency stay to stop the vote-counting in Florida in the 2000 presidential election. "The counting of votes that are of questionable legality does in my view threaten irreparable harm to (Bush), and to the country, by casting a cloud upon what he claims to be the legitimacy of his election," the wrote. To Gore supporters, that sounded like an attempt not to find out which candidate got the most votes but to protect the integrity of Bush's win. Moreover, the five-member majority based its ultimate ruling on an expansive reading of the equal protection clause, which in previous cases involving gays, blacks and women Scalia had preferred to read narrowly. The case was also a departure from his reluctance to endorse federal intrusion in state and local affairs. On gay rights, Scalia fought a losing battle. He warned in his 2003 dissent in Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down a state sodomy law, that the court was paving the way for same-sex marriage. He was not any happier to see his prediction come true. When the court ruled 5 to 4 in 2015 that the Constitution forbade state laws that prohibited same-sex marriage, Scalia said the court had taken its most drastic step in overruling decisions made by the public. "A system of government that makes the People subordinate to a committee of nine unelected lawyers does not deserve to be called a democracy," he wrote in dissent. His great triumph on the court came in writing the majority decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, the Second Amendment case. Most lower courts had long interpreted a 1939 Supreme Court case, United States v. Miller, to mean that the Second Amendment guaranteed the right to bear arms only to members of state militias like the National Guard. Scalia's opinion made it unmistakable that the Constitution requires more than that. The Second Amendment, he said, "surely elevates above all other interests the right of law-abiding, responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home." More than just a victory for gun rights, the case was significant for being fought on the originalist grounds that Scalia had long championed. He wrote 64 pages on why the authors of the Second Amendment meant to imply an individual right; Justice John Paul Stevens countered with 46 pages of history arguing only for the militia right. ||||| EL PASO -

 UPDATE SUNDAY 4:39 P.M: The body of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has been transported from Sunset Funeral Homes in Northeast El Paso to an airport.

 UPDATE SUNDAY 2 PM: The Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara told Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA that the death certificate will list a heart attack as the official cause of death for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

 UPDATE: U.S. Marshals, along with DPS officials are escorting the body of late Justice Antonin Scalia to Sunset Funeral Home. The funeral home was selected by his family, according to the funeral director there. He tells us Scalia will be there until tomorrow while they prepare and embalm the body.

 ABC-7 has confirmed the body of the late Justice Antonin Scalia will be delivered to Sunset Funeral Home in northeast El Paso sometime early Sunday morning. It will then be prepared for the trip back to Washington. The body will be driven, not flown, from Marfa, Texas.

 EL PASO -- An El Paso source close to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia tells ABC-7 that the 79-year-old died in his sleep last night after a day of quail hunting at Cibolo Creek Ranch outside of Marfa, Texas.

 The Justice did not report feeling ill and retired to his room after dinner. The source, who was traveling with Scalia, told ABC-7 a priest was summoned to administer last rites.

 El Paso Catholic Diocese Spokeswoman Elizabeth O'Hara tells ABC-7 Catholic Priest Mike Alcuino, in Presidio, was called to the ranch, where he administered Justice Scalia's last rites Saturday afternoon.

 Scalia was the longest-serving Justice on the current Supreme Court at the time of his death. He was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, and was unanimously confirmed without a nomination fight to become the Court's first Italian-American justice.

 Scalia and his wife, Maureen, had nine children. Born in Trenton, New Jersey March 11, 1936, he was less than a month from his eightieth birthday.

 The issue of his replacement is virtually certain to a major political story during a presidential election year. ABC-7 managing editor Eric Huseby said, "Republican senators will be under enormous pressure from their donors and electoral base to refuse to confirm an appointment from President Obama that would tip the balance of the Court to a 5-4 majority of Democratic appointees. And the President will surely do all he can to make that position as politically unpalatable and costly as possible."

 Tom Goldstein, who writes about the Supreme Court for SCOTUSBLOG.com doubted that confirmation before the election is possible. "Theoretically, that process could conclude before the election," he wrote Saturday. "But realistically, it cannot absent essentially a consensus nominee - and probably not even then, given the stakes. "

 Scalia's legacy is enormous. CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said Scalia was one of the "handful of most influential Supreme Court justices in history." He was the Court's leading originalist, fiercely dedicated to the idea that the meaning of the words in the Constitution are fixed based on the framers' understanding at the time they were drafted, and not subject to reinterpretation in later times.

 He argued passionately against the contemporary idea of a “living Constitution" that evolves and changes with the times.

 “The Constitution is not an organism. It’s a legal text,” Scalia was quoted as saying in a recent Bloomberg Business article. “It means today what it meant when it was adopted.”

 His wit, sarcasm and passion for intellectual battle were legendary as well. In his dissent against last year's landmark ruling affirming the right to same-sex marriage, he concluded a passage questioning the majority assertion that marriage promotes a freedom of intimacy by suggesting that marriage has historically tended to restrict options for intimacy, and suggesting that people, "Ask the nearest hippie."

 Here is the complete text of a statement issued by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.:

 "On behalf of the Court and retired Justices, I am saddened to report that our colleague Justice Antonin Scalia has passed away. He was an extraordinary individual and jurist, admired and treasured by his colleagues. His passing is a great loss to the Court and the country he so loyally served. We extend our deepest condolences to his wife Maureen and his family."

 Here is the complete text of a statement issued by Texas Governor Greg Abbott:

 "Justice Antonin Scalia was a man of God, a patriot, and an unwavering defender of the written Constitution and the Rule of Law. He was the solid rock who turned away so many attempts to depart from and distort the Constitution. His fierce loyalty to the Constitution set an unmatched example, not just for judges and lawyers, but for all Americans. We mourn his passing, and we pray that his successor on the Supreme Court will take his place as a champion for the written Constitution and the Rule of Law. Cecilia and I extend our deepest condolences to his family, and we will keep them in our thoughts and prayers." ||||| U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead Saturday, CBS News has confirmed. A spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service said he appeared to die of natural causes.

 According to the San Antonio News-Express, which was first to report his death, Scalia was found dead in his room at a West Texas resort.

 Scalia, 79, was one of the staunchest conservative members of the court. He was nominated in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan and is the longest-serving member on the court.

 He championed the philosophy of "orginalism," meaning he interprets the Constitution according to what he believes the original authors intended over 200 years ago.

 In a 2008 interview with "60 Minutes," he told correspondent Lesley Stahl that he believes the Constitution is an "enduring" document he wants to defend.

 Justice Scalia on 60 Minutes, part 1

 "It's what did the words mean to the people who ratified the Bill of Rights or who ratified the Constitution," Scalia said.

 "But you do admit that values change? We do adapt. We move," Stahl asked.

 "That's fine," he answered. "And so do laws change. Because values change, legislatures abolish the death penalty, permit same-sex marriage if they want, abolish laws against homosexual conduct. That's how the change in a society occurs. Society doesn't change through a Constitution."

 In a statement on behalf of the Supreme Court and retired Justices, Chief Justice John Roberts called Scalia, "an extraordinary individual and jurist, admired and treasured by his colleagues."

 "His passing is a great loss to the Court and the country he so loyally served. We extend our deepest condolences to his wife Maureen and his family," he added.

 Justice Scalia on 60 Minutes, part 2

 Scalia's replacement to the court would be President Obama's third nomination. He previously nominated Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. But CBS News Chief Legal Correspondent Jan Crawford said it is unclear whether the Republican-held Senate will entertain a nomination from Mr. Obama or wait for a new president to be elected this November.

 "It could be very unlikely that President Obama that will get that nomination," Crawford said. "This court could remain with eight justices until the next president takes office. I think that's very unclear what will happen."

 "This vote will change the balance of the Supreme Court if a liberal is nominated," she added.

 Mr. Obama was informed of Scalia's death Saturday afternoon. He and Michelle Obama extended their deepest condolences to Justice Scalia's family.

 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, suggested that the Senate will not entertain a nomination from Mr. Obama.

 "The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President," he said in a statement.

 And Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, one of the 2016 presidential candidates, said the responsibility should fall to the next president.

 Justice Scalia was an American hero. We owe it to him, & the Nation, for the Senate to ensure that the next President names his replacement. — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 13, 2016

 But Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, argued that President Obama "can and should send the Senate a nominee right away."

 "With so many important issues pending before the Supreme Court, the Senate has a responsibility to fill vacancies as soon as possible," Reid said in a statement Saturday. "It would be unprecedented in recent history for the Supreme Court to go a year with a vacant seat. Failing to fill this vacancy would be a shameful abdication of one of the Senate's most essential Constitutional responsibilities."

 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton added her own admonishment for those calling to keep Scalia's seat vacant.

 "The Republicans in the Senate and on the campaign trail who are calling for Justice Scalia's seat to remain vacant dishonor our Constitution," she said in a statement. "The Senate has a constitutional responsibility here that it cannot abdicate for partisan political reasons."

 Scalia, the son of Italian immigrants, was born in Trenton, New Jersey and raised in the Queens neighborhood of New York City. He attended at Georgetown University and Harvard Law School.

 Former President Bush said in a statement that Scalia was a "towering figure and important judge on our Nation's highest court. He brought intellect, good judgment, and wit to the bench, and he will be missed by his colleagues and our country."

 CBS News Justice Department Producer Paula Reid contributed to this story. |||||


Write a summary based on this article:

The Unabomber thought so highly of his environmental manifesto that he threatened to keep killing if the New York Times and Washington Post didn't publish it.

 But 15 years after he was arrested at his remote cabin outside Lincoln, Mont., his twisted words seem to be worth less than his ratty sweatshirt.

 The U.S. Marshall's office is currently holding an online auction of the personal effects of Ted Kaczynski, who, between 1978 and 1995, engaged in a mail bombing spree, killing three people and injuring 23 others.

 The 68-year-old terrorist is currently serving a life sentence at a federal prison in Florence, Colo. The auction of his belongings ends June 2 and all the money raised will be used to pay off a $15 million restitution order to his victims and their families.

 Since Kaczynski's actions were designed to protest modern society's "industrial-technological system," there aren't nearly enough possessions on the auction block to raise $15 million, especially because his most valuable possession -- the cabin he built in the Montana wilderness -- is now on display in the Washington, D.C. Newseum.

 Still, at least two items are getting some serious bids: His 35,000 word handwritten manifesto currently has a bid of $17,525, while the iconic hoodie made famous by the artistic rendering in the FBI's "Wanted" poster is up to $20,025 -- though for that price, the successful bidder will also receive a pair of sunglasses.

 Another item attracting interest is Kaczynski's Smith-Corona typewriter. Bids for that are currently around the $11,000 mark.

 Story continues below

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 Other items have attracted less attention. The top bid for a hand-bowed wood saw that Kaczynski used is currently only $310, while handwritten letters to his Aunt Frida are only getting bids around $250.

 Of course, some people might say it's a sad sign of the times that the auction is even taking place, and you won't get an argument from art historian and appraiser Elyse Luray, who is best known for her work on the PBS series "History Detectives."

 But she still believes there is value to be found in the auction.

 "I hate to say it, but there is some collectibility in this auction," Luray told AOL Weird News. "This is one of the most tragic events in U.S. history and the manifesto has historical value as does the typewriter that he used to type his two manifestos. You have to take the emotion out of it."

 Luray dismisses most of what is being sold, figuring it is only going to be of value to "some weird who wants something belonging to the Unabomber."

 Still, she can see why something as mundane as Kaczynski's hand saw might be selling for much more than its actually worth.

 "Hype increases value," she said. "On the other hand, things like Marilyn Monroe's dresses or Liz Taylor's jewelry will retain value over the years."

 Still, crime memorabilia collectors like Scott Michaels think there is a lot of value in being able to tell friends and neighbors that the saw they are borrowing was once used by the Unabomber.

 Michaels is the proprietor of Dearly Departed Tours, a company that shows crime aficionados visiting Los Angeles all the city's most infamous crime-oriented sights.

 But Michaels is also a collector who has in his possession some extraordinary pieces of macabre memorabilia, including a piece of John Denver's plane, a hunk of the Hindenberg, and a tile from the swimming pool where Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones drowned. He also owns a clown painting made by serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

 Michaels makes no bones about his hobby (unless, of course, he chooses to buy one for his collection), but admits he often has to defend it.

 "This is history I choose to embrace," he said. "On the other hand, I don't understand why people collect coins. You know, this is more common than people want to admit. Take a look at Dealey Plaza in Dallas. The people that are going there are basically there to see where JFK was shot."

 From an objective viewpoint, he can see the value in the Unabomber's hoodie.

 "That hoodie is iconic," he said. "It really is the 'tah-dah' item, but the documents are interesting too."

 Yet if he were to bid on an item himself, Michaels knows which one he'd choose.

 "I'd gravitate towards the saw," Michaels said. "I like the human touch, knowing that he probably used it. I remember when they were doing a Marilyn Monroe auction. I never could have afforded the dresses, but I did purchase some golf course pencils that were stuck in her junk drawer."

 Sadly, Michaels doesn't have the room in his house to hold his entire collection. Much of it is in storage, where it will remain until he is able to open an office-slash-museum large enough for his creepy collectibles.

 Although the market for crime memorabilia might seem to be new, criminologist Jeffery Ian Ross Ph.D. says it's been going on for a few hundred years.

 "Ever since the invention of the printing press, the public hase been fascinated by crime," Ross said. "I think the reason that the memorabilia has a certain appeal is partially motivated by boredom and voyeurism and a desire to have a connection with what's going on in the news."

 By the way, if you're thinking of jumping in on the auction at the last minute hoping to get rich off the Unabomber's memorabilia, Michaels has one word of advice: Don't!

 "I couldn't imagine buying any of this in order to make money," he said. "This is more about having something that you find interesting to own. It's kind of fun to say, 'Hey, Jeffrey Dahmer used to own that video cassette of 'Exorcist III.'" ||||| Behind all the muscle and good looks that make up Twilight beefcake Kellan Lutz, there’s a mushy charitable soul who’s doing his part along with a bunch of fellow celebs by auctioning off some luggage for a good cause.

 Lutz is teaming up with JetBlue and DoSomething.org as part of their big celebrity baggage auction, wherein celebs donate their travel items — plus any other goodies they wish to include — for an auction on eBay to raise funds for youth groups across the country. On his contribution, Lutz says he was happy to take part:

 “It feels like I live on planes, so when JetBlue approached me to be part of this charity auction I jumped at the chance – it’s not every day someone offers to take your baggage off your hands. It’s a great cause and I hope my bag helps raise some serious funds to support DoSomething.org.”

 The first round of items auctioned off raised more than $15,000, and Lutz’s bags along with items from Taylor Swift, Jessica Simpson and others will be a part of the second round, which stars today (May 31).

 Check out the full auction on eBay! ||||| Collector Morace Park bought the film reel initially because he liked the look of the tin, however, his purchase back in 2009 is set to command a six-figure sum.

 The film, Charlie Chaplin in Zepped, is the only known surviving copy and shows the famous British actor bringing down a German Zeppelin during a London raid.

 It is thought that the picture, which was released in 1917, was made as a morale-boosting film for British troops during World War One.

 The seven minute long reel is thought to contain some of the earliest known animation. |||||

– Get out your checkbooks, kids: There is a slew of famous and infamous items up for auction. The US Marshal's office's online auction of the Unabomber's personal effects ends tomorrow, and Aol's Weird News astutely observes that Ted Kaczynski's 35,000-word handwritten manifesto ($17,525) is currently going for less than the gray hoodie ($20,025) that figured so prominently into his FBI Wanted poster. Bonus: sunglasses included. Looking for more of a bargain? A bow and arrows in a Sears box is currently a steal at $743. And in other bizarre auction news: Balloon boy's dad is trying to auction off the infamous "flying saucer" balloon for $1 million. But don't worry, reports KTLA: Richard Heene has vowed to give all the money to charity (specifically, Japan). A bunch of celebrities are hoping JetBlue loses their luggage ... right into the hands of eager bidders. The Celebrity Baggage Auction will benefit DoSomething.org. Buy a signed Jessica Simpson-brand bag or a leather Coach bag personally used by Rosario Dawson, and get two roundtrip JetBlue tickets, too. Click for more. Maybe eBay is the place to buy stuff: Morace Park bought a film reel for $5.25 that turned out to be the only known copy of the Charlie Chaplin film Zepped. The Telegraph reports that it's expected to fetch six figures in a June 29 auction.


News article:

One of two nuclear bombs that fell near Raleigh, N.C., during a military accident more than 50 years ago came frighteningly close to detonating, newly-released documents reveal.

 It has long been known that a pair of 4-megaton hydrogen bombs fell from a stricken B-52 as it broke apart over Goldsboro, N.C., on Jan 24, 1961, at the height of the Cold War. But documents just released by the National Security Archive show that one bomb's arming mechanism switched from "safe" to "armed" on impact, while the other bomb fluttered under a parachute and would have exploded in the sky if two cockpit wires had happened to touch as the plane disintegrated.

 "This bomb had the potential to make the one used in Hiroshima look like the work of a cap gun," said Eric Schlosser, who obtained the documents approximately a year before they were obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

 "It behaved as though it was dropped over the Soviet Union at the time." - Eric Schlosser, author of book on "The Goldsboro Incident"

 Schlosser, who wrote about the incident in his 2013 book, "Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety," said the bomb brought to Earth by parachute, dubbed "Weapon I," was actually the one that came closest to detonating, even though its arming mechanism remained on "safe." The explosive performed just as a nuclear weapon is designed to function in wartime, completing five of the six steps to detonation, and only a single low-voltage switch prevented the explosion.

 "It behaved as though it was dropped over the Soviet Union at the time," Schlosser said.

 Other experts agree.

 "When the B-52 disintegrates in the air it is likely to release the bombs in a near normal fashion," wrote Parker Jones, who analyzed the incident at the time for the Sandia National Laboratories and wrote a report entitled "How I learned to mistrust the H-Bomb."

 As it turned out, the bomb that fell to the ground at 700 miles per hour did the most damage, burrowing some 12 feet into the ground. Unlike the other bomb, it was never in danger of detonating despite the impact moving its arming mechanism to the "armed" position. Jack ReVelle, who was an Air Force weapons disposal specialist in charge of disarming the two 11 1/2 -feet bombs, remembered when his men reported seeing the switching device as they dug their way down into the crater formed on impact.

 “Until my death I will never forget hearing my sergeant say, ‘Lieutenant, we found the arm/safe switch,’” ReVelle told students at East Carolina University in 2013. “And I said, ‘Great.’ He said, ‘Not great. It’s on arm.”

 The fact that the arming mechanism on the second weapon moved on impact prompted the military to order new switches immediately.

 “So even though weapon 2 was further from detonation, the fact that the switch used to arm the weapon could be altered by an impact, shows its safety shortcoming,” William Burr, an analyst from the National Security Archive said.

 The B-52 had been on a routine 12-hour mission and suddenly lost 19 tons of fuel pressure within minutes, according to local reports. The pilot was able to straighten the plane at 10,000 feet and aimed it for nearby Seymour Johnson Air Force Base until its right wing broke off. One witness described the plane as streaking through the sky like a Roman candle.

 The pilots survived, and no one was killed on the ground. But had either bomb detonated, history would have been made in the worst possible way.

 "It would have created a crater eight football fields wide," ReVelle said. "It would have destroyed every structure within a four-mile radius. There would have been a 100-percent kill zone for eight and a half miles in every direction." ||||| In a scenario that could’ve been extremely devastating, the United States narrowly averted a nuclear disaster in 1961 when an atomic bomb nearly detonated after falling out of a B-52 bomber that broke up in the sky.

 According to the Washington Post, the incident took place on January 21, 1961 – less than 20 years after nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – and is explained further in a recently declassified report published by the National Security Archives.

 When the US Air Force aircraft went into a tailspin and broke up, the two bombs fell towards Goldsboro, North Carolina. The parachute for one of the weapons failed to deploy, and the plane crash had actually pushed the bomb into “armed” mode by the time it hit the ground. Luckily for North Carolina, the plane’s destruction also damaged the switch necessary to trigger detonation

 “The report implied that because Weapon 2 landed in a free-fall, without the parachute operating, the timer did not initiate the bomb’s high voltage battery (“trajectory arming”), a step in the arming sequence,” wrote Bill Burr of the National Security Archives.

 “For Weapon 2, the Arm/Safe switch was in the “safe” position, yet it was virtually armed because the impact shock had rotated the indicator drum to the “armed” position. But the shock also damaged the switch contacts, which had to be intact for the weapon to detonate.”

 Burr noted in his report just how fine the line was and is between safety and destruction.

 “Perhaps this is what Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara had in mind, a few years later, when he observed that, ‘by the slightest margin of chance, literally the failure of two wires to cross, a nuclear explosion was averted,” he wrote.

 These details are just the latest to surface about the incident, which was first revealed by nuclear weapons expert Eric Schlosser last year in a book titled, “Command and Control.” Through a Freedom of Information Act request, Schlosser was able to obtain documentation regarding the incident for the first time, and helped shed light on just how close the Air Force came to witnessing an atomic bomb explode on US soil.

 As RT reported last year, the documents revealed that three of the four safety switches on the other bomb failed to work properly, meaning, as Schlosser noted, that only "one simple, dynamo-technology, low voltage switch stood between the United States and a major catastrophe.” The parachute on this one deployed, but when the bomb struck the ground the final firing signal triggered, only to be halted by that fourth safety switch.

 The bombs contained a payload of four megatons each and could have generated explosions 260 times more powerful than the one that occurred in Hiroshima.

 Before the documents related to the Goldsboro incident surfaced, the US government had denied that its nuclear weapons stockpile had ever put the nation at risk.

 “The US government has consistently tried to withhold information from the American people in order to prevent questions being asked about our nuclear weapons policy,” Schlosser told the Guardian. “We were told there was no possibility of these weapons accidentally detonating, yet here’s one that very nearly did.” ||||| Story highlights Goldsboro one of 32 pre-1980 accidents involving nukes

 Weeks after Goldsboro, there was another close call in California

 The weapons came alarmingly close to detonation

 They were far more powerful than the bombs dropped in Japan

 On a January night in 1961, a U.S. Air Force bomber broke in half while flying over eastern North Carolina. From the belly of the B-52 fell two bombs -- two nuclear bombs that hit the ground near the city of Goldsboro.

 A disaster worse than the devastation wrought in Hiroshima and Nagasaki could have befallen the United States that night. But it didn't, thanks to a series of fortunate missteps.

 Declassified documents that the National Security Archive released this week offered new details about the incident. The blaring headline read : "Multi-Megaton Bomb Was Virtually 'Armed' When It Crashed to Earth."

 Or, as Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara put it back then, "By the slightest margin of chance, literally the failure of two wires to cross, a nuclear explosion was averted."

 It's difficult to calculate the destruction those bombs might have caused had they detonated in North Carolina.

 A mushroom cloud rises above Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945, after an atomic bomb was dropped on the city. The bombing by American forces ended the second world war.

 A picture taken in 1971 shows a nuclear explosion in Mururoa atoll.

 What might've been

 The website, nuclearsecrecy.com , allows users to simulate nuclear explosions. It says that one bomb the size of the two that fell in 1961 would emit thermal radiation over a 15-mile radius. Wind conditions, of course, could change that.

 The blast today, with populations in the area at their current level, would kill more than 60,000 people and injure more 54,000, though the website warns that calculating casualties is problematic, and the numbers do not include those killed and injured by fallout.

 It's also worth noting that North Carolina's 1961 total population was 47% of what it is today, so if you apply that percentage to the numbers, the death toll is 28,000 with 26,000 people injured -- a far cry from those killed by smaller bombs on the more densely populated cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

 University of California-Los Angeles researchers estimate that, respectively, Hiroshima and Nagasaki had populations of about 330,000 and 250,000 when they were bombed in August 1945. By that December, the cities' death tolls included, by conservative estimates , at least 90,000 and 60,000 people.

 Wayne County, North Carolina, which includes Goldsboro, had a population of about 84,000 in 1961. The state capital, Raleigh, is 50 miles northwest of Goldsboro, and Fayetteville -- home of the Army's massive Fort Bragg -- is 60 miles southwest.

 The Goldsboro incident

 The B-52 was flying over North Carolina on January 24, 1961, when it suffered a "failure of the right wing," the report said.

 As the plane broke apart, the two bombs plummeted toward the ground. The parachute opened on one; it didn't on the other.

 "The impact of the aircraft breakup initiated the fuzing sequence for both bombs," the summary of the documents said.

 In other words, both weapons came alarmingly close to detonating.

 Weapon 1, the bomb whose parachute opened, landed intact. Fortunately, the safing pins that provided power from a generator to the weapon had been yanked -- preventing it from going off.

 Weapon 2, the second bomb with the unopened parachute, landed in a free fall. The impact of the crash put it in the "armed" setting. Fortunately -- once again -- it damaged another part of the bomb needed to initiate an explosion.

 While it's unclear how frequently these types of accidents have occurred, the Defense Department has disclosed 32 accidents involving nuclear weapons between 1950 and 1980.

 There are at least 21 declassified accounts between 1950 and 1968 of aircraft-related incidents in which nuclear weapons were lost, accidentally dropped, jettisoned for safety reasons or on board planes that crashed. The accidents occurred in various U.S. states, Greenland, Spain, Morocco and England, and over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and the Mediterranean Sea.

 Another five accidents occurred when planes were taxiing or parked.

 Two months after the close call in Goldsboro, another B-52 was flying in the western United States when the cabin depressurized and the crew ejected, leaving the pilot to steer the bomber away from populated areas, according to a DOD document . The plane crashed in Yuba City, California, but safety devices prevented the two onboard nuclear weapons from detonating.

 Catastrophe averted

 The Goldsboro incident was first detailed last year in the book " Command and Control " by Eric Schlosser. The documents released this week provided additional chilling details.

 Eight crew members were aboard the plane that night. Five survived the crash.

 "I could see three or four other chutes against the glow of the wreckage," recounted the co-pilot, Maj. Richard Rardin, according to an account published by the University of North Carolina

 "I hit some trees. I had a fix on some lights and started walking."

 The MK39 bombs weighed 10,000 pounds and their explosive yield was 3.8 megatons. Compare that to the bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki: They were 0.01 and 0.02 megatons.

 But Rardin didn't know then what a catastrophe had been avoided.

 "My biggest difficulty getting back was the various and sundry dogs I encountered on the road." |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– A part of North Carolina came dangerously close to being obliterated in 1961. A newly declassified report discusses a US bomber that broke in half while flying over the state in January of that year, causing the two nuclear bombs it was carrying to plummet to the ground near Goldsboro—and reveals that those bombs came much closer to detonation than was previously known. A parachute opened for one of the bombs, which landed intact; the safing pins that conducted power from a generator had been pulled, preventing a blast. Still, it completed five of the six steps to detonation, Fox News reports. Had two cockpit wires touched as the plane disintegrated, it could have exploded. As for the second bomb, it landed in a freefall, which caused the switch to flip to the "armed" position, RT reports. What kept it from going off? "The shock also damaged the switch contacts, which had to be intact for the weapon to detonate," the National Security Archive's Bill Burr explains. The incident was first mentioned in a book by Eric Schlosser last year, but the report confirms just how close the US came to devastation. As CNN points out, the MK39 bombs had an explosive yield of 3.8 megatons; the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 0.01 and 0.02 megatons, respectively. "There would have been a 100% kill zone for 8.5 miles in every direction," said the Air Force weapons specialist tasked with disarming the bombs. "By the slightest margin of chance, literally the failure of two wires to cross, a nuclear explosion was averted," Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara said at the time. (This scientist's mathematical model could help you survive should a nuclear bomb strike.)


Subscriber Content Read Preview Beijing, U.S. Unveil New Korean Sanctions

 The U.S. and China introduced a new round of sanctions against North Korea at the United Nations that the U.S. said would significantly impede the development of Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs, in response to its test last month of an atomic bomb. ||||| Image caption The IBM team behind the world's fastest computer.

 IBM's Sequoia has taken the top spot on the list of the world's fastest supercomputers for the US.

 The newly installed system trumped Japan's K Computer made by Fujitsu which fell to second place.

 It is the first time the US can claim pole position since it was beaten by China two years ago.

 Sequoia will be used to carry out simulations to help extend the life of aging nuclear weapons, avoiding the need for real-world underground tests.

 It is installed at the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

 "While Sequoia may be the fastest, the underlying computing capabilities it provides give us increased confidence in the nation's nuclear deterrent," said National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) administrator Thomas D'Agostino.

 "Sequoia also represents continued American leadership in high performance computing."

 Adding processors

 The computers were ranked according to a test known as the Linpack Benchmark which gives each computer a petaflop/s score (quadrillion floating-point operations per second).

 Sequoia tested at 16.32 petaflop/s, compared to K Computer's 10.51 petaflop/s.

 To make the figure more understandable, IBM said Sequoia was capable of calculating in one hour what otherwise would have taken 6.7 billion people using hand calculators 320 years to complete if they had worked non-stop.

 Although the US's efforts helped secure it the lead, its overall tally of three computers in the top 10 was worse than six months ago when it had five.

 China and Germany both have two supercomputers, while Japan, France and Italy have one.

 But IBM proved to be the leading manufacturer claiming five out of the top 10 spots.

 David Turek, vice president of deep computing at the firm, told the BBC his company had been preparing to retake the top spot for two years.

 "Substantial planning went into this. We knew the day would come."

 Sequoia is 1.55 times faster than the Fujitsu model, and uses over 1.5 million processor cores.

 In comparison the Japanese model has less than half the number of CPUs (central processing units).

 Energy efficient

 The IBM supercomputer is also more energy efficient than the Fujitsu model.

 Sequoia consumes 7.9 megawatts compared to the K computer which uses 12.6 megawatts.

 Mr Turek described Sequoia as the "pinnacle of energy efficiency" and said the reaction had been "very enthusiastic."

 "Government laboratories in Europe have already expressed interest," he said.

 Image caption CM-5/1024 designed by Thinking Machines was the first supercomputer on the list.

 The list is published every six months by German Professor Hans Meuer and US-based Professor Jack Dongarra.

 Prof Dongarra told the BBC it was unlikely that another manufacturer would overtake IBM in the next year.

 "Sequoia is very impressive," he said.

 273,930 times faster

 The first computer to take the top position on the list was the CM-5/1024 in 1993, designed by Thinking Machines.

 According to Prof Dongarra, Sequoia is 273,930 times faster.

 "A calculation that took three full days to compute on the Thinking Machines in 1993 today can be done in less than one second on the Sequoia," he said. ||||| Show full PR text

 NNSA's Sequoia Supercomputer Ranked as World's Fastest

 Supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Lab passes 16 petaflops

 WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today announced that a supercomputer called Sequoia at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was ranked the world's most powerful computing system.

 Clocking in at 16.32 sustained petaflops (quadrillion floating point operations per second), Sequoia earned the number one ranking on the industry standard Top500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers released Monday, June 18, at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC12) in Hamburg, Germany. Sequoia was built for NNSA by IBM.

 A 96-rack IBM Blue Gene/Q system, Sequoia will enable simulations that explore phenomena at a level of detail never before possible. Sequoia is dedicated to NNSA's Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program for stewardship of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile, a joint effort from LLNL, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories.

 "Computing platforms like Sequoia help the United States keep its nuclear stockpile safe, secure, and effective without the need for underground testing," said NNSA Administrator Thomas D'Agostino. "While Sequoia may be the fastest, the underlying computing capabilities it provides give us increased confidence in the nation's nuclear deterrent as the weapons stockpile changes under treaty agreements, a critical part of President Obama's nuclear security agenda. Sequoia also represents continued American leadership in high performance computing, key to the technology innovation that drives high-quality jobs and economic prosperity."

 "Sequoia will provide a more complete understanding of weapons performance, notably hydrodynamics and properties of materials at extreme pressures and temperatures. In particular, the system will enable suites of highly resolved uncertainty quantification calculations to support the effort to extend the life of aging weapons systems; what we call a life extension program (LEP)," said Bob Meisner, NNSA director of the ASC program.

 Uncertainty quantification, or "UQ," is the quantitative characterization and reduction of uncertainty in computer applications through running very large suites of calculations to characterize the effects of minor differences in the systems. Sources of uncertainty are rife in the natural sciences and engineering. UQ uses statistical methods to determine likely outcomes.

 The machine will be an important tool used to support stockpile life extension programs, including the B61 and the W78. By reducing the time required for these studies, total costs are also reduced. In addition, the machine is expected to enhance NNSA's ability to sustain the stockpile by resolving any significant findings in weapons systems, bringing greater power to the annual assessment of the stockpile, and anticipating and avoiding future problems that inevitably result from aging. All of this helps to ensure that the nation will never have to return to nuclear explosive testing.

 Supercomputers such as Sequoia have allowed the U.S. to have confidence in its nuclear weapons stockpile over the 20 years since nuclear testing ended in 1992. The insight that comes from supercomputing simulations is also vital to addressing nonproliferation and counterterrorism issues as well as informing other national security decisions such as nuclear weapon policy and treaty agreements.

 "Sequoia is an exciting achievement for the POWER architecture, not just for its speed and energy efficiency, but also for the important and complex work it can support to safeguard the nation's nuclear stockpile," said Colin Parris, General Manager IBM Power Systems. "With supercomputers capable of 16 sustained petaflops, our ability to affect strategic change in areas like life sciences, public safety, energy and transportation that make our world smarter is greater than ever. The improvements in affordability, performance, efficiency and size that Sequoia delivers will also enable a broader set of commercial customers to implement HPC for their competitive advantage."

 The NNSA/LLNL/IBM partnership has produced six HPC systems that have been ranked among the world's most powerful computers including: The Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) Blue Pacific; ASCI White; the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Purple; Blue Gene/L; Blue Gene/P; and Blue Gene/Q, Sequoia. ASCI White, Blue Gene/L and now Sequoia all attained a number one ranking on the Top500 list.

 Sequoia is primarily water cooled and consists of 96 racks; 98,304 compute nodes; 1.6 million cores; and 1.6 petabytes of memory. Though orders of magnitude more powerful than such predecessor systems as ASC Purple and Blue Gene/L, Sequoia will be roughly 90 times more power efficient than Purple and about eight times more than BG/L relative to the peak speeds of these systems. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– America can once again boast that it is home to the world's fastest supercomputer. IBM's Sequoia system knocked Japan's K Computer into second place after clocking in at a staggering 16.32 "petaflops"—that's 16 quadrillion calculations per second, reports the Wall Street Journal. The supercomputer—which takes up 96 racks, each bigger than a fridge, at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California—can compute in one hour what it would take everybody in the world 320 years working non-stop using hand calculators to compute, the BBC notes. This is the first time an American computer has taken top spot since 2009, and Sequoia also won praise for energy efficiency: It consumes 7.9 megawatts compared to the K Computer's 12.6 megawatts. The Department of Energy will use Sequoia to run simulations designed to help extend the life of aging nuclear weapons, eliminating the need in these cases to run underground nuclear tests. Quips Engadget's Sean Buckley, "More computers, less explosions. We can't think of a better thing to do with 98,304 compute nodes, 1.6 million cores, and 1.6 petabytes of memory spread across 96 racks—can you?"


Summarize this article:

Crawls of the Obama White House website and subdomains conducted in the months leading up to the end of his administration (Novemeber 2016 - January 2017). ||||| Crawls of the Obama White House website and subdomains conducted in the months leading up to the end of his administration (Novemeber 2016 - January 2017). ||||| President Barack Obama tweets his first tweet from his new @POTUS account from the Oval Office, May 18, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

 Today, with a tweet from the Oval Office, President Obama launched @POTUS, the official Twitter account of the President of the United States.

 Hello, Twitter! It's Barack. Really! Six years in, they're finally giving me my own account. — President Obama (@POTUS) May 18, 2015

 The @POTUS Twitter account will serve as a new way for President Obama to engage directly with the American people, with tweets coming exclusively from him. President Obama is committed to making his Administration the most open and participatory in history, and @POTUS will give Americans a new venue to engage on the issues that matter most to them.

 Looking for more ways to engage with the White House on Twitter? Be sure to check out all of our official accounts:

 The White House: @WhiteHouse

 Vice President Joe Biden: @VP

 First Lady Michelle Obama: @FLOTUS

 Dr. Jill Biden: @DrBiden

 Live coverage from the White House: @WHLive

 Press Secretary Josh Earnest: @PressSec

 Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett: @VJ44

 Communications Director Jen Psaki: @Psaki44

 White House updates in Spanish: @LaCasaBlanca

 Chief Official White House Photographer: @PeteSouza

 You can find a full list of official White House Twitter accounts here. ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| This account is run by the Office of First Lady Michelle Obama. Tweets from the First Lady are signed –mo. Tweets may be archived. More at http://wh.gov/privacy |||||

– President Obama has officially entered the 21st century: He has his very own Twitter account, @POTUS. As of this writing, there's only one tweet on it: "Hello, Twitter! It's Barack. Really! Six years in, they're finally giving me my own account." As for the bio section of the account, it describes him as a father first: "Dad, husband, and 44th President of the United States." Meanwhile, @WhiteHouse features a picture of Obama with his phone, captioned: "President Obama. In the Oval Office. Tweeting." He's also been welcomed to Twitter by his wife and his VP, among others. The White House says the account "will serve as a new way for President Obama to engage directly with the American people, with tweets coming exclusively from him."