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The reason for such a small showing at this year’s Joint Sea exercise is straightforward, says

 Maxim Shepovalenko, a former Russian navy captain and expert at the Moscow-based Center for the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST), said the small Russian showing was because there was "no need for a large-scale exercise" in the Baltic, "merely a symbolic one".

 "I can’t imagine the Russian navy ever holding a large-scale naval drill even by itself. And for the Chinese Navy, this is just a way to get a taste for ‘global reach,’” Mr Shepovalenko said.

 The exercise will run the course of a week, and will feature anti-submarine, anti-aircraft, and anti-ship drills. The two sides will also practice anti-piracy as well as search and rescue operations. The joint flotilla is under the command of Russian Vice Admiral Alexander Fedotenkov and Chinese Vice-Admiral Tian Zhong.

 The drills are being conducted in Russian, according to the Baltic Fleet’s press service.

 China has been expanding its military reach by building up its naval forces and establishing its first overseas military base in the tiny east African nation of Djibouti this year.

 The manoeuvres in the Baltic Sea are being seen by Chinese experts as a show of force following joint drills by the United States and Beijing's two key Asian rivals - India and Japan – in the Indian Ocean earlier this month. ||||| BERLIN (Reuters) - U.S. allies in eastern Europe and Ukraine are worried that Russia’s planned war games in September could be a “Trojan horse” aimed at leaving behind military equipment brought into Belarus, the U.S. Army’s top general in Europe said on Thursday.

 Russia has sought to reassure NATO that the military exercises will respect international limits on size, but NATO and U.S. official remain wary about their scale and scope.

 U.S. Army Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, who heads U.S. Army forces in Europe, told Reuters in an interview that allied officials would keep a close eye on military equipment brought in to Belarus for the Zapad 2017 exercise, and whether it was removed later.

 “People are worried, this is a Trojan horse. They say, ‘We’re just doing an exercise,’ and then all of a sudden they’ve moved all these people and capabilities somewhere,” he said.

 Hodges said he had no indications that Russia had any such plans, but said greater openness by Moscow about the extent of its war games would help reassure countries in eastern Europe.

 A senior Russian diplomat strongly rejected allegations that Moscow could leave military equipment in Belarus.

 “This artificial buffoonery over the routine Zapad-2017 exercises is aimed at justifying the sharp intensification of the NATO bloc (activities) along the perimeter of Russian territory,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told the Interfax news agency on Friday.

 NATO allies are nervous because previous large-scale Russian exercises employed special forces training, longer-range missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.

 Such tactics were later used in Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine and in its intervention in Syria, NATO diplomats say.

 Hodges said the United States and its allies had been very open about a number of military exercises taking place across eastern Europe this summer involving up to 40,000 troops, but it remained unclear if Moscow would adhere to a Cold War-era treaty known as the Vienna document, which requires observers for large-scale exercises involving more than 13,000 troops.

 Some NATO allies believe the Russian exercise could number more than 100,000 troops and involve nuclear weapons training, the biggest such exercise since 2013.

 Russia has said it would invite observers if the exercise exceeded 13,000 forces.

 U.S Army Europe Commanding General Ben Hodges speaks during the inauguration ceremony of bilateral military training between U.S. and Polish troops in Zagan, Poland, January 30, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

 Hodges said NATO would maintain normal rotations during the Russian war game, while carrying out previously scheduled exercises in Sweden, Poland and Ukraine.

 The only additional action planned during that period was a six-week deployment of three companies of 120 paratroopers each to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for “low-level” exercises, Hodges said.

 “We want to avoid anything that looks like a provocation. This is not going to be the ‘Sharks’ and the ‘Jets’ out on the streets,” Hodges said in a reference to the gang fights shown in the 1961 film “West Side Story” set in New York City. |||||

– Russia is staging war games in Belarus in September, but US officials and US allies in the area are concerned the country's real aim is to bring military equipment into the country and leave it there. "People are worried this is a Trojan horse. They say, 'We're just doing an exercise,' and then all of a sudden they've moved all these people and capabilities somewhere," the head of US Army forces in Europe tells Reuters. He says NATO officials will be watching the Zapad 2017 exercise closely for that reason. Some allies think the exercise will involve nuclear weapons training and could utilize more than 100,000 troops, which would make it the largest such exercise since 2013, the Guardian reports. The official did note that there are no indications Russia really is planning such a "trojan horse," but called for more transparency from the country as to the size and scope of the war games in order to ease concerns. A senior Russian diplomat says Moscow has no plans to leave military equipment in Belarus, and says the concern from NATO is just "artificial buffoonery" over routine war games that is "aimed at justifying the sharp intensification of the NATO bloc (activities) along the perimeter of Russian territory." NATO is also keeping a close eye on war games in the Baltic Sea taking place July 24-31; Chinese warships were to join the Russian navy there Friday.


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– If you were thinking of designing an aircraft shaped sort of like an enormous doughnut, we have some bad news for you: Airbus has already called it. The company has filed a patent application for a passenger aircraft in that very shape, the Financial Times reports. Why go for the doughnut look? Well, current aircraft face heavy pressure on their front and rear ends, requiring special support. "The purpose of the invention is particularly to provide a simple, economic, and efficient solution to these problems," Airbus says. The new design, which you can view here, also offers more room for passengers, CNBC reports. The "doughnut" does, of course, have its drawbacks. Boarding hatches—in the doughnut's "hole"—don't clearly fit emergency exit rules, Fortune notes, and the aircraft's shape might require airport redesigns. Either way, don't expect Dunkin' Donuts to start an airline anytime soon. "It’s just one of many ideas,” an Airbus rep tells Fortune. "It doesn’t mean that we’re going to be working on making it a reality." In fact, the company seeks more than 600 patents yearly, the rep tells the publication (though the Financial Times puts the figure at 6,000). For instance, Airbus recently sought a patent for standing "seats" that are basically bike saddles. (If that's not quite your desired comfort level, maybe try a flying three-room suite.)

The research department at Airbus SA just seems like the funnest place to work these days.

 It’s only a couple of months since the Toulouse, France-based company filed a patent application for a new ultra-economy class concept that looked like a row of bicycle saddles. Now its scientists have dreamed up something much more outlandish: a revolutionary, futuristic aircraft design where passengers sit in a circular cabin enclosed in a sort of delta-wing structure.

 Viewed from the side, the design looks like a raindrop on its side (or like some of the jet-propelled cars designed to break the world land speed record, if you prefer). Viewed from the top–and this is what makes you wonder about how team in Toulouse dreamed it up–it looks strangely reminiscent of a doughnut inside a “Jésuite”, a popular triangular French pastry.

 The filing suggests almonds would be removed to improve aerodynamic performance.

 According to the patent filing, Airbus’ scientists say it could provide a “simple, economic and efficient solution” to one of the main shortcomings of the traditional cylindrical passenger cabin: the need for relatively heavy “sealed bottoms” at the front and back of the tube to cope with the effects of pressurization.

 Sadly for enthusiasts of air travel and sci-fi films, it looks like the project is going to remain on the drawing board for the foreseeable future.

 “It’s just one of many ideas,” a spokesman for the company said, pointing out that Airbus files for over 600 patents a year, mainly just for the sake of protecting intellectual property. “It doesn’t mean that we’re going to be working on making it a reality.”

 If Airbus were to try to develop the model commercially, it would have to overcome some formidable technical and regulatory obstacles. The fact that passengers are supposed to board from below via a hatch, for example, doesn’t sit comfortably with regulations on emergency exits. And such a radical design might easily require changes to the infrastructure at airports (much like the A380 did).

 The Airbus spokesman couldn’t confirm whether the staff canteen in Toulouse sells Jésuites, either separately or together with doughnuts. ||||| The France-based company filed a patent application at the end of October for a new type of aircraft, structured to limit the strain of cabin pressurization. The design also offers space for more passengers, who will sit in a 360 degree cabin, rather like an amphitheater.

 In the U.S. patent application, citing the investors as Patrick Lieven, Romain Delahaye and Catalin Perju, Airbus said that the usual "cylindrical geometry" of aircraft increased pressure at the front and back of planes and limited passenger-carrying capacity.

 "The purpose of the invention is particularly to provide a simple, economic and efficient solution to these problems to at least partially overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages," the filing said. |||||


Article:

Anissa E. Weier is led into a Waukesha County courtroom Thursday for a hearing on whether she is competent to stand trial on accusations she tried to stab a classmate to death. A judge earlier ordered that her face not be photographed. Co-defendant Morgan Geyser was also found competent for trial on Thursday. Credit: Michael Sears

 By of the

 Waukesha — Two middle school girls charged with trying to kill a classmate to gain favor with Slender Man, a fictional Internet character, were ruled competent Thursday to face their prosecution.

 The rulings came amid the revelation that one of the defendants suffers from schizophrenia.

 Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren found Anissa Weier, 13, competent after a three-hour hearing Thursday morning at which mental health experts offered differing conclusions on that issue.

 Morgan Geyser, 12, had been set for a similar hearing in the afternoon to challenge a state psychiatrist's finding that, through treatment, she had regained competency after being ruled in August to be unable to fully understand the charges or aid in her own defense.

 But at the start of the hearing, attorney Anthony Cotton announced that her defense team was dropping its objection to the finding by state psychiatrist Kenneth Casimir, and would agree that she is now competent to proceed.

 Cotton revealed in court that Casimir has diagnosed Geyser with schizophrenia, a mental illness. Cotton then asked if Bohren would order that Geyser continue to be held at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, where she has been for months and where she can continue to be monitored by doctors while attending school and seeing a social worker.

 Cotton said there would be a good chance Geyser might regress to incompetency if returned to the juvenile detention facility in West Bend where she had been kept until August, and where Weier remains.

 Bohren granted the request, for now.

 The long awaited preliminary hearings in the case, which was charged in June, are now set for February, likely the week of the 16th.

 At those hearings prosecutors must show simple probable cause that the girls committed the specific offense of attempted first degree intentional homicide.

 Then the case can move to what the defense attorneys have said will be critical — their attempts to have the case "reverse waived" to juvenile court. That would be considered at a future hearing.

 As adults, they could face up to 60 years in prison. As juveniles, they could be held in a secure facility until they're 25.

 Conflicting findings

 Bohren made his ruling on Weier after hearing from three mental health professionals who have examined Weier. Two psychologists retained by the defense believed she is not competent, based on an emotional immaturity and the lack of strategic decision making ability. One was a psychiatrist appointed by the court who said he believed Weier, whom he found extremely intelligent, was competent.

 All three said they found Weier to be bright, articulate and cooperative. They agreed she seemed to understand the serious charges she faces, at least at the very broadest level.

 But the psychologists felt that in terms of applying her knowledge to decisions about things like whether to plea bargain, she lacked competence,based on her age and immaturity, not any mental illness.

 While she could be tutored on better understanding of legal procedure, only time will allow the brain development that would increase her rational decision making capacity, they said.

 Robert Rawski, the forensic psychiatrist, thought Weier showed she could rationally participate in court proceedings and adequately aid in her defense.

 Weier's attorneys argued that the psychologists had more experience working with juveniles, and spent more time with Weier before reaching their conclusions, which came down to nuanced understandings of adolescent brain development.

 One of the psychologists, Michael Caldwell, was concerned that Weier didn't have a meaningful understanding of time frames, including the fact she could go to prison far longer than she has been alive.

 Caldwell also said Weier had a tendency, despite high intelligence, to ignore things most people would agree are important to consider in a decision and instead base choices on irrelevant factors. .

 The Slender Man stabbing

 Geyser and Weier are charged as adults in the May stabbing of Payton Leutner in a Waukesha park after a sleepover to celebrate Geyer's birthday.

 The pair told investigators they were trying to gain the favor of Slender Man, a fictional online character. Leutner survived her wounds and has since returned to school.

 Attorneys for each girl have said they will try to have their cases moved to juvenile court.

 Geyser already has been found incompetent once, meaning the judge was not convinced she fully understood the charges or was able to aid in her defense. But after weeks of mental treatment, a doctor last month said Geyser had been restored to competency.

 At Geyser's first competency hearing in August, mental health experts testified that during their interviews she exhibited disturbing behavior and beliefs: squatting on her chair, laughing hysterically for no reason, constantly looking in corners.

 She said she had conversations with the fictional Lord Voldemort character from the Harry Potter stories and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. She repeated her belief in Slender Man, unicorns and her own power of "Vulcan mind control."

 The experts said Geyser, in addition to being immature, may suffer from an undiagnosed psychiatric illness. ||||| WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — Two Wisconsin girls accused of stabbing a classmate to please a fantasy character called Slender Man are mentally fit to stand trial on attempted homicide charges, a judge ruled Thursday.

 Experts for the state concluded that both girls would be able to assist in their own defenses but their attorneys disagreed with the findings. Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren sided with the state during back-to-back hearings to decide the issue Thursday.

 During the first hearing, the 13-year-old girl watched quietly as experts explained why they thought she was or wasn't fit to go on trial. Wearing a black pantsuit and shackles, she only spoke to tell the judge that she believed she wasn't competent.

 Psychologists Anthony Jurek and Michael Caldwell testified for the defense that they interviewed the girl several times. They said she's clearly intelligent but has trouble making decisions when she's bombarded with information. She doesn't understand the nuances of the criminal justice system, such as the risk of turning down a plea bargain, they said.

 Psychiatrist Robert Rawski testified for the state that he believed the girl was highly capable. Ted Szczupakiewicz, an assistant district attorney, said judging by the two defense psychologists' reports the girl answered their questions about the legal process correctly.

 Bohren said that by all accounts the girl is highly intelligent.

 "I'm satisfied that the issues of age and maturity do not override her competency," he said. "She's competent to make the decisions that have to be made."

 The judge ordered the other girl to undergo mental health treatment in August after a psychologist testified that she claimed to see and hear unicorns, Slender Man and Lord Voldemort, the villain from the "Harry Potter" series. Psychiatrist Kenneth Casimir generated a report in November, however, that found her mental state had improved.

 Bailiffs led that girl into the courtroom for her hearing in shackles, too. She wore black leggings and a zip-up sweatshirt over a Batman T-shirt.

 The proceeding lasted only a few minutes. Her attorney, Anthony Cotton, told the judge the girl suffers from schizophrenia, but he declined to challenge Casimir's report, offering the judge no explanation. After the proceeding, he told reporters that he felt he didn't have a strong basis to challenge the report.

 Bohren said he thought Casimir's report was credible and deemed the girl competent to stand trial.

 The judge set a joint preliminary hearing, the point in the legal process where he will have to decide whether enough evidence exists to proceed to trial, for February.

 Prosecutors have charged both girls with attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the attack in May in Waukesha, a city of 71,000 about 15 miles west of Milwaukee. They say the girls plotted for months to kill classmate Payton Leutner, luring her to a wooded park after a sleepover and stabbing her 19 times. After her attackers left, Leutner crawled through the woods to a sidewalk where a bicyclist found her and called 911.

 The two girls charged in the case were found walking toward a national forest where they said they believed Slender Man lived in a mansion. They told investigators they believed killing Leutner would curry favor with the figure.

 All three girls were 12 at the time of the incident. The first girl that Bohren found competent Thursday has since turned 13.

 The Associated Press isn't naming either defendant because their attorneys have said they may still try to move their cases into juvenile court, where proceedings are secret.

 ___

 Follow Todd Richmond on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trichmond1 |||||
What is a summary?

– Two Wisconsin girls who allegedly stabbed a classmate 19 times to please the "Slender Man" fictional online character are competent to stand trial, a judge has decided. Both girls, who were 12 when they allegedly tried to kill another 12-year-old girl after a sleepover, have been charged as adults. Morgan Geyser, who is still 12, was ruled incompetent in August after a psychologist testified that she was delusional, but at a hearing yesterday, her lawyer decided not to dispute a state psychiatrist's finding that she is now fit for trial, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. The attorney told the judge that Geyser is being treated for schizophrenia. In a separate hearing, Anissa Weier, now 13, was also deemed competent after the judge decided that "issues of age and maturity do not override her competency," the AP reports. Psychologists who testified for the defense argued that although she is intelligent and articulate, she has trouble making decisions and understanding issues like the risk of turning down a plea bargain. Lawyers for both girls are trying to have the case moved to juvenile court. The judge decided to allow Geyser to remain at the mental health institute where she has been for months after her lawyer argued that returning her to the juvenile detention facility where Weier is still being held could lead to her becoming unfit for trial again. (The sinister Slender Man character was created by an online forum user in 2009.)


When George Talley’s 1979 Corvette was stolen more than three decades ago in Detroit, he thought it was gone for good.

 Apparently not.

 Last week, the silver sports car was found in Mississippi. And after hearing Talley’s story on the radio this morning, General Motors, his former employer, offered to pick up the Corvette and deliver it to him.

 Michigan State Police Lt. Michael A. Shaw said via e-mail Wednesday afternoon the car was recovered after the Michigan Southwest Commercial Auto Recovery unitwas contacted by the Secretary of State regarding two 1979 Corvettes. The Secretary of State said an individual tried to register the vehicles under the same VIN number.

 “SCAR identified the first one in the Holland area back in October,” Shaw said. “The second vehicle recently resurfaced in the state of Mississippi.”

 Mississippi Bureau of Investigation officials said the car was located at a residence in Columbia, Miss. “The investigation is ongoing regarding the vehicle’s history and whereabouts during the past three decades,” the MBI said in a statement.

 Shaw said SCAR worked with the Mississippi police and the National Insurance Crime Bureau to trace the vehicle back to Talley. The investigation revealed that Talley’s claim was never paid by his insurance and he remains the owner of the car.

 Talley said when he received an initial phone call from his insurance company notifying him that the car was found, he thought it was a joke. But when the Michigan State Police called, he couldn’t believe his luck.

 “I said, ‘This isn’t no joke. They wouldn’t be joking with me because I don’t think they have time to play with me,’” Talley said. “I was shocked.”

 The last time Talley, now 71 and retired in Detroit, saw his beloved car was when it was parked on Jefferson Avenue in July 1981. Then the car disappeared. Talley reported the incident to police, but never thought he’d see his car again.

 Talley said he’s a Corvette lover and has owned four different models.

 “They looked into it, but didn’t recover it and nothing happened and 33 years passed,” Talley said. “It was a great thing that the MSP and Mississippi State troopers, they did their job and found it.”

 ■ Related: Stolen Mustang returns home, 20 years later

 ■ Related: Last Corvette retrieved from museum sinkhole

 Talley was told the car still runs, has 47,000 miles on it and is at the Hattiesburg police station. But he was concerned about how he would fetch it.

 “I woke up this morning,” Talley said during an interview with Paul W. Smith on WJR Wednesday. “I said, ‘I’ve got to get on the phone and find a trucker or somebody to bring it back’ — or go get it or something.”

 Meanwhile, GM’s Executive Vice President Mark Reuss had heard the radio segment and offered to pick up Talley’s car.

 “I listened to you this morning,” Reuss said on the show. “We just had to do something.”

 Talley, who said he worked at GM’s Milford Proving Grounds, was happy to hear the news.

 “I was worried,” he said, referring to how he was going to get the car back.

 “Well,” Smith told him. “Nothing to worry about now. The Corvette is on its way safe and sound.”

 Talley said GM told him they would notify him within the next few days to let him know when the car will arrive.

 “GM is paying for all of that, which is beautiful,” Talley said. ||||| (WXYZ) - When George Talley tells an old story, there’s a good chance he’ll mention his old rides.

 "I’ve always liked Corvettes. It was attractive. The ladies like ‘em,” said George.

 But so did the thieves, and George learned that the hard way. The last time he saw his ‘79 Corvette, it was parked on Jefferson Avenue 33 years ago.

 "I made a police report, and I haven’t seen it since July of 1981,” said George.

 George often wondered about the one that got away. That is until recently.

 "I was sitting at home last Friday looking at Judge Mathis, and I get a call from AAA telling me you have a Corvette in Mississippi, come and get it. And, uh… I said, ‘what?’”

 Authorities say a dubious vin number helped track the Vette three decades later. And the car is still in pretty good shape.

 "I’ve heard it was running, it had 47,000 miles on it, and right now, it’s at the police station in Hattiesburg,” said George.

 As of Tuesday it’s still up in the air whether George would ship it or bring the car back himself. That all changed Wednesday morning when General Motor's Executive Vice President, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain Mark Reuss announced that he was offering to bring the Vette home - at GM's expense.

 The offer came during The Paul W. Smith show on News/Talk 760 AM WJR radio.

 "It’s a lucky day. When I get that car here in that driveway, we’ll go from there,” said George, before learning of the offer. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Last time George Talley saw his beloved 1979 Corvette, it was parked on Jefferson Avenue in Detroit in the summer of 1981, reports WXYZ. He'd long ago given up hope of ever getting the stolen car back, but then came a call out of the blue from authorities in Mississippi who found it via a false VIN number. Better yet, it seems to be in decent shape, with only 47,000 miles. Talley, now 71 and still the rightful owner, told the tale on a Detroit radio station today, his only lament being that he had to figure out how to get the car shipped to Michigan. Enter GM exec Mark Reuss, who happened to catch the show, reports the Detroit Free Press. The company is going to pick up the car for its former employee and ship it back free of charge. (A 1957 Chevy stolen 30 years also recently made its way home.)


Story highlights Voting is compulsory for everyone over the age of 17 in North Korea

 Pre-approved candidates are selected for various parts of the administration

 It is also an unofficial census, checking citizens are where they should be

 Seoul (CNN) It's called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. But any real notions of democracy end with the name.

 North Koreans headed to the polls at the weekend to cast their ballots in elections for local representatives on provincial, city, and county People's Assemblies.

 Citizens were not asked to make a choice -- the results had already been decided by Kim Jong Un's central government.

 Voters were handed ballot papers but didn't mark them. They would have instead deposited them in a ballot box, signifying their support for the pre-approved candidates.

 Defector Kim Kwang-jin explained that their most important job is to show up.

 Read More ||||| North Korea's state-controlled elections saw a 99.97% voter turnout on Sunday, with only those absent from the country not participating, state media reported.

 Almost the entire country reportedly made it to the polls, including the elderly and ill, who cast their votes through "mobile ballot boxes" for uncontested candidates carefully selected by the ruling party.

 North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un, who exercises complete control over the country's 24.9 million citizens, was also seen casting his ballot in the capital, Pyongyang.

 The elections were Mr Kim's first at a local level since he inherited the position in 2011, with voters reportedly "singing and dancing" as they cast their vote at polling stations "clad in a festive atmosphere".

 Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said: "All participants took part in the elections with extraordinary enthusiasm to cement the revolutionary power through the elections of deputies to the local people's assemblies".

 Play video "North Korea: Single Party State" Video: North Korea: Single Party State

 Local elections are held every four years and voters choose mayors, local assemblies and governors, who meet twice a year to approve budgets and endorse leaders that have been approved by the ruling party.

 In the 2011 elections, which also saw a 99.97% voter participation rate, 28,116 representatives were elected as deputies without a single vote of opposition.

 Ballot papers only present one candidate to choose from, which has been overseen by Mr Kim's Workers' Party, and any dissenting votes are considered acts of treason.

 The elections have been denounced as an effort by North Korea to appear democratic, but are also an opportunity for the government to see if any established names are absent and to oust any dissident behaviour.

 South Korean intelligence says that dozens of North Korean officials have been purged since Mr Kim took power in 2011, including his once powerful uncle, Jang Song-Thaek, who was condemned as "factionalist scum" following his execution in 2013.

 The results of the election are expected to be officially announced early next week. ||||| VOTERS in North Korea will go to the polls on March 9th to elect deputies to the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA), whose members are chosen every five years. Yes, that’s right—the totalitarian communist dynasty of North Korea holds elections. But they are, like a lot of things in North Korea, rather unusual. In fact they are not really elections at all.

 For one thing, “voters” do not have much choice. They are presented with a single candidate in the district where they live. These candidates are chosen by the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland, the governing coalition, which is controlled by the Workers' Party. There is only one box to tick. Abstaining or voting no would be a dangerous act of treason, given that voting takes place in booths that do not provide any secrecy, and dissenting votes must be posted into a separate ballot box. In this way the population (everyone over 17 is obliged to vote) endorses the 687 deputies in the SPA, a body that, in any case, is merely a rubber-stamp parliament that is rarely convened. In practice the supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, calls the shots, supported by the Presidium, a smaller group of senior officials.

 Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks.

 Mr Kim, who became supreme leader in 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, is standing as a candidate in this year’s SPA elections. North Korea’s news agency says his selection as a candidate was an expression of “absolute support and profound trust” in his leadership. But Mr Kim may use the election to reshape the SPA more widely. Previous elections have been used as opportunities to change North Korea’s constitution and adjust its power structure, something Mr Kim may be particularly keen to do having executed his uncle, Jang Sung Taek, long the country’s number two, in December. At the same time, elections serve as a form of census, because voting is organised by residential unit. Updating its electoral records gives the government an opportunity to check up on the populace and make sure they are living where they are supposed to (and have not, say, defected to China).

 The whole process highlights an odd thing about sham or rigged elections held in autocratic countries. It seems that even the most despotic leaders (and they do not come much more despotic than Mr Kim) feel the need to pay democracy the back-handed compliment of imitating its outward appearance, if not its underlying political model. North Korea's leaders seem to take their pantomime polls seriously. Mr Kim is standing in constituency number 111, whereas his father stood in number 333; both numbers are said to bring luck. Based on past experience, the Kims tend not to need it.

 Dig deeper:

 The day The Economist was invited to North Korea to explain the Big Mac Index (June 2013)

 How democracy ran into trouble, and how it can be revived (March 2014)

 Parallel worlds: a special report on North and South Korea (October 2013) ||||| If you’re a North Korean citizen trying to make an (underground) living in China, there’s one event that will certainly bring you back home: election day in the DRPK, when many flood back into the country to have their votes counted whenever they are called.

 Why? According to defector Mina Yoon, who left North Korea in 2011, elections function mainly as a means for the state to keep track of its population’s whereabouts and to keep track of defectors.

 “The government checks the list of voters and if your name is not on the list, they will investigate it”, she told NK News. “It is often during election that the government finds out about defectors and people who have been missed”.

 Since the collapse of the state’s public distribution system during the famine of the mid-1990s, Yoon said, old ways of keeping track of citizens no longer work. While before citizens’ movements were monitored and reported on by the head of their local inminban (North Korea’s official neighborhood busybodies, who keep watch over their communities), now “people move to other areas to do businesses without pass, there is no way for the head to check them”.

 However, when election day rolls around, everything changes: “Since people have to register one month before the election starts, those who left town for the business should come back”, Yoon said.

 If the state realises you did not turn up to vote, you and your family are in trouble.

 “Defectors in China come back to North Korea risking their lives because they are afraid of possible damages to their family or loved ones left in North Korea when the government figures out that they are missing”, Yoon said.

 “If the state realises you did not turn up to vote, you and your family are in trouble”

 Many, she said, return to China after the election and will come back yet again for the next election, saying, “Those who got used to the life in China, which is better than the one in North Korea, they tend to escape again”.

 Yoon, who participated in elections in North Korea, told NK News that most people aren’t even aware of who their local candidate is, but are obligated vote or “there will be consequences such as being politically criticized or restricted”.

 North Koreans also vote to be perceived as loyal citizens, pointing out that “they will be considered as rebellions otherwise. People tend to be more cautious about their behavior during election because when you’re caught on any kind of illegal activity during an election, there will be additional punishment”.

 A STACKED DECK

 Only one candidate may appear on the ballot in North Korean elections: the candidate endorsed by the local branch of the Workers’ Party at mass meetings across the country. It is indeed possible for voters to vote “no”, crossing out a candidates name on the ballot paper. But this act of defiance is unthinkable, requiring the voter to go a special booth to cross out the name. Since, as Yoon said, elections are when North Koreans monitor each other the closest and are tested for their loyalty, not endorsing the official candidate makes you a prime candidate for a concentration camp.

 To understand how, and why North Korea votes, one must understand how the North Korean political system functions and the structure of its leadership.

 “Many people don’t know that North Korea actually has three other political factions sitting in its legislature”

 While it is often said that the Workers’ Party of Korea is the only party in North Korea’s one-party state, many people don’t know that North Korea actually has three other political factions sitting in its legislature, all making up the ruling “Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland”.

 The first is the Korean Social Democratic Party, founded in 1945, “out of the masses’ anti-imperialist, anti-feudal aspirations and demands to eliminate the aftermath of the Japanese imperialist military rule and build a new democratic society” – it boasts 50 seats in the Supreme Assembly.

 The second is the Chondoist Chongu Party, which holds 22 seats, and is a faction representing followers of the Cheondoist religious sect – an unusual synthesis of Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian thought with roots in 19th century and Korea’s peasantry. An article on the Naenara website, an information service run by the North Korea government, said its goal is to “establish harmony among all members of society”.

 Another faction with seats in the Supreme Assembly is the mysterious General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, a strange group based in Tokyo with strong connections with the DPRK, even serving as the country’s de facto embassy for Japan. Five officials of the organisation sit in the Supreme Assembly.

 How much power does the North Korean Supreme Assembly actually have? Not much. While it is North Korea’s primary legislative body, it largely delegated power to the much more influential Presidium, the highest organ of power in North Korea. The Presidium is designed to take legislative responsibility when the Supreme People’s Assembly is not in session – which is almost every day of the year.

 Andrei Lankov, a professor of Asian Studies at Kookmin University, tells NK News that elections in the DPRK are largely the product of an electoral system transplanted from the Soviet Union during the Cold War, with the North Korean system being close to identical to the system introduced in the USSR: one candidate per ballot, endorsed by a coalition of the Communist Party and subservient “non-party” members.

 As in North Korea, Lankov said, the authorities “claimed improbably high levels of participation (always above 99 percent), as well as improbably high levels of approval for official candidates (99.8 percent in 1984 Supreme Soviet election, for example)”.

 “The North Korean electoral system was copied from the Soviet Union”, he continues, “but some comic (or rather tragicomic) features of the Soviet system were taken to extremes. After the 1957 elections North Korea made the system still more peculiar: they began to claim 100 percent participation rates and 100 percent approval rates. People used to joke that on the day of elections that no one would dare to die in North Korea, let alone lose consciousness”.

 THE BIG DAY

 A North Korean election day itself has a strict itinerary. Eligible voters are herded along to their local polling station by the head of their inminban, which has a list of all those registered in the district.

 The voters then arrive in voting booths, with posters saying, “let’s all vote for the candidate”, and watched over by portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Next, Lankov said, “Voters pay a deep bow to the latter (this is of course obligatory), and then they take a ballot (every ballot has only one name of course)”.

 Perhaps unsurprisingly, elections in North Korea are not seen as an opportunity for the populace to express their views, and North Koreans know next to nothing about what they actually mean.

 “Elections in North Korea are not seen as an opportunity for the populace to express their views”

 “The North does not teach students about the importance of the election when they were in the middle school or high school”, defector Jihoon Park told NK News. “Therefore, we can say North Korean people have no idea about the right to vote”.

 With the absence of liberal conceptions of how an election works, elections in North Korea seem much more an opportunity for the regime to flex its patriotic muscles, with Yoon describing elections rallies as “propaganda advertisement”. “The government”, she said “makes people gather at a plaza and shout slogans such as ‘let’s drive out U.S. armies from South Korea’”.

 While it’s impossible to know what North Koreans think while they’re in the voting booth, it’s likely that they see it either a great patriotic duty or just another mundane duty among the endless duties required of them by the state.

 NORTH KOREAN…ELECTIONS?

 To outside observers, the idea of a North Korean election is nothing short of bizarre. But on January 9, 2009, the Supreme People’s Assembly – the highest legislative body of the North Korean state – was dissolved, and elections to choose its lawmakers were called.

 Election day came on March 8, with newspapers full of editorials compelling the people of North Korea to vote. State news agency KCNA implored North Koreans to “participate in the election of deputies as one and vote for the candidates”, remarking that voter participation would mean “the government of the DPRK will grow remarkably stronger”.

 The votes were counted the next day, with turnout at 99.98 percent – and the Workers’ Party won by a landslide, winning 606 of the 687 seats, and all of the seats in the parliament going to members of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland, the electoral coalition which props up the government. In district 333, where the late Kim Jong Il ran, the Dear Leader was unanimously re-elected.

 “All the voters of constituency no. 333 participated in the election and voted for Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army Kim Jong Il”, KCNA reported, saying that “this is the expression of all servicepersons’ and people’s absolute support and profound trust in Kim Jong Il”.

 There’s an election this year, too, on March 9, and leader of the country Kim Jong Un will stand for parliament, for the Mount Paektu constituency (the ‘divine’ mountain where his father is said to have been born). Judging from past experience, it is safe to assume that, once again, the Workers’ Party will win by a landslide.

 Main picture: Eric Lafforgue ||||| The turnout rate among registered eligible voters was an equally implausible 99.7 percent. KCNA added that those who were unable to vote either live abroad or work on the high seas.

 Candidates in local elections in North Korea were elected with 100 percent of the vote, the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday.

 Voters in North Korea are given a choice of either voting for or against a single candidate endorsed by the state in the constituency. To vote yes, they simply post a blank bal lot paper, but to vote no they have to cross out the name of the candidate.

 "It's difficult to vote against the candidate because there are people watching right behind the voters," as a North Korean defector said.

 The news agency said 28,116 "laborers, farmers and intellectuals" were elected to people's assemblies at provincial and city levels. ||||| Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Sunday is a national holiday in North Korea to allow people to vote in local elections

 Local elections are being held in North Korea - the first since ruler Kim Jong-un came to power in 2011.

 It is the joint-most corrupt country in the world with Somalia, according to Transparency International, and the same family has ruled since 1948.

 So why is it holding elections? And how reliable are they?

 Image copyright AFP/KCNA

 What will be decided?

 Local elections have been held in North Korea since 1999 - let's not forget that the country's full name is, technically, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

 Sunday's elections are to decide provincial governors, mayors and local assemblies in the country of almost 25m people.

 The number of seats is determined by each district's population.

 In the second provincial elections in 2003, one report said 26,650 "officials, workers, peasants and intellectuals" were elected.

 Image copyright Instagram/@simonkoryo Image caption An Instagram image by Simon Cockerell, of Beijing-based North Korea tour operator Koryo Tours, shows a 2015 election poster in Pyongyang

 What options do voters have?

 The choice is limited - there is only one candidate on the ballot in each district, and while the selection of candidates is made by the governing coalition, they are closely overseen by Kim Jong-un's Workers' Party.

 Ahead of last year's elections to name deputies for the country's assembly, The Economist reported that voting did not take place in secret, and any dissenting votes must be placed in a separate ballot box.

 Abstaining or voting no are considered acts of treason.

 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Many North Koreans will return to vote - though mainly from China, not at the South Korean border (above)

 Is there more to the election than meets the eye?

 In the last local election, in 2011, there was a turnout of 99.7%, with the state news agency saying those unable to vote were abroad or on the high seas.

 Having such a high reported turnout has its advantages for the state, observers say, in that it acts as an informal census.

 "The government checks the list of voters and if your name is not on the list, they will investigate it", one North Korean defector told the NK News website.

 "It is often during election that the government finds out about defectors and people who have been missed."

 If the state works out you did not vote, NK News says, "you and your family are in trouble".

 Image copyright Reuters

 What about Kim Jong-un?

 Sunday's elections do not decide the leadership of the country.

 Parliamentary elections are also held in North Korea, and they decide who rules the country - which is always a foregone conclusion.

 Kim Jong-un won in the last parliamentary election in 2014 - gaining 100% of the vote in his Mount Paektu constituency. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– To say North Koreans turned out in droves to vote in state elections yesterday would be an understatement, because state media are reporting 99.7% voter turnout, Sky News reports. That's only the first eyebrow-raiser about the country's electoral process, held every four years so voters can "choose" mayors, governors, and local assemblies. North Koreans over age 17 are not only required to show, they're also told which preapproved candidates to vote for by placing already prepared ballots in the ballot boxes, CNN notes. And according to Sky, it was a "festive atmosphere," with voters "singing and dancing" as they cast votes. "All participants took part in the elections with extraordinary enthusiasm to cement the revolutionary power," the Korean Central News Agency proclaimed. Voting is simple: To vote "yes" for the candidate predetermined by Kim Jong Un's Workers' Party, participants just place their ballot in the correct box; those who vote "no" place their ballot in a separate box, all within view of elections officials, the Economist explained in 2014. Abstaining or voting no is viewed as treason, the BBC notes. The real reason for even having the vote is basically to serve as a census of sorts and to keep track of no-show defectors, NK News notes. A professor of Asian studies explains that this election system makes even more extreme the one used in the Soviet Union during the Cold War, including the ridiculously high turnout rates. "People used to joke that on the day of elections that no one would dare to die in North Korea, let alone lose consciousness," he says. As for that 0.3% who didn't vote this time? KCNA says those individuals either live abroad or work "on the high seas," per Chosun Ilbo.


Summarize this article:

Planets with sizes between that of Earth (with radius ) and Neptune (about 4 ) are now known to be common around Sun-like stars1,2,3. Most such planets have been discovered through the transit technique, by which the planet’s size can be determined from the fraction of starlight blocked by the planet as it passes in front of its star. Measuring the planet’s mass—and hence its density, which is a clue to its composition—is more difficult. Planets of size 2–4 have proved to have a wide range of densities, implying a diversity of compositions4,5, but these measurements did not extend to planets as small as Earth. Here we report Doppler spectroscopic measurements of the mass of the Earth-sized planet Kepler-78b, which orbits its host star every 8.5 hours (ref. 6). Given a radius of 1.20 ± 0.09 and a mass of 1.69 ± 0.41 , the planet’s mean density of 5.3 ± 1.8 g cm−3 is similar to Earth’s, suggesting a composition of rock and iron. ||||| Affiliations

 Observatoire Astronomique de l’Université de Genève, 51 chemin des Maillettes, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland Francesco Pepe

 , Stéphane Udry

 , Christophe Lovis

 , Michel Mayor

 , Fatemeh Motalebi

 , Didier Queloz

 & Damien Ségransan Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9SS, UK Andrew Collier Cameron

 , Raphaëlle D. Haywood

 & Keith Horne Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA David W. Latham

 , Lars A. Buchhave

 , David Charbonneau

 , Courtney D. Dressing

 , Xavier Dumusque

 , Sara Gettel

 , Mercedes Lopez-Morales

 , David Phillips

 , Dimitar Sasselov

 & Andrew Szentgyorgyi INAF - Fundación Galileo Galilei, Rambla José Ana Fernandez Pérez 7, 38712 Breña Baja, Spain Emilio Molinari

 , Rosario Cosentino

 , Aldo F. M. Fiorenzano

 & Avet Harutyunyan INAF - IASF Milano, via Bassini 15, 20133 Milano, Italy Emilio Molinari INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, via Osservatorio 20, 10025 Pino Torinese, Italy Aldo S. Bonomo

 & Alessandro Sozzetti Centre for Star and Planet Formation, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, DK-1350 Copenhagen, Denmark Lars A. Buchhave INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, via Santa Sofia 78, 95125 Catania, Italy Rosario Cosentino Centro de Astrofísica, Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto, Portugal Pedro Figueira Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “Galileo Galilei”, Universita’ di Padova, Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 3, 35122 Padova, Italy Luca Malavolta

 & Giampaolo Piotto INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 5, 35122 Padova, Italy Luca Malavolta

 , Valerio Nascimbeni

 & Giampaolo Piotto INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, Piazza del Parlamento 1, 90124 Palermo, Italy Giusi Micela Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK Don Pollacco Cavendish Laboratory, J. J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK Didier Queloz Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, Institute for Astronomy, Royal Observatory, University of Edinburgh, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH93HJ, UK Ken Rice Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK Christopher A. Watson

 Contributions

 The underlying observation programme was conceived and organized by F.P., A.C.C., D.W.L., C.L., D. Ségransan, S.U. and E.M. Observations with HARPS-N were carried out by A.C.C., A.S.B., D.C., R.C., C.D.D., X.D., P.F., A.F.M.F., S.G., A.H., R.D.H., M.L.-M., V.N., D. Pollacco, D.Q., K.R., A. Sozzetti, A. Szentgyorgyi and C.A.W. The data-reduction pipeline was adapted and updated by C.L., who also implemented the correction for charge-transfer-efficiency errors and the automatic computation of the activity indicator log(R′ HK ). M.L.-M. and S.G. independently computed the S-index and log(R′ HK ) values. A.C.C., D. Ségransan, A.S.B. and X.D. analysed the data using the offset-correction method. A.C.C. and D. Ségransan re-analysed the data for the determination of the stellar rotational period based on the Kepler light curve. P.F. investigated for possible correlations between the radial velocities and the line bisector. L.A.B. conducted the stellar parameter classification analysis for the re-determination of the stellar parameters based on HARPS-N spectra. An independent determination of the stellar parameters was conducted by L.M. by analysis of the cross-correlation function. D. Ségransan compared many different models to fit the observed data and selected the most appropriate by using the Bayesian information criterion. D. Ségransan performed a detailed MCMC analysis for the determination of the planetary parameters, with contributions also from A.S.B. and A. Sozzetti. F.P. was the primary author of the manuscript, with important contributions by D.C., D. Ségransan, D. Sasselov, C.A.W., K.R. and C.L. All authors are members of the HARPS-N Science Team and have contributed to the interpretation of the data and the results.

 Competing interests

 The authors declare no competing financial interests.

 Corresponding author

 Correspondence to Francesco Pepe. ||||| An artist's illustration of the strange Earth-like rocky planet Kepler-78b, which orbits a sun-like star 400 light-years from Earth. The planet is 20 percent wider and 80 percent more massive than Earth.

 Credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA) View full size image

 A puzzling alien planet is the closest thing to an Earth twin in size and composition known beyond our solar system, though it's far too hot to support life, scientists say.

 The exoplanet Kepler-78b, whose supertight orbit baffles astronomers, is just 20 percent wider and about 80 percent more massive than Earth, with a density nearly identical to that of our planet, two research teams report in separate papers published online today (Oct. 30) in the journal Nature.

 "This is the planet that, in many respects, is the most like Earth that's been discovered outside our solar system," said Andrew Howard, of the University of Hawaii at Manoa's Institute for Astronomy and lead author of one of the studies. "It has approximately the same size. It has the same density, which means it's made out of the same stuff as Earth, in all likelihood." [The Strangest Alien Planets (Gallery)]

 Studying a lava world

 Kepler-78b, whose discovery was announced last month, orbits a sunlike star in the constellation Cygnus, about 400 light-years from Earth.

 The alien world circles 900,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) or so from its parent star — just 1 percent of the distance between Earth and the sun— and completes one lap every 8.5 hours. Surface temperatures on Kepler-78b likely top 3,680 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000 degrees Celsius), Howard said.

 The planet was found by NASA's prolific Kepler space telescope, which has spotted nearly 3,600 potential exoplanets since its March 2009 launch. (Kepler was hobbled in May of this year when the second of its orientation-maintaining reaction wheels failed, but scientists are still sifting through the instrument's huge databases.)

 Kepler flagged alien worlds by noting the telltale brightness dips they caused when passing in front of, or transiting, their parent stars from the spacecraft's perspective. Kepler's measurements allow researchers to estimate an exoplanet's size but not its mass, meaning that other strategies are required to get a handle on a world's density and composition. [Gallery: A World of Kepler Planets]

 One such method is the radial velocity technique, which measures the wobble in a host star's light induced by the gravitational pull of an orbiting planet. Both new studies employed this method to investigate the Kepler-78 system, with Howard's group using the HIRES spectrograph at Hawaii's Keck Observatory and another team, led by Francesco Pepe of the University of Geneva, relying on the new HARPS-N instrument on the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo in the Canary Islands.

 The two teams came to very similar conclusions. Howard's group determined Kepler-78b's mass to be 1.69 times greater than that of Earth, while Pepe's team calculated it to be 1.86 times higher than Earth's. The results of the Pepe-led study suggest a density of 5.57 grams per cubic centimeter for Kepler-78b, while those of Howard's team imply a density of 5.3 grams per cubic cm.

 These numbers agree to within the error range independently estimated by both teams, suggesting that they are quite accurate, Howard said.

 "The fact that we agree to within our errors — in science, that's basically as good as you can do," Howard told SPACE.com.

 Earth's density is about 5.5 grams per cubic cm, so Kepler-78b probably has an Earth-like composition, complete with a rocky interior and an iron core, both studies suggest.

 A mysterious origin

 The extremely tight orbit of Kepler-78b puzzles astronomers. According to prevailing theory, the alien world shouldn't exist where it does, because its host star was significantly larger when the planet was taking shape.

 "It couldn't have formed in place because you can't form a planet inside a star," Dimitar Sasselov, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and a member of the Pepe-led team, said in a statement. "It couldn't have formed further out and migrated inward, because it would have migrated all the way into the star. This planet is an enigma."

 What is clear, however, is that Kepler-78b's days are numbered. The planet will continue circling lower and lower until the immense gravity of its host star tears it apart, likely within 3 billion years or so.

 "Kepler-78b is going to end up in the star very soon, astronomically speaking," Sasselov said.

 The search for another Earth

 The hellishly hot Kepler-78b is not a good place to hunt for alien life. But the determination of its density marks a milestone in the ongoing search for a true "Earth twin" — a planet very much like Earth in size, composition and surface temperature.

 "The existence of Kepler-78b shows that, at the very least, extrasolar planets of Earth-like composition are not rare," astronomer Drake Deming, of the University of Maryland, writes in an accompanying commentary article today in the same issue of Nature.

 Deming points to NASA's upcoming Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission, or TESS, which is slated to launch in 2017 to hunt for transiting planets around nearby stars (as contrasted with Kepler, whose gaze was more distant).

 "By focusing particularly on small stars cooler than the sun, TESS should find exo-Earths whose mass can be measured by trading the close-in orbit of Kepler-78b for more distant orbits around low-mass stars, approaching orbital zones where life is possible," Deming writes. "That trade-off probably cannot be pushed to the point of measuring an Earth twin orbiting once per year around a sun twin, but it will allow future scientific teams to probe habitable planets orbiting small stars."

 Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on SPACE.com. |||||

– Astronomers have discovered a planet where a certain red guy with horns could make himself right at home. It's a planet much like our own Earth—about the same size, with the same mixture of rock and iron, and it orbits a star like our sun—except that Kepler 78b is an infernal ball of fire. Located less than a million miles from its host star—that's 1% of the distance between Earth and our sun—its temperature ranges between 3,500 and 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That's "well above the temperature where rock melts," an astronomer tells the New York Times. "This is probably one of the most hellish planets that have been discovered yet." At 400 light-years from Earth, the exoplanet was first spotted by the Kepler spacecraft but astronomers on Earth took a closer look at its light frequency to discover its orbit and mass. The findings, published in two studies in Nature, show a planet that tightly orbits its sun—which from the surface would look 80 times larger than our sun—in just eight and a half hours. Adds an expert, per LiveScience: "This planet is an enigma. It couldn't have formed in place because you can't form a planet inside a star." But while astronomers are baffled as to how the planet got there, they're fairly certain it shows friendlier Earthlike planets are still out there.


Photograph by Ken Heinen/Getty Images.

 Read the rest of Slate’s coverage on the Supreme Court upholding the Affordable Care Act.

 There were two battles being fought in the Supreme Court over the Affordable Care Act. Chief Justice John Roberts—and Justice Anthony Kennedy—delivered victory to the right in the one that mattered.

 Yes, Roberts voted to uphold the individual mandate, joining the court's liberal wing to give President Obama a 5-4 victory on his signature piece of legislation. Right-wing partisans are crying treason; left-wing partisans saw their predictions of a bitter, party-line defeat undone.

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 But the health care law was, ultimately, a pretext. This was a test case for the long-standing—but previously fringe—campaign to rewrite Congress' regulatory powers under the Commerce Clause.

 This is why the challenge to the ACA, and its progress through the courts, came as a surprise to Democrats and to mainstream constitutional scholars: Three years ago, there was no serious doubt that Congress had the power to impose the individual mandate.

 A Bloomberg story last week nicely captured the stakes: "Obama Health Law Seen Valid, Scholars Expect Rejection":

 The U.S. Supreme Court should uphold a law requiring most Americans to have health insurance if the justices follow legal precedent, according to 19 of 21 constitutional law professors who ventured an opinion on the most-anticipated ruling in years.

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 Only eight of them predicted the court would do so.

 The scholars expected to see the court gut existing Commerce Clause precedent and overturn the individual mandate in a partisan decision: Five Republican-appointed justices voting to rewrite doctrine and reject Obamacare; four Democratic-appointed justices dissenting.

 Roberts was smarter than that. By ruling that the individual mandate was permissible as a tax, he joined the Democratic appointees to uphold the law—while joining the Republican wing to gut the Commerce Clause (and push back against the necessary-and-proper clause as well). Here's the Chief Justice's opinion (italics in original):

 Construing the Commerce Clause to permit Congress to regulate individuals precisely because they are doing nothing would open a new and potentially vast domain to congressional authority. Congress already possesses expansive power to regulate what people do. Upholding the Affordable Care Act under the Commerce Clause would give Congress the same license to regulate what people do not do. The Framers knew the difference between doing something and doing nothing. They gave Congress the power to regulate commerce, not to compel it. Ignoring that distinction would undermine the principle that the Federal Government is a government of limited and enumerated powers. The individual mandate thus cannot be sustained under Congress’s power to “regulate Commerce.”

 The business about "new and potentially vast" authority is a fig leaf. This is a substantial rollback of Congress' regulatory powers, and the chief justice knows it. It is what Roberts has been pursuing ever since he signed up with the Federalist Society. In 2005, Sen. Barack Obama spoke in opposition to Roberts' nomination, saying he did not trust his political philosophy on tough questions such as "whether the Commerce Clause empowers Congress to speak on those issues of broad national concern that may be only tangentially related to what is easily defined as interstate commerce." Today, Roberts did what Obama predicted he would do. ||||| John Roberts, former character actor as "the dad who wears khaki shorts and stands with his hands on his hips a lot," joined the liberal wing of the Supreme Court in upholding the Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare." In doing so, he gave a lot of people who don't pay attention reason to celebrate him on Twitter. They're idiots.

 It's easy to like Roberts. Unlike other members of the conservative wing of the court, he doesn't look like his ideology is consuming his flesh from the inside out. The rest of the court ghouls embody the old Orwell quote that by age 50 every man has the face he deserves. Thomas—sullen, glowering, damned—digs his chin further into his neck with every session, his jowls subsiding like a California landslide in agonizing slow motion. Alito sits like a rubberized effacement of humanity, with his doll's-eyed cipher expression taking turns with a simpering smile only a cruel person would teach somebody. Then there's Scalia, America's prick uncle who farts at Easter dinner and doesn't even need to overhear all of your conversation before interrupting you to tell you you're wrong.

 Compared to them, John Roberts and family are a Carnival Cruise ad. Ahahaha, dad just dougie'd. Mom did a cannonball into the pool. TENNIS?—ON A BOAT??? Everyone's tanning!

 It's tempting to conflate appearance and character, to paint onto a welcome canvas things with which you agree and omit those things that seem ugly. So Roberts, who played the humble, inoffensive judicial nominee role to the hilt during his confirmation, has always offered a welcoming ambiguity to the uninitiated. Jeffrey Toobin might have been ready to consider him archly conservative in the New Yorker, but most of the rest of us were just guessing.

 With today's ruling, you can already see lay-readers reevaluating Roberts as a decent-if-misguided guy who was willing to see reason. He upheld Obamacare! (Ignore the ruling on Montana's campaign finance laws earlier this week.) The consensus just two years ago, however, was that Obamacare was perfectly constitutional under the commerce clause. That there was even a debate was fundamentally absurd.

 Instead, today Roberts upheld the law as a tax, claiming that, "The individual mandate... cannot be sustained under Congress's power to 'regulate Commerce.'" His opinion preserves the illusion of a court that impartially rules on the law and is not—in four cases at least—intensely motivated by partisan political considerations. At the same time, it represents the first major step in rolling back an interpretation of the commerce clause that has been considered fundamental for roughly 80 years, one whose elimination has been a Federalist Society wet dream for 30.

 Lastly, in upholding the ACA as a tax, Roberts has also neatly handed the Republican Party a talking point to carry through to November. It took less than two hours for Marco Rubio to start babbling the same hoary litany, "This is the largest tax on the middle class in American history," and, "Every member of the middle class now has an IRS problem."

 Democracts might want to rein in the celebration, and the right can put the fire ax back up next to the box marked BREAK GLASS IN CASE OF COMMUNISM. Roberts upheld one law today. He also opened the back door to gutting or eliminating countless other ones. But this is just calling balls and strikes. Humble stuff. If this were judicial activism, then it might actually be a big deal.

 [Image via AP] |||||

Write a summary.

– John Roberts upheld the Affordable Care Act today, and "in doing so, he gave a lot of people who don't pay attention a reason to celebrate him on Twitter," writes Mobutu Sese Seko of Gawker. "They're idiots." Seko and some other observers believe Roberts had a secret plan. Yes, his ruling hands Obama a superficial victory, but that "was, ultimately, a pretext," writes Tom Scocca of Slate. His real goal: to gut the commerce clause, and fundamentally cripple Congress' ability to regulate. Roberts ruled that the victory was a result of Congress' power to tax, not the commerce clause. In so doing he's rolling back long-held precedent, and severely curtailing Congress' power. "It is what Roberts has been pursuing ever since he signed up with the Federalist Society," Scocca writes. "Roberts' genius was in pushing this through without attaching it to the coattails of an ugly, narrow partisan victory." Seko also notes that by using the tax power, he's "handed the Republican Party a talking point." The ACA is now, officially, a tax.


Published on Nov 3, 2015

 This week Reactions is taking a look at some cheesy chemistry in the form of a sandwich. We're giving you some science based tips on how to make the perfect grilled cheese sandwich. Consider this a chemical ode to one of the finest comfort foods ever created, the grilled cheese sandwich. Cheese making is an incredibly complex chemical process, and at a certain point, you may have learned the hard way that some cheeses simply don't make the grill grade. Why is it that some cheeses melt perfectly while others crumble into a nasty, oily mess? Today we're going answer that question for you, and while we're at it, we wanted to offer you some scientific advice on how to optimize your ingredients for the perfect grilled cheese experience.

 Go check out "The Kitchen As Laboratory," a fantastic book about science and cooking, which inspired this episode: http://www.amazon.com/The-Kitchen-Lab...

 Find us on all these places:

 Subscribe! http://bit.ly/ACSReactions

 Facebook! http://facebook.com/ACSReactions

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 Music:

 Pure Natural - Touch me

 Sam Leopard - Soul

 Writer/Producer:

 Kirk Zamieroski

 Executive Producer:

 Adam Dylewski

 Scientific consultants:

 Jennifer Kimmel, Ph.D.

 Darcy Gentleman, Ph.D.

 Sophia Cai

 Sources:

 The Kitchen as Laboratory - http://www.amazon.com/The-Kitchen-Lab...

 On Milk Proteins - http://www.milkfacts.info/Milk%20Comp...

 Texture of Cheese - http://www.journalofdairyscience.org/...

 On Processed, "American" Cheese - https://pubs.acs.org/cen/whatstuff/st...

 FDA on standards on American Cheese - https://www.fsa.usda.gov/Internet/FSA... ||||| There are some things we don’t need scientists to tell us — like the fact that cheese is delicious and was created by the dairy gods to please us — but there are other questions we need answered by the professionals in order to live our best lives. Like what the ideal kind of cheese is for a perfectly gooey, melty grilled cheese. Here comes the science!

 A three-minute video from the series Reactions, hosted by the American Chemical Society, delves into the science of how cheese melts: it all comes down to how casein proteins clump together into spheres called micelles, which are held together by calcium and are full of fat. The surface of a micelle is negatively charged, so usually the little balls would bounce away from each other.

 But when lactic acid gets involved, the micelles smack into each other and create chains that trap water and turn into a mess of cheesy goo. Cheeses that age longer contain more lactic acid, lowering its PH. That means sharper cheeses have a lower pH than their counterparts, which don’t age as long.

 According to the American Chemical Society’s video, what this all means is that the ideal pH level for a cheese used to make grilled cheese is perfectly balanced between 5.3 to 5.5 (here’s a list [PDF] of PH levels in food). Any lower and cheese will release all its oil when heated, leaving curdled, clumpy clusters.

 So what should you choose? Try gouda, gruyére or manchego. If you’re choosing between mild and sharp cheddar, go with mild — it has the texture you want, and won’t break down like its sharp counterpart.

 If you want suggestions on how to cook that grilled cheese once you’ve selected which variety you want, check out our somewhat scientific We Tried It investigation.

 For more science and cheese and cheese science, check out the video below: |||||

Write a summary.

– Looking for the perfect cheese for the ultimately gooey, perfectly melted grilled cheese sandwich? Good news: Scientists with the American Chemical Society have put out a three-minute video from the society's "Reactions" series on YouTube all about that very subject. And the winners are ... gouda, gruyére, or manchego, with mild cheeses melting more beautifully than sharp. It's all about how casein proteins clump together (the resulting spheres are called micelles) when cheese melts. These micelles, which are held together by calcium and are gloriously fatty, are negatively charged, meaning those tiny balls bounce apart. Add lactic acid, however, which goes up the longer a cheese ages, and those micelles smack together, trapping water and getting all gooey, reports Consumerist. But wait, there's more. The older the cheese, the more lactic acid, which in turn lowers the cheese's pH—thus sharper cheeses have a lower pH and mild ones a higher pH. The ideal pH, in fact, is right between 5.3 and 5.5, with cheese of lower pH releasing their oils when heated and getting clumpy. This is why gouda, gruyére, or manchego are ideal but on the milder side; if they age too long and become sharper, the pH dips too low and the cheese breaks down more easily, meaning you could end up with a curdled mess while heating it. (Check out why this cheese tests best for pizza.)


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– After four years of mapping our planet's gravity, the European Space Agency's GOCE satellite has plunged back to Earth. The GOCE—Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer—was last heard from 75 miles over Antarctica, Reuters reports. It is believed to have burned up on re-entry, with hundreds of pounds of surviving debris scattering somewhere in the Western Pacific. Its gradiometer, the instrument used to make gravity measurements, is made of materials tough enough to survive the fall to Earth, the BBC notes. GOCE—the planet's lowest-flying scientific satellite—mapped Earth's gravitational field in never-before-seen detail, revealing how gravity's pull is uneven across the world. The satellite's fall to Earth, which was inevitable after it ran out of fuel a few weeks ago, was the ESA's first uncontrolled re-entry in decades. But since GOCE was relatively light at 1.2 tons, it didn't attract the same attention as other recent re-entries, including the crash of a failed Russian probe last year.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A 1-ton European science satellite plunged back into Earth's atmosphere and incinerated with debris most likely landing in the southern regions of the Atlantic Ocean, officials said on Monday.

 The last contact by ground tracking stations with Europe's Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, known as GOCE, was at 5:42 p.m. EST (2242 GMT) on Sunday as the spacecraft flew just 75 miles above Antarctica, the European Space Agency said.

 Extrapolating from computer models, officials believe GOCE hit the upper atmosphere about 50 miles above the planet's surface no later than 7:16 p.m. EST Sunday (0016 GMT Monday) near the Falkland Islands.

 "This would put the main area over which any possible GOCE remnants fell to the southernmost regions of the Atlantic Ocean," the space agency wrote in a status report on its website.

 "No damage to property has been reported from any debris," the report said.

 About 25 percent of the car-sized satellite was expected to have survived re-entry.

 GOCE was launched in 2009 to map variations in Earth's gravity. Scientists assembled the data into the first detailed global maps of the boundary between the planet's crust and mantle, among other projects.

 The satellite ran out of fuel on October 21 and had been steadily losing altitude since, tugged by Earth's gravity.

 The 1.2-ton (1,100-kg) GOCE satellite is small in comparison to other spacecraft that recently crashed back into the atmosphere.

 In January 2012, Russia's failed 14-ton (12,700-kg) Phobos-Grunt Mars probe returned. In 2011, NASA's 6.5-ton (5,900-kg) Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite and Germany's 2.4-ton (2,177-kg) X-ray ROSAT telescope re-entered the atmosphere.

 (Editing by Kevin Gray) ||||| Image caption Goce needed its engine power to stay in orbit

 The European Space Agency's (Esa) Goce satellite has re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, burning up in the process.

 US tracking data suggests any surviving debris fell into the South Atlantic, just off the tip of South America, south of the Falkland Islands.

 Dubbed the "Ferrari of space" because of its sleek looks, Goce is the first Esa mission to make an uncontrolled re-entry in more than 25 years.

 The gravity mapping probe's plunge was inevitable once it ran out of fuel.

 The mission was operating in an extremely low orbit - at 224km altitude, the lowest of any scientific satellite - and needed to constantly thrust an electric engine to stay aloft, but last month its reserves of xenon fuel were exhausted.

 Pre-return modelling had indicated that perhaps a fifth to a quarter of Goce's one-tonne mass could have endured the fiery fall through the atmosphere.

 Its sophisticated gradiometer - the instrument used to make gravity measurements - incorporated composite materials which were expected to ride out the destructive forces that would ordinarily incinerate traditional components.

 Tracking project

 The Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee - the global forum on "space junk" - chose Goce as its special study project for 2013. This meant a large number of tracking and surveillance facilities around the world were activated to monitor the satellite's descent to Earth.

 A signal from Goce was last acquired at 22:42 GMT on Sunday as it passed 121km (75 miles) above Antarctica. Data from the United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) indicated that re-entry occurred a little over one orbit of the Earth later, with the spacecraft starting to break up at 00:16 GMT on Monday at an altitude of about 80km.

 This would have put any debris fall in the South Atlantic just east of Tierra Del Fuego.

 "Goce survived for a few minutes longer than we expected - but since re-entries are difficult to predict, this is not very surprising," Holger Krag from Esa's Space Debris Office told BBC News.

 Image caption Goce's principal objective was to make maps of the variation in the pull of gravity across the Earth

 Goce's slender, fin-shaped construction, combined with its magnetic attitude-control system, maintained a stable orientation until very late in the descent. Engineers monitoring the last hours of the satellite from Europe's Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, observed Goce to keep a straight-on approach as it dipped deeper and deeper into the atmosphere.

 "This was due to the shape of Goce, which was designed in such a way that it was aerodynamically stabilised," said Dr Krag.

 Statistics show that there is typically at least one piece of tracked space "junk" re-entering the Earth's atmosphere every day; with, on average, one intact defunct spacecraft or old rocket body coming back every week.

 Esa's last mission to make an uncontrolled re-entry was the magnetosphere explorer Isee-2, which came back in 1987.

 The agency does, however, regularly manage controlled re-entries. Its space station freighter, the Automated Transfer Vehicle, can weigh some 13 tonnes when it comes back to Earth.

 It has fuel and thrusters to direct its destructive dive towards the vast and uninhabited waters of the Southern Ocean, east of New Zealand.

 Goce (Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer) was launched in 2009 as part of a series of innovative environmental research satellites.

 Its super-sensitive gradiometer was used to detect the tiny variations in the pull of gravity across the surface of the Earth.

 Its maps have very broad applications. The data is a key reference in civil engineering for relating heights measured at widely separated locations, and for the computer models that need to understand how the oceans move to forecast future changes in climate. |||||


News article:

John Thune isn't running for president.

 "For months now, my wife Kimberley and I have received encouragement from family, friends, colleagues, and supporters from across South Dakota and the country to run for the presidency of the United States," Thune said in a statement posted on his website today.

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 reset VIDEO: Thune at CPAC VIDEO: Thune on 2012- Sept. '10 POLITICO 44

 "I feel that I am best positioned to fight for America’s future here in the trenches of the United States Senate," he said. Thune's statement didn't indicate who he might support in the 2012 presidential primary.

 Thune had an afternoon conference call to speak with supporters, and he called top donors early Tuesday to inform them of his decision.

 Thune, who beat Democratic Majority Leader Tom Daschle to win his Senate seat in 2004, has been thinking about a presidential bid for months — but his inquiries were tepid compared to other more organized candidates. Earlier this month, he was tapped to serve on the powerful Finance Committee — and with Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) set to retire next year, there is space for Thune to move up the ranks of the Senate leadership.

 The South Dakotan had made clear in recent weeks that he lacked any burning desire to get on the campaign trail. “I like where I am," Thune said in an interview with POLITICO earlier this month. "I like what I do. These committee assignments are obviously going to give me a full portfolio for the foreseeable future. ... I’m in a place where I think I can make a difference.

 He told confidantes there are three main reasons for his decision: his role in the Senate, his family and the timing.

 "In 2012, there are a slew of Democratic seats that are up, and you could see the Senate flip. I think he wants to help his Senate colleagues win back the majority," top Republican fundraiser Gregory Slayton told POLITICO. Slayton, now based at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business in New Hampshire, has been speaking with Thune regularly for weeks.

 Thune told Slayton he had to consider his family's role in a grueling presidential campaign — a sentiment that Thune expressed in his POLITICO interview when he said his wife had read "Game Change," an account of the 2008 campaign.

 "It was not helpful,” he joked, calling the book a “downer.”

 The third problem: timing. "Is this the right time in John's political career? With Kyl retiring, there are further opportunities for him in the Senate — and not just general Senate responsibilities but the overall role he might play," Slayton said. ||||| News

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 Statement from John and Kimberley Thune Posted: February 22nd 2011 For months now, my wife Kimberley and I have received encouragement from family, friends, colleagues, and supporters from across South Dakota and the country to run for the presidency of the United States. We have appreciated hearing their concerns about where the country is headed and their hopes for a new direction.

 During this time, Kimberley and I and our two daughters have given a great deal of thought to how we might best serve South Dakota and our nation. That process has involved lots of prayer.

 Along the way, we have been reminded of the importance of being in the arena, of being in the fight. And make no mistake that during this period of fiscal crisis and economic uncertainty there is a fight for the future direction of America. There is a battle to be waged over what kind of country we are going to leave our children and grandchildren and that battle is happening now in Washington, not two years from now. So at this time, I feel that I am best positioned to fight for America’s future here in the trenches of the United States Senate.

 I want to thank those who have encouraged us and prayed for us during the past several months. We are forever grateful for all the support.

 John and Kimberley

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What is a shorter version of the above article?

– The 2012 crop of GOP presidential candidates got a little smaller today: South Dakota Sen. John Thune announced on Facebook that he's not running. After "lots of prayer," he decided that he'll stay put and "fight for America’s future here in the trenches of the United States Senate." Thune—who defeated then-Democratic Majority Leader Tom Daschle in 2004—had never been among the presidential front-runners, and his Senate career is getting more promising, reports Politico. The conservative scored a spot on the influential Finance Committee earlier this month.


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He added, “I remain dedicated to the art of animation and inspired by the creative talent at Pixar and Disney.”

 The accusations against Mr. Lasseter did not rise to the level of those against powerful Hollywood figures like Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused of severe sexual misconduct going back decades, and Bill Cosby, who was found guilty in April of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman.

 But Mr. Lasseter’s sabbatical revealed other areas of concern. Disney conducted what it called a “day of listening” in February as part of an effort to improve the culture at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation. Multiple staff members told managers that Mr. Lasseter had become increasingly domineering, according to two people who work at the company, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the process was private.

 The decision to part ways with Mr. Lasseter was a complicated one.

 People in Mr. Lasseter’s camp contended that he had been unfairly swept up in the Time’s Up movement and that his behavior did not warrant his ouster. Allowing him to return to his old job, or at least a similar one, would prevent Wall Street from worrying about the health of Disney’s animation engines. It would also prevent Mr. Lasseter, an executive widely heralded as a creative genius, from going to work for a competitor.

 But retaining Mr. Lasseter would have divided employees, leaving some women particularly unhappy. The tension was palpable at the “Incredibles 2” premiere. The insiders in attendance raucously cheered as credits for the principal creative team appeared on the screen. But the theater became noticeably quieter when Mr. Lasseter’s name appeared as an executive producer.

 In recent weeks, a #LoseLasseter campaign had appeared on Twitter.

 Pixar has been criticized over the years as a boy’s club. Women have produced Pixar hits, but only one of Pixar’s 20 feature films, “Brave,” has a credited female director. That woman, Brenda Chapman, was fired halfway through production after she clashed with Mr. Lasseter. Ms. Chapman subsequently joined DreamWorks Animation, telling The New York Times in 2013 that “you can butt heads here and not be punished for it, unlike at another place I could name.”

 Mr. Lasseter’s supporters have pointed out that he hired Ms. Lee as a director of “Frozen,” which was praised for its departure from Disney’s romantic “princess” formula. She is now working on “Frozen 2,” which is set for release in November 2019. Pixar has also started to focus more on female lead characters, including Joy in “Inside Out” and Dory the forgetful fish in “Finding Dory.” ||||| UPDATED with a statement from Women in Animation.

 The Walt Disney Co.’s decision Friday to part ways with Pixar co-founder John Lasseter ends months of speculation about whether he would return to the two animation studios that thrived under his creative influence, but came without acknowledging the “misdeeds” that led to his abrupt departure on sabbatical over six months ago.

 Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger issued a statement lauding Lasseter for reinventing animation, taking “breathtaking risks,” telling original stories and for revitalizing The Walt Disney Animation Studio. He was silent on the reason for the chief creative officer’s exit.

 Lasseter, who was the creative force behind such billion-dollar franchises as Toy Story and Cars, had been accused of unwanted physical contact with female subordinates — from the “hugs” he acknowledged in a statement of contrition last fall to darker accounts of unsolicited kisses and groping that sources confided to Deadline. Disney placed Lasseter on sabbatical in November after he admitting to vague “missteps.”

 Disney, which acted decisively in the case of Roseanne Barr’s racist tweet, reportedly spent months evaluating the claims against Lasseter. In February, Walt Disney Animation Studios held a “day of listening” to allow the animation staff to air workplace concerns.

 As recently as last month, sources floated the possibility of Lasseter returning to Disney in a role that would retain his creative input but limit his managerial responsibilities.

 But one well-placed source told Deadline there was a gathering sense that the employees didn’t really want Lasseter to return. Some even threatened to quit, according to another person familiar with the matter. Indeed, some in the animation community started a #LoseLasseter campaign on social media and launched a petition on Change.org demanding his ouster.

 “If Lasseter is allowed to return, it is not only an insult to the current contributions of hundreds of employees that contribute more to the company’s success, but also will demonstrate that such behavior will be tolerated by Disney-Pixar,” Animation Heroine wrote in a Change.org petition that has attracted 68 signatures. “Lasseter’s return would be a direct dismissal of those he has hurt, and his continued presence would contribute to an unsafe environment of mistrust.”

 Women in Animation President Marge Dean said the world changed last fall because courageous women spoke up.

 “‘Misconduct’ is no longer tolerated in the work place and the safety of all employees has become a priority for our industry,” Dean said. “Women in Animation supports and celebrates that change with the expectation that it will encourage retention of women in the animation workforce.”

 Lasseter will serve in a consulting role at Disney throughout the end of the year, after which time he’ll look for something new. His attorney did not respond to requests for comment.

 “The last six months have provided an opportunity to reflect on my life, career and personal priorities,” Lasseter said in a statement. “While I remain dedicated to the art of animation and inspired by the creative talent at Pixar and Disney, I have decided the end of this year is the right time to begin focusing on new creative challenges.”

 Insiders say expect Frozen director Jennifer Lee to be promoted at Walt Disney Animation, and Pete Docter, director of films Up and Monsters, Inc., to take on greater responsibilities at Pixar. That scenario was first reported by The New York Times.

 On the heels of the corporate drama, Pixar’s Incredibles 2 opens next weekend. ||||| In interviews with The Times, nine former Pixar employees described an ingrained culture that makes it difficult for female employees to thrive, in addition to being a place where crude remarks about women and inappropriate touching occurred. They said the studio has perpetuated a system in which the company's creative leaders, who are mainly men, are treated as royalty and are protected at all costs. The former female employees were animators, story managers, storyboard artists, directors' assistants and others who worked at Pixar over the last decade and who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals. ||||| “The last six months have provided an opportunity to reflect on my life, career and personal priorities,” Lasseter said in a statement. “While I remain dedicated to the art of animation and inspired by the creative talent at Pixar and Disney, I have decided the end of this year is the right time to begin focusing on new creative challenges. I am extremely proud of what two of the most important and prolific animation studios have achieved under my leadership and I’m grateful for all of the opportunities to follow my creative passion at Disney.” |||||

– The man who co-founded Pixar and is seen as the creative force behind blockbusters such as the Toy Story and Cars franchises will soon be out of a job at Disney. John Lasseter, 61, has been on leave from parent company Disney since November after allegations of improper workplace behavior surfaced, including his propensity to wrap up everyone he meets in long bear hugs. Disney announced Friday that Lasseter—who previously acknowledged and apologized for his "missteps"—will shift into a vague consulting role through the end of the year and then depart for good, reports the New York Times. Disney execs were wrestling for months with whether to allow Lasseter to return, but Deadline reports on a "gathering sense" among employees that he would not have been welcome. Disney chief Bob Iger issued a statement that praised Lasseter for "reinventing the animation business, taking breathtaking risks, and telling original, high quality stories that will last forever,” and Lasseter issued one of his own thanking Disney and saying he's "extremely proud" of his work but that it's time to move on. Despite the positive public comments, the move amounts to what the Los Angeles Times describes as "a dramatic unraveling of one of the most storied careers in animation." The story notes that hugs were just a part of the problem, with female employees at Pixar alleging that Lasseter and other senior execs turned a blind eye to a corporate culture rife with crude jokes and inappropriate touching. (Actress and screenwriter Rashida Jones left Toy Story 4 and complained about Pixar's unequal treatment of women.)