Suspect in city's first 2013 murder caught in Ohio

Police have nabbed a suspect wanted for New York City's first murder this year in Ohio, law-enforcement sources said today.

Raymond Mayrant, 25, will be extradited back to New York for the murder of a Bronx school crossing guard, sources said.

Mayrant was dating her daughter, and allegedly shot them both in a confrontation at a Soundview apartment on Jan. 3.

Elzina Brown, 59, was shot in the chest, while her daughter was shot in the nose, authorities said.

It was not immediately clear why he went to Ohio after the slaying.




NYPD



Raymond Mayrant, caught in Ohio.



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Should children be used to develop an anthrax vaccine?




















The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues will hold an open meeting in Miami beginning Monday on the tough issue of whether children should be used in attempts to develop an anthrax vaccine.

The public is welcome to the meeting, to be held at University of Miami Hospital’s Seminar Center at 1400 NW 12th Ave., starting at 9 a.m. Monday and continuing to noon Tuesday.

The discussion concerns the scenario of terrorists creating weapons in which deadly bacteria could kill thousands of people. There’s discussion of developing a vaccine to counter such attacks, but could it proved to be effective for children if it were not tested on them? And what parents would permit such testing?





The panel is chaired by Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania. President Barack Obama created the commission in 2009 to advise him on bioethical issues.

A live webcast will be available at bioethics.gov.





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Sen. Bill Nelson is going python hunting




















Sen. Bill Nelson has taken some ribbing for his focus on Pythons in the Everglades. But the problem is real. So little surprise the 70-year-old Democrat will participate in Florida’s first snake hunt, which begins Saturday and offers cash prizes.

Nelson will go out Thursday with a rancher in Davie.

“He’s had a hand in drawing attention to the problem and it has, in fact, proven to be a very serious problem,” spokesman Dan McLaughlin said. “Bill doesn’t mind the heat, the mosquitoes, the alligators and the poisonous snakes. It puts him in touch with natural Florida.”





Nelson and another hunter will wield machetes and pistols, McLaughlin said.

Hundreds of people have signed up for the python challenge. Grand prizes of $1,500 for harvesting the most Burmese pythons will be awarded to winners of both the general competition and the Python permit holders competition, with additional $1,000 prizes for the longest snake, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.

As of Thursday morning, 670 people had signed up for the python challenge. Grand prizes of $1,500 for harvesting the most Burmese pythons will be awarded to winners of both the general competition and the Python permit holders competition, with additional $1,000 prizes for the longest snake, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.





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Jimmy Dushku: The 25-year-old who is North Korea’s one true Twitter friend






Mother Jones takes a look at a globetrotting young investor who’s the only American — and the only human being — Pyongyang follows


Google Chairman Eric Schmidt capped a controversial four-day visit to North Korea on Thursday with a call for the country’s censorship-happy communist government to give its people access to the internet, or face further economic decline due to the country’s global isolation. It was a strong message from one of the web’s most powerful figures, although North Korea watchers seem pretty confident the country’s young leader, Kim Jong Un, will ignore it. There’s one American, however, Pyongyang does appear to listen to. That would be Jimmy Dushku, a young investor who is one of exactly three Twitter users Kim’s government follows on Twitter. What’s the story behind this unlikely online bromance? Here, a guide:






Who is Jimmy Dushku?
He’s a 25-year-old financial whiz kid from Austin, Texas. Dushku, who also goes by the nicknames “Jimmer” and “Jammy,” started a website development business when he was 14, according to Mother Jones, and he parlayed his early earnings into investments that now include everything from construction projects in Europe to real estate in Texas to mines in South America. He’s also a rabid Coldplay fan, and when he isn’t jetting around the world, he says he likes to play Rachmaninoff on his piano and zoom around on his Ducati Monster motorcycle.


SEE MORE: North Korea’s rocket launch: 3 consequences


So how did he become buddies with North Korea?
Dushku tells Asawin Suebsaeng at Mother Jones he’s not really sure. “People always ask me how it happened, and I honestly can’t remember,” he says. “It started sometime back in 2010. I was initially surprised.” North Korea followed him, he followed North Korea “out of courtesy.” He tweeted back, “Hello my friend,” and a relationship was born. Then, the North Korean government, which has piled up some 11,000 followers in two-and-a-half years on Twitter, abruptly whittled down the number of accounts it follows, leaving just three. Dushku made the cut (along with a Vietnam account and another official North Korean handle).


What has Dushku gotten from the relationship?
Death threats, for one thing. Not long after he linked up with North Korea’s account, which goes by @uriminzok (or “our nation”), Dushku says he started getting angry messages from exiles and South Koreans. Since then, he has mostly kept a low profile, just to be safe, although he does occasionally grant interviews to foreign publications. For its part, North Korea gets a rare glimpse at the outside world through Dushku, as his is the only account North Korea follows that is regularly updated — the other two haven’t tweeted in months. He’s also the only human being in the bunch.


Will @JimmyDushku and @uriminzok ever meet in real life?
That’s always the question for acquaintances who meet online, isn’t it? Dushku says his friendly relationship has won him a standing offer to visit North Korea. Casual observers, however, advise him to proceed with caution. “Am I the only one thinking they picked some random guy so they can lure him into North Korea and use him as a political prisoner/bargaining chip?” one commenter at Gizmodo said. Another suggests that Dushku play it cool, without making Pyongyang angry, saying, “Never unfollow anybody with nuclear weapons.”


Sources: Austinist, CNN, Gizmodo, Mother Jones


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Shanola Hampton Talks Shameless Season Three


Shameless
secured a spot on my Best of 2012 list thanks to a startlingly fresh combination of honesty, heartache and humor -- and the third season doesn't stray from that fantastic formula.

All the characters get exhilarating new story arcs beginning January 13, particularly Veronica and Kevin, who board the baby train and, according to Shanola Hampton, take fans to uncharted territory. ETonline caught up with the divine Hampton to find out why people love this scrappy family and if they're capable of earning (or accepting) their Happy Endings.


ETonline: I got to check out the first four episodes of this season, and I just adored them. What's your take on season three?


Shanola Hampton: Season three is epic. It's my favorite season so far. You're in their lives and it goes to a whole new level. The dynamic between Fiona and Jimmy is totally different now that they're past the wooing stage and living together. Lip is all about life after Karen and what it means to be in this new relationship with Mandy, who loves him more than he loves her. Kevin and Veronica are really focused on having a baby, no matter what it takes. Everyone has something so juicy going on.


RELATED - Best TV Shows of 2012


ETonline: Did the experience with Ethel change things for Veronica?


Hampton: For sure. It really triggered something in Veronica, who, in the first season, was all about going out and partying. She wasn't thinking about a child. Then you thought she took in Ethel for the money, but her hard shell softened and that biological clock starting ticking -- hard. She really wants a baby, and the one thing we know about Veronica is that when she wants something, she gets it. No matter what. That opens up a whole new passion and way of going about doing things. The storyline that happens as a result has never been seen on television before. I swear.


ETonline: Despite their drama, I find myself wanting to be a part of The Gallagher family -- and I know I'm not alone. Why do you think so many people feel that way?


Hampton: There's something so grabbing about people who will do anything for one another. Veronica may not be related, but she loves every Gallagher like a blood relative. There's that sense of "If we're going down, we're going down together." It's that love, loyalty and togetherness that makes fans want that kind of friend, brother, sister or family.


VIDEO - Exclusive Season Three Trailer


ETonline: This season also shines a light back on Veronica's relationship with Fiona. What do you like about that dynamic?


Hampton: What's great about their relationship is that Veronica does give that sound advice and brings reality into the conversation. She wants to guide Fiona and be that angel on her shoulder. But in the same sense, when Veronica needs her, Fiona is right there backing her up. It's a very mutual friendship.


ETonline: The Season Three poster played off the idea of Happily Ever After. Do you think the characters are capable of getting -- and accepting -- a Happy Endings?


Hampton: No, I don't. I think that you see this with Lip a lot. That's an incredibly smart character who just can't get out of his own way. You get so used to a world that you complain, but never actually want anything different. Why crave the unfamiliar? That's why I think the typical Happily Ever After will never happen on Shameless -- but all of the characters will get their own version of Happily Ever After.


Shameless
premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. on Showtime.

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Goat-loving oddball accused of sexually assaulting drunk teen








A goat-loving oddball, known for dining in Manhattan with his livestock in tow, is accused of sexually assaulting a teen who was too drunk to consent, prosecutors said.

Cyrus Fakroddin, 51, picked up a 19-year-old girl who had partied with friends at a Manhattan nightclub and was physically and mentally incapacitated when she encountered the eccentric early in the morning of Nov. 17, prosecutors added.

Fakroddin, whose “Pizza Goat,” Cocoa, is a New York animal celebrity, got the inebriated teen in his van and took her to his home in Summit, N.J., where he sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said.





Facebook



Cyrus Fakroddin.





The victim regained consciousness several hours later and had no memory of meeting the goat-herder or going to his house, according to New Jersey authorities. The teen called a friend and made her way back to New York, where she sought medical attention, authorities said.

Fakdroddin, known for leading his leashed four-legged friend all over town, was arrested Wednesday after police gathered physical evidence and statements supporting the teen's claims, prosecutors said.

He is being held in Union County Jail on $250,000 bail.

Prosecutors refused to identify the club where the teen party. They did not immediately respond to questions about whether they tipped off Manhattan authorities about a nightspot that may be serving underage girls.

kconley@nypost.com










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Cellphone use hits a record during BCS snoozer




















How boring was the BCS game? Fans were turning to their cellphones in record numbers.

AT&T announced Thursday it had never seen so much cellphone use at a sporting event than it did for the Monday night game at Sun Life Stadium, when the Alabama Crimson Tide quickly dominated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. In fact, data traffic was 150 percent more than the 2012 Super Bowl in Indianapolis when the New York Giants eked out a 21-17 win over the New England Patriots.

At least part of the spike had nothing to do with the game itself: the still-growing popularity of smart phones, the increasing amount of data that can be streamed easily, the enhanced coverage at Sun Life for the large event. But the lopsided 42-14 game certainly didn’t provide much distraction. Spectators sent and received more than 360,000 texts and 75,000 calls — roughly one call per ticket holder.





DOUGLAS HANKS





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Wounded Iraq, Afghanistan vets cycling to Keys




















Army Staff Sgt. Russell Dennison and Spc. Calvin Todd, both 24, served together and lost legs together, just three months ago in Afghanistan.

Now, they’re on their first outing together from Walter Reed Hospital — among dozens of U.S. military veterans taking part in a Soldier Ride from Miami through the Florida Keys.

“I haven’t been on a bike since I got blown up,” said Todd, a combat medic who was learning how to fit his prosthetic leg into a new bicycle Wednesday in the parking lot of a hotel in Aventura.





Nearby, his platoon sergeant, Dennison, was being fitted with a recumbent bike to fit both prosthetic legs, replacements for the limbs he lost in battle Oct. 4 in Afghanistan.

“He and I got hit 30 second apart,” explained Todd. “He got blown up, and I took off running to him, and I got blown up.”

This year is the eighth year of the Soldier Ride through the Keys, now under the banner of the Wounded Warrior Project. And Walter Reed occupational therapist Harvey Naranjo signed 10 of his U.S. Army and Marines patients up for their first full-fledged outing from the military hospital since their injuries.

Or, as Todd put it, using the lingo that is commonplace back at his base, Fort Stewart, Ga., he was “volun-told” to take the trip.

So like a good soldier, he declared himself eager to do it.

“These guys are all studs. They’re all athletes,” declared Naranjo, himself a former U.S. Army combat medic. ”The expectations are going to be high for them.”

The Soldier Ride starts this morning on South Beach, a warm-up spin that takes the cyclist across the Venetian Causeway to Marlins Stadium.

Friday, they start their ride south in Key Largo, including across the fabled seven-mile bridge — the latest journey in a series of trips that ride founder Dan Schnock estimate has put 1,000 disabled veterans on a range of styles of bikes across the country and in Europe and Israel since 2004.

This trip also includes a swim with the dolphins in Marathon, a trolley ride in Key West

Most of the cyclists are medically retired service members, like retired Air Force Staff Sgt. Brian Scheifer, 29, who broke his spine in a Humvee roll in a training exercise in California between his third and fourth deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.

This week he has brought his hand-cycle from his Miramar Beach home, near Destin. He has never ridden his bike further than 15 miles and now is about to take his longest hand-pedaled ride ever through the Keys.

“I’m up for the challenge,” he said, noting, “I work out a bit.”

Plus, after a recent deer hunting outing to Georgia with the Wounded Warriors, the airman turned Defense Department contractor is bullish about the comradery.

“You’re as fast as your slowest guy,” he said, noting that since he can hand pedal the bike to speeds of 20-25 miles-per-hour he didn’t want to be at the back of the pack. “Hope not,” he said.

For many of these men, who’ve seen the world in the uniform of the U.S. military, this is their first visit to Miami. Dennison is from Illinois, Todd is from New Hampshire and Scheifer is a Michigan native who moved south after his injury to set up a business as a Defense Department contractor, and also for the weather.

At 29, he sounds like a classic snowbird on his first ever visit to Miami. “I love warm weather,” he said.





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Men and Women of (Limited) Letters: Must-Follow Twitter Accounts of 2013






Scientific American editors voted in recent weeks on the 20 most informative Twitter accounts to stay abreast of the latest ideas, issues and developments in science and technology. We weeded through hundreds of lists and feeds to select the most brilliant and engaging, as well as the quirkiest of the bunch.Our picks are often witty, sometimes eccentric and occasionally silly, but each brings valuable insights to his or her area of expertise. For the latest, greatest tweets on science, technology, journalism, astronomy, physics, mathematics and more, check out these top 20 Twitter accounts of 2013, listed here in alphabetical order.





 Must-Follow Twitter Accounts of 2013Next »
BBC Science
@BBCscience

 Pay attention to BBC Science for breaking science and environmental news from a global perspective. Tweets are most often serious, with the occasional story about whether a toilet seat really is the dirtiest item in the house. The BBC offers variety suitable to both the casual consumer and the diehard nerd.









« Previous
Intro
Must-Follow Twitter Accounts of 2013Next »
Deborah Blum
@DeborahBlum

Deborah Blum’s tweets about poison, murder and other interesting articles and quips aren’t all that make her Twitter feed unique. It also stands out for her insights into science journalism. Blum often posts jobs, tips and tricks of the trade that will motivate any aspiring science blogger to break out the laptop and start posting.
By day, Sean Carroll is a theoretical physicist. By night he’s a “truth vigilante.” The Caltech researcher writes lofty pieces about eternity and dark matter, and tweets fascinating facts about his field.


 This NASA Twitter account gained notoriety when the car-size rover Curiosity landed on Mars in August 2012. With its witty persona, pop culture references and updates on its forays across the surface of the Red Planet, @MarsCuriosity is a must-follow for 2013—and the rest of its multiyear tour. Also check out the “Curiosity Explorer” badge on Foursquare and watch the rover’s New Year’s Eve message on YouTube
David Dobbs is an accomplished science journalist who is big on audience engagement in the new media milieu. His Twitter feed is punctuated with responses to readers weighing in on a wide variety of topics, especially cognitive science. Dobbs also tweets sporadically about his personal life and his work for Wired. He’s working on his fifth book.
Maryn McKenna, a specialist on food policy, public health and infectious disease, has built and cultivated a dedicated online following. Her tweets and posts are smart, quirky and highly informative. A seasoned science journalist, she uses social media to nerd out on a daily basis, so join in the geeky fun.
Former Scientific American special projects guru Christopher Mims isn’t shy. Opinionated and straightforward, the technology and sustainability journalist, now at QuartzNews, stays ahead of the pack. Mims frequently engages with his audience and uses crowd-sourcing to gather material for many of his stories.
Scientific American editors enjoy checking in on Nature News‘s hard-nosed, clever twitter feed.  One might suspect that our favor for it derives from the fact that Scientific American is also part of Nature Publishing Group, but we actually operate as editorially independent units. Follow Nature News especially for investigative reporting on science scandals and international science policy, as well as the latest important biomedical and physics news.


 Founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media Tim O’Reilly reports technology trends and comments on advocacy issues. His Twitter feed is dominated by references to Silicon Valley and e-book deals. Follow his tweets for insightful coverage of the technical world.
John Allen Paulos is a PhD with character. He’s wearing a bow tie in his profile picture, and his favored emoticon is a winking smiley face. Paulos’s tweets can be a tad cryptic for the layperson, but the mathematician has such a great sense of humor that you’re sure to laugh out loud at some point—even if you don’t quite understand the joke.
Accomplished blogger Phil Plait has just migrated his popular “Bad Astronomy” blog to Slate. The author, skeptic, father and punster primarily covers the ins and outs of the solar system. The best part about Plait’s Twitter feed is his daily #BAFact, wherein he throws strange-but-true scraps of science to his curious followers.


 Veteran science journalist Paul Raeburn has turned his eye in recent years to good-natured meta-media, covering science reporting itself for the Knight Science Journalism Tracker while also covering reseach on fatherhood. Raeburn takes reporters to task for sloppy thinking, points out inaccuracies and addresses ethical dilemmas. Follow his account just to read the back-and-forth between him and his targets.
Andy Revkin is a leader in the environmental reporting field, covering everything from fracking to global warming. Check out Revkin’s DotEarth blog in The New York Times too for his breaking news coverage—it’s all the environmental news that’s fit to cover.


 Science Friday, part of National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation radio program, packs its Twitter feed with tantalizing links that just beg to be clicked on. @SciFri looks at daily news through a scientific lens, including live tweets to provide context during the weekly broadcast. The result is an entertaining bundle of scientific discoveries, intrigues and debunkings.
Scientific American‘s contributors are a brilliant group of reporters, bloggers and commentators, if you’ll pardon this moment of pride. Creativity, skepticism and authoritative context are a big part of what makes our coverage so engaging and worthwhile. Check out this Twitter list and follow your favorites.
Nate Silver, the most celebrated political statistician of the 2012 election, started out as a forecaster of baseball player performance. When he turned his attention to U.S. presidential elections, using statistical models to accurately predict what was thought to be unpredictable, he became a sensation. Although this past year’s electoral frenzy is behind us, Silver is still at work making predictions we’d be foolish to ignore.
Steven Strogatz holds the esteem of math wunderkinds as well as those who are iffy on formulas. He’s hardly a typical numbers-cruncher. The Cornell University professor has a knack for taking on complex topics and making them interesting, even to full-on mathphobes. In his recent book, The Joy of X, discussions range from the number of people one should date before settling down to how HBO’s The Sopranos can help us understand calculus. His Twitter account is similarly entertaining.
Not following Neil DeGrasse Tyson on Twitter? Beware: science nerds who don’t wake up each morning to the rational witticisms of NGT in their feed risk losing all geek cred. If you fit this description, please remedy that situation—now.
Blogger Ed Yong diligantly weaves a love of data into his prose, while still managing to craft posts that are accessible to readers with little to no science background. By covering new findings skeptically and tweeting prolifically, he has built a readership that relies on him for science news. Join the club.
A self-described “champion of underappreciated life-forms,” Carl Zimmer tends to tackle stories about parasites, viruses and quantum earthworms. Follow his feed, probably the most followed of any science writer, for solid reporting and captivating writing.





« Previous
Ed Yong
@EdYong209
Must-Follow Twitter Accounts of 2013Restart the list »
Introduction

Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs.Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
© 2013 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.
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Five Things You Don't Know About Damian Lewis

Fredrick M. Brown/ Getty Images

He's already picked up an Emmy and is nominated for a Golden Globe for his portrayal of tortured U.S. Marine Nicholas Brody on the Showtime series Homeland. Here are five things you probably don't know about Damian Lewis.

1. Born February 11, 1971 in London, England -- his father was an insurance broker and his mother served on the board of Britain's prestigious Royal Court Theatre.

RELATED: Homeland Stars Cover TV Guide

2. After seeing him in a stage production of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Steven Spielberg cast him in the leading role of Major Richard Winters in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers.

3. Says that during filming for Homeland, he stays in his American accent both on and off set because it's less confusing than constantly switching back and forth from his native British English.

VIDEO: Homeland Exclusive Season One Deleted Scene

4. Revealed to People.com that during his first kissing scene with Homeland co-star Claire Danes, the two "hit teeth" and "felt like teenagers." 

5. Plays the role of Lord Capulet in a new film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet -- set for release this year.

RELATED: Homeland Tops Primetime Emmys

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