Democrats maintain control of Senate

By M. Alex Johnson, NBC News

New in this version: Adds comments ?from Reid, McConnell

Updated at 2:38 a.m. ET Nov. 7: Democrats kept the Senate on Tuesday, winning a series of razor-close races that Republicans had targeted in the hope of taking full control of Congress.

Democratic Sen.-elect Elizabeth Warren promises supporters in Boston that she will be "out there fighting for the middle class all of the time."

NBC News projected that Democrats held 51 seats in the next Senate, plus the consistent support of Independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who won re-election. See results

Three races were still too close to call, meaning the Democrats could strengthen their grip on the upper chamber.

With the House remaining in Republican hands, the makeup of the government will remain static: President Barack Obama was re-elected, but he will have to contend with a divided Congress for four more years.

---

"Things like this are what happens when your No. 1 goal is to defeat the president and not work to get legislation passed," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said in a statement.?

In a statement of his own, Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky challenged Obama to "propose solutions that actually have a chance of passing the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and a closely divided Senate."

"To the extent he wants to move to the political center, which is where the work gets done in a divided government, we'll be there to meet him halfway," McConnell said.

View complete Senate election results

The Democrats clung to control on the back of four victories in states that had been statistical ties in pre-election polls:

• Harvard University law professor Elizabeth Warren ousted Republican Sen. Scott Brown in Massachusetts, NBC News projected, negating Republican state legislator Deb Fischer's victory over former Sen. Bob Kerrey for the open seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson. Massachusetts results | Nebraska results
• Democratic former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine beat former Republican Gov. George Allen, NBC News projected, keeping the seat held by the retiring Sen. Jim Webb in Democratic hands. See results
• Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly of Indiana defeated Republican state Treasurer Richard Mourdock to claim the open seat held by Republican Dick Lugar, NBC News projected. Mourdock had been favored until he drew national opposition for having said in a debate last month that he believed that pregnancies resulting from rape were a "gift from God" and shouldn't be terminated. See results
• Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill held on to her seat in Missouri after Republican Rep. Todd Akin made similar comments in a TV interview in August, suggesting that women's bodies could "shut down" a pregnancy that was the result of a "legitimate rape." See results

As expected, Rep. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., defeated Republican former Rep. Heather Wilson to win the open seat of retiring Republican Jeff Bingaman, and Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., beat Republican former Gov. Tommy Thompson to become the nation's first openly gay senator, NBC News projected. Thompson, who served as secretary of Health and Human Services in the administration of former President Geoorge W. Bush, announced his retirement from politics in his concession speech.?New Mexico results | Wisconsin results

Wisconsin's Baldwin becomes first openly gay senator

And Democrats could claim a bigger majority.

Former Maine Gov. Angus King, running as an independent, won an open Senate seat that had been held by Republican Olympia Snowe, NBC News projected. King could vote with the Democrats; he hasn't said which party, if any, he will side with. See results

Maine independent promised to shake up Washington

Senators winning re-election

NBC News projected that the following senators would win re-election:
John Barrasso, R-Wyo.
Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio
Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.
Ben Cardin, D-Md.
Bob Casey, D-Pa.
Tom Carper, D-Del.
Bob Corker, R-Tenn.
Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.
Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.
Tom Manchin, D-W.Va.
Robert Menendez, D-N.J.
Bill Nelson, D-Fla.
Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.
Roger Wicker, R-Miss.

The three still-undecided races, meanwhile, also could go either way:

• Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., held a 14-point lead over Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg in a race that NBC News said was also too early to call. See results
• Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., who was appointed to the seat when former Republican Sen. John Ensign resigned, held a slim lead in pre-election polls to keep his seat over Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley. NBC News said that race was too early to call. See results
• And Rep. Rick Berg, R-N.D., was closely trailing Democratic former Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp in a race NBC News was describing as too close to call.

Democrats control 53 seats in the current Senate (that number includes Sanders and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who also generally votes with them); Republicans hold 47. Ten senators weren't seeking re-election this cycle ? the most since 1996. In addition, Lugar lost to Mourdock in the Indiana Republican primary, meaning at least 11 new faces will join the Senate on Jan. 2.

Exit polls: Majority of voters see America on wrong track

Warren's victory was particularly sweet for Democrats, for whom she was a hero as the architect of Obama's U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Warren beats Brown in costliest-ever Senate race

"You took on the powerful Wall Street banks and special interests, and you let them know you want a senator who will be out there fighting for the middle class all of the time," she told cheering supporters in Boston.

The races in Missouri and Indiana were also closely watched because of the controversies generated by Akin's and Mourdock's comments on abortion.

McCaskill reveled in her victory, giving supporters a beaming I-told-you-so speech in St. Louis.

"They all said it's over ? it's done, it's too red, it's just too red," she said. "There is no way that Claire McCaskill can survive. Well, you know what happened? You proved them wrong."

Akin told supporters in Missouri that he had called to congratulate McCaskill, but he sounded a defiant note:

Todd Akin says that called Claire McCaskill to concede after being defeated in the Missouri Senate race.

"I also think, in the circumstances that we've all been through, that it is particularly appropriate to thank God, who makes no mistakes and is wiser than we are," Akin said.

"... Washington, D.C.'s first questions shouldn't be what's politically expedient, but what's right," he said. "Washington doesn't need more money. It needs more courage."

Donnelly, meanwhile, stressed bipartisanship, telling supporters in Indianapolis that he hoped to follow in the moderate shoes of two predecessors, Lugar and Democrat Evan Bayh.

"I say to all of my fellow Hoosiers out there: This isn't about politics. This isn't about one party or the other," Donnelly said.

More election coverage from NBCNews.com:

Follow NBC Politics on Twitter and Facebook

Source: http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/06/14973899-gop-faces-difficult-climb-to-senate-control?lite

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The meaning of yesterday?s defeat ? a follow-up to John?s post (Powerlineblog)

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DC Comics Announces Deals To Sell Digital Comics In Big Three E-Bookstores, Says Digital Sales Have Grown 197%

DC Comics is announcing the next big step in its digital plans today, saying it will sell monthly comics in the Kindle Store, iBookstore, and Nook Book Store. The company wasn't exactly missing from those stores before, because it was already selling graphic novels. However, if you wanted the newest content, delivered on a monthly basis, just as you would find in a comic book store, you had to turn to ComiXology ? either the ComiXology app or the official DC app, which the Time Warner-owned publisher created in partnership with ComiXology.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/6U2MoZjyC8M/

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Top medical innovations address headache, diabetes, cancer

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Northeast back to business after Sandy's hard hit

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The northeastern United States battled epic flood waters and lengthy power outages on Tuesday after the massive storm Sandy pummeled the coast with a record storm surge, high winds and heavy rains that killed at least 45 people and caused billions of dollars in losses.

Millions of people in New York City and other hard-hit areas will spend days or weeks recovering from a storm already seen as far more destructive that Hurricane Irene, which slammed into the same region a year ago. One disaster modeling company said Sandy may have caused up to $15 billion in insured losses.

The storm killed 18 people in New York City, among 23 total in New York state, while six died in New Jersey. Seven other states reported fatalities.

Some 8.2 million homes and businesses in several states were without electricity as trees toppled by Sandy's fierce winds took down power lines.

Sandy hit the coast with a week to go to the November 6 presidential election and turned its fury inland with heavy snowfall, dampening an unprecedented drive to encourage early voting and raising questions whether some polling stations will be ready to open on Election Day.

New York City will struggle without its subway system, which was inundated and will remain shut for days. Much of the Wall Street district was left underwater but officials hoped to have financial markets reopen on Wednesday.

Sandy was the biggest storm to hit the country in generations when it crashed ashore with hurricane-force winds on Monday near the New Jersey gambling resort of Atlantic City, devastating the Jersey Shore tourist haven. Flood waters lifted parked cars and deposited them on an otherwise deserted highway.

With the political campaign and partisanship on hold, Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie planned to tour New Jersey disaster areas on Wednesday.

"It's total devastation down there. There are boats in the street five blocks from the ocean," said Peter Sandomeno, an owner of the Broadway Court Motel in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey.

Christie, who has been a strong supporter of Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney, praised Obama and the federal response to the storm.

Obama and Romney put campaigning on hold for a second day but Romney planned to hit the trail again in Florida on Wednesday and Obama seemed likely to resume campaigning on Thursday for a final five-day sprint to Election Day.

Obama faces political danger if the government fails to respond well, as was the case with predecessor George W. Bush's botched handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Obama has a chance to show that his administration has learned the lessons of Katrina and that he can lead during a crisis.

NEW YORK UNDER WATER

Sandy brought a record storm surge of almost 14 feet to downtown Manhattan, well above the previous record of 10 feet during Hurricane Donna in 1960, the National Weather Service said.

The storm forced New York City to postpone its traditional Halloween parade, which had been set for Wednesday night in Greenwich Village and threatened to disrupt Sunday's New York City marathon.

The lower half of Manhattan went dark when surging seawater flooded a substation and as power utility Consolidated Edison shut down others pre-emptively. Some 250,000 customers lost power.

Fire ravaged the Breezy Point neighborhood in the borough of Queens, destroying 110 homes and damaging 20 while destroying still more in the nearby neighborhood of Belle Harbor. Remarkably, no fatalities were reported.

"To describe it as looking like pictures we've seen of the end of World War Two is not overstating it," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said after touring the area. "The area was completely leveled. Chimneys and foundations were all that was left of many of these homes."

Hospitals closed throughout the region, forcing patients to relocate and doctors to carry premature babies down more than a dozen flights of stairs at one New York City facility.

While some parts of the city went unscathed, neighborhoods along the East and Hudson rivers bordering Manhattan were underwater and expected to be without power for days, as were low-lying streets in Battery Park near Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center stood before the September 11, 2001, attacks.

"I'm lucky to have gas; I can make hot water. But there is no heating and I'm all cold inside," said Thea Lucas, 87, who lives alone in Manhattan's Lower East Side.

DESTRUCTION THROUGHOUT REGION

Airlines canceled more than 18,000 flights, though two of the New York City area's three major airports planned to reopen with limited service on Wednesday.

Cellphone service went silent in many states and some emergency call centers were affected.

Some cities like Washington, Philadelphia and Boston were mostly spared but he storm reached as far inland as Ohio and parts of West Virginia were buried under 3 feet (1 meter) of snow, a boon for ski resorts that was one of the storm's few bright spots.

The western extreme of Sandy's wind field buffeted the Great Lakes region, according to Andrew Krein of the National Weather Service, generating wind gusts of up to 60 mph on the southern end of Lake Michigan and up to 35 mph Chicago.

In Cleveland, buildings in the city's downtown area were evacuated due to flooding, police said. Winds gusting to 50 mph brought down wires and knocked out power to homes and business. City officials asked residents to stay inside and for downtown businesses to remained closed for the day.

Amid the devastation there was opportunity. Snowmakers at Snowshoe Mountain in the mountains of West Virginia had their equipment running at full speed on Tuesday, taking advantage of the cold temperatures to build the 24-30 inch base they need to open for skiing by Thanksgiving.

"There are snowmakers out there making snow in what was a hurricane and blizzard," said Dave Dekema, marketing director for the resort, which received a foot-and-a-half of snow, with another foot or two expected.

The resort's phones, email account and Facebook pages were "going crazy," Dekema said, with avid skiers and snowboarders wondering if there was any chance of getting out on the mountain this weekend. He said that was unlikely.

(Additional reporting by Scott Malone in Boston; Ilaina Jonas, Daniel Bases, Lucas Jackson, Edward Krudy and Scott DiSavino in New York; Ian Simpson in West Virginia; Diane Bartz and Andrea Shalal-Esa in Washington; Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Susan Guyett in Indianapolis; Kim Palmer in Cleveland and James B. Kelleher in Chicago. Writing by Daniel Trotta and Ros Krasny; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/east-coast-reels-massive-deadly-storm-020602474.html

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By Jes?s D?az Sandy?s attack and disintegration.?The...

By Jes?s D?az

Sandy?s attack and disintegration.?The latest video from NASA/NOAA GOES-13 satellite shows Sandy from Monday, October 29 at 9:55am EDT?as it was ramping up to attack New Jersey and New York?to October 31, 10:02am EDT, just a few minutes ago. You can clearly see all its fury and how it?s been disintegrating during the past hours. Check out the full video here.?

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/kx3Qt5yXWfA/34702178457

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Chile's ALMA probes for origins of universe

In this Sept. 27, 2012 photo, radio antennas face the sky as part of one of the worlds largest astronomy projects, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chajnator in the Atacama desert in northern Chile. Linked as a single giant telescope, the radio antennas pick up wavelengths of light longer than anything visible to the human eye and colder than infrared telescopes, which are good at capturing images of distant suns but miss planets and clouds of gases from which stars are formed. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

In this Sept. 27, 2012 photo, radio antennas face the sky as part of one of the worlds largest astronomy projects, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chajnator in the Atacama desert in northern Chile. Linked as a single giant telescope, the radio antennas pick up wavelengths of light longer than anything visible to the human eye and colder than infrared telescopes, which are good at capturing images of distant suns but miss planets and clouds of gases from which stars are formed. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

In this Sept. 26, 2012 photo, a board covered by notes by scientists hangs in the Operations Support Facility of one of the worlds largest astronomy projects, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in the Atacama desert in northern Chile. The lack of humidity, low interference from other radio signals and closeness to the upper atmosphere in this remote plateau high above Chile's Atacama desert, is the perfect spot for the ALMA, the earth's largest radio telescope, which is on track to be completed in March. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

In this Sept. 26, 2012 photo, the moon shines over radio antennas at the operations support facility of one of the worlds largest astronomy projects, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in the Atacama desert in northern Chile. Linked as a single giant telescope, the radio antennas pick up wavelengths of light longer than anything visible to the human eye and colder than infrared telescopes, which are good at capturing images of distant suns but miss planets and clouds of gases from which stars are formed. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

In this Sept. 26, 2012 photo, astronomer Bill Dent, left, engineer Rodrigo Amestica, center, and array operator Patricio Alvarez work at the Operations Support Facility of one of the worlds largest astronomy projects, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in the Atacama desert in northern Chile. The lack of humidity, low interference from other radio signals and closeness to the upper atmosphere in this remote plateau high above Chile's Atacama desert, is the perfect spot for the ALMA, the earth's largest radio telescope, which is on track to be completed in March. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

In this Sept. 27, 2012 photo, radio antennas face the sky as part of one of the worlds largest astronomy projects, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chajnator in the Atacama desert in northern Chile. Linked as a single giant telescope, the radio antennas pick up wavelengths of light longer than anything visible to the human eye and colder than infrared telescopes, which are good at capturing images of distant suns but miss planets and clouds of gases from which stars are formed. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

LLANO DE CHAJNANTOR, Chile (AP) ? Earth's largest radio telescope is growing more powerful by the day on this remote plateau high above Chile's Atacama desert, where visitors often feel like they're planting the first human footprints on the red crust of Mars.

The 16,400-foot (5,000-meter) altitude, thin air and mercurial climate here can be unbearable. Visitors must breathe oxygen from a tank just to keep from fainting. Winds reach 62 mph (100 km) and temperatures drop to 10 below zero (minus 25 Celsius).

But for astronomers, it's paradise.

The lack of humidity, low interference from other radio signals and closeness to the upper atmosphere make this the perfect spot for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA, which is on track to be completed in March.

So far, 43 of the 66 radio antennas have been set up and point skyward like 100-ton white mushrooms. Linked as a single giant telescope, they pick up wavelengths of light longer than anything visible to the human eye, and combine the signals in a process called interferometry, which gives ALMA a diameter of 9.9 miles (16 kilometers). The result is unprecedented resolution and sensitivity ? fully assembled, its vision will be up to ten times sharper than NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

"What surprises me is what is being observed. Until now, we haven't had such a capable observatory. We've never been able to observe with such resolution, such accuracy," says David Rabanus, ALMA's instrument group manager.

More than 900 teams of astronomers competed last year to be among the first to use the array, and scientists from around the world are already taking turns at the joysticks.

They're looking for clues about the dawn of the cosmos ? from the coldest gases and dust where galaxies are formed and stars are born, to the energy produced by the Big Bang. So-called birthing clouds of cold gases and debris can look like ink stains with other telescopes, but ALMA can show their detailed structures.

ALMA also reaches farther beyond Earth's nitrogen-blue skies than any other radio telescope and has already captured images different from anything seen before by visible-light and infrared telescopes. After a 2003 groundbreaking, scientific operations began last year with a quarter of ALMA's final capacity.

Seeing in three dimensions made possible the recent discovery of a spiral structure surrounding R Sculptoris, providing new insights about how dying red giant stars implode and send off raw material that will later form into other stars. Those results were published in the scientific journal Nature. ALMA has even been able to detect sugar molecules in the gas surrounding a star about 400 light years away, proving the existence of life's building blocks there.

Jointly funded and managed by the United States, Canada, the European Union, Japan and Taiwan, the $1.5 billion project is an engineering triumph that launches Chile, already home to some of the world's largest optical telescopes, to the forefront of ground-based space exploration.

"We're talking about the United Nations of astronomy joined for a billion dollar adventure. Scientists are like kids playing with very expensive toys and these ones are technological developments that could change the world," said Jose Maza, a University of Chile astronomy professor.

But this space race isn't over: Australia and South Africa are competing to build The Square Kilometer Array, combining thousands of small dishes to create a radio telescope 50 times more sensitive than ALMA once completed in 2024.

ALMA's parts are shipped from all over the world and assembled at a warehouse 9,514 feet (2,900 meters) above sea level. The precision is micrometric. The telescope employs reflecting panels that must be aligned and glued so accurately to withstand each winter's subzero temperatures and bounce radio waves within a hundredth of a millimeter's precision.

The dishes are hauled up to their final destination by two custom-made 28-wheel transporters that roar along snaky roads, lined with oversized cactuses and grazing vicunas below the snow-peaked Licancabur volcano. The trip is only 22 miles (35 kilometers), but it takes five hours for the huge platforms to reach the plateau.

Each antenna is perched on a rotating steel pedestal with precisely installed copper lining to protect from lightning. Each dish has a sensitive receiver made of carbon fiber to avoid thermal expansion. The structures, 40 feet (12-meter) tall, lean closer together or farther apart as astronomers zoom in or get wider views. The ALMA correlator, which calculates more than 20 quadrillion operations per second, is the fastest computer ever used at an astronomical site. It compiles the data into a single large view.

"We came from the caves and we're here now just because of curiosity," said Rieks Jager, system integration manager at ALMA, as he stepped out of the control room near the "silent area" military-style barracks where astronomers sleep during the day. "It's not always clear what we study, or whether it's useful for society, but overall it's absolutely essential for humankind."

It's a quantum leap forward since Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei invented one of the first telescopes in the 17th century, discovering sunspots and valleys on the surface of the moon.

"Astronomy has been with us forever and we still have so much more to go," said Maza, the astronomy professor. "If we hadn't asked ourselves so many questions by looking at the stars we would still be ... hunting buffalos. At the end, all of man's development comes from the act of leaving the stones aside and looking upward at the twinkling stars and asking, 'Why?' "

ALMA reminds Juan Rodrigo Cortes, one of the observatory's astronomers, of a phrase from Antoine De Saint Exupery's book "The Little Prince" ? "What is essential is invisible to the eyes."

"What's essential here is the material that creates stars, galaxies, clouds, that doesn't emit light visible to our eyes, but goes way beyond the infrared at much longer wavelengths, and that's why our eyes can't see it," Cortes said. "ALMA gives us eyes."

Scientists and researchers are willing to go to extremes to catch a glimpse of the universe through those eyes.

As many as 500 people at a time live at 9,500 feet above sea level in shipping containers modified as trailers. Alcohol is banned due to the sensitivity of the equipment, and those caught drinking after trips to the nearby city of San Pedro de Atacama must sleep at the security checkpoint while they dry out. Their shifts can last 12 hours daily for eight straight days.

Even the weather is unpredictable. Although the clearest of skies are the norm, this year, scientists have had to deal with mudslides, floods and thunderstorms. But most of the time, they seem to be far removed from the rest of the world.

Inside ALMA's control room, German astronomer Rainer Mauersberger had no idea he had put his orange sweater on backward. He was thinking about the formation of galaxies, hoping perhaps to spot a black hole.

"This project has to do with the origin of our life and our future," Mauersberger explained as he sat near a long table full of Halloween masks, used by the scientists to share a light moment or a laugh to break up the long days and nights of stargazing.

"It's about how can we predict our future climates, the evolution of the earth, the sun, our species," he said. "We know more about our universe, our culture, than we ever dreamt of 100 years ago. Our prediction is that the real surprises here will come with things that we can't even begin to imagine."

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Follow AP's Luis Andres Henao on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LuisAndresHenao

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2012-10-26-LT-Chile-ALMA-Observatory/id-50dee3ff0568426bb5ab21587acc22de

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