MyCharge Freedom 2000 (for iPhone 5)

By the numbers, the MyCharge Freedom 2000 ($79.99 direct) should provide more than double the battery life to a connected iPhone 5. But, as we've found with some of its competitors, double the capacity doesn't equal double the battery life. Still, the Freedom 2000 provides enough charge to comfortably get you through a day of moderate to heavy use, and its unique design makes it possible to use headphones or Lightning-enabled accessories without having to remove the case. It's a good battery case, but it's not the best?that distinction remains with our Editors' Choice Mophie Juice Pack Helium, which adds more battery life in a sleeker and more attractive package.

Design and Features
The Freedom 2000 looks more like Unu's Ecopak?power solution, which was more of an external battery slapped onto a case than a traditional battery case. It's a single-piece design, measuring 5.1 by 2.5 by .6 inches (HWD) and weighing 2.88 ounces, with rubber sides that flex to let you easily slip an iPhone 5 into place. It's easily the shortest battery case for the iPhone 5, which is an important distinction since I found that cases like the Helium push the limit for shallower pockets. Inside is impact absorbing foam, while the back is covered in a glossy plastic material with inlaid concentric circles?reminiscent of the texture on Asus Zenbook laptop lids. The whole case looks too boxy, and I personally prefer the gently tapered, soft-touch back of the Juice Pack line. There are cutouts for the camera, Volume buttons, and silent switch, while a rubber button along the top lets you easily press the Power button. ??

Unlike other battery cases, the Freedom 2000 leaves the bottom edge of the iPhone 5 open?meaning you won't have to fiddle with a 3.5mm headphone extender like with every other case we've tested. Instead, MyCharge built a flexible and stowable Lightning cable that you plug into your iPhone when you need some extra juice. When not in use, simply slide the cable back into its slot where it stays hidden from view.

To the left of the Lightning cable is a flap that covers a micro USB port for charging the battery back. You can charge just the Freedom 2000, or connect the Lightning cable and charge the phone and battery case using the micro USB power source. The micro USB port is a bit recessed in the Freedom 2000, so while it works fine with the bundled cable, I found that even slightly bulkier cables didn't quite fit?negating some of the benefits of using the more ubiquitous micro USB standard. Around back is a Power button, which you press and hold to activate the flow of juice or press once to check battery status. It'll glow or blink green or orange depending on charge, but it's not quite as useful or easy to decipher as the status LEDs on the Mophie Juice Packs or the PowerSkin case.

Performance and Conclusions
Though it packs a sizeable 2000mAh battery, compared with the 1500mAh battery found in the Mophie Juice Pack Helium, the MyCharge Freedom 2000 fell short of expectations. In my tests, making a continuous call with LTE enabled with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth switched off, the Freedom 2000 added 5 hours, 35 minutes of talk time to my completely drained AT&T iPhone 5. The Helium, meanwhile, added 6 hours, 20 minutes on the same test. It did, however, best the PowerSkin's 4 hours, 28 minutes.

The MyCharge Freedom 2000 offers power when you need it, and open access to all ports when you don?t. It's also a good deal shorter than other options, but I can't help feeling like it's a glorified external battery grafted onto a normal iPhone 5 case?like the Unu Ecopak but with a built-in Lightning cable. On top of that, despite its high capacity battery, it wasn't able to best the Mophie Juice Pack Helium in our battery rundown tests. If you value having easy access to your ports, the Freedom 2000 is a good choice, but if you're looking for the best battery case, our Editors' Choice remains the Helium.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/-2qhM_79sPg/0,2817,2420476,00.asp

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Nokia and Microsoft 'working even closer,' will have something to show us soon

At a UK briefing for Nokia's incoming Lumia 925, the company revealed that it's continuing to deepen its relationship with Microsoft. Nokia UK's Ray Haddow said that it was "working even closer" with Redmond and that we can expect to see the fruits of this pairing "in the next few weeks." While we're not sure what that will entail just yet (and we're already expecting to see some beta software functionality land on our review model), we're hoping to see some new features from the team-up. Better still, we've just received our very own Lumia 925 to test, so expect a review very soon.

Update: As the meeting progresses, we've heard another small tidbit out of Nokia related to this collaboration. It appears that reps have been emphasizing the marketing aspects of this pairup, suggesting the two companies will work together in advertising and increasing Nokia's visibility. We'll update this post with more info if we get more clarification on exactly what we can expect.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft, Nokia

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/11/nokia-microsoft/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Analysis: Euro bailout Troika nears end of road with patchy record

By Paul Taylor

PARIS (Reuters) - If the Troika that handles bailouts of distressed euro zone countries were a soccer team, it would probably be looking for a new manager after achieving a track record of one win, one loss and one draw.

The uneasy trio of European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank was assembled in haste in March 2010 after Greece's public debt and deficit exploded and it was about to lose access to market funding.

Last week's IMF "mea culpa" report about the failures of the Greek program blew the lid off the fiction that the three institutions saw eye-to-eye on the rescue packages they designed and are enforcing in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and now Cyprus.

Behind closed doors, they clashed over whether Greece should restructure its debt, forcing investors to take losses, and whether Ireland should make bondholders in its shattered banks share the cost of a financial rescue.

They still differ over whether European governments should write off some loans to Athens to make its debt sustainable in the long term, an idea that is politically explosive before a German general election in September.

The public airing of such differences raises the question of whether the Troika has reached the end of the road. All sides are feeling sore but divorce seems unlikely.

The IMF says it lowered its standards to support a flawed program for Greece; the European Commission says it "fundamentally disagrees" with the IMF's view that Greek debt should have been written off sooner; and the ECB says the IMF is applying misleading hindsight.

The Europeans contend that in the acute market panic of 2010, before the euro zone had begun to built a financial firewall, letting Greece default or making it restructure its debt could have caused massive contagion to other countries and perhaps swept away the single European currency.

"It would have been Europe's Lehman moment," EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told Reuters, referring to the 2008 collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers that sparked a global financial crisis.

"I don't recall the IMF's managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn proposing early debt restructuring, but I do recall that Christine Lagarde was opposed to it."

Lagarde was French finance minister at the time and replaced Strauss-Kahn as IMF head in 2011.

NUMBERS MASSAGED?

The most damaging suspicion raised by the IMF study of the Greek program is that the Troika made over-optimistic growth forecasts and massaged the debt numbers because euro zone political leaders exerted undue influence on the process.

Wrapped in the forensic jargon of financial analysis, the IMF experts say European leaders made Greece's economic crisis worse by delaying an inevitable debt write-off, buying time for their own banks to cut their losses at taxpayers' expense.

"The Troika is a unique set-up which has institutionalized political influence in IMF decision-taking," said Ousmene Mandeng, a former IMF official. "Decisions were perceived to be taken in Berlin and Brussels rather than by the IMF board.

"The IMF should never again be a junior partner in this way," Mandeng said, arguing that the Fund should either pull out of the Troika now or take sole control of the rescue programs.

ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet initially opposed bringing the global lender into the euro zone, arguing that Europe should be able to sort out its own problems. He also rejected debt restructuring or making bank bondholders share losses, saying it would ruin the euro area's standing in financial markets.

EU paymaster Germany and its north European allies insisted on IMF involvement because they feared the Commission would be too soft on indebted member states and too willing to commit taxpayers' money.

While the IMF never felt in command, EU officials felt it held a de facto veto on the bailout programs.

But the IMF is not the only body to harbor misgivings.

Some ECB stakeholders, notably in Germany, are worried about potential conflicts of interest if the central bank stays in the Troika while it is backstopping euro zone government debt at the same time with its OMT bond-buying program and is soon to take charge of supervising banks that lend to troubled sovereigns.

ECB executive board member Joerg Asmussen told the European Parliament that once the current crisis is over, the Troika should be replaced by the euro zone rescue fund and the European Commission. But not now.

ROSY FORECASTS

Many independent economic experts argued from the outset that Greece would never be able to repay its debt mountain and questioned the Troika's rosy forecasts for the Greek economy.

The initial Greek program projected that gross domestic product would contract by just 3.5 percent between 2009 and 2013. In fact, it crashed by 22 percent.

Troika officials repeatedly increased the amount Greece was supposed to raise by privatizing state assets, even as its economy crumbled and investors fled.

Growth forecasts for Portugal, where the outcome of a EU/IMF adjustment program remains uncertain, were also over-optimistic, though not by the same order of magnitude.

The biggest errors occurred in predicting unemployment - a key measure of economic damage in bailed out countries.

In Greece, the Troika originally foresaw a peak jobless level of 14.8 percent this year. The real figure is 27 percent.

Even in Ireland, the one "success" which returned to growth and expects to get back to market funding this year, the Troika underestimated job losses and the related social damage.

Now non-European IMF members in Latin America and Asia, who endured harsh lending terms in the 1980s and 1990s, are loath to pour more money into one of the world's richest regions.

"Operationally and financially, the IMF has become much more involved in Europe than its global shareholders deem sustainable," said Jean Pisani-Ferry, outgoing director of the Bruegel economic think-tank in Brussels.

An IMF source, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is still involved with the bailout programs, said the real problem with the Troika was that no one was in charge.

"It's more like a soccer team with no manager and no clear definition of who plays where on the field," he said.

(Additional reporting by Axel Bugge in Lisbon; Writing by Paul Taylor; editing by Ron Askew)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-euro-bailout-troika-nears-end-road-patchy-060052752.html

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Jury selection begins in George Zimmerman trial

George Zimmerman, accused in the Trayvon Martin shooting, in Seminole Circuit Court during his pretrial hearing??

Lawyers on both sides of the George Zimmerman trial today will begin what is expected to be a weekslong process of selecting a 12-member jury in the incendiary case in Sanford, Florida.

Zimmerman's attorneys declined to ask for a change of venue in the case, suggesting they are confident they can find impartial jurors in the area despite the wall-to-wall media coverage that 17-year-old Trayvon Martin's killing attracted last year. Zimmerman, out on a $1 million bond and in hiding for much of the past year, is charged with second-degree murder for killing the unarmed teen in a confrontation in his gated community, where Zimmerman acted as a volunteer watchman.

Prosecutors argue that Zimmerman racially profiled, followed and then shot Martin. Zimmerman's lawyers counter that their client was attacked by Martin and that he acted in self-defense.

Defense lawyer Jose Baez, who represented Casey Anthony in her high-profile trial in Orlando in 2011, said jury selection in this trial will be especially complicated because of the case's racial overtones. (Zimmerman is Hispanic; Martin was black.)

Generally, defense lawyers would be more likely than prosecutors to want to select minorities for a jury, since, on average, African-American and Hispanic people express more skepticism of law enforcement than white people, according to Baez. But in this case, Zimmerman's defense lawyers will want to pack the jury with white "gun-toting Republicans," who would be amenable to their argument that their client shot and killed the unarmed Martin in self-defense. These jurors might also be more convinced by the argument that local police made the right decision not to arrest or charge Zimmerman in the shooting initially.

"It's a very unique case in that respect, where the general rules that a lot of lawyers use are just going be absolutely flipped upside down," Baez said. "Because it is such a racially charged case, I think that the clear line is going to be drawn here between African-American jurors and Caucasian and Hispanic jurors."

But the defense team will have to be very careful in its quest to find conservative jurors more amenable to the self-defense argument. Circuit Judge Debra Nelson, who is presiding over the televised trial in the Seminole County Courthouse, will most likely be vigilant to make sure neither side is excluding jurors based on their race, which is illegal under a 1985 Supreme Court decision.

"I think this judge is fully aware of the racial tensions involved and is going to be on high alert," Baez said. If the defense team moves to dismiss an African-American juror during the peremptory strike phase of jury selection, for example, the judge could challenge it to provide a reason for the move. If the team can't come up with a good reason (for example, that the juror attended a rally in support of Trayvon Martin), the judge will assume the attorneys wanted to dismiss the juror for racial reasons and override their preference.

Nelson has ruled that the pool of 500 potential jurors will be kept anonymous during the selection process. It's possible she could order them sequestered during the trial, which is what happened to the jurors in the Anthony case. Nelson rejected the defense's request to sequester them during jury selection.

The pool will shrink rapidly as jurors can make the case that sitting on a jury for weeks would be a hardship. After that process winnows down the lot, the attorneys will go through and disqualify anyone with a personal connection to the case. Both sides will be on the lookout for jurors who have stated their support for either Zimmerman or Martin on social media sites, or been involved in activism around the case. The attorneys may also have potential jurors fill out questionnaires gauging their beliefs about gun control, law enforcement, race and other issues.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/jury-selection-begins-george-zimmerman-trial-121304344.html

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Business Networking With Dr. Ivan Misner ? Business Networking ...

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No matter what we call it, we all pursue success.? We all have desires and strive to achieve them.? Our desires may be different from anyone else?s, and we may not consider achieving them to be ?success.?? We look around and see people whose success we envy.? What is Jake doing with his supply of ho...

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In this third installment of the ?Why People Resist Networking? Video Series, I discuss another popular theme surrounding why people tend to resist networking ? impatience.? If new networkers don?t see immediate payoff from their efforts, they become impatient, inevitably resulting in failure early on in the...

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Peter Drucker once said, ?The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn?t being said.? ?This is so true and extremely important because the quality of our relationships depends on the quality of our communications; and when it comes to sales for your business and growing your business t...

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In this second installment of the ?Why People Resist Networking? Video Series, I discuss another commonly held idea behind why people most likely resist networking?they claim they are much too busy to network. The bottom line is that though people may feel they ?don?t have the time? or...

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Over the past few weeks, I?ve posted blogs on how embracing quality, adding members, and seeking engagement are all things that will help networkers and entire networking groups achieve success.? Today, I?d like to talk about an additional tactic for obtaining stellar networking results?sharing stories...

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? In this first video in the ?Why People Resist Networking Series,? I list four ideas about why people most likely resist networking and then delve more deeply into detail about the very first idea?Lack of Confidence. I offer insight into three different reasons why people lack confidence when it c...

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Engagement involves a promise and an action.? In order to achieve success in your group of networking relationships, you and your relationships must promise to support one another and then take the actions necessary to fulfill that promise. There are many ways that you can become engaged.? Have you taken the time to re...

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In this fourth installment of the Networking Faux Pas Series, I talk about the faux pas which I see happen most out of the faux pas topics I?ve discussed thus far.? It also happens to be the faux pas which frustrates me the most (Seriously?it drives me crazy!)?it?s when you give a networking part...

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Years ago I learned that there is a dramatic correlation between the size of a quality networking group and the number of referrals which are generated by that group. ?The fact is, the addition of new members brings an increase in the likelihood that any given networking group will be successful. Groups under 20 people ...

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Last Thursday I posted a blog in which I explain why confusing networking with direct selling is one of the worst faux pas you can make while networking as it completely undermines any chance you have of being a successful networker.? The fact remains that if your idea of networking is walking around, shaking hands, and...

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In order for a networking group to be successful and thus ensure optimum networking results for each of its members, the first thing the group needs to do is ensure they are embracing quality. Embracing quality means being very selective about who you bring into the group.? The only people you should be inviting into th...

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In this third installment of the Networking Faux Pas Series, I discuss the danger of confusing networking with direct selling?it is often this specific point of confusion which really causes networking to go all wrong. If your idea of networking is walking around, shaking hands, and closing deals, you owe it to you...

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When one of your business contacts passes you a new referral, does that mean the prospect is ready to hear a presentation on your product or service?? Repeat after me . . . NO.? Assume nothing. When an associate passes you a referral, say thanks, then start digging for more information.? Exactly what does the prospect...

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In?this second?installment of the Networking Faux Pas Series, I talk about Premature Solicitation (a term you certainly don?t want to attempt to say three times fast as it very well may get you into a little bit of trouble . . .)?a classic example of how NOT to network. I share a personal story of an occurr...

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Source: http://businessnetworking.com/

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Fatal Knowledge

George Zimmerman, right, arrives on the first day of his trial on June 10, 2013, in Sanford, Fla.

Pool photo by Joe Burbank/Getty Images

Would you want to be on the jury that will decide whether to convict George Zimmerman in the Florida killing of Trayvon Martin? I would?except that the practical realities of serving on this jury would probably ruin anyone?s summer.

Jury selection may take as long as two weeks. That?s a sign of how racially charged and generally fraught this case remains more than a year after Martin?s death. Judge Debra Nelson has already ruled that the jurors are supposed to remain anonymous?the media won?t be able to show their faces, and they?ll be referred to by number instead of name. She has not yet said whether she?ll sequester the jury once its members have been selected, but odds are she probably will.

She shouldn?t?or at least I hope Nelson decides against sequestration. It?s a huge burden to impose on those citizens selected to serve?weeks of living a sealed existence in a hotel, away from your family, friends, and daily routines. I?d do just about anything to avoid serving on a sequestered jury, as I?m sure most people would. That?s why legal experts worry that sequestration skews the composition of the jury by limiting who is willing to serve. It could make retirees more likely to serve than working people or parents with young children, for example.

And I?m skeptical that it?s worth the cost. As I pointed out a year ago, after the story broke of Martin?s death in a gated community in Sanford, Fla., there has been so much publicity that it?s hard to imagine the point of shielding jurors from more at this point. Plus, to be an impartial juror shouldn?t mean being an uninformed one. As the Supreme Court said in 2010 in an appeal brought by Jeffrey Skilling, Enron?s former CEO, ?juror impartiality does not require ignorance,? and jurors ?need not enter the box with empty heads in order to determine the facts impartially.? Justice Kennedy went further two decades ago, when he wrote, ?Empirical research suggests that in the few instances when jurors have been exposed to extensive and prejudicial publicity, they are able to disregard it and base their verdict upon the evidence presented in court.? This is heartening when you think about it: Research shows that jurors can obey the instruction to set aside their preconceived notions about a case and stick to weighing the evidence presented at trial. Nelson should let the Zimmerman jurors sleep at home.

What about the racial composition of the jury? From the beginning, the debate over this shooting has been drenched in debate about racism because of some of the elements it involves: a teenage black victim, who was unarmed and wearing a hoodie when he was killed while out on a walk; a shooter who has a white father and a Peruvian mother and may have uttered a racial slur in his 911 call about the shooting; local law enforcement officials who initially decided not to press charges (a bad call that was later rectified when the governor appointed a special prosecutor). Of course, lawyers can?t object to potential jurors on the basis of race. That?s the rule from the Supreme Court set in 1986. But that doesn?t mean it doesn?t still happen, as this 2010 report from the Equal Justice Initiative describes. Jury selection based on race has just become more subtle. In the Zimmerman case, it should be obvious that the jury should include African-Americans and be multiracial. Nelson will surely be watching out to make sure jurors aren?t struck because of color. We will see, though, how this plays out.

Ta-Nehisi Coates has long pointed out that the core of the Zimmerman-Martin case is the botched police investigation and the screwy nature of Florida?s Stand Your Ground law. It was Stand Your Ground that confused the police into thinking that ?law enforcement was PROHIBITED from? arresting Zimmerman because he said he was acting in self-defense. The Florida law, passed in 2005, gives people who think they are being threatened the right to use force?they can protect themselves without first trying to retreat, the usual legal obligation outside of one?s own home. Stand Your Ground entitles defendants such as Zimmerman to a hearing, before trial, in which a judge decides whether to dismiss the case or let the jury hear it. The relatively low standard the judge uses?did the defendant show he feared for his life by a preponderance of the evidence?is good for the defense. And most of those who have invoked Stand Your Ground have gone free, especially (dismayingly) when the victim is black, according to this analysis by the Tampa Bay Times. But Zimmerman has decided not to have a Stand Your Ground hearing. His lawyers say he can convince the jury of self-defense, straight up.

That?s got to be the key question at trial?the same question this case has raised all along. Since Zimmerman has admitted to shooting Martin, all that remains is why, and whether to believe his answer or the prosecution?s. The tantalizing piece of evidence here is the 911 call about the shooting, which includes a voice screaming for help. Is it Zimmerman?s, as his lawyers claim, or Martin, as his family has said? Voice recognition experts testified on Saturday that they can?t say for sure: Because the voice on the tape is screaming, it?s in a high registry that?s too hard to match. Nelson hasn?t ruled yet on whether to allow the jury to hear this testimony. Since it won?t settle the identity of the screamer, it may not matter much. Then again, trials often surprise us. You don?t need to be on the jury to know that.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2013/06/george_zimmerman_trial_jury_selection_the_jurors_considering_trayvon_martin.html

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Will "Pandora s Promise" Start a New Environmental Movement for Nuclear Power?

The last line in Pandora's Promise , Robert Stone's new documentary about the environmental advantages of nuclear power, comes from Michael Shellenberger, co-head of the Breakthrough Institute. "I have a sense that this is a beautiful thing, the beginning of a movement," he says. Provoking a new environmental movement in favor of nuclear power is a tall order, but a recent screening of Pandora's Promise suggests that it might play a part, for some intriguing reasons. Stone's film premiered at Sundance to positive reviews (Variety, Slate) and is scheduled for theatrical release this summer. It makes a convincing case for nuclear power as a carbon-free source of energy to reduce the harm of climate change in a world in which population is rising and the demand for electricity is soaring as the developing world develops. (For the record, I was already convinced; See Beware the Fear of Nuclear...FEAR) Nuclear power, Shellenberger says, can contribute to "...a world of seven to ten billion people, living resource-intensive high energy lives, without killing the climate." But Pandora's Promise will probably persuade some environmentalists to rethink nuclear power not just because of the facts but because of how those facts are framed. The information in the film is presented in ways that resonate with many of the emotional, instinctive, affective characteristics that shape how people feel about risks in general, and about nuclear power and climate change in particular. One of the most powerful of those characteristics is the influence of trust, and the central case of Stone's main characters is "Trust us, we're environmentalists and we hated nuclear power too." Mark Lynas, author of The God Species, who helped organize radical environmentalist opposition to genetically modified food in Europe, says "We were against nuclear power. As an environmentalist, those two things go together." Gwyneth Cravens, author of The Power to Save the World, says: "I grew up in an anti-nuke family. My parents were anti-nuclear." Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalogue, goes further, and notes how for the baby boom generation, the fear of nuclear power grew directly out of the existential fear of nuclear weapons, and radioactive fallout from atmospheric weapons testing, and cancer, all of which fed the rise of the modern environmental movement. "I grew up having nightmares that my home was bombed into oblivion," Brand says. "There was Duck and Cover. Those things cut pretty deep. You had the strong sense that this is not a primary energy source. This is a weapon that we feel pretty badly about." As much Stone establishes the trustworthiness of the his environmentalist protagonists, he challenges the trustworthiness of prominent anti-nuclear thought leaders, focusing on Helen Caldicott. Caldicott calls those who deny the science of climate change "...idiots," adding " How dare they deny science." But Pandora's Promise suggests she is doing the same thing by claiming Chernobyl may ultimately kill more than a million people, when more than 20 years of research by the World Health Organization estimates the radiation released from world's worst nuclear plant accident will cause a maximum of about 4,000 lifetime excess cancer deaths. Caldicott is asked how she can she reconcile doing the same sort of science denial she says the 'idiot' deniers of climate change are doing? "I can not," she stumbles. The film also directly challenges the groupthink psychology that shapes our perceptions of risk, and certainly has shaped environmentalist opposition to nuclear power. The pro-nuclear environmentalists in the film confess that their original anti-nuke views were more the product of automatic tribal acceptance of what the group believed - Rachel Carson and Ralph Nader and Bill McKibben are against nukes? Then so am I. - than informed independent analysis. They acknowledge that it literally felt threatening to change their minds and go against the whole tribe; "I was at no doubt that my entire career as an activist was at risk if I went and talked (positively) about nuclear," Lynas. Stone's effective presentation will resonate with other psychological aspects of risk perception as well. People worry more about risks that are human-made than risks that are natural. Pandora's Promise highlights how this is more emotional than rational, showing organizers of a rally protesting against the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant handing out bananas, a single one of which contains more radiation than the daily radioactive water emissions from the plant they were so afraid of. (Radioactive potassium 40 is absorbed into the banana from the soil, see Banana Equivalent Dose. We worry more about any risk we can't detect with our own senses, an aspect of risk perception that Pandora's Promise addresses by 'visualizing' radiation, having Lynas display a radiation detector in several locations where people are leading their normal lives; Tokyo, Paris, on a mountain top in New Hampshire, on a plane ride. We also see the levels at Chernobyl, and outside trailers in which Fukushima evacuees are living. In all those places, the now-visible radiation levels are similar, and low. We worry more about risks to children than risk to adults, a psychological 'fear factor' relevant to the coming threat of climate change (which the film visualizes with dramatic graphics that show how much the climate has warmed over the last century). So there will be persuasive emotional effect when we see Lynas with his family as he says "Having kids has deepened my commitment to the future and concern about global warming." Finally, environmentalist culture generally prefers a society in which people believe 'we are all in this together', what the study of Cultural Cognition refers to as communitarians. Communitarians believe in fairness and justice and equal opportunity, and the film appeals directly to that worldview when another central character, Richard Rhodes - Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb - says, "Unless you want to condemn more than half the population of the earth to sickness and impoverished lives, we have to produce more electricity." Pandora's Promise uses these devices instinctively, naturally. They don't feel overtly manipulative, but just the intuitively applied tools of persuasive story telling. And because they resonate with important psychological characteristics that shape our perception of risk, they will probably persuade some viewers to rethink their opposition to nuclear power. For the same reasons, however, anti-nuclear advocates will probably react to the film defensively, because it threatens their tribal view and their self-identity. Some will probably bristle at the film's less-than-flattering depiction of Caldicott and anti-nuclear rallies. Others won't like how, as we see rows of huge wind mills in California sitting motionless, Shellenberger mocks renewable solar and wind as 'a hallucinatory illusion' that can't supply nearly as much electricity as the world will need. Nuclear opponents won't like graphics that show how all of America's nuclear waste would fit on a football field a few feet deep, or video showing that it can be stored safely (the film shows how high level nuclear waste is currently stored in containers outdoors at many American nuclear power plants, and how all of France's high level nuclear waste is stored in canisters set into the floor in one room at a power plant). Anti-nukes won't like descriptions of new nuclear technologies that are safer, and cheaper. They will probably jump on the fact that Pandora's Promise mentions only in passing that these technologies are probably decades away, and until then, without regulatory assistance, nuclear power technology is way too expensive to compete against cheaper fuels. Nor will nuclear opponents like the way that Pandora's Promise undermines the claim that nuclear power is a weapons proliferation threat. We see glowing nighttime urban skylines as Brand tells us some of those lights are powered by nuclear material taken from decommissioned Russian and American warheads "Poetic" Brand calls it...swords into plowshares. Pandora's Promise is open, earnest, unabashed advocacy, and it makes a persuasive case, using images and emotional framings that will resonate with innate affective cues that influence our perceptions of risk. It may not change the minds of baby boomer environmentalists whose fear of anything nuclear grows from deep historic roots and whose self-identities are too tightly bound to the expected tribal opposition to nuclear power. But to younger viewers, and to any viewer with an open mind, Pandora's Promise may help encourage fresh thinking about the huge pros, as well as the better known cons, of this important, if controversial, source of clean energy. (In the name of transparency, I have participated twice in the Breakthrough Institute's annual Breakthrough Dialogue, a two-day retreat that brings together several dozen experts and thinkers - not sure how I got invited - to ponder solutions to big problems. Shellenberger, Lynas, Brand, Cravens, and Stone, have been part of those conversations.) 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.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pandora-promise-start-environmental-movement-nuclear-power-120500896.html

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