Missing MH370 jet search area ruled out

(Photo: Rufus Cox, Getty Images)

Acoustic signals thought to be linked to missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have been ruled out as related to the final resting place of the vanished plane, investigators leading the search said Thursday.

The U.S. Navy's Bluefin 21 finished its final underwater mission in the southern Indian Ocean on Wednesday after scouring 330 square miles, the Australian-based Joint Agency Coordination Center said.

"The area can now be discounted as the final resting place of MH370," the JACC said in a statement.

The agency said that an expanded search of 21,600 sq. miles, based on satellite analysis of the plane's most likely route, would probably begin in August after commercial side-scan sonar operators are contracted.

That search is expected to last 12 months.

Earlier, U.S. Navy spokesman Chris Johnson dismissed comments made by ocean engineering expert Michael Dean to CNN that acoustic "pings" heard in the area in April did not come from the jet's black boxes. Dean had said those "pings" came from a source unrelated to the jet.

"Mike Dean's comments today were speculative and premature," Johnson said in a statement. Washington-based Dean could not be immediately reached for comment.

The plane carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew vanished on March 8 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Two-thirds of those traveling on the plane were from China.

Authorities believe the jet diverted sharply from its flight path and flew south to the Indian Ocean. But not a single piece of the missing Boeing 777 has been found in one of aviation's most baffling mysteries.

On Tuesday, the Malaysian government made public 47 pages of raw satellite data used to conclude that the jet crashed into the southern Indian Ocean.

Contributing: Associated Press

What countries does the U.S. borrow from? Ask USA TODAY

(Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)

When you hear about the United States borrowing money, you probably assume that money is being borrowed from China. Would you be surprised to hear that the U.S. actually borrows the most from its own citizens?

If you buy a U.S. Treasury security or bond, you're essentially loaning the government money.

How exactly does this system work? Do we borrow from other countries as well? USA TODAY Money reporter John Waggoner answers these questions and more in the video below.

Have a question of your own? Send it to us using #askusatoday on Twitter, or via e-mail using askusatoday@usatoday.com.

Money reporter John Waggoner explains how the United States borrows from its own citizens in the form of securities and bonds. Have a question of your own? Send it to us using #askusatoday on Twitter.

U.S. Census Bureau Will Finally Count Married Gay Couples As Families

The U.S. Census Bureau will be counting same-sex married couples as families for the first time. It's pretty incredible to think that it's taken this long, right??

The Washington Post reports:

The Census Bureau, which struggles to keep up with the rapid changes in American life, is about to start categorizing same-sex married couples as families.

The 2013 American Community Survey results, which will be reported in September, will mark the first time the census integrates an estimated 180,000 same-sex married couples with statistics concerning the nation’s 56 million families. Until now, they had been categorized as unmarried partners, even when couples reported themselves as spouses.

Because of the large disparity between the number of gay and straight married households, combining the two is not expected to have a significant effect on the statistics that scholars and planners use to analyze how families are changing. Its significance is largely symbolic of the growing acceptance of gays in American society.

Symbolic or not, it's important that gay families be counted and acknowledged by the U.S. government. Visibility is key so this is definitely a positive step forward.

BRAZILIAN GODDESS

BRAZILIAN GODDESS

Gisele Bündchen goes for some ‪#‎Balmain‬ custom-made essentials for Lui Magazine June 2014.

Chrome For Windows Will Now Only Install Extensions From Google’s Web Store

This has been a long time coming, but starting today, Chrome users on Windows will only be able to install extensions from Google’s own Chrome Web Store. Google argues that this is meant to keep malicious extensions — which are often installed from third-party sites — in check.

Users who have already installed extensions from third-party sites may find that they have been disabled and cannot be re-enabled or re-installed. The only way to get them back up and running is by installing them through the Chrome Web Store (assuming the developer has made them available there).

Google first announced its plans for this move last November. At the time, it told developers who were hosting their extensions themselves to migrate to the Web Store as soon as possible. At that time, the company said that it would start enforcing this policy at the beginning of this month. But some developers weren’t quite ready yet, so the companydecided to delay these changes until today.

As a result, chances are that the impact of today’s announcement will be relatively limited and that you won’t notice anything unusual. If some of your extensions stop working, though, you know why.

Developers will continue to be able to install extensions locally and businesses can also enable local installs through their Enterprise policies. In addition, users on the developer channel will also be unaffected by today’s changes.

Google X Built A Fully Self-Driving Car From Scratch, Sans Steering Wheel And Pedals

Google’s experimental Google X division has been working on self-driving cars for a while, but it’s created the prototype for a brand new version that looks nothing like the retrofitted version.

“We took a look from the ground up of what a self-driving car would look like,” Brin said at the CODE Conference tonight, after showing a demo video.

What does a built-from-the-ground-up self-driving car look like? Well, you start by taking away all the things that allow you to actually drive the thing — you take away the steering wheel and pedals that give a driver control. Check out our gallery post for a dozen more photos of the cutesy vehicle.

Brin said the company has not had any crashes so far, but the company has also been testing it in pretty safe conditions. But for Google, the self-driving car is part of a bigger vision for re-envisioning the transportation environment.

“What I’m excited about is how we could change transportation today,” Brin said. If you look at people who are too old, too young, or disabled, and can’t get around, that’s a big challenge for them.”

Brin said the company decided to develop this prototype vehicle because it could do a better job than with one of its retrofitted vehicles.

The big reason it could be better was safety — placement becomes more optimal with where it could put lasers. Steering was also better, with redundant power steering, and it had redundant braking as well.

The cars, for now, only drive about 25 miles an hour, which also increases safety. It also adds about two feet of foam on the front, and instead of glass uses plastic. The company plans to build about 100-200 prototypes.

Brin said that the company would be testing the vehicles with safety drivers by the end of the year, but the company hopes to surpass its safety level later this year.

More at:  http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/27/google-x-introduces-a-fully-self-driving-car-sans-steering-wheel-and-pedals/?ncid=rss&source=gravity&cps=gravity