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Thursday, 31 January 2013
Ask the Experts: Can Aging Be Controlled?
Scientists have long thought that aging could be caused by molecular damage that accumulates in our bodies over the course of time. The damage is an unavoidable by-product of breathing oxygen and other metabolic processes that are necessary to life. Eventually, damaged cells stop working, or worse, adopt new functions that trigger cancerous growth or degrade important tissues in the brain, skin and other organs.
But as Melinda Wenner Moyer reports in the February issue of Scientific American, investigators have conducted several experiments over the past few years that challenge this so-called oxidative stress theory of aging. For example, a tiny mouselike creature known as the naked mole rat manages to live up to 30 years (about 10 times longer than a similarly sized mouse) despite accumulating a much greater level of oxidative damage in its tissues than other rodents.
These and other often surprising results have led to a boom in research on aging in the past few years, as investigators learn more about the inner workings of the cells at the molecular and genetic levels.
Scientific American spoke to Judith Campisi, a professor at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, for a quick overview of the field. You can read more about Campisi?s research on cell senescence as one possible cause of aging in the August 2012 issue of Scientific American.
[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]
Why is it so hard to figure out what causes aging?
In many ways we already know what causes aging. We just don't know what causes aging in the kind of molecular detail that would allow us to intervene in large meaningful ways. It's not even clear that once we solve those mysteries we will be able to intervene in aging or dramatically extend longevity.
I started my career studying cancer. Look at all the things we have learned since the 1970s about how cancers form in the body. And yet, still the best cures we have for most cancers are sledgehammers. Biology is complex?and this is a reality that the public has to come to grips with and our legislators have to come to grips with.
I predict aging will follow the same trajectory as cancer research. Why is aging so difficult to figure out? It's because it's a really tough problem. I think it's tougher than cancer. The time has come to really wallow in the complexities.
How many different causes of aging do you think there will turn out to be?
I don't think there will be hundreds of causes of aging. But I don't think there will be just one, either, or we would have gotten a handle on it by now. It's sort of like asking me what the stock market would be tomorrow. I could give you an answer but you'd be crazy to believe me!
How about just a couple causes of aging?
Well, we know that there is molecular damage and what I will refer to as genetic damage?although that doesn't necessarily mean a mutation. By genetic damage, I am referring to both changes in the genes themselves as well as in the epigenetic switches that regulate how the genes are expressed.
Why does this damage occur? Basically, there are two main reasons: One, breathing oxygen is dangerous to your health. Your body makes certain harmful compounds just as a result of breathing oxygen. Two, the cells inside your body make mistakes when they divide. Most of the cells in your body are not dividing at any given time. Many have the ability to divide but? don't. But when a cell does divide, it has to copy three billion base pairs of DNA exactly right. Inevitably mistakes happen and cells become damaged.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=82eb79587e95b822fd187e2522eeb131
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Judge Koh Rules That Samsung Did Not Willfully Infringe Apple ...
Judge Lucy Koh ruled in a court filing (via The Verge) tonight that Samsung did not willfully infringe Apple patents. This decision denies any additional damages to the $1.05 billion?awarded to Apple last August.
As this is the sum total of Apple's arguments and evidence that Samsung's infringement was willful, the Court cannot conclude that Apple has met its burden to show willfulness by clear and convincing evidence.Samsung argued that they had reason to believe that Apple's patents were invalid and therefore did not willfully infringe Apple patents. Judge Koh ultimately concluded that there had been no willful infringement but did not overturn the validity of Apple's patents.
Judge Koh also denied Samsung's bid for a new trial, saying that "the trial was fairly conducted, with uniform time limits and rules of evidence applied on both sides." She went on to write that "a new trial would be contrary to the interests of justice."
If Samsung had been found to be willfully infringing Apple patents their penalty might have ballooned well over $1.05 billion that they must pay Apple. In December, Judge Koh had denied another Samsung retrial request based on juror misconduct. The decision is yet another milestone in the long saga that is Samsung v. Apple.
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Wednesday, 30 January 2013
Georgia nuclear power plant could be Solyndra redux, report says
A report by two energy-consulting firms says the US government has not protected US taxpayers well enough against the risks of federal loan guarantees to a new nuclear power project.
An earth mover works on a new nuclear reactor at the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Augusta, Ga., late last year. A new report criticizes federal loan guarantees to the project.
John Bazemore/AP/File
EnlargeConstruction of the first newly licensed US nuclear power plant in decades could become a "Solyndra-like" debacle thanks to billions in federal loan guarantees whose terms appear too weak to protect taxpayers, according to one group?s analysis of internal documents released by the US Department of Energy.?
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The two-reactor $14 billion Vogtle plant being built in Georgia is seen as a test of the US nuclear industry's planned "renaissance" with a new nuclear reactor design and updated construction processes all aimed at cutting time and costs.?
But two Massachusetts-based energy-consulting firms, Earth Track and Synapse Energy Economics, say the $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees backing the project were crafted with excessively favorable financial terms for the recipient companies, weak federal oversight, and possible political interference in the loan-guarantee process. ??? ?
The two firms analyzed hundreds of Energy Department e-mails and financial documents released earlier this month to the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), a green-energy watchdog group that won access to them in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.?
Officials for the Obama administration and Southern Company, the company that will operate the plants, say there's nothing improper going on.?
In their report, Earth Track and Synapse say the documents reveal:
- "Potentially troubling" conversations between political appointees and borrowers over loan terms and getting the deal done.
- Credit subsidy payments, the amount that companies pay in compensation for the government loan guarantees, that appear far too low to offer adequate protection to taxpayers in the event of a default.?
- An "over-reliance on external contractors" for key risk evaluations.?
- Continued tinkering with credit subsidy assessment tools even after credit subsidy estimate letters were sent to borrowers, leaving taxpayers with more risk than necessary.??
?Despite widespread redactions, the documents released indicate significant problems with the DOE?s loan guarantee process," said Doug Koplow, report author and founder of Earth Track in a statement.??
Under the category of "political interference," the report cites one e-mail from DOE staff revealed tight timelines to ?move our first nuclear power deal forward.? Other e-mails showed direct contact between Vogtle project borrowers and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. And a 2010 e-mail from Jonathan Silver, then-executive director of loan programs at the US Department of Energy, noted that ?We didn't deal with shaw" ?? the company slated to do much of the reactor construction ? "The white house did.???
The discussions represent "a potentially troubling blurring of financial risk review, political discussion, and potential modification of loan terms," the report says.?
In a conference call, Mr. Koplow said there is no evidence of wrongdoing or any "smoking gun." But the e-mails do suggest, they say, that high level figures in the administration were in a position to exert political influence.??
The Department of Energy was unable to respond by press time to a request for comment. But one administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said there's no impropriety in the documents.?
"These are people who just don't like nuclear power," he says. "What they're doing is throwing out a buzz word, Solyndra, to get attention. Let's just throw out that word. They're throwing accusations out there, but these decisions were made on the merits by career officials. The idea that Secretary Chu would want to be monitoring this deal ? there's nothing wrong with that."?
Southern Company officials say the process is routine.?
"Loan guarantees were developed to provide an incentive for new nuclear development in the U.S.," writes Tim Leljedal, a Southern Company spokesman in an e-mailed statement. "There continues to be constructive dialogue in the Vogtle 3&4 loan guarantee negotiations between the company and the Department of Energy. We are committed to financing options that will serve the best interests of our customers, and ? as long as the terms and conditions of DOE loan guarantees serve those interests ? we will continue pursue that option."?
"Details of the ongoing negotiations remain confidential," he adds.??
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Enhance Your Business Portfolio by Investing in Seo
The popularity of the internet and its applications are at its peak these days. Be it shopping, catching up with friends, running a business, learning something new or simply speaking your mind, you will find that internet offers all such solutions for free. Owing to its increasing craze, there are many business owners who have gone online to cater to a wide customer base. Whether you are a new business in the market or you have dwelled for decades, the need to go online is imminent and cannot be ignored.
When it comes to working on on-site SEO which would be for your website, you should make sure that the provider has worked on the keyword density of the content that you have put on your site. With this, they should also check for any broken links and any bugs which might hinder the crawlers to browse your site completely. Once this is done, it is time for off-site SEO which is accomplished by a variety of techniques like social bookmarking, article and blog submission and social media optimization. So choose to go with the best SEO services in Sydney and make your online business an easy success through proven online marketing methods.
But simply creating a website and launching it on the web does not turn the magic key. You need to put in some more efforts through advertising and marketing which will help you unleash the full potential of the web and it will make your business a success too. Hence, investing in marketing techniques like SEO is imperative and there are various sub categories of this method which you can make use of in order to increase customer attention. SEO stands for search engine optimization which theoretically means improving the rank of a website on search engines like Google, Bing and others.
If you are after SEO services in Sydney, there are a lot of providers out there which can easily help you with your needs. All you have to do is contact them, learn about the different services that they offer under SEO and go through their work profile once. This will help you understand the capability of the service provider and this way you will only invest in the best services. There is a lot to be done under SEO which is why you should choose to go for an exhaustive optimization bundle which would cater to all your needs.
When it comes to working on on-site SEO which would be for your website, you should make sure that the provider has worked on the keyword density of the content that you have put on your site. With this, they should also check for any broken links and any bugs which might hinder the crawlers to browse your site completely. Once this is done, it is time for off-site SEO which is accomplished by a variety of techniques like social bookmarking, article and blog submission and social media optimization. So choose to go with the best SEO services in Sydney and make your online business an easy success through proven online marketing methods.
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Google funds Raspberry Pi computers | Review Tech, Social Media ...
29 January 2013 Last updated at 09:30 ET
By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter
Schools around the UK are to be given 15,000 free microcomputers, with a view to creating a new generation of computer scientists.
Funded by Google, the Raspberry Pi Foundation hopes the free devices will inspire children to take up coding.
The pared-down Raspberry Pi, launched a year ago, is already a huge success.
There are concerns current information and communications technology (ICT) teaching is inadequate preparation for the future jobs in technology.
Skill decline
The partnership was announced at Chesterton Community College in Cambridge, where children were given a coding lesson by Google?s chairman Eric Schmidt and Raspberry Pi co-founder Eben Upton.
?We hope that our new partnership with Google will be a significant moment in the development of computing education in the UK,? said Mr Upton.
?We believe that this can turn around the year-on-year decline in the numbers and skill sets of students applying to read computer science at university.?
Continue reading the main storyMark Ward Technology correspondent, BBC News
The Raspberry Pi has a growing number of rivals.
For hobbyists there is Julian Skidmore?s 8-bit Fignition that costs about the same as a Pi.
Slightly pricier, but not by much, are the APC from VIA, Rikomagic?s MK802 and RK3066, the BeagleBoard, the Mele A1000 and the Hiapad Hi-802.
Alongside these are more expensive products such as FXI?s Cotton Candy Android computer, Intel?s Next Unit of Computing, Xi3?s Piston and Zotac?s ZBOX.
These cost a good deal more than a Pi, upwards of ?150, and aim to be a fully featured computer.
Other manufacturers are getting into the puny PC game though their devices are not as malleable as a Pi.
Favi?s computer on a USB stick acts as a media server. Dell is doing something similar with Project Ophelia which will do some work locally but shunt the hard stuff to the cloud.
Over the past decade, the number of people studying computer science in the UK dropped by 23% at undergraduate level and by 34% at graduate level.
British innovators
To help ensure teachers and children get the best out of the devices, Google and Raspberry Pi are working with six educational partners, including Code Club, Computing at School, Generating Genius and Coderdojo. They will distribute the devices to schools around the UK.
In the past Mr Schmidt has said ICT teaching in the UK puts too much emphasis on using, rather than creating, software.
Announcing Google?s Raspberry Pi giveaway, on Tuesday, he said: ?Britain?s innovators and entrepreneurs have changed the world ? the telephone, television and computers were all invented here.
?We have been working to encourage the next generation of computer scientists and we hope this donation? to British school pupils will help drive a new wave of innovation.?
Google is also sponsoring ICT teacher training via its Teach First scheme.
Sponsorship suspicions
It has led some critics to question whether large corporations such as Google should take on such a role.
?Schools are increasingly being used as marketing venues by companies promoting their own brands in return for teaching resources, books, sports equipment or computers,? said a National Union of Teachers representative.
?Commercial sponsorship of school resources and equipment and their involvement in training can actively undermine teachers? efforts to educate children about the dangers of manipulation and commercial exploitation,?
Rival Microsoft has also called for a shake-up of how computer science is taught in the UK.
?Computer science is something that we have been calling the ?fourth science? for some time. We believe that it is every bit as important as physics, chemistry and biology,? said Steve Beswick, director of education at Microsoft.
?By formally introducing children to computer science basics at primary school, we stand a far greater chance of increasing the numbers taking the subject through to degree level and ultimately the world of work.?
Source: http://www.cuhea.com/2013/01/30/google-funds-raspberry-pi-computers/
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GOP lawmakers see automatic cuts as leverage
FILE - In this Dec. 21, 2012 file photo, Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, speaks to reporters about the fiscal cliff negotiations at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
FILE - In this Dec. 21, 2012 file photo, Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, speaks to reporters about the fiscal cliff negotiations at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? There's a growing sense of resignation that the country's political leaders will be unable or unwilling to find a way around looming automatic spending cuts despite fresh signs the cuts would threaten the recovering economy.
On one side are conservative Republicans, outnumbered and frustrated, who see the painfully large cuts as leverage in their battle to force Democrats into concessions on the budget. On the other side are President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies, who are pressing to replace some of the cuts with new tax revenues.
The predictable deadlock ? and looming cuts of $85 billion this budget year alone ? has the potential to slam the economy, produce sweeping furloughs and layoffs at federal agencies and threatens hundreds of thousands of private sector jobs.
The cuts would shrink the Pentagon budget by 7 percent and force most domestic agencies to absorb a 5 percent cut concentrated in the last half of the budget year.
Just last year, GOP leaders were among the loudest voices warning of dire consequences for the military and the economy if more than $100 billion in cuts across the board went into effect. Now, even as defense hawks fume, Republicans see the strategy as their best chance of wringing cuts from costly government benefit programs like Medicare that Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress have been reluctant to touch.
The move is fraught with risk. Some $43 billion would be cut from the Pentagon budget between March and October if battling Democrats and Republicans can't agree on an alternative. Equal cuts would hit domestic programs, although the health care programs that are major drivers of future deficits are largely exempt.
"Talk about letting the sequester kick in, as though that were an acceptable thing, belies where Republicans were on this issue not that long ago," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday. "This is sort of political brinksmanship of the kind that results in one primary victim, and that's American taxpayers ? the American middle class."
The automatic cuts, known as a "sequester" in Washington-speak, are the penalty for the failures of the 2011 deficit "supercommittee" and subsequent rounds of budget talks to produce an agreement.
Along with the threatened expiration of Bush-era tax cuts, the spending cuts were a major element of the so-called fiscal cliff crisis that gripped the country at the new year. While most of the tax cuts ? except for upper-bracket income ? were made permanent, negotiators could only agree on a two-month reprieve to the sequester after finding $24 billion in replacement money that reduced this year's round of cuts from $109 billion to $85 billion. Eight more years of cuts, totaling almost $1 trillion, still remain.
The austerity, economists say, would slow down the economy. Under a formula by the Congressional Budget Office, a $43 billion cut in defense spending could cost 300,000 jobs this year.
"In terms of the political dynamic here, defense spending is only 20 percent of the federal budget, but it's taking 50 percent of the cuts, which means it's going to be hitting the Republicans a lot harder than the Democrats," said defense analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute think tank.
On Wednesday, the government reported that the economy shrank by 0.1 percent in the last quarter of 2012 and said a slowdown in defense spending and uncertainty over the automatic spending cuts could have kicked in at the start of the year.
Last year, Republicans issued dire warnings of the impact the cuts would have. Defense hawks like Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., made campaign tours in political swing states like Virginia and Florida lambasting the cuts, warning that the reductions would hollow out the Pentagon and cost many thousands of jobs. They reminded voters that the sequester was an idea developed by Democrats during 2011 negotiations on increasing the government's borrowing cap.
"The White House is responsible for the 'sequester' that threatens our national security," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in September. "History has taught us we can't continue with policies that jeopardize our defenses or weaken our economy."
This year's GOP move to embrace the sequester was hatched at a recent strategy retreat for House Republicans in Williamsburg, Va. Much of the retreat was devoted to coming up with a way to solve a more urgent issue: finding a way to get the tea party-infused House to again increase the debt limit and prevent an economically devastating, first-ever default on U.S. obligations. The party agreed on a strategy to punt the debt dilemma until May or later and instead use the sequester as leverage in the budget debate.
A senior House GOP aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss party strategy, said some Republicans see the sequester as their best opportunity to achieve spending cuts. That strategy, however, is rife with potential to split open the Republican Party and pits the defense hawks against the tea party.
How people would actually react should the across-the-board cuts hit is anyone's guess. But it's not lost on anyone with institutional history that Republicans got creamed in a similar situation in 1995-96 when they sparked a partial government shutdown under the leadership of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.
On Tuesday, Senate Majority Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the warring parties should try to figure it all out, but he set up a clash with Republicans over using new taxes to fix the problem.
Reid said the sequester cuts should be replaced "in short increments" with spending cuts and revenues like repealing oil and gas subsidies, which were discussed in earlier negotiations.
"There are many low-hanging pieces of fruit out there that Republicans have said they agreed on previously," Reid said. There's a lot of things we can do out there, and we're going to make an effort to make sure that there is ? sequestration is ? involves revenue."
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Phone video of South Africa mine massacre pressures police
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A cell phone video broadcast this week of the police shooting of 34 miners in South Africa last year has piled more pressure on the security forces, showing officers bragging about the killings and undermining claims that they fired in self-defense.
Reuters television footage of some of the killings at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine showed a dozen striking miners being cut down in a hail of police bullets.
The images of the bloodiest security incident since apartheid shocked the world, and dented the reputation of Nelson Mandela's "Rainbow Nation" and the ruling African National Congress (ANC), which faces an election next year.
Since then the pay strikes have abated, but turmoil in the sector has continued, with the world's biggest platinum producer, Anglo American Platinum Ltd, infuriating miners and the ANC alike with plans to mothball mines accounting for 3 pct of South Africa's workforce.
Most of the Marikana victims died in and around a small cluster of rocks - a 'koppie' in Afrikaans - about 400 meters (yards) away from the main confrontation, out of sight of reporters and television cameras.
It is here that multiple witness reports have spoken of police officers gunning down miners as they surrendered, or shooting them in the back as they fled.
The cell phone footage from the koppie, aired on Britain's Channel 4 television, shows a police officer lying on the ground behind a rock with his pistol drawn.
The images were shot by a colleague, also lying in the grass, with the barrel of his sidearm regularly moving into the frame.
"DON'T SHOOT HIM"
The first officer indicates that a miner is on the move in front of them. A voice can then be heard shouting: "Wait, don't shoot him, don't shoot him."
Gunfire is then heard, and the video cuts to the body of a man in jeans lying in the grass.
Moments later, another officer can be heard off-camera boasting about killing the man. "That motherfucker. I shot him at least 10 times," the officer says.
Channel 4 said the body had been identified and the man had been shot 12 times.
Police spokesman Dennis Adriao declined to comment on the latest footage, which was submitted by police to an inquiry into the killings in the city of Rustenburg, 120 km (70 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, according to inquiry officials.
Ian Farlam, the retired judge heading the probe, said the footage had been viewed by the inquiry in November and cautioned against reading too much into it.
"The commission is of the view that it is premature to draw conclusions from the video footage that is included in the broadcast," he told the inquiry, according to local media.
The police have said they resorted to lethal force after coming under fire from some armed miners. Post mortem reports indicated 14 of the Marikana victims had been shot in the back.
The Farlam inquiry is due to wind up in the middle of the year. Its findings are likely to be damning of the security forces and could have implications for President Jacob Zuma as he heads for an election due in just over a year.
Anglo American Platinum, which has announced plans to lay off 14,000 workers and close two mines, said on Tuesday that talks with the government and unions to mitigate the fallout had been "constructive".
(Reporting by Ed Cropley; Editing by Jon Herskovitz and Kevin Liffey)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/phone-video-south-africa-mine-massacre-pressures-police-151557800.html
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Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Asian shares rally, eye Fed, U.S. data
TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares rallied on Tuesday as recent selling drew bargain hunters ahead of more U.S. economic data and a Federal Reserve policy decision later in the week that may offer clues to the Fed's stimulus plans.
European markets were seen following Asia higher, with financial spread-betters predicting London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> would open up as much as 0.3 percent.
U.S. stock futures were up 0.1 percent, hinting at a firm Wall Street start. <.l><.eu><.n/>
Solid U.S. earnings and an improving U.S. business spending gauge have combined with a recent run of positive global economic data, along with signs of easing financial stress in the euro zone, putting upwards pressure on Treasury yields.
Further signs of brightening U.S. growth prospects would fuel speculation the Fed may consider pulling back on aggressive easing stimulus. The Fed ends a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday.
The first estimate of U.S. fourth-quarter gross domestic product also will be released on Wednesday, followed by non-farm payrolls on Friday.
Few expect any immediate change to the Fed's very accommodative monetary stance while other central banks such as the Bank of Japan also embark on fresh easing to help spur economic activities. India's central bank cut interest rates on Tuesday for the first time in nine months.
The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> rallied 0.9 percent to snap a four-day losing streak, led by a 1.1 percent jump in Australian shares <.axjo> to a fresh 21-month high on gains in financial shares.
"It seems that a lower interest rate environment is starting to improve confidence among the Australian business community. Mix this in with the China rebound and we have a sharp rise in confidence," said Ben Taylor, sales trader at CMC Markets.
South Korean shares <.ks11>, which slumped to an 8-week low on Monday, rebounded 0.8 percent.
Japan's Nikkei stock average <.n225> reversed earlier declines and closed up 0.4 percent, buoyed by optimism over earnings of major banks. <.t/>
"With yields on U.S. Treasury and German government bonds inching higher, one might say investors may be shifting funds to riskier assets from safe-havens," said Yuji Saito, director of foreign exchange at Credit Agricole in Tokyo.
The benchmark U.S. 10-year note yield briefly pierced 2 percent on Monday for the first time since last April, and inched up 2.5 basis points (bps) in Asia from New York close. The 10-year Japanese government bond yield also rose.
Naka Matsuzawa, fixed income strategist at Nomura Securities, said in research note that a sell-off in 5-year Treasury notes over the last two days "would not have occurred unless expectations of an economic recovery have gained ground to the extent that the monetary policy outlook begins to change."
"The market is aware that risks are toward more hawkish FOMC statements in the future rather than dovish ones," considering a pick-up in the U.S. economic recovery and stock market rally, as well as the underlying global risk-on trend, he said.
STUBBORN YEN
Yen selling paused, helping to bolster the benchmark South Korean stock index which is vulnerable to exchange rate swings as exporters lead market capitalization.
The dollar fell 0.1 percent to 90.78 yen after touching 91.32 on Monday, its highest level since June 2010, while the euro recouped earlier losses against the yen to steady around 122.10 yen after hitting 122.91 on Monday, its highest point since April.
The euro was at $1.3450, not far from an 11-month high of $1.3480 hit on Friday.
The euro's strength sharply contrasted with the crumbling pound, which has been pressured by worries about the weak UK economy, prospects of more monetary easing by the Bank of England and the UK's unclear role within the European Union.
The euro extended its recent stellar run to hit 0.8575 sterling, its highest since late 2011, on Tuesday. The pound fell to $1.5687, near a five-month low.
"The UK is a small open economy that has benefited from capital inflows because it is not in the euro area but is in the EU. The former is less helpful now, the uncertainty about the latter is a clear negative. The result could be to take EUR/GBP close to 0.90 before long-term downtrend resumes," said Kit Juckes, FX strategist at Societe Generale in a note.
Commodities were underpinned by a more positive global growth outlook.
"I don't think there's much downside risk," said Tetsu Emori, a commodities fund manager at Astmax Investments in Tokyo. "I think economic data out of the United States has improved, so I don't think there are any negative factors in the market."
U.S. crude rose 0.4 percent to $96.80 a barrel and Brent inched up 0.1 percent to $113.64.
London copper gained 0.4 percent to $8,078 a tonne.
Gold inched up 0.4 percent to $1,661.95 an ounce but was capped by receding investor appetite for safe-haven assets.
Asian credit markets lagged the region's rallying equities, pushing the spread on the iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment-grade index wider by 2 basis points.
(Additional reporting by Jessica Jaganathan in Singapore and Thuy Ong in Sydney; Editing by Eric Meijer & Kim Coghill)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asian-shares-cautious-fed-u-data-021048785--finance.html
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Pentax shows NERV, flashes Japan-only Evangelion-flavored Q10s
We've seen Neon Genesis Evangelion-branded devices for quite awhile now, and as a testament to the garish-hued series' longevity, Pentax has announced a special edition, show-themed Q10 series of its own. It'll release a mere 1,500 of the models in Evangelion heroine shades, starting with the Eva-01 model shown above at a price of 59,800 Yen ($660 or so). Besides showing your love for '90s anime, that sum will get you a 12.4-megapixel, mirrorless interchangeable shooter capable of Full HD video, while filling out the already-bounteous Q10 color choices from the hue-loving outfit. Stateside fans of the show will likely be disappointed though -- it'll only be sold in Japan, starting in April. Check the source to see the other colors.
Filed under: Cameras
Via: Akihabara
Source: Pentax Japan (translated)
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/28/pentax-shows-nerv-flashes-japan-only-evangelion-flavored-q10s/
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Congress passes $50.5B Superstorm Sandy aid bill
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., right, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., left, react after the Senate passed a $50.5 billion emergency relief measure for Superstorm Sandy victims at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. Three months after Superstorm Sandy devastated coastal areas in much of the Northeast, the Senate is finaly sending a $50.5 billion emergency package of relief and recovery aid to President Obama for his signature. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., right, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., left, react after the Senate passed a $50.5 billion emergency relief measure for Superstorm Sandy victims at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. Three months after Superstorm Sandy devastated coastal areas in much of the Northeast, the Senate is finaly sending a $50.5 billion emergency package of relief and recovery aid to President Obama for his signature. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Northeast lawmakers react after the Senate passed a $50.5 billion emergency relief measure for Superstorm Sandy victims at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. From right to left are Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. Three months after Superstorm Sandy devastated coastal areas in much of the Northeast, the Senate is finally sending a $50.5 billion emergency package of relief and recovery aid to President Obama for his signature. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
FILE - In this Jan. 3, 2013 photo, a beach front home that was severely damaged by Superstorm Sandy rests in the sand in Bay Head, N.J. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., left, and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., right, react after the Senate passed a $50.5 billion emergency relief measure for Superstorm Sandy victims at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. Three months after Superstorm Sandy devastated coastal areas in much of the Northeast, the Senate is finaly sending a $50.5 billion emergency package of relief and recovery aid to President Obama for his signature. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Three months after Superstorm Sandy ravaged coastal areas in much of the Northeast, Congress on Monday sent a $50.5 billion emergency relief measure for storm victims to President Barack Obama for his signature.
"I commend Congress for giving families and businesses the help they deserve, and I will sign this bill into law as soon as it hits my desk," Obama said in a statement late Monday.
Despite opposition from conservatives concerned about adding billions of dollars more to the nation's debt, the Senate cleared the long-delayed bill, 62-36, after House Republicans had stripped it earlier this month of spending unrelated to disasters. All 36 votes against the bill were from Republican senators.
"This is a huge relief," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., noting the vote came 91 days after Sandy struck.
The House passed the bill two weeks ago. Lawmakers say the money is urgently needed to start rebuilding homes, businesses, public transportation facilities and other infrastructure damaged by the Oct. 29 storm, one of the worst to strike the Northeast.
Sandy roared up the East Coast and is blamed for more than 130 deaths and tens of billions of dollars in property damage, particularly in New York and New Jersey. The measure is aimed primarily at helping residents and businesses as well as state and local governments rebuild.
The biggest chunk of money is $16 billion for Housing and Urban Development Department community development block grants. Of that, about $12.1 billion will be shared among Sandy victims as well as those from other federally declared disasters in 2011-2013. The remaining $3.9 billion is solely for Sandy-related projects.
More than $11 billion will go to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief aid fund for providing shelter, restoring power and other storm-interrupted utility services and meeting other immediate needs arising from Sandy and other disasters. Another $10 billion is devoted to repairing New York and New Jersey transit systems and making them more resistant to future storms.
Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., said Republicans weren't seeking "to undermine" help for Sandy victims but instead were trying to make sure that the money was actually being spent on emergency needs.
"We're simply trying to say we need some standards," Coats said.
Earlier in January, Congress approved and Obama signed a $9.7 billion bill to replenish the National Flood Insurance Program, which has received well over 100,000 flood insurance claims related to Sandy. Added to the new, $50.5 billion package, the total is roughly in line with the $60.4 billion that Obama requested in December.
The aid package was greased for passage before the last Congress adjourned and the new one came in on Jan. 3. But Speaker John Boehner refused to bring it to the floor after two-thirds of House Republicans voted against a "fiscal cliff" deficit-reduction deal raising taxes on couples making more than $450,000 a year while deferring some $24 billion in spending cuts to defense and domestic programs.
The ruckus after the Senate had passed an earlier $60.4 billion Sandy relief package by a nearly 2-to-1 margin on Dec. 28 exposed deep political divisions within Republican ranks. "There's only one group to blame for the continued suffering of these innocent victims, the House majority and their speaker, John Boehner," Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie fumed at the time.
Top House Republicans responded by bringing new Sandy aid legislation to the floor under ground rules designed to win over as many Republicans as possible while retaining support from Democrats eager to approve as much in disaster aid as possible.
GOP leaders cut spending in the Senate bill unrelated to disasters. One would have transferred $1 billion for training Iraqi policemen to instead be used to bolster security at U.S. diplomatic missions. The shift in money followed a Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, where the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed.
Also deleted were $188 million for an Amtrak expansion project that included new, long-planned tunnels from New Jersey to Penn Station in Manhattan, and another $150 million for fisheries disasters that states such as Alaska and Mississippi could have shared.
After all the cost-cutting, 179 House Republicans still voted against the disaster aid package with only 49 favoring it. GOP leaders had to rely on yes votes from 192 Democrats to pass it.
As with past natural disasters, the Sandy aid bill is not offset with spending cuts, meaning the aid adds to the deficit. The lone exception is an offset provision requiring that $3.4 billion for Army Corps of Engineers projects to protect against future storms be covered by an equal amount of unspecified spending cuts in other programs before next October.
The Senate on Monday rejected, 35-62, an attempt by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to amend the final package Monday with a provision to cut federal programs across the board by one-half of 1 percent through 2021 as a way to prevent the disaster aid from swelling the U.S. debt.
As of Monday, FEMA said it spent $3.3 billion in disaster relief money for shelter, restoring power and other immediate needs arising from the storm.
New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, New Hampshire, Ohio, Delaware, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia have shared that money.
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Sand Hill Road?s True Belieber
Scott Hartley, a venture capitalist at Mohr Davidow, decided to completely overhaul his investment strategy today after returning from a trip to New York. Hartley, who is originally from Palo Alto, spent a few days in New York for meetings and an interview on Bloomberg TV. When he unlocked his Sand Hill Road office today, he found that his colleague Abhas Gupta had cheerfully Bieberized his new desk on the other side of Mohr Davidow?s office. While at first he was shocked, with a little reflection, it sunk in that the mobile-social wave is over, and that while enterprise is cool, the next wave of disruption is Bieber. “I have a belief that ‘Tech is a Horizontal Enablement Layer‘ that disrupts traditional verticals,” he said. “First, we saw this with the Internet in the 90s, then with mobile as a dominant form factor, and social as a proxy toward authenticity. We believe that the next wave will include Bieber, and we are well positioned in this space.” His colleagues and the firm’s LPs, while stunned by this sudden pivot, were understanding and said they felt confident in Hartley’s abilities to identify the very best early-stage teams in this new Bieberification wave. “The question is how will Bieber disrupt traditional verticals,” he said. “We’re investors in RockHealth, pioneers in the digital health category, and we’re actively seeking opportunities in the vertical disruption Bieber is applying on Sand Hill Road.” He’s working on partnering with Y-Bieber-cubator to source deal flow on companies that have evidence of Bieber-gagement, Bieber-tention, boyishly good looks and mesmerizing hair. He added: If I was your VC, I?d never let you go I can scale you places you ain?t never been before Baby take a chance or you?ll never ever know I got money in my hands that I?d really like to blow Swag swag swag, on youSource: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/i3sG5Q0Hx2s/
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Man detained by Taye Diggs charged with burglary
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Prosecutors say a man who was detained by Taye Diggs after the actor found him at his home has been charged with felony burglary.
Hassan Omar Juma faces up to six years in prison if he is convicted and is scheduled to be arraigned in a Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday afternoon.
Diggs detained the 20-year-old after he and his wife found him in their garage on Sunday night. The "Private Practice" star was returning from the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where he was a presenter.
Juma was charged Wednesday with first-degree felony residential burglary. He's jailed in lieu of $50,000 bail.
Police say Diggs caught Juma after chasing him and neither man was hurt in the incident.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/man-detained-taye-diggs-charged-burglary-221223116.html
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Egypt's Cabinet gives the military power to arrest civilians: Voice of ...
Several months ago, the Muslim Brotherhood and several other political parties demanded that this provision be scrapped before the power was returned to the country?s civilian leadership. They also forced the Army to prohibit court-martial trials of Egypt?s civilians.
One killed in clashes near Cairo's Tahrir Square - police
One person was killed near Cairo's Tahrir Square on Monday as clashes between police and protesters raged into a fifth straight day, a police official told reporters.
The unidentified man was killed by birdshot to the head, the official said, as demonstrators and police lobbed rocks at each other on a bridge and in an underpass leading to Tahrir Square and tear gas hung heavily in the air.
Egypt in turmoil
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is waiting for the opposition to take up his dialogue offer.
In the meantime, thousands of young people have assembled on a bridge near Cairo?s Tahrir Square to mark two years since a mass prayer by anti-Mubarak demonstrators there persuaded police to stop their water cannon attack.
On Sunday, President Morsi declared a state of emergency in three provinces. Overnight, however, thousands of people defied the curfew and took to the streets.
Voice of Russia, TASS, AFP
Source: http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_01_28/Egypt-s-Cabinet-gives-the-military-power-to-arrest-civilians/
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Quotations of the day
Please check the URL for proper spelling and capitalization. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Yahoo!, try visiting the Yahoo! homepage or look through a list of Yahoo!'s online services.
Please try Yahoo Help Central if you need more assistance.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/quotations-day-070627283.html
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Deaths Due To Cancer Decreased 20 Percent In Last 20 Years ...
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The rate of deaths due to cancer in the United States is dropping. Americans today have a 20 percent less chance of dying from cancer than they did nearly 20 years ago.
The Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer was released by the American Cancer Society on January 21. According to the report overall deaths due to cancer dropped from 215.1 deaths per 100,000 people in 1991 to 173.1 deaths per 100,000 in 2009 ? a 20 percent decrease. Men and women showed similar drops in risk between 2000 and 2009: risk of cancer among men decreased 1.8 percent per year, while risk for women dropped 1.4 percent per year. Children between 0 and 14 years of age were 1.8 percent less likely to die from cancer over the same time period.
For adults the drop in mortality is due in part to fewer new cases being diagnosed. Between 2000 and 2009 men and women showed an average decrease of 0.6 percent of new cases per year. Children, on the other hand, showed an average 0.6 percent increase in number of new cases. The faster decline in deaths, however, is attributed to better screening and treatment, and the decreasing number of Americans who choose to smoke.
Better screening is in part responsible for the drop in deaths due to cancer seen among both men and women between 2000 and 2009. [Source: Wikimedia Commons]
The report also showed that mortality due to the four most common types of cancer ? lung, colon, breast and prostate ? all declined by at least 30 percent. The decrease in deaths due to lung cancer among men, a trend that began in the 1990s, has continued through the past decade. Women have seen deaths due to lung cancer drop over the past three years. And while the rate of breast cancer cases has actually remained steady between 2000 and 2009, the number of deaths due to breast cancer has declined. These trends are thought to be due to declines in smoking.
The news isn?t good for all types of cancer, however. Among women, rates of new cases increased for melanoma, thyroid, kidney, pancreatic, liver and uterine cancers as well as leukemia. The report mentions that excess weight and a lack of physical activity is a risk for these cancers.
And while the 20 percent decrease in cancer-caused mortalities means 1.18 million cancer deaths were prevented, cancer still remains among the deadliest killers for Americans, second only to heart disease. In addition to those forms mentioned above, the incidence of colon and rectal cancers is also increased with obesity.
Which makes America?s expanding waistline all the more problematic. Right now two-thirds of American adults are obese and a third of American children. And projections indicate it?s going to get worse, with more than half of Americans becoming diabetic or pre-diabetic by 2020.
So while cancer mortality rates are decreasing, for the time being, let?s hope that the benefits of better screening and treatments tip the scale against the obesity epidemic that?s almost certain to worsen in the coming decade.
Source: http://singularityhub.com/2013/01/28/deaths-due-to-cancer-decreased-20-percent-in-last-20-years/
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Monday, 28 January 2013
Baby?s on Us
Emily Yoffe Photograph by Teresa Castracane.
Emily Yoffe, aka Dear Prudence, is on Washingtonpost.com weekly to chat live with readers. An edited?transcript of the chat is below. (Sign up here?to get Dear Prudence delivered to your inbox each week. Read Prudie?s?Slate columns?here. Send questions to Prudence at prudence@slate.com.)
Emily Yoffe: Good afternoon. I look forward to your questions.
Q. IVF Fundraising Party: I have a friend who is 26 and has been married for 23 months. She and her husband started trying to get pregnant right after they bought their house 20 months ago and did get pregnant but had an ectopic pregnancy and she lost the baby eight months ago. Now she has decided to take the step to do IVF because the stress of not getting pregnant is too much for her to stand. My issue is that she does not have the funds to pursue IVF, so she has fundraising parties. She sells home party items and all of the proceeds are going to her treatments. The first one she hosted herself and I went out of obligation. When you checked out and paid she gave you an item total then asked how much extra you would like to put directly toward her baby fund saying the standard was 20 percent of your item total. She then asked each person who would host a party for her fundraising efforts. When I informed her that I would not be hosting a party for her she got very upset and said I was not a good friend because I would not host and I only gave the minimum 20 percent additional to help her have a baby. Am I being selfish or is an IVF fundraising party as outrageous as it seems to me to be?
A: I wonder if at 26 she's explored all her medical alternatives for getting pregnant. But of course here we are speculating on your friend's medical decisions because she's made this profoundly personal question a matter of public obligation. I love her notion that the "standard" IVF tip for an item you didn't want in the first place is 20 percent. The woman's got chutzpah, I'll give her that. What she doesn't have, however, is the standing to insist that all her friends fund her fertility treatments. Wish her the best but continue to demur about hosting the Petri dish party. At the rate she's going, she should soon find herself fuming over all her selfish, former friends.
Dear Prudence: Desperate Single
Q. Not So Much a Cat Lover: I did not grow up with pets, am not a pet person, and am not used to all that comes with being a pet owner. Moving in with my boyfriend and his 6-year-old cat has been a slight adjustment. But I feel that I have been a good sport this past year of living together. I pet and play with the cat, brush her, give her treats, help feed her. I just really dislike the litter box and don't want to have the responsibility of cleaning it out. I ask my boyfriend to take care of this task. However, he gets a little huffy about my refusal to take turns cleaning out the litter box and often brings it up when we are doing household chores. I explain that I really dislike it, and this is his cat that he adopted four years before even meeting me, so it shouldn't be that much to ask that he continue to clean the litter box on his own. But still, I can tell that it bothers him and he feels the cat responsibilities should be split more evenly between the two of us. He does maintain sole financial responsibility for her. Any advice? Am I in the wrong?
A: He may want to offload her loads on you, but sorry, litter-box scooping is the responsibility of the original owner, especially if the new girlfriend is repelled by these duties. You can laugh and say you sure understand why he must be tired of the daily treasure hunt, but while you've come to enjoy Fifi, this is where you're drawing a line in the sand. Then ignore his huffing. And if his cat lives as long as my last one, he only has 15 more years of scooping ahead of him.
Q. Pedophile Co-worker: I am a team leader in a medium-sized arts organization. I recently discovered via Google that someone I work with closely, though only occasionally (several days a month), appears to have been convicted in the past several years for possessing an extensive quantity of truly disturbing child pornography. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was placed on probation. He was hired at a time when the organization needed someone to fill his role (which is a part-time substitute position) very urgently, and I am not sure due diligence was done as it would have been in a more formal hiring process. In any case, his ability to do the job, which he does well, is not related to his criminal past. He has little to no contact with minors at work. However, as the parent of three young children, I am revolted by the idea of working closely with this man, who is pleasant and chatty. Adding to the complexity, while his fairly uncommon name, age, and locale match that of the person in the Google search, I am aware that I have no evidence this is the same man. What do I do? Acting coldly toward him is not only potentially unfair, but jeopardizes my team's ability to do our job well, and will raise questions among other team members. Treating him warmly (if he is the same person) repels me. Do I bring this up with my supervisor? HR? On what grounds? And if they are aware of his (possible) past and chose to hire him anyway, how do I manage my own behavior going forward?
A: I'm left wondering what you mean when you say he has "little to no" contact with minors at work. That indicates there is some contact, and your company needs to know if the terms of his probation, if he is still on it, covers being around minors. I also don't know if your organization's policies would prevent having someone on the payroll who was convicted of a felony. It's also true that you haven't been able to confirm your suspicions. All this is sufficient grounds to go to your supervisor and say you stumbled upon this information, it is not substantiated, but you felt the organization should at the least know what you discovered. If they were aware of his past, or if they look into it and conclude his occasional work should continue (taking into account this issue of minors in the workplace), you put aside your personal feelings and act professionally. It should help if you can accept that he was caught and the criminal justice system rendered its judgment.
Q. Bad Time for a Baby: My husband and I have known each other more than four years, and have been married for almost one year. We are going through a rough patch, and have sought the help of a marriage counselor in addition to his personal therapist for anger management issues. While the frequency of our fights has diminished, I don't think we're yet at a comfortable place in the marriage to think about having any children (I brought my 5-year-old daughter into the marriage, so I'm honestly in no hurry right now). My husband, on the other hand, is desperate for children in the immediate future, and thinks that our relationship issues have no impact, because he grew up in a household where fighting was the norm, and thinks that it wouldn't impact our children at all. How do I get through to him that children won't make anything better, and could in fact make things worse?
A: If your husband, who has back-to-back therapists, has concluded that since his parents were at each other's throats, and so are you two, and all that is hunky dory for childrearing, he needs a lot more therapy or maybe a new set of therapists. I know people can change and grow, but from what you're describing I can't understand why you married him. There's nothing you've written that give me any hope he has the slightest understanding of what it takes to raise a child in a healthy home?which has me concerned about his effect on your little girl. If you have a marriage counselor, yet you feel you have to write to me for advice on saying, "You're too emotionally out of control for me to consider having a child with you," then you need to take a hard look at your situation. It would also be a good idea to double up on the birth control.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=d0d993cf1bf7a1893fa58dea8453e863
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Bioinspired fibers change color when stretched
Jan. 28, 2013 ? A team of materials scientists at Harvard University and the University of Exeter, UK, have invented a new fiber that changes color when stretched. Inspired by nature, the researchers identified and replicated the unique structural elements that create the bright iridescent blue color of a tropical plant's fruit.
The multilayered fiber, described January 28 in the journal Advanced Materials, could lend itself to the creation of smart fabrics that visibly react to heat or pressure.
"Our new fiber is based on a structure we found in nature, and through clever engineering we've taken its capabilities a step further," says lead author Mathias Kolle, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). "The plant, of course, cannot change color. By combining its structure with an elastic material, however, we've created an artificial version that passes through a full rainbow of colors as it's stretched."
Since the evolution of the first eye on Earth more than 500 million years ago, the success of many organisms has relied upon the way they interact with light and color, making them useful models for the creation of new materials. For seeds and fruit in particular, bright color is thought to have evolved to attract the agents of seed dispersal, especially birds.
The fruit of the South American tropical plant, Margaritaria nobilis, commonly called "bastard hogberry," is an intriguing example of this adaptation. The ultra-bright blue fruit, which is low in nutritious content, mimics a more fleshy and nutritious competitor. Deceived birds eat the fruit and ultimately release its seeds over a wide geographic area.
"The fruit of this bastard hogberry plant was scientifically delightful to pick," says principal investigator Peter Vukusic, Associate Professor in Natural Photonics at the University of Exeter. "The light-manipulating architecture its surface layer presents, which has evolved to serve a specific biological function, has inspired an extremely useful and interesting technological design."
Vukusic and his collaborators at Harvard studied the structural origin of the seed's vibrant color. They discovered that the upper cells in the seed's skin contain a curved, repeating pattern, which creates color through the interference of light waves. (A similar mechanism is responsible for the bright colors of soap bubbles.) The team's analysis revealed that multiple layers of cells in the seed coat are each made up of a cylindrically layered architecture with high regularity on the nano- scale.
The team replicated the key structural elements of the fruit to create flexible, stretchable and color-changing photonic fibers using an innovative roll-up mechanism perfected in the Harvard laboratories.
"For our artificial structure, we cut down the complexity of the fruit to just its key elements," explains Kolle. "We use very thin fibers and wrap a polymer bilayer around them. That gives us the refractive index contrast, the right number of layers, and the curved, cylindrical cross-section that we need to produce these vivid colors."
The researchers say that the process could be scaled up and developed to suit industrial production.
"Our fiber-rolling technique allows the use of a wide range of materials, especially elastic ones, with the color-tuning range exceeding by an order of magnitude anything that has been reported for thermally drawn fibers," says coauthor Joanna Aizenberg, Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science at Harvard SEAS, and Kolle's adviser. Aizenberg is also Director of the Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology at Harvard and a Core Faculty Member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.
The fibers' superior mechanical properties, combined with their demonstrated color brilliance and tunability, make them very versatile. For instance, the fibers can be wound to coat complex shapes. Because the fibers change color under strain, the technology could lend itself to smart sports textiles that change color in areas of muscle tension, or that sense when an object is placed under strain as a result of heat.
Additional coauthors included Alfred Lethbridge at the University of Exeter, Moritz Kreysing at Ludwig Maximilians University (Germany), and Jeremy B. Baumberg, Professor of Nanophotonics at the University of Cambridge (UK).
This research was supported by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative, by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and through a postdoctoral research fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The researchers also benefited from facilities at the Harvard Center for Nanoscale Systems, which is part of the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation. The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard also contributed to this research.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Harvard University.
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Journal Reference:
- Mathias Kolle, Alfred Lethbridge, Moritz Kreysing, Jeremy J. Baumberg, Joanna Aizenberg, Peter Vukusic. Bio-Inspired Band-Gap Tunable Elastic Optical Multilayer Fibers. Advanced Materials, 2013; DOI: 10.1002/adma.201203529
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/F55whN1jT3w/130128151938.htm
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Video: Post Show Thoughts: Paul Ryan Speaks Out
A Second Take on Meeting the Press: From an up-close look at Rachel Maddow's sneakers to an in-depth look at Jon Krakauer's latest book ? it's all fair game in our "Meet the Press: Take Two" web extra. Log on Sundays to see David Gregory's post-show conversations with leading newsmakers, authors and roundtable guests. Videos are available on-demand by 12 p.m. ET on Sundays.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/vp/50606210#50606210
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Deadly smoke, lone blocked exit: over 230 die in Brazil club blaze
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil (AP) ? Flames raced through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing more than 230 people as panicked partygoers gasped for breath in the smoke-filled air, stampeding toward a single exit partially blocked by those already dead. It appeared to be the world's deadliest nightclub fire in more than a decade.
Witnesses said a flare or firework lit by band members started the blaze in Santa Maria, a university city of about 225,000 people, though officials said the cause was still under investigation.
Television images showed smoke pouring out of the Kiss nightclub as shirtless young men who had attended a university party joined firefighters using axes and sledgehammers to pound at windows and walls to free those trapped inside.
Guido Pedroso Melo, commander of the city's fire department, told the O Globo newspaper that firefighters had a hard time getting inside the club because "there was a barrier of bodies blocking the entrance."
Teenagers sprinted from the scene desperately seeking help. Others carried injured and burned friends away in their arms.
"There was so much smoke and fire, it was complete panic, and it took a long time for people to get out, there were so many dead," survivor Luana Santos Silva told the Globo TV network.
The fire spread so fast inside the packed club that firefighters and ambulances could do little to stop it, Silva said.
Another survivor, Michele Pereira, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that she was near the stage when members of the band lit flares that started the conflagration.
"The band that was onstage began to use flares and, suddenly, they stopped the show and pointed them upward," she said. "At that point, the ceiling caught fire. It was really weak, but in a matter of seconds it spread."
Guitarist Rodrigo Martins told Radio Gaucha that the band, Gurizada Fandangueira, started playing at 2:15 a.m. "and we had played around five songs when I looked up and noticed the roof was burning"
"It might have happened because of the Sputnik, the machine we use to create a luminous effect with sparks. It's harmless, we never had any trouble with it.
"When the fire started, a guard passed us a fire extinguisher, the singer tried to use it but it wasn't working"
He confirmed that accordion player Danilo Jacques, 28, died, while the five other members made it out safely.
Police Maj. Cleberson Braida Bastianello said by telephone that the toll had risen to 233 with the death of a hospitalized victim ? he said earlier that the death toll was likely made worse because the nightclub appeared to have just one exit through which patrons could exit.
Officials counted 232 bodies that had been brought for identification to a gymnasium in Santa Maria, which is located at the southern tip of Brazil, near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay.
Federal Health Minister Alexandre Padhilha told a news conference that most of the 117 people treated in hospitals had been poisoned by gases they breathed during the fire. Only a few suffered serious burns, he said.
Brazil President Dilma Rousseff arrived to visit the injured after cutting short her trip to a Latin American-European summit in Chile.
"It is a tragedy for all of us," Rousseff said.
Most of the dead apparently were asphyxiated, according to Dr. Paulo Afonso Beltrame, a professor at the medical school of the Federal University of Santa Maria who went to the city's Caridade Hospital to help victims.
Beltrame said he was told the club had been filled far beyond its capacity during a party for students at the university's agronomy department.
Survivors, police and firefighters gave the same account of a band member setting the ceiling's soundproofing ablaze, he said.
"Large amounts of toxic smoke quickly filled the room, and I would say that at least 90 percent of the victims died of asphyxiation," Beltrame told The Associated Press by telephone.
"The toxic smoke made people lose their sense of direction so they were unable to find their way to the exit. At least 50 bodies were found inside a bathroom. Apparently they confused the bathroom door with the exit door."
In the hospital, the doctor "saw desperate friends and relatives walking and running down the corridors looking for information," he said, calling it "one of the saddest scenes I have ever witnessed."
Rodrigo Moura, identified by the newspaper Diario de Santa Maria as a security guard at the club, said it was at its maximum capacity of between 1,000 and 2,000, and partygoers were pushing and shoving to escape.
Santa Maria Mayor Cezar Schirmer declared a 30-day mourning period, and Tarso Genro, the governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, said officials were investigating the cause of the disaster.
The blaze was the deadliest in Brazil since at least 1961, when a fire that swept through a circus killed 503 people in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro.
Sunday's fire also appeared to be the worst at a nightclub since December 2000, when a welding accident reportedly set off a fire at a club in Luoyang, China, killing 309.
In 2004, at least 194 people died in a fire at an overcrowded nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Seven members of a band were sentenced to prison for starting the flames.
Several years later, in December 2009, a blaze at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, Russia, killed 152 people after an indoor fireworks display ignited a plastic ceiling decorated with branches.
Similar circumstances led to a 2003 nightclub fire that killed 100 people in the United States. Pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the 1980s rock band Great White set ablaze cheap soundproofing foam on the walls and ceiling of a Rhode Island music venue.
The band performing in Santa Maria, Gurizada Fandangueira, plays a driving mixture of local Brazilian country music styles. Guitarist Martin told Radio Gaucha the musicians are already seeing hostile messages.
"People on the social networks are saying we have to pay for what happened," he said. "I'm afraid there could be retaliation".
___
Sibaja reported from Brasilia. Associated Press Writer Stan Lehman and Bradley Brooks contributed to this report from Sao Paulo.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/deadly-smoke-lone-blocked-exit-230-die-brazil-201703681.html
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Cities affect temperatures for thousands of miles
Jan. 27, 2013 ? Even if you live more than 1,000 miles from the nearest large city, it could be affecting your weather.
In a new study that shows the extent to which human activities are influencing the atmosphere, scientists have concluded that the heat generated by everyday activities in metropolitan areas alters the character of the jet stream and other major atmospheric systems. This affects temperatures across thousands of miles, significantly warming some areas and cooling others, according to the study this week in Nature Climate Change.
The extra "waste heat" generated from buildings, cars, and other sources in major Northern Hemisphere urban areas causes winter warming across large areas of northern North America and northern Asia. Temperatures in some remote areas increase by as much as 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the research by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography; University of California, San Diego; Florida State University; and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
At the same time, the changes to atmospheric circulation caused by the waste heat cool areas of Europe by as much as 1 degree C (1.8 degrees F), with much of the temperature decrease occurring in the fall.
The net effect on global mean temperatures is nearly negligible -- an average increase worldwide of just 0.01 degrees C (about 0.02 degrees F). This is because the total human-produced waste heat is only about 0.3 percent of the heat transported across higher latitudes by atmospheric and oceanic circulations.
However, the noticeable impact on regional temperatures may explain why some regions are experiencing more winter warming than projected by climate computer models, the researchers conclude. They suggest that models be adjusted to take the influence of waste heat into account.
"The burning of fossil fuel not only emits greenhouse gases but also directly affects temperatures because of heat that escapes from sources like buildings and cars," says NCAR scientist Aixue Hu, a co-author of the study. "Although much of this waste heat is concentrated in large cities, it can change atmospheric patterns in a way that raises or lowers temperatures across considerable distances."
Distinct from urban heat island effect
The researchers stressed that the effect of waste heat is distinct from the so-called urban heat island effect. Such islands are mainly a function of the heat collected and re-radiated by pavement, buildings, and other urban features, whereas the new study examines the heat produced directly through transportation, heating and cooling units, and other activities.
The study, "Energy consumption and the unexplained winter warming over northern Asia and North America," appeared online January 27. It was funded by the National Science Foundation, NCAR's sponsor, as well as the Department of Energy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Hu, along with lead author Guang Zhang of Scripps and Ming Cai of Florida State University, analyzed the energy consumption -- from heating buildings to powering vehicles -- that generates waste heat release. The world's total energy consumption in 2006 was equivalent to a constant-use rate of 16 terawatts (1 terawatt, or TW, equals 1 trillion watts). Of that, an average rate of 6.7 TW was consumed in 86 metropolitan areas in the Northern Hemisphere.
Using a computer model of the atmosphere, the authors found that the influence of this waste heat can widen the jet stream.
"What we found is that energy use from multiple urban areas collectively can warm the atmosphere remotely, thousands of miles away from the energy consumption regions," Zhang says. "This is accomplished through atmospheric circulation change."
The release of waste heat is different from energy that is naturally distributed in the atmosphere, the researchers noted. The largest source of heat, solar energy, warms Earth's surface and atmospheric circulations redistribute that energy from one region to another. Human energy consumption distributes energy that had lain dormant and sequestered for millions of years, mostly in the form of oil or coal.
Though the amount of human-generated energy is a small portion of that transported by nature, it is highly concentrated in urban areas. In the Northern Hemisphere, many of those urban areas lie directly under major atmospheric troughs and jet streams.
"The world's most populated and energy-intensive metropolitan areas are along the east and west coasts of the North American and Eurasian continents, underneath the most prominent atmospheric circulation troughs and ridges," Cai says. "The release of this concentrated waste energy causes the noticeable interruption to the normal atmospheric circulation systems above, leading to remote surface temperature changes far away from the regions where waste heat is generated."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Guang J. Zhang, Ming Cai, Aixue Hu. Energy consumption and the unexplained winter warming over northern Asia and North America. Nature Climate Change, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1803
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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/18ztHxt5eMM/130127134210.htm
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